Physical Education Fitness Log

Authors Avatar by mcmullan028gmailcom (student)

PE Controlled Assessment

Fitness Log

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Introduction

I have decided to undergo a fitness log for innumerable reasons, other than my lack of personal fitness. My personal fitness is disappointing, as I struggle to complete the school cross country run – just under two miles – along with feeling extreme fatigue whilst playing rugby. Another reason for wanting to do the fitness log, is that in Year 10, I did the fitness log, and I disappointingly failed to maintain the 12 week duration that the log was planned for. The log was disastrous, and most of the numerical figures were fabricated, meaning I had cheated myself, rather than the teacher. This year, as a part of my New Year’s resolution – though I started in November - I have decided to assign strict regulations to motivate myself, including agreeing with my parents (see SMARTER goals) and setting a strict diet, outside and inside of school, to maximise my progression.

This circuit-training programme has been designed for a 12-week time scale. The programme consists of testing different fitness components prior to doing the fitness log, and then setting targets based on the test results to make improvements. This programme is part of my training for my four chosen sports in GCSE: snowboarding, badminton, rugby, and the fitness log. It will also benefit me as a part of my out of school running, which is a recreational exercise which also works in hand with maximising my cardiovascular endurance, and maintaining motivation for a healthy lifestyle. After the fitness programme, I will then retest my fitness components to see if there have been any improvements.

                In order to improve these areas of my health and skill related fitness, I will have to perform activities which are beneficial to the areas necessary. For running and rugby, it is essential to improve my cardiovascular fitness, which allow me to maintain long periods of physical exertion, and maintain my stamina. For my rugby and badminton, it would be beneficial to develop upper body muscular endurance – this will enable me to perform better power shots, and for rugby I can be of more use in the scrum and ruck by being of more competition.  For all sports it would be of use to have a good body composition, which will contribute to developing my speed, agility and flexibility, all skill related abilities that will put me in advantage to opponents.

                As not all aspects of sport can be developed in just 12 weeks, it is more beneficial to concentrate on just a few aspects of training to be of more benefit. Here is a collated summary of what would be a personal achievement:

  • To improve muscular endurance of lower body muscle groups. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to sustain repeated contractions. This will be achieved by using lower weights for more repetitions (i.e. leg extension for 4 sets of 10 repetitions). This will focus on the quadriceps muscle groups, as these are the muscle groups that have the most strain put on them in long distance running, and snowboarding. I achieved level 9. 11 in the bleep test and would like to achieve level 12 as I feel rather sluggish when playing a 50 minute rugby game, when I redo the test following the fitness log, because I feel this is a realistic ambition. To improve my stamina (VO2 Max) I will also regularly go running outside of school on a 4.22 mile run in my local vicinity every other day.
  • To improve muscular strength of upper body muscle groups. Muscular strength is the ability of your body's muscle to generate force in a short period of time. My upper body strength is a lot weaker than the rest of my body and therefore I would like to focus and improve this area. I can tell this from playing badminton. The strength of my shots/hits can often affect my play and it is one of my weaknesses. Therefore by increasing muscular strength in my upper body I should improve this. Increased muscular strength will help to improve explosive power (which is a combination of speed and strength). This goal will be achieved by completing exercises with increased weights and lower repetitions (i.e. Chest Press, 45g for 2 sets of 13 repetitions). I tested myself prior to the beginning with a hand-grip dynamiter and achieved 37kg. When I redo the test I would like to achieve 40-45kg.

To ensure that my fitness log is measurable, I will do tests for my fitness components stated above, and perform a recognised test for each. Cardiovascular endurance being the priority, I will perform both the Bleep Test, and 12 minute Cooper Run. For my muscular endurance, I will perform the press-up test and sit-up test for 30 seconds each. Finally, to test power I will do the vertical jump test, and perform the hand-grip dynamometer.

I have also decided to incorporate fitness suite tests, which provides more relatable data, as the standardised tests aren’t conducted very often. Here is a table of my initial one rep-max scores prior to the fitness log, which will be re-conducted after the fitness log to measure overall progression.

I have used ‘Smarter’ target-setting throughout my programme. I have listed below how each part of ‘Smarter’ has been incorporated into the programme to effectively cope with the mental, and physical demands of the fitness log. The targets aim to motivate myself and maintain my initial tenacity.  

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SMARTER goals

S – Specific

This Programme is specific to my personal goals regarding what I want to achieve. I play badminton and so would like to achieve a better power-shot and would also like to increase the level and distance that I can run. Therefore the exercises included in the fitness log are specific to these goals. My attention is specifically concentrated on the areas most needed to be developed.

M – Measurable

I measured my strength before the fitness programme which will act as a standard and will be compared against in intervals throughout the log. ...

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