Insight Physical Fitness

What I Know

Physical fitness is a factor that many people in recent years have been applying to their daily lifestyle. Even though physical fitness has been around for decades, it has become much more of a norm and a routine for people, such as myself.

Physical fitness has been a drastic impact on my lifestyle for years now. For the longest time that I can remember, I was always overweight and have heard from doctors to lose weight. As I wanted to make a change for myself, I found physical fitness to help me with losing weight. Over the past 5 years, physical fitness has been part of my life. Although there were times I fell off, I came back and have improved from my failures. Over those 5 years, I have dedicated many hours of my time to help myself, and my interest for physical fitness has grown as well.

With the growth in my interest for physical fitness, I personally wanted to learn how to target certain muscle groups and further increase the growth in my muscles. I resorted to YouTube for tips and advice to improve my knowledge. The help from YouTube helped me branch my knowledge into what I know today. I continue to still use YouTube and other resources to keep improving my knowledge. Yet, when it comes to physical fitness though, there is knowledge out there that I still have not read about or learned.

What I Want to Know

There are many questions and information that I want to learn about physical fitness, but being realistic that is nearly impossible to retain. However, there are some questions that I have interest in learning more information about. Why is physical fitness important to a person's health? How do you add size and strength to your muscles? What are different ways to increase volume to increase time under tension of the muscles? How do you help prepare your body for later phases of training? How do muscle cramps or spasms occur? When should an athlete see a physician for an injury? Finally, why is physical fitness starting to get more popular in today's generation?

How I Found My Answers

In the first place, when looking to research these questions, I immediately thought of Google. This is because Google is a broad search engine that can bring up information on about anything. Not all of the information that comes from Google is not always reliable. However, Google does have a search section for scholarly articles and it provided me with some answers that were hard to find. I knew that Google was not my only source of information though. With having a broad knowledge of physical fitness, I knew there were also credible sites such as bodybuilding.com and exrx.net. These sites provided me with some information about aspects of physical fitness. While being in CWP 101, we were shown the E. H. Butler Library where we could search scholarly and peer-review articles which assisted me with my research. Knowing all these different sources, I knew that I had a broad area where I could search for information regarding my questions.

Answers I Found

Physical fitness plays an influential role throughout a person's life. Physical fitness helps people maintain their body, lifestyle, and health. "Everyone performs physical activity in order to sustain life; however, the amount is largely subject to personal choice and may vary considerably from person to person as well as for a given person over time" (Physical activity 127). The amount of time a person spends during physical fitness plays a role in the attributes that they want to achieve. Physical fitness falls into two select categories, one category is related to health and the other category is related to the athletic ability. However, the category that a person might fall under is going to vary from person to person.

The type of category a person falls under can help determine the growth of their muscles. Muscle growth results from time under tension of the muscles. Time under tension is used for strength training and conditioning. Time under tension stresses your muscles out during resistance training. "These stresses cause varying degrees of muscle damage, resulting in a recovery process that culminates with an adaptation of muscle fibers becoming desensitized to the aggravating stimulus" (Influence of Baseline). The muscle damage that occurs, tears your muscle fibers, allowing your muscles to rebuild new muscle fibers. While the muscle fibers tear, blood is forced into the muscles that you are working out and gives more oxygen to those muscles. Which in the long run helps create new muscle strength and muscle growth.

Prior to working out, it is recommended to prepare your body for physical fitness. This will help you give a better understanding of how your body works. A prior thing every person should do before working out is by giving themselves an assessment. In the article "Fitness Program" it is stated that "assessing and recording baseline fitness scores can give you benchmarks against which to measure your progress." Given that you have a prior assessment, it can help you see your starting progress and your end progress throughout your physical fitness journey. Secondly, you should assemble a fitness routine that fits your prior assessment. When creating a schedule you should keep in mind the goals that you want to achieve. By having set goals these can motivate you or keep you on track to where you want to be. Also within a routine make sure to switch things up by trying new workouts. "Plan to alternate among activities that emphasize different parts of your body, such as walking, swimming and strength training" (Fitness Program). Incorporating different types of physical fitness can keep your body free of the same old routine and also help target new muscle groups that you might have not targeted before.

When working out muscles it is not always easy to have things go as planned. Muscle cramps are painful contractions of your muscles and they can last for a few minutes or even longer. There was very little known about muscle cramps in the early 1990s. Until cases started to be recorded. The first few cases that were recorded had to do with heat exposure. The heat exposure resulted from other occurring problems within the body. "[H]ot and humid conditions that resulted in substantial loss of fluid from the interstitial fluid space and critical deficits in salt." (The Evolution 6). The hot conditions caused people's bodies to become dehydrated, causing them the muscle cramps. A way to help prevent muscle cramps is by constantly staying hydrated by drinking fluids.

Throughout the duration of someone's physical fitness journey, they are likely prone to endure a physical injury. Physical injuries can happen from all types of various reasons, but the chance of knowing you have one is hard to tell at times. In most cases, people do not tend to see a physician, because they generally do not know they have an injury. "Knowing when to see your doctor is an important step in this process.However, it is much more difficult to know when to seek help if there is no obvious trauma or if the symptoms don't get in the way of playing" (After a Sports Injury). Seeing a physician is an important part of a person's lifestyle, it can assure that they are getting the proper treatment they need. But also ensuring that the injury they may have possibly caused to their body does not keep getting worse, making it a more serious problem for them. There are ways to tell when a person should see a physician due to a possible injury. If a person's symptoms do not go away after treatment at home or a few days of rests, then they should see a physician. A person should also see a physician when there are any unusual conditions during physical activity that affects their performance. It is always better to be safe than sorry when coming to injuries. Every person knows what their body can handle and an injury that occurs from physical fitness should be evaluated by a physician to ensure that everything is normal. On the other hand, people who are not injured, are enjoying a healthy lifestyle that is filled with physical activity.

In recent years physical fitness has been increasing among people. This is partially due to the culture we live in today. We have so many influencers, and those influencers portray an image on to their followers. However, there are many other major factors that have grown the popularity status of physical fitness. Physical fitness appeals to all ages, as it provides people with a better state of health. Not only does physical fitness involve activity, but also involves nutrition. "Once consumers start thinking more carefully about their dietary decisions, they naturally start thinking about other ways they can enhance their health" (The Six Reasons). People who change their diet habits naturally want to adapt and change their lifestyle too. By people changing their lifestyle, they are looking to boost themselves and reduce other health factors that might play a role in their life.

Physical fitness will always play a role throughout the society we live in. People will always constantly want to be improving their health, body, and lifestyle. Everyone that does physical fitness will take their own path and find what is right for them. With people taking their own paths we can learn from them and can continue developing more knowledge within the fitness industry.

There were many interesting facts that I have found while researching physical fitness. The knowledge that I learned throughout this research will stick with me and continue to develop my mindset. It is amazing how physical fitness interacts with the human body, which catches my attention. Physical fitness will always be a part of my life and will always continue to develop over time for me. I do not know what I would do without it. It helped me be who I am today.

Annotated Bibliography

"After a Sports Injury: When to See the Doctor." HealthyChildren.org, 7 Nov. 2018.
I chose this source because it had specifics details on when to see a physician for an injury. I learned that you should take any unusual discomfort as a sign to see a physician. I consider this to be reliable because it is from an organization about health in children.

Caspersen, C J et al. "Physical activity, exercise, and physical fitness: definitions and distinctions for health-related research" Public health reports (Washington, D.C.: 1974) vol. 100,2 (1985): 126-31.
I used this source because it had information about why physical fitness is important to people. I learned that physical fitness plays an important role in people's lifestyles. I consider this to be a reliable source because it is a scholarly source and provides valid facts.

"Fitness Program: 5 Steps to Get Started." Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Aug. 2016.
I chose this source because it provided different ways to prepare for later phases of training. I learned that it takes more than just setting a routine to have a decent preparation list prior to training. I consider this to be a reliable source because it is from a popular health hospital.

Mangine, Gerald T et al. "Influence of Baseline Muscle Strength and Size Measures on Training Adaptations in Resistance-trained Men" International journal of exercise science vol. 11,4 198-213. 1 May. 2018
I selected this source because it provided information on how muscles grow and how to gain strength. I learned that it muscle fibers tear to rebuild new muscle fiber, making your muscles stronger. I consider this to be a reliable source because it is a scholarly source and the author has expert knowledge in this field.

Midgley, Ben. "The Six Reasons The Fitness Industry Is Booming." Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 26 Sept. 2018.
I used this source because it provided me with information on why physical fitness is becoming more popular. I learned that physical fitness is growing more in today's society due to influencers and the person's desires. I consider this to be a reliable source because it is a magazine company that facts check their sources.

Miller, Kevin C. "The Evolution of Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramp Research" ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal, January 2018
I selected this source because it provided information muscle cramps come to be. I learned that muscle cramps occur due to dehydration of the muscles. I consider this to be a reliable source because it is a scholarly source and this is not the authors first time to publish an article in a fitness journal.

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