Physical Fitness & Health-Related Fitness: The Cardiorespiratory System - Essay Sample

Introduction

Physical fitness is the ability of the body systems to work efficiently as a unit to promote healthy living together with the adequate performance of daily activities while health-related fitness refers to exercises that are performed to maintain healthy living together with improving physical health. Health-related fitness targets the following: muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, body composition, and muscular strength (Patterson, 2015). The cardiorespiratory system is a complex that comprises of the heart together with the blood vessels. The cardiorespiratory system works closely with the respiratory system that consists of the lungs and the airways. The cardiorespiratory system helps in availing oxygen to the body tissues as well as removing respiratory waste from the body tissues and muscles (Carson & Reiboldt, 2016).

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Muscle strength is the maximum amount of force that a muscle can produce from a single maximal effort. Endurance refers to the ability to withstand stressful situations such as pain and fatigue while flexibility is the ability of the body to exhibit a range of motions from a single joint. Both connective tissues and muscles primarily influence the flexibility of the body. In terms of body fitness, body composition is the percentage of bone, water muscle, and fats in the body of humans (Patterson, 2015).

Unstructured Free Play and Structured Physical Activity

Structured physical activity is adult led. The adult provides direction together with specific tasks to make the child to learn a new skill. Structured physical activity can either be cognitive of physical. Structured play does not necessarily need to be highly organized or formal. However, it just needs to have the input of an adult. During structured physical activity, children are accorded the opportunities for learning new ideas that help in enhancing their learning abilities and development (Mota & Esculcas, 2017). Examples of structured physical activities include a challenging puzzle, games shared among preschooler, and assisted building a playground garden (Carson & Reiboldt, 2016).

Contrastingly, unstructured physical activity is a creative freestyle play with endless possibilities, directed and led the child. Unstructured physical activity requires neither product nor outcome. Unstructured physical activity helps the child to become creative, imaginative, and develop social as well as emotional skills. Examples of unstructured physical activity include free construction with blocks, molding images, panting on a blank paper, and playing in the home corner (Mota & Esculcas, 2017).

References

Carson, D. E., & Reiboldt, W. (2011). An after-school program on nutrition and physical activity for elementary school children. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 39(3), 267-278. doi:10.1111/j.1552-3934.2010.02065.x

Mota, J., & Esculcas, C. (2002). Leisure-time physical activity behavior: Structured and unstructured choices according to sex, age, and level of physical activity. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 9(2), 111-121. doi:10.1207/s15327558ijbm0902_03

Patterson, R., (2015). Physical fitness: Health-related fitness components and traits. (2013). Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine, 2(1), 1489-1489. doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-1005-9_1641