Physical Fitness and Wellness
Physical Fitness and Wellness
This domain tests health-related and skill-related fitness components, FITT principles, assessment, and wellness habits. The exam expects you to distinguish fitness from wellness and to apply training principles safely.
Core concepts
- Health-related components: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition.
- Skill-related components: speed, agility, power, balance, coordination, reaction time.
- FITT: Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type. Overload, progression, specificity, recovery and reversibility govern adaptation.
- Moderate activity passes the talk test or feels like RPE 12–14; vigorous activity makes talking difficult. Warm-up prepares joints and raises heart rate; cool-down aids venous return.
Worked example
A 15-year-old can jog 1.6 km in 11 minutes but wants 9 minutes. Weekly plan: jog/walk 3 days (frequency); alternate 2 minutes brisk jog with 1 minute walk at RPE 13 (intensity); 24 minutes (time); walking/jogging (type). Add 5 minutes each fortnight (progression), one easy day, and one long easy walk. Reasoning: endurance improves through repeated aerobic overload with recovery, not daily maximal sprints.
Traps that cost marks
Do not call power the same as strength; power is force times velocity. BMI screens weight-for-height, not body-fat percentage. Skill-related fitness is not health-related. More training is not always better: no recovery causes overtraining. A single test score does not define wellness; sleep, stress and nutrition matter.