Your physical fitness level is one of the most important characteristics of your overall health. Without a good level of physical fitness, it would be difficult to perform everyday tasks, such as walking, climbing stairs, lifting heavy objects, and so on. How do you know your level of physical fitness? Do you know how to improve your level of physical fitness? Your level of physical fitness has an important role in everything that you do.

In this module, you will learn strategies for optimizing your physical fitness level, including building muscular strength and endurance, maintaining cardiovascular health, improving flexibility, and avoiding fatigue. Without the knowledge of physical training fitness principles, you are cheating yourself of a long healthy life.

Getting Started

You may find that some daily activities are easy while others require a good deal of physical ability. Do you ever find that when lifting a grocery bag the bag is too heavy? How many flights of stairs can you walk up until your legs begin to feel tired? In this non-graded activity, you will choose whether the described activity is hard for you to do or if it is easy for you to do by choosing the appropriate rating based on your abilities. Click the player button to get started.

 

Key Vocabulary

To view the definitions for these key vocabulary terms, visit the course glossary.

 

abduction	extension
adenosine diphosphate (ADP)	fatigue
adenosine triphosphate (ATP)	flexibility
adduction	flexion
aerobic exercise	glucose
aerobic respiration	intensity
anaerobic exercise	isokinetic exercise
anaerobic respiration	isometric exercise
arteries	isotonic exercise
ATP-PC system	lactic acid system
ballistic stretching	muscular strength
blood pressure	muscular endurance
capillaries	overexertion
carbohydrate	passive stretching
chronic fatigue syndrome	proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation stretching
concentric exercise	resting heart rate
drowsiness	sedentary lifestyle
dynamic stretching	sleep deprivation
eccentric exercise	training zones