Lesson 1: Exercise, Eat, and Excel
Physical Fitness as Defined
A person who is free from illnesses and can do physical or sports activities and still has an extra energy to do more
activities is considered to be physically fit. Physical fitness is a combination of health fitness and body fitness. Health fitness refers
to your body’s ability to fight off diseases. Body fitness, on the other hand, refers to the ability to do strenuous physical or sports
activities without getting tired easily. It is not enough for someone to only look good and feel good in order to be called physically fit.
An individual should consider the kind of lifestyle he/she has including the food he/she takes every day for these can lead him/her
to better health.
Health Related Fitness
This is primarily associated with disease prevention and functional health. Participating in regular health-related fitness helps you
control your weight, prevents diseases and illness, improves mood, boosts energy, and promotes better sleep.
Health Related Fitness Components
1. Body Composition – The combination of all the tissues that make up the body such as bones, muscles, organs
and body fat.
- is the body’s relative amount of fat to fat-free mass.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
Formula for Computing Body Mass Index
𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑖𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑚)
𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 (𝑖𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠)2
Example:
30
(1.20)2
=
30
1.44
= 20.83 (Normal)
Classification
Below 18.5
18.5 – 24.9
25.0 – 29.9
30.0 – Above
Underweight
Normal
Overweight
Obese
2. Cardiovascular Endurance – The ability of the heart, lungs, blood vessels, and blood to work efficiently and to supply the body
with oxygen. (3 minute Step Test)
3. Flexibility – The ability to use joints fully through a wide range of motion. ( Zipper Test)
4. Muscular Endurance – The ability to use muscles for a long period of time without tiring.
5. Muscular Strength – The ability of the muscles to lift a heavy weight or exert a lot of force one time. (Push Ups)
Skills Related Fitness Components
1. Agility – The ability to change body positions quickly and keep the body under control when moving. (Hexagon Agility Test)
2. Balance – The ability to keep the body in a steady position while standing and moving. (Stork Balance Stand Test)
3. Coordination – The ability of the body parts to work together when performing an activity. (Juggling)
4. Power – The ability to combine strength with speed while moving. (Standing Long Jump)
5. Reaction Time – The ability to move quickly once a signal to start moving is received. (Stick Drop Test)
6. Speed – The ability to move all or a part of the body quickly. (40 meter sprint)
Specific Components of Physical Fitness
1. Agility –The ability of the individual to change direction or position in space with quickness and lightness of movement while
maintaining dynamic balance.
2. Balance – The ability to control organic equipment neuro-muscularly; a state of
equilibrium.
3. Coordination - The ability to integrate the body parts to produce smooth motion.
4. Endurance – The ability to sustain long continued contractions where a number of muscle groups are used; the capacity to bear
or last long in a certain task without undue fatigue.
5. Flexibility – The quality of plasticity, which gives the ability to do a wide range of movement.
6. Organic Vigor – It refers to the soundness of the heart and lungs which contributes to the ability to resist disease.
7. Power – The ability of the muscles to release maximum force in the shortest period of time.
8. Speed – The ability to make successive movements of the same kind in the shortest period of time.
9. Strength – The capacity to sustain the application of force without yielding or breaking; the ability of the muscles to exert efforts
against resistance.
Physical Activity and Exercise
Activities done by the skeletal muscles that utilize energy are called Physical Activities. Activities you are doing at home
or in school are considered to be physical activity. It is classified into 4 domains: occupational, domestic,
transportation, and leisure time.
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1. Occupational – These are the activities you do at your workplace (i.e. lifting computers and books, going your friend’s desk, or
preparing lunch at the pantry).
2. Domestic – These are the activities you do at home (i.e. washing clothes and dishes, gardening, carpentry, baking, or cleaning
the house).
3. Transportation – These are the activities that involve travelling (i.e. riding a jeepney, tricycle, motorcycle, or bikes).
4. Leisure Time – These are the activities you do during recreational activities (i.e. playing, swimming, hiking, or craft making).
Exercise, according to a study by Buckworth and Dishman, is the “planned, structured, repetitive bodily movements that
someone engages in for the purpose of improving or maintaining physical fitness or health.
Aerobic, Muscle-strengthening, and Bone-strengthening Activity
Aerobic
Aerobic activities, also called endurance activities, are physical activities in which people move their large muscles in a rhythmic
manner for a sustained period.
Muscle-Strengthening Activity
This kind of activity, which includes resistance training and lifting weights, causes the body’s muscles to work or hold against an
applied force or weight.
Bone-Strengthening Activity
This kind of activity, sometimes called weight-bearing or weight-loading activity, produces a force on the bones that promotes bone
growth and strength.
Barriers to Physical Activities
We understand the benefits of physical activities to our health especially to our body but there are circumstances when we
become lazy in performing physical activities. Below are some of the barriers that hinder us to do physical activities:
1. Lack of time
2. Social Support
3. Lack of Energy
4. Lack of Motivation
5. Fear of Injury
6. Lack of Skill
7. High Costs and Lack of Facilities
8. Weather Conditions
Eating Habits
The term eating habits (or food habits) refers to why and how people eat, which foods they eat, and with whom they eat,
as well as the ways people obtain, store, use, and discard food. Individual, social, cultural, religious, economic, environmental, and
political factors all influence people's eating habits.
Influences on Food Choices
There are many factors that determine what foods a person eats. In addition to personal preferences, there are cultural,
social, religious, economic, environmental, and even political factors.
Individual Preferences
Every individual has unique likes and dislikes concerning foods. These preferences develop over time and are influenced
by personal experiences such as encouragement to eat, exposure to a food, family customs and rituals, advertising, and personal
values.
Cultural Influences
A cultural group provides guidelines regarding acceptable foods, food combinations, eating patterns, and eating behaviors.
Compliance with these guidelines creates a sense of identity and belonging for the individual.
Social Influences
Members of a social group depend on each other, share a common culture, and influence each other's behaviors and
values. A person's membership in particular peer, work, or community groups impacts food behaviors.
Religious Influences
Religious proscriptions range from a few to many, from relaxed to highly
restrictive. This will affect a follower's food choices and behaviors.
Economic Influences
Money, values, and consumer skills affect what a person buys. The price of a food, however, is not an indicator of its
nutritional value. Cost is a complex combination of a food's availability, status, and demand.
Environmental Influences
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The influence of the environment on food habits derives from a composite of ecological and social factors. Foods that are
commonly and easily grown within a specific region frequently become a part of the local cuisine.
Political Influences
Political factors also influence food availability and trends. Food laws and trade agreements affect food availability and
prices within and across countries. Food labeling laws determine The consumers’ knowledge on the food they purchase. Eating
habits are the results of both external and internal factors such as politics and values, respectively. These habits are formed, and
may change, over a person's lifetime.
Improving Your Eating Habits
When it comes to eating, we have strong habits. Some are good (I always eat breakfast.), and some are not so good (I
always clean my plate.). Although many of our eating habits were established during childhood, it does not mean it is too late
to change them.
Making sudden, radical changes to eating habits such as eating nothing but cabbage soup, can lead to short term weight
loss. However, such radical changes are neither healthy nor a good idea and will not be successful in the long run. Permanently
improving your eating habits requires a thoughtful approach in which you reflect, replace, and reinforce.
REFLECT on all of your specific eating habits, both bad and good, and your common triggers for unhealthy eating.
REPLACE your unhealthy eating habits with healthier ones.
REINFORCE your new, healthier eating habits.
Lesson 2: Set Fitness Goal
Effective training takes time and patience. If one adheres to the proper principles of training, the result will definitely be
seen. The performance will be improved and physiological changes will occur as well. A proper program of exercise considers
three principles of training: the principle of overload, the principle of progressive, and the principle of specificity.
Principles of Physical Activity
Overload Principle
This principle pertains to doing “more than normal” for improvement to happen. It means to boost our fitness, strength, or
endurance. The workload is extended accordingly. Applying these training principles will cause long-term adaptations, enabling the
body to figure more efficiently to deal with higher levels of performance.
Overloading will be achieved by following the acronym FITT:
Frequency: Increasing the number of times you train per week
Intensity: Increasing the problem of the exercise, for instance, running at 12 km/h rather than 10 or increasing the load you're
squatting with.
Time: Increasing the length of your training time for every session, for instance, cycling for 45 minutes rather than 30.
Type: Increase the intensity of the training. For instance, progress from walking to running
Principle of Progression
To ensure that the results will still improve over time, the adapted workload should be continually increased. A gradual
and systematic increase within the workload over a period of time will lead to improvement in fitness without risk of injury. If
overload occurs and increases rapidly, it may lead to injury or muscle damage. If it increases slowly, improvement is unlikely. For
instance, the athlete who exercises vigorously only on weekends violates the principle of progression and may not see obvious
fitness gains.
The Principle of Progression also stresses the requirement for correct rest and recovery. Continual stress on the body and
constant overload will lead to exhaustion and injury. You ought not to train hard all the time, as you'll risk overtraining and
a decrease in fitness.
Principle of Specificity
We have all heard the phrase, "Practice makes perfect." Well, this is often the principle of specificity in action. This
principle simply states that exercising a specific piece or component of the body primarily develops that part. The principle of
specificity implies that to become better at a selected exercise or skill, you need to perform that exercise or skill. For example, a
cyclist should be trained in cycling and a runner should be trained in running. Use the acceptable sort of exercise that
directly improves your target muscles.
Principle of Reversibility
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Development of muscles will happen if regular movement and execution are completed. If activity ceases, it will be
reversed. This shows that benefits and changes achieved from overload will last as long as training is continuous. On the flip side,
this also implies that the detraining effect will be reversed once training is resumed. Extended rest periods reduce fitness and
therefore the physiological effects diminish over time which throws the body back to its pre-training condition.
Note: The effect of training will be lost if the training is discontinued.
The F.I.T.T Principle of Physical Activity
Understanding the F.I.T.T. principle helps you create a workout plan which will be beneficial in reaching your fitness goals.
F.I.T.T. stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type of exercise. These are the four elements you would like to believe to make
workouts that suit your goals and fitness level. Learn how the F.I.T.T. principle works.
Factor
Frequency
Intensity
Time
Type
Table 1. F.I.T.T Principles
Definition
Number of meeting in a week
The effort level of the exercise
Period covered in an exercise session
Kind of activity
Frequency
The first thing to identify in the workout plan is frequency—how often you exercise. Your frequency often depends on a
spread of things including the sort of workout you're doing, how hard you're working, your fitness level, and your exercise goals.
Three to five times a week is a safe frequency for each component of healthrelated physical fitness.
American College of Sports Medicine sets exercise guidelines to provide a place to start figuring out how often to work out:
For cardio: Include your goal, guidelines recommend moderate exercise five or more days every week or intense cardio three
days every week to improve your health. If your goal is to lose weight, you'll need to work often up to six or more days a week.
For strength training: The suggested frequency is two to three non-consecutive days a week, it should be one to two days
between sessions. If you are doing a split routine, like the upper body at some point and lower body subsequent, your workouts are
going to be more frequent than total body workouts.
Intensity
Intensity refers to how hard you work during the physical activity period. Intensity is often measured in several ways,
counting on the health-related component. For instance, monitoring pulse rate is a technique to measure intensity during aerobic
endurance activities but gives no indication of intensity during flexibility activities.
For cardio: For cardio, you will usually monitor intensity by heart rate or pulse rate. The recommendation for steady-state workouts
is at a moderate intensity and for interval training, it should be done at a high intensity for a shorter period of time.
For strength training: Monitoring the intensity of strength training involves a special set of parameters. The intensity depends on
the workload you are doing, the amount of weight you lift, and the number of repetitions and sets. You can change the intensity
based on your goals. For a beginner use a lighter weight and do fewer sets with high repetitions (two or three sets of 12 to 20
repetitions). If your goal is to develop muscle, do a higher number of sets with a moderate amount of repetitions (four sets of 10 to
12 reps each). If you want to create strength, use heavyweights to try to do more sets with fewer repetitions, for example, five sets
of three repetitions each.
How to get your Target Heart Rate
1. Get the Maximum Heart Rate.
MHR = 220 - ________ (your age) MHR =____________
2. Determine the Heart Rate Reserve.
HRR = MHR – ______________ (Resting Heart Rate) HRR= _____________
3. Take 60% and 80% of the HRR
a. 60% x HRR = _________ b. 80% x HRR = _________
4. Add each HRR to the Resting Heart Rate (RHR) to obtain the Target Heart Rate (THR) range.
a. 60% HRR ___ + ______ = ______ beats per minute (RHR)
b. 80% HRR ___ + ______ = ______ beats per minute (RHR)
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Note: Your resting pulse rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute after you are at rest.
When it comes to resting heart rate, lower is healthier.
It means your heart muscle is in good condition and it does not need to work strongly to maintain a steady beat. Studies found out
that a greater resting pulse rate is connected with poor physical fitness and high blood pressure and body weight.
Time
Time is the length of the physical activity. Considering the other aspects of the F.I.T.T principle, the time differs depending
on the health-related fitness component targeted.
For cardio: The suggested cardio exercise is 30 to 60 minutes but the duration of your workout depends on the type of exercise.
For a beginner, you might start with a workout of 15 to 20 minutes. If you're doing steady-state cardio, like going for a run, you may
exercise for 30 minutes to an hour. If you're doing interval training and working at a high intensity, your workout should be shorter,
around 20 minutes to a half-hour.
For strength training: How long you lift weights depends on the type of workout you're doing and on your schedule. For a total
body workout, you may take up to an hour, but a split routine may take less time because you're working for fewer muscle groups.
Type
Type refers to the definite physical activity selected to improve a component of health-related fitness. For example, a person who
wants to improve the arm strength should exercise the triceps and biceps, while an individual who wants to improve aerobic
endurance needs to execute some other aerobically challenging activities such as jogging, running, swimming.
For Cardio: Cardio is changeable since any activity that makes your heart rate up counts. Dancing, running, walking, jogging, and
cycling are some of the wide variety of activities you may choose. Having more than one cardio activity helps reduce
boredom.
For strength training: Strength training workouts can also offer a variety of exercises. It includes any exercise using resistance
like dumbbells, barbells, machines, and many others to work your muscles. You may also use your body as a resistance tool. You
may change the type of your strength workout depending on your goal.
How to Use the F.I.T.T Principle in Your Workout
The F.I.T.T. principle provides guides on how to control your program and get favorable results. To avoid boredom,
injuries, and weight loss plateaus, this principle will help you figure out how to alter workout types, time, intensity, and activities.
For example, walking three times a week for 30 minutes at a moderate pace might be a great help for a beginner. Your
body adjusts to these workouts and several things may happen after a few weeks such as:
● Burn fewer calories
● Weight loss
● Boredom sets in
You may also utilize one or more of the F.I.T.T. principles, such as:
● Changing the frequency by adding a day of jogging or walking
● Changing the intensity by adding some running intervals or walking faster
● Changing the time spent jogging each workout day
● Changing the type of workout by dancing, cycling, or running.
Changing one of the elements will create a big difference in the workout plan and in how your body reacts to exercise. It's
significant to alter things up on a regular basis to keep your body and mind healthy. Muscle develops once the body is trained to do
more than what it used to. The Principles of Training implies that overloading helps develop targeted muscle areas. Benefits of this
can be achieved through continuous overloading, or else, if stopped, it will go back to its original form.
FITT principle acknowledges the importance of optimum fitness development. It stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time,
and Type. The physical activity program is used as a guideline for a fitness routine to achieve results. Execution of exercise is
also related to its intensity. The more the activity is repeated, the more chances of developing fitness.
Intensity is defined as how easy or hard the designed task is accomplished or the magnitude of work done. The body’s
response by the number of times the heart pumps measured in beats per minute determines the intensity. Workable heart rate
capacity will help in getting the ideal Target Heart Rate (THR) range.
Proper choosing of activities helps to achieve goals set by specifying the target muscles to develop. To keep activities
exciting and interesting, setting up variations in exercises or routines may help.
Part of an Exercise Program
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An exercise workout has three components: warm-up, exercise load, and cool-down. The exercise load or workout
load is the program activity that would stimulate beneficial adaptation when performed regularly. A warm-up is essential prior to
the actual workload as it prepares the body for more strenuous activity. It increases the blood flow to the working muscles without
an abrupt increase in lactic acid accumulation. According to research, the warmer the body and muscle, the higher the muscular
output. A good warm-up also prepares the heart, muscles, and joints for the next activity by decreasing joint stiffness and
increasing nerve impulses. Cool-down is essential after a workout as it permits the pre-exercise heart rate and blood pressure for
a gradual recovery. Cooling down may be most vital for competitive endurance athletes, like marathoners, because it helps
regulate blood flow.
Warm-up - At least 5 to 10 minutes of low to moderate intensity aerobic exercise or resistance exercise with lighter weights.
Conditioning -15 to 60 minutes of aerobic, resistance, neuromuscular, and/or sport activities
Cool-down - At least 5 to 10 minutes of low to moderate intensity aerobic exercise or resistance exercise with lighter weights
Stretching - At least 10 minutes of stretching exercises performed after the warmup or cool-down phase
Note: For a beginner at least 15 to 30-minute exercise load
Methods for Assessing Aerobic Intensity
Metabolic equivalents (METs) express aerobic intensity as mL per kg per min of oxygen being consumed.
❖The energy expenditure while sitting at rest is equal to 1MET. It is taken by convention to be an oxygen uptake of 3.5
mL per kg of body weight per min.
❖Light-intensity aerobic activity is an activity done at 1.1 to 2.9 METs, moderate-intensity activity is an activity done at 3
to 5.9 METs while vigorous activity is an activity done at ≥ 6 METs.
The intensity of aerobic activities is sometimes measured as the speed of the activity (for example, walking at 5 km/h, jogging at 10
km/h).
Here are some examples of physical activities and exercises that you may integrate into your own fitness plan. Remember that the
intensity of exercise, as well as the type of activity to be done, will vary for each person, as it is based on the fitness level results
during self-testing.
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