All people undertaking group or class exercise with us are required to undergo a screening assessment or health check before they can begin. This is a compulsory component of our exercise programs to help ensure your safety and satisfactory results. The screen helps ensure you are in good health and ready to perform exercise. It also provides the basis for goal setting, outcome measurement and ensures you are well informed and aware of your risk factors and how to best manage these. In some circumstances, the screen also helps us to quickly identify clients with a known disease or signs and symptoms of a disease and put in place a suitable management strategy.
- Assists and guides personalised goal setting.
- Identifies health risks, including cardiovascular factors & risks specific to your condition & goals.
- Helps design exercise programs tailored to your needs, including strength + conditioning elements
- Helps monitor, review, motivate and support your exercise performance, safety and progression.
- Helps to monitor changes or progress in health, fitness and rehabilitation outcomes over time.
- Helps to monitor the impact of changes to your lifestyle, physical activities and behaviour.
Exercise can improve your health and quality of life. However, there can be risks associated with exercise performance at any stage of life and sometimes, over-training, poor technique, irregular performance, pain or injury can undermine your efforts to stay fit and healthy. At aim Physiotherapy and Eastside Pilates, we provide individually tailored exercise solutions and we help manage risks associated with your health, fitness, exercise performance and exercise progression.
Our basic pre-exercise screen includes the ‘Adult pre-exercise screening tool’ developed in 2012 by Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA), Fitness Australia and Sports Medicine Australia, as a way of standardising how pre-exercise screening is undertaken in Australia. This is the industry standard pre-exercise screening tool. In addition to this questionnaire, we measure blood pressure and heart rate response to check your baseline fitness level and exercise risks. This may involve a monitored bike, treadmill or step exercise. Where indicated, we also undertake specific functional testing relevant to your condition and goals. The measures of your fitness and functional abilities help us to design a tailored exercise program, taking in to account any identified deficits, priority areas, barriers, and risks, in addition to helping to track your progress. Our therapists select appropriate methods for measurement of functional performance [outcome measurement] according to individual exercise and rehabilitation goals and relevant timeframes.
Physiotherapy and Exercise Physiology input underscores our integrated team approach to managing your health, fitness and rehabilitation. This is supported by excellent communication and a coordinated delivery of services that helps set realistic goals, identify and overcome barriers, monitor progress, exercise safely and achieve success. Exercise screening is usually performed by one of our Accredited Exercise Physiologists [AEPs**].
You will need to wear clothing that allow you to move freely and comfortably [i.e. allows you to bend and stretch and feel comfortable]. Please bring shoes that you will be comfortable to exercise in, and bottled drinking water to avoid dehydration during or after exercise. If you wear reading glasses or hearing aids, please bring them to help you answer a questions and questionnaires.
Pre-exercise Screening $70 [40 minutes]
PHI, Medicare’s EPC plan, Diabetes care plan & Dept. of Vet Affiars (DVA) funding / rebates apply.
*Please note that most private health funds cover Exercise Physiology services – check with your fund for the specifics of your policy & the rebate you are entitled to. All of our clinics / exercise studios have a HICAPS machine for on the spot rebate claiming.
Doctors referrals
No Doctor’s referral is required for private patients. A Doctor’s referral is required for eligible services under Medicare’s EPC or Diabetes care plan, Dept. of Vet Affiars (DVA) or RTW-SA.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS [FAQs]
How does it all work?
The Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) adult pre-exercise screening tool aims to identify individuals with a known disease or signs and symptoms of an underlying disease that may be at higher risk of an adverse event during physical activity or exercise. The tool consists of 3 stages of risk assessment: Stage 1 being compulsory, and Stages 2 and 3 being optional with discretion by your Accredited Exercise Physiologist [AEP**]. If ‘questions in Stage 1 are answered ‘yes’, the AEP determines if referral to a GP may be necessary before undertaking exercise. The tool also includes some specific risk stratification measures that can further assist the AEP in determining the level of risk and therefore the appropriate exercise prescription intensity for each individual. These additional questions include a medical history and a range of cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors such as family history of heart disease. Objective measures such as BMI, waist girth, blood pressure, fasting blood lipid profile and blood glucose help determine cardiac risk factors using the tool. The tool is used in conjunction with a range of other screens including activity questionnaires or objective measures of function including strength, aerobic fitness, endurance, agility, postural tolerance, lifting capacity or balance. We reassess functional measures at appropriate intervals to monitor your progress and modify your program as needed.
What is the difference between ‘pre-exercise screening’ and ‘exercise assessment’?
‘Pre-exercise screening’ is a compulsory component of our exercise programs to help ensure your safety by managing identified risks and satisfactory results. The screen helps to ensure you are in good health and ready to perform exercise. Our ‘exercise assessment’ [outcome measurement] provides baseline measurements of functional performance to guide your rehabilitation. Periodic re-evaluation of these outcome measures helps us monitor and guide your rehabilitation progress and gauge your levels of success.
How can I return to full functional fitness?
Once you have completed the initial stages of treatment and rehabilitation from an episode of pain, injury or illness, it is advisable to commence a specific and individual program aimed at helping you to return to full functional fitness. This program should be designed to not only get you back into your chosen activities or sports, but also to ensure that a return to even better shape in order to minimise the risk of any re-occurrence.
Is there a more advanced and comprehensive pre-exercise screening option available to me?
Yes! If you would like a more advanced and comprehensive exercise screening option, please ask about our ‘HEATLH AGE ASSESSMENT’ or our ‘ANNUAL HEALTH & FITNESS CHECK-UP’ or read about these assessments on-line on our webpage. Exercise screening is usually performed by one of our Accredited Exercise Physiologists [AEPs**]. We also have available some optional additional assessments that are included for screening in our ‘OPTIMAL HEALTH AND FITNESS’ package.
Do I need re-assessment at any stage?
No, not necessarily. Once you have had your pre-exercise screening, you are cleared for exercise program participation and ready to begin working out! However, should you like to see if your health and fitness markers have improved in response to your exercise program or changed over time if you have been inactive for a while, please ask and we will happily book you in for re-assessment.
What is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist [**AEP]?
Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEPs) are widely recognised as the highest qualified health professionals in the design and delivery of exercise services. An AEP describes a university trained and Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) accredited exercise specialist who possesses the knowledge, skills and competency to design and deliver general physical activity advice and clinical exercise prescription for apparently healthy persons and for those persons with chronic and complex diseases. The strong research and evidence around the profound benefits of exercise and more importantly “targeted and specific exercise” is the reason they play such a vital role in the complete care of manage people suffering pain and injury.