Physical Activity & Health:

Class #6- Flexibility and

Body Composition
 *FLEXIBILITY
* Definition: The ability to move a joint through its
full range of motion.

* Can we identify some benefits to flexibility training?

 *Flexibility
Benefits of stretching:
* reduces the risk of injuries
* increases your performance in sports
* relieves aches and pains
* **decreases muscle soreness after exercise (recent
research has shown that there is not enough
evidence to support this claim).
* Improve Posture
* Lowers Stress
* Increases Blood Flow to your body
 *How to improve
Flexibility:
Frequency 3-7 times a week or more.
Stretch at the end of your
workout to improve your
flexibility.

Intensity: Until mild tension is felt. You

should never feel pain!

Time: 15 seconds or more per

stretch (15-90 seconds)

Type of Activity: Static stretching, Dynamic

stretching, PNF Stretching,
Tai Chi, Dance, Yoga, Pilates.
Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation stretching
 *Body Composition
* Definition: The ratio of lean body tissue to body fat.
* Recommended body fat percentages for 20-39 year
olds :
Males: 8-19 % Females : 21-32%
 *Benefits of improving
your body composition:

* lowers your risk of diabetes, heart disease, certain

cancers, arthritis, gall stones, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol levels.
* increases your metabolic rate (in theory yes, practically it
creates a minimal change in the grand scheme of things).
* maintains your bone density
* helps to improve your self-esteem and body image
*Every extra pound of muscle does not burn 50 extra calories a
day.

*6-10 extra calories is more accurate number.

*Increasing muscle mass will only contribute to minimal

changes in Metabolism (17%-20%). Can potentially be off set by
weight loss as well.
* Your Body Composition Status:
* An accumulation of fat in the abdominal area
(visceral body fat) is associated with an increased
risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, high
cholesterol levels, diabetes, heart attack, and
stroke.
 *Body composition
measurements

* Your BMI takes into account your height and weight

to determine your health risk. Unfortunately, it
does not tell you what your weight is composed of.
i.e. muscle/fat
* Waist to Hip Ratio, better accuracy than BMI.
* BMI is most common form used. Why?
 Metabolically Healthy
Metabolic Health is the absence of metabolic syndrome. A
person has metabolic syndrome when they have too high levels
of three of the five factors:

-High Blood Pressure

-High Triglycerides
-High Blood sugar
-Cholesterol
-Waist Circumference

There is also something called Metabolic Unhealthy Normal

Weight Individuals.
 *Recent News
* 'A humiliating experience': Quebec debates weighing
students in school
* 2017; a National Assembly committee was told roughly 25
per cent of Quebec schools had weighed their students at
one point or another, either in a gym teacher’s office or in
front of other students.
* Former Education Minister Sébastien Proulx has endorsed
a recommendation by a National Assembly committee to
abolish the practice of weighing students in primary and
secondary schools, while it will be allowed to continue in
CEGEPs as long as students give their consent.
* “The person using the weight measure has to be highly
skilled in managing the beliefs that people have about
weight and the emotions that generates. With all due
respect to most gym teachers, I'm not sure that's their
expertise.”
 *Recent Research
* A paper published in 2017 by the American Academy of Pediatrics argues that
weighing and measuring the height of school children and sending letters home
with overweight kids is an important tool for combating the obesity epidemic.
This kind of screening has been going on in parts of the U.S. for over a decade,
and despite the objections, has led to positive lifestyle changes for many of the
children identified as obese, the paper argues.
Arkansas first state to send fat letters home to parents in 2013

Do 'Fat Letters' Help Fight Childhood Obesity?​

*Performance and Body
Composition :
 *Performance and
Body Composition :
* Link to article
 *Performance and Body
Composition :
* Debate still ongoing:
 *Nutrition and body
composition
* How hungry are you after working out?
 *Metabolic/ ‘Fat’
Burning Workouts:
* Great ,marketing, however what does it really
mean?
 *How to improve Body
Composition
Combination of
cardio /
resistance /
60-85% of
body weight
BODY maximal heart
2-4 times a rate 30 minutes + training
COMPOSITION:
LOWER BODY week IE: Circuit
FAT 8-12 repetitions training
 *Target Heart Rate
over 15 seconds
Age Minimum HR (.60) Upper Range HR
(.85)

18-23 30 42

24- 29 29 41

30-35 28 40