Senior Fitness Test Software 2.0 and Manual Package Subscription

The Senior Fitness Test Software 2.0 and Manual Package Subscription offers a comprehensive method of assessing the physical attributes that older adults need in order to perform daily activities. Consisting of the Senior Fitness Test Manual, Second Edition (with bound-in DVD), and a one-year subscription to the Senior Fitness Test Software 2.0 (accessiblefrom internet-enabled devices, including smart phones and tablets), this kit helps health practitioners and fitness and rehabilitation specialists identify weaknesses that cause mobility problems, develop exercise programs to improve functional fitness, prevent future mobility issues, and evaluate progress.

The Senior Fitness Test Manual, Second Edition, provides thorough coverage of the seven tests that make up the Senior Fitness Test (SFT)—lower- and upper-body strength, aerobic endurance, lower- and upper-body flexibility, agility, and balance. Each test can be conducted with minimal space, equipment, and technical requirements, making it easy to administer in most clinical and community settings or in the home environment. The manual contains instructions on preparing and administering the tests and interpreting and using test results. Readers will find guidelines on creating senior fitness programs as well as exercises to recommend for improving functional fitness scores.

The second edition of the Senior Fitness Test Manual offers new tools to help facilitate the Senior Fitness Test. It includes expanded information on ways to modify test protocols for older adults with limiting conditions such as osteoporosis, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, stroke, fibromyalgia, heart conditions, multiple sclerosis, hip and knee replacements, chronic renal failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis, and blindness or low vision. Ready-to-use materials such as reproducible forms, large-print instructions—complete with photos—to post at testing stations, and large versions of performance charts make the testing process more effective. An expanded chapter on improving test scores includes illustrated instructions for exercises that can be prescribed to seniors to help them improve their fitness.

The manual retains national normative data based on age and sex for more than 7,000 adults ages 60 to 94, but it now also includes criterion-referenced, clinically relevant fitness standards. Based on the authors' continued groundbreaking research on aging and functional fitness, these new criterion-referenced standards allow practitioners and older adults to identify the test scores at a specific age that are correlated with maintaining functional mobility into the 90s, providing a new and deeper understanding of the test scores. This allows practitioners and their clients to focus on maintaining or improving functional fitness with customized goals meant to preserve and improve individual abilities.

The second edition of the Senior Fitness Test Manual is packaged with a DVD that contains visual demonstrations of the tests, including setup, execution, evaluation, and modifications to testing protocols to accommodate clients’ limitations. Throughout the text, DVD icons indicate when to view the DVD for live demonstrations.

Once the Senior Fitness Test is conducted, the test results for all participants can be entered into the Senior Fitness Test Software 2.0. This web application can be used in analyzing test scores, creating individual or aggregated reports, and generating program outcome statistics. Participants can be grouped according to specifications such as age and sex or characteristics such as smoker and nonsmoker.