Rest Regularly

• How much rest or time away from fitness will cause a loss of fitness?

2 or more weeks

• What does taking a day off do for your body?

It allows your body to adapt to the training you've been doing and to restock on oxygen and energy levels

• Have you noticed any of the signs that you need a rest day? 

Nope. My energy is good, my sleeping is good, and I have no illness right now.

Fitness Goal for this Semester

My mentor has asked us to create a fitness goal for this semester.

My goal:

For my dance class we made similar goals. I am working on my flexibility and balance. I am working on my front splits, I am a foot away from the ground on those, I am trying to finish my side splits, which are an inch away from the ground, and I am trying to get my balance where I can lift up my leg in any direction or height when standing, and not stumble on the foot I am standing on. So every day I will practice my splits and do balancing exercises and stretches.

Dynamic vs. Static Stretching

• Which type of stretching do you prefer? Why?

Static. Because I do ballroom dance. Static stretches really help with splits and such. But I value dynamic stretching too, because it warms up muscles.

• What are the main differences between static and dynamic stretching?

Static are slow stretches that stretch your muscles after you've been exercising. Dynamic stretches are large movement warm ups for  your body to prepare for exercises or stretches.

• When should you use static stretching?

After you've exercised or have done dynamic stretching.

• When should you use dynamic stretching?

Before stretching or before exercising.

Benefits of Stretching

• What are the benefits of and five cautions for stretching?

Decreased aches & pains, enhanced ability to move freely, possible decreased risk of injury, recovery from injury, enhanced athletic performance, reversal of age-related flexibility declines, improved posture & appearance, decreased muscles soreness after exercise, and it feels good. The cautions are: Don't overstretch, especially when your muscles are cold and tight.You can get better flexibility, but only up to a point. It depends on your genetics. Other people may be more flexible than you, but that doesn't mean you haven't been working. Strengthen muscles that you stretch and stretch muscles that you strengthen. If you feel pain when you stretch, especially in your joints, stop right away. Delay to stretch for awhile after you've done exercise, or else your flexibility will degrade.

• What factors affect flexibility?

Joint structure, your joints help you bend and turn, soft tissues, these are the tissues that are like elastic and resist a bit more than the other muscles, inactivity, if you are inactive your muscles will be soft so they won't like it if you suddenly stretch them, muscles temperature, when muscles are warm and fluid they have a much easier time stretching, so do some light jogging or hopping, age, flexibility can be improved at almost any age, including 80-90, genetics, people genetically are either more flexible or less flexible, gender, girls tend to be more flexible than guys, obesity, and neural factors, the tissues, organs, and reflexes of the body.

• What are the two types of flexibility?

Static flexibility & dynamic flexibility.

• What are the four types of stretching?

Static, dynamic, active, & passive. Static is slowly stretching for relatively long periods of time. Dynamic is semi-fast and big movement. Active is you use your own muscles to stretch yourself. Passive is that you use someone else's help to stretch your muscles.

• What are some basic guidelines for flexibility development?

The goal is to create and keep a good range of motion in your muscles & joints for each movement in daily life. Stretch 2-3 days a week. Do low-intensity stretches, they're the best. Do 10-30 sec stretches at least 4 times for each group of muscles.

• What are the five principles of flexibility development?

Progressive overload, putting more pressure over time, specificity, make yours stretches specific, reversibility, overtime if you stop working on your muscles they will lose most of the progress you have done, individual differences, people have different levels of flexibility, and balance, make sure you work on each side of the body the same, if you work too much on one side, you will be off balance.

• What are five flexibility exercises for basic fitness?

Hamstring stretch, calf-stretch, quadricep stretch, deltoid stretch, and spinal twist.

• Can you differentiate between the safe and contraindicated exercises illustrated in the chapter?

One: Don't do a yoga plow/ Do knee tucks to chest. Don't do the yoga plow because you could seriously harm your lower back and neck. The knee tucks to the chest will stretch out your legs. Two:  Don't do knee-tucks to the chest by the knee/Do do knee-tucks to the chest by the thigh. If you press on the knee, you could ruin a joint, if you press on the thigh you still get the stretch and the pressure is off your knee joint. Three: Don;t do full head rolls/Do half-head rolls to the side. Doing full head rolls could harm the spine in your neck, head rolls are meant to stretch the muscles in the neck, not the spine. Four: Don't do the original hurdler stretch/Do the alternative hurdler stretch. In the original hurdler stretch you put your back knee on the ground and bend it behind you, this could twist a muscles or hurt your joints. The alternative stretch is the fold fold your knee in front of you.

• What are the general guidelines for identifying exercises that increase risk of injury?

If you feel pain, if your joints feel bad after the stretch, or you actually hurt yourself.

• How do flexibility and muscular fitness contribute to wellness? 

You need flexibility for everyday needs. Bending to pick something up, looking behind you while walking, stretching to reach something, etc. And also if your muscles aren't so well, then your flexibility will be low. You couldn't to much without some pain if your muscles are really bad.

Muscular Endurance

• How is Muscular Endurance different from Muscular Strength?

Muscles Endurance is how long you can last under a certain amount of pressure or strain. Muscle Strength is how much power or strength you have when performing exercises or sports.

• What determines the different amounts of slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers in a person's body?

Genetics.

• Can training adjust the ratio of slow-twitch to fast-twitch fibers?

No, but it will strengthen them.

• Define and describe the two types of Muscular Endurance.

Dynamic endurance is the muscle's ability to contract and relax repeatedly. Static endurance is the ability to stay in a contracted movement for a long time.

• Describe the difference between cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance.

When you perform aerobic exercises it specifically burns fat and calories in specific places, and strengthens your core. When you perform muscular endurance exercises it generally just burns calories and fat, and strengthens your endurance.

• Describe relative endurance.

It is the number of times you can move a designated percentage of your maximum strength.

• Read the "Did You Know" section of the article. Based on this, why should you not go out and try everything you read on the internet? What filter should you use to evaluate different exercise routines, etc?

Because some exercises can actually make you slower when you perform some sports. So you have to spot and find exercises specific towards your sport or fitness goals.

• Are you more interested in participating in Muscular Strength or Muscular Endurance exercises? Why?

Both. Because in ballroom dance you need strength to do tricks and hard dance moves (kicks, spins, etc.) and you need endurance to last the length of the song.

Muscular Strength

• What are the differences between skeletal muscle tissue and the other types of muscle tissue?

The smooth an cardiac muscles are involuntary. The cardiac muscles are next to your heart, and the smooth muscles are mostly in your stomach, to digest food. The skeletal muscles are the ones that help control your body movements. These are voluntary muscles.

• Why is your metabolic rate so closely tied to the amount of your muscle tissue you have?

Our metabolism is how much energy we have and how fast our body works. So if our muscle tissues increase, our metabolism increases. If they decrease, our metabolism decreases.

• Define the three types of muscle contractions. Give an example of each.

An example of isometric contraction is if you were carrying a box. Since the weight of the box gong down and the strength of your arms going up are the same, there isn't movement.

An example of concentric contractions is when you pick/lift something up. The movement is going upwards.

An example of eccentric contraction is when you put something down, or something you carry is heavier than you can lift, so it goes down.

• What are the differences between type 1 muscle fibers and type 2 muscle fibers?

Type one fibers are shorter, and can endure being used for a long time, but it also takes a long time to generate power/strength. Type two fibers can generate large amounts of power/strength in a short time, but it only lasts for a short time.

• Do you have access to any strength training equipment? If so, what types of equipment do you have access to? Where is the equipment located?

There are some in the gym next to my dance studio, but I probably will never go there since it costs money to use the equipment. I think I saw bench-presses and barbells, but that's all I remember.

• Define a 'strength plateau,' and describe how to overcome it.

A point in the strength training where the muscles no longer develop or strengthen. To overcome it you need to change up your exercises, maybe do different muscles on different days, lessen your exercising days, or lengthen the sessions. Just something to change it up. But be careful when you do it, you don't want to strain your muscles.

• What happens if a person discontinues to train?

When you stop training, and the diet as been the same since pre-training, not only do your muscles become weaker and smaller from lack of use, but fat is stored in your body, since it is no longer being burned, and the body will be unfit.