The Parts of Physical Fitness-

• Physical fitness is made up of 11 different parts; 5 parts are health-related and 6 parts are skill-related. 
• As the terms imply, health-related physical fitness helps you to stay healthy, while skill-related physical fitness helps you perform well in sports and activities

Health-Related Physical Fitness-

• A person who is a good runner has good fitness in at least one area of health-related physical fitness, but do they have good fitness in all five parts? Running is an excellent form of physical activity but it does not guarantee that they will be fit in all areas of physical fitness.

Cardiovascular fitness is the ability to exercise you body for long periods of time without stopping.

• Cardiovascular fitness requires a strong heart, healthy lungs and clear blood vessels to supply the cells of your body with oxygen. It is the most important component of fitness. This component can be improved by doing activities such as running & biking that involve the large muscle groups continuously for at least 20 minutes.

Muscular endurance is the ability to use your muscles many times without tiring. People with good muscular endurance are likely to have better posture and fewer back problems. To improve muscular endurance, lighter resistance is used while doing a higher number of repetitions.

Muscular strength is the amount of force your muscles can produce. Strength is often measure by how much weight you can lift or how much resistance you can overcome. Heavier resistance with a low number of repetitions is used to improve strength.

Flexibility is the ability to use your joints fully through a wide range of motion. You are flexible when your muscles are long enough and your joints are free enough to allow adequate movement. People with good flexibility have fewer sore and injured muscles. Ballistic stretching which involves bouncing  movement is generally not recommended for most exercisers because of the increased possibility of pulling or tension, then holding the stretch for 30 seconds. Static stretching exercises are safer than ballistic stretches because you are less likely to stretch too far.

Body fatness/composition is the percentage of body weight that is made up of fat when compared to the other body tissues, such as bone and muscle. People who are in a healthy range of body fatness are more likely to avoid illness and even have lower death rates than those outside the healthy range

• Too little or too much body fat can cause health problems.
• To be healthy, you should have some of each component. If you do, you are less likely to develop health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, colon cancer and being over fat.
• People who are physically fit feel better, look better and have more energy. You do not have to be a great athlete to have good health and to be physically fit. Regular physical activity can improve anyone's health-related physical fitness. Regular activity can also help lower a person's resting heart rate so it does not have to work as hard even when at rest.

Skill-Related Physical Fitness-

Just as the runner may not possess a high rating in all parts of health-related physical fitness, they may also not possess the same amount of fitness in all parts of skill-related fitness. Different sports require different parts of skill-related physical fitness. Most sports require several parts.

Agility is the ability to change the position of you body quickly and to control your body's movements.

• People with good agility are likely to be good at activities such as wrestling, soccer and ice skating.

Balance is the ability to keep an upright posture while standing still or moving. People with good balance are likely to be good activities such as gymnastics and ice skating.

Coordination is the ability to use your senses together with your body parts or to use two or more body parts together. People with good eye-hand or eye-foot coordination are good at hitting and kicking games such as baseball, softball, tennis and badminton.

Power is the ability to use strength quickly. It involves both strength and speed. People with power might have the ability to put the shot, throw the discus, high jump or play football.

Reaction time is the amount of times it takes to move once you realize the need to act. People with good reaction time are able to make fast starts in track or swimming or to dodge a fast attach in boxing.

Speed is the ability to perform a movement or cover a distance in a short period of time. People with good leg speed can run fast, while people with good arm speed can throw fast or hit a ball that is throw fast.

Remember, most sports require different parts of skill-related fitness. Some people have more

natural ability in some areas than in others. No matter how you score on skill-related parts of physical fitness, you can enjoy some type of physical activity. Keep in mind that good health does not come from being good in skill-related physical fitness; it come from doing activities designed to improve your health-related physical fitness.

How Much Physical Activity Is Enough?

Principle of Overload

The principle of overload states that the only way to produce fitness and health benefits through your body (overload) forces it to adapt. Your body was designed to be active; so if you do nothing, your fitness will decrease and your health will suffer. To continue to improve your fitness, the amount of physical activity must increase.

Fitness Principles

• The principle of progression states that the amount and intensity of your exercise should be increased gradually. After a while your body adapts to an increase in physical activity and your activity.
• The principle of specificity states that the specific type of exercise you do determines the specific benefit you receive. Different kinds and amounts of activity produce very specific and different benefits.

• An activity that promotes health benefits in one part of health-related fitness may not be equally good in promoting another part of fitness. If you only do cardiovascular activities, you will not increase your muscular fitness and if you only do exercises for your legs, you will not build the muscles in your back.

FIT Formula-

• The FIT formula can help you apply the basic principles of exercise. Each letter in the word FIT represents an important factor for determining how much physical activity is enough.

Frequency refers to how often you do physical activity. For physical activity to be beneficial, you must do it several days a week. Frequency depends on the type of activity you are doing and the part of fitness you want to develop.

Intensity refers to how hard you perform physical activity. If the activity you do is too easy, you will not build fitness. Intensity is determined differently depending on the types of activity you do and the type of fitness you want to build. For cardiovascular fitness, heart rate can be used to determine the intensity of activity. In ZB PE classes, we are looking for a heart rate of at least 140 beats per minute. The amount of weight you lift can be used to determine intensity for building strength.

Time refers to how long you do physical activity.  The length of time you should do physical activity depends on the type of activity you are doing and the part of fitness you want to develop. For flexibility you should hold each stretch for 30 seconds. To build cardiovascular fitness, you need to be active continuously for a minimum of 20 minutes or more.

Working Out-

A good, safe activity session has three stages: a warm-up, a workout, and a cool-down.

A warm-up is a series of activities that prepares your body for more vigorous physical activity, enhances performance and helps prevent injury. A heart warm-up consists of 5-10 minutes of activities that increases you body temperature and blood supply to the muscles. Warm muscles are more easily stretched than are cool muscles. The muscle warm-up consists of exercises that slowly stretch the muscles to loosen and relax them.

The time spent working out depends upon what type of physical activity you are doing. To build cardiovascular fitness, 20 minutes of continuous, moderate to hard activities should be performed. That means that the heart rate needs to be raised into the target zone of 140 bpm, or higher for gain. Muscular fitness training does not depend upon the time spent lifting. Reps and sets determine the time. Avoid lifting the same muscles or muscle groups on consecutive days; 48 hours of rest is needed for the muscle to recover. For muscular endurance, 2 to 4 sets of 10-15 repetitions with 30 seconds of rest In between sets will work. Try to do lift for 8-10 different muscle groups. When lifting for strength, try to do 1-2 sets of 6-8 repetitions. One minute of rest between sets is good.

The cool-down is needed after physical activity to recover from the demands of the workout.

Movements done at a slower pace than the workout can serve as a way to bring the body systems back to near normal. Stretching after a workout will help improve your flexibility since the muscles are warm and will stretch farther.

Training Methods-

Interval training involves bursts of high intensity work alternated with periods of rest or low activity. This type of training involves both aerobic and anaerobic systems.

Circuit training consists of several different exercises done consecutively. You move from one exercise station to the next with only a brief time between exercises. The goal is to keep the heart rate in the target zone.

Anaerobic activity refers to activities that are so intense that your body cannot supply adequate oxygen to sustain it for long periods of time. Activities cannot be sustained for more than 90 seconds

The term aerobic means "with oxygen". Aerobic refers to physical activities for which the body can supply adequate oxygen to allow performance to continue for long periods of time.