What do elite Olympic caliber athletes and couch potatoes have in common? They are both clients targeted by SHAPE, Sacramento State’s Site for Human Applied Physiology and Exercise.

With inexpensive services ranging from underwater weighing for body fat to maximal steady state lactate and ventilation thresholds, SHAPE is a state of the art exercise performance testing center that addresses a wide spectrum of fitness-related concerns.

Sac State professors and exercise physiologists Roberto Quintana, and Daryl Parker, are directors of the center, which also conducts research in the area of health and physical activity. Sac State exercise physiology students perform the various tests under their directors’ supervision to gain experience and maintain low prices. Fees, which are approximately $25 per service, are funneled back into the lab to fund research and equipment.

“The clients are doing us a favor, and we’re doing them a favor by providing these services for very little money,” Quintana said, adding that people bring a myriad of concerns. “There are a battery of tests we can do to evaluate where they are at and how to proceed in terms of fitness, health or exercise performance.”

Since he founded the program five years ago, Quintana said it has become very popular despite a nonexistent advertising budget.

“Most people hear about us through word of mouth,” he said.

SHAPE is open to students, faculty, staff and outside community members. The Sac State gymnastics, volleyball and cross country teams have been tested as well as professional cycling teams and elite marathon runners. Testing is also available for those who are disabled.

Freshman biology major Ronan Conlan knows fitness is important. As a member of Sac State’s tennis team, he is physically active and follows a nutritious diet. Although he has not used the program, he said, as an athlete, he would benefit from such testing.

“You’ve always got to be at the top of your game when you compete, and knowing how fit you are is really important to do that,” Conlan said. “These types of tests give you that information.”Quintana emphasized that everyone can benefit from health testing and education no matter fitness levels or goals.

“Unfortunately, in the area of health and fitness, there are a lot of myths,” Quintana said, adding that people often receive misinformation. “These individualized tests enable us to educate people about what goes in to improving your health, fitness or exercise performance.”

Quintana also said the tests are beneficial because they provide individuals with customized information, setting them on the right track.

“Most people come in with unrealistic goals, but we give them realistic goals,” Quintana said. “We come up with a realistic goal based on what a person’s priorities are.” He recommends getting tested before beginning an exercise program, as well as during, in order to evaluate any improvements.

The most popular service is the body composition test, which is done in a dunk tank to evaluate the ratio of body fat weight to non-body fat weight. While this can be measured using a simple pinch or skin fold test, underwater testing has superior accuracy.

“It’s really the gold standard for body composition testing,” Quintana said. “With skin folding, the error can be plus or minus 4 percent, whereas if we do it in the dunk tank here, it’s only plus or minus 2 percent.”

The test is an important health measurement, Quintana said.

“The weight scale doesn’t really tell you where you’re at in terms of your body composition,” he said. “But this can really pinpoint with pretty good accuracy where you are in terms of how much fat you have on your body.”

To undergo the underwater test, a person must fast for four hours before visiting the lab. Upon changing into a bathing suit, the person is emerged in a dunk tank and weighed using an autopsy scale. From there, staff determines how much body volume the person takes up in the water, which is used to calculate the relationship between body density and body fat.

“It’s really the only time you want to be heavy and sink because fat floats,” Quintana said with a laugh.

The results of the test, which takes about one hour to complete, are available immediately and enable an individual to understand his or her current fitness level. But beyond numbers, Quintana and his staff endeavor to educate people about the relationship between exercise, nutrition and health.”We talk about what goes into body composition, maintaining a healthy weight or how to lose weight in a healthy manner,” he said. “We give them general nutritional and exercise guidelines. If they want more information, we can actually do an exercise prescription and really tell them what to do.”

An individual’s resting metabolic rate can also be tested at the center, which Quintana said provides information about how many calories a person needs to maintain body weight and how many calories go towards maintaining the body’s functions.

Quintana wants people to realize that no health concern is too small.

“We get a lot of aesthetic concerns right after the new year or right before spring break,” Quintana said. “We help them set up some realistic aesthetic goals that they can achieve and maintain.”Testing can also help those who have started an exercise program and have found themselves in a rut, Quintana said.

“A lot of people come in who have lost five or 10 pounds and say, ‘I haven’t lost any more weight, what do I do?'” Quintana said. “Then I’ll do a test for something like body fat composition to estimate how much exercise they need to maintain or lose the weight or determine if it’s even a realistic goal.”

Quintana said it is very important for people to take health seriously, which is often easier than people think.

“Usually, for someone looking to improve fitness or their health, they don’t have to lose as much body fat as they think they do to improve health,” he said, adding that the key is obtaining advice from a health professional. “In terms of education and evaluation, we’re a valuable resource in the community.”

Appointments are scheduled according to kinesiology classes, and availability changes each semester. To get more information about SHAPE’s services or to set up an appointment, contact Quintana at 916-278-4495 or through email at [email protected].

Megan Chuchmach can be reached at [email protected]