Lessons · Teaching · the components of fitness, and what each one is
The components of fitness, and what each one actually is
Health-related fitness has five components: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition. Skill-related fitness adds agility, balance, coordination, power, reaction time and speed. The examination asks you to sort an activity into the component it develops.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
In beta. This lesson was written for Hone and has not yet been checked by a state certification officer. Practice material, not professional advice. What that means.
What it is for
Knowing the components is what turns a physical education lesson into teaching rather than supervision. It also lets you answer the question every class asks, which is why they are doing this, with something true and specific.
How to think about it
Learn strength against endurance, because that is the pair most often confused: strength is how much force once, endurance is how long it can be repeated. Then match activities to components, and plan a term so that all five health components appear rather than the two your favourite sport happens to use.
Worked example
Muscular strength is one maximum effort; muscular endurance is many repetitionsOne heavy lift against thirty press-ups. Different components, different training.
Cardiorespiratory endurance is the heart and lungs sustaining activity over timeThe component most linked to long-term health and the one easiest to build in primary.
Agility is changing direction quickly, and it is skill-related rather than health-relatedThe sorting question the paper asks most, because agility feels like fitness.
Flexibility is the range at a joint, and it is specific to each joint rather than generalA child flexible in the shoulders may not be in the hamstrings. There is no single flexibility.
Your turn
Name the component that is many repetitions rather than one maximum effort.
Thirty press-ups measures muscular
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating body composition as a thing to measure in front of a class. It is a listed component and it is also the one that can do real harm to a child if it becomes a public number. Teach that it exists; never make it a lesson activity.