Physical Activity vs Exercise and 7 Spheres - Review Flashcards

Physical Activity vs Exercise

• Physical Activity: anything that involves movement.

• Exercise: done with the purpose of improving strength, balance, coordination, or another skill.

• Exercise vs Physical Activity distinction:

  • Exercise is always done consciously.

  • Not all physical activity is conscious.

• Examples to illustrate differences:

  • Meditating vs Breathing

  • Learning the Waltz vs doing a little jig when your food arrives at a restaurant

  • Carrying groceries in from the car vs doing 5 sets of farmer carries for 100\,\text{yds} at 100\,\text{lbs}

• Key takeaway: Not all Physical Activity is Exercise but all Exercise is Physical Activity.

Direct Experience vs Subjective Experience

• Direct Experience: The physiological reactions during activity, such as increased heart rate, muscle fatigue.

• Subjective Experience: The feelings, perceptions, and interpretations of the individual during or after activity.

• Why it matters: Understanding both separates physical responses from personal experience and can guide how we design activities, monitor safety, and tailor interventions.

7 Spheres of Physical Activity Experience

• The seven spheres are: Self-Sufficiency, Self-Expression, Work, Education, Leisure, Health, Competition.

• These spheres shape how people experience physical activity and influence what activities they pursue.

Focus Areas: Self-Sufficiency and Work

• Self-Sufficiency: To what level can a person care for themselves without the aid of another human?

  • Evaluated in 3 categories:

  • Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

  • Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)

  • Home Maintenance Activities

  • What it comes down to: independence in daily functioning and self-care tasks.

Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)

• Examples:

  • Bathing

  • Using the restroom

  • Brushing teeth / hair

  • Washing face

  • Getting dressed

• Concept: Self-Care Actions

• Prompt/Reflection: How would breaking your hand affect your daily life? What about losing a hand completely?

Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs)

• Examples:

  • House Work

  • Food Preparation

  • Medication Administration

  • Grocery / Clothes Shopping

  • Laundry

• Beyond Self-Care Actions

• Prompts:

  • Give an example of how someone might get help for each IADL listed.

  • How would you feel if you couldn’t do any one of these activities by yourself?

Home Maintenance Activities

• Examples:

  • Snow Shoveling

  • Repair Work

  • Car Repairs

  • Electrical Work

  • Lawn Mowing

  • House Painting

• Note: These are more complex and might require help no matter what.

• Reflection: How do these compare to ADLs and IADLs? How do you think self-sufficiency impacts mental health?

Work

• Definition: Work requires a physical engagement with other people, services, and tools.

• As technology changes work, the amount of physical activity required to perform the job is likely to decline.

• Consequence: Less activity at work can increase risk of diseases related to inactivity.

• Concept: Engagement in work as a form of physical activity.

Workplace Risks

• Reduced physical activity and health consequences with technological advancements.

• Injuries can result from repetitive activities and poor design of tools, equipment, and workspaces.

• Increased cardiovascular disease and psychological stress.

The Other Side of Workplace Risk

• Physical activity professionals help employees perform better at work.

• They help improve work practices and redesign inadequate workspaces, tools, and equipment.

• They assist with prevention and rehabilitation of work-related injuries.

• Key idea: sometimes workplace activity can be as dangerous as workplace inactivity.

Common Workplace Injuries (Selected)

• Categories:

  • Overexertion

  • Bodily Reaction

  • Contact with Objects or Equipment

  • Falls, Slips, and Trips

  • Exposure to Harmful Substances or Equipment

• Highest Offenders; Most Common Injuries: Low Back Pain, Headaches, Neck Pain, Sciatic Nerve Pain

Health, Education, Self-Expression

• Today’s Focus: Health, Education, Self-Expression

Health

• Healthy people are vital to the economy.

• A healthy population can spend less on healthcare, freeing funds for other public interests.

• A healthy population can work longer and harder; higher health levels lead to higher productivity.

• Health crises: population-wide vs individual crises; examples to consider.

• Biggest societal negative impact on health: being sedentary.

• Move For Your Health: creating a lifestyle opposite to sedentary is the easiest and most effective way to stay healthy; avoid overdoing it.

Education

• The education sphere includes learning new skills or knowledge; physical activity often plays an important role.

• What Education Can Look Like:

  • Typically sought out and paid for

  • May include nutritional and other health education

  • Most often refers to education found in schools

  • Encompasses nutritional and other health education

  • Sport and Exercise Instruction

  • Physical Education

  • Spot the Difference? (visual prompt in slides)

Physical Education

• Physical education is the near-universal program of sport and exercise instruction for youth.

• Should be of the highest quality; Why so special?

• Changes Over Time:

  • 19th century: focus on exercise and gymnastics

  • 20th century: shift to sport

  • Modern era: emphasis on fitness activities

Self-Expression

• Physical activity can be used to communicate and express ourselves, in addition to or instead of words.

• Evaluated in 2 main categories: Gestures and Dance/Rituals

• What it comes down to: how movement conveys meaning, culture, and emotion.

Gestures

• Purposeful movements of hands, fingers, or body parts that convey information, replace or supplement speech, and reflect cultural differences.

• Cultural specificity can cause misinterpretation if norms are unfamiliar.

• Gestures can evolve within a culture.

• Sub-categories to Gestures:

  • Emblems: acts with a clear translation

  • Illustrators: accompany speech to reflect feeling or tone

Leisure

• Leisure is a distinct sphere; related to a state of well-being or peace, but not everyone experiences a true leisure state.

• Creating Leisure: schedule time daily/weekly to relax; engage in activities that bring peace (e.g., yoga, sports, journaling).

• Distinguish between leisure and free time; many people do not live in a state of leisure.

• Concept: Microdosing Leisure as a way to maintain a consistent state of leisure.

Competition

• Competition is common in physical activity and often appears in exercise too.

• It can be positive or negative and can improve performance.

• Types of competition:

  • Side-by-side

  • Face-to-face contact

  • Impersonal

  • Face-to-face non-contact

• Competitions can be physical and mental, contributing to overall health and well-being.

• Prompts: How else do you view competition? What does it bring to your life?

Influencing the Physical Activity Experience

• The people closest to you (parents, peers, coaches/teachers) influence your experiences with physical activity, especially when you are young.

• Two fundamental effects of experiences:

  • Development of skill through practice

  • Development of physical capacity

• Practice: activity that brings about changes in skill

• Learning: relatively permanent change in performance due to practice

• Motor skills: activities emphasizing efficient, coordinated motor responses

• Practice details:

  • Importance of cognitive processing

  • Deliberate practice: activities designed specifically to improve performance in a domain

• Skill: efficiency and accuracy with which a motor task is performed

Fitness, Conditioning, and Heredity

• Fitness activities: training experiences that improve general capacity to perform daily activities and help prevent disease; require skill; emphasis on conditioning.

• Training: develops performance qualities like muscle strength, endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, and flexibility.

• Conditioning: state of having developed these qualities.

• Heredity and Experience:

  • Abilities provide building blocks for experience

  • Performance depends on both genetics and experience

  • The limits of learning and conditioning are determined by both experiences and inherited abilities

  • You control only experience; best strategy is to seek the best physical activity experiences

7 Spheres recap

• The seven spheres: Self-Sufficiency, Self-Expression, Work, Education, Leisure, Health, Competition

• Remember: The 7 spheres have the greatest influence over our subjective experience with physical activity.

History of Physical Activity Experience

• Early human life: physical activity as necessity for hunter/gatherer societies; survival, food, and war shaped demand for physical preparedness.

• Physical education in schools historically reflected these needs.

• Sub-disciplines of kinesiology and related fields emerged around the 1970s.

• The late 1980s and early 1990s saw shifts toward personal health and fitness as primary drivers.

• Visual/reading prompts and historical links provided in slides (e.g., Harvard piece and YouTube references).