Strength- Is the amount of force you can exert when your muscles are working against a weight or some sort of resistance. Activities like weightlifting, climbing, and rugby scrums all especially require strength. Successful sports players all have to, like Stamina, develop their strength. There are three different types of strength: EXPLOSIVE STRENGTH, DYNAMIC STRENGTH and STATIC STRENTH.
EXPLOSIVE strength is the energy used in single explosive actions such as jumping, throwing or weightlifting.
DYNAMIC strength is the ability of the muscles to support or to move your body over a long period of time. Sports that require such strength are for example downhill skiing.
STATIC strength is the force applied to an object that cannot be moved with ease. For example tug-of-war or weightlifting, such activities require static strength.
Suppleness – Is how far you can move and bend your body at the joints. It is also known as flexibility. Some sports require more suppleness and flexibility than others, for example gymnastics.
Exercise can affect people in different ways. In certain cases, some exercise can be harmful for example, if a person were to decide to run the London marathon without any training or dieting the body would not be able to cope with the added pressure on its vital organs, lungs and heart. Also exercise can bring a risk of injury to the person. The individual must take precautions to try to prevent this from happening, a warm up and warm down, using the correct equipment and supervision. The injuries that could occur can be skeletal injuries, cartilage and bone injuries. To the cardio-vascular system, heart attacks, strokes and fainting. Tears and cramps can occur on the body’s muscles. There can also be problems caused by asthma, which affect the breathing of the individual.
Drugs can play a big role in sport and exercise, as they can help to enhance a person’s performance illegally. There are three types of drug groups:
Prescribed drugs- such as antibiotics, which are used to help a person to recover and overcome an illness,
Recreational drugs- such as tobacco, and alcohol which can be brought legally and are used in everyday life,
Performance enhancing drugs- these are often used by sportsmen and women to illegally enhances their performance. By increasing muscle growth, to make them perform better, giving them the edge over there opponents. The Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal in the 1988 Olympic games for using a banned substance.
I’m going to study the health and fitness of 11-19 year old males. This is a period known as adolescence.
This is the period in people’s lives that they are likely to experiment most with things such as alcohol and drugs and suchlike. People also change more rapidly and drastically during this period. It is a time when people like to explore, trying new ideas and behaviours. It is a time when changes in attitudes towards health-related issues can have the greatest effects. Young people discover themselves during this period; it is a transitional period. Long running habits are more likely to be established in this period, such as hard drinking or drug habits. In recent years, alcohol consumption and drug taking has increased amongst youngsters, particularly young men. Many young men take up heavy drinking in an attempt to prove their masculinity or fit in with the crowd. These things distract them from looking after themselves and from concentrating on their health and well being.
The rise of computer games and home entertainment in general is also a factor in the changing state of the health of young men. These days young men are likely to spend a lot of their time playing computer games instead of going outside. Ten or twenty years ago, young men amused themselves by going out and exercising, but since the rise of computer games in the early 90’s, habits have changed. Fewer and fewer young men and boys are getting outside and exercising, instead preferring to stay at home in front of the television or computer. As a consequence, young men and boys are not as fit and healthy as they used to be.
Another factor is the changing eating habits of the nation. More and more takeaway meals and fast food is being consumed. Although healthy eating is made available, it is a lot easier to get fast food. Along with drinking eating unhealthy and 'not' caring about what you eat is also done to fit in with the crowd. Although it is rather stereotypical of men to spend the day in the pub and then to go out for a curry or a takeaway, it still happens and doesn’t make the male's lifestyle any healthier.
Many concerns about young men's health, is to do with the willingness to take risks, by this I mean; smoking, drinking and drug use (especially illegal drugs).
Smoking- research found in the 'Boys' and young men's health literature and practice review shows that very few students are smokers when they start secondary school. Children aged 11 years, only 1% was regular smokers and 4 in 5 had never tried smoking. However by the age of 15 24%of pupils were regular smokers and only 30%had never tried it. 10% of all 11-15 year olds smoke, smoking an average of 50 cigarettes a week, it is suggested that regular smoking begins at the ages of 12 and 13 and by the age of 15-19 they want to give up. There are many different factors effecting cigarette consumption; the price, advertising, other smokers in family, friends that smoke and the availability of cigarettes. At the ages of 20-24 both men and women are most likely to smoke. In the same study people in manual working jobs are also more likely to smoke. The gender balance of smokers is more complex with age, younger males are more likely to smoke than females or have tried smoking. By the age of 18, 40%of young men are smokers compared to only 30% of women. Many young men aged between 11 and 16 agreed that smoking had positive repercussions, for example men agreed that it made you look older and can help you to make friends more easier. On the other hand men found that smokers tend to be more boring. Males in the school years of 7 and 8 thought that smoking helped you to calm down. Drug use can also be
related to smoking as 63% of regular smokers had used drugs compared to only 1% of those who had never smoked.
Alcohol- consumption has increased significantly in the 1990's. This is especially striking, as the same increase is not the same for the age's group of 25-44. At 16 years of age 35% of men are regular drinkers and by the age of 19 the figure has risen to 75%. 11% of men aged 16 had been involved in a fight whilst under the influence of alcohol. This figure rises to 20% by the age of 19. 24% of men have admitted to having a one night stand after drinking alcohol. nds who also drink regularly and consume alcohol themselves.
SMOKING, DRINKING AND DRUG USE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN ENGLAND IN 2000
Smoking, drinking and drugs misuse amongst young people increased between 1999-2000, according to a major national survey of secondary schoolchildren aged 11-15 published by the Department of Health.
The survey, commissioned by the Department of Health, was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research and the National Foundation for Educational Research among more than 7,000 pupils in 225 schools in England during Autumn 2000. The main report on the survey will be published in Autumn 2001.
The key findings are as follows:
Smoking
The Government has set a target to reduce the number of children aged 11-15 who smoke regularly from a baseline of 13 per cent in 1996 to 11 per cent by 2005 and 9 per cent or less by 2010.
The proportion of pupils who were regular smokers (defined as usually smoking at least one cigarette a week) had fallen from 13 per cent in 1996 to 9 per cent in 1999, but increased to 10 per cent in 2000. However, because of the fluctuations in smoking behaviour since 1982, it is not possible to tell whether this is the beginning of a new upward trend in smoking.
As previous surveys have shown, girls are more likely to be regular smokers than boys (12 per cent compared with 9 per cent), and there is a sharp increase in prevalence with age: only 1 per cent of 11 year olds smoke regularly, but almost one quarter (23 per cent) of 15 year olds do.
The proportion of girls who smoked regularly increased from 10 per cent in 1999 to 12 per cent in 2000, and the proportion of boys who smoked regularly changed from 8 per cent to 9 per cent in the same period although this latter change was not statistically significant.
Drinking
The proportion of pupils who had had an alcoholic drink in the previous week had risen steadily from 20 per cent in 1988 to 27 per cent in 1996. It then fell for the first time to 21 per cent in 1998 and 1999, and has risen again to 24 per cent in 2000. This figure shows no clear pattern over time.
Both boys and girls were more likely to have drunk in the last week in 2000 than in 1999. In 2000, boys continued to be slightly more likely than girls to have drunk alcohol in the last week (25 per cent compared with 23 per cent).
As with cigarette smoking, there was a sharp increase in prevalence of drinking with age: in 2000 only 5 per cent of all pupils aged 11 had had a drink in the last week, but 49 per cent of 15 year olds had done so.
The average weekly consumption of alcohol among pupils who drank in the last 7 days has increased steadily from 5.3 units in 1990 (equivalent to almost 3 pints of normal strength beer) to 10.4 units in 2000.
Boys who drink tend to drink more alcohol on average over the course of a week than girls; boys drank an average of 11.7 units in 2000 compared with 9.1 units drunk by girls. For both boys and girls, the mean weekly alcohol consumption of those who drink is higher among older pupils.
Drug use
One of the key performance indicators in the Government's 10-year strategy for tackling drug misuse is "To reduce the proportion of people under the age of 25 reporting use of Class A drugs by 25 per cent by 2005 and 50 per cent by 2008". The survey measures the proportion of pupils who have used drugs (including particular Class A drugs) in the last month and the last year.
The proportion of pupils who had used drugs in the last month increased from 7 per cent in 1998 to 9 per cent in 2000. The proportion who had used drugs in the last year increased from 11 per cent to 14 per cent over the same period.
The pattern of differences according to sex and age was similar over all three years of these surveys. The proportion of boys taking drugs in the last month (10 per cent) was higher than the proportion of girls (8 per cent), but there was no significant difference between girls and boys in the proportions who had used drugs in the last year at 15 per cent of boys and 13 per cent of girls. There were significant differences by age; in 2000 only 3 per cent of 11 year olds had used drugs in the last year, while 29 per cent of 15 year olds had done so.
In 2000, cannabis was by far the most likely drug to have been used - 12 per cent of pupils aged 11-15 had used cannabis in the last year. Use of cannabis in the last year was slightly higher among boys (13 per cent) than girls (11 per cent). Cannabis use increased sharply with age: 2 per cent of 11 year olds had used the drug in the last year compared with 28 per cent of 15 year olds.
The Government has expressed particular concern about the use of heroin and cocaine, as these are considered the drugs which cause the greatest harm. In 2000, 1 per cent of 11-15 year olds had used opiates (heroin or methadone) in the last year, and 4 per cent had used stimulants (a group of substances which includes cocaine and crack as well as ecstasy, amphetamines and poppers). The proportions of pupils using these types of drugs are small and the survey did not detect any differences between 1998 and 2000.
More than one third of pupils (35 per cent) had been offered one or more drugs. Boys were more likely to have been offered them than were girls (37 per cent compared with 34 per cent).
Again, cannabis was the drug most likely to have been offered (28 per cent of pupils said they had been offered cannabis) but 16 per cent said they had been offered stimulants, 13 per cent that they had been offered glue or gas. A smaller proportion of pupils, 6 per cent, said they had been offered heroin or methadone. As with use of drugs, likelihood of having ever been offered drugs increased sharply with age.
