Fitness Program Design

For years physical educators have been implementing fitness programs for their students that follow the traditional guidelines that are based upon their experiences as students and as adult learners. As new research and methodology in fitness and conditioning have been developed, many physical educators have found it difficult to take the necessary steps needed to develop high quality standards based programs that meet the needs of a diverse population and reflect current scientific research. With the obesity epidemic growing out of control, physical educators must be willing to make the necessary changes in their teaching methods (including increasing or refreshing their content knowledge) that promote physical education and not just physical activity (where learning is limited due to the focus of the “here and now”). Physical education is a medium which provides our students with the opportunity to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle through the on going acquisition of content knowledge, skills and values.

A comprehensive fitness program for students should include all of the following:

Components of Health Related Fitness- Integration- (Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, Body Composition, Flexibility and Cardio-respiratory Endurance). Many physical educators do not understand that a comprehensive fitness program should not work on each of these components individually in an isolated manner. On the contrary, these components should be addressed in a holistic or integrated manner combining as many as possible in a single exercise bout or activity. As educators, it is imperative that we remember how the body works when designing lessons/activities for our students. Our bodies are a kinetic chain linked together in a functional manner to create stability and movement.

Functional Movement Overload Continuum- Simply put the overload principle states that the body will acclimate to a stimulus that is placed upon it (if allowed to properly recover) by adapting and becoming stronger and more efficient. Different stimuli is required for the body to continue to adapt (become stronger). The question is, “how do we continue to overload (provide various stimuli), thus seeing continued adaptation and improvement?” One answer is the FITT principle. As educators know, the Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type of exercise is important to increased performance in specific movements/activities, but we must also remember to use these for general fitness and conditioning, such as physical education classes. However, the FITT principle may not be enough when faced with the constraints of time; how do you continuously overload students of different abilities and/or interests? The FITT principle is based upon “more” to overload, the Functional Movement Overload Continuum presents differentiated methods (based upon how our bodies function) to overload a movement without adding more time or creating intensity levels that are too challenging for our students. Physical educators today must use progressive methods that allow individuals to improve/increase fitness levels independently, allowing for individualized learning through differentiated instruction. The Functional Movement Overload Continuum is a tool developed to support the principle of overload by using differentiated challenge to increase the efficiency of the body’s movement patterns.

Strengthen the Movement, not the Muscle- The traditional manner of increasing muscular strength and/or endurance would be to isolate the muscle in a specific plane and take it through a full range of motion against resistance (as is the case with open chain exercise machines). Recent research and practice has demonstrated to fitness and conditioning experts that the transfer of strength to performance in a muscle that has been trained traditionally (isolated) is negligible when compared to the transfer of strength to performance when muscles are trained in a “functional”, holistic manner (closed chain activities). The term “train the movement, not the muscle”, refers to the fact that traditional, isolated muscular strengthening has little effect upon increasing efficient movement; however, if you focus on training movements, the movement (and the muscles that are engaged in that movement) will become stronger and more efficient in the specific targeted manner that they will be used. Isn’t that what strength training is all about? Strengthening movement patterns so that our bodies will move and/or perform more efficiently?

ADAPT- Alternative Dynamic Activity Preparation Training- Many physical educators continue to use traditional methods in their pre activity time and include static stretching as part of their warm up. It has been proven through scientific research that pre activity static stretching does not reduce chance of injury in participants. Research has also proven to us that static stretching may promote joint laxity which can change the mechanics of movements such as running and jumping and make them less efficient. This same research has shown a decrease in force production of a statically stretched muscle, which equates to performance decline in many sports/activities that require higher intensity movements. Do we (as physical educators and coaches) want to promote relaxation of a muscle prior to activity, thus shutting down the neuromuscular system? Or do we want to provide stimulus to the CNS that will excite our motor neurons and produce coordinated and proficient movement via efficient recruitment of muscle fiber and firing patterns? The use of progressive dynamic movement that supports mobility (dynamic flexibility) and stability (strength) while creating and/or developing movement skill is the most appropriate activity preparation for physical education students and young athletes. Is it time to ADAPT your teaching or coaching to meet the needs of your students or athletes?