I am going to implement an existing aerobic program on obese adults with strength exercises. The course will provide the test protocol for the evaluation of the strength of certain muscle groups, but my health ideology tends to make me reject test with which you evaluate the loads supported, extrapolation of RM for various exercises to strength machines and so on, even if they are objectively more comparable in the literature. Qualitatively test as PPT or CS-PFP questionnaires on daily activities and more are better, but less comparable. Found that the most important thing is to stimulate an improvement in physical performance of these subjects in the best way to deal with daily activities and reduce the risk of chronic diseases, from the scientific point of view, however the question remains on how to investigate the possible assessments force. Do u think is better a more comprehensive approach, then more oriented to the improvement of the general conditions of the subject, more ethical but less objective or a more analytical approach and therefore more comparable in the literature, such as assessing the strength of the quadriceps by leg extensions?
I used isokinetic dynamometry to test the lower limb strength in obese individuals, including a strength training study.
Like Huang I have also included isokinetic testing of quadriceps and hamstrings as well as hand held dynamometry. Apart from those tests that aim to measure maximal strength you may also consider using some functional test such as number of lift offs from the chair in the certain period of time (e.g. 30 or 60 seconds).We have worked with severely obese patients candidates for bariatric surgery so we could not implement push ups or curl ups but depending on the grade of obesity you may consider this tests as well to get an idea about the local muscle endurance. If not so you may choose an isokinetic test at 180deg/sec with e.g. 30 repetitions and than calculate the fatigue index (Biodex will provide this automatically but on other devices you need to calculate that manually). Leg press isometric test using force plate is also an option but you must be careful that test is performed correctly otherwise this may put pressure on low back inducing pain in some patients.
Yes I every time prefer functional performance, but usually it is less strong in publication paper than specific strength test (my opinion is ethical vs science). We just adopt hand grip test, chair raise, timed up and go tests, we need to extend the research strictly on muscular strength valuation, but it's difficult to adapt some classical tests at isotonic machines to these subjects (we don't have isokinetic equipments and i prefer do not use isometric tests for clinical conditions). I'm thinking to use some isotonic machines to perform multijoint exercises and some dumbbells to value and control their strength
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