Information on taking height and weight

Measuring your height and weight is important as it helps you to identify weather you are a good weight for your height, under- weight or over- weight for your height.
Maintaining a healthy weight is important for protection against obesity related illness and disability. If your weight is currently over the healthy range for your height, losing weight will be beneficial to your health, your looks, and how you feel.

PAR-Q

The physical activity readiness questionnaire (PAR-Q) is a self-screening tool that can be used by anyone who is planning to start an exercise program. It is often used by fitness trainers or coaches to determine the safety or possible risk of exercising for an individual based upon their answers to specific health history questions.

The PAR-Q was created by the British Columbia Ministry of Health and the Multidisciplinary Board on Exercise. This form was adopted directly from the ACSM Standards and Guidelines for Health and Fitness Facilities.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/fitnessevalandassessment/qt/PAR-Q.htm

Body composition

Body composition is a collection of all of the tissues of your body.
Many people are concerned with body weight, but body weight is not the best way to determine health. A very muscular person could weigh more than a person who is overweight.
-Body composition measures percentage of body fat, that is how much of your body is made up of muscle and how much is made up of fat.-A typical person is about 15% to 25% body fat.-A male should be between 6% and 20% body fat.-A female should be between 11% and 25% body fat.
-Body fat over 30% for males and 35% for females is considered obese.

http://sm044.k12.sd.us/body_composition.htm

Measuring blood pressure and body composition

Why do we measure blood pressure and why is it relevant to each of us?

The pressure of blood in the arteries rises and falls with contraction and relaxation of the heart. The machines we use measure the peak (systolic) pressure and the low point (the diastolic) A typical value would be 120 for the systolic and 80 for the diastolic, written 120/80 and spoken as "one twenty over eighty".
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels leading to heart disease, stroke and poor circulation in the legs.
'Normal' blood pressure is hard to define but we are trying to keep everyone's BP less than 150/90.
A person's blood pressure can be very variable. Stress can put it up briefly. Just having it measured, even by a familiar doctor, can put it up so we don't usually diagnose high blood pressure until we have readings on three separate occasions. We now encourage people to buy machines of their own because we feel that readings taken at home are often more accurate than readings taken in the surgery.
We rarely find a treatable cause for high blood pressure (hypertension). About five or six out of a hundred people will have kidney problems and one in a hundred will have a hormonal problem.
Losing weight, taking regular exercise and cutting down on alcohol all help but many people need a combination of three or even four drugs to get blood pressure down. Many tablets have side effects but we can usually find a combination that suits the patient and works.
Most people with high blood pressure will need blood tests done every year or so to check on their kidneys and other things which may be relevant such as blood sugar and cholesterol.

http://www.westernroad.co.uk/blood.htm