8th Grade Chapter 10 Lesson 1 - Active Lifestyle PDF

Choosing an Active Lifestyle MAIN IDEA​ ​An active lifestyle will help to keep you healthy throughout your lifetime. Anna and Sonja are identical twins. Although they look alike, their habits are different. Anna often plays basketball with her friends. Sonja prefers to stay inside and play video ga...

Choosing an Active Lifestyle MAIN IDEA​ ​An active lifestyle will help to keep you healthy throughout your lifetime. Anna and Sonja are identical twins. Although they look alike, their habits are different. Anna often plays basketball with her friends. Sonja prefers to stay inside and play video games. Anna would rather take the stairs than wait for the elevator. Can you guess which choice Sonja makes? If you are like Anna, you are getting plenty of physical activity in your daily life. That’s great news, because physical activity has many benefits for your health. In fact, physical activity helps to balance all sides of your health triangle. On the physical side, being active helps you build strong bones and muscles. It also helps you manage your weight. It keeps your blood pressure at a healthy level and strengthens your heart and lungs. Physical activity can also improve your balance and coordination. When you are active, you have more energy. You are also in less danger of developing certain diseases, both now and later in life. Physical activity is good for your mental and emotional health, too. It helps you sleep better and concentrate better in school. It can also improve your self-confidence and relieve stress. Becoming physically active can also help your social health. You have more chances to make new friends by trying new activities or sports. As you continue to make new friends, you will continue to get opportunities to try new activities and meet new people. Being willing to try new things will give you even more chances to expand your social network. This expands your social network. Also, while playing sports, disagreements may occur. Physical activity helps you practice resolving conflicts in a healthful way. Teens need at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day, according to guidelines released by the CDC. However, this doesn’t have to mean an hour of activity all at once. For instance, suppose you walk to school several days a week. If it takes half an hour each way, your walking time will add up to 60 minutes. Experts also say teens should get some vigorous activity at least three days a week. Examples include jumping rope, swimming, or playing soccer. Exercising for Physical Fitness Leading an active life is the key to physical fitness​.​ When you are fit, you have the energy for everything you want to do. You can work to build fitness through exercise​.​ Some people think physical activity means working out or playing sports, but that isn’t really true. In fact, there are lots of ways to be active. For example, you may walk to and from school every day. You probably have various chores to do at home. You might do yard work in the summer or rake leaves in the fall. If you have a bike, you may enjoy riding it for fun. All these daily activities can help you stay fit. However, if you are trying to improve your physical fitness, you will need to exercise as well. READING CHECK Organize​ What strategies can you use to access information and tools to help you lead a healthy, active lifestyle. Elements of Physical Fitness MAIN IDEA​ ​Elements of fitness include strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Think about someone who is very strong but cannot walk a mile without becoming tired. Would you consider that person physically fit? Probably you would not. True fitness includes not only strength​,​ but also endurance and flexibility​.​ It also means having a healthy body composition​. Endurance The word ​endure​ means “to last,” and endurance is a measure of how long you can last during physical activity. If you can climb several flights of stairs and not feel out of breath, that means you have good heart and lung endurance, which is also known as cardiovascular endurance. This kind of endurance is important for many physical activities, such as running, swimming, and playing team sports. If you can run several miles and your legs don’t feel tired, you have good muscle endurance. Activities that build muscle endurance include jumping rope, dancing, and riding a bike. Both kinds of endurance help build stamina. Building stamina will help you be active for longer periods of time without getting tired or out of breath. Strength The stronger you are, the more work your muscles can do. Having strong arms and a strong back means that you can move heavy objects. Strong legs will help you with running and jumping. You build muscle strength every time you make your muscles work against a force, such as gravity. Building muscle strength will shape and tone your body and help you with activities such as sports. Flexibility Flexibility allows you to turn, bend, and stretch. Being flexible is especially important for gymnasts and dancers. However, it plays a role in other sports as well. Being flexible makes it easier to change directions quickly. This can help you with everything from stopping and turning to throwing a ball. Also, when your muscles can stretch easily, they are less likely to become injured during sports and other activities. You improve your flexibility every time you stretch your muscles and joints​.​ Activities that are good for building flexibility include yoga, swimming, and karate. As you become more familiar with fitness terms, you may hear the term ​strong core muscles​ mentioned. Your core muscles are those in your abdomen. These muscles provide strength for the rest of your body. Coaches and other fitness trainers will focus on developing core strength by doing sit ups and other exercises that build strength in this area of the body. Body Composition The last element of fitness is body composition. A healthy body generally has more bone, muscle, and fluid than fat. Body composition is not the same as how much you weigh. It is a measure of how much of that weight is lean tissue instead of body fat. Too much body fat can increase your risk of health problems. Your body composition depends partly on the genes you inherit from your parents. It also depends on how much you eat and how active you are. When you are active, your body is burning up calories from the foods you eat. Burning extra calories means that your body won’t store them as fat. The graph on this page shows how many calories your body uses during different kinds of activity. Being active also improves your body composition by helping you build up your muscles. Physical activity increases the amount of muscle on your body and reduces the amount of fat. Being active can help you develop a lean, fit, healthy body. In the long run, it will reduce your risk of many health problems, including heart disease and cancer. One measure of body composition is a skinfold test, which involves pinching a fold of skin at two or three sites on the right side of the body. Each fold is measured with an instrument called a skinfold caliper. To ensure accuracy, a trained person should administer the skinfold tst using standardized testing procedures and a high quality caliper. Another way to measure your body fat is to calcuate your body mass index (BMI). Calculating your BMI is included in Lesson 3. READING CHECK Identify​ What are the five elements of fitness?