Physical Fitness and Health-Related Components
Physical fitness is the body's ability to do daily work without undue fatigue and still have energy left in reserve. The SSC paper separates fitness into health-related components, which protect against disease, and skill-related components, which decide sports performance. Questions usually ask you to classify a component, name the test used for it, or apply the FITT principle.
Health-related components
- Cardiovascular endurance – heart and lungs supplying oxygen during long work (600 m run/walk, Harvard step test).
- Muscular strength – maximum force in a single effort (grip dynamometer, one-repetition maximum).
- Muscular endurance – repeated sub-maximal contractions (1-minute sit-ups, push-ups).
- Flexibility – range of movement at a joint (sit-and-reach test).
- Body composition – ratio of fat mass to lean mass (BMI, skinfold calipers).
Skill-related components
Speed, agility, balance, coordination, power and reaction time. A 4 × 10 m shuttle run measures agility, the 50 m dash measures speed, the standing broad jump measures power. These are not health components.
FITT
Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type are the four adjustable variables of any training plan; progressive overload means raising one of them gradually.
Worked example
A 15-year-old with a resting pulse of 72 wants to train at 60–80 % of maximum. Maximal heart rate ≈ 220 − 15 = 205 bpm. Lower limit = 0.60 × 205 ≈ 123 bpm; upper limit = 0.80 × 205 ≈ 164 bpm. A pulse of 150 during the run sits inside the aerobic band, so the pace is correct; a reading of 185 is above the band and the work interval must be shortened or slowed.
Traps that cost marks
- Listing agility or power under health-related components.
- Confusing strength (one maximal effort) with endurance (many efforts).
- Presenting 220 − age as a measured value instead of an estimate.
- Omitting body composition because it is measured rather than performed.