UNIT2. PHYSICAL CONDITIONnotes

PHYSICAL CONDITION What is your opinion of your physical condition?

1. Which ones do you think are your most developed physical qualities? Which ones do you think you need to improve?

2. Which physical qualities are needed for the sport you regularly practice?

3. Do you know any ways to improve your resistance? What about your flexibility?

1. THE BETTER YOUR PHYSICAL CONDITION, THE BETTER YOUR HEALTH WILL BE Physical condition is the ability of our bodies to react and to adapt to exercise Physical condition and health are closely related; good physical condition will help you attain a better health and vice versa. Your health will improve as you improve your physical condition. Maintaining healthy habits will help you enjoy a better physical condition.

How physical condition and health are related If you are in good physical condition: If you are in poor physical condition: - You will get less tired - You will get tired faster when exercising - You will have less illnesses - You will get sick more easily - You will rest better - You will rest worse - You will have less injuries - You will have a greater chance of - You will recover faster from exercising injuring yourself - You will be able to concentrate better in - You will have a more difficult time your daily activities recovering from exercising - You will have difficulty concentrating

Health habits can also improve your physical condition. The primary health habits that affect your physical condition are: -

Maintaining a healthy diet. Proper diet is critical for your body to obtain the necessary nutrients to perform physical activities.

Get plenty of rest. A resting body rebuilds tissue and organs and favors growth.

Maintain healthy habits. Tobacco, alcohol and other unhealthy habits debilitate your physical condition Practice good personal hygiene. Showering after exercising and changing your clothes often will help prevent illnesses.

Avoid stress. When you are very nervous, you can not control your stress. Your body performs poorly and you are more prone to injuries.

2. WE IMPROVE OUR PHYSICAL CONDITION The chart below shows how the different physical characteristics can affect your physical development Physical Characteristic Resistance: the capability to exercise for a long period of time

Strength: the capability of lifting or moving heavy objects

Flexibility: the capability to stretch muscles and joints

Speed: the capability to move in short periods of time.

When you develop it‌..

- Increases the size and thickness of the heart - Improves lung capacity - Increases the amount of blood, with glucose and oxygen, reaching the muscles - We are able to exercise longer without getting tired.

- Increases the size of our muscles - Improve the growth and strength of our bones (as long as the exercises are properly performed) - Allows you to progressively perform greater efforts - If performed correctly, it helps to prevent backaches, improper posture, and injuries.

- Relaxes muscles and improves their elasticity - Improves the range of joint movement - Strengthen blood circulation - Reduces muscular fatigue and sore muscles - Helps to prevent injuries - Improves muscle coordination - Improves muscular stretch - Improves efficiency when practicing other games and sports

3. THE HEART RATE: CONTROLING YOUR HEART RATE To improve your physical condition, you will perform numerous exercises at different intensities. It is important that you know how to exercise at a level appropriate to your physical condition. Running, playing soccer and riding a bike are all activities that could be easy or difficult depending on their intensity. You can determine the intensity of an exercise by checking your heart rate.

To check your heart rate: - Take it for 6 seconds and multiply times 10, or - Take it for 10 seconds and multiply times 6, or - Take it for 15 seconds and multiply times 4 Areas of your body where you can check your heart rate: - Placing your hand directly on top of the chest, at the level of the heart - Applying pressure with the fingers (except with the thumb) on the wrist (radial artery) - Applying pressure with the fingers (except with the thumb) next to the trachea, on the posterior area (carotid artery) The heart rate is the contractions of the heart. The frequency of these contractions shows the rhythm of our heart. In other words, it is how many times our heart contracts in a minute. The more intense the exercise we perform, the faster our heart will contract, and consequently, the higher our heart rate will be.

Children’s heart rates are faster because their hearts are smaller. As we grow up, our heart becomes stronger, and it needs to contract less frequently. The heart of an adult normally contracts between 60 to 80 times per minute. You probably have a heart rate between 80 and 100.

Exercising increases our heart rate. If it is a low intensity exercise, it will increase just a little, but if it is a high intensity exercise, the heart rate will be higher.

A fit adult usually has a heart rate between 50 and 70. When warming up, their heart rate increases to approximately 120 bpm (beats per minute). When performing low intensity exercises, their heart rate increases to 140—150 bpm; and if they perform high intensity exercises, they can reach to 180-200 bpm. In your age group, it is normal to have a higher heart rate.

It is important that our heart rate does not exceed 180 bpm; in other words, you should not perform very high intensity exercises (i.e. running fast for a long period of time, lifting very heavy weights, etc.)

4. DEVELOPING RESISTANCE Resistance is the physical capability that you need to exercise the most--along with flexibility--at your age. Since your body is growing, it will help your heart, lungs, and circulatory system to properly grow and develop. If you can do this, you will have a healthy body for the rest of your life.

Advice to perform resistance exercises - You must continue moving for the longest possible period of time. The activities you choose must be of long duration but not of very high intensity - Choose fun sports and activities: playing soccer with friends, riding a bike ‌ These are some proposed activities - Control your effort by checking your heart rate. You should not exceed 170-180 bpm. If you exceed this rate, rest for a moment or reduce the exercise rhythm.

Maintain a constant rhythm in your activity - Pace your effort. Try not to start too strong even if you feel well. You will need the energy at a later time.

How to develop resistance in your everyday life You can introduce new habits in your everyday life that will help you improve your resistance: - Walk a lot. Go to school or run errands walking at a fast pace. You can also ride your bike to perform these activities.

- Do not use the elevator. Take the opportunity to improve your resistance by walking up and down the stairs - Play games and sports with your friends. Schedule frequent times to play games with them. Practice swimming during the summer.

- Ride your bike for transportation. It is a fast and fun mode of transportation and an ideal activity to improve resistance.

Recommended activities to develop resistance - Biking. To make it more fun, you can ride your bike with your friends in the city or in the country. Try to maintain a constant speed - Swimming. It is recommended to swim at a low intensity for periods of 5-10 minutes - Practice team sports, such as soccer, basketball, handball, etc.

- Practice sports that involve running for longer periods, such as the 5000 meters, cross, etc. In your age group it is not recommended to run marathons: it is too much time.

- Dancing. Performing aerobic exercises, ballroom dance or other types of dancing; dancing at parties with your friends, but always making sure you perform these activities for a long time and not very intensively.

- Walking. You should walk fast and for long periods (more than half an hour) to activate your heart. You can walk in the country: it is fun and entertaining.

Plan your activity to improve resistance We have mentioned that you are at an ideal age to develop resistance. If you only exercise once in a while or only during the physical education classes, your resistance will improve very little.

You can develop a “training journal� in which you should include all the activities that will help you to improve resistance. Next, we will suggest an example of this journal in which you can annotate all your activities performed during the week. The more activities you perform, the more your resistance will develop.

Mondays Swimming

Tuesday Jockey game in PE

Wednesday Swimming

Thursday Riding the bike to run errands

Friday Jockey game in PE

Walk to school

Running in PE

Walking to school.

Soccer game with my friends

Running in PE

Walking to school.

Dancing with my friends

Saturday Soccer game with my friends Biking with my friends

Sunday

How to test that my resistance has improved.

- You will get less tired when exercising. Physical activities that used to be hard will become easier, and you will find yourself less tired when you finish these activities.

- You will be able to perform activities for a longer period of time. Playing a soccer game, running, biking; you will be able to enjoy these activities for a longer period of time without getting tired.

- You will have a lower heart rate. Your heart will become stronger as your resistance improves, and it will need to beat less frequently to send the same amount of blood to the muscles. In this way, your heart rate will be lower when performing physical activities. This indicates your heart is growing and that it is healthy.

Tests to evaluate your resistance level There are different tests to find out your level of resistance. The most common one is the Cooper test. It consists in running for 12 minutes in a flat surface and measuring the distance you are able to run.

You can also use other tests such as running 1000 meters, swimming 200 meters or biking 2000 meters.

4.1 Running or other aerobic activities This is an easy and effective way to improve your resistance. It consists of progressively increasing our running time. You must take these characteristics under considereation: - maintain a constant rhythm - Do not go over 170-180 bpm. Trained people ususally keep a heart rate between 140-150.

- Breathing rate must be constant and comfortable - Increase little by little the running time or distance Ways to improve your running To improve your resistance, you should increase the amount of your running time. We recommend three ways: - Increase the running time. Each day add between 2 and 5 minutes to the total time - Increase the distance. Each day run between 500 and 1000 meters more than the day before - Combine running with calisthenics. This is combining 3 to 5 minutes of running with exercises such as jumping, abdominals, etc‌ between each period of running.

Take a look at the following examples we propose Increasing time

Increasing distance

Day 1

Run 10 minutes

Run 1000 meters

Day 2

Run 13 minutes

Run 1500 meters

Day 3

Run 15 minutes

Run 2000 meters

Day 4

Run 18 minutes

Run 2500 meters

Day 5

Run 22 minutes

Run 3000 meters

Day 6

Run 22 minutes

Run 3500 meters

Combining running with exercises Run 3 periods of 3 minutes with one exercise between periods Run 4 periods of 3 minutes with one exercise between them Run 4 periods of 3 minutes with 2 exercises between them Run 4 periods of 4 minutes and perform one exercise between them Run 4 periods of 4 minutes and perform 2 exercises between them Run 4 periods of 3 minutes and perform 3 exercises between them

You can substitute running for biking or swimming, keeping in mind that to produce a similar effect, you must follow these rules: - perform more than twice the distance biking - perform half the distance swimming

Recommendations to run properly - Always run at a comfortable rhythm. You should never finish excessively tired.

The important thing is not to run very fast; the important thing is to progressively increase your running time without stopping, and feeling less tired every time. If you are not able to talk while running, you are running too fast.

- Control your rhythm by checking your heart rate. It is not appropriate that your heart rate goes above the 170-180 bpm - Maintain a regular and comfortable breathing rate - Try to run relaxed. It is important that your arms do not exaggeratedly move toward the sides; they should accompany the movement of the legs. Your steps should not be too long, and you should keep your body straight - You should run on soft surfaces, such as on grass. Avoid areas with high levels of air pollution - You should run regularly. To improve resistance it is not enough to run occasionally. It is important to run on regular basis, every two or three days.

- You can listen to music while you run to entertain your mind - When you finish running and, in general, when you finish any exercise activity, do not sit or lay down because this will cause a sudden change of pressure to your heart and arteries. Additionally, if you continue moving, or remain standing for a while after exercising, you will avoid sore muscles the next day.

- When you finish running, perform stretching exercises. Your muscles will recover and it will prevent sore muscles.

Clothing appropriate for running - It should be comfortable and free of wrinkles - You must be careful with clothes that cause skin irritation in the groin area. Sweats that are too tight can easily produce it.

- Clothing materials must be natural, prevent skin rashes, and permit transpiration - Socks should be made of wool or cotton. Watch out for wrinkles! They can produce skin rashes and blisters - Elastics are highly recommended, especially in cold weather: they maintain contact with the skin but without oppressing it, they are light weight, maintain the temperature of the skin, permit transpiration, and usually do not get wrinkles.

- The running shoes are the most important element: they must be light and flexible, made of an impact absorbing material. The show sole must have a design that will adhere to the ground. You must were your shoes tight enough to keep the feet in place.

As a general rule, you must protect your body from cold weather, but not excessively.

Keep in mind that when you run, your body produces heat; and excessive clothing may bother you after running for a while. Perform warm up exercises with extra clothing, and then remove it once you start running. After running, wear your extra clothing again to prevent you from getting cold.

4.2 Recovery after a resistance workout When you finish a workout session in which you worked hard, your body is tired. You can not repeat the session in 5 minutes, or even in an hour‌ how much time should be allowed before you can exercise feeling in perfect condition?

The time that you must allow between one training session and the next is called period of recuperation. During this time, your body recovers from the effort performed and gets ready to start training in good condition.

This period of time depends fundamentally on the age and the fitness level of the individual. But in general, it is related to the type of physical activity performed and the physical capability we are trying to develop.

Since the time we need to recover from aerobic resistance training is 24 hours, we can exercise daily; however, in your age group 3 or 4 sessions per week is more appropriate.

Every time you perform an intense physical activity, you can apply the following principles to recover. You will notice its effects if you follow them correctly.

Recommendations to recover after a resistance workout - Once you finish the activity, slow down by performing stretching, relaxation, or breathing exercises. In this way, your body will recover faster to its normal state.

- Eat properly. When you finish exercising, replace salts and minerals by drinking plenty of fluids (fruit juices or sport drinks). A few hours alter exercising, you must replenish energy by eating foods rich in carbohydrates (vegetables, pasta, bread, rice).

- Rest. Sleep enough hours. While you sleep, your body works slowly to replace energy.

- Practice good personal hygiene. A good shower and comfortable clothing (especially running shoes) will help you feel more relaxed .

4.3 Benefits of resistance training 1. Cardiovascular system: heart, blood vessels (arteries and veins) and blood - increases the size and thickness of the heart and, as a result, its capability to send more blood with less heart contractions.

- increases and improve blood supply to the muscles - improves the capability to transport oxygen and nutrients to the muscles 2. Muscle-skeletal system: bones, muscles, ligaments, connective and protective tissues - favors the growth and strength of bones and muscles - improves the capability of the muscles to make the best use of their energy and to withstand greater efforts 3. Respiratory system: mouth and nose, trachea and lung (bronchi, bronchioli, pulmonary alveoli) - improves the entrance and exit of the air in the lungs - improves lung capacity - regulates respiratory intensity and rhythm - improves the capability to take oxygen in the pulmonary alveoli and to transfer it to the blood 4. Endocrine system: hormone secreting glands - favors body growth - improves body health and performance

5. Nervous system: brain, spinal cord, nerve - improves movement coordination - improves speed and quality of nervous impulses - improves the capability to perform physical efforts - increases concentration capability 5. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FEXIBILITY Flexibility is the physical capability that tends to worsen as we get older because our muscles start loosing elasticity practically from the moment we are born. Because of this, it is important that you get used to perform exercises for its development every time you practice any physical activity. There are different techniques to develop flexibility. We will explain some of them in the next course. The most commonly used and the easiest one are performing stretching exercises, which you probably have already practiced.

They consist in placing yourself in a position that makes you feel a light tension in your muscles, and continue to slowly advance, helping yourself with breathing, to make the muscles stretch little by little to gain longitude.

Recommendations to perform stretching exercises - Start by practicing the exercises with precaution, intensifying the practice as you become more familiar with the exercise and as you notice improvement - Perform soft movements. You must use the correct position - Stretch both sided the same way - Do not forget any parts of your body - Work especially the parts of your body you notice more tense - Breath slowly and relaxed: it helps to facilitate the exercise - You can listen to soft music: it will make your workout more enjoyable - Try to develop your own exercise routine and practice it regularly - You can take advantage of any moment of the day that you need to relax to perform a couple of stretching exercises In pages 32 and 33, you have examples of stretching exercises performed individually and in couples. Practice them and modify some exercises for others you like better

Benefits of stretching exercises Flexibility training provides us with many benefits: - Reduces muscle tension and increase their elasticity - Improves the range of joint movement - Improves circulation - Reduces muscular fatigue and the development of sore muscles after exercising - Contributes to a better knowledge of our own bodies - Helps to prevent injuries and to improve our exercise performance - Improves our capability to relax