2. What is Fitness? Fitness measures a person’s suitability to perform a certain task, for example you can be fit to drive, fit to work, fit to look after children and so on. In the sporting context we think of fitness as a person’s physiological capability to perform a specific physical task or set of tasks.
3. Fitness Components Fitness can be broken down into different ‘fitness components’ as there are different types of ‘fitness’. There are two groups of fitness components – Health related components – named because they can have a direct affect on your health and wellbeing Skill related components – named because do not directly influence or affect someone’s health and wellbeing
4. Health Related Components Aerobic Endurance – the ability of the heart and lungs to work effectively over a long period of time using oxygen as fuel. Anaerobic Fitness – the ability to put body parts into motion quickly and to sustain high-intensity efforts for a short period of time without using oxygen.
5. Muscular Strength – the force that muscles can exert in one maximal exertion or contraction against a resistance Muscular Endurance – the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to contract repeatedly over a long period of time. Flexibility – the ability and ease of a joint to move through its full range of motion by stretching the muscles around it Body Composition – the make up of the body including muscle, fat, bone and water and the ratio of fat to lean muscle in the body.
6. Skill Related Components Agility – defined as the ability to change direction suddenly when moving Balance – the ability to maintain a position in space, either while moving or stationary Reaction time – defined as the time it takes to process and initiate action in response to a stimulus
7. Muscular power – defined as the ability to generate a maximum force quickly (a combination of strength and speed) to get an explosive movement Speed - the ability to get the whole or parts of the body moving to cover distance in a determined time Co-ordination – the ability to combine the senses and body movement to produce action that flows and is accurate
8. Activity One - Ideal Performance Copy and complete the activity on the board. Choose a sport that you participate in Complete an “Ideal Performance” graph for that chosen sport Using your own fitness testing results graph your ability in each of the fitness components Write a paragraph describing what you notice about your graph Refer to the ideal performance and your results Talk about what you can do to improve or maintain your performance etc
9. Getting Started As with most things, developing your fitness works better when you have a plan to follow. To develop an effective fitness improvement plan, several factors must be considered; Which components do I want to develop? What training should I do? How will I measure my progress? What time frame will I set? What guidelines do I need to follow?
10. Training Principles No matter which fitness components you are wanting to improve, there are key principles, or guidelines to follow; OVERLOAD The training threshold is the minimum amount of exercise required to experience an improvement in physical fitness. Overload occurs when a person trains above the minimum level required. PROGRESSION As a person’s level of fitness improves, their training threshold also increases. This means that the fitter a person becomes, the harder and/or longer they have to train to create an overload in training. Progression is achieved by changing the training to increase the load and speed of resistance, reducing the recovery time, and increasing the duration, number of repetitions or sets and the frequency of training.
11. SPECIFICITY Any training undertaken must be specific to the fitness component being developed, the activity, the muscles being used, the energy system used and the intensity of the expected performance. REVERSIBILITY The effects of training are lost if training stops or slows down. This applies to all levels of fitness, although the longer you have been training, the slower the rate of reversal.
12. FITT Principle The FITT formula is often used to create a basic framework for prescribing exercise to improve fitness F – Frequency I – Intensity T – Time T - Type
13. Frequency Frequency relates to How Often you will train. This varies according to different factors Your goals – what are you trying to achieve? How fit are you now? Age How healthy you are. A competitive athlete would obviously train more often than someone who wanted to stay active and healthy.
14. Intensity Intensity relates to How Hard you train. Knowing how hard to work or how hard you are working, is an important element of training to improve your fitness. If your intensity is too high you may fatigue early, while on the other hand if you are not training hard enough you may not see any improvement.
15. Training and Heart Rates It is important to first find out what your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR), this is calculated by working out what 220 minus your age is i.e. 220-15= 205(MHR) By knowing your MHR you can refer to the Training Target Heart Rate graph and work out where your training zone is. This uses your Heart Rate to measure how hard you are training (intensity) Generally, an aerobic workout will be between 60% and 80%. An anaerobic workout is usually between 80% and 100% The Karvonen Formula is another way to work out your training HR e.g. MHR minus RHR multiplied by the target % (e.g. 60% = 0.6) + RHR 205-50=155; 155x0.6=93; 93+50=143 143 is your target heart rate if working at 60% of maximum effort
16. Time Time relates to the length of a training session. This will be determined by a number of factors including what type of training you are doing, what you are training for and which fitness component you are working on developing Time can be monitored 3 ways; 1. Time e.g. 20min run 2. Distance e.g. 2km swim 3. Total number of reps e.g. 12reps
17. Here are some suggestions for different fitness components; Developing aerobic fitness - minimum of 20mins at target heart rate Developing muscular endurance - minimum 30min session Developing strength - minimum 20min session Improving flexibility - 10 - 15mins per day
18. Type Relates to the kind of training undertaken. What training should I do? Continuous training – working continuously for at least 20mins on activities such as swimming, running cycling without changing intensity or stopping Continuous interval – working continuously for at least 20mins with varying levels of intensity Circuit training – a number of stations or activities set up in a circuit formation, an athlete works for a period of time at each station before moving on Interval training – work and rest periods are alternated. Work is usually of high intensity and the rest period allows this to be sustained for a period of time Resistance – working against a resistance or force in order to develop strength or power.
20. Interval training Interval training is one of the best types of training for improving anaerobic endurance. When it comes to interval training there are a number of different variables that you can adapt Duration of the work period Intensity of work No. of repetitions Work : Rest ratio
