Preface

Personal fitness is a lifetime commitment. Achieving the highest level of health and fitness requires knowledge, dedication and hard work. Do not be satisfied with achieving minimal standards, instead strive for the highest or "optimal" level of health.
The material presented in this text provides a sound scientific basis to guide you in developing a fitness program that is right for you. In addition to information on how to evaluate your fitness level, you will find valuable guidelines for establishing a training program; exercising safely; and descriptions of a variety of exercise programs to develop cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength and endurance, and flexibility. Nutritional guidelines and weight control information are also provided. Additional topics include understanding the cardiorespiratory and muscular systems, stress management and consumer awareness.
Throughout the text, photographs, diagrams and charts are used to help you gain a better understanding of the concepts presented. Chapter objectives, key words and a glossary provide additional guidance. Once you understand the benefits of exercise and impact of sound lifestyle choices, make the commitment to good health. The decision is yours-only you can make the choice to seek personal fitness.

Supplemental Materials

Teacher's CD
An interactive CD which has a menu to guide the teacher in locating extensive teaching aids such as those listed below. It also includes all the material from the Student CD.

Teaching Aids:

• Lesson Plans
• Physical Activity Lessons
• Assessment in Personal Fitness
• Tips for Teaching the Course
• Correlations
• Project Based Activities
• Test Bank and Chapter Tests
• Working with Special Needs Students
• Games and Activities
• Helping Everyone Succeed
• Reinforcement Activities
• Mini Assessments
• Enrichment Activities
• Transparencies
• Going Beyond Fitness

Chapter Study Guides
(available in English and Spanish)

Subject Supplements
Weight Training, Walking, Jogging, Aerobics, Aquatics

Audiovisual Support Materials
Color Transparencies
A set of 15 transparencies. Additional transparencies can be printed by the teacher from the Teacher's CD.

Classroom Poster
A colorful, informative poster which can used in the classroom or fitness room

Personal Fitness Class Activities

The Teacher's CD which accompanies Personal Fitness for You has many creative activities for you to use in your class. Listed below are a few examples. Send us your class activities so that we can share them with other teachers.

MyPyramid Game
Basically the idea is for you to prepare a set of cards with a food named on one side and an exercise on the other side. Students pick up a card and do the exercise. After a set time period, students place the cards on the pyramid to see if all groups have been identified.

Circuit Workout
Prepare large posters with the names of exercises to be completed (i.e. curl-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, flexibility exercise). Place the cards in a circle around the track, gym or any large area. Divide the class so that there are 3 or 4 students at each station.
On the signal students begin doing the exercise at their station. When the whistle sounds, students stop the exercise they are doing and jog around the circle to the next exercise station. However, each time they must go past the next station and make a complete circuit around the stations to come back to the next station. The length of exercise sessions can be adjusted based on the fitness level of the group.

Predictor Mile Run
Organize class into 2-4 teams. Each team writes down the time it will take each member and the entire team to complete a mile run. After the run, the team closest to the prediction wins.

Flash Card Review
Prepare a series of large cards which have answers to fitness questions. Place the cards at the opposite end of the gym, track, or other area appropriate for jogging. When the teacher asks the class a question, the first student in line runs to the cards, finds the one with the correct answer and runs back to the group. The first student to hold up the card with the correct answer gets a point.

Lesson Ideas for Personal Fitness

Share these HeartFacts with your students:

• About 1 percent of U.S. children and adolescents have high blood pressure.
• Average blood pressures tend to rise with age-slowly before adolescence and faster after puberty.
• Children's high blood pressure tends to persist into adulthood, even for children with high-normal pressure.
• Average blood cholesterol levels in American children and adolescents are too high.
• Children and adolescents with elevated blood cholesterol levels are more likely to have elevated levels as adults.
• Children typically start smoking cigarettes in grades 5 and 6.
• Eleven percent (or 4.7 million) of those ages 6 to 17 are overweight - more than double the percentage of a decade ago.
• Up to 20 percent of overweight children remain so throughout life.
• Most children accumulate at least 1 hour of physical activity daily, but a sizable percentage do not get frequent, vigorous, continuous activity.
• Of high school students, only about half of boys and a quarter of girls do vigorous physical activity three or more times a week.
• Activity levels of girls are below those of boys and tend to decline with age.

Source: Heart Memo, National Institutes of Health, Summer 1998

Eggs and Cholesterol - the latest information:
According to The Physician and Sportsmedicine, July 1998, eggs have less cholesterol than originally thought - 210 milligrams, not 275. In addition, saturated fat probably plays a larger role than cholesterol in heart disease. The AHA still recommends limiting eggs to four yolks per week (or one yolk per week if your blood cholesterol levels are high) including those used in cooking.

Increase the Energy Cost of Step Aerobics by following these tips from the American College of Sportsmedicine Health and Fitness Journal:

• Higher platform
• Arm movements
• Hand-held weights
• External weight loading
• Choreographed routines
• Accelerated cadence
• Propulsion
• Straddle position
• Salt and High Blood Pressure

According to a recent study (see DASH website) the most important dietary change to prevent high blood pressure is not necessarily a low-salt diet but a diet high in fruits, vegetables and dairy products rich in the minerals calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

New Exercise Recommendations from the American College of Sportsmedicine:
The new guidelines include flexibility exercises and modifications to the aerobic and weight training recommendations. In particular, the new guidelines state that exercise does have an additive effect. A member of the ACSM board stated that: "Cardiovascular benefits gained in three 10-minute exercise bouts are almost the same as those from one 30-minute exercise bout." People are urged to be active in their daily living. The guidelines for flexbility training are to stretch all the body's major muscle/tendon groups using 4 repetitions per muscle group, 2 to 3 days per week. They recommend dynamic and range of motion stretching.

Personal Fitness Websites

In addition to the extensive websites listed on the Teacher's CD for Personal Fitness for You, visit these sites:

AAHPERD
http://www.aahperd.org/

Advice for Consumers on health, food, transportation, children, product safety, etc
http://www.consumer.gov/

Aerobics & Fitness Association of America
http://www.afaa.com/

Allergy Internet Resources
http://www.immune.com/allergy/allabc.html

American Academy of Ophthalmology
http://www.aao.org/

American Cancer Society
http://www.cancer.org/

American College of Sport Medicine
http://www.acsm.org/

American Diabetes Assoc
http://www.diabetes.org/

American Dietetic Association
http://www.eatright.org/

American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/

American Medical Association
http://www.ama-assn.org/

Arthritis Foundation
http://www.arthritis.org/

Ask the Dietitian
http://www.dietitian.com/

BioMechanics World Wide
http://per.ualberta.ca/biomechanics

Blair's Quitting Smoking Resource Page
http://www.chriscor.com/

Calorie Control Council
http://www.caloriecontrol.org/

Cancer News
http://cancer.med.upenn.edu/

Cardiorespiratory Fitness
http://www.americanheart.org/

Center for Human Simulation
http://www.uchsc.edu/sm/chs

Centers for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/

CenterWatch - Trials for drug test subjects
http://www.centerwatch.com/

Classroom Activities
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/alejandre/magic.square.html

CNN Food and Health
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH

Consumer Checkbook
http://www.checkbook.org/

Cooking Light Online
http://cookinglight.com/

Curricula and resources for secondary fitness classes
http://www.InnovativeFitness.com/

Cyberdiet
http://www.cyberdiet.com/

Cyberkids
http://www.cyberkids.com/

DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension)
http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/heart/hbp/dash/index.htm

Diabetes
http://www.diabetes.org/

Diet City
http:///www.dietcity.com

Education World - archive of best educational sites on the WWW
http://www.education-world.com/

Educational Resources Information Center
http://ericir.syr.edu/

Exercise Physiology Club
http://www.doitsports.com/index.html

Fast Food Facts
http://www.foodfacts.info/

Fat Free Recipes
http://www.fatfree.com/

Fitness and Health On-Line
http://www.fitnessonline.com/

Fitness Zone:
http://www.fitnesszone.com/

Five A Day Program-Benefits of eating
http://dole5aday.com/

Florida Medical Association
http://www.fmaonline.org/

Food Allergy Resource
http://www.foodallergy.org/

Food and Drug Administration
http://www.fda.gov/

Food and Nutrition Management Homepage
http://www.fldoe.org/FNM/

Food Guide Pyramid:
http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/

Food Labeling Nutrition Video
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/labelwww.html

Global Gourmet
http://www.globalgourmet.com/

Harvard Health Publications
http://www.health.harvard.edu

Headache Information:
http://www.headaches.org/

Health Answers
http://www.healthanswers.com/

Health Finder
http://www.healthfinder.gov/

Health Hotlist
http://www.fi.edu/learn/hotlists/

Health Information
http://www.cooperaerobics.com/


http://www.drkoop.com

Health World Online
http://www.healthy.net/

Healthfinder
http://www.healthfinder.gov/

Healthwise at Columbia UniversityGo Ask Alice
http://www.health.columbia.edu/docs/services/alice/index.html

Heart Information
http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/

Heartinfo
http://heartinfo.org/

Help for Eating Disorders
http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/

Human Anatomy Online
http://www.innerbody.com

Index of Food and Nutrition:
http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/

Internet Food Channel
http://www.foodchannel.com/

Kaiser Family Foundation
http://www.kff.org/

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/

KidsHealth How the Body Works
http://www.kidshealth.org/

March of Dimes
http://www.modimes.org/

Mayo Clinic
http://www.mayoclinic.com/

MedicineNet
http://www.medicinenet.com/

Medicine National Library of Medicine
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/

Medscape
http://www.medscape.com/

Melpomene Institute - Womens health and physical activities
http://www.melpomene.org/

Muscular Strength
http://www.strengthcoach.com/

National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/

National Eating Disorders:
http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/

National Headache Foundation
http://www.headaches.org/

National Institutes of Health
http://www.nih.gov/

National Mental Health Services
http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/

National Stroke Association
http://www.stroke.org/

National Weather Service:
http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

National Women's Health Resource Center
http://www.healthywomen.org/

NatureMade Vitamins:
http://www.vitamin.com/

New England Journal of Medicine
http://content.nejm.org/

Nutribase
http://www.nutribase.com/

Nutrition Action Healthletter
http://www.cspinet.org/

Nutrition advice from the American Dietic Association:
http://www.eatright.org/

Nutrition Analysis
http://www.nat.uiuc.edu/mainnat.html

Obesity and Weight Control:
http://www.weight.com/

OSHU Consumer Health Resources
http://www.ohsu.edu/library/consumerhealth/

Osteoporosis:
http://www.nof.org/

P.E. Central Health and Wellness Website
http://www.pecentral.org/

Partnership for a Drug Free America
http://www.drugfree.org/

Physician and Sportsmedicine Online
http://www.physsportsmed.com/

Pilates
http://www.pilates.com

President's Challenge
http://www.presidentschallenge.org/

Price Check:
http://www.consumerworld.org/

PubMed - Links to New England J. of Med
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/

Puzzle Maker
http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/

Road Runners Club of America
http://www.rrca.org/

Running Page
http://www.ibiblio.org/drears/running/running.html

Shape-Up America
http://www.shapeup.org

SleepNet
http://www.sleepnet.com/

University of Florida Sports Medicine Performance Center
http://www.ufsportsperformance.com/

Stress
http://www.stress.org

Study of Services for Consumers
http://www.checkbook.org/

Teacher's Edition Online - information on lesson plans and projects
http://www.teachnet.com/

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission:
http://www.cpsc.gov/

U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov/

U.S. FDA - Center for Food Safety and Nutrition
http://www.fda.gov/Food/default.htm

Vegetarian Resource Group
http://www.vrg.org/

Virtual Hospital
http://vh.radiology.uiowa.edu/

Vitality Magazine
http://www.vitality.com/

Walking Index
http://www.ava.org/

Wealth of Fitness Information:
http://www.fitnesszone.com/

Whole Brains Atlas
http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html