What type of physical activity requires planned structured and repetitive bodily movement to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness?

Exercise Right is on Facebook. To connect with Exercise Right, log in to Facebook.

Physical activity is any movement that results in some expenditure of energy.
Exercise is planned, structured and repetitive bodily movement. It is performed to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness. Exercise is a subset of physical activity.

The reasons why people participate in exercise and what exercise means to them is varied. It may mean an enjoyable experience that aids in stress release and relaxation, or it may be an activity that is planned to achieve benefits such as weight loss and improved cardiovascular efficiency. Exercise may simply mean hard work. Regardless of what exercise means to different individuals, people generally take on exercise for the health and fitness benefits that result.

Exercise as a form of physical activity
Physical activity in the form of exercise has always been considered positive lifestyle behaviour. Exercise itself is a special form of physical activity because it is planned, structured and consists of repetitive bodily movements. Performing a series of push-ups and sit-ups is considered exercise because movements are repeated with the intention of improving selected components of fitness, in this case, muscular strength and/or muscular endurance.

Exercise varies in intensity or the amount of effort we put into performing the movements. Intensity can be categorised as light, moderate or vigorous and is measured in a number of ways. Light exercise is activity that requires approximately three to four times of as much energy as rest. It is equivalent to brisk walking. Needing more effort is moderate exercise, which is activity that requires approximately five to six times of as much energy as rest. It is equivalent to jogging at a comfortable pace. The highest level of intensity is called vigorous exercise. It is activity that requires seven times or more energy as rest. It is equivalent to a fast jog or activity that makes the person ‘huff and puff’.

The easiest method of assessing the intensity of effort is to use the talk test, which measures intensity in terms of the subject’s ability to maintain conversation while exercising.  

–      Low intensity: at this level the person is able to sing while doing the activity  

–      Moderate: normal conversation can be held while performing the activity

–      Vigorous: there is insufficient breath to carry on conversation while exercising.

However, athletes in training and those who are genuinely trying to monitor cardiorespiratory fitness improvement use the heart rate’s response to exercise as the basis of measurement. Exercise causes your heart rate to increase in proportion to your exercise intensity. In other words, the harder you work, the higher is your heart rate. This relationship continues until you approach exhaustion where maximal values are attained. At this point, your heart rate begins to level off.

Training at a level of intensity that is too close to your resting heart rate provides little, if any, benefit to fitness. Alternatively, training at near maximal values quickly leads to exhaustion and subsequently is of little value. In between resting and maximal values is a zone called the target heart rate (THR), which can be used to help you train at a level of intensity where performance benefits are maximised.

Physical activity of moderate intensity benefits people of all ages, with greater benefits going to people who are able to partake in vigorous activity. There is increasing evidence that these benefits occur soon after adopting an active lifestyle. Physical activity should start as a lifelong habit in child- hood. Its benefits are greatest if activity is maintained throughout life. The National Physical Activity Guidelines (NPAG) suggests the following in terms of physical activity.

Child and youth recommendations (up to 15 years);

–      Frequency: every day
–      Intensity: moderate
–      Duration: 60 minutes and up to several hours. This can be accumulated  across the day.
–      Type: a range of activities including some weight-bearing activities.  

Adult recommendations;

–      Frequency: most if not all days per week
–      Intensity: moderate
–      Duration: 30 minutes. This can be accumulated; for example, three bouts of 10 minutes each.
–      Type: a range of activities. The National Physical Activity Guidelines relate to frequency, intensity, duration and type of activity. Proportionally, we need more of level one type activity, progressively decreasing to lesser amounts of levels two and three and little of level four.

Exercise and its relationship to fitness
What does it mean to be fit? Fitness is a difficult concept to define as it means different things to different people. If we consulted the authorities we would discover a variety of definitions, including:

The ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue and with enough reserve energy to enjoy leisure time pursuits and to meet unforeseen emergencies (World Health Organization)

The capability of the heart, blood vessels, lungs and muscles to function at optimal efficiency (Getchell, 1979)

Physical fitness refers to a set of attributes that people have or achieve and that relates to the ability to perform physical activity. These attributes can be divided into two sets of components.

1.     Health-related components include  
–      Cardiorespiratory fitness
–      Flexibility 
–      Muscular endurance 
–      Strength  
–      Body composition.

2.     Skill-related components include  
–      Speed 
–      Power
–      Coordination 
–      Balance 
–      Agility
–      Reaction time

If you wish to improve your general health and fitness, it is necessary undertake a regular, moderate intensity exercise program that incorporates the health-related components. For those people who wish to improve their fitness levels in order to improve sports performance, exercising at a moderate intensity is not sufficient. A planned training program is needed. It should incorporate specific exercises to improve the fitness components required of the sport or performance. The intensity of exercise needs to be vigorous and can be measured by heart rate. Both the intensity and frequency of exercise increase as fitness gains are achieved.

It is essential to improve and maintain health and fitness. The specific excretes program adopted must meed your specific needs.