Download Fitness Unit - Central Cougars

Fitness Unit
Physical Fitness is a lifelong activity (decision) that can be done for the rest of your life to
maintain a healthy lifestyle. It is said that in order to maintain fitness you should exercise six
days a week, 60 minutes each day at a moderate pace and does not have to be done all at once.
Physical Fitness can be fun and done in a variety of ways by choosing activities that you enjoy
doing (walking, weight lifting, basketball, soccer, aerobics, exercise balls etc). It is best to
choose activities that address multiple dimensions of physical fitness such as muscular
strength/endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and balance.
F.I.T.T Principles:
Frequency: How often
Intensity: How Hard
Time: How long
Type: Aerobic/Anaerobic
Fitness Related Terms Physical Fitness can be aerobic or anaerobic and can work on a variety
of things including muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, balance, and
cardiovascular endurance. You can choose what type of activities you do based on the results
you want.
Aerobic Activity: Aerobic activity uses oxygen to fuel muscles. It is usually longer and lower in
intensity than anaerobic activity. Aerobic activity should last more than 15 minutes at 60 – 80%
of your maximum heart rate.
Helps lower body fat and increase muscle tone.
Includes walking, jogging, riding your bike, circuits etc.
Anaerobic Activity: Carbohydrates are turned into energy to fuel muscles. Anaerobic activity is
shorter in order to meet fast, sudden energy demands. Helps build speed and strength.
Used during activities such as kicking, sprinting, and plyo-metrics.
Muscular Strength: The ability to exert an external force or to lift a heavy weight.
Bulking up = 3 sets at 3 to 5 repetitions (high weight low repetitions)
Muscular Endurance: The ability of the muscles to repeatedly exert themselves.
Toning muscles = 3 to 5 sets at 10 to 25 repetitions (low weight high reps)
Cardiovascular Endurance: Physical activity for relatively long periods of time without undue
stress.
Helps maintain a healthy heart and lungs!
Flexibility: The range of motion available in a joint.
Balance: The ability to maintain the body’s center of gravity using the least amount of postural
sway.
Body Composition: The percentage of muscular tissue, fat tissue, bone and other tissues which
the body is composed.
Fitness Principles
Principle of Overload: An overload must be added beyond what is normally place on the body
in daily activity. You can take overload on the body by increasing the Frequency (how often
you work), Intensity (how hard you work) and Time (how long you work) of a training session.
Principle of Progression: Systematically increase the overload (in the amount of exercises
done) on the body. It becomes necessary to increase the overload as your body adapts to the
exercises in which you regularly engage. Remember, injuries result when progression is not
followed and overload is increased too quickly.
Principles of Specificity: Body systems adapt to the specific stresses placed upon them.
Therefore, you must select the appropriate physical activity to develop specific components of
physical fitness.