Fitness and Body Composition Overview

Physical Fitness

• Physical fitness is a state of physical well-being allowing daily activities without fatigue.
• It reduces health problems resulting from lack of exercise.
• It establishes a fitness base for various physical activities.

Components of Physical F

itness

• Health-related: Cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, body composition.
• Skill-related: Coordination, agility, reaction time, power, speed, balance.

Cardiovascular Fitness

• How well the heart and lungs work together to deliver oxygen and nutrients to muscles and cells.
• It's an aerobic process (in the presence of oxygen).
• Provides energy to continue exercising.
• Takes place over an extended time.
• Examples: walking, running, hiking, swimming, dancing

Muscular Strength

• The ability of a muscle to exert force against resistance.
• Training types:
  • Body weight (push-ups, sit-ups, squats)
  • Resistance bands (thicker bands = more resistance)
  • Free weights (barbells, dumbbells)
  • Weight machines (guide motion to target muscle)

Muscular Endurance

• The length of time a muscle group can continue exerting force.
• Examples: sit-ups, push-ups, planks, body weight squats

Flexibility

• Not detailed in the notes.

Body Composition

• The percentage of body weight that's fat compared to bone and muscle.
• Important for overall fitness and avoiding health problems.
• Examples: skinfold, circumference, body scale measurements.

Factors Determining Fitness Level

• Heredity: Limits potential (e.g., short parents = less likely to be tall).
• Environment: Limits opportunities (e.g., low-income families).
• Behavior: Personal choices (e.g., smoking, drugs, alcohol) affect health.

Risk Factors

• Controllable: Physical inactivity, cigarette smoking, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, high stress lifestyle.
• Uncontrollable: Heredity or family history, age, gender, race.

FITT Principle

• Frequency: How often exercise is performed (e.g., daily or weekly)
• Intensity: How hard an exercise is (increasing difficulty)
• Time: Duration of training sessions
• Type: Kind of exercise (e.g., aerobics, weight training)

Training Program (Specific Examples)

• Cardiovascular Endurance: Frequency (3-5 days/week), Intensity (60-85% max HR), Time (20-60 min), Type (large muscle movement).
• Flexibility: Frequency (at least 3 times/week), Intensity (slow stretch), Time (hold 15-30 seconds), Type (slow, steady).
• Muscular Strength: Frequency (every other day), Intensity (high resistance), Time (8-12 repetitions), Type (resistant type).
• Muscular Endurance: Frequency (every other day), Intensity (low resistance), Time (2-20 repetitions), Type (resistant type).

Principles of Training

• Overload: Increased demands on the body to adapt and improve.
• Progression: Gradually increasing exercise or activity over time.
• Specificity: Improve one area, need specific activity for that area (e.g., running for cardiovascular, weights for strength)

Personal Fitness Anatomy

• Muscle: Bundles of fibers held by connective tissue.
• Tendon: Connects muscle to bone.
• Ligament: Connects bone to bone.
• Skeletal Muscles: Enable movement.

Muscle Fiber Types

• Slow Twitch: Endurance activities (contract slowly for long time)
• Fast Twitch: Short-term, high-intensity activities (not well-supplied by blood vessels)
• Intermediate: High intensity, moderate duration activities

Warm-up and Cool-down

• Warm-up: Allows muscles to be more flexible, better able to contract, prepares for action, and decreases injury chance.
• Cool-down: Allows for gradual recovery, regulates body temperature, and prevent muscle soreness and cramps.

Benefits of Muscular Strength and Endurance

• Avoid health problems (lower back).
• Perform daily activities without injury.
• Enjoy recreational activities.
• Prevent posture problems related to muscle weakness.

Types of Exercise

• Isometric: Muscle contractions without changing length. Examples: Plank, wall sit, some yoga poses.
• Isotonic: Muscle movement with resistance through a range of motion. Examples: Bicep curls, squats, push-ups

Stress

• A nonspecific response to demands.
• Stressors: Physical, Psychological, Environmental, and Social.

Coping Strategies

• Positive: Time management, limit certain foods, sharing stress, exercise, meditation, imagery
• Negative: Alcohol, too much television, chemical/drug dependence, smoking, withdrawal, excessive gambling, overspending