Lesson video

Hi there, welcome to your lesson.

Today's lesson is on "Cardiovascular fitness, strength, muscular endurance, and speed." My name's Ms. Hacking and I'm looking forward to being your teacher today.

By the end of today's lesson, I'm hoping that we can all define cardiovascular fitness, strength, muscular endurance, and speed, and consider the appropriate fitness tests for each.

You may have already talked about some components of fitness in your lessons, so today we're going to look at them in a bit more detail.

Today's keywords are those components of fitness that we need to remember.

Cardiovascular fitness is the ability to exercise your whole body for long periods of time.

It's sometimes called stamina or aerobic endurance.

Muscular endurance is the ability to use voluntary muscles many times without getting tired.

Speed is the rate at which someone can perform a movement or cover a distance.

We need to remember that speed isn't just running fast, it can be moving other parts of our body quickly too.

And muscular strength is the amount of force a muscle can exert against a resistance, and you may already know some sports that would require good muscular strength.

Today's lesson is split into four parts.

In the first part of the lesson, we're going to look at cardiovascular fitness and look at the fitness tests that measure cardiovascular fitness.

In the second part of today's lesson, we're going to look at muscular endurance and look at fitness tests associated with muscular endurance.

Speed is what we're going to discuss in the third part of today's lesson, and we're going to look at the fitness tests that measure speed.

And in the final part of today's lesson, we're going to look at strength and look at the fitness tests that measures strength.

Let's get started.

So, cardiovascular fitness is the ability to exercise the whole body for long periods of time, and it can sometimes be called aerobic endurance.

If we think about endurance, endurance activities last for a long period of time.

So obviously, in order to be able to last a long period of time, we need to have good cardiovascular fitness.

We need our heart and our lungs to get oxygen into our body so our body is able to keep going for a long period of time.

I wonder, well, Sofia wonders, if you can think of any athletes that may benefit from having good cardiovascular fitness, that maybe last for a long period of time? You may have mentioned a marathon runner because a marathon runner might be running for two, three, four, five, six or more hours, so therefore they would definitely need good cardiovascular fitness to keep their oxygen coming in and pumping around the body for a long period of time.

Again, a long distance cyclist, particularly one that is going up into the mountains or into hills, so like on Tour de France, for example, they would need good cardiovascular fitness because they would be cycling for a long period of time.

And also games players, for example, a rugby player would need good cardiovascular fitness because a game of rugby lasts 80 minutes, which is a long period of time, so therefore you would need your heart and lungs to be getting oxygen around your body for that whole period of time so that you don't get tired.

Basically, it's any exercise where the heart and lungs are working for a sustained time which is more than 20 minutes.

That type of sport or activity would require good cardiovascular fitness.

You might be able to think of some other examples.

Okay, let's have a go at a check.

What is the correct definition of cardiovascular fitness? Is it A, the ability to use voluntary muscles many times without getting tired? Is it B, the ability to exercise the whole body for long periods of time? Is it C, the rate at which an individual can perform a movement or cover a distance? Or is it D, the amount of force a muscle can exert against a resistance? I'm hoping that you spotted it was B, the ability to exercise the whole body for long periods of time.

Because A is describing muscular endurance, C is describing speed, and D is describing strength.

So well done if you spotted that.

So Sofia has said she thinks that she has good cardiovascular fitness, but how could she test this to prove it? Now, there are two tests that measure cardiovascular fitness and they are the Cooper 12-minute run or swim or the Harvard step test.

So let's look at how these tests are conducted.

So the Cooper 12-minute run is used to measure cardiovascular fitness.

So what is the protocol? Now, the protocol is how you do something.

So how do we do the 12-minute Cooper run? So you would always warm up thoroughly to ensure that you are able to perform at your best and to avoid injuries.

You would use a 400-meter running track or other suitable circuit or a running machine.

And you would cover the furthest distance possible in 12 minutes.

You would record the total distance that you covered in 12 minutes.

And you can compare your results to normative data to see where your cardiovascular fitness level stands in relation to other people.

Now this can also be done in a swimming pool, and this would be called the 12-minute Cooper swim, and it would still test your cardiovascular fitness.

The Harvard step test is used to measure cardiovascular fitness as well, and the protocol for the Harvard step test is of course we would warm up thoroughly before doing the test.

The assistant would give the command go and start the stopwatch.

The participant would step on and off a 45-centimeter high gym bench once every two seconds for five minutes, so that's 150 steps.

They would stop the test after five minutes and measure the heart rate one minute after finishing, two minutes after finishing, and three minutes after finishing.

And then the result is 30,000 divided by your heart rate one minute, two minutes, and three minutes after finishing.

So you would need to make sure that you recorded each heart rate that you did.

Okay, let's have a go at a check.

How can you measure cardiovascular fitness? Is it A, the Harvard step test? Is it B, the 30-meter sprint test? Is it C, the Cooper 12-minute run or swim test? That's right, you should have had two answers there, because it's A, the Harvard step test, and C, the Cooper 12-minute run or swim test.

They both measure cardiovascular fitness.

So well done if you got that correct.

Okay, now it's your turn to have a go at a task.

For the first part of this task, I'd like you to define cardiovascular fitness.

For the second part of the task, I'd like you to explain why an athlete of your choice would benefit from good cardiovascular fitness.

And for the third part of this task, I'd like you to describe the protocol of one fitness test that measures cardiovascular fitness.

You may wish to pause the video now to give yourself time to complete the task.

Okay, for the first part of the task, you were asked to define cardiovascular fitness, and I'm hoping that you remembered from our keywords that cardiovascular fitness is the ability to exercise your whole body for long periods of time, and it's sometimes called stamina or aerobic endurance.

For the second part of the task, you were asked to explain why an athlete of your choice would benefit from good cardiovascular fitness.

Now you may have said something along these lines.

A marathon runner would benefit from good cardiovascular fitness so their heart and lungs are able to continuously get oxygen around the body to the working muscles so they do not fatigue.

A football player would also need good cardiovascular fitness so their lungs and heart can supply the body with oxygen for the full 90 minutes.

So you might have used cardiovascular fitness in an example of your choice.

For the third part of the task, you were asked to describe the protocol of one fitness test that measures cardiovascular fitness.

Now you may have talked about the 12-minute Cooper run or swim where you would warm up thoroughly, you would use a 400-meter running track or other suitable circuit or running machine, you would cover the furthest distance possible in 12 minutes, record the total distance covered, and compare to normative data.

Or if you were talking about it as a 12-minute Cooper swim, you would've done that protocol but in a swimming pool, not on a running track.

You may have also talked about the Harvard step test where you would warm up thoroughly, the assistant would give the command of go and start the stopwatch.

So strength is the amount of force a muscle can exert against a resistance.

And Aisha's asked, "Can you think of any athletes that may benefit from having good strength?" So, many sports require strength to support performance.

For example, combat sports like karate or kickboxing.

The stronger you are, the harder you can hit your opponent, and the more chance you are of winning a match.

A weightlifter would obviously need incredible strength to be able to lift heavier weights.

A javelin thrower would need good strength to be able to throw their javelin further.

A rugby player would require good strength in order to be able to tackle an opponent to the ground.

And a gymnast would need good strength in order to be able to hold their own body weight, for example, on the rings, like this gymnast is showing us here.

Okay, let's have a go at a check.

Which example is most likely to need muscular strength to aid performance in rugby? Is it A, passing the ball accurately to a teammate nearby? Is it B, tackling an opposition to the ground? Is it C, being able to last a full 80-minute match without the muscles getting tired? Or is it D, sprinting to the try line? Yeah, the example that is most likely to need muscular strength to aid the performance would be tackling an opposition to the ground, so well done if you noticed that.

Okay, the test that measures muscular strength is the grip strength dynamometer test.

Say that with me, grip strength dynamometer test.

So the grip strength dynamometer test is a fitness test that measures muscular strength, and the protocol, you would warm up thoroughly, you would hold the dynamometer above your head with your dominant hand, and you would squeeze the grip as much as possible whilst lowering the arm to the side of the body.

You would repeat three times and record the best score.

Okay, let's have a go at a check.

True or false? The 30-meter sprint test measures muscular strength.

That's false.

Can you tell me why? Yeah, the 30-meter sprint test measures speed and the grip strength dynamometer test measures muscular strength, so well done if you mentioned that.

Okay, for our final task then today I would like you to complete the table to summarise the whole lesson.

You need to include the component of fitness, the definition, an example in sports, and the fitness test.

And I've already filled in some to help you on your way.

You may wish to pause the video now in order to give yourself time to complete the table.

Okay, for your task you were asked to complete the table.

I'm hoping that you noticed for the first row that it was cardiovascular fitness because I'd given you the definition, which is the ability to exercise the whole body for long periods of time.

A marathon runner would need good cardiovascular fitness to be able to keep supplying their body with oxygen for a long period of time.

And a fitness test for cardiovascular fitness, you could have said the Harvard step test or the Cooper 12-minute run or swim test.

The second row belonged to muscular endurance and that was given for you.

The definition of muscular endurance is the ability to use voluntary muscles many times without getting tired.

So an example in sport would be a rower, because a rower would require good muscular endurance so that their muscles can repeatedly contract for the entire race without getting fatigued so that they can maintain their performance.

And a fitness test to measure muscular endurance is a one-minute press-up test or the one-minute sit-up test.

Well done if you remembered both of those fitness tests.

The third row was speed, and the definition for speed is the rate at which someone can perform a movement or cover a distance.

An example in sport would be 100-meter sprinter would require good speed to run faster than their opponents so that they'd win the race.

And I gave you the fitness test there, which was a 30-meter sprint test.

And for the final row of the table, the component of fitness was muscular strength.

The definition was the amount of force a muscle can exert against a resistance.

And I gave you the example of a weightlifter would need this in order to lift the heaviest weight.

You might have added your own example as well.

And a fitness test used to measure muscular strength is a handgrip dynamometer test, or the grip strength dynamometer test.

Well done if you remembered that, and particularly well done if you spelled that correctly.

Okay, that just leaves us time to summarise today's lesson.

So cardiovascular fitness is the ability to exercise the whole body for long periods of time.

An example would be a marathon runner.

And the fitness test used to measure cardiovascular fitness is the Cooper 12-minute run or swim and the Harvard step test.

Muscular endurance is the ability to use voluntary muscles many times without getting tired.

An example of this would be a rower.

And the fitness test used to measure muscular endurance is a one-minute press-up or sit-up test.

Speed is the rate at which individual can perform a movement or cover a distance, and an example would be 100-meter runner or sprinter.

And the fitness test used to measure speed is the 30-meter sprint test.

Strength is the amount of force a muscle can exert against a resistance, and an example of this would be a weightlifter.

The grip strength dynamometer test or handgrip dynamometer test would measure strength.

Well done today.

You've worked really hard learning four of the components of fitness.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.