Fundamental Concepts of Exercise as a Physical Activity

A. Phases of Exercise
B. Anatomical Terms of Movement
C. Types of Exercise
D. Principles of Exercise
- FITT Principles
E. Safety Precautions and basic first aid (RICE)

A. PHASES OF EXERCISE
1. Warm-up
Warming up before exercise allows your body to adjust gradually to the increased demand on your heart, muscles,
breathing, and circulation. Warmups also increase your body temperature, heart rate, range of motion and protects against
injury and muscle soreness.

2. Main Exercise
This is the most intense part of your workout, where you perform the main activity or exercise that you have planned. This
could be anything from weight lifting to running to playing a sport. The main exercise phase is designed to challenge your
body and push you to your limits, in order to achieve the desired fitness results. The duration and intensity of this phase
will depend on your fitness level, goals and the type of exercise you are doing.

3. Cool-down
The cool-down is just as important as the warm-up phase. It involves slowly bringing your heart rate and breathing back
to normal levels and allowing your muscles to gradually return to their resting state. The cool-down phase typically
involves light aerobic activity such as walking.

Static and Dynamic Stretching

1. Static stretching - involves extending specific muscles and holding the position. For example, extending an arm
behind the back to work the triceps is a static stretch.
2. Dynamic stretching - involve moving rather than holding a position. A walking lunge, for example, is a dynamic
stretch.
B. ANATOMICAL TERMS OF MOVEMENT
Anatomical terms of movement are used to describe the actions of muscles upon the skeleton. Muscles contract to produce
movement at joints, and the subsequent movements can be precisely described using this terminology.
The terms used assume that the body begins in the anatomical position. Most movements have an opposite movement –
also known as an antagonistic movement.

1. Flexion and Extension

They refer to increasing and decreasing the angle between two body parts:
a. Flexion - refers to a movement that decreases the angle between two body parts. Flexion at the elbow is
decreasing the angle between the ulna and the humerus. When the knee flexes, the ankle moves closer to the buttock, and
the angle between the femur and tibia gets smaller.
b. Extension - refers to a movement that increases the angle between two body parts. Extension at the elbow is
increasing the angle between the ulna and the humerus. Extension of the knee straightens the lower limb.

2. Abduction and Adduction

Abduction and adduction are two terms that are used to describe movements towards or away from the midline of the
body.
a. Abduction - is a movement away from the midline – just as abducting someone is to take them away. For
example, abduction of the shoulder raises the arms out to the sides of the body.
b. Adduction - is a movement towards the midline. Adduction of the hip squeezes the legs together.

3. Medial and Lateral Rotation

Medial and lateral rotation describe movement of the limbs around their long axis:
a. Medial rotation - is a rotational movement towards the midline. It is sometimes referred to as internal rotation.
To understand this, we have two scenarios to imagine. Firstly, with a straight leg, rotate it to point the toes inward. This is
medial rotation of the hip.
b. Lateral rotation - is a rotating movement away from the midline. This is in the opposite direction to the
movements described above.

4. Elevation and Depression

a. Elevation - refers to movement in a superior direction (e.g. shoulder shrug).
b. Depression - refers to movement in an inferior direction.

5. Pronation and Supination

a. Pronation - Keeping the elbow and shoulder still, flip your hand onto its front, palm down. This is the prone
position, and so this movement is named pronation.
b. Supination - With your hand resting on a table in front of you, and keeping your shoulder and elbow still, turn
your hand onto its back, palm up. This is the supine position, and so this movement is supination.

6. Dorsiflexion and Plantarflexion

Dorsiflexion and plantarflexion are terms used to describe movements at the ankle. They refer to the two surfaces of the
foot; the dorsum (superior surface) and the plantar surface (the sole).
a. Dorsiflexion - refers to flexion at the ankle, so that the foot points more superiorly.
b. Plantarflexion - refers extension at the ankle, so that the foot points inferiorly.

7. Inversion and Eversion

Inversion and eversion are movements which occur at the ankle joint, referring to the rotation of the foot around its long
axis.
 a. Inversion - involves the movement of the sole towards the median plane.
b. Eversion - involves the movement of the sole away from the median plane.

8. Opposition and Reposition

A pair of movements that are limited to humans and some great apes, these terms apply to the additional movements that
the hand and thumb can perform in these species.
a. Opposition involves touching the pad of any one of your fingers with the thumb of the same hand.
b. Reposition is the reverse, Which consist of separating them.

9. Circumduction
a. Circumduction - can be defined as a conical movement of a limb extending from the joint at which the
movement is controlled.
It is sometimes talked about as a circular motion, but is more accurately conical due to the ‘cone’ formed by the moving
limb.

10. Protraction and Retraction

a. Protraction - describes the anterolateral movement of the scapula on the thoracic wall that allows the shoulder
to move anteriorly.
b. Retraction - refers to the posteromedial movement of the scapula on the thoracic wall, which causes the
shoulder region to move posteriorly i.e. picking something up.

C. THE 4 MOST IMPORTANT TYPES OF EXERCISE

Each type of exercise is different; however, many activities fit into more than one category. It is common for people to
focus on one type of exercise or activity, but including all four types of exercise into your workout will give you more
benefits.

1. Endurance
Endurance, or aerobic exercise, increase your breathing and heart rate. By doing endurance exercises, you are working to
keep your heart, lungs, and circulatory system healthy while improving your total fitness.

2. Strength
If you want to build up your muscles, then strength exercises are right for you! Strength exercises are also called “strength
training” or “resistance training.” Even the slightest increase in strength can make a huge difference in your ability to
carry out everyday tasks. Developing strong muscles and bones can reduce your risk of weak bones and slouching.

3. Flexibility
The purpose of flexibility exercises is to stretch your muscles and help your body stay limber. This allows for more
freedom of movement for other exercises and for everyday activities. Flexibility exercises also have the ability to improve
your range of motion, posture, ability to breathe deeply, and circulation.

4. Balance
Completing balance exercises helps prevent falls. These exercises are especially important to older adults because it helps
them stay independent. Most good balance exercises that can help maintain balance are ones that keep you constantly
moving with your feet on the ground.
D. 7 PRINCIPLES OF EXERCISE
When you approach your multi-sport training, the best way to answer your questions is to better understand the principles
behind the work you are putting in to improve. These are seven basic principles of exercise or sport training you will want
to keep in mind.

1. Individuality
Everyone is different and responds differently to training. Some people are able to handle higher volumes of training
while others may respond better to higher intensities. This is based on a combination of factors like genetic ability,
predominance of muscle fiber types, other factors in your life, chronological or athletic age, and mental state.

2. Specificity
Improving your ability in a sport is very specific. This put simply means that you’ll get better at what you do. If you want
to improve your swimming, then swim more. If you want to improve your riding, then ride more. If you want to improve
your running, then run more.

3. Progression
Progression is a very close relation of overload. Overload refers to the stress of a single session, progression relates to the
short, medium and long-term development of an athlete.
The athlete should be challenged regularly to attain new levels of fitness to ensure better performance. The higher the
caliber of the athlete the more difficult this becomes to elicit.

4. Overload
For any adaptation to take place, the human body is required to exert itself beyond the normal stress levels of training. Put
simply, you need to ‘suffer’ in training in order to progress.

FITT PRINCIPLE
The FITT principle is a way to approach overload training strategically and safely, by overloading these different aspects
of exercise.
a. Frequency - How often physical activity is performed, which is normally about three to five times per week.
b. Intensity - How hard a person exercises during physical activity, which can be measured in different ways and
is different for everyone. Heart rate is one way to monitor intensity during endurance, while weight can illustrate intensity
of strength training etc.
c. Time - The length of physical activity. Again, time varies depending on the person and fitness goal. Stretch-
training for flexibility may take 15 minutes, but the minimum for aerobic activity is about 20 minutes of continuous
exercise.
d. Type - What type of exercise you do. Someone trying to improve strength might overload weight and reps; a
runner looking to improve endurance might overload distance and time.

5. Adaptation
Over time the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level. This adaptation results in improved efficiency,
less effort and less muscle breakdown at that level. That is why the first time you ran two miles you were sore after, but
now it’s just a warm up for your main workout.

6. Recovery
The body cannot repair itself without rest and time to recover. Motivated athletes often neglect this. At the basic level, the
more you train the more sleep your body needs.
7. Reversibility
If you discontinue application of a particular exercise you will lose the ability to successfully complete that exercise. You
can slow this rate of loss substantially by conducting a maintenance/reduced program of training during periods where life
gets in the way, and is why just about all sports coaches ask their athletes to stay active in the offseason.

E. R.I.C.E. Treatment for Acute Musculoskeletal Injury

Self-Care to Reduce Pain and Swelling With Soft Tissue Injuries.

R.I.C.E. is used to quickly treat pain and swelling after an acute (sudden) soft tissue injury such as a sprain, strain, joint
dislocation and contusions, which are commonly known as bruises. These injuries are often sports-related.

1. Rest and protect the injured or sore area.

2. Ice or a cold pack used as soon as possible.
3. Compression, or wrapping the injured or sore area with an elastic bandage.
4. Elevation (propping up) the injured or sore area.