Physical Fitness, Training Principles and Testing
Physical fitness, training principles and testing covers fitness components, safe programme design, training methods and measurement quality. The exam tests whether you can select valid tests and apply training principles to a realistic goal.
Core rules
- Components: health-related (cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, body composition) and skill-related (speed, agility, power, balance, coordination, reaction time).
- Principles: specificity, overload, progression, reversibility, recovery, individuality, variation.
- FITT: frequency, intensity, time, type. Aerobic intensity can use %HRmax, %VO2max, RPE or talk test.
- Testing: validity (measures what it claims), reliability (consistent), objectivity (inter-tester agreement). Field tests are practical but less precise than laboratory tests.
Worked example
A 20-year-old with resting HR 70 wants to train at 60–70% heart-rate reserve. Max HR ≈ 200. HRR = 200 − 70 = 130. Target = 70 + (0.60 × 130) to 70 + (0.70 × 130) = 148–161 bpm. Reasoning: Karvonen accounts for resting HR, so it is more individualised than 60–70% of 200. Progression should raise one FITT variable at a time every few weeks, with recovery days.
Traps
- Confusing reliability with validity: a scale can be reliably wrong.
- Using %1RM for muscular endurance the same way as for maximal strength.
- Testing in a random order; explosive and maximal tests should precede fatiguing tests.
- Ignoring specificity: a bench-press test does not predict endurance running.