Basics of Health, Wellness, and Exercise Science

Flashcards covering key vocabulary terms related to the basics of health, wellness, and exercise science, including exercise professions, terminology, components of fitness, and fitness principles.

ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine)

A professional association that advances health through educational and practical applications of exercise science and sports medicine, certifying exercise professionals and hosting educational conferences.

Clinical Exercise Physiologist

An exercise professional who typically works with diseased individuals in various settings (e.g., cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic diseases), performing fitness assessments, creating exercise prescriptions, monitoring patients, and establishing health behavior interventions.

Applied Exercise Physiologist

An exercise professional who works with healthy individuals and those with medically controlled conditions, performing fitness assessments, creating exercise programs, and helping establish healthy exercise and lifestyle behaviors.

Personal Trainer

An exercise professional who works with healthy individuals to create and monitor exercise prescriptions to meet client's goals.

Fitness/Wellness Professional

An exercise professional who develops wellness initiatives and programs in a variety of communities, such as corporate wellness, club fitness programs, and community centers.

Strength and Conditioning Professional

An exercise professional involved in the development and implementation of specialized training programs for athletes of all ages.

Health

The condition of the body; the presence or absence of illness.

Wellness

A state of living a healthy lifestyle, largely determined by the decisions one makes.

Physical Activity

Any bodily movement performed by muscles.

Sedentary

A state characterized by a lack of physical activity or prolonged sitting.

Exercise

Planned or structured physical activity done to improve fitness.

Aerobic Exercise (Cardiorespiratory)

A type of exercise that improves the heart and lungs, such as running, walking, jogging, or cycling.

Resistance Exercise (Strength)

A type of exercise that improves muscles, bones, and joints, such as lifting weights, using resistance bands, or body weight exercises.

Concurrent Training

The practice of performing aerobic training and resistance training, which can be done simultaneously, in a one-day split workout, or during separate workouts on separate days.

Acute (Exercise)

Refers to a single session of exercise.

Chronic (Exercise)

Refers to repeated sessions of exercise.

Risk Factor

Lifestyle and genetic variables that may lead to disease, such as sedentary behavior, smoking, poor diet, or family history.

Body Composition

The proportion of fat mass and non-fat mass (lean tissue) in the body, which is more indicative of health status than BMI.

Body Mass Index (BMI)

A numerical value derived from an individual’s height and weight, often used as a general screening tool.

Life Expectancy

The average period that a person may expect to live, influenced by environment, genetics, and behavior.

Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

A group of diseases affecting the heart and blood vessels, including atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and stroke.

Atherosclerosis

The buildup of plaque in arteries, causing them to narrow.

Coronary Artery Disease

Atherosclerosis affecting the arteries of the heart, which can lead to a heart attack and is a leading cause of death in the U.S.

Stroke

Buildup of plaque in arteries that cuts off blood flow to the brain, a significant contributor to mental and physical disability.

Cancer

A group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells.

Health-related Components of Fitness

Fitness components that contribute to overall health and longevity, including cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition.

Skill-related Components of Fitness

Fitness components that enable more effective movements in everyday life or competition, including agility, balance, coordination, power, speed, and reaction time.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance

The ability of your heart and lungs to provide oxygen to working muscles (also known as cardiovascular endurance, aerobic fitness, or VO2max).

Muscular Strength

The ability of your muscles to exert force.

Muscular Endurance

The ability of your muscles to contract repeatedly over time.

Flexibility

The ability to move your joints in a full range of motion.

Agility

The ability to rapidly change body position.

Balance

The maintenance of equilibrium.

Coordination

The ability to perform smooth and accurate motor skills.

Power

The ability to contract muscles with high force, quickly.

Speed

The ability to perform a movement in a short amount of time.

Reaction Time

The time between a stimulus and your reaction.

Principles of Fitness

Guiding principles that explain how the body responds and adapts to training, including progressive overload, specificity, reversibility, individuality, and recovery.

Progressive Overload Principle

The principle that to see improvements in fitness, the intensity or amount of exercise must be greater than your body is accustomed to.

Principle of Specificity

The principle that training should be specific to the goal, meaning it needs to match the action and skills of the activity.

Principle of Reversibility

The principle that the effects of exercise training are lost when individuals stop training ('use it or lose it').

Principle of Individuality

The principle that training results vary from person to person due to factors such as age, genetics, body size, sex, and health status.

Principle of Recovery

The principle that training programs must allow sufficient time for rest and recovery.

FITT-VP Principle

A guideline used to create an exercise program, standing for Frequency, Intensity, Time, Type, Volume, and Progression.

Frequency (FITT-VP)

The number of times per week an exercise is performed.

Intensity (FITT-VP)

How 'hard' the exercise is during a session.

Time (FITT-VP)

The amount of time spent per exercise session.

Type (FITT-VP)

The kind of exercise performed (e.g., aerobic, resistance).

Volume (FITT-VP)

The total exercise performed (acute or chronic), representing the overall workload or training stimulus, calculated as Frequency * Intensity * Time.

Progression (FITT-VP)

The process of increasing the challenge or workload by manipulating any combination of frequency, intensity, or time.

Warm-up

The initial phase of a training session designed to increase muscle temperature, reduce joint stiffness, increase blood flow to muscles, and bathe joints in lubricating fluid.

Cool-down

The final phase of a training session, involving light activity after exercise to prevent dizziness and drops in blood pressure.