U4 Physical Preparation, Health and Wellbeing
Pass 1
Flexibility
Flexibility is an important component of people’s fitness due to the fact it is used regularly for multiple
jobs and tasks. The meaning of flexibility is the mixture of different movements around and near the
joints within the body. Having good flexibility has various benefits to it such as it helps to prevent
injuries during activities. A fitness test that would test the ability of someone’s flexibility would be the
sit and reach test. To complete the sit and reach test, an individual must sit on the floor with their legs
extended out straight forward with the bottom of their feet touching the box flat. The individual must
then reach forward with both hands (arms must be equal length) trying to reach the highest score.
Within the public services the British Army carry out this flexibility test on their recruits. There is no
specific entry requirement that they have to aim for but this allows the recruits to reach as far as they
possibility can.
Muscular endurance
Muscular endurance is a muscular fitness, it’s the ability of a muscle or a muscular group to undergo
repeated contractions for an extended period while avoiding fatigue. The greater the muscular
endurance the higher the number of repetitions you could complete and keep on going. Having great
muscular endurance is also beneficial for your quality of life and workouts. A sport the Muscular
endurance is used in is running, swimming or also cycling, it’s typically found in sports that require high
stamina to be able to continue a repeated motion for a long period. Specifically, long distance running is
a large requirement of muscular endurance for marathon runners, this is due to the runner’s body
repeating the same movement repeatedly for a long time. If they don’t have an advanced muscular
endurance it could lead to them having injury or feeling extremely fatigued. An exercise that targets
muscular endurance is completing high volume sets such as doing bench presses, an example could be
doing 3 sets of 8 to 10 reps, then you could enhance it to 2 sets of 25 to 30 reps. Improving muscular
endurance involves increasing the total time a muscle is contracted. One type of method of training that
will help with the improvement in muscular endurance is circuit training, this particular use of circuit
training for this component of fitness would require going from one exercise to another weighted or not
with little or no rest at all, which would allow the muscles to endure the stress of the exercises. A good
test that involves an individual using their muscular endurance would be the popular exercise which is
press ups. When doing the press up exercise, you would place both hands flat on the floor. Ensure that
your hands are in line with your shoulders. Have your legs fully extended out behind you, with your toes
curled towards your head. After getting in the starting position (called the plank), bend both elbows
backwards making your body slowly descend to the floor. Ensure that your chest doesn’t touch the
floor. Raise yourself from the ground by extending your arms allowing you to get back into the starting
position.
Power
The meaning of power is the ability to move as quickly as you can. Power is the speed someone moves
when force is applied at such as jumping or accelerating. There’s a wide range of exercises that will
target your power. An exercise that targets your power is the vertical and horizontal jump test. When
, participating in the vertical jump test the individual stands beside a wall with their arm closer and jumps
up in the air with their arm straightened upwards to reach the highest score possible. To complete the
horizontal test, the participant must stand on the start of the measuring mat and use their leg power to
jump as far as possible. The public services that do this certain test is the Police Service. Within the
police force the individuals must reach a minimum of 30 cm when doing both jumping tests. A sport
that requires power is boxing, weightlifting or weight throwing in the Olympics. A method of training
involved in improving someone's power is plyometric training also known as jump training; involves
exercises that requires the maximal amount of force to be exerted in short intervals of time Plyometric
training exercises combined with heavy weight training like squats, lunges etc will help give your
muscles the ability to contract explosively.
Speed
The term speed is how fast an individual can move across the surface or how fast they are able to move
their limbs. A fitness training method which targets this fitness component is called the sprint test. To
conduct this test, it will require the person/people to sprint 60 meters as fast as possible to get the best
time. Measure out 60 meters on a track, then get the individuals to start at the starting point then sprint
on the command go/start allowing the person to react and start sprinting to the finish. This test is timed
and can be repeated several times if needed. Genetics influence how quick you are, but training can
improve your rate or speed of movement. Speed is evident in sprinting, speed skating, or tennis. The
reason it’s important in tennis for example, is because the players need to be able to move quickly to hit
the ball from reaching the floor, speed is arguably the most vital component for tennis. Speed is often
tested by an individual running a 20 metre or even 10 metre sprints in the quickest time possible while
timing yourself. After the first time you could repeat this again after resting, then try to beat the
previous time. A method of training involved in improving someone's speed is plyometric training also
known as jump training, this involves exercises that require the maximal amount of force to be exerted
in short intervals of time.
Agility
Agility is the ability to quickly change the body composition or direction effectively, it requires using
speed, coordination and the correct response to the changing positions. Agility ensures that your body
and sports equipment are in the right position to take the next action effectively. In sport, agility is used
in football, basketball, gymnastics and hockey players. Basketball requires constant changes of direction.
Therefore, acceleration is an extremely important aspect of agility. It is a fast game that requires
continuous changes. Basketball is to be able to move your body quickly as you jump, pivot, or change
direction. An exercise you could use to improve agility is ladder drills, it includes skipping through runs,
sideways shuffles, and other movements performed up and down the ladder.
Different methods of training -
For muscular endurance circuit training is very effective, they can be sport specific and offer a range of
different workouts that will hit different one or more components of fitness, this is effective also for
strength and cardiovascular endurance. The idea is that doing more repetitions at a lower weight within
a workout circuit will help build up slow-twitch muscle fibres, which help increase the endurance of
muscles. Another method of training is core stability training, this is where it targets the muscles which
are deep within the abdomen which are connected to the spine, pelvis & shoulders which assist in the
maintenance of good posture and provide the foundation for all arm and leg movements. Exercise
within sessions of core stability can be crunches, plank or hamstring raises. Furthermore, medicine ball
training, this training includes firm balls in various sizes from 2 to 110 pounds, it’s found to be an
effective training method for endurance, power and strength. The medicine ball is designed to be
thrown explosively, it can let you move and express force that’s not possible with dumbbells or any
other implement. An exercise you can use this method is medicine ball slam, Stand with feet shoulder-
width apart and hold the medicine ball with both hands in front of your chest. Then hold the ball over
