Fitness Focus

Muscular Strength and Muscular Endurance

 

Repetition (reps)
  • one complete movement of an exercise

Set
  • a given number of repetitions

Muscular Endurance
  • Ability to use your muscles for long periods of time without getting tired (low weight w/many reps)

Muscular Strength
  • The ability of muscles to exert force (heavier weight w/ fewer reps)

Isometric Exercise
  • Exercise in which muscle contracts when pressed against object that prevents it from moving

Isotonic Exercise
  • Exercise in which muscles shorten or lengthen as they move

 

Fitness Principles for Strength

 

Principle of Overload Ð a muscle must work more than normal if it is to become stronger.  In other words, the muscle must lift more than normal.   If a muscle is worked less than normal, it will become weaker.

 

Principle of Progression Ð you should overload gradually to get the best improvement in muscle strength.  In other words, the muscle must lift more each time, but gradually.  If you try to lift too much too soon, you can injure yourself.  Also, lifting too much too soon will not increase strength as much as if you began with easier exercises and progressed gradually to more difficult ones.

 

Principle of Specificity Ð You must exercise the specific muscles you expect to develop.  For example, leg exercises develop the legs; arm exercises develop the arms.

 

LESSON REVIEW:

 

(Matching)  Write on a separate sheet of paper, the word and its appropriate definition.  You can find the answers above.

 

1.  Increasing exercise gradually                                                      a. overload

2.  Exercising more than normal                                                       b. specificity

3.  Doing specific exercises for a specific purpose                       c. progression

 

Please answer in complete sentences and on a separate sheet of paper.

 

4.  What is the difference between muscular strength and muscular endurance?        Give examples   of some activities that involve muscular strength and muscular endurance.

5.  What are sets and repetitions?

6.  Give some examples of isometric and isotonic exercises.

7.  Explain how you would use specificity, overload and progression to improve abdominal      (stomach) muscles.