COKO Clinical Procedures and Protocols 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: When performing a sit-and-reach flexibility test, which standardized protocol element is most critical for validity?
- Completing a 10-minute aerobic warm-up beforehand
- Ensuring the client holds the stretched position for 2 seconds (Correct answer)
- Recording the best of three trials
- Having the client perform the test barefoot
Correct answer: Ensuring the client holds the stretched position for 2 seconds
Holding the stretch for 2 seconds at end range ensures the measurement reflects a sustained static reach rather than a ballistic movement.
Question 2: Which principle best describes why a kinesiologist must obtain informed consent before performing fitness assessments?
- To satisfy insurance requirements only
- To ensure the client understands risks, benefits, and alternatives and agrees voluntarily (Correct answer)
- To document that the client is medically cleared
- To confirm the client's payment obligations
Correct answer: To ensure the client understands risks, benefits, and alternatives and agrees voluntarily
Informed consent is an ethical and legal obligation ensuring the client understands the nature, risks, and alternatives of the assessment and participates voluntarily.
Question 3: A client with hypertension is prescribed antihypertensive medication. How does beta-blocker use most directly affect exercise testing interpretation?
- It increases resting heart rate
- It attenuates heart rate response, making HR-based intensity prescriptions unreliable (Correct answer)
- It causes exaggerated BP responses during exercise
- It reduces perceived exertion at all intensities
Correct answer: It attenuates heart rate response, making HR-based intensity prescriptions unreliable
Beta-blockers blunt the chronotropic response to exercise, making target heart rate zones based on age-predicted maxima unreliable.
Question 4: During a maximal grip strength assessment, the dynamometer should be positioned with the elbow at which angle for standardized testing?
- Full extension (0°)
- 90° flexion (Correct answer)
- 45° flexion
- 120° flexion
Correct answer: 90° flexion
The standard protocol (e.g., Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology) specifies elbow at 90° flexion for grip strength testing to ensure consistent muscle length.
Question 5: A kinesiologist is working with a client recovering from a stroke. Which assessment is most appropriate to evaluate functional ambulation capacity?
- Six-Minute Walk Test (Correct answer)
- Balke Treadmill Protocol
- Wingate Anaerobic Test
- YMCA Bike Test
Correct answer: Six-Minute Walk Test
The Six-Minute Walk Test is a validated, low-intensity functional assessment widely used in neurological rehabilitation populations.
Question 6: When applying the PRICE protocol acutely following a soft tissue injury, what does the 'C' represent?
- Cortisone
- Compression (Correct answer)
- Cold application
- Circulation check
Correct answer: Compression
In the PRICE protocol (Protection, Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation), 'C' stands for Compression, which helps limit swelling.
Question 7: A kinesiologist uses the Borg 6–20 RPE scale during a cardiorespiratory fitness test. At which RPE should the test typically be terminated for a submaximal protocol?
- RPE 11
- RPE 13
- RPE 17 (Correct answer)
- RPE 19
Correct answer: RPE 17
Submaximal protocols typically end around RPE 17 ('very hard'), which corresponds to approximately 85–90% of maximum effort without reaching true exhaustion.
COKO Clinical Procedures and Protocols 3
When performing a sit-and-reach flexibility test, which standardized protocol element is most critical for validity?