How To Self-Assess Health-Related Fitness (HRF) Status, Barriers to Physical Activity

Participation, and One’s Diet

Health-Related Fitness

 Components:

1. Body Composition
2. Muscular Endurance
3. Cardio-respiratory Endurance
4. Muscular Strength
5. Flexibility

Body Composition

o “Body Fat Percent”

o Refers to the ratio between lean body mass and fat body mass.
o Skinfold Measurements – traditional method of measuring body fat.

Muscular Endurance

o Measure muscular strength.

o Weights are lower and therefore the repetitions are higher.
o Push-up, Half sit up

Cardio-respiratory Endurance

o Tested indirectly using estimation

o Response to submaximal workload heart rate is used to estimate maximal oxygen uptake
o YMCA Submaximal Bicycle Test, Ross Submaximal Treadmill Protocol, YMCA
Submaximal Step Test

Muscular Strength

o Greatest amount of force that can be generated from a single maximal effort
o 1 RM (1 Repetition Maximum) – popular test of strength
o Weights are used to test how heavy he/she can lift. But it is not advisable to the beginners
because it may cause injury.
o A person can lift with 10 repetitions which are safer to measure. This represents 75% of what
he can lift in one repetition

Flexibility

o It refers to the range of motion of a joint.

o It is also a part of fitness, since a lot of moves will be affected by the flexibility of a person.
o The movements assessed for flexibility of joints are:
a. Trunk flexion – using sit ad reach test
b. Trunk extension – measuring the backward bend
c. Hip flexion – testing the range of motion of the hips and hamstrings
d. Shoulder flexibility – looking at the multirotational components of the shoulder joints

Barriers to Physical Activity Participation and One’s Diet

o A student can be limited from engaging in physical activity for several reasons:

1. There might be previous injuries that impair the student’s movement

2. Engaging in these preferred forms of activities is a bit pricy – there are expenses involved
such as the purchase of uniforms and equipment, transportation, and the actual training
fee itself.
3. A student’s schedule is also a factor to consider. Priorities, such as studies and family
life, may also impede a student from participating in activities.

o Barriers to a proper diet:

1. Lack of self-discipline – some cannot control their urge to eat unhealthy food
2. Insufficient time to prepare – the best way for dieting is to prepare your own food
3. Limited budget – sometimes the unhealthy foods are the cheaper priced options
4. Limited options – usually you have no control as to what is regularly sold in the cafeteria

Unarmed Self-Defense