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.