9Ba2 Fitness tests

Name _____________________________ Class ____________

You are going to carry out some activities to measure different aspects of your fitness.

Apparatus
Fat callipers Bathroom scales marked in newtons

Experiment A: Body fat

The thickness of a skinfold gives an indication of how much body fat a person has. There are many different parts of the body you can measure like this. In this experiment, you are going to measure the thickness of a skinfold in the upper arm.

Method
1 2 Gently pinch your partners skin between your thumb and finger in the position shown. Place the callipers around the skinfold at a depth of about 1cm and measure the thickness in millimetres. Repeat the measurement twice more, leaving 15 seconds between each reading. Calculate the mean (average) thickness by adding the three numbers together and dividing the answer by 3.

Recording your results

Record your results in the table below.
Part of body upper arm Thickness of skinfold (mm) Mean (mm)

Considering your results/conclusion

Using the chart below decide whether you are lean, below average, average, above average or overfat.
Upper arm skinfold measurement (mm) Boys lean below average average above average overfat below 6 68 815 1523 above 23 Girls below 8 811 1120 2025 above 25

My skinfold measurement tells me that I am _________________________ .

Adapted from Exploring Science QCA Copymaster File 9

Pearson Education Limited 2003

Experiment B: Muscle strength

Method
1 Hold a set of bathroom scales that are marked in newtons in front of your head and squeeze them as hard as possible.

Record the force that you put on the scales.

Recording your results

The force my hands exerted on the scales was __________________ newtons. How does this compare with other members of your class or your teacher? _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ [ observing, considering ]

Adapted from Exploring Science QCA Copymaster File 9

Pearson Education Limited 2003