Initial Discussion responses should be around 200 words. Responses to your classmates or instructor should be around 75 words.

Topic: Fitness and Exercise Design

Initial Discussion Post: Define and explain the FITT principles. In your explanation, be sure to address why these principles are so important in exercise design and how they are utilized. Discuss your own aerobic fitness program and how you apply these principles. If you do not currently have an aerobic exercise program, how might you apply these principles in the future to create one?

Classmate Post #1

The acronym FITT represents the standard of a great workout regimen. Frequency, Intensity, Time andType are all very essential components necessary to having a productive workout. According to ACSM’s Complete Guide to Fitness and Health, frequency is the amount of time you exercise per week, intensity is how intense each session is, time is how long you spend each time you exercise and type is the kind of exercise you are doing (2017). If you went to the gym everyday meeting the frequency standard, but only spend 15 minutes there, and put forth little effort, you have essentially wasted your time. On the other hand if you go to the gym everyday but only work out your chest muscles for an hour, that’s not good enough either. Basically, you need all FITT principles to gain the health benefits of physical activity. Now when it comes to type, so many people only tend to do cardio and maybe strength training. Some only do one or the other. However, flexibility, balance and core training are just as important as cardio and strength training (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2017). Theses other types essentially complete a physical activity regimen that encompasses all areas of fitness. My aerobic fitness program is actually based on heart rate. I used to be a member of a gym called Orange Theory Fitness where a combination of strength training, core exercises and aerobics is designed to bring your heart rate to the orange zone. The orange zone is said to be the prime zone for burning calories and causing weight loss. Now that I am in Korea, I implement what I’ve learned at that gym into what I do now. Sprints at varied intervals, intensities and distances combined with an intense row workout with the same variations. I do this every other day or every 2 days depending on how fatigued I am. Between those days, I strength train several muscles groups for about an hour and a half using dumbbells, resistance machines and body weight. So a typical week for me is cardio Monday, Wednesday, Friday and strength Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Sunday is always a rest day unless I chose to skip Saturday.

Mayo Clinic Staff. (2017, August 10). Fitness training: Elements of a well-rounded routine. Retrieved from

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/fitness-training/art-20044792

Bushman, Barbara. (2017). ACSM’s Complete Guide to Fitness & Health 2^nd-Edition. Retrieved from

http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/aerobicworkoutcomponents-excerpt

Classmate Post #2

FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time, and Type.

Frequency – How often are you exercising? How many days per week you’re exercising. This is important because you want to exercise at least 3 days per week and regular physical activity means lower risk of musculoskeletal injury (Bushman, xxxx).

Intensity – How hard are you exercising? You should experience elevated heart rate and faster breathing and you can gauge your intensity by either how you feel during the exercise on a scale of 0-10. For example, sitting down is a 0, moderate is a 5-6, and full on sprinting is a 10 (Bushman, n.d.).

Time – How long are you exercising for? You should be exercising for a minimum of 150 minutes per week for moderately intense workouts (Mayo Clinic, 2017). These exercises should be performed in atleast 10 minute intervals.

Type – Try to balance out your types of exercise. Aerobic exercises include running, brisk walking, stairs, and the elliptical. You should also perform strength training on your core muscle groups as it increases bone strength and muscular fitness. Examples include push ups, bench press, squats, and pull ups. You should also stretch as a part of cooling down as this improves your flexibility and range of motion. (Mayo Clinic, 2017).

Right now, my aerobic exercise program consists of running 3 times per week and I also include weight training 4 days per week. I would like to adjust it in the future and change up the type of cardiovascular exercising that I do. My plan is to do short distance running one day to improve my speed (HIIT type exercises included!), another day to swim for 25 minutes, another day run for 3 miles (eventually getting up to 6 miles), and finally doing the eliptical or stair climber.

References

Bushman, B. (n.d.) Aerobic Workout Components. Retrieved from http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/excerpts/aerobicworkoutcomponents-excerpt

Mayo Clinic. (2017). Fitness Training: Elements of a well-rounded routing. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/fitness-training/art-20044792