Health and fitness are important concepts for our body and our mental health throughout our entire life, and our everyday lives. Nevertheless people don?t seem to be aware of the real meaning of health and fitness, including myself. I thought fitness meant for your body to be in good shape, to be able to exercise without getting too tired, also to do many sports. Whereas, the true definition of fitness is; to be able to meet the demands of your environment, so it doesn?t specify ?fit? to be sporty. For example, a school student who takes 1 hour to commute to school, and does after school sports activities 3 times a week, should be able to go through the day without dying, and do the after school activities, while also finishing all homework, and things required to be accomplished. Now, the definition of health is; the physical, mental, and social well being. Eating healthy, meaning having a balanced diet, being mentally stable, and being sociable with others (or socializing with others at a decent level).
Fitness is made up of 5 important components; Cardiovascular Endurance, Muscular Endurance, Muscular Strength, Flexibility, and Body Composition. Cardiovascular Endurance is required in many sports for instance, cross country, triathlon, and soccer. As you may notice, Cardiovascular Endurance is when you are able to exercise for long period of time without getting tired. Muscular Endurance is when you?re able to use your muscles for a long time without getting tired, or being able to continue while being tired. This component is needed in sports such as swimming, where many muscles are used continuously. Now, Muscular Strength is the amount of force your muscles can exert. Muscular strength is significant in sports such as, weight lifting. Flexibility is the ability to be able to bend your joints easily without breaking anything, which is very important in gymnastics. Finally, Body Composition. This is the balance between our tissue, which is required in EVERY SPORT!
It is important for an athlete to know his/her level of fitness, to acknowledge what they are good at, and what they need to improve on. Athletes may analyze their fitness level by taking a test in where they work on every component of fitness, and the results show you what level you are on at your age and gender. Some common test taken are, The Bruce Test, Harvard Step Test, Beep Test, and many more. However, the most common fitness test in the world is; The Standard Physical Fitness Test (PFT), and is used in majority of the military branches. This is a test where you test your results of a 1.5mile/2.4km run, doing as many pushups and situps in a certain amount of time (look at the table below for the time), and doing the ?sit and reach? part.
The advantages of these tests are that you grasp the level of fitness you are on, so you know if you do need to make a change, and where you need to make a change in. For example, the results of your pushups and situps are remarkable, but if you really did horrible in running, you know what to work on. Also, anyone could take the test again (alone or not), and see their improvement. Then, improvement creates motivation to run, since I know how it feels when you do well in something you aren?t so great at, then you keep trying just because you realize how fun it is, and how even YOU could be good at running. Again you will improve, which will create more motivation, and it keeps working in this pattern, until you get extremely skillful at running (in this situation).
Although these test could really improve someone by motivating someone, it could also crush people?s dreams or not motivate one. For example, if someone thought they did great until they see there score, and compare to their age and gender average level, and feel extremely sad or mad. This may lead them to not even trying to get better, but actually make them believe that they?ll never get better, and sadden them.
I also took the Standard Fitness Physical Fitness Test (http://blogs.yis.ac.jp/16violettek/2012/10/12/fitness-testing/), and it really gave me a great idea of where I stand in as for fitness level. Using one minute in each activity, I was capable of doing 40 pushups, 46 situps, and 35 burpees. The results were better than most girls in my class(I don?t know EVERY girl?s results but I know most of them?s), and better than some boys as well. I think the fact that I work out every night starting this summer, helped me get a good score. Also, for my running results I ran 2.4km in 12 minutes, in the ?very good? range for the female, and ?good? for male. I was truly pleased with this result, because I never really was great at running, and I didn?t enjoy it before. However, this time, I felt so great after the run, and to top that I got a pleasing result which made me a bit excited for the next run, which I?m never usually am. Nevertheless, my flexibility could be better. I reached until 35cm on the ?sit and reach? bit, which I think I should do better, since flexibility is important in sports.? Overall, I learnt that my fitness level is over average, but I still do not want to stop improving.
As I saw improvement in my Cardiovascular endurance, I also observed improvement in Muscular strength and endurance. Like I said before, working out on my own I believe truly? helped me improve. I started working out because, I really really wanted and NEEDED to build my body for sports. Therefore I began doing 50-100 pushups, 150 biceps curls per arm (2.5 kg I think), 70 of the basketball work out (1= 1sit up using the ball) (which works out your abdominal muscles very hard, and also your legs), and 200 times of jumping as high as possible. Taking the test extremely helped me to motivate me to continue the work out every night, because now I know my body is actually building up, and that I?m improving due to the work out. One of the biggest improvement I saw were that, I went from ?10 pushups made me extremely tired? to, being able to do 40 pushups straight.
Because I am mainly a basketball player, but also play soccer, volleyball and Karate, a wide range of fitness components will be important to me. Firstly to be able to continuously play these sports, obviously Cardiovascular Endurance is EXTREMELY important for any sport I play. Therefore, I think I should really take time to work on and improve my Cardiovascular Endurance. Then, muscular strength/endurance and flexibility is important for sports, and mostly for Karate.
Goals for ?Fitness Development? over the next three months
- While fall break, run 3 laps of Negishi park for 3times at the least.? (developing my Cardiovascular Endurance)
- Continue my work out every night, and gradually advance the work outs, and always push myself to. For example, after 3 months, I should be able to do 50 pushups straight.
- Stretch my body after taking a shower at night for at least 10 minutes. (I heard stretching the body after a shower or bath, improves your flexibility a lot faster.)
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Source: http://blogs.yis.ac.jp/16violettek/2012/10/12/health-fitness-and-wellness-assessment-task/
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