MODULE 1

PHYSICAL ACTIVITY TOWARDS

HEALTH & FITNESS-HEALTH &
WELLNESS

COURSE INTRODUCTION
Health has always been one of the central topics even from the early society. The ideas spawned then are being
echoed up to present. Hippocrates argued that disease is a product of diet, lifestyle and environmental factors. In
50BC, Greeks believed that illness was a product of diet and lifestyle. 19th century new intellectual movement
popularized ideas about regaining or maintaining one’s health through diet, exercise and other lifestyle
measures. The philosophies embodied in these 19th century systems – that a healthy body is a product of a
healthy mind and spirit – are now considered precursors to the current, thriving wellness and self-help
movements. In addition, although these approaches fell out of favor with the rise of modern, evidence-based
medicine in the mid-20th century, several of them are now regaining favor within the mainstream medical
community and the general public.
Our present society made health an essential component and added other terms such as fitness and wellness -
terms that are commonly used interchangeably to mean one and the same and do not care to discover the
difference. Advocates are multiplying, health and wellness businesses are flourishing, practices and products
labelled with health and wellness become bestsellers and ideas and discoveries are relentless. Surely, we have a
wellness revolution and it is here to stay. It had crept into the world of business, governments and the
educational platform.
Health and wellness in the tertiary level seeks to be health optimizing by means of supporting you in accessing,
evaluating, and making informed decisions about your own health and wellbeing. Our strong conviction as your
teachers is that you become an empowered learner who is reflective, self-regulated, and self-directed throughout
your life (CMO No. 80 series 2017). Fitness for life is our tagline that will lead you to take responsibility for
your activity, fitness and health that will eventually prepare you to be physically active and healthy throughout
your adult life.
Module I. Understanding Physical Activity for Health and Wellness
It is imperative that we have a common understanding of the terms we use when we talk about health
and wellness. This module introduces you to the definition of these terms, their components and principles,
dimensions and factors, results and consequences that serve as a lay-out in your health goals. You will also
subject yourself to several assessments that will give you an idea on the current status of your fitness and
wellness. This serves as your basis in planning your health and wellness program.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this module, you should be able to:
1. Explain the concepts and the significant interrelatedness of physical activity exercise, fitness, health and
wellness;
2. Interpret fitness, health and wellness competencies based on fitness and physical activity assessment, and
wellness wheel analysis;
3. Write personal fitness, and weakness goals based on the interpretation of tests and wellness wheel analysis
results; and
4. Create personal wellness plan according to the wellness principles

Engage
Health, Wellness, and Other Related Terms
When people, or even you, talk about health, you hear these terms being used interchangeably – fitness, physical
activity, exercise, and wellness. Question is, do you know their meaning? Can you distinguish them? And when you do, is
it a fact or a fiction?

Self-Testing Activity:
Let’s check if what you know is a fact or a fiction. Kindly answer the following with what you really know and do
not use any reference. These are random statements that will check how familiar you are with the terms. Read each
statement and check if it is a FACT or a FICTION. See if the statements are referring to fitness, exercise, wellness or
physical activity. This is not part of the summative assessments.
TAKE NOTE: DO NOT turn to the next page until you are done with this activity. The act. Is posted in your
assignment you need to answer first before you proceed to next page.

Let us expand and have a common understanding of the terms we encounter in health and wellness. This serves as your
foundation on the exploratory activities you will engage yourself later.
Physical Activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles and requires energy
expenditure (WHO). It includes all physical movement, regardless of the level of energy expenditure and the reason you
do it. Physical activity can be occupational such as those movements you do as a service crew or bartender. It can also be
lifestyle activity which includes household chores, walking to class or climbing the stairs to your house door. Leisure-time
physical activities are those that you choose to do in your free time for your enjoyment.
Exercise is a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive bodily movement done to
improve or maintain one or more components of fitness. Exercise is believed to produce the greatest health benefits since
it is done specifically for health and fitness. On the next unit you will be given further principles of exercises to guide you
when you do exercise.
Physical Fitness is a set of attributes that are either health-related or skill-related. The degree to which people
have these attributes can be measured with specific tests of which you will be doing later on. Corbin (2011) gave a more
specific definition referring to physical fitness as the ability of your body systems to work together efficiently to allow
you to be healthy and perform activities of daily living. A fit person, therefore, is one who is able to do work effectively,
attend to other responsibilities or leisure activities and can still respond to emergency situations without staggering.
Fitness is an attribute of wellness and is achieved or reinforced through participation of varied physical activities of which
exercise is one.
Health, as defined by World Health Organization (WHO) is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-
being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. WHO explained that the primary determinants of health include
the social, economic, and physical environments, and the person’s individual characteristics and behaviors. The
maintenance and improvement of health, accordingly, depends not only on external or environmental factors but also on
the efforts and intelligent lifestyle choices of the person. In other words, health depends on wellness.
Powers, et al (2015) defined Wellness as the state of healthy living achieved by the practice of a healthy lifestyle,
which includes regular physical activity, proper nutrition, eliminating unhealthy behaviors, and maintaining good
emotional and spiritual health.
Health professionals and exercise scientists of the 20 th century believed that health includes physical fitness as
well as emotional and spiritual health. Thus, wellness is their revised concept of good health. The National Wellness
Institute, USA gave a more expanded definition where wellness is considered “an active process through which people
become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence.” This definition is based on 3 tenets:
1. Wellness is considered a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.
2. Wellness is multidimensional and holistic, encompassing lifestyle, mental and spiritual well-being, and the
environment.
3. Wellness is positive and affirming.
In short, health is a state of being, whereas wellness is the state of living a healthy lifestyle. Health refers to
physical, mental, and social well-being; wellness aims to enhance well-being.
Student’s life is cumbered with stresses, we know that. In fact, life in general, is. Needless to ask whether these
stresses are threatening your health and well-being? Absolutely! It can affect your physical, mental, and social well-being.
But can stress affect wellness? Yes, but only if you will allow it. To a point, it can affect your perspective or dampen your
energy, negatively affects your commitment to self-care and the aim for fullest potential. The difference is that wellness is
always a matter of choice.

Do you now have a clearer view of how these terms are related and differentiated?
OUTPUT 1: MAP OF THE RELATED TERMS
As a review and a conclusion, kindly map out how these terms relate to each other. A sample flow chart is
provided as a guide but you can still use other style to present your answer. Submit your output to our google
classroom address or as instructed by your teacher. For the CBL, include this in your USB stick and send through
correspondence.
 Explore
Explore
Having gone through the terms, let us now explore the principles and components of physical fitness and wellness
which will lead you in learning about your health and wellness status.
A. Physical Fitness Components and Tests
As have been mentioned above, physical fitness have components which serve as determinants of your current
fitness status. Go over the video in your memory stick (CBL students) and for OBL students, the video will be uploaded in
your google classroom.
Now that you went over the components of fitness, you are now expected to do the tests in able to determine your
current fitness status. Watch the demonstration video attached in your memory stick for CBL students, and for OBL it will
be uploaded in your google classroom.
tests and follow how it is done. In addition, a Fitness Test Form is provided for you where you will write your test result
and check the category of your performance. For the CBL, the form is in the USB stick and for the OBL kindly download
it from your google classroom. Below are the list of tests that you will do:

Assessing For Fitness and Wellness

Physical Fitness Tests:

Prepare yourself for the test. Nothing beats being ready mentally and physically. Here are your instructions and get ready
to follow to avoid unnecessary repetition of the activity.
General Instructions:
1. Be in your proper physical activity attire.
2. Have the following prepared:
a. An enough space to do the tests; preferably with mat if not, use a carton or folded blanket to serve as
cushion.
b. Timer/Stopwatch
c. A metronome (for CBL, it was saved in your memory stick, and for OBL it is uploaded in your
google classroom)
 d. 12-inch high step, so use a chair or stair, one as close to 12 inches as possible, otherwise the results
will be skewed.
e. Physical Fitness Test Form and a pen.
3. Follow strictly the instructions in the video per test.
4. Record the result of your test on the provided fitness test form.
5. The tests should be completed within an hour.
6. To be able to see if you did the right procedures of the tests, you need to video tape your test
performance.
7. Send your test performance video in the Fitness Test of our google classroom.
A. Body Mass Index (BMI):
Formula: Weight in kilogram
(Height in Meter)²
Instructions:
a. Get your height in meter and your weight in kilogram for computation.

B. Aerobic Fitness Test:

3 Min Step Test measures your aerobic (cardiovascular) fitness level based on how quickly your heart rate
returns to normal after exercise.

Instructions:
i. Have the following prepared:
A metronome ((for CBL, it was saved in your memory stick, and for OBL it is uploaded in your
google classroom)
ii. Set metronome to 96 beats per minute for men and 88 bpm for women and make sure you can hear the
beat.
e. 12-inch step, so use a chair or stair, one as close to 12 inches as possible, otherwise the results will
be skewed.
iii. Warm up for 10 minutes.
iv. Stand facing the step. When ready to begin, start the clock or stopwatch and march up and down on the
step to the metronome beat for 3 consecutive minutes. Keep your back straight and look forward (you
can rest if you need to but remain standing).
v. When 3 minutes are up, stop immediately and remain standing and take 15 sec HR from 5-20 sec into
recovery. (HR x 4)
vi. You may then compute your VO2max using the following formula;
Women: 68.81- (0.1847x HR)
Men: 111.33- (0.42 x HR)

2. Muscular Endurance Testing (Dynamic Strength): The ability to contract the muscle repeatedly
over a period. Low muscular endurance indicates inefficiency in movement and low capacity to
perform work.

a) Trunk curl test/ partial curl-up: indicates the muscular endurance of the abdominal muscle
group, an area of important concern. It is recommended as a better test of muscular endurance
replacing the one-minute speed sit-up with anchored feet. Studies have shown that few individuals
experience dizziness, headache, nausea, neck pain, or back discomfort.
Instructions:
i. Mark the other end of your mat/improvised mat with a horizontal line 10cm from the edge.
ii. Start by lying in supine position with knees bent at 140 degrees towards the end where you marked the
10cm, heels flat on the edge of the mat unsupported. Arms should rest at the side while the finger-tips
rests on the line mark of the 10cm.
iii. You may then curl’s up in a controlled fashion until the fingertips are just able to touch the patellae of
the mat; then, the trunk is slowly lowered until the fingertips touch the 10cm mark on the mat .
 Continue doing this as many as you can for 1 minute without resting, have your partner help you with
doing the procedures correctly.

b) Push-up Test: Measures muscular endurance of the shoulder (deltoids, pectorals and triceps.)
Instructions:
i. Subject starts by positioning himself in a prone position and lifting himself fully using both arms
and toes to carry the weight of your body for men and knees bended for women. Palms should be
positioned flat facing forward vertically on the side, avoid twisting it to horizontal position. Feet not
necessarily be together. Test partner places his/her fist on the floor below the subject’s chest.
ii. Subject must keep back straight at all times. From the up position, lower himself/herself to the floor
until the chest touches the administrator’s fist and then push back to the up position again.
iii. Subject repeats push-ups for one-minute non-stop, except in the up position. Total number of correct
push-ups in one-minute is recorded as the score.

3. Flexibility: Flexibility is included in total assessment because of the widespread problems of lower back pain
and joint soreness. Flexibility is the range of possible movement in a joint or group of joints. It is necessary to
determine the functional ability of all joints, however, the trunk flexion or the sit -and-reach test serves as an
important measure of hip and back flexibility.
a) Sit and reach wall test: a common measure of flexibility, and specifically measures the flexibility of the
lower back and hamstring muscles. The test is important as because tightness in this area is implicated in
lumbar lordosis, forward pelvic tilt and lower back pain. This test was first described by Wells and Dillon
(1952) and is now widely used as a general test of flexibility.

Instructions:

i. Subject sits on the floor with no shoes and legs extended in a V shape angle having 8-12 inches apart.
Reach the wall with hands facing down and extended in between the legs forward.
ii. With the legs held flat by a partner, the subject slowly reaches forward as far as possible towards the
wall, keeping the fingers on baseline and feet flexed.
iii. The subject first tries to reach the wall using her/his fingertips. If she/he is able to maintain it for 10
sec, she/he will then proceed to reach the wall using his/her knuckles for 10 sec. On the third try
he/she must reach the wall with his/her palms flat on the wall for 10 sec. Make sure there are no
jerky movements, and that the fingertips/knuckles/palms remains on the wall.
iv. The best of three considered the flexibility score (fingertips, knuckles or palms touching the wall
and/or cannot touch the wall).

b.) Zipper Test: to assess the upper body (shoulder) flexibility, which is important in performing various jobs
such as combining one’s hair, putting an overhead garment and reaching for a seat belt etc.
i. This test is done on standing position. Keep Left hand behind the head and back over the shoulder and
reach as far as the possible down middle of the back. Palm should touch to the body and the fingers
should be downwards.
ii. Then carry your Right arm behind back palm facing outward and fingers upward and reach up as far as
possible trying to touch or overlap the middle fingers of both hands.
iii. Fingers should be aligned. Assess the distance between the tips and classify them to fingers overlap,
fingers touching only or fingertips not touching.
iv. Do it with the other hand by using the Right hand behind the head and the Left arm behind your back.

B. Assessing Dimensions of Wellness

Wellness is multi-dimensional. This means that wellness integrate numerous inter-related domains and it is not
only the physical. Models of wellness differ in the number of dimensions but we will use the 6-dimension model.
1. Click on the link provided for the form and accomplish it. For those without internet connection, a copy is in
the USB stick and a hard copy is included in the learning packet for CBL subscribers.
Link: https://studentwellness.uci.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Assessing-Your-Life-Balance.pdf

2. Have a copy to be submitted to your instructor.

C. The PAR-Q(Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire) Sheet
Prior to engaging in any physical activity, particularly exercise programme, this PAR-Q is used to determine
health and lifestyle issues that might make your participation risky. The American College of Sports Medicine's
(ACSM guidelines require that every facility offering exercise equipment must provide a general pre-activity risk
assessment, e.g., Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire (PAR-Q), to all new/prospective members (ACSM,
2007).

Download a copy of the questionnaire and answer it. Here is the link:
http://eparmedx.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/PARQPlus2019ImageVersion2.pdf
A hard copy is in the learning packet for CBL subscribers.

Note: Submit a copy of your Fitness Test Form, Wellness Wheel (Assessing Your Life Balance) and PAR-Q to
your instructor (that’s me) through correspondence or other platforms as arranged by your instructor.