What Is General Training In Physical Education?

02.02.2023 Grady A. Lowry 0 Comments

General Fitness Training may be defined as a scientifically-based and systematic training programme to provide the athlete with the basic means to adapt to the physical load encountered through controlled exercise. Adaptation begins by subjecting the body to a physical load through controlled exercise.
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Contents

- 0.0.1 What is general fitness in physical education?
- 0.0.2 What is the general principle of training?

1 What is general fitness called?
2 What is the importance of general fitness program?
- - 2.0.1 What are general fitness activities?
  - 2.0.2 What does general physical health mean?
3 What is the most important general principles of exercise?
- - 3.0.1 What are the four general principles of exercise?
4 What is the difference between physical and general fitness?
- - 4.0.1 What are the 3 types of physical training?
- 4.1 What are the five components of general fitness?
5 How do you develop a general fitness?

What is general fitness in physical education?

General fitness training works towards broad goals of overall health and well-being, rather than narrow goals of sport competition, larger muscles or concerns over appearance. A regular moderate workout regimen and healthy diet can improve general appearance markers of good health such as muscle tone, healthy skin, hair and nails, while preventing age or lifestyle-related reductions in health and the series of heart and organ failures that accompany inactivity and poor diet.
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What is the general principle of training?

Training means engaging in activity to improve performance and/or fitness; this is best accomplished by understanding general sports training principles: overload, reversibility, progression, individualization, periodization, and specificity.
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What is general fitness called?

Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness is generally achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest along with a formal recovery plan.
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What is the importance of general fitness program?

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities.
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What are general fitness activities?

Summary – Regular exercise is one of the best things you can do for your health. It has many benefits, including improving your overall health and fitness, and reducing your risk for many chronic diseases. There are many different types of exercise; it is important that you pick the right types for you. Most people benefit from a combination of them:

Endurance, or aerobic, activities increase your breathing and heart rate. They keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy and improve your overall fitness. Examples include brisk walking, jogging, swimming, and biking. Strength, or resistance training, exercises make your muscles stronger. Some examples are lifting weights and using a resistance band. Balance exercises can make it easier to walk on uneven surfaces and help prevent falls. To improve your balance, try tai chi or exercises like standing on one leg. Flexibility exercises stretch your muscles and can help your body stay limber. Yoga and doing various stretches can make you more flexible.

Fitting regular exercise into your daily schedule may seem difficult at first. But you can start slowly, and break your exercise time into chunks. Even doing ten minutes at a time is fine. You can work your way up to doing the recommended amount of exercise. How much exercise you need depends on your age and health. Other things that you can do to make the most of your workouts include:

Choosing activities that work all the different parts of the body, including your core (muscles around your back, abdomen, and pelvis). Good core strength improves balance and stability and helps to prevent lower back injury. Choosing activities that you enjoy. It’s easier to make exercise a regular part of your life if you have fun doing it. Exercising safely, with proper equipment, to prevent injuries, Also, listen to your body and don’t overdo it. Giving yourself goals. The goals should challenge you, but also be realistic. It’s also helpful to reward yourself when you reach your goals. The rewards could be something big, like new workout gear, or something smaller, such as movie tickets.

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What does general physical health mean?

Physical health – EUPATI Toolbox Physical health is defined as the condition of your body, taking into consideration everything from the absence of disease to fitness level. Physical health is critical for overall well-being, and can be affected by:

Lifestyle: diet, level of physical activity, and behaviour (for instance, smoking); Human biology: a person’s genetics and physiology may make it easier or harder to achieve good physical health; Environment: our surroundings and exposure to factors such as sunlight or toxic substances; Healthcare service: good healthcare can help prevent illness, as well as detect and treat illness.

: Physical health – EUPATI Toolbox
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What is the most important general principles of exercise?

The best way to achieve optimum results in exercise and fitness is to follow a plan. But not just any plan, such as “I’m going to run 5 miles every day” or “I’ll lift the heaviest weight I can every time I work out.” Your body is an amazing machine that responds to specific stimuli in distinct ways, and your brain is constantly working to protect the body from threats – like way too much stress on the muscles and tendons from continuous all-out hard exercise.

Principle (noun) : 1. a basic truth or theory; 2. an idea that forms the basis of something; 3. a law or fact of nature that explains how something works or why something happens. Fortunately, exercise science gives us five basic principles we can incorporate into a fitness program that will develop the changes, or “adaptations” we desire, in a safe and lasting way.

These five principles are:

The Overload PrincipleThe F.I.T.T. PrincipleThe Specificity PrincipleThe Rest and Recovery PrincipleThe Use It or Lose It Principle

The Overload Principle and the F.I.T.T. Principle work together, so let’s review these first. The Overload Principle is considered the most important concept in exercise. In simple terms, it means that your body will adapt to the demand you impose on it.

For example, when you lift a heavy weight you haven’t lifted before, or you complete a hard cardio workout that puts new demands on your heart and lungs, physiological changes will take place that will allow you to do this more easily next time.
Because the body is so adaptable, the demands we put on it must gradually and progressively increase over time in order to achieve long-term fitness gains.

These demands must be applied slowly, because too much too fast causes the body to react negatively to excessive stress. (For more about this concept, read The Body’s Response to Stress – Understanding the General Adaptation Syndrome,) So it’s important to strategically vary your mode of exercise, intensity and duration of training in order to get better, stronger or faster.

This is where the F.I.T.T. Principle comes in.F.I.T.T. stands for F requency, I ntensity, T ime and T ype. These are the four areas where increases in workload or demand can be made in order to progressively overload the body so it adapts in the desired way. Frequency means how often an exercise is performed.

After any kind of exercise, your body begins a process of repairing and rebuilding stressed tissues. It’s important to find the right balance of work and recovery that provides just enough stress for the body to adapt as well as recover for the next session. Time is simply the duration of the exercise session. It’s a function of intensity and type. Type means the type of exercise performed – strength training, cardio, or a combination of both. The type of exercise is tied to the Specificity Principle, discussed next.

	Strength Training	Cardio Training
Frequency	Increase the # of workout days	Increase the # of workout days
Intensity	Increase the number of repetitions for a given load	Increase pace for a given time or distance
Time	Increase the number of sets	Increase length of workout or distance
Type	Perform a different exercise for the same muscle group	Perform a different type of exercise, ex. running to cycling

The Specificity Principle is, quite simply, that the exercise you do should be specific to your goals. For example, if your goal is simply health and weight management, focus on total body strength, cardio and a healthy diet. If you are a runner wanting to improve your race times, include speed workouts in your training.

If you’re a cyclist training for a 100-mile ride, focus on building up longer distance training rides at an endurance pace.
The Rest and Recovery Principle is critical to achieving gains in fitness.
The body simply cannot tolerate too much stress, and over time will instead “shut down” in order to protect itself.

This results in overtraining syndrome, burnout, excess fatigue, and a weakened immune system. (Read The Body’s Response to Stress – Understanding the General Adaptation Syndrome,) Exercising every day is perfectly fine – just not the same exercise at the same intensity.

Especially with strength training, it’s important to allow at least a day between sessions to allow muscles to repair and rebuild.
However, working different muscle groups on different days (what’s called a “split routine”) will allow for this recovery period for one muscle group while working another.

Low intensity cardio can be done every day, but rest between intense sessions. Rest and recovery are important for your mental state too! The fifth principle, while not specifically targeted to fitness adaptations, is still important to be aware of – Use It or Lose It, Incorporating these principles into your fitness routine will ensure you get the best results in the most efficient way, while preventing injury and overtraining. But it can be complicated. As a virtual fitness coach and personal trainer certified through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), I have the knowledge and experience to develop a progressive program specifically designed for you and your fitness goal.
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What are the four general principles of exercise?

In order to get the maximum out of your training you need to apply the four key principles of training – specificity, progression, overload and individualisation – to what you do.
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What is the difference between physical and general fitness?

Physical Fitness and Physical Activity Published Date: July 16, 2020 What is the difference between physical activity and physical fitness? Physical activity refers to any movement produced by skeletal muscle which uses energy whereas physical fitness is measurable state such as strength or endurance.

Exercise is planned physical activity with the goal of improving physical fitness and health.
Physical fitness is broken into the five categories of cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2 nd Edition gives guidance on the amounts and types of physical activity needed to improve or maintain health and reduce chronic disease.

Why are physical fitness and physical activity important? Many chronic medical diseases are influenced by physical activity and fitness and the lack of getting adequate aerobic activity is associated with about a 10 percent risk of premature mortality.

Inadequate physical activity is contributing to about $117 billion in annual health care costs. What are the benefits of physical activity? There are many health benefits associated with regular physical activity including a lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and death, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and adverse lipid profiles.

People who meet the physical activity guideline of approximately 150 minutes of moderate physical activity a week have an estimated 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality compared to those who are not physically active. However, benefits of reducing all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and metabolic disease are seen with any amount of moderate-intensity physical activity.

Regular physical activity also reduces the risk of many cancers. It can help with weight loss when combined with a reduced calorie diet and help with the prevention of regain after initial weight loss. Neurological and emotional benefits include improved cognition and decreased risk of dementia, reduced anxiety, decreased risk of depression, and improved sleep, among other benefits.

How much physical activity is enough? The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2 nd edition breaks its recommendations up into Key Guideline categories based on age group and chronic health conditions. They guidelines include recommendations for aerobic physical activity, muscle -strengthening activity, and bone-strengthening activity.

The aerobic physical activity guidelines may be met by participating in either moderate-intensity or vigorous intensity activity. Adults should get at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) per week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) of vigorous-intensity physical activity.

In general, 2 minutes of moderate physical activity is equal to about 1 minute of vigorous. Additional health benefits are seen if able to go beyond these recommendations. If unable to meet the recommended activity guidelines, adults should try to get as much moderate-intensity physical activity as they are able.

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It was previously believed that a minimum of 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity was necessary to contribute to the overall daily accumulation to benefit health, but more recent research has found that any amount contributes, even going up the stairs. How do you measure moderate verses vigorous intensity? The intensity of aerobic physical activity can be tracked as either absolute intensity or relative intensity.

Absolute intensity is the amount of energy used during the activity, without considering a person’s fitness level, and is measured in METs. Moderate absolute intensity would range from 3.0 to 5.9 times the amount of energy expended at rest, or 3.0-5.9 METs.

Vigorous absolute intensity is equivalent to 6.0 METs and above.
Using absolute intensity in those with poor physical condition may be inaccurate.
They may expend more energy performing physical activities due to their lack of fitness, and an activity of moderate intensity in a fit person may be vigorous in the unfit.

In this case, using relative intensity may be more appropriate. Relative intensity is based on the level of effort for a given activity and can be estimated with a Rated Perceived Exertion scale (e.g. Borg CR10 Scale, Modified RPE Scale). In a scale of 0 to 10, 0 would be equivalent of sitting and 10 would be maximum intensity.

Moderate activity would be a 5 or 6 and vigorous-intensity activity would begin at 7 to 8.
While performing a moderate-intensity activity a person should be able to able to hold a conversation but want to do only half the talking.
During vigorous-intensity activity a person must take a breath with every few words.

How long does it take to see the benefits of physical activity? Some benefits of physical activity may be seen immediately. Others may take days to weeks to manifest. A single bout of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity can improve blood pressure, insulin resistance, sleep, and anxiety on the day it is performed.

The benefits of improved cardio-respiratory fitness, muscular strength, decreased depressive symptoms, and sustained reductions in blood pressure may require weeks or months of regular physical activity. What is the relationship between physical activity, physical fitness and body weight? Physical fitness and physical activity can lower the risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality at any body weight.

Studies have shown that all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality is lower in physically fit individuals with a high compared to individuals with poor physical fitness and a normal BMI. Individuals with overweight or can improve their health by becoming physically active independent of changes in their body weight.

Low levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of about 75 minutes per week (half of the recommended adult guidelines) results in a 1.8 year gain in life expectancy and if individuals reach the recommended levels of physical activity, there is a 3.4 year gain in life expectancy at every level of BMI.

A lack of physical activity and a high BMI (35.0-39.9) was associated with 7.2 years of life lost when compared with meeting physical activity guidelines and being normal weight. Exercise, a component of physical activity, can help promote weight loss if done along with caloric restriction.

For more helpful information on physical activity, view our resources below!

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 2018. “The Role of Exercise and Physical Activity in Weight Loss and Maintenance”, Damon L. Swift, Ph.D, Neil M. Johannsen, Ph.D.3,5, Carl J. Lavie, M.D.3,6, Conrad P. Earnest, Ph.D.4, and Timothy S. Church, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. Prog Cardiovasc Dis.2014 ; 56(4): 441–447. doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2013.09.012. “Impact of exercise on blood lipids and lipoproteins”.1,,2007 Jul;1(3):175-81. doi: 10.1016/j.jacl.2007.05.006. Epub 2007 Jun 7. “Exercise as an adjunct to weight loss and maintenance in moderately obese subjects”,1,,,1989 May;49(5 Suppl):1115-23. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/49.5.1115. “Effects of physical inactivity and obesity on morbidity and mortality: current evidence and research issues.” 1,,1999 Nov;31(11 Suppl): S646-62.

: Physical Fitness and Physical Activity
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What are the 3 types of physical training?

The three main types of physical activity are aerobic, muscle strengthening, and bone strengthening. Balance and flexibility activities are also beneficial. Aerobic activity is the type that benefits your heart and lungs the most.
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What are the five components of general fitness?

A: The five components of physical fitness are cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition, according to Fit Day.
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How do you develop a general fitness?

A lot of people want to get as strong and as muscular as possible; other people want to get ripped to the bone, but most people couldn’t care less about either. At my kettlebell workshops, whenever someone asks me about training, I always ask what his or her specific training goals are.

The response, 90% of the time, is an improvement in general fitness.
Many trainers, including myself, find such responses frustrating, as they’re too general.
We want specifics so we can design personalized training programs for goals such as losing thirty pounds or adding fifty pounds to the deadlift.

The bottom line is, most people aren’t that dedicated to training, Something trainers forget since we think people should take their training goals as seriously as we take our own. Well, we can’t worry about what people should be doing, we have to look at what they are doing and what they want and what most people want is to feel better, improve appearance, and have more energy. What Is General Fitness? There are a multitude of ways to answer this question. Some say it’s the ability to run several miles without having a heart attack. Others say it’s the ability to bench press 200 pounds without your butt lifting a foot off the bench. None of these answers are wrong, but let’s look at measures of fitness that actually enhance your life: having a good level of general fitness means you have a good amount of strength to get through daily living with ease.

This means you don’t have to pay someone to carry your luggage at the airport or require assistance to lift your carry-on baggage into the overhead compartment. It means you can carry several bags of groceries from the store to your car by yourself. Having a good level of general fitness means you’re fit enough to walk your dog everyday instead of paying someone else to do it.

Principles of training in sports\\Principles of training physical education.

It means you can walk up several flights of stairs without huffing and puffing like a locomotive. While serious trainees won’t find these measures of fitness exciting, this article isn’t for so-called serious trainees but for everyday people who want a high level of general fitness.

first. When it comes to strength in the modern world, we want to focus on improving two important areas: One, getting better at lifting things off the floor, such as heavy boxes, five-gallon water bottles and big bags of pet food.

Second, we want to improve our ability to place things overhead, such as carry-on bags on the plane or putting away stacks of dishes into overhead cupboards. When you’re too weak to do basic activities in life, the quality of your life diminishes. Two great strength exercises to develop both areas, and as measuring tools for progress, are the barbell deadlift and the dumbbell military press,

Most people have weak backs and frequently complain of back pain, consequently, they avoid

back exercises

, which is a big mistake. You want to crush your weaknesses, and develop strength, rather than pamper your weaknesses.

The deadlift is the ticket to a strong and functional lower body and back. It teaches you how to work your body as unit and recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibers to get the job done. As an added bonus, the deadlift is a great mid-section exercise and is more effective at developing a strong core than the moronic exercises in vogue today.

You can do deadlifts with dumbbells, kettlebells-or even sandbags-and get great results, but the barbell deadlift is ideal since it addresses both ends of the strength spectrum. In other words, if you’re a beginner, you can simply use the 45 pound bar (or a lighter one) to get started. On the other hand, the barbell can be loaded up to 500 pounds, or more, in increments, which makes it ideal for strength progression.

Next, let’s talk about the dumbbell military press. If barbells are so great, how come I’m recommending the dumbbell military press instead of the barbell military press? The barbell military press requires either a squat rack-or stands-so you can pick up the bar at chest level at the starting point of the exercise.

A high-quality squat rack is pretty expensive and, while a great tool for serious trainees, not a necessity for general fitness practitioners who want to keep things simple.

The other option for getting the barbell in place is doing an exercise called the clean to get the barbell into place. Sure, you can use a reverse curl when the weights are light, but eventually the weights will be too heavy for that and you’ll have a difficult time getting the bar in place and risk injury.

Those who disagree are probably using poor technique themselves or trainers teaching poor technique. Sure, serious trainees and elite athletes might learn the clean fast, but most people are neither and getting injured isn’t part of a solid general fitness program.

Again, we want to keep things simple for general fitness trainees and dumbbells do just that. One, you can start with the one-arm dumbbell military press and use two hands to get the bell to the starting point at shoulder level. Even a pretty heavy dumbbell won’t be a big deal to get into place.

Further, if you have the strength to press an eighty-pound dumbbell, you certainly have the strength to pick it off the floor with two hands and get it into place. The one-arm dumbbell press also allows the trainee to work on imbalances since one arm is generally stronger than the other and this will be readily apparent with the one-arm press.

Finally, the one-arm press engages the core to keep you stabilized so you get the added benefit of developing a strong mid-section. I’m sure all the minimalists out there are excited at the idea of having only to do two exercises for strength training but.

That won’t work, not in the long run.
While the press and deadlift are great exercises for developing and measuring strength, they’re not the only two exercises you should do.
Just as a baseball player doesn’t only play baseball to stay in shape, you need to do other strength exercises for balancing your development and avoiding injuries – which are inherent with imbalanced programs.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do as many exercises as you might think. Here Are The Five Areas You Need To Cover:

Press (example: bench press, military press, push-ups)
Pull (example: pull-ups, bent-over row, and lat pull-down)
Quads (example: barbell squat, dumbbell squat, front squat)
Hamstrings (example: Romanian deadlift, Lying leg curls)
Abs (example: hanging leg-raise, sit-ups, dumbbell side-bend)

These five areas are what I like to call the five pillars of strength training. For a balanced program, pick one exercise from each category and do two or three sets per exercise, three times per week. For example, do a full-body workout on Monday-Wednesday-Friday.

Now, the men are probably looking at the pillars and wondering where are the curls while the women are probably wondering where are the glute-isolation exercises.
Well, this is why I get paid to give training advice while you wonder why your arms are still thirteen inches, flexed, after years of doing ten sets of curls several times a week.

Doing a lot of isolation work is majoring in minor things while focusing on compound exercises is majoring in major things and provides the greatest payoff. Men, your arms get plenty of work with presses, pull-ups, and rows; in fact, they’ll get bigger and stronger than ever.

A-1: One-arm Dumbbell Military Press 2×6 (two sets of six)
A-2: Pull-up or Lat Pulldown 2×6

Do a set of A-1, rest for one minute, then do a set of A-2. Rest for one minute and continue with another set of A-1. Repeat until all the sets are done.

B-1: Barbell Deadlift 2×3 (start the exercises with the legs bent as much as possible for quad and glute engagement. The hamstrings will come into play as well)
B-2: Slow and controlled Sit-ups 2×10 (four seconds up, four seconds down)

Do a set of B-1, rest for one minute, then do a set of B-2. Rest for one minute and continue with another set of B-1. Repeat until all the sets are done. Wednesday

A-1: Double Dumbbell Military Press 2×6
A-2: One-arm Dumbbell Bent-over Row 2×6 each side

Do a set of A-1, rest for one minute, then do a set of A-2. Rest for one minute and continue with another set of A-1. Repeat until all the sets are done.

B-1: Dumbbell Squat 2×6
B-2: Dumbbell Lunge 2×6 each side

Do a set of B-1, rest for one minute, then do a set of B-2. Rest for one minute and continue with another set of B-1. Repeat until all the sets are done. Friday

A-1: One-arm Floor or Bench Press 2×6
A-2: Pull-up or Lat Pulldown 2×6

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Do a set of A-1, rest for one minute, then do a set of A-2. Rest for one minute and continue with another set of A-1. Repeat until all the sets are done.

B-1: Barbell Deadlift 2×3
B-2: Hanging Leg Raise 2×5

Do a set of B-1, rest for one minute, then do a set of B-2. Rest for one minute and continue with another set of B-1. Repeat until all the sets are done. The above is just one option. You can also limit your strength training to Monday/Thursday and do three sets per exercise.

Or, you can do an upper-body focus on Monday/Thursday and lower-body focus on Tuesday/Friday with higher volume work.
Regardless, if your goal is a basic general fitness program for strength, the above program is a great way to go.
Follow the program for four weeks, then change the rep ranges or pick different exercises for variety.

If you need help with a personalized program, click on the link at the end of this article. 2. Cardio.

Next, let’s look at the

cardio

component of a general fitness program: we need cardio to strengthen our

hearts

, increase our lung capacity and general circulation, plus develop our stamina-the last thing you want to be is a strong guy who can’t get up five flights of stairs.

There are a lot of things that you can do for cardio and ideally you’ll find an activity you find enjoyable. For most people, riding an exercise bike for 30 minutes isn’t enjoyable. This is why people don’t stick with cardio programs, since cardio is associated with excruciatingly boring activities.

It doesn’t have to be this way.
If you like playing tennis, make it your cardio workout and play three times a week.
If you enjoy swimming or hiking, do them as cardio, and make time three times per week.
Unfortunately, life schedules being what they are, we don’t always find time to engage in enjoyable physical activities.

But you have plenty of options, and one is power walking. Legendary bodybuilder Steve Reeves, a big fan of power walking, came from the era of bodybuilding in which bodybuilders were genuinely in great physical condition. Put on some headphones with your favorite music and go walking for 30 minutes.

Keep track of your distance-your goal at the next workout is to go farther in the same time. If you don’t like the idea of walking with long strides and flapping your arms up in the air (power walkers do look funny) wear a weight vest. Putting a forty-pound vest on and taking a walk turns walking into an intense cardio workout.

Whichever option you choose, start out slowly and invest in high quality-walking shoes. If you prefer doing cardio indoors on exercise machines, choose interval training, In addition to building a strong heart, interval training-otherwise known as high intensity cardio-burns fat big-time and provides a great cardio workout in half the time of a moderate cardio workout.

You’ll be a believer after a single twenty-minute session. Here’s how it works: warm up with a moderate pace for five minutes, then do ten rounds of thirty seconds at a rapid pace followed by ninety seconds at a moderate pace. End your workout with a five-minute cool down to get your heart rate back to normal, and you’re all done.

As the workouts become easier, shorten the moderate pace segment of each interval-for example, do thirty seconds all out followed by fifty seconds moderate. Eventually, get down to thirty seconds fast, followed by thirty seconds moderate, adding more intervals as your stamina increases. Click Image To Enlarge. High Intensity Cardio. Other interval options include jumping rope or circuits of bodyweight exercises, such as push-ups, squats, jump squats and jumping jacks. No need to pick just one! Do different routines at each workout to keep things interesting. 3. Joint Mobility, Flexibility, And Balance.

Next on the list:

joint mobility

flexibility

and balance. While some elite lifters are content being able to bench press seven hundred pounds while they’re unable to touch their toes, it contradicts general fitness.

While you’ve no need for the adeptness of Cirque du Soleil performer, you do need reasonable levels of balance, mobility and flexibility for fitness and optimal quality of life, and being able to touch your toes is a basic but excellent indicator of flexibility.


	Cirque du Soleil: Founded in 1984 in Quebec, the Cirque du Soleil, French for the “Circus of the Sun,” is a traveling circus that mixes circus arts and street theater and features original music, special effects and spectacular costumes but no animal acts. It began as the “High Heels Club,” an entertainment troupe of stilt walkers that set up a festival in the early 1980s where performing artists could exchange ideas and develop a circus tradition for Quebec. Now, the Cirque develops its programs in a Montreal studio and employs acrobats, musicians and actors from around the world. It has permanent shows in Las Vegas and in DisneyWorld in Florida. Cirque Du Soleil is constantly reinventing the idea of the circus and trying to defy the limits of reality while incorporating metaphors, social and political themes, acrobatics and aquatics in its lavish theatrical productions. “Cirque du Soleil.” AnswerNotes. Answers Corporation, 2006. Answers.com 06 Nov.2007.

Bottom line: if you’re unable to touch your toes with slightly bent legs under minimal strain, you’re too tight. If you can’t stand on one leg for thirty seconds, your balance is poor. Finally, the ability to do a “rock bottom” bodyweight squat, followed by sitting in the bottom position for thirty seconds indicates good mobility.

These minimalist standards for joint mobility, flexibility and balance are measures of general fitness achievable by anyone with two arms and legs.
You may have a lot of work to do or perhaps your body’s natural flexibility and balance are entirely adequate.
Either way, I suggest supplementing your general fitness program with these exercises, and first thing in the morning is a good time loosen up.

A great joint mobility exercise that come to mind is the Hindu Squat. The Hindu squat loosens up the legs and gives the circulation a boost. Twenty-five reps of each exercise is a good starting point. To make the exercise more effective, practice deep breathing: take a deep breath as you rise from the squat and breathe out as you lower yourself to the floor,

The deep breathing will release epinephrine, the “good feeling” hormone, a lung builder and stress eliminator.
Another great exercise to increase circulation and loosen up is the kettlebell swing,
Grab a light kettlebell with two hands and swing it back between your feet as far as you can; quickly reverse the motion and swing it up and overhead.

Do twenty-five reps and you’ll be nice and loose and ready to go. You can use a dumbbell if you don’t have a kettlebell. Follow this routine with a walk to further loosen up. What you want to avoid is getting out of bed after lying in your lymphatic fluids, sitting down and eating breakfast, then moving on to sitting in the car and finally, sitting at a desk for eight hours-sound familiar? I do a lot of work at home and my commute is from the bedroom to the couch in the living room where I work on my laptop.

I find that getting up and having a few glasses of water to hydrate, then taking my dog for a walk, followed by some joint mobility exercise gets me energized and ready for the day. I hate the idea of sleeping for eight hours, then getting up and sitting down for several more; you need to get up and move.

Doing joint mobility exercise followed by cardio in the morning isn’t a bad way to go, but avoid weight training in the morning. People are naturally tighter in the morning so it’s not the best time to weight train. You can also use joint mobility exercises to warm-up before your strength training workouts.

What about stretching ? I’d save stretching for after your strength and cardio workouts. You’ll be warmed up, more flexible, and get more benefit from stretching while reducing risk of injury. Refer to the stretching program at the end of this article for a good general fitness option. For balance, do some one-leg stands with your joint mobility sessions: start by standing on one foot with a goal of thirty seconds.

Keep adding seconds until you can stay up for a minute or more. Then, work on one-leg stands with your eyes closed for thirty seconds working up to ninety seconds. No doubt about it, strength without adequate cardio, flexibility and mobility isn’t enough. 4. Nutrition.

All the exercise in the world won’t compensate for a cr@ppy

diet

. Sure, you might stay thin by working out four hours a day while eating a dozen Krispy Kremes each night, but there’s a difference between thinness and healthiness and they don’t always go together.

It’s true that when you’re following a solid training program you can eat occasional junk food and not worry about it. Moreover, as Joel Marion writes in his excellent book, The Cheater’s Diet, cheating on your diet once a week is a great way to increase leptin levels, which is the most important fat loss hormone,

The good news is that not only is it o.k. to splurge once a week, it’s even beneficial to staying lean! Keep in mind we’re talking about one day a week here, not seven. The other six days you want to do as Ori Hofmekler, author of The Anti-Estrogenic Diet, recommends and focus on eating as low on the food chain as possible.

This means eating low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, such as berries, tomatoes, oranges, apples, baby spinach salads, red peppers, broccoli and cauliflower. It means getting protein from grass-fed meat and dairy, organic beans, nuts, and seeds. Finally, it means getting healthy fat from sources such as ghee, olive oil, avocados, almond butter, nuts, and seeds.

If you eat the majority of your food from the aforementioned sources you’ll be adding a tremendous boost to your general fitness program.
Once a week, splurge and eat whatever you want, guilt-free, since how we relate to food is important.
What about meal frequency ? Should we eat five times per day, three times, once a day? There are various answers to this question.

Many trainers and nutritionists feel that five small meals is the way to go, but I disagree for two reasons: One, it’s too much of a hassle to prepare meals that often. Most of us have no patience for food preparation and feel irritation just thinking about making five meals a day. View Protein Powders Sorted By Top Sellers Here, View Protein Bars Sorted By Top Sellers Here, Second, the five-meals-a day-plan doesn’t work well because you’re never really satisfied: you leave every meal hungry and disappointed and all you’re thinking about is your next fix, in the form of another small and unsatisfying meal.

Let’s face it, eating a large meal is enjoyable, though not to the point of being stuffed and bloated, only to the point of satiety.
The key is limiting the large meal to once per day as recommended by Ori Hofmekler in The Anti-Estrogenic Diet and The Warrior Diet,
The best time to have this meal is dinner when we’re done with the day.

Having made it through another day, we get to enjoy a large, healthy and satisfying meal.

This doesn’t mean you should water fast throughout the day-very few can maintain such a rigid program for long. Instead, snack during the day on protein shakes, salads with pecans and walnuts, fruits and vegetables, any food low on the food chain, thus easily digestible and assimilable.

Digestion

takes a lot of energy, which is why so many people are tired all day.

Having a big breakfast sets you up for an unproductive day. Eating a big lunch is fine. if you have an hour to nap afterward. You’ll have to experiment to know which meal pattern is optimal for you. Some people get through a day with few to no snacks while others need to eat more. 5. Restoration:

All right, we’ve made it to the last pillar of general fitness, which is restoration. (Especially appropriate since you’ll need some after reading this long article.) We’re a stimulus-addicted society wherein busy-ness is a status symbol, i.e., the busier we are the more important we are.

We despise laziness though as a nation we’re fatter than ever. Being productive is important, as is living a full life but your ability to lead a full and pleasurable life is directly related to your restoration program. Just as a car can’t be driven continuously without eventually breaking down, human beings need time to slow down and get tuned-up. Critical things happen when we’re deeply sleeping: one, we have vivid dreams, which are important for mental health and sanity; two, we produce abundant anti-aging hormones, such as testosterone, DHEA, pregnenolone and human growth hormone; three, the body goes into repair mode when we’re sleeping and rebuilds the damage of daily living.

Sleep deprivation literally puts one in an aging state and the less sleep, the more rapid the aging. When we avoid sleep, we not only cheat ourselves, but the important people in our lives, since you’re never your best when sleep deprived. One reason we might not sleep well is poor stress -management skills.

Stress is in the mind of the beholder so isn’t necessarily created by what’s happening in our lives but how our brain is interpreting what’s happening. We need to build stronger reserves to handle stress and meditation is ideal. Meditation can take many forms, for instance, you can practice chi gong or tai chi as a form of meditation, or simply walk around the block focusing on the breath and staying in the moment.

You don’t have to sit in the lotus position and chant; personally, I walk while deep breathing and I listen to a meditation CD called Holosync for an hour, after workouts, or before going to sleep.
I sit in a comfortable chair and listen to the Holosync program using noise reduction headphones and breathe deeply through the nose for the duration of the CD.

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More often than not, I fall asleep during this process and wake up refreshed. Meditation isn’t a new age fad but something wise people have been doing for thousands of years and I suggest you add it to your program. Another effective component of a restoration program is massage therapy,

A good massage each week will do wonders for your muscles, and overall well-being. If once a week is cost prohibitive, get one every other week. If that’s too much, then once a month, and if that is cost prohibitive, cancel your cable and cell phone service. or get a better paying job. Any massage is only as good as the practitioner, so do your homework; you may need to visit several therapists until you find the best one for you.

Make sure you look for someone who gives you a personalized massage rather than a generic sequence. Something to complete your restoration program-that doesn’t cost a dime-is deep breathing. Anytime you feel stress, focus on deep breathing. Breathe in through the nose to a count of five, hold for ten seconds, and breathe out to a count of five. Click To Enlarge. Steve Reeves. Right now, my dog, Mona, is relaxing and practicing deep breathing; she’s breathing through her nose into her stomach rather than the chest. The only times she doesn’t breath deeply is when she’s sick. When we’re stressed, we constrict our breathing, which is unhelpful, creating more stress in the body. Breathe deep and feel better anytime you need a boost. Conclusion There you have it, general fitness in a big nutshell! Next time you come across someone saying his or her goal is general fitness, send them this article and tell them to shut up and put the advice into action. General fitness training isn’t complicated: more isn’t better and neither is less more.
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How can I improve my general fitness?

Activity for older adults – Adults aged 65 and older who are generally fit and have no health conditions that limit their mobility should try to be active daily. For example:

at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity every week such as walking, dancing or even pushing a lawnmowermuscle-strengthening exercises 2 or more days a week — for example, digging, carrying groceries, step aerobics, hand-held weight exercises and yogaeven daily chores such as shopping, cooking or housework to break up periods of sitting

Balance exercises at least 2 days a week can help if you’re an older adult at risk of falls. Try including any of the following in your daily routine to improve your stability:

yoga, tai chi or pilatesbackwards and sideways walkingwalking on heels and toesstanding from a sitting positionstanding on one foot

Download a guide to find out more about:

improving your balance and posture (PDF, 196 KB, 2 pages) exercises you can do sitting on or supporting yourself with a chair (PDF, 1.65MB, 38 pages)

Arthritis and physical activity
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What does a general strength training program include?

A general strength training program includes 1 set of 8-12 repetitions of 8-10 exercise.12. Mini goals help a physical fitness program by keeping a program on track.
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What is general physical assessment?

The Materials – The single most useful device for optimal performance of the physical examination is an inquisitive and sensitive mind. Next most useful is mastery of the techniques of observation, palpation, percussion, and auscultation. Less important are the tools required for the examination ( Table 4.1 ).
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What is general health and wellness?

Definitions of health and wellness: Health is the state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease, or infirmity. Wellness is an active process through which people become aware of, and make choices toward, a more successful existence.
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What is general wellness?

Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website. Wellness is the act of practicing healthy habits on a daily basis to attain better physical and mental health outcomes, so that instead of just surviving, you’re thriving, To understand the significance of wellness, it’s important to understand how it’s linked to health.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), health is defined as being “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Several key areas of your lifestyle are considered dimensions of overall Wellness. They include: social connectedness, exercise, nutrition, sleep and mindfulness.

Each one has an impact on your physical and mental health. By making simple and healthy choices on a daily basis, you will be well on your way towards reducing stress, having positive social interactions and achieving optimal wellness. Start with small changes within each dimension and take it one day at a time – you don’t have to run a marathon or go on a restrictive diet to implement wellness into your everyday life! We’ve listed a few examples for each dimension: We’ve included helpful resources to help you start your own wellness journey.
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What is general fitness test?

How are Physical Fitness Tests Performed? – After initial weight and body fat testing, resistance exercises will be requested, such as sit-ups, push-ups, or bodyweight squats, until exhaustion to determine their muscular endurance levels. The session will also likely involve tests of maximum strength, as well as an assessment of cardiovascular fitness.
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What is the difference between physical and general fitness?

Exercise is planned physical activity with the goal of improving physical fitness and health. Physical fitness is broken into the five categories of cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2 nd Edition gives guidance on the amounts and types of physical activity needed to improve or maintain health and reduce chronic disease.

Inadequate physical activity is contributing to about $117 billion in annual health care costs.
What are the benefits of physical activity? There are many health benefits associated with regular physical activity including a lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease and death, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and adverse lipid profiles.

Regular physical activity also reduces the risk of many cancers. It can help with weight loss when combined with a reduced calorie diet and help with the prevention of regain after initial weight loss. Neurological and emotional benefits include improved cognition and decreased risk of dementia, reduced anxiety, decreased risk of depression, and improved sleep, among other benefits.

The aerobic physical activity guidelines may be met by participating in either moderate-intensity or vigorous intensity activity.
Adults should get at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) per week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, or 75 minutes (1 hour and 15 minutes) of vigorous-intensity physical activity.

Vigorous absolute intensity is equivalent to 6.0 METs and above.
Using absolute intensity in those with poor physical condition may be inaccurate.
They may expend more energy performing physical activities due to their lack of fitness, and an activity of moderate intensity in a fit person may be vigorous in the unfit.

Moderate activity would be a 5 or 6 and vigorous-intensity activity would begin at 7 to 8.
While performing a moderate-intensity activity a person should be able to able to hold a conversation but want to do only half the talking.
During vigorous-intensity activity a person must take a breath with every few words.

Low levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity of about 75 minutes per week (half of the recommended adult guidelines) results in a 1.8 year gain in life expectancy and if individuals reach the recommended levels of physical activity, there is a 3.4 year gain in life expectancy at every level of BMI.

For more helpful information on physical activity, view our resources below!

: Physical Fitness and Physical Activity
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What is the difference between general fitness and specific fitness?

General exercises are the activities which may or may not be accompanied by the use of apparatus. They are meant to provide all round development of different organs of the body. General exercises are done regularly in educational institutions during the morning assembly while specific exercises are specially practiced by groups of students on the special days such as 26th January, 15th August, Sports Day etc.
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Grady A. Lowry