In no less than 4 paragraphs, please complete the following assignment.

Explain a good personal exercise program that will incorporate the four major components of physical fitness. (see below)  Each paragraph should deal with a different component and explain exactly how you will train to attain that benefit.  Please make this a plan that you would  enjoy following, given the time and any expense it might entail.

 

 

 

 

Cardiorespiratory fitness refers to the ability of the heart and the lungs to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the body’s muscles and cells by means of the bloodstream.  You develop your cardiorespiratory fitness through activities that involve the use of large muscles in continuous movement over a period of time. 

 

 

• improves muscle and liver function

 

• decreases the resting heart rate

 

• decreases the resting blood pressure

 

• increases good (HDL) cholesterol

 

• decreases the heart rate at any work level  
  

 

As the heat becomes more efficient, it needs to pump the blood less often,  Why?  because each time the heart beats, more blood is moved through the arteries.  This will lower your resting heart rate.

 

Muscular strength and endurance

In order set up a proper strength training program, we have to think about what we want to get out of strength training. This is the concept of specificity. For the purposes of making an exercise prescription, let’s assume that we want to be healthy. Healthy in terms of muscular strength and endurance means primarily, enough muscle to participate in your normal activities of daily living. You need enough muscle and muscle function to do yard work, play with the kids, carry your suit case into the airport, etc. We also need to do strength training in order to lessen the risk of osteoporosis. If you are a recreational sport player, adding muscular strength and endurance will allow you to perform your sport better. One of the best reasons to strength train for health is to increase your metabolism. Muscle requires calories to live. Fat requires very few calories. We say that muscle is metabolically active and fat is inert. By adding muscle through strength training, we increase metabolism to help burn off excess stored fat. If you do not have excess stored fat, adding muscle will allow you to eat more without gaining fat.  For every 1lb of increased muscle mass, resting metabolism increases 30-50 calories. A modest gain of 5 lbs of muscle mass (not uncommon for beginners) means an increased metabolism of 250 calories.
The overall goal for strength training for health is hypertrophy. That means an increase in muscle size. It does not mean that you will get big at this moderate exercise level. However, you want to add muscle to your body. This is the basis of toning, firming up, and becoming defined. Do not be afraid to build muscle. Furthermore, if your goal is to add a large amount of muscle, you will have to work much harder and longer .

 

Some additional benefits of strength training you may not be aware or include:

 

• Intellectual

             Understanding how your body functions

             Increased brain plasticity (ability fo the brain to create new connections and grow new nerons)

             Self-discipline

             Problem solving

 

• Social

 

           Sharing goals (work out buddy)

           Caring (assisting/spotting others)

           Encouraging

            

• Emotional

 

            Releases stress and tension

            Controls anger

            Positive attitude toward life’s challenges (increases dopamine levels in brain)

            Enhanced self esteem

            Enhanced self confidence

 

You have the opportunity to participate in your own creation. You can actually change your body!

 

Flexibility

 

 Flexibility is defined as the ability to move joints freely through their full range of motion.  It is a major component of physical fitness, and contributes to overall fitness.  Flexibility lessens with age and inactivity.  More active individuals tend to be more flexible.  Although overall range of motion diminishes with passing years it seems to be the inactivity that causes this and nothing actually to do with the aging process.  Muscles and other soft tissue loss their elasticity when they are not used.  The range of motion of most joints can be increased with proper training techniques or can decline with disuse.  The full range of motion is determined by the shapes and positions of the bones that make up the joint, and the composition and arrangements of the muscles and ligaments that surround the joint

 

  Benefits of flexibility

      Increased joint mobility

      Efficient body movement

      Good posture    

      Resistance to muscle injury

 

 

  Body Composition

 

  Body composition refers to the amount of fat in the body versus the amount of lean tissue in the body.  Lean tissue includes all tissue exclusive of fat: muscle, bone, organs, blood etc…  Fat includes both essential fat and storage fat.  Essential fat is the fat needed for normal physiological functioning.  Male essential fat is 3-5 percent and for females it is 11-14 percent.  Storage fat is found in adipose tissue and is located under the skin and around the organs.  Body composition can be assessed through many different techniques.  It is important to assess your own body composition in order to really tell what is going on with your health.  A quick rule of thumb to measure your risk for Heart Disease and Type II Diabetes would be to measure your waist circumference.  In order to minimize your risk, If you are a male, keep your waist measurement below 40 inches, if you are a female keep your waist measurement below 35 inches.

 

By looking at your body fat measurement, BMI, and waist circumference you can accurately determine your body composition and therefore your risk levels for Cardiovascular Disease, Type II  Diabetes and many forms of cancer.  How do we change our body composition if we decide that is a priority for us?  By exercising and eating correctly.  

 

Now that you understand the components of a thorough physical fitness program, I will outline for you just how to go about constructing one for yourself.  You will need to deal with the principles of conditioning: how often (frequency), how long (duration) and how hard (intensity).  You will need to follow these principles for each of the four components of physical fitness in order to obtain maximum benefit from your exercise plan.