PE 101 – Foundations of Physical Fitness

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Lesson 1 – Physical Fitness

Module 2 Physical Fitness

In this lesson, you are going to learn the different concepts commonly
associated with Physical Education and Physical Fitness. Gaining knowledge
about these basic principles will pave the way for you to better grasp the
deeper concepts to be introduced within the course.

At the end of this module, you will be able to:

1. know the definition, importance and the benefits of physical activity and
physical fitness and how it relates to individual health and wellness.
2. determine contributing factors that affect a person’s overall health.
3. compare and contrast the differences between health, wellness, physical
activity, and exercise.

Through the module, you will be able to deeply understand the concepts that
go with health, wellness, and physical activity, by means of the examples
given and explained in each part of the lesson.

Health
Based on the World Health Oganization (WHO), Health refers to, a state of complete,
physical, mental, and social well-being.

The new definition of health is not only limited to the absence or presence of diseases or
injuries; but rather, it refers to the totality of how you feel and how you react to several
changes within and around you.

Questioning yourself on a regular basis about how you exactly feel is a way of taking control
of your health. If you seem to be leaning on the other end of the spectrum where you lack
the necessary energy to push through your daily routines, then maybe it is about time that
you consider having a change of lifestyle.

The Dimensions of Health

The mere definition of health does not end there. It is composed of several dimensions that
enable people to better understand how it works and how it can be applied to life in
general.

There are three (3) dimensions of health, and these are:

1. Physical Fitness – “Your Body”

Physical Fitness refers to the processes and structure of your body and how it
performs work. It deals with your over physicality and how your body reacts to
loads or stimuli placed upon it during specific situations.

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This dimension of fitness dwells with the whole functions of your biological body
or how your different organ systems work in coordination to help you go through
your daily activities.

If one organ system is not working properly, the totality of your Physical Fitness is
going to be affected and you will have certain forms of diseases and conditions.

A physically fit and sound body promotes you to have a lot of energy to do the work
that you are supposed to do. Without being physically fit, the other dimensions of
fitness will be compromised. That’s why it is the role of Physical Education to let
you learn about the importance of developing your body for you to achieve a
lifetime of fitness.

2. Mental Fitness – “Your Mind”

Mental Fitness refers to how well you process and analyze information presented
to you at a given period. Aside from this, mental fitness also guides you to balance
your emotions and feelings based on how you consciously perceive your world.

In Psychology, Mental Fitness is also known as Introspection---how you examine

your own thoughts and feelings. If you are able to determine and analyze your own
thoughts and feelings, you will be able to easily deal with factors outside of you.

In learning how to understand how your mind works, you are giving yourself the
opportunity to deal with more complex situations and people that you encounter in
your life.

3. Spiritual Fitness – “Your Spirit”

This last dimension of fitness refers to how you perceive and believe the existence
of things in your environment.

This is more like an external factor, where your principles, values, and beliefs
which give meaning to your life are tested on a daily basis.

Do you hold an important value in your life at the moment or do you have issues
that need to be resolved? Being aware of these things can guide you in creating
several effective forms of communications and relationships wherever you are in
the world.

In Psychology, Spiritual Fitness is also known as Extrospection--- how you

examine and observe things that are external from your mind.

These dimensions of health when combined together and become balanced can help you
reach Optimal Health---a state in which, you have a positive disposition towards the world
and the capacity to perform tasks with great energy.

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But, Optimal Health is not just a one-time thing that you achieve and gain in your life. But
rather, it is something that you continuously become aware of and work hard for. Being
sound in all three dimensions is a choice that you strive to achieve day-in and day-out.

Learning about these dimensions is a step that could help and equip you with the enough
knowledge to exactly pinpoint which aspect of your life seems to be hindering you to
achieve a lifetime of health.

Factors that Affect Health

Health, as mentioned, is not merely an absence or presence of disease/s, but is a
multifaceted concept. Even though it has these characteristics, you may still experience, in
one way or another, complications with your health.

This is because, there are still many factors that can affect your overall health and these are:

1. Lifestyle
Lifestyle refers to how you consciously choose to live and manage your well-being.
Among all the other factors that affect health, lifestyle accounts for most of the
common diseases you can obtain because of bad habits.

Do you love drinking soft drinks? Are you a fan of fast food? How much do you
consume these types of food in a week? Do you sleep early? Do you drink or smoke,
or maybe both?

Whatever lifestyle you have now, remember that you should always gear in making
positive choices to secure your health, because in the long run, if you do not take
care of your body you will be greatly affected.

2. Genes/Hereditary Traits
Genes are the inherited traits that you got from your parents. They are deeply rooted
within your DNA and are found within every cell of your living body.

Do your parents have diabetes, hypertension, or other diseases and conditions?

These are some health risks that you can possibly obtain because it is deeply
imbedded within your DNA. These diseases may show up early or later on in your
life and it can directly affect your health and disposition.

Hereditary traits may affect a person’s health but, among all the other factors, it least
affects the functioning of a healthy body. This is because, if you know how to
constantly make positive decisions on a daily basis (i.e. choosing what to eat, when
to sleep) these “sick” DNA cells will not be triggered.

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Sometimes, the key to a healthy lifestyle is also about you being preventive and pro-
active. Making positive choices in life that can be beneficial to your health is hard,
but the results can indeed become long-term and life-changing.

3. Environment
Environment refers to the external surroundings that you find yourself in at a given
time. Where you live and what type of environment you are always exposed to
affects your health and general state of mind.

Do you live in a noisy or tranquil place? Are you exposed in a polluted environment
most days?

Your immediate environment affects your whole being and how you go about your
daily dealings. When you want to ensure a life of optimal and complete health, you
should always consider finding an environment that would give you peace and
happiness.

Wherever you are at present, ask yourself if you need to have a change in your
environmental setting. Starting to question yourself about where you are and where
you need to be is a small step to achieving optimal health.

4. Human Ecologic Interactions

Human Ecologic Interactions is the last contributing factor to a person’s health. It
refers to how you relate and react to factors within your environment. It also
includes how you deal and interact with different kinds of people at a given time.

Are you with negative people all the time? Are you well capable of blending in any
type of situation?

How you react to the external factors or stimuli affects your overall health and
disposition. When you constantly let your emotions get the best of you every single
time you are in a stressful situation, then your health would be compromised.

These four factors (i.e. lifestyle, genes/hereditary traits, environment, & human ecologic
interactions) contribute to your overall health.

Are all four in your life balanced, or somewhat balanced? Maybe you need to consider
improving on one or more factors. If you can identify which ones need improvement/s the
soonest time, you will be securing a lifetime of health for yourself.

Wellness
Wellness refers to having an optimal health and vitality. It is a continuous process of
becoming aware of and making choices towards a more successful existence.

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To be well is to be fully balanced, internally and externally. If you are well, you are always
flexible and ready to adapt to anything that is presented to you.

Since it is a continuous process of making choices for yourself, Wellness is also composed of
several dimensions. This is to help you better understand and guide you to become fully
conscious about the life you are leading.

Dimensions of Wellness
1. Physical Wellness
This dimension of wellness is focused on how well you eat, exercise, rest, avoid
harmful habits, get regular checkups, and prevent or protect yourself from obtaining
any unnecessary injuries.

When you are physically well this means that, you take care of your whole biological
body or physicality.

It is also about, you being aware of the different good habits that you can maintain,
and bad habits that you can eliminate from your life.

Maybe you can get rid of that soda, or choose to sleep earlier than your usual sleeping
time, or maybe even kick those vices out of your system.

Your body is reactive machine that only responds to whatever you put it into. To be
well in this avenue, you need to consciously strive to maintain good and healthful
habits in your life.

2. Emotional Wellness
The second dimension of wellness is known as Emotional Wellness. This dimension
refers to how you constantly monitor and explore your thoughts and feelings.

Emotional wellness also deals with, how you find solutions to solve any obstacles
along your journey in life. It is about how you perceive things that happen around and
inside you; how you make decisions that would influence your life in positive ways all
the time.

This dimension of wellness also puts emphasis on how you should take full
responsibility for all actions that you are doing.

If you know how to be responsible about your thoughts and actions, you will be more
capable of managing your own emotions.

Being at a constant look-out for your emotional wellness will greatly help you. It is a
domino-effect decision that you can make for yourself in the long-run.

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This is because, when you are aware of wide ranges of feelings and emotions about
yourself, you can easily build a better perception about who you truly are. Being in the
know about who you really are, leads you to building better and more positive
relationships with others.

3. Mental Wellness
Mental wellness refers to how you maintain an active mind. It is also about how you
continuously seek new challenges and experiences that would help you develop your
critical thinking and creativity.

Being mentally stagnant is draining. Studies have shown that, if you tried doing
something new every day, your brain rests and becomes more ready for the next tasks
ahead.

Do you draw? Do you paint? Do you write? Do you like solving puzzles and
performing challenging tasks? What activities do you use to challenge your mind?

The constant need for these kinds of stimuli are contributing factors to your overall
mental wellness, and you should not take these things for granted. Finding something
new to pursue every day is not that easy, but if you willingly and consciously do so,
the effects on your well-being are limitless.

Continuously striving to expand your knowledge and skills will lead you to new
discoveries about yourself and how you can positively affect others in your
environment.

The human brain, on average, weighs about 3.3 lbs. (1.5 kgs.) and only makes up about
2% of a human’s total body weight. Yet, this organ is responsible for the different
processes, actions, and feelings that humans do on a daily basis. Some scientists even
claim that humans have not reached their full-brain functionality and capacity.

4. Spiritual Wellness
Spiritual wellness is a dimension of wellness that focuses on your possession of
guiding beliefs, principles, and values. These things ultimately give meaning and
purpose to your life. They help shape your morals and how you are as a growing and
maturing individual.

Being spiritually well also refers to, your constant search for meaning and purpose in
your existence. The deeper you appreciate who you are and your purpose in the
world, the more peaceful and harmonious your life will be.

Eventually, when you traverse into this path of complete spiritual wellness your
thoughts and actions become more consistent with your guiding beliefs and values. In
turn, you become an agent of positive change to others.
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Spiritual wellness may be hard to achieve but you can consciously improve on this
avenue of your life by participating in organizations, meditating, engaging in prayer,
or by volunteering more.

Getting yourself involved with different events and different kinds of people in society
will help give you a greater sense of meaning and purpose. It would help you not only
to feel good about yourself and the things you can achieve, but also, about the ripple-
effect of positivity that society may slowly transform into.

5. Interpersonal and Social Wellness

This dimension of wellness focuses on your ability to build good relationships with
others. It also deals with how well you establish good communication with the people
around you.

The more you are aware of your importance in society, the better your impact will be
to your environment. All life is made up of series of connections, and that saying, “no
man is an island,” is exactly what this dimension of wellness is all about.

Are you building good friendships and connections in your life or the opposite? Do
you need to reconnect with people who were once important to you? Do you
communicate your feelings and express them openly?

When you allow people to come into your life to bring in good change and teach you,
welcome and accept them; because through these connections, you will be able to
learn and deepen your wisdom about how the world works.

Also, letting people understand where you are coming from, and letting yourself do
the same, would bring you to a path of good interpersonal and social wellness. The
more you are aware about how you perceive things and how others perceive your
reactions to these things make up a well and positive environment.

6. Environmental/Planetary Wellness
The last dimension of wellness is known as, Environmental or Planetary Wellness.

This dimension is where you learn to protect yourself with the hazards of the
environment. When you are always safe and protected, the ultimate effect is that, you
would have the opportunity to protect the welfare and understand the concerns of
others.

When you are well in this dimension, you lead a lifestyle that is respectful and
harmonious with the environment as a whole. You understand that, all your actions
can impact the world with which you are in. When you constantly improve on this
dimension, you greatly impact the world in meaningful ways.

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Life is not just about ensuring your own personal wellness and health but also, the
future wellness and health of other people around you. Being well in this avenue, you
also consciously choose to live in ways that always ensure the protection of the world.

All dimensions of wellness are interconnected with each other. Being aware of how these
things work together can give you a better idea on how you can improve on your wellness
and how you can contribute to society in meaningful ways.

Sara W. Lazar, a Harvard Neuroscientist, made a study about the effects of meditation
on the brain and its functions.

She concluded that, long-term meditation increases amount of gray matter (neurons) in
several parts of the brain. This contributes to decreased stress, depression, anxiety, pain,
insomnia, and an increased in a person’s quality of life. You can further read her study
from the journal provided in the reference section of this module.

Wellness Wheel
This is the Wellness Wheel. It is an illustration of the six (6) dimensions of wellness that
can help you evaluate your level of wellness. You can try this activity before you proceed
with the next parts of the module:

Image Source: http://www.clark.edu/clark-and-

community/jobs-and-employment/healthy-penguin/index.php

My Wellness Wheel Evaluation:

a) Get a pen and a paper.
b) Draw a circle and divide it into six, the same way as seen in the chart. Write each
dimension of wellness in the chart.
c) On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest or most-well, and 1 being the lowest or
least-well, how do you rate yourself in each dimension? Take the time to rate
yourself at present.
d) Write down your rating for each dimension of wellness on your chart.

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e) Check which dimension you are strong and weak at. Maybe you are leaning on
one dimension over the other. Maybe one or more dimensions need your
attention.

If you answer a scale of eight (8) to ten (10) in most of the dimensions of the Wellness
Wheel, that’s good for you! That just simply means that at the moment you are living a
well and positive life.

But, if most of your Wellness Wheel scales fall off between five (5) and one (1), then
maybe you should consider improving on these specific dimensions using the suggestions
given within this module. This way, you can become more enthusiastic and empowered
about life’s different situations.

How did you do? Are you currently doing well based on the wellness wheel?

Behaviors that Contribute to Wellness

As mentioned over and over again in this module, living a healthy and well life is a
constant choice that you should make for yourself every single day.

Here are some behaviors that can help you improve on the different dimensions of
wellness:

1. Regular physical activity

Making sure that you engage and maintain any physical activity in your life, would
inhibit changes and adaptations to your body and can contribute to your overall
wellness.

A healthy body can induce focus and activate the mind. Regular physical activity like
walking, jogging, or some form of sports, can ultimately increase your body’s overall
functions.

Do you make sure that you move and you are active every day? Are you engaged in a
recreational activity right now? Do you regularly exercise?

If you are constantly seeking to improve your body through physical activity, then you
are contributing not only to your wellness but also to your general health and
disposition.

2. Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy diet means that, you are providing your body with the proper
nutrition by, consciously preparing your meals that you consume daily. In the later
parts of the course, we will further discuss about nutrition and how it relates to your
physicality.

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Do you have good food choices? Do you prefer fast food over home-cooked meals? Are
you a fan of sweet beverages other than water? Do you love to eat snacks during wee
hours?

Think of food as fuel, something that would power you up to make you perform
several tasks within the day. Learning how to properly provide your body with the
right nutrition and continuously making this decision contributes to your health and
wellness. It will give you the ample energy to meet the demands of daily life.

Elimination vs. Portions and Moderation

A healthy diet does not entail you to eliminate certain kinds of food from your regular
caloric intake (e.g. rice, sweets, & meat). The portion that you take in and the timing at
which you consume food is what ultimately affects your overall physicality. So, eat in the
right amounts, and moderate your consumption instead of eliminate!

3. Maintain a healthy body weight

Maintaining a healthy body weight means that, you are in your ideal weight based
from your height and current age. We’ll get into this topic in the later parts of the
course. For now, you must know the different ways on how you can maintain this
behavior.

Engaging in regular exercise, eating right, and maintaining habits that would prevent
you from disease/s (e.g. not smoking or drinking, sleeping late), are some ways on
how you can maintain this behavior in your life.

Do you like how your body feels when you walk? Can you carry your body without
feeling tired easily? Are you constantly watching if you are overweight, obese, or
underweight?

Learning how to watch your weight means that you are always aware of how it feels
and behaves. You can prevent many diseases and other health risks if you know how
to listen to your body well.

Ditch the Scale, use Measuring Tape instead!

The most effective way of measuring your weight and your overall physical
improvements is not only seen from a weighing scale. Most of the time, a most accurate
change in your body appearance can be seen in measurements that you take with a
measuring tape!

4. Manage stress effectively

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Managing stress effectively simply means that, you know how to deal with any
stressors presented to you at a given moment. Stress induces the feeling of excessive
tiredness, also known as, fatigue.

When stress is coupled with fatigue it causes the failure of the Immune System---the
organ system responsible for fighting off disease/s and other systemic infections
within the body. When the body has a poor Immune System, you become more prone
to acquiring health-related diseases that would eventually lead to your demise.

Do you sleep and rest well? Can you manage your time? Are you always on the go and
you forget to eat? Do you always feel like the world is out to get you? Are there a lot of
stressors in your life right now?

The ability of your body to protect itself against viruses, bacteria, and disease will be
compromised if you don’t know how to manage your stressors. If you are stressed out
most days then your wellness, as well as your health is going to be affected.

The best way to manage your stress is to, take the time to find recreational activities
that would take your mind off of things.

Maybe you can take a stroll outside or play a sport of your liking; or if these things
don’t work, maybe you should also take the time to gauge your current time
management and productivity.

Learning how to manage your time and prioritize your responsibilities, are one of the
best ways in managing stressors effectively.

When life gets you down and troubled, itemizing is the answer!
a) Get a pen and a paper.
b) On the sheet of paper, write five (5) things that you need to do today.
c) On the list, make sure to place your most important to-do item in #1 and your
least important to-do item in #5.
d) Look at the paper and internalize about your to-do list.
e) Take action about these to-do’s one by one, and you’ll surely manage your
stressors effectively.

5. Stay away from bad habits

Bad habits like, excessive smoking and drinking or any other vices, must be avoided at
all times to prevent the onset of unwanted diseases. This is very much self-
explanatory.

Anything that’s not normally occurring within your body, may, in one way or another,
affect your overall health and wellness.

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Are you currently smoking or you are drinking more than you can handle? How often
do you drink? How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day? These are all slow but
sure habits that can negatively affect your life.

Without these vices, unwanted diseases will not harm you. As much as possible, try to
stay away from these things and you are sure to secure both your health and wellness,
long-term.

6. Protect yourself from diseases or injuries

Ever heard of the saying, “prevention is better than cure”?

Protecting yourself from diseases or injuries means that you are pro-active in dealing
with your health. Being pro-active means that, you undergo regular health check-ups
to determine your biological condition. It also means that you are well-able of taking
control of your own behavior/s and activity/ies to prevent yourself from diseases or
injuries.

Do you go see your doctor for general check-ups? Are you currently involved in
activities exposing you to injuries? You need to ensure your safety at all times to
balance out your wellness wheel.

A physically-abled body is one sure step in achieving all the other dimensions of
wellness. When you feel good, you are functioning at your most optimum and you can
always look forward to what lies ahead of you.

These six contributing behaviors, if done continuously and with great awareness, could
bring good not only to your overall wellness but also, to your health. Find time to consider
the activities and behaviors mentioned a while ago for you to make more positive changes
in your life starting today.

Don’t sweat the small stuff!

Being physically healthy and well also means that, you should not overstress yourself
about the minor details of life. Learning how to relax and flow with life is one sure way
to happiness and success!

Physical Fitness

In the past (1970’s), Physical Fitness is defined as: “The ability to meet daily
routines without undue fatigue and still have extra energy left for leisure,
recreational activities, as well as emergency situations.”

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Today, Physical Fitness is defined as: “A set of physical attributes that allow the
body to respond or adapt to the demands of stress and physical effort.”

The reason why Physical Fitness has adapted with its definition is because of, the
continuously evolving society that we have.

Several forms of technology have greatly improved and changed the quality of our lives and,
it made almost everything very easy for us. Thus, Physical Fitness is no longer limited to just
doing certain forms of activity, but rather the whole adaptation of the body in terms of doing
physical effort.

Can you go up and down the stairs without feeling fatigued? Do you feel energetic after a
short or long walk, or you feel the opposite? Can you carry things with ease?

These are some questions that are all related with how you use up your energy. From a
wider perspective, Physical Fitness is all about the way/s that you manage and use your
effort to perform the different tasks you have on a daily basis.

Physical Fitness is indeed a factor that can affect your health and wellness. That is why it is
always included in most (or all) school curriculums these days, in the form of Physical
Education.

Learning about Physical Education, gives you the opportunity to better take care of your
body and help you become aware of your own capabilities. Physical Education helps you
develop sets of attributes that would give you the chance to perform physically demanding
tasks daily.

Since fitness can be developed, it is then further sub-divided into two (2) components.
Knowing which specific components you need to develop with your body, puts you at the
right map for reaching physical fitness successfully. These two (2) components of fitness
are known as:

a) Health-related fitness components

b) Skill-related fitness components

We’ll get to an in depth discussion of these topics later in the lessons.

Physical Activity vs. Exercise

Now you know what physical fitness is all about, it is important to know how you can
achieve and maintain it in your life. Physical activity and exercise are the key ingredients
to keeping a physically active and fit lifestyle. Both may seem the same but, their actual
functions are different.

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Physical Activity
Physical Activity refers to bodily movements produced by the skeletal muscles. All of these
movements require certain forms of energy expenditure that eventually, produce
progressive health benefits.

Examples of Physical Activity are: walking to and from your classes, going up and down the
stairs, and maybe doing some household chores.

Basically, these are activities you do on a daily basis that require the movement of your
body as a whole or as isolated parts. Every single day of your life your muscles and bones
work in coordination with each other to help you move and ultimately lead to your survival.

Obviously, when you cannot move your body, you won’t be able to provide it with
sustenance and nourishment. Put it simply, when your body does not exert physical effort,
you won’t be able to eat, drink, and do the stuff that you have to do to live.

All the movements that you do every day is physical activity in action and it is an essential
ingredient to help you achieve physical fitness.

Exercise
Exercise on the other hand, is a type of physical activity that requires planned,
structured, and repetitive bodily movements with the objective of improving one’s
physical fitness. Exercise aims to develop a specific component or several components of
fitness which we will discuss later on in the lessons.

Examples of Exercise are: Running 5 kilometers, Swimming 20 laps, Cycling for 21 kilom,
or engaging in weight training.

Compared to Physical Activity, Exercises are activities that you do that involve some form/s
of extra effort and rigorous training. When you exercise, you are geared towards
conditioning your body because you want to achieve specific goals for your physical fitness.

In terms of structure and organization, exercising is more complex than just doing physical
activity. But, both of which are key ingredients to achieving a lifetime of physical fitness.

If you cannot move and you do not exercise, all of these things will take a toll on your overall
wellness and health. Including it in your everyday routine puts you at a higher advantage for
achieving a life free from diseases and conditions.

Now that you know the basics of Physical Education and Physical Fitness, everything
boils down to a single word which is, CHOICE.

You have the choice and free will to make decisions every day to determine your life’s
quality. This would most definitely have positive effects in your future.

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Take charge of those decisions and always gear towards making positive
improvements in your life. Large or small, decisions you make will ensure a long
lifetime of health, wellness, & fitness.

Glossary
DNA – short for Deoxyribonucleic Acid; a large double-stranded, molecule that is the
carrier of genetic information.

Emotional Wellness – monitoring and exploring one’s thoughts and feelings and finding
solutions to solve any obstacles along the way.

Environment – external surroundings that a person finds himself/herself in at a given time.

Environmental/Planetary Wellness – learning to protect oneself with the hazards of the

environment.

Exercise – a type of physical activity that requires planned, structured, and repetitive bodily
movements with the objective of improving one’s physical fitness.

Extrospection – see Spiritual Fitness; in Psychology it is how a person examines and

observes things that are external from his/her mind.

Fatigue – a feeling of excessive tiredness.

Genes – short for genetic information and is found imbedded within the DNA; where
hereditary traits come from.

Health –refers to a state of complete, physical, mental, and social well-being. It is not merely
the absence or presence of diseases or injuries. (World Health Organization)

Heredity – the passing of traits through genetic material from parents to offspring/s.

Human Ecologic Interactions – how a person reacts, relates, and interacts with factors
found within an environment.

Immune System – organ system responsible for fighting off disease/s and other system
infections within the body.

Interpersonal & Social Wellness – building good relationships and establishing good
communication; participating and contributing to society.

Introspection – see Mental Fitness; in Psychology it is how a person examines his/her own
thoughts and feelings.

Lifestyle – how a person chooses to live and manage his/her well-being.

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Mental Fitness – see Introspection; how well a person processes and analyses information
presented at a given period; how a person balances his/her emotions and feelings based on
how he/she consciously perceives the world.

Mental Wellness – maintaining an active mind and continuously seeking new challenges
and experiences that would develop critical thinking and creativity.

Optimal Health – a state in which all three dimensions of health are balanced, giving a
person a positive disposition and the capacity to perform tasks with great energy.

Physical Activity – bodily movements produced by the skeletal muscles that require energy
expenditure and produces progressive health benefits

Physical Fitness – “Your Body”; refers to the overall processes and structure of the body and
how it performs work; a person’s physicality and how the body reacts to loads or stimuli
placed upon it during specific situations.

Physical Fitness (new definition) – A set of physical attributes that allow the body to
respond or adapt to the demands of stress and physical effort.”

Physical Fitness (old definition) – The ability to meet daily routines without undue fatigue
and still have extra energy left for leisure, recreational activities, as well as emergency
situations.

Physical Wellness – entails eating well, exercising, avoiding harmful habits, making wise
decisions about sex, getting regular check-ups, and preventing oneself from any unnecessary
injury/ies.

Recreational Activities – denoting activity/ies done for enjoyment when a person is not
engaged in a working environment.

Ripple-effect – the continuing and spreading results of an event or action.

Spiritual Fitness – see Extrospection; how a person believes and perceives the existence of
things from the environment.

Spiritual Wellness – possession of guiding beliefs, principles, and values that give meaning
and purpose to life.

Wellness – having optimal health & vitality; a process of becoming aware of and making
choices towards a more successful existence.

Wellness Wheel – an illustration of the six (6) dimensions of wellness that help individuals
evaluate their level of wellness.

Course Module
 PE 101 – Foundations of Physical Fitness
17
Lesson 1 – Physical Fitness

References and Supplementary Materials

Books and Journals
 Bryant, C.X., Ph.D., FACSM, & Green, D.J. (2010). ACE personal trainer manual: The
ultimate resource for fitness professionals (4th ed.). San Diego, CA: American Council on
Exercise.
 Corbin, C.B., Lindsey, R., Welk, G.J., Corbin, W.R. (2002). Concepts of fitness and
wellness: A comprehensive lifestyle approach (4th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill
Companies, Inc.
 Fahey, T.D., Insel, P.M., & Roth, W.T. (2007). Fit & well: Core concepts and labs in
physical fitness and wellness (7th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
 Hoeger, W.W.K., & Hoeger, S. (2000). Lifetime physical fitness & wellness. Englewood,
Colorado: Morton Publishing Company
Online Supplementary Reading Materials
 Fast Facts on the Brain and Its Functions – Tanya Lewis. Human Brain: Facts,
Functions, & Anatomy. (March 25, 2016). RETRIEVED from
https://www.livescience.com/29365-human-brain.html on July 12, 2016.
 Fast Facts on the Brain and Meditation - Bridget Schulte. Harvard Neuroscientist:
Meditation Not Only Reduces Stress, Here’s How It Changes your Brain Washington
Post. RETRIEVED FROM
- https://hms.harvard.edu/news/harvard-neuroscientist-meditation-not-only-
reduces-stress-here%E2%80%99s-how-it-changes-your-brain (July 12, 2016)
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-
life/wp/2015/05/26/harvard-neuroscientist-meditation-not-only-reduces-
stress-it-literally-changes-your-brain/?tid=hpModule_99d5f542-86a2-11e2-
9d71-f0feafdd1394&utm_term=.454042d0a441 (July 12, 2016)
 Sara W. Lazar; Catherine E. Kerr; Rachel H. Wasserman; Jeremy R. Gray; Douglas N.
Greve; Michael T. Treadway; Metta McGarvey; Brian T. Quinn; Jeffery A.
Dusek; Herbert Benson; Scott L. Rauch; Christopher I. Moore; and Bruce Fischl.
Meditation Experience is Associated with Cortical Thickness. US National Library of
Medicine National Institutes of Health. RETRIVED FROM
jhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1361002/ (July 12, 2016)

Course Module