WHAT IS FITNESS?

1. LICEO SCIENTIFICO “G. MARINELLI” UDINE A PE LESSON IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE FOR CLIL COURSE THEACHERS. PAGANO GABRIELLA-PIZZO MARGHERITA Fitness is the ability to meet the demands of the environment. If you are fit,you can cope with all your tasks and activities without getting too tired, and still have energy left to emergencies. Fitness is divided into two areas, general and specific WHAT IS FITNESS?

2. GENERAL FITNESS • General Fitness concerns the day-to day working of your body. • It has several aspects: • Stamina or endurance-Cardiovascular and Muscolar end. • Strength • Flexibility or suppleness • Speed

3. Stamina or endurance Read the following description and underline all the words concerning sports and diseases in this paragraph: • Endurance exercises include any activity that increases heart rate and respiratory rate. This includes walking, jogging, running, biking, rope jumping, and many others. Over time these activities improve the health of the lungs, heart, and blood vessels. Most importantly however, endurance exercises can also delay or prevent many diseases including diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and certain cancers.

4. GENERAL FITNESS • Match the words to the activities • a) Stamina 1)Reaction • b) Strength 2) Stretching • c) Flexibility 3) Power • d) Speed 4) Running

5. Strength • Read the following description and underline what is improved and decreased by regular physical activity : • Regular physical activity for the young improves strength, builds lean muscle, and decreases body fat. It also builds stronger bones that last a lifetime. Physical well-being also affects you emotionally and mentally. Physical activity can improve your mood, reduce stress and depression, and increase self-esteem. You must acknowledge the role of physical activity in a healthy growth. You can maintain a physically active lifestyle by providing yourself with encouragement and opportunities for physical activity. You should plan outings and events that allow and encourage your friends to be active. • Translate the words you have found.

6. Flexibility or suppleness • Stretching, though often overlooked, plays a vital role in keeping muscles and joints strong and pliable so they are less susceptible to injury. That’s why it’s such an important part of warming up and cooling down. • Spending a few minutes a day doing slow, deliberate stretches can also help you manage stress more effectively giving you a chance to momentarily shut off outside stressors, and focus, physically and mentally, on your activity. • A good routine should work each of the major muscle groups and needn’t take long. 5 to 10 minutes is all you need. • Answer: at what time and how long do you practise stretching?

7. Speed • Speed work and speed exercises: speed work doesn’t mean drudgery on the track, and it should never be "rubbish speed"! • Tags: • marathon training • coaching • flexibility • speed training • weight training

8. Glossary • ENDURANCE • STRENGTH • FLEXIBILITY • SPEED Find 10 other words and translate them • RESISTENZA • FORZA • MOBILITA’ ARTIC. • VELOCITA’

9. Exercises • 1) Write down another word for endurance • 2) Describe the two different kinds of endurance • 3) Who do you think needs greater • flexibility? • 4) What do you know about stretching? • 5) Write down everything you’ve learned about strength • 6) What doesn’t speed work mean?

10. FITNESS AND AEROBIC • After explaining what fitness means, let’s move on to practical activity. In the gym we shall follow a standard lesson based on a series of basic aerobic exercises, one of the best to obtain: • healthy and balanced phsycophysical well-being • effective development of physical abilities • (endurance, strenght speed,flexibility ) • physical sensitivity,awareness of one’s body and abilities • better control of respiratory rate • You can easily perform this activity because it doesn’t require special tools, all you need is a stereo and a mat on the floor • The following is a simplified explanation of aerobic exercise • Read and translate the text below. • Underline unknown words

11. AEROBIC EXERCISES • AEROBICS EXERCISES are those which create an increased demand of oxygen over an extended period of time, such as jogging. • Anaerobic , on the other hand, means “ without oxygen” • Aerobic exercises train the heart, lungs and cardiovascular system to process and deliver oxygen quickly and efficiently to every part of the body • As the heart muscle becomes stronger and more efficient, it is able to pump more blood with each stroke and in fewer strokes, thus facilitating the rapid transport of oxygen to all parts of the body. • An aerobically fit cardiovascular system will allow the individual to work longer, more vigorously and recover more quickly.

12. LESSON 1BASIC EXERCISE PROGRAM • Istruction (1 minute) • Warm-up: a balanced combination of static stretching and rhythmic exercises ( 7 minutes) • Standing exercises: exercises from the following groups in order of preference: standing leg work, arms, chest, and shoulders (4 minutes) • Aerobics and postaerobic cooling-down (20 minutes) • Waist work (5 minutes) • Floorwork : exercises from the following groups in order of preference: outer thigh (4 minutes ), buttocks (5 minutes ), inner thigh ( 4 minutes ), abdominals (5 minutes ) • Static stretching (5 minutes)