fitness

Fitness is the ability of an individual to daily activities without fatigue and tiredness. The principles of fitness are FITT F = Frequency, means the frequency we are doing exercise is about 3 to 5 times per week. I = Intensity, which the intensity for someone’s exercise is depending on his/her ages. The formula to calculate our intensity is [220 – age] . 70% (for minimum) and [220 – age] . 85% (for maximum). T = Time, means that the duration for our exercise is about 20 -60 minutes per day. T = Types which means the types of our exercise is aerobic exercise such as swimming, jogging, cycling, brief walking and aerobic dance. and SPORT S = Specificity, which we do the exercise to get the result that we want. For an example, if we want to build muscle, then we do a weight lifting sport. P = Progression, which is we challenges our bodies’ ability gradually. O = Overload, means we increase our exercise intensity by 10% gradually. R = Reversibility, which means we have to keep doing exercise continuously. If not, we will lose back our fitness. T = Training effect, means the effect that we get from our training. Based on research, fitness can prolong our life. The evidence shows two reason why fitness can prolong our life. First, body fitness and weight control greatly can reduce cardiovascular disease whish is nowadays more people are tend to get it. Fitness can overcome this disease by maintaining of moderately lower blood pressure and by reducing blood cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein along with increased high-density lipoprotein. As a total, all these may decrease the number of heart attacks and brain strokes which then can prolong our life. Second, someone that has high body fitness has more bodily reserves to call on when he or she does become sick. For an example, an ordinary old person that have pneumonia are unable to adequate the requirement of all respiratory reserve. In other words, the person may have a limit oxygen delivery to the tissues to no more than 1 L/minute. This is different for an athletically fit old person who may have twice as much respiratory reserve.

To measure our body fitness, we are using Harvard step-up test. There are factors that may affect the result of this test. First, the daily activities of an individual. For an example, a person that only work in front of computer and a person who work as a constructor which require a lot of body movement will have different result of fitness. Second factor is the someone’s height. A tall person will not having any difficulties to step up on a 40cm bench compared to a short person. The last factor is the motivation that someone had. The people with high motivation will never give up to do the test and also never influenced with other’s decision. This will give the person a best result of fitness.