PAR-Q (Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire)

PAR-Q: what is it?

The PAR-Q exists so that a coach without medical training can identify, in a few minutes and with a standardised set of questions, the clients who should speak to a doctor before they start training. It has been revised over the years into the PAR-Q+, which pairs the core questions with follow-up questions for people who answer yes, so that a chronic but well-managed condition does not automatically become a barrier to exercise. Every coach should run one, keep it, and understand precisely what it does and does not authorise.

What the questionnaire covers

The core of the PAR-Q+ is a short set of yes or no questions about heart conditions, chest pain, loss of balance or consciousness, chronic conditions, bone and joint problems made worse by activity, and prescribed medication for a chronic condition. All no answers means the client can generally begin gradual physical activity. Any yes sends them into the follow-up section.

The follow-up questions are the part that makes the modern version useful. They ask whether a condition is stable and well managed, because a client with controlled high blood pressure who exercises regularly is in a very different position from someone whose condition is undiagnosed or unstable.

What a yes answer actually means

A yes is not a refusal to train the client. It is a fork in the road, and where it leads depends on the follow-up answers and, in some cases, on a doctor.

The line a coach must not cross

The PAR-Q is a screening questionnaire. It flags who needs a doctor. It is not a clearance, it does not become one because the client says they feel fine, and you cannot grant one on the strength of it. Signing off on a client with a yes answer because they insist they are healthy puts them at risk and puts you outside your scope of practice and, in most cases, outside your insurance.

The same applies to interpretation. You record the answers, you act on the protocol, and you refer. You do not assess whether a condition is serious, decide that a medication is irrelevant, or reassure a client that their symptom is nothing. Those are medical judgements.

Keeping it current

Screening is not a one-off at onboarding. Standard practice is to keep the completed form on file for as long as you work with the client, and to re-run it at least annually, after any injury, illness, surgery, pregnancy, or change in medication, and whenever a client returns after a long break.

Practically, that means the questionnaire should live in the same place as everything else you track, not in an email attachment from eighteen months ago. If a client develops a symptom in month seven, you want the record to show that you screened, you re-screened, and you referred.

• Complete it before any physical testing, not after.
• Keep the signed form for the duration of the coaching relationship.
• Re-run it annually as a minimum.
• Re-run it after any illness, injury, surgery, pregnancy or medication change.
• Store it securely: health answers are sensitive personal data.