COMPONENTS OF FITNESS Year 10 GCSE Theory

What is Health and Fitness? Health is a state of total mental, physical and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Fitness is the ability to meet the demands of the environment.

Being fit may not help you live longer, but it can make you feel healthier, mentally and physically, for as long as you do live. When you are training for a particular sport, you must ensure that you practice the skills of that sport and follow a fitness regime that is specific to that sport. Physical fitness can be divided into two groups, health-related and skill-related fitness.

Fitness components Must develop all to benefit but sport specific fitness requires special attention Cardiovascular endurance Muscular endurance Speed Strength Flexibility

What components do these athletes need?

CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE Cardio = heart Vascular = system of vessels Endurance = long period of time Heart & circulatory system meeting demands of body for a sustained period of time

Training the heart = hypertrophy Hypertrophy = more blood pumped efficiently Increased efficiency = increased cardiac output (litres pumped per minute) 5Lpm to 40Lpm

What activities will improve CV fitness and why? Activity requiring sustained effort (aerobic) X –Country / Mid-long distance athletics Born with and can be trained and improved Explosive event athletes benefit as blood flow removes lactic acid Page 75 Fig 2. Aerobic/anaerobic balance in track events

MUSCULAR ENDURANCE …is the ability to use voluntary muscles many times without becoming tired. Capacity of the muscles to perform repeated contractions at or near max level for extended periods of time.

Muscles are required to work well beyond normal anaerobic limits, e.g 400m sprint. Different to muscular strength, why?????

Muscles can only work for as long as there is energy – O 2 – blood flow Lactic acid accumulates when muscles work anaerobically Efficient lactic acid system to flush out poison to allow muscles to keep working E.g. rock climbing

SPEED Not just about running – movement of a limb / reaction to a stimulus Sprinting / speed of movements Innate ability Can be improved by training, how? Name some activities where speed of movement is important?

Homework Perform the Cooper Test – CV Endurance Run for 12 minutes and record how far you have travelled in metres Use a lunch time, athletics track (200m) See me if you need cones, markers, etc Bring score to next lesson to compare with each other and recommended levels