Fitness can be defined in many different ways. To some people fitness might mean a slim waistline. To others it
could be the ability to bench-press their body weight. And to others it might be a general feeling of wellness.
When you think of fitness, it's important to look at the big picture. It's not just about strength, endurance or fat
content, but a combination of all these. You might be strong but have no endurance. You might have endurance
but have little flexibility.
What you want to strive for is balance. Listed below are five key components important to a good definition
of fitness. Consider areas where you are strong and the areas where you are weak. Strive to improve in all these
areas, because the results will permeate your overall well-being.
Aerobic Endurance
Muscular strength
Muscle Endurance
Flexibility
Body composition
Aerobic Endurance
Aerobic Endurance is the body's ability to exercise whole muscle groups over an extended period of time at
moderate intensity, utilizing aerobic energy. Your aerobic system uses oxygen to break down carbohydrates
and convert them into lasting energy. Since it's a prolonged need, fats and proteins are also broken down,
making aerobic workouts ideal for fat loss.
Aerobic exercise also increases heart rate, strengthening the organ's ability to contract. Stronger contractions
mean an improved, stronger blood flow, in turn making a body better equipped for exercise and more efficient.
Muscular Strength
Muscular strength is the capacity of your body's muscles to generate extreme amounts of force in a short period
of time utilizing anaerobic energy.
Anaerobic energy produces short term bursts of energy, and does not require oxygen. Instead anaerobic energy
comes from the burning of carbohydrates, and can be sustained for several minutes, after which a short rest time
is needed to replenish the system. Anaerobic energy is used for everything from weight lifting and sprinting, to
the low impact sports of tennis and golf. Anaerobic energy is also used within aerobic-centered workouts when
additional spurts of energy are needed.
Enhanced muscular strength often increases muscle and connective tissue size and density by enlarging cells, or
"building" muscles. Apart from their aesthetic value, larger muscles and connective tissues are less prone to
accidents and aid long term weight control, since muscle tissue burns more calories than fat, even while
resting and while your asleep.
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Muscle Endurance
Muscle Endurance is the measure of how well muscles can repeatedly generate force, and the amount of time
they can maintain activity. Muscular Endurance is the practical use of raw strength. It is crucial for every fitness
activity, from the mostly anaerobic weight lifting repetitions (or "reps") to intense aerobic activities like jogging
(where specific muscles in the legs are used repeatedly.) Muscular endurance combines both aerobic and
anaerobic energy.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to stretch your muscles and the tendons and ligaments that connect them to your bones.
You increase flexibility by stretching the elastic fibers beyond their usual limits and maintaining that stretch for
a few moments. The fibers will eventually adjust to these new limits.
Increased flexibility decreases the risk of injury while exercising, and increases your exercise performance.
Certain activities require greater flexibility than others.
Body Composition
Body composition describes the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in your body. These percentages provide an
overall view of your health and fitness in relation to your weight, health, and age. Weight and fat are often used
together, but they are not interchangeable. Being overweight does not imply obesity -- in fact, many physically
fit people are overweight due to muscle gain. However, being "overfat" poses health risks ranging from heart
disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
It is difficult to determine your body composition accurately. However methods involving water displacement or
skin fold measurement (where a special caliper is used to measure fat beneath the skin) can give good
estimations. Another method of estimating a persons body composition using their height and weight is called a
Body Mass Index or BMI. Using the accurate measurements of height and weight and plugging them into this
formula: (body weight in pounds multiplied by 703) ÷ (height in inches, squared) a BMI Score is produced.
This BMI Score is a rough estimate of a person’s body composition. Having a BMI Score of 15 to 25 is
considered to be at a desirable weight. Remember this is just estimates and not truly a sure indication of body
composition. Those who have increased amounts of muscle will have a higher BMI Score which might falsely
suggest that they are at risk of being overweight.
DEM 9-04
The Basic Principles of Fitness
The Overload Principle
The Overload Principle is probably the most important principle of exercise and training.
Simply stated, the Overload Principle means that the body will adapt to the workload placed
upon it. The more you do, the more you will be capable of doing. This is how all the fitness
improvements occur when exercising and training. The human body is an amazing machine.
When you stress the body through lifting a weight that the body is unaccustomed to lifting, the
body will react by causing physiological changes in order to be able to handle that stress the
next time it occurs. This concept is similar in cardiovascular training. If you ask the heart,
lungs and endurance muscles to do work not previously done, it will make changes to the body
to be able to handle that task better the next time. This is how people get stronger, bigger, faster
and increase their physical fitness level.
When you are working out, you want to strive to somehow increase the workload you are doing
above what you did on your previous workout so you have overloaded your body to create a
training adaptation. This increase in workout stress can be a very small increase, as many small
increases over time will eventually be a large increase or adaptation. To determine how to
increase the workload of a given workout you need to understanding the F.I.T.T Principle.
The F.I.T.T. Principle
An easy way to get started on developing a personal fitness program is utilizing the F.I.T.T.
principle. This acronym stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type. These are the areas
in which someone could increase or overload in order to improve physical fitness.
Frequency: This refers to how often you will exercise. After any form of exercise is
performed your body completes a process of rebuilding and repairing. So, determining the
frequency of exercise is important in order to find a balance that provides just enough stress for
the body to adapt and also allows enough rest time for healing.
Intensity: Defined as the amount of effort or work that must be completed in a specific
exercise. This too requires a good balance to ensure that the intensity is hard enough to
overload the body but not so difficult that it results in over training, injury or burnout.
Time: Time is simply how long each individual session should last. This will vary based on
the intensity and type.
Type: What type of exercise will you be doing? Will an exercise session be primarily
cardiovascular, resistance training or a combination of both? And, what specific exercises will
you perform.
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Combining The Overload Principle and The F.I.T.T. Principle
Frequency
Intensity
Time
Type
Resistance Training
Cardiovascular Training
Increase the number of workout days
Increase the number of workout days
Increase the resistance / weight
Increase pace or % of Max. Heart Rate
Increase time involved in exercise or
Increased repetitions.
Changing the exercise but still
working the same area of the body
Increase time involved in exercise
Changing the workout to a different
cardio exercise. Ex. jogging to jump rope
DEM05
The Principle of Specificity
This principle is just how it sounds...how you exercise should be specific to your goals. If
you're trying to improve your racing times, you should focus on speed workouts. If your main
goal is simply health, fitness and weight loss, you should focus on total body strength, cardio
and a healthy diet. Make sure your training matches your goals.
The Principle of Rest and Recovery
While we often focus on getting in as much exercise as possible, rest and recovery is also
essential for reaching your weight loss and fitness goals. While you can often do cardio every
day (though you may want to rest after very intense workouts) you should have at least a day
of rest between strength training workouts. Make sure you don't work the same muscles two
days in a row to give your body the time it needs to rest and recover.
The Principle of Use or Lose
The Principle of Use or Lose implies that when it comes to fitness, you "use it or lose it." This
simply means that your muscles build strength (hypertrophy) with use and lose strength
(atrophy) with lack of use. This also explains why we or lose fitness when we stop exercising.
Laguna Middle School
Physical Education Department
♥
Be Smart With Your Heart
♥
DETERMINING YOUR HEART RATE: Heart rates are measured in beats per minute. The
fastest method for determining your heart rate is to find your pulse and count the number of
beats for six seconds. Take that number and multiply by 10 or just simply put a zero behind
that number. For example: if you count seven beats in a six second period then your heart rate
is 70 beats per minute. The most accurate method is to count your pulse over an entire minute.
FINDING YOUR PULSE: Locate your pulse be lightly pressing your index and middle
fingers against your neck just below the corner of your jawbone.
This is the location of your CAROTID ARTERY.
To determine if you are properly conditioning your heart,
you will need to Know and Understand Three Heart Rates:
RESTING HEART RATE: Taking your heart rate while at rest is a good tool to
determine aerobic fitness. As you improve your aerobic fitness your heart enlarges and pumps
more blood with each stroke (greater stroke volume.) The lungs grow larger and are able to
supply more oxygen to the blood. For these two reasons your heart does not have to beat as
many times per minute. The heart is more efficient thus it is able to slows down. The best time
to take a resting heart rate is when you first wake up in the morning after a well-rested night’s
sleep.
MAXIMUM HEART RATE: A maximum heart rate can be achieved safely during
exercise but your body just won’t let you hold this rate for very long. A maximum heart rate is
a norm found by subtracting a person’s age from 220. This value is just an estimate.
For example, a 13 year old: 220 – 13 = 207 = a 13 year olds maximum heart rate.
TARGET HEART RATE or TARGET ZONE: To condition aerobically you must
exercise with a heart rate between 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate for at least
15 to 30 minutes. When beginning an aerobic exercise program an individual should exercise
at the lower 60% heart rate. As aerobic fitness improves gradual increases in exercise heart
rates can be sustained leading up to an advanced fitness heart rate of 85% of the maximum
heart rate.
To calculate a Target zone once your maximum heart rate is determined (see above,) you
multiply it by .60 and .85 to give you your TARGET ZONE.
For example, the 13 year old above uses 207 X 60. = 124.2 and 207 X .85 = 175.95.
So a 13 year old has a Target Heart Rate Zone of from 124 to 176 beats per minute.
Exercising for 15 minutes with your heart rate within this Target Zone will begin to
aerobically condition the heart and lungs.
Knowing which exercises and activities that raise your heart rate into your Target Zone is very
important to properly aerobically condition your heart and lungs.