Fitness Log

Project Description:

In this project, we were asked to make a fitness log over a month. We began with planning out our log for a two week period. In this log, we were instructed to include a SMART goal and what steps we would take to achieve it. I began with a SMART goal of running a mile in 8 minutes. I planned to track my workout schedule and tracker, mood log, pain log, number of miles ran per day, and how much sleep I acquired every night.

My SMART goal fell under the cardiovascular endurance section in the 5 components of fitness because it required me to build my endurance and perform a large muscle moderate to high intensity exercise for a prolonged period. During these exercises, I was tracking my heart rate so that I knew my intensity and what I needed to change throughout each workout. Overall, this log showed me how much of an impact a plan can have on my physical and mental health. A plan gave me the motivation to keep pushing and strive for my goal each and every day. At the end of the month, I exceeded my goal and was able to run a 7 minute mile, one minute shorter than my original goal.

Content:

SMART Goal - This is a goal that is set and stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. All of these aspects play into the idea of whether or not a goal is realistic and a quality goal. For example, my SMART goal was to run a mile in 8 minutes. This is a goal that is specific, able to be measured with the number of laps around a track, achievable with correct training, relevant to fitness concepts, and able to be completed in a month or less.

Overload Principle - This is changing an aspect of a workout to see changes or improvements in some way. You can do this by increasing the intensity, duration, type, or time of a workout.

Periodization - This works on the concepts of overload and adaptation by stressing the body, recovering, and stressing it again. It consists of three cycles that include a macrocycle, mesocycle, and a microcycle. A microcycle is a week long of training and is the smallest unit within a mesocycle. A mesocycle is a particular training block while a macrocycle is the season as a whole. These all make up a periodization.

FITT Principle - This is a way of letting people know how long and hard they should exercise. FITT stands for frequency, intensity, time, and type. These all help to gain an understanding of what is going into each exercise. I used FITT in my fitness log to track my exercises and how intense they were.

Heart Rate - Resting heart rate is the number of times your heart beats per minute when you are resting. To accurately take this, I took it right after I woke up and had a RHR of 68 bpm. Target heart rate is what I wanted my heart rate to be after I was finished with my mile for my SMART goal. This was at 123 bpm, which was healthy and average for someone who just exercised.

Resistance Training - This is training that involves physical exercises that is designed to improve strength and endurance. This typically includes lifting weights and other exercises like that.

Body Weight Exercises - These are exercises that involve one's own weight to train. Their weight provides resistance against gravity and can include exercises like planks, push-ups, and squats.

Health Components - There are 5 health components of fitness that include muscle strength, muscle endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. Each component has it's own definition and requirements. For example, muscle endurance is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert a sub-maximal force repeatedly over a period of time.

Reflection:

Throughout this fitness journey, I feel that I could have worked on my creativity. I planned my log based off of exercises that I have already done in the past and feel as though I could have branched out more and tried new things. I also think that I could have collaborated with my peers and planned workouts with them. Other people tend to push me to do my best and I know that I would have gotten a greater mile time in the end if I would have collaborated with others more. Although I struggled in some areas, I excelled in others. For example, I communicated through my fitness log very well and got the points across that I wanted to make. I also used my critical thinking skills to plan out this log and track what exercises I was completing. Overall, this project went very smoothly and helped me with many different skills. It also taught me more on fitness and how important it is. I completed my goal and had a great time with this project.