-Damariz Mercado AEROBIC FITNESS PRE ADOLESCENT ACTIVITIES

IMPORTANCE OF AEROBIC FITNESS The importance of increased physical activity and enhanced fitness in youth cannot be overemphasized. The 2003 physical activity guidelines for Americans calls for children and adolescent to do 60 minutes or more of physical activity a day, spending most of this time in either moderate- or vigorous- intensity aerobic physical activity and performing vigorous- intensity physical activity on at least three days a week. Lack of physical activity during adolescence may have long-term health implications when people reach adulthood.

MONITORING INTENSITY As the intensity of exercise increases they will feel and see their heart speeding up. Older children can be taught to count their pulse and high school students can learn how to calculate exercise within a target heart rate zone. Another method of monitoring intensity are the talk test and ratings of perceived exertion. The talk test simply stipulates that your intensity is appropriate if you can talk but not sing. If you are too out of breath to talk the intensity is too high; if you can sing the intensity is too low. The OMNI scales for rating perceived exertion for children can determine an RPE for the whole body, for the limbs, or for the chest, and are therefore useful for teaching about intensity in both aerobic and resistance exercise.

TAKING THE PULSE One way to take a pulse is the carotid artery and the radial method. Heartbeat is often counted for one minute when measuring resting heart rate; shorter time intervals are used to measure exercise heart rate. Beats per 10 sec Heart rate (bpm) Beats per 10 seconds Heart rate (bpm)

TARGET HEART RATE ZONES This is a range of heart rates between which a person wants to work out to achieve optimal aerobic training. 2 formulas, the maximum heart rate formula and the karvonen formula can be used to determine a person THRZ. MHR= 207- (.7x age) to calculate exercise heart rate.

TRAINING METHODS FOR AEROBIC FITNESS Three main training methods are used to maintain or increase aerobic fitness: Continuous- is performing the same exercise over an extended period. A modification for this is Fartlek training. In which periods of increased intensity are interspersed with continuous activity over varying and natural terrain. Interval- is based on the concept that more activity can be performed at higher exercise intensity which the same or even less fatigue compared with continuous training. Circuit training- involves several different exercise or activities, allowing you to vary the intensity or type of activity as students move from station to station.

SUMMARY Aerobic fitness activities can and should be enjoyable at every age. Young children thrive on playful activities. The joy of aerobic movement can be sustained by teaching a wide variety of activities allowing students to work at their own level. Aerobic fitness can be combined with skill development and built into many activities already offered in the curriculum. Students can learn to asses their aerobic fitness using the PACER test, mile walk, or mile run.