Describing and Explaining the Components of Fitness. Fitness and fitness testing

Authors Avatar

Jean Carlo Gonzales

Assignment 2: Describing and Explaining the Components of Fitness.

Fitness and fitness testing

Fitness testing plays an important role in sport and also in everyday life. The sportsperson or non sport person is tested for different reasons such as; if the sportsperson is making any progression, if reversibility is taking place, Assesses strengths and weaknesses, if they are fit with the population norms, to find out their current fitness and tests effectives of training programmes. To test fitness you need to understand what the term fitness really is. Fitness is described in Microsoft Encarta reference library 2004 as:  

The ability of the human body to function with vigour and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to engage in leisure activities, and to meet physical stresses.”

The Components of Fitness

The components of fitness are divided into two groups which are the skill related and the health related. Health related means how much you can exceed with your body in terms of health. For example cardio vascular depends how much your body can do and it also aids to prevent any disease like cardio vascular disease which it’s good for your own health. In the other hand skill related skills help you be better in a certain sport, for example speed and agility is needed to be a good player in football. Overall health and skill make the components of fitness which makes you exercise or succeed in sports.

Skill related fitness:

-Agility

-Balance

-Coordination

-Power

-Speed

Health related fitness:                                    

-Aerobic Endurance

-Flexibility

-Muscle strength

-Muscle endurance

-Body composition

Difference Methods of Fitness Testing:

A variety of tests are put in place to test the fitness components. They can be field based fitness tests which is simple because all you need is the comfort of your house, a field or an empty space and inexpensive field tests equipment or lab based fitness test which is more complicated because you would need scientific resources to conduct the test appropriate. These sorts of tests provide the trainers, coaches and athletes with meaningful information about what’s going fine or what area needs progress.

Testing Components of Fitness

Flexibility what it is: is the measure of free movement in person’s joints .This is especially needed for gymnast? However the range depends on the ligaments and muscles surrounding the joint, shape of the articulating surfaces and contact between tissue masses of adjacent segments. Flexibility can change, the change occurs when muscle and connective tissue adapt to range of motion frequently used and if full ranged is not used often then muscle and connective tissues tend to shorten. We can also decline in flexibility when inactivity takes place and inappropriate activity.

Sit and reach:

The sit and reach test was made for the purpose to measure flexibility in the lower back and hamstrings. This test is a field based test because is so simple to set up and conduct, it only needs a box, ruler and you to sit down.

The Sit and Reach Test Procedure

-Sitting on the floor with legs out making sure that the knees don’t bend.

-Place your feet flat against the box, it has to bear footed.

-The tester needs to make sure to keep the knees straight.

-Palms facing down the person stretch and reach as far as tip of the finger can go and then tester records the measurement. There shouldn’t be no finger movements just fingers straight.

-After three turns the fourth is held for 2 seconds and recorded

Normative table of the sit and reach test

The normative table has being created for the purpose for the sportsperson or non-sport person to check in what category he/she are in. The more your hand reaches the measurement the higher rating you will get. For example if a man gets 21 then he is considered excellent than a man that scores -5 would be considered only fair.

 

Advantages of the sit and reach test

The sit and reach test has many advantages. Is a really common test and is practiced around many countries, simply because it is really easy to assemble and execute. It only requires a box and someone that is willing to do it. The test can be performed under a minute which comparison to other test such as the geniometer test that takes much longer and especially it has plenty of data available for comparison.

Disadvantages of the sit and reach test

The sit and reach test also comes with a few disadvantages. One major concern is that it only measures flexibility in the region of the lower back and hamstrings, so meaning it cannot provide an accurate score for overall flexibility. Other negatives about the sit and reach test is that dissimilarity in arms, legs trunk may mislead information and simply because some people may not have access to a sit and reach box available for testing.

Alternative test for flexibility

Another test of flexibility involves the use of a geniometer to measure the range of motion at a joint. The “head” of the goniometer is placed at the axis of rotation of a joint while the arms are aligned longitudinally with the bone. A measuring in degrees can be taken afterwards by the tester.One positive about the geniometer than the sit and reach is that if you have a neck or back problem the sit and reach would be out of the question.

Muscular strength

Muscular strength is used in everyday life such as picking up shopping bags, moving things, carrying your child ect.Muscular strength is defined as “the ability of a specific muscle or muscle group to exert a force in a single maximal contraction” by Barker et al 2004.Muscular strength has many benefits such as helps maintain good posture in old age, avoid injuries, helps maintain independent lifestyle such as moving heavy objects from place to place and aids coordination while moving e.g. running in football. Strength can be measured with the use of dynamometers which give an objective measure of the force generated within various muscles or muscle group

Join now!

Testing Muscular strength

The handgrip dynamometer test is the easiest test to administer. The test measures the grip strength generated by the muscles in the forearm. The strength in your forearm muscle has important functions such as throwing, catching and lifting.

Procedure

-Hold the hand grip in the hand to be tested

-The elbow and forearm should be at a 90 degree angle

-With elbow alongside the body

-The dynamometer is held with four fingers and then should be squeeze for the duration of 5 seconds

...

This is a preview of the whole essay