Cardio Vascular Endurance
First up Cardiovascular Endurance…
Cardiovascular Endurance is your heart and lungs ability to get oxygen from the air, put it into your blood to keep your body moving. Your Cardiovascular System is what helps you to do activities such as run, swim, jog, jump rope, and lots of other activities.
The main test use to measure Cardiovascular Endurance in PE Classes is the Mile Run or the Pacer Test.
Muscular Strength
Next up is Muscular Strength…
Muscular Strength is the ability of your muscles to perform ONE rep of an activity with the MAXIMUM force it can. For example, a vertical jump test would be a measure of muscular strength.
In a vertical jump test, we would measure how high you can jump one time. This will tell us how strong your lower body muscles are and how much strength they can perform at their maximum force exertion as you jump up into the air as high as you can.
Another example of a strength test would be performing a maximum lift on a squat or bench press for 1 repetition.
Muscular strength can sometimes be confused with Muscular Endurance, but they are different…
Muscular Endurance
Muscular Endurance is is your muscles ability to do an exercise over and over again repeatedly.
A common way to measure muscular endurance is through a pushup or curl-up (or sit-up) test.
When we practice the curl-up or push up test, we test those muscles ability to perform over and over again.
How I like to remember the difference between Strength and Endurance
Muscular Strength = How Much
vs.
Muscular Endurance = How Many
Are Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance related?
Of course! If you have good Muscular Endurance, more than likely you will also have good Muscular Strength and vice versa since they are both measuring the capacity of your muscles in different ways.
Flexibility
Flexibility is your body’s ability to bend, stretch, and move and the range of motions you have at your joints.
If you can stand up straight, then bend down and touch your toes, this will give you an idea of how flexible you are in your legs and lower back.
Flexibility is important because it helps to prevent injuries along with allowing you to move more proficiently and allows you to be more comfortable when performing any activities.
Daily stretching is a great way to maintain and increase flexibility. You can also participate in activities that will naturally help you to increase your flexibility, like Yoga, Dance or Gymnastics.
At my school, I measure flexibility using the Sit and Reach Test, which measures flexibility in your legs and lower back.
Body Composition
Last but not least is Body Composition.
Body Composition is referring to what your body is made up of. Particularly, the amount of fat, muscle, and lean tissue in your body.
The most common way we measure Body Composition is with height and weight, even though that’s not the most accurate way to measure.
Most schools don’t have fancy equipment so they commonly use height and weight as a measurement for Body Composition since all you need is a scale and measuring tape.
Your body composition can be control by many different factors, but the 3 main factors I always highlight for my students are getting good sleep, staying active and eating healthy foods like vegetables and fruits.
The type of food you eat, the amount of exercise and activity you get each day and how much sleep you get can have a very beneficial or negative impact on your body composition.
That’s it!
That is the basics of the 5 Components of Health Related Fitness