Fitness Log
What did I do?
For this project, we were instructed to exercise consistently for one month in order to work towards a specific goal. We also logged our exercises and progress, along with other things like our mood, sleep, and/or measurements.
Our specific goal and plan was outlined in our S.M.A.R.T. goal. S.M.A.R.T. stands for specific, measurable, actions, realistic, timely. My S.M.A.R.T. goal was "I want to be able to do a single pull-up in a month in order to increase my muscular strength. I will do this by completing a specific TABATA workout 2 times a week for cardiac/muscular endurance and a specific pull-up build-up workout 3 times a week."
For my tracking, I tracked my exercises, along with my heart rate, perceived exertion, and the time. I also had other trackers. I tracked my mood, pain, and sleep, allowing me to reflect on how much I usually sleep, what my general mood palette is, and physical pains, allowing me to focus on my health.
Scanned Documents.pdf
Concepts
In this project, there were a variety of concepts used and implemented. I will explain them below.
S.M.A.R.T. goal - A S.M.A.R.T. goal is a specific, measurable, reasonable, timely goal with specific actions listed.
Specific - Where, what, when, and why you are attempting to complete a goal. What is your goal? Why do you have this goal? When do you have to do this by? Where are you going to complete your exercises?
Measurable - Is your goal measurable? How so? Do you measure how many push-ups you can do in a row? Do you measure how far you can reach? Do you measure your physical muscles and dimensions? How will you know when you have completed the goal, especially through these measurements?
Actions - How will you complete this goal? Add specific actions, like "do twenty push-ups every day" instead of simply "exercise more," which is vague and easy to dismiss.
Reasonable - Is your goal actually reasonable? Could you be able to complete this goal in the allotted amount of time? Is it too intense, and take too long to try and complete? Is it too easy, and you'll blow right past it? If you truly believe that you will complete the goal in that specific amount of time, that is a reasonable goal.
Timely - A goal should be specifically confined to a time frame. Without a deadline or time frame, it's difficult to stay motivated in doing those things. Without a time frame, there is no real sense of urgency.
Overload principle - The overload principle, simply put, states that you have to increase the overall difficulty of your exercises in order to actually make gains. If you do not increase the difficulty, you reach a plateau where you are not actually gaining any muscle/losing weight/etc.
Periodization - Periodization is the act of breaking down an exercise schedule into periods. Microcycles are usually a couple weeks long, mesocycles are usually a month or so long, and macrocycles are usually multiple months long. By breaking down your exercise schedule into these pieces, you're more able to be specific in your goals and path of difficulty.
F.I.T.T. principle - F.I.T.T. stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type. How frequent are your exercises? How often do you do them? How difficult are they? How long do you do them for? What do they work towards? Do they focus on muscle strength, muscle endurance, cardiovascular endurance, or flexibility? These questions are important to answer when putting together your exercise schedule and plan.
Heart rate - Your heart rate is the rate at which your heart beats.
Resting heart rate - Your resting heart rate is your heart rate when it is not stimulated by exterior sources, like exercise or stress. It is best to take your heart rate first thing in the morning in order to find the most accurate resting heart rate.
Target heart rate - Your target heart rate is the range that maximizes your benefits. This takes place between 70% and 85% of the range from your resting heart rate to your maximum heart rate, creating a sweet spot for you to maximize your exercise-based benefits.
Maximum heart rate - Your maximum heart rate is the fastest your heart should, and can, beat. Your heart rate exceeding this number is very dangerous, and it should be avoided. You can find this by subtracting your age from 220.
Resistance training - Resistance is the practice of exercising with outside resistance, other than the usual resistances of gravity, body weight, and the weights you are using. The most common example of this is resistance bands, which are stiff rubber bands that one will use to attract things towards each other. The goal with them is to resist the force of the rubber band and pull the two attracted things away from each other using force, therefore strengthening your muscles.
Body weight exercises - Body weight exercises are exercises that rely on using your body weight. Instead of using exterior weights, like dumbbells or barbells, you use the weight of your body as your extra weight that requires extra strength. The arguably most common example of this is push-ups, where you press down, resisting the urge to go completely to the ground, and push back up against your body weight.
Health components - There are five main components to one's health and exercise.
Muscle strength - This is the ability to perform a strength task once at maximum effort. For instance, lifting 100 pounds at your maximum, but only once.
Muscle endurance - This is the ability to perform a strength task multiple times. For instance, lifting 20 pounds 10 times and not exerting yourself upon the first try.
Cardiovascular endurance - This is the ability to continue in exercises for a prolonged amount of time while keeping your heart rate in the target heart rate zone. For instance, running 3 miles all while keeping your heart rate at roughly 180 bpm (beats per minute).
Flexibility - The ability to move a joint through its complete range of motion. For example, the ability to roll your arm throughout the entirety of its socket in all the directions possible.
Body composition - The comparison of your organs/bones/muscle/etc. to your fat. You evaluate how much of your body is organs/bones/muscle/etc, and compare the amount found to the amount of fat you have on your person.
Reflection
During this project I believe I maintained critical thinking, analyzing my exercises and the effort I exerted doing them in order to understand what I was doing, how I was doing it, and if I could improve. I do believe that I could have worked on my conscientiousness regarding my learning, as I wasn't managing my time as efficiently as I could have been. I often had to place workouts at awkward times, not knowing when else to do them. However, if I had organized my time more efficiently, I would have been able to exercise at more convenient times and not inconvenience myself as much.
I also believe that I maintained good character, respecting my body's limits in what it could do and not pushing myself farther than I should have. I don't think I exerted much collaboration, though. Considering this was a primarily solo project, I don't see that as much of a problem; there wasn't a team for me to collaborate with. However, there is always room to improve, and I likely could have found a way to work on my collaboration, like exercising with a friend and keeping each other accountable.