Fitness Log Project

Description

In this project we were told to build a one month fitness log to track our fitness program. Our fitness log had to include our S.M.A.R.T. Goal, the dates of our entries, our exercise schedule, our exercise tracker, and a mood/pain log. Some optional things we could incorporate into our fitness log were morning routines before/after school, measurements of specific body parts, meal planner, sleep tracker, warm up routines, notes to yourself, and doodles/pics for motivation.

We started this project by creating our S.M.A.R.T. Goal. A S.M.A.R.T. Goal can be implemented into any goal you have. It is a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, is realistic, and timely. My S.M.A.R.T. Goal was, "I want to have a toned stomach by 6/10/22 (last day of school). I will do this by doing workouts that specifically focus on my core. I am measuring my goal by measuring my waist every Friday. I started at 30 inches and want to get to 28 inches by 6/10/22." My S.M.A.R.T. Goal was a little long but it covered all the points a S.M.A.R.T. Goal needs to cover and was a great goal in general. A bad example of a S.M.A.R.T. Goal is, "I want a flat stomach." Just like my goal said, I measured my waist every Friday to see the progress. Unfortunately, my waist did not get any smaller but I made a chart in my Fitness Log (pictured below). My goal was mainly identified with body composition because it measured the amount of lean body mass compared with the amount of body fat which is what body composition is. In most of my work out exercises I had a goal target heart rate range that I wanted to get to (for example I would say, 60% of max heart rate). After my workout I wouldn't actually do the math to see if what the heart rate my Apple Watch told me was 60% of my max heart rate, but instead I would just write my max heart rate during that exercise or if I didn't have my Apple Watch on, just saying how hard I felt I worked.

I think the best part of my log was how I planned my days. I think I did a really good job incorporating all of the F.I.T.T. principles (frequency, intensity, time, type) in every single exercise I did even though it was a total pain doing so. For every single exercise, I wrote what type it was, how long or how many reps I was going to do of it, how often during the week I was going to do it, and how hard I planned on preforming this exercise. It took me a really long time but it was super helpful. I didn't always meet what my plan told me to do, but I always tried. I also did a sleep log which was actually really fun to do and I spent a lot of time on.

All of my Fitness Log will be presented below. It is presented in pictures.

Evidence of Work

Cardio Run Log Reflection

I would always complain about running in class because honestly, it's not fun at all. Getting all sweating and having to ruin my hair just to get a good grade in P.E. Although it was a pain, I actually ran every single time and was one of the few people in my P.E. period that did this every single time. I did not run my hardest every time, (as you can see on my run log below) but I still ran. On my Fitness Log, just coincidentally, I also planned a run every Thursday. For some reason, I didn't log my runs in class on my Fitness Log which is actually a really smart idea now that I think about it. So on Thursdays I did two runs. Since I did not log my runs I did in class, my running logs didn't really help motivate me because I never tracked them in my Fitness Log.

Below is the cardio run log we completed in class after the runs we did.

Content

1. S.M.A.R.T. Goal - S.M.A.R.T is an acronym standing for specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. A S.M.A.R.T. Goal is a goal that uses all five of these things to make a really well written and specific goal. S.M.A.R.T. Goals can be used for anything, not just exercising. I implemented my S.M.A.R.T. Goal into this project because this was the goal I was trying to reach throughout the entire project so it was always in the back of my mind. My S.M.A.R.T. Goal was, "I want to have a toned stomach by 6/10/22 (last day of school). I will do this by doing workouts that specifically focus on my core. I am measuring my goal by measuring my waist every Friday. I started at 30 inches and want to get to 28 inches by 6/10/22." This concept did sort of overlap from other class because I have begun setting some of the goals I have in S.M.A.R.T. Goal form.

2. Overload Principle - The overload principle is basically intensifying your workout little by little so you don't plateau and your body is able to adapt and grow muscle. I used this in my Fitness Log because every week I slowly made my workouts harder, bit by bit, so my body didn't over work but also grew muscle. This concept also sort of overlaps from other classes because when you get a bunch of homework, you have to spread it out over time. You shouldn't do it all in one day, but spread it out over time. Maybe do 20% of it your first day, 30% you second day, and then 50% you last day.

3. Periodization - Periodization is the concept of overloading and adapting by stressing your body out, then allowing it to recover, and then stressing it again. You can gradually build fitness from doing this. Periodization consists of three types of cycles, marcocycles, mesocycles, and microcycles. My project related to this because it was made up of four microcycles or one mesocycle. This can be used in other classes because one unit of math in like a mesocycle. Two semesters of math is like one marcocycle.

4. F.I.T.T Principle - F.I.T.T. is an acronym for frequency, intensity, time, and type. You use this when setting up a workout plan. I used this in my Fitness Log every time I made an exercise plan. I would also say how many times per week I would do it, how long/how many reps, what the the actual exercise was, and how intense I planned on going. So far, I have not used the F.I.T.T. principle in any of my other classes.

5. Heart Rate (resting HR, target HR, and THRR) - RHR stands for resting heart rate. It means how fast your heart beats at rest. MHR stands for maximum. This means the maximum speed your heart can beat at. THRR means the rate at which you get the most health benefit with low risk of injury. My RHR is 53 beats per minute. My THRR is 145-183. I used this in my project by having my Apple Watch tell me how fast my heart was beating and then logging it in my Fitness Log. I haven't really used this in school.

6. Resistance Training - Resistance training is changes the intensity of a workout typically by using bands. There are different intensities of bands depending on how hard you want to work. I didn't use resistance bands in my workouts but I did change the intensities of workouts when they were too easy for my by adding weights or doing more reps. Something similar to resistance training that is done in school is taking an AP or honors class to challenge yourself.

7. Body Weight Exercises - Body weight exercises are exercises that use your own weight to provide resistance against gravity instead of for example, a band. In this project, I did do multiple exercises where I had to use my own body weight. I actually quite liked these exercises. I can not think of something similar to this that we do in class.

8. Health Components - There are five health components of physical fitness. Cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Cardiovascular endurance is having the ability keeping you heart rate in the heart rate target zone by having to perform large muscle moderate to high intensity. Muscular endurance is repeatedly exerting a force on muscle groups over a period of time (usually on the longer side). Muscular strength is exerting a maximum force on a muscle or muscle groups one time. Flexibility is being able to fully move a joint through its complete range of motion. Body composition is the amount of lean body mass compared to body fat. I used this in my Fitness Log by every week having at least one of all the health components present. I can not think of a think we have used something similar to this in one of my other classes.

Reflection

I thought I was going to really dislike this project but in the end it was kind of fun and I enjoyed it. Throughout this project I defiantly had some positive and negatives. Two positive things I did was being a critical thinker and having good character. I thought my critical thinking was really good throughout this project. I had to solve a bunch of problems because of my Fitness Log's schedule. I am such a busy person that it was really hard to fit in a Fitness Log workout in to my routine, but I did it. Some days of course I was super busy and didn't have any time at all to do my planned workouts, but I think for the most part I did about 80% of the workouts I planned which is much more than I expected. I was doing two basketball leagues, lacrosse, and had a ton of homework and I just honestly feel proud that I got that much of my Fitness Log done. I used to be really bad at procrastinating but since the Fitness Log I have gotten so much better because I've learned that I can't do all of my home work in one day, go to basketball practice, and still expect to get my Fitness Log done. I also think I had really good character through all of this. Some times I would get really stressed out about not having done my Fitness Log workout for the day and start to get really guilty, but I decided most people probably aren't even doing their Fitness Log and I'm putting in so much work and effort that it's okay to not do every single exercise I've planned because of my schedule. I kept a positive mindset throughout this entire project and I'm just really proud of myself and feel like I did a really good job and went above and beyond the expectations. My character was one of the reasons I stuck with my goal even though I was seeing any changes in my waist. I felt like this project was useless and a waist of time some times but I just kept pushing because of my character. I think I worked really hard and impresses myself during this project.

Although there were more pluses than minuses, there were some minuses. These included my communication and being a conscientious learner. In this project there wasn't a lot of communication involved but there were times where I had questions and I was just didn't mind asking and figured it out by myself. At the beginning of this project I had so many questions and was stressing out so much about what to do and if I was going to do something wrong and if I was going to get a bad grade on my Fitness Log. But I eventually just found out that it was my project and I could pretty much make it however I wanted to. As I went on, I still had questions about what I should intensify and if I was doing too much or too little, but I never asked and just sort of figured it out on my own and kind of guessed through things. In the future when doing projects like this or not like this, I learned I have to start asking my questions and not just let them build up in my head, making me stress out over if i'm doing something wrong or not. I actually feel like for the most part, my conscientious learner was really good. But looking back I could've managed my time a lot better. At the beginning of this project, I didn't start my Fitness Log in class and waited until the day it was due to start which sort of put me behind. I also had a super busy schedule which wasn't really my control but I could've found better ways around my busy schedule than to just skip out on days of doing my Fitness Log. I ended up being okay and got everything in on time but there was some procrastination when it came to actually setting up my Fitness Log. One way I can prevent this from happening again is spreading out my work and not just doing it all on one day and making myself stay up until midnight to finish. All in all, I enjoyed this project even though I had to work around my schedule to complete it.