Lifetime Fitness Unit
Phillips Preparatory School/Physical Education
Fitness is a journey not a destination. Physical activity is critical to the development and maintenance of good health. The goal of this unit is to develop physically educated individuals who have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of healthful physical activity. Students will participate in activities that are fun, engaging, and purposeful and at the same time learn about the principles of training, the components of health-related fitness, and the importance of being physically active.
Components of Health-related Fitness
Health-related fitness is a measure of a person’s ability to perform physical activities that require endurance, strength, or flexibility. It is achieved through a combination of regular exercise and inherent ability. The components of health-related fitness are: aerobic fitness (cardiorespiratory endurance), muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition as they relate specifically to health enhancement.
Aerobic fitness is the ability to perform large muscle, dynamic, moderate to high intensity exercise for prolonged periods. Aerobic activity can help to reduce the build-up of fat deposits in the arteries, promoting a healthy cardiovascular system and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Muscular strength is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert a maximal force against a resistance through the full range of motion for a short period of time. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert a submaximal force repeatedly over a period of time. Fewer repetitions of more-intense exercises are more likely to develop muscular strength, whereas more repetitions of less-intense exercises are more likely to develop muscular endurance. Muscular strength and endurance activities are important in the musculoskeletal function of the body. When done properly, they improve body composition, bone density, and posture; prevent injuries; and help a person perform tasks of daily living and work.
Flexibility is the ability to move a joint through its complete range of motion. Keeping your joints flexible is important in promoting overall health and safe participation in physical activity. Benefits of stretching include a maintained or increased range of motion; a decreased risk of injury in sports, daily chores and tasks; increased blood supply and nutrients to the joints; reduced muscular soreness after activity; and improved balance, mobility, and posture.
Body composition is the amount of lean body mass (all tissues other than fat, such as bone, muscle, organs, and body fluids) compared with the amount of body fat, usually expressed in terms of percent body fat. Healthy body composition (ratio of fat to lean weight) and adequate hydration are key factors for disease prevention and health. Among the common ways to assess whether body composition is appropriate are BMI-for-age tables, skin-fold caliper testing, height-weight tables, and waist-to-hip ratio.
Principles of Training
Learning the basic principles of training will provide the student with the tools they need to lead an active lifestyle throughout their lives. Knowing the hows of physical activity will empower students to construct and tailor workouts that meet their individual health-related fitness needs. The training principles are overload, progression, specificity, regularity, and individuality.
The overload principle states that a body system must perform at a level beyond normal in order to adapt and improve physiological function and fitness. Progression refers to how an individual should increase the overload. Proper progression involves a gradual increase in the level of exercise that is manipulated by increasing either frequency, intensity, or time, or a combination of all three components. The specificity principle states that explicit activities that target a particular body system must be performed to bring about fitness changes in that area. The regularity principle is based on the old adage of “use it or lose it” and states that physical activity must be performed on a regular basis to be effective. And finally, the individuality principle takes into account that each person begins at a different level of fitness, each person has different personal goals and objectives for physical activity and fitness and each person has different genetic potential for change.
FITT Guidelines
The FITT guidelines describe how to safely apply the five principles of training: overload, progression, specificity, regularity, and individuality. The FITT guidelines are frequency, intensity, time and type. Frequency describes how often a person performs the targeted health-related physical activity. Intensity describes how hard a person exercises during a physical activity period and depends on the age and fitness goals of the participant. Time describes how long the activity should be performed. Type refers to mode or what kind of activity a person chooses to perform for each area of health-related fitness.
Taking the Pulse
The two common sites used to count heart rate are the carotid artery (on the neck) and the radial artery (wrist, thumb side). Heart rate monitors are another popular way to take the pulse. We will learn about our heart rate and how it relates to aerobic fitness and conditioning.
Estimating maximal heart rates in middle school students:
MHR = 208 – ( .7 X age )
To calculate a target heart rate for aerobic activity:
THR = .6 X MHR
The target heart rate will give the participant a goal for the intensity of the aerobic activity and will allow them to check exercise intensity. Knowing their target heart rate will help teach them about individualizing their aerobic fitness program.
Warm Up and Cool Down
Warm Up:
- Prepares your body for more vigorous exercise.
- Warm, relaxed muscles are less likely to be strained or injured.
Cool Down:
- Prevents dizziness and fainting after exercise. If you stop running suddenly, blood pools in your legs and the heart has less blood to pump to the brain.
- Helps blood return to the heart.
- May reduce muscle soreness.