2.4: Develop an Exercise Program to Build Your Physical Fitness

At least a minimal level of physical fitness is required in order to carry out daily activities without being physically overwhelmed. To build or sustain your physical fitness it is important to develop an exercise program that targets the important components of fitness. Development of these various components will improve your quality of life, reduce your risk of chronic disease, and optimize your health and well-being.

The Components of Physical Fitness

The components of physical fitness are often categorized into health-related components and skill-related (performance-related) components. Although skill-related components are valuable, most tend to be more specific toward athletes.

• Health-related components of physical fitness: Cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
• Skill-related components of physical fitness: Balance, agility, speed, power, coordination, and reaction time.

Descriptions of the most common components of fitness are:

• Aerobic physical activity is activity in which the body’s large muscles move in a rhythmic manner for a sustained period of time. Aerobic activity, also called endurance or cardio activity, improves cardiorespiratory fitness. Examples include brisk walking, running, swimming, and bicycling.
• Balance is a component of physical fitness that involves maintaining the body’s equilibrium while stationary or moving.
  • Balance training includes static and dynamic exercises that are designed to improve individuals’ ability to resist forces within or outside of the body that cause falls while a person is stationary or moving. Walking backward, standing on one leg, or using a wobble board are examples of balance-training activities.
• Body composition is a health-related component of physical fitness that applies to body weight and the relative amounts of muscle, fat, bone, and other vital tissues of the body. Most often, the components are limited to fat and lean body mass (or fat-free mass). Bone-strengthening activity. Physical activity designed primarily to increase the strength of specific sites in bones that make up the skeletal system.
• Bone-strengthening activities produce an impact or tension force on the bones that promotes bone growth and strength. Running, jumping rope, and lifting weights are examples of bone-strengthening activities.
• Cardiorespiratory fitness (endurance) is the ability to perform large-muscle, whole-body exercise at moderate-to-vigorous intensities for extended periods of time.
• Flexibility is a health- and performance-related component of physical fitness that is the range of motion possible at a joint. Flexibility is specific to each joint and depends on a number of specific variables, including but not limited to the tightness of specific muscles and tendons. Flexibility exercises enhance the ability of a joint to move through its full range of motion.
• Muscle-strengthening activity (strength training, resistance training, or muscular strength and endurance exercises) is physical activity, including exercise, that increases skeletal muscle strength, power, endurance, and mass.
• Strength is a health and performance component of physical fitness that is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert force.

Check your learning: Health and Skill Related Components of Fitness
Drag the elements to the correct area.

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General Physical Activity Recommendations for Adults

It is recommended that:

• All adults should undertake regular physical activity.
• Adults should do at least 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity; or at least 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the week, for substantial health benefits.
• Adults should also do muscle-strengthening activities at moderate or greater intensity that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week, as these provide additional health benefits.
• Adults may increase moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity to more than 300 minutes; or do more than 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the week for additional health benefits.

Activity: Adding Physical Activity to Your Life

Don’t worry if you’re thinking, “How can I get the recommended amount of physical activity each week?” You’ll be surprised by the variety of activities you have to choose from.

Set goals, choose activities that work for you, and stay on track with the Move Your Way^SM Activity Planner.

The Move Your Way^SM Activity Planner is an easy to use tool that allows you to indicate the types of workouts you enjoy and provide a printable report for you to follow to ensure you are meeting the physical activity guidelines.

Principles of Training

When designing your exercise routine, remember that it is important to overload your body to allow it to respond by building more strength or increasing the capacity of your cardiorespiratory system. Since your body will adapt to the overload, you cannot continue with the same exercise routine, you need to continue to increase the demand by progressively increasing your workouts. And lastly, be sure you are including a variety of exercises intended to build each specific body system.

The three Principles of Training are:

• Overload is the physical stress placed on the body when physical activity is greater in amount or intensity than usual. The body’s structures and functions respond and adapt to these stresses. For example, aerobic physical activity places a stress on the cardiorespiratory system and muscles, requiring the lungs to move more air and the heart to pump more blood and deliver it to the working muscles. This increase in demand increases the efficiency and capacity of the lungs, heart, circulatory system, and exercising muscles. In the same way, muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activities overload muscles and bones, making them stronger.
• Progression is closely tied to overload. Once a person reaches a certain fitness level, he or she is able to progress to higher levels of physical activity by continued overload and adaptation. Small, progressive changes in overload help the body adapt to the additional stresses while minimizing the risk of injury.
• Specificity means that the benefits of physical activity are specific to the body systems that are doing the work. For example, the physiologic benefits of walking are largely specific to the lower body and the cardiovascular system. Push-ups primarily benefit the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and upper arms.

F.I.T.T. Principle

When designing your exercise routine, it is important to remember to target the health-related components of physical fitness and ensure you are meeting the recommended frequency, intensity, time, and type for each component, which is commonly referred to as the F.I.T.T Principle.

F.I.T.T Principle:

• Frequency refers to how often you will exercise.
• Intensity refers to how hard you will work during your exercise session.
• Time refers to how long your exercise session will be.
• Type refers to the type of exercise you will do to build your fitness.

The four elements of the F.I.T.T. principle help you create an exercise plan that will build or sustain your level of physical fitness.

F.I.T.T. for Cardiorespiratory Endurance (Aerobic Activity)

Frequency: At least 3 days a week.

Time: 150 minutes to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of vigorous-intensity. A general rule of thumb is that 2 minutes of moderate-intensity activity counts the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity. For example, 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity is roughly the same as 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity. The 1996 Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health and the 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans included the guidance that aerobic activity needed to last at least 10 minutes to count in your total minutes of aerobic exercise each week. However, continued research into aerobic exercise bouts has shown that moderate-vigorous aerobic exercise of any length is beneficial for your health. So remember throughout your day that moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of any duration counts toward meeting the key guidelines.

Intensity: Moderate or vigorous intensity.

Type: Any exercise where the body’s large muscles move in a rhythmic manner for a sustained period of time. Brisk walking, running, bicycling, jumping rope, and swimming are all examples. Aerobic activity causes a person’s heart to beat faster, and they will breathe harder than normal.

Measuring Cardio Intensity

The intensity of your aerobic exercise is measured by how the activity affects your heart rate and breathing. All types of aerobic activities can count as long as they are of sufficient intensity to meet the description of moderate or vigorous-intensity.

Three ways to measure aerobic intensity include:

• The Talk Test
  • As a rule of thumb, a person doing moderate-intensity aerobic activity can talk, but not sing, during the activity. A person doing vigorous-intensity activity cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.
• Perceived Exertion
  • Using perceived exertion provides a way for a person to assess their level of effort. As a rule of thumb, on a scale of 0 to 10, where sitting is 0 and the highest level of effort possible is 10, moderate-intensity activity is a 5 or 6. Vigorous-intensity activity begins at a level of 7 or 8 out of 10.
• Target Heart Rate
  • Focusing on how fast your heart is beating is a good indicator of your aerobic intensity. To figure out whether you are exercising within the target heart rate zone, you must either briefly stop exercising to take your pulse or wear a heart rate monitor while exercising.
  • Tips for taking your pulse:
    • You can take your pulse at your neck, wrist, or chest; wrist is recommended. When taking you pulse at your wrist, place the tips of the index and middle fingers over the artery that is in line with your thumb. Do not use the thumb to take your pulse. Take a full 60-second count of the heartbeats, or take for 30 seconds and multiply by 2.
  • Calculating your target heart rate
    • Step 1: Calculate your maximum heart rate
      • To estimate your maximum age-related heart rate, subtract your age from 220.
        • 220 – [age] = [maximum heart rate]
      • Example for a 25 year old
        • 220- 25= 195
    • Step 2: Calculate what your heart rate should be for moderate and vigorous intensity
      • For moderate-intensity physical activity, your target heart rate should be between 64% and 76% of your maximum heart rate.
        • 64% level: [maximum heart rate] x 0.64 = [beats per minute]
        • 76% level: [maximum heart rate] x 0.76 = [beats per minute]
        • For example, for a 25 year old, the 64% and 76% levels would be:
          • 64% level: 195 x 0.64 = 127 bpm
          • 76% level: 195 x 0.76 = 148 bpm
        • This shows that moderate-intensity physical activity for a 25-year-old person will require that the heart rate remains between 127 and 148 bpm during physical activity.
      • For vigorous-intensity physical activity, your target heart rate should be between 77% and 93% of your maximum heart rate.
        • 77% level: [maximum heart rate] x 0.77 = [beats per minute]
        • 93% level: [maximum heart rate] x 0.93 = [beats per minute]
        • For example, for a 25 year old, the 77% and 93% levels would be:
          • 77% level: 195 x 0.77 = 150 bpm
          • 93% level: 195 x 0.93 = 181 bpm
        • This shows that vigorous-intensity physical activity for a 25-year-old person will require that the heart rate remains between about 150 and 181 bpm during physical activity.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Target Heart Rate Zones

F.I.T.T. for Musculoskeletal Fitness (muscle strength and endurance)

Frequency: 2 or more days a week

Time: Repetitions and Sets are typically used as the measure of the amount of time spent doing muscle strengthening exercises. A repetition is a single time you perform the exercise, and the set is a group of repetitions separated by a period of rest. A person new to strength training may see benefit doing one set of 8-12 repetitions. If a persons goal is muscular endurance they may prefer to increase their repetitions to 12-20 repetitions. If a persons goal is muscular strength they may prefer to increase the sets and reduce the repetitions, such as doing five sets of 8 repetitions.

Intensity: Muscle-strengthening exercises should be performed to the point at which it would be difficult to do another repetition. The key is to overload the muscles. If you choose to complete one set of 12 repetitions, it is important to choose a weight where the 12th repetitions is very hard.

Type: Strength exercises that target all major muscle groups. Strength exercises make muscles do more work than they are accustomed to doing, that is, they overload the muscles. Examples of muscle-strengthening activities include lifting weights, working with resistance bands, doing calisthenics that use body weight for resistance (such as push-ups, pull-ups, and planks), carrying heavy loads, and heavy gardening. Muscle-strengthening activities count if they involve a moderate or greater level of intensity or effort and work the major muscle groups of the body—the legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms.

The three Training Principles described previously, overload, progression, and specificity, are key to muscular development. You must choose strength exercises that are challenging to overload your muscles, you must continue to increase the intensity overtime to allow your muscles to adapt and grow stronger (progression), and you need to choose exercises to ensure you are focusing on each major muscle group. Improvements in muscle strength and endurance are progressive over time. Increases in the amount of weight or the days a week of exercising will result in stronger muscles.

Avoid muscle imbalance

It is important to ensure that you are exercising all major muscle groups. When one set of muscles are stronger, weaker, or tighter than the opposing group of muscles it can cause injuries or pain, or impact your bodies alignment or posture. Muscle imbalance might occur in athletes who have one dominate side or might occur through exercising when a person only focuses on specific areas. For example, if a person only performs strength training exercises to grow their biceps, chest, and quads, they are forgetting to also train the opposing muscle groups which are the triceps, back, and hamstrings. Be sure to train the major muscles of the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.

F.I.T.T. for Flexibility (stretching activities)

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2nd edition) does not state specific recommendations for the frequency, intensity, or time for Flexibility. The following recommendations are from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)^[6].

Frequency: Equal to or greater than 2-3 times per week. Daily stretching is most effective.

Time: Holding a static stretch for 10-30s is recommended for most adults. In older individuals, holding a stretch for 30-60s may confer greater benefit toward flexibility.

Intensity: Stretch to the point of feeling tightness or slight discomfort.

Type: A series of flexibility exercises for each of the major muscle-tendon units is recommended.

Check your learning: FITT Principle Recommendations

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Challenge: Does it FITT?

There are numerous websites that provide you with workout plans or routines.

Your challenge is to find a workout routine online that is at least one week in length.

Compare the workout routine to the FITT principle. Does the routine aligns with the FITT principle? Are there any misalignment or gaps? How could the workout routine be adjusted to better align with the FITT principle?

If you are having trouble finding free online workout programs take a look at the Free workout plans from Muscle and Fitness