Case Study 2: Aerobic Exercise Prescription

Chris Double is a 14-year-old male, with a resting heart rate of 70 beats per minute (bpm). He is 120 lbs. with 11% body fat. His body mass index (BMI), based upon calculations pertaining to Chris’s height and weight, is 17.2, which indicates that Chris is underweight for a boy of his height. Chris’s basal metabolic rate checks in at 1,607.4 calories per day. Using the Karvonen formula for target heart rate, Chris’s target heart rate at 60% would be 152 beats per minute and his target heart rate at 80% would be 179 beats per minute, respectively.

In so far as Chris wishes to improve his strength, and considering his regular dietary intake consists of processed foods, the surest way to improve Chris’s golf muscular strength would be resistance training. As such, a test that would gauge Chris’s levels of total and relative strength would be maximal attempts on the deadlift, as it would gauge the compounding strength of Chad’s calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteal muscles, adductors, abductors, latissimus dorsi, abdominal wall, obliques, biceps, deltoids, rhomboids and trapezius muscles, which comprise your legs, hips, abdominals arms and back, all area of your body that must work in unison in order to produce the necessary muscular development and power to manipulate and pin an opponent in a wrestling match.

The primary nutritional strategy for Chris Double’s new goal of increased physical strength and aerobic capacity is to attain the proper level of protein intake to facilitate muscle growth. This level is generally set down as anywhere between 0.5 grams and 1.0 grams of protein per pound of desired body weight. Seeing as Chris is a lithe and lean individual, he will likely need to gain somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds in order to reach his goal. Therefore, he should be shooting for about 190 grams of protein per day. This can be difficult with a normal diet, however, and to ensure greater success in reaching his goal and reducing the need to force-feed Chris chicken breasts until he explodes, a whey protein supplement would be, in this case, both very helpful and appropriate.

The 12-week, periodized strength training program that follows goes through three, 4-week stages. Stage 1 emphasizes the building of basic strength qualities in a beginner, and as such leads off with a 3 day per week, full-body program. Stage 2 seeks to improve the basic strength gained from stage 1, increasing the training load by a day and becoming more detailed where certain body parts and movements are concerned. Stage 3 integrates the use of dynamic movement into Chris’s program, facilitating the creation of speed and explosiveness that will be used when he swings a golf club.

(Tables for Stage 1-3 omitted for preview. Available via download)

Work Cited

"Aerobic Exercise Prescription Components, Dependencies, and Specificity." Aerobic Exercise Prescription Components, Dependencies, and Specificity. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. <http://www.exrx.net/Aerobic/AerobicComponents.html>