Chapter 2: Principles of Physical Fitness and the Benefits of Exercise

Vocabulary flashcards featuring key terms and definitions from Chapter 2 of Fit & Well: Core Concepts and Labs in Physical Fitness and Wellness.

Physical Activity

Body movement that is carried out by the skeletal muscles and requires energy.

Exercise

Planned, structured, repetitive movement intended to improve or maintain physical fitness.

Physical Fitness

A set of physical attributes that allows the body to respond or adapt to the demands and stress of physical effort.

Calorie

The commonly used term for kilocalorie (which is actually 1,000 calories), defined as a measure of energy equal to the amount of heat it takes to raise the temperature of 1 liter of water $1^\text{o}\text{C}$.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance

The ability to perform prolonged, large-muscle, dynamic exercise at moderate- to high-intensity levels.

Oxygen

An element that is critical for generating usable energy in the body and is an important component of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.

Muscular Strength

The ability of a muscle to exert force in a single maximum effort.

Relative Strength

The maximum force exerted, relative to body weight, body size, and muscle size.

Metabolism

The sum of all the vital processes by which food energy and nutrients are made available to and used by the body.

Muscular Endurance

The ability of a muscle to remain contracted or to contract repeatedly for a long period of time.

Flexibility

The ability to move joints through their full ranges of motion.

Body Composition

The proportion of fat and fat-free mass (muscle, bone, and water) in the body.

Fat-Free Mass

The nonfat component of the human body, consisting of skeletal muscle, bone, and water.

Somatotype

A body-type classification system that describes people as predominantly muscular (mesomorph), tall and thin (ectomorph), or round and heavy (endomorph).

Skill (Neuromuscular)-Related Fitness

Physical capacities that contribute to performance in a sport or an activity, including speed, power, agility, balance, coordination, and reaction and movement time.

Adaptation

The physiological changes that occur with exercise training.

Physical Training

The performance of different types of activities that cause the body to adapt and improve its level of fitness.

Specificity

The training principle that developing a particular fitness component requires performing exercises specifically designed for that component.

Progressive Overload

The training principle that progressively increasing amounts of stress on the body causes adaptation that improves fitness.

Overload

The amount of increased intensity or volume added above a person's usual activity level.

FITT Principle

The four dimensions used to determine the overload needed to maintain or improve a specific component of fitness: Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type.

Reversibility

The training principle that fitness improvements are lost when demands on the body are lowered.

PAR-Q+

The Physical Activity Readiness Questionnaire for Everyone, which helps evaluate exercise safety.

Graded Exercise Test (GXT)

A physician-recommended exercise stress test used to determine whether a person shows symptoms of heart disease during exercise.

Overtraining

A condition caused by training too much or too intensely, characterized by lack of energy, decreased physical performance, depressed immunity, and aching muscles and joints.