Summary

Norms for Fitness, Performance, and Health contains a comprehensive collection of normative data for numerous fitness, performance, and health components across a range of ages, abilities, occupations, and athletic backgrounds. It lays the foundation for working with normative data by detailing the purpose and benefits of norms. It reviews relevant statistical information to assist the reader in understanding and interpreting descriptive statistics, including a limited discussion on inferential statistics.

Norms for Fitness, Performance, and Health presents data for numerous fitness components, including strength, endurance, anaerobic and aerobic capacity and power, body composition, flexibility, speed, and agility, as well as data for various health norms such as cardiovascular capacity, blood lipids, bone density, energy expenditure, and caloric values. Professionals will be able to use the information to provide a basis of comparison to others in the same category as their clients. The data also highlight various athletic populations, including athletes in football, basketball, and baseball, and features normative data that were collected from professional sport organizations, including the NFL and NHL. Coaches will use these norms to gain a greater understanding of maximizing their athletes' performance and develop optimal training programs. A unique aspect of the book is the inclusion of performance data for specific civil service populations such as police, firefighters, and military personnel.

Readers will benefit from this book by gaining knowledge on

-comparing athletic populations and rating athletes based on normative values;

-properly conducting and comparing various tests for specific fitness components through detailed test descriptions;

-the importance of testing and the reasons for establishing testing programs;

-the interpretation of normative data to allow proper understanding of test results; and

-comprehending data analysis through the easy manner in which the statistics are presented.

The book is organized into three parts, with chapters fortified with figures and tables to make it easier to use and understand. Part I discusses the importance of fitness and health assessment, outlines the development of testing protocols, and provides a basic understanding of statistical interpretation of data. Part II provides normative data for various athletic performance and fitness components. These chapters focus on the variety of tests available for each component and provide normative data for various age groups, professions, and sports in both laboratory and field tests. Gender differences are also addressed when applicable. Part III offers normative data for various health issues, including cardiovascular profiles (blood pressure, heart rates), lipid profiles (cholesterol, triglycerides), hematological profiles (hemoglobin, iron), energy expenditures, and caloric values. An appendix is also available that outlines testing methods for 24 different tests and activities.

Norms for Fitness, Performance, and Health is a solid reference for fitness instructors, physical educators, exercise scientists, coaches, and various civil service professionals. It is the most comprehensive compilation of normative fitness and health data in existence and provides a basic understanding of statistical analysis of those norms.

Choice Review

Hoffman (College of New Jersey) has done a remarkable job of integrating the scientific and practical aspects of fitness assessment. This readable book is organized in three sections. The first presents the scientific/statistical aspects of fitness assessment. The second is a useful compilation of fitness norms for athletes, service personnel, young people, and the general public. The final part deals with health norms, including heart health, blood chemistry, and bone analysis. An appendix covers some practical aspects of how various physical tests should be performed. The caloric tables were the only aspect of the book that this reviewer considered superfluous, since much of the information is readily available in great detail elsewhere. In summary, the book will be very useful to fitness professionals and students needing easy access to health and fitness norms in a single volume. Well indexed and referenced. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through professionals/practitioners; general readers. L. M. Baird University of San Diego