Fitness Components and Fitness Testing Week 1 Fitness

Fitness Components and Fitness Testing Week 1 Fitness Week 1

Today’s Session • I’m healthy but am I fit? • Fitness, exercise and health. • Consideration of the problems of defining health and fitness. • Dimensions of fitness. Fitness Week 1

Exam Questions • List two of the main fitness dimensions required by the long jumper, and briefly describe a suitable test for either dimension. (2 marks) • Why would an abdominal curl bleep test not be a suitable test to measure a long jumper’s fitness? (2 marks) Fitness Week 1

Fitness and Health • Fitness is the ability to cope effectively with the stress of everyday life. Fitness Week 1 • Don’t confuse Fitness and health. • To be healthy means to be in a state of wellbeing and free from disease.

Components of Fitness Aerobic Capacity Speed Flexibility Reaction Time Strength Co-ordination Balance Body Composition Power Agility Fitness Week 1

Health related components • Cardio-respiratory endurance (stamina) or (aerobic capacity) • Muscle endurance • Strength • Flexibility • Body composition Fitness Week 1 • • • Speed Power Balance Reaction time Coordination Agility Skill related components

Cardio-respiratory Endurance. (Aerobic Capacity or Stamina) • Cardio-respiratory endurance is the ability of an athlete to take in and use oxygen over a long period of time. • It allows us to participate in prolonged periods of sub maximal activities such as swimming, running, cycling and rowing. Fitness Week 1

Cardio-respiratory Endurance Depends on Three Factors • Effective external respiration. • Effective oxygen transport from the lungs to the cells (internal respiration). • Effective use of oxygen within the cells. • Therefore your cardio-respiratory endurance depends on the efficiency of your cardiac, respiratory and vascular systems. (A lot of which is genetically determined). Fitness Week 1

VO 2 (Max) • Aerobic capacity is referred to as VO 2 (max). • VO 2 (max) – the maximum volume of oxygen that can be consumed and used by the body per unit of time. It is usually expressed as millilitres per kilogram of body weight. • This is important learn this definition. Fitness Week 1

Calculation of VO 2 (Max) • Most accurate – in lab conditions using a Douglas bag (see speaker notes). • Can you think any limitations for us in this testing method? • For the reasons you mentioned we cannot perform this type of test. This is an alternative. • We will be using the multi stage fitness test to calculate our VO 2 (Max). • Can you think of any limitations with this test? Fitness Week 1

Improving Levels of Cardiorespiratory Endurance • The main methods of improving cardiorespiratory endurance are… • Continuous training. • Fartlek. • Interval training. Fitness Week 1

Body Composition • Body mass is made up of lean body mass plus body fat. • Males on average carry 12 -15% body fat. • Women on average carry 18 -20% body fat. • Additional fat levels put strain on the cardiovascular system. Fitness Week 1

Flexibility • This is the ability to move body parts around a joint. • It depends on the amount of stretch allowed by the ligaments, joints, tendons and muscles. • Flexibility has only recently been considered as an important of physical fitness for all athletes. • Increasing your flexibility improves your performance and helps to avoid unnecessary injury. Fitness Week 1

Maximum Strength • This is the greatest force the neuromuscular system is capable of exerting in a single maximum voluntary contraction (in simple terms our 1 rep max). • Most people do not need to work on improving their maximum strength as they rarely need to exert maximum strength in everyday life. Fitness Week 1

Factors That Affect Maximum Strength • Muscle cross-section, the greater the size of the muscle the greater the force it can produce. • Fibre type, fast twitch fibres can produce a greater force than slow twitch fibres. • Muscle shape, affects maximum strength. Multipennate provides more strength than fusiform. Fitness Week 1

Muscular Endurance (Strength Endurance) • This is the ability of the muscle to withstand fatigue. • This is the most appropriate strength to health-related fitness. • This is because we complete repetitive strength tasks in everyday life – digging, carrying the shopping home. Fitness Week 1

POWER • The ability of the neuromuscular system to overcome resistance with a high speed of contraction is called elastic strength or power. • Be aware that power can be termed as elastic strength, dynamic strength or power. • Power is used in nearly all sport. Fitness Week 1

Speed • Speed is basically how fast you can move part or the whole of your body. • It is measured in meters per second. • Speed is an important factor in all explosive sports and activities that require sudden changes in direction. Fitness Week 1

Speed and Reaction Time • The time taken to complete a task can be split into two parts. • Reaction time (RT) – the time to initiate a response to a specific stimulus. In humans this is usually about 0. 2 seconds. • Movement time (MT) – the time taken from the start of movement until it finishes. Fitness Week 1

Speed and Reaction Time Speed of a 100 meter race RT (reaction time) Stimulus ‘Go’ Fitness MT (movement time) Initiate movement off the blocks Week 1 Response time measured Finish

The Importance of Reaction Time • The total speed of an athlete is the sum of the reaction time and the movement time. • Reaction time is 1% of the total race time in a 100 meter race. • This can mean the difference between coming first and last. • There are sports that reaction time become less important – these are usually sports that rely on closed skills. Fitness Week 1

Agility • Agility is the combination of speed and coordination. • It allows you to efficiently change direction and body position at speed. • Take the example of the goal keeper who needs to have fast reactions and to be very agile. Fitness Week 1

Balance • Balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium – think of the centre of mass. • There are two types of balance – static and dynamic balance. • Static – balance that is held still (a head stand). • Dynamic – athletes need to retain balance as they move. • Balance can be measured using a balance board. Fitness Week 1

What Components of Fitness? Fitness Week 1

Exam Questions Answers • List two of the main fitness dimensions required by the long jumper, and briefly describe a suitable test for either dimension. (2 marks) • 1 Power/flexibility/strength/agility/speed; any 2 for (1 mark) • Suitable test described and linked to component– eg; • 2 Sergeant/broad jump/Wingate anaerobic cycle test for power; • 3 Sit and reach for flexibility; • 4 Dynamometer/single repetition max for strength; • 5 Illinois agility run for agility; • 6 30 metre sprint for speed/power; • 7 Dynamic balance test – beam walk. Fitness Week 1

Exam Questions Answers • Why would an abdominal curl bleep test not be a suitable test to measure a long jumper’s fitness? (2 marks) • Test measures local muscular endurance; local muscular endurance not required for long jump. (2 marks) Fitness Week 1

Exam Questions Answers • Many people participate in soccer to maintain their health and to improve their fitness. Give an appropriate definition for each of these terms. • 1 Health - free from mental and physical disease; • 2 Fitness - the ability to the meet the demands of their environment or lifestyle / soccer. Fitness Week 1

Exam Questions a) (ii) (b) (ii) Fitness Training will improve both the level of fitness and the level of skill of a games player. The improvement in fitness that result from training are often measurable. Cardio-respiratory endurance (stamina) is considered to be an important component of fitness of games players. What do you understand by the term cardio-respiratory endurance, and why should it be considered an important component of the fitness of games player? (2 Marks) Describe a suitable test for measuring cardio-respiratory endurance. (4 marks) Cardio-respiratory endurance training will cause changes to the structure and functioning of the body that helps to improve performance. Describe these changes in terms of: The heart The lungs Week 1

Exam Questions Answers a) (ii) (b) (ii) Fitness Training will improve both the level of fitness and the level of skill of a games player. The improvement in fitness that result from training are often measurable. Cardio-respiratory endurance (stamina) is considered to be an important component of fitness of games players. What do you understand by the term cardio-respiratory endurance, and why should it be considered an important component of the fitness of games player? (2 Marks) Describe a suitable test for measuring cardio-respiratory endurance. (4 marks) Cardio-respiratory endurance training will cause changes to the structure and functioning of the body that helps to improve performance. Describe these changes in terms of: The heart The lungs Week 1