COMPONENTS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

1. Motivation
2. Cardiorespiratory Fitness
3. Body Strength
4. Endurance
5. Flexibility
6. Body Composition

MOTIVATION

 The willingness to focus attention and energy on movement

To gain benefits from movement, other motivations come to play, including the following:

 Being paid, such as in an employer-sponsored exercise class

 Desiring to be healthy
 Desiring to look good
 Enjoying socializing while engaged in movement activity
 Accomplishing personal goal, such as losing weight, climbing a mountain, running a distance
race, or biking 50 miles.

Regardless of the motivation, it is important that one’s chosen physical activities be enjoyable or at
the very least not objectionable.

CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS

 The body’s ability to obtain and utilize fuel (carbohydrates, fatty acids) and oxygen efficiently
during sustained, effortful physical activity.
 In other words, the degree to which someone is “in shape”
 Exercise psychologists define cardiorespiratory fitness in terms of the maximum amount of
oxygen the body can utilize in physical activity, called “Volume of oxygen maximal” VO2max
 Because modern lifestyles do not require vigorous physical activity in the carrying out of
daily life tasks, attaining high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness requires planned bouts of
sustained, high-intensity, vigorous activity, called AEROBIC TRAINING.

Aerobic Training

Aero is derived from Greek, meaning air. With regard to physical activity,

 Aerobic means requiring oxygen

 Aerobic exercise is an activity that requires the body to use more oxygen than it does in
usual activities.
 Aerobic capacity is the extent to which an individual can perform aerobic exercise.
 Aerobic training is engaging in aerobic exercise on a regular basis to increase the amount of
oxygen the body can process in a given time.
When aerobic training is carried out over a period of time, the resultant physiological changes in the
heart, lungs, and muscles are called TRAINING EFFECT.

BODY STRENGTH

 Is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to move an object, including your body

The goal is to have sufficient strength to carry out normal tasks (work, lifting packages, and walking
stairs, shoveling) and participate in physical activities without injury.

There are two popular ways to increase body strength:

 Strength training
 Pilates

Strength training

 Is also called resistance training, involves building muscle and bone strength by repetitively
moving individual muscles or muscle groups against resistance, commonly applied by
weights, such as barbells, dumbbells and exercise machines, and also pushing against an
immovable object called isometric training

Some benefits of strength training include the following:

 Enhanced ability to combat fatigue in everyday activities

 Improved fitness
 Preventing and rehabilitating orthopedic injuries
 Reduction in body fat
 Increased basal and metabolic rate
 Decreased blood pressure
 Lower risk for cardiovascular disease
 Lessen lower back pain

Strength Training can involve progressive increases in the time, intensity, and amount of weight
moved.

Muscle strength is built by moving heavy weights a few times per set, whereas Endurance is built by
mowing smaller weights through many repetitions. Also, in an extended training program, the
repetitions, the number of sets, amount of weight, and other exercise variables should vary (called
periodization).

Compared with most aerobic exercise, strength training produces only a modest improvement in
cardiovascular fitness.

(the time spent exercising is insufficient to increase the heart rate long enough to produce a training
effect. The energy expanded during strength training is about four calories per minute, nearly the
same as for walking or swimming at a comfortable pace).
(A common myth associated with strength training is that consuming high-protein foods and special
vitamin supplements will increase muscle mass. This assumption is incorrect. Muscle tissue responds
to the demands of work, not to food. Sufficient protein to build new muscle tissue will be obtained
in a well-balanced diet)

Pilates

- Is a widely used method of body conditioning developed by Joseph H. Pilates (pronounced

Puh-lah-tees) in the 1920s.
- While in England, he became a nurse and began designing exercise apparatus for
immobilized hospital patients. The devices and exercises became the foundation for his
method of body conditioning and strengthening.
- In 1926, he moved to NYC and opened his first Pilates Studio. The body building and fitness
regimen he developed became widely used all over the worls by dancers, actors, sports
teams, spas and fitness enthusiasts.
- Dancers such as Martha Graham and George Balanchine were among the first to adopt his
fitness techniques.
- Today, his exercises are recommended by physical therapists, chiropractors, and others.

The Pilates method consists of hundreds of stretching and strengthening exercises that are
performed on a mat or without Pilates rings and other devices used to assist in strengthening
muscles.

Many of these exercises are designed to strengthen the back, abdomen, and buttocks; Pilates
believed that these regions were the core of strength and the basis of good posture.

Like Yoga, the Pilates method emphasizes a balance of mind, body, and spirit. Rather that
performing many repetitions of exercises, Pilates advocated intense mental concentration in
performing each exercise with precision and awareness.

Although, developed many years ago, the Pilates exercises are still widely used to improve strength
and performance and for overall body conditioning.

ENDURANCE

- Is the ability to move an object, including yourself, without becoming quickly fatigued.
- It is a combination of fitness, strength, and motivation.

The fitness aspect of endurance relate to the body’s ability to acquire and utilize oxygen,
carbohydrate, and fat to fuel movement for an extended period of time.

The strength aspect of endurance involves having sufficiently strong muscles to carry out an activity
for an extended period without damage.

The motivational aspect of endurance is the will to carry on with an activity even though you fell
fatigued.

(Endurance develops by extending yourself past former limits of physical activity. In this way, the
anatomy and physiology of the heart, lungs, muscles and energy-supplying and energy-utilizing
systems, and your own expectations of your ability to persevere, gradually adapt to meet the
challenges of extended activity.
Endurance training generally involves both aerobic and strength training activities.

FLEXIBILITY

- Is the degree to which you can rotate, bend, and twist a part of your body. Rotating,
bending, and twisting occur where bones meet, an anatomical structure called a joint.

(for example, your elbow is a joint ay which the lower arm bones attach to the upper arm bones.
Imagine how difficult arm movement would be if you had no elbow joint.

Joints are held together by ligaments and tendons, which are elastic, fibrous bands of connective
tissue.

Every joint has a range of motion, which is the amount of rotating, bending, or twisting that the
anatomy of the joint allows

Satisfactory flexibility – is being able to move a joint through its full range of motion. Satisfactory
flexibility contributes the following health benefits:

 Lessens the effort in carrying out physical tasks, such as lifting or bending to pick up
something.
 Fosters good balance, which aids mobility and reduces the risk of falling
 Reduces bodily and psychic tension resulting from stress
 Lessens the risk of low back pain
 Reduces exercise- associated soreness
 Improves blood flow to muscles
 Lessens the risk of activity-related injuries

Activities that can help increase Flexibility

 Yoga
 T’ai Chi Ch’uan

Yoga

- A system of exercises formulated in India thousands of years ago to unite one’s mind and
body.
- The word yoga means to join or yoke together.

Of the several kinds of yoga, the most common is hatha yoga, which uses body postures, called
poses of asanas. Breathing techniques (pranayama), and meditation to bring the body, mind,
mental, and spiritual effects of doing posture (called observing)

The principal benefits of yoga are enhancing muscular fitness and body flexibility. Yoga can help
reduce risk factors for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. It also helps reduce
symptoms of osteoarthritis.

Besides building strength and flexibility, yoga enhances well-being, mood, attention, mental focus,
and stress tolerance.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan

- Comes from china and is based on a system of martial arts. In practicing t’ai chi, the
individual concentrates on moving the joints of the body freely and developing internal
energy.
- All t’ai chi forms are low impact, improve balance and coordination, increasemobility, and
reduce stress.

BODY COMPOSITION

- Refers to the relative amounts of the body’s major constituents, that is, water, protein
(called fat-free mass), minerals (including the calcium and phosphate in bones), and
essential and storage fat.

Two health concerns relating to body composition are:

- Body Fat Percentage

- Bone density

Body fat Percentage

- The body has two kinds of fat:

Essential fat to carry out life functions and Storage fat to supply energy.

Bone density

- Healthy bone density is achieved by engaging in regular weight-bearing exercise, consuming

adequate amounts of calcium and phosphate, and consuming little or no phosphate-
containing sodas
- Bones density is largely determined when one is young, which is the reason young people
are encouraged to exercise, consume dairy foods, and not to consume sodas.