ENERGY SYSTEMS &
FITNESS COMPONENTS
THE 10 COMPONENTS OF FITNESS
Aerobic Capacity (stamina): This is the ability of your heart and
lungs to deliver oxygen through your blood to your muscles, to
produce energy.
Example: long distance running, cycling
Anaerobic capacity (speed): This is the ability to get your body
moving quickly.
Example: 100m sprint, 50m swim
Muscular strength: The ability of your muscles to exert a force.
In practice, strength is performing an action that requires large
amounts of force and can only be completed a maximum of 10
times.
Example: weight training
Flexibility: This is the ability of your muscles, ligaments and
tendons to stretch so that your joints allow large
movements.
Example: gymnastics, follow through when kicking a
football.
Muscular endurance: This is the ability of your muscles to
produce small efforts that are repeated over and over again.
Example: push ups, paddling a canoe.
Coordination: This is the ability to time your movements so
that you perform skills smoothly and accurately. All
activities require some sort of coordination.
Example: soccer, tennis
Muscular power: This is the ability to use strength quickly to
produce an explosive effort.
Example: long jump, shot put.
Balance: This is the ability to stay upright or in control of
your body position when you are moving or stationary.
Example: surfing, gymnastics.
Agility: This is the ability to accelerate quickly, dodge, weave
and turn. To be agile, you also need muscular power, speed and
flexibility.
Example: team sports – netball, football etc.
Body composition: your body consists of many different
types of tissue, such as muscle tissue and fat tissue. Too
much fat tissue can cause a vast range of health problems.
HEALTH RELATED FITNESS
If you want to develop general fitness to enjoy a healthy
lifestyle, you need to develop these health related fitness
components.
Aerobic capacity
Muscular strength & endurance
Flexibility
Body composition
SPORT RELATED FITNESS
For successful sports performance, you need to develop a
good level of fitness in all components.
You need to develop a good level of fitness for that specific
sport.
Example: flexibility and balance.
ENERGY SYSTEMS
Anaerobic energy (without oxygen)
ATP-PC system: (Adenosine TriPhosphate (ATP) and
PhosoCreatine (PC)
no oxygen
goes for up to 10 seconds
explosive energy, e.g. sprints, jumps, throws
energy is stored in your muscles from carbohydrates in food
you have eaten
Lactic Acid system:
no oxygen
goes for 10 - 60 seconds
slightly longer duration, e.g. 400m run
lactic acid builds up in your muscles, which causes
fatigue
Aerobic energy (with oxygen)
Oxygen is needed
Goes for any exercise over 60 seconds
This is when your muscles need energy for long periods of time,
e.g. jogging
Muscles use carbohydrates and fats from foods you have eaten
and the oxygen you breathe to make energy
Fatigue is caused by running out of fuel (food), dehydration or
not being able to take in enough oxygen
F.I.T.T FormulaF for FREQUENCY
To achieve the most from your fitness, you must do three or
four exercise sessions each week.
I for INTENSITY
To improve your heart rate and lung (aerobic) efficiency, your
pulse must reach 140 to 180 per minute during your exercise.
T for TIME
To get any real benefit, you must exercise for at least 30
minutes and continuously (no rests)
T for TYPE
The best aerobic activities include running, cycling,
swimming, rowing, boxing etc.
Interval Training
Interval training exercise which consists of high
intensity activity for a period of time, followed
by low intensity exercise for a period of time.
These sets are repeated.
Sprint Intervals
This is the high intensity portion of exercise.
Sprint intervals are measured either by time or
distance.
Rest Intervals
The period of recovery is called rest intervals.
During a rest interval athletes do not stop the
activity, they keep exercising but at a lower
intensity. This allows the body to recovery from the
sprint interval.
Intensity
The intensity of the sprint interval is determined by
how hard you push yourself during the sprint. E.g.
1 – 10 with 1 being no effort at all and 10
representing the maximum effort possible.