RD

Wellness dimensions, Fitness components & SMART - Lecture 1 Chapters 1 & 2

Learning Objectives and Overview

  • Summarize Healthy People 2030 and its implications.
  • Differentiate between skill-related and health-related fitness; provide examples of each.
  • List the steps in creating a behavior management plan to change a wellness-related behavior.
  • Identify the wellness dimensions, acknowledge their development, and understand their importance on the wellness continuum.

Types of Fitness

  • Two broad categories:
    • Skill-related fitness
    • Health-related fitness
  • Page 3 shows a visual label: “FALASCA / INDESIT / CEL” (appears as non-standard acronyms or placeholders in the transcript). The core idea remains: fitness is categorized into skill-related and health-related components.

Health-related Fitness Components

  • There are 5 areas of fitness that help establish health benefits.
  • Health-related fitness helps withstand physical challenges and protects against diseases.
  • The five components:
    • Cardiorespiratory Fitness
    • Muscular Strength
    • Muscular Endurance
    • Flexibility
    • Body Composition
  • These components collectively contribute to overall health and disease prevention.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness

  • Definition: Ability to perform prolonged, large muscle, dynamic exercise at moderate to high levels of intensity.
  • Physiology: Depends on the lungs delivering oxygen to the bloodstream and the efficiency of the heart and nervous system.
  • Benefits when it improves:
    • Heart pumps more blood per heartbeat
    • Resting heart rate slows
    • Blood volume increases
    • Blood supply to tissue improves
    • Body can cool itself better
    • Resting blood pressure decreases
  • Characteristics of good activities: continuous, rhythmic movements of large muscle groups.
  • Examples: walking, jogging, cycling, aerobic dancing.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

  • Muscular Strength: The amount of force a muscle can produce in a single maximum effort.
  • Muscular Endurance: The ability to resist fatigue and sustain a given level of muscle tension for a given time.
  • Benefits of strength & endurance development:
    • Increased body mass
    • Increased metabolism
    • Increased bone density
    • Reduced effects of sarcopenia
    • Improved self-confidence and stress management
    • Improved posture and reduced low back pain

Flexibility

  • Definition: The ability to move joints through their full range of motion.
  • Factors affecting flexibility: joint structure, length and elasticity of connective tissue, nervous system activity.
  • Practical importance: needed in everyday routines.
  • Benefits:
    • Lowered risk of back injuries
    • Posture improvement and reduced risk of other joint injuries
    • Reduction in age-related stiffness

Body Composition

  • Definition: The proportion of fat and fat-free mass (muscle, bone, water) in the body.
  • Healthy composition: high fat-free mass with relatively low body fat.
  • Health implications of excess body fat: heart disease, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, stroke, joint problems, Type II diabetes, gallbladder disease, cancer, back pain.
  • Best approach to fat loss: a combination of exercise and a sensible diet.

Skill-Related Components of Fitness

  • Speed: Ability to perform a movement in a short amount of time.
  • Power: Ability to exert force rapidly, based on a combination of strength and speed.
  • Agility: Ability to change body position quickly and accurately.
  • Balance: Ability to maintain equilibrium while moving or stationary.
  • Coordination: Ability to perform motor tasks accurately and smoothly using body movements and senses.
  • Reaction and Movement Time: Ability to respond quickly to a stimulus.
  • Note: Skill-related fitness tends to be sport-specific and is best developed through practice.

Wellness: The New Health Goal

  • Health vs. Wellness:
    • Health: overall condition of body or mind and presence/absence of illness or injury; varies with uncontrollable factors (genes, age, family history).
    • Wellness: optimal health and vitality; determined by decisions about how you live.
  • Enhanced wellness involves conscious decisions to control risk factors that contribute to illness and injury.

The Dimensions of Wellness

  • The nine dimensions:
    • Physical wellness
    • Emotional wellness
    • Intellectual wellness
    • Interpersonal wellness (Social)
    • Cultural wellness
    • Spiritual wellness
    • Environmental wellness
    • Financial wellness
    • Occupational wellness
  • The process of achieving wellness is constant and dynamic, involving change and growth, across all dimensions.

The Wellness Continuum

  • Figure 1.1 illustrates a continuum from low wellness to high wellness.
  • Key idea: vitality exists across interrelated dimensions, and wellness can move along a continuum with change and growth.
  • The continuum emphasizes that wellness is not static but dynamic across physical and mental domains.
  • The slide mentions: Low level of wellness → Physical, mental, emotional symptoms → Change and growth → High level of wellness.
  • Dimensions are interrelated (Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Social/Interpersonal, Environmental, Spiritual, Cultural, Financial, Occupational).

Other Aspects of Wellness

  • Occupational and Financial Wellness:
    • These are also considered important dimensions of wellness.
    • Occupational wellness: happiness and fulfillment gained through work.
    • Financial wellness: ability to live within means and manage money.

Healthy People Initiative and Healthy People 2030

  • The National Healthy People Initiative aims to prevent disease and improve quality of life.
  • Healthy People 2030 proposes five broad goals:
    • Eliminate preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death.
    • Achieve health equity, eliminate disparities, and improve health of all groups.
    • Create social and physical environments that promote good health for all.
    • Promote healthy development and healthy behaviors across every stage of life.
    • Engage leadership and the public to design effective health policies.

Quantity of Life vs Quality of Life

  • Figure 1.3 presents longevity data:
    • Life expectancy: 77.9 years
    • Healthy life (years of life without illness): 66.2 years
    • Impaired life (years lived with illness or disability): 11.7 years
  • This visualization highlights the balance between longevity and healthy years.

Goal Setting and SMART Goals

  • SMART goals provide a framework for effective behavior change:
    • Specific: clear and precise behavior to change.
    • Measurable: progress can be assessed.
    • Attainable/alterable: adjustable as needed.
    • Realistic: feasible given current abilities, history, and schedule.
    • Time-based: a defined target date for achievement.
  • Always state goals in a positive way and favor performance-oriented goals when possible.

SMART Goals Examples

  • Not a SMART goal (example): “I will run to increase my cardiovascular fitness.”
  • Proper SMART goal model (examples from the transcript):
    • S: I will run on MWF for 30 minutes within my target heart rate at the 60% intensity level.
    • M: I will log my weekly time and heart rate.
    • A: If 60% is too high initially, I will drop to 55%; if days are missed, I will aim for at least three running days per week.
    • R: This is realistic since I have been running 2 days per week for about 20 minutes each time.
    • T: I will accomplish this by the end of my GKIN semester and continue through the summer by adding one more run day.
  • These components together constitute a SMART goal to guide behavior change.

Coming Up Next

  • Time-related announcements:
    • Lecture Response Quiz #1 due Mon. Aug. 25 before midnight (content covers wellness dimensions, health components, SMART goals; all will be relevant for assignments 1 and 2).
    • Expect weekly announcements in Canvas.

Connections and Relevance

  • The material links personal wellness planning to public health objectives (Healthy People 2030).
  • Emphasizes practical, everyday applications: choosing fitness activities, tracking progress, and creating positive, measurable behavior plans.
  • Highlights equity and environment as determinants of health outcomes (health equity, disparities, social/physical environments).
  • Shows how a multi-dimensional approach (physical, emotional, financial, occupational, etc.) supports sustainable well-being across life stages.