1st Semester Freshman: Introduction to Fitness/Training
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Are you able to get through your day easily without tiring?
Does your body respond quickly when it needs to?
Are you mentally alert in class?
Do you feel good about your body?
Can you climb five flights of stairs without getting tired?
Physical Fitness
Physical Fitness is the ability to carry out daily tasks and have enough reserve energy to respond
to unexpected demands. Maintaining a high level of fitness is a lifelong challenge.
Your level of physical fitness affects all aspects of your health and your life. Your level of
physical fitness affects your physical, mental, and social health. If you are fit, you look good, you
have energy, and you generally feel good about yourself.
Not every person’s level of physical fitness is the same. A teen that lifts weights probably has
good muscular strength, but may lack the cardiorespiratory endurance of a classmate who is a long
distance runner. Having total fitness means achieving a healthy level in each of the five areas of
health-related fitness.
To get started and stick with it you will need a plan of action. If you have previously failed or
become discouraged you have to ask yourself why you stopped being active. Then you must
figure out what changes you need to make to avoid those roadblocks from getting in your way
again.
What affects your attitude toward fitness?
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Lack of athletic ability
Past experience with sports
Heredity may play a role
Media influences
What are the 5 components of health related fitness?
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Cardiorespiratory endurance
Muscular strength
Muscular endurance
Flexibility
Body composition
Cardiorespiratory Endurance
Your cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels to send fuel
and oxygen to the body’s tissues during long periods of vigorous activity.
Although there are many different exercises you can do all generally fall into one of two
categories, aerobic or anaerobic.
Aerobic activity: a low-intensity, high-endurance activity that requires oxygen for production of
energy and continuous work performed over long distances or periods of time. Any type of
vigorous activity that uses a continuous supply of oxygen would apply.
Benefits:
 Increases heart strength
 Helps your respiratory system become more efficient (increases oxygen levels)
 Improves mental health and reduces stress
 Reduces risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and depression
Anaerobic activity: high intensity activity which uses up oxygen more quickly than the body can
replenish it in the working muscles. The word anaerobic means without oxygen. Short burst
activities lasting 2 min. or less in duration are anaerobic activities (interval training, weight
training, sprinting, biking hills, etc.).
Benefits:
 Burns more calories in less time
 Trains your muscles to be able to recover quicker
 Allows you to workout at higher intensities for longer duration
 Forces muscles to work that may not normally get as much work
Anaerobic threshold: the point at which you begin working your muscles without oxygen. At
this degree of effort, lactic acid levels begin to rise and performance decreases.
Resting heart rate: a person’s heart rate when they are at rest (awake but lying down and not
having immediately exerted themselves).
Target heart rate: is a desired range of heart rate reached during aerobic exercise which enables
one’s heart and lungs to receive the most benefit from a workout. The target rate can be calculated
as a range of 65%-85% of your maximum intensity rate.
Maximum heart rate: the highest heart rate a person should have (calculated as: 220-age)
Muscular Strength and Endurance
Muscular strength is the amount of force a muscle can exert.
Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscles to perform a difficult physical task over a period
of time without causing fatigue.
Resistance training is a good way to tone muscles and improve muscular strength and
endurance. There are three types of resistance training exercises: isometric, isotonic, and
isokinetic.
Variations/types of strength training exercises: Power lifts: Cleans, jerks, snatch, etc.
Calisthenics: sit ups, push ups, etc. Universal/Selectorized Lifting: weight machines
Free weight lifts: dumbbell/barbell exercises
What are reps? Rep is short for repetition. A repetition is one complete movement through an
exercise. It is the most important part of your strength workouts!
What are sets? A set is a group of repetitions. A typical set will be anywhere from six to twenty
reps depending on your personal goals. The idea behind a set is to use a weight that will fatigue
the muscles that you are exercising by the end of each set.
Myths about weight training
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You will develop a ‘muscle-bound’ physique.
Weight training isn’t good for or appealing to females.
You can turn fat into muscle.
Types of training/program variations:
Strength: Designed to build muscle mass and increase strength.
Endurance: Designed to tone, strengthen and improve endurance.
Power: Usually is performance/skill based. You need a combination of strength and speed. Load,
reps, sets and will vary and program will be specific to personal performance goals.
Flexibility
Flexibility: the ability to move a body part through its full range of motion.
Although flexibility is specific to each joint, it is usually measured by the sit and reach test which
is a test of hip and hamstring flexibility.
Flexibility is improved by stretching the muscle-tendon structures responsible for controlling
movement of the joint.
Types of stretching:
Static stretching: slowly moving the muscle to its endpoint. Stretching and holding this position
for 30 seconds (it’s an estimate…less time is not enough…more is a waste)
Dynamic stretching: involves similar position as static, but it is done in a slow, continuous and
controlled manner. This is a great stretch if you need to use a stretch as a warm-up.
Isostatic stretching: initial phase is static as you extend the stretch to its limit and hold. After a
few seconds, a partner pushes you beyond the initial limit when you relax. Communication is key
with this type of stretch. If done correctly it is one of the most productive methods for improving
flexibility.
Ballistic stretching: usually involves bouncing or jerky movements where the body’s momentum
is used. This method is potentially harmful because the stretchable limits of tissue may be
exceeded and cause tearing or damage.
Why do I need to stretch?
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It reduces muscular tension
Assists in coordination of movement
Reduces the risk for injuries
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Eases transition into high-intensity activities
Develops body awareness
Increases performance
Improves circulation
Relaxes the body (HR)
When should I stretch?
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Before activity as part of a warm up (dynamic)
After activity as part of a cool down
During activity (rest periods in between sets)
When feeling ‘stiff’
After sitting for a long period of time
Body Composition
Body composition: the ratio of body fat to lean body tissue, including muscle, bone, water, and
connective tissue.
Everyone has a ratio of lean tissue to fat tissue in the body. For example, a person who has 10%
body fat has 90% lean tissue (bone, muscle, organs, etc.).
When setting personal health-related fitness goals, your body fat percentage should be your focus –
not your body weight. When making health/fitness improvements you may actually see a slight
increase in body weight even though your body appears to look like and feel like it’s in better
shape. This is due to the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. Two people of identical weight
and height may vary drastically in body fat % and body measurements.
Exercise
Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health.
What are the benefits of exercising?
 Improved appearance
 Improved body image
 Improved self-concept
 Improved metabolism
 Increased muscular strength and endurance
 Improved physical performance
 Helps cope with stress
 Increased life expectancy
What are the 3 basic stages of an effective exercise program?
1. Warm-up
2. Workout (training)
3. Cool-down
Warming-up is a 5-15 minute period of time during which you prepare your mind and your body
for vigorous activity.
Why do we warm-up?
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Helps you mentally focus and makes you feel like moving.
Increases your heart rate and blood supply to your muscles (fuel) which prepares your
cardiovascular and muscular systems for a workout.
Generates heat in your muscle and joint tissues which make them more flexible and
resistant to injury.
Increases mobility/flexibility (which translates to…)
Reduces risk of injury (doesn’t prevent)
Reduces recovery time
Increases efficiency of movement
How to warm-up
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Large muscle activity such as biking, slow jogging, or running in place.
Light stretching (preferably dynamic stretching).
Expected activity at a light intensity (progressive increases in intensity)
Your warm up ends when the lower limit of your target heart rate has been reached (this
will not take place until 5-10 minutes after you have begun your activity).
Cooling-down is a 5-15 minute period of mild exercise that follows your training session and
allows your heart rate to return slowly to its resting rate.
Why do we cool-down?
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Helps to prevent blood from pooling in the muscles.
Prevents tightened muscles from becoming sore.
Allows the heart rate to return back to resting rate.
Assists in preventing injury.
How to cool-down:
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Walk slowly or some other light activity to prevent blood from pooling in the muscles that
were used.
Your cool down period should continue until your recovery heart rate is about 100bpm.
Second phase of a cool down should focus upon the same stretching exercises that were
used during the warm-up period.
What are some injuries that occur if people don’t warm-up or cool down properly?
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Muscle soreness
Shin splints
Stitch-in-the-side (Ischemic cramp)
Sprains/strains - damage to ligament, tendon, or muscle tissue
Surgeon General Report on Exercise
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) recommended that all Americans accumulate at least 30 minutes of moderateintensity physical activity on most, preferably all, days of the week.
The Activity Pyramid provides you with a guideline for regular physical activity. How closely do
you follow it? What changes can you make to your current lifestyle habits?
Skill Related Components of Fitness
To a certain degree your level of skill related fitness is directly related to your genetic make-up. In
other words the talent you were born with. The other factor involved is how/how much you
train/work to enhance each component.
Agility: the ability to change body position quickly.
Balance: the ability to hold a position while moving or in a still position.
Coordination: the ability to precisely use the right muscle(s) to make a desired outcome.
Power: the ability to combine speed and strength to perform a movement.
Reaction time: how much time it takes for a person to respond to a stimulus.
Speed: the ability to get from one point to another in the shortest amount of time.
Major Muscle Groups:
 Be able to identify the following muscles on a diagram: pectoralis, deltoid, tricep,
trapezius, bicep, obliques, abdominals, quadriceps, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, erector
spinae, gluteus maximus, hamstrings, gastrocnemius
Exercises to Identify:
 Be able to identify pictures of the following exercises: pull up, side plank, upright row,
arm curl, bent over row, bench dip, back extension, abdominal crunch, hip thruster/lift,
military press, leg curl, push up, wall sit, calf raise.