Bookmark the Web site url for use all semester. If you lose the URL, go to the LCCC Eagle Eye or Angel Learning for this class. There is an announcement there that lists the Web site URL.
If you'd like to learn more about the instructor, Amber Travsky,
check out her personal bio page
GETTING STARTED - August 23 - 27
FIRST: Set up an email account if you do not already have one. The email address need not be an LCCC address; it can be any account you can access readily.
YOU MUST HAVE YOUR OWN EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THIS COURSE.
SECOND: Contact the instructor via email to make initial contact and give her your email address.
Send by August 27 to:
atravsky@wyoming.com
Week One - "Class" and fitness journal starts August 30 - The assignment is due September 7 (which is a Tuesday due to Monday being a holiday).
TO DO THIS WEEK:
Keep a journal of your exercise starting on Monday, August 30 (each journal is for 7 days).
Use the Recommended Journal Format.
Click Here for pointers on setting up your workout plan.
Send the answers to the questions below, and the workout journal for the week to the instructor at the following:
atravsky@wyoming.com
Reminder: Send as an email only - NO ATTACHMENTS!
1. List your goal(s) in taking this course.
BE SPECIFIC! List two to four goals but make at least one goal something you can measure.
For Example:
- Complete a 5 mile run in 1 hour.
- Do a workout 1 hour a day, every day of the week.
- Bench press 150 pounds for three repetitions.
- Lose 10 pounds through the semester (Tip: do not give yourself a weight loss goal greater than 1 pound a week. Weight loss that is too fast tends to be only temporary.).
- Lose an inch around your waist.
- Compete in a 5Km race.
Don't have a fuzzy goal that is really not definable.
An example of a fuzzy goal is: Get fit, workout more, feel better.
These aren't well defined and you have no way of knowing if you attained them or not.
2. Describe your current exercise routine - if you have one.
3. Describe a tentative workout program that you intend to follow to get started.
Make it practical and attainable. After a month you can gear up and increase the levels but start slow if you haven't been exercising regularly.
Also, in your exercise program, strive for a variety of activities that include aerobic training (running, biking, etc.), as well as something to improve strength (such as weight training).
We'll explore the components of fitness next week.
Note: YOU determine your workout routine. The instructor will give helpful tips and suggestions on how to make it more effective, but the instructor does not prepare a workout schedule or program for each student.
4. When will you workout (list your plans for each day of the week)?
Plan your time for exercise. Don't expect it to happen - make it happen. "Pencil" it in on your schedule if necessary.
5. Answer the following to give you and the instructor (and you) a baseline to see where you're starting the semester. Please keep them in LIST FORM - not one big paragraph.
Please actually weigh and measure yourself even if you haven't done so in a long time. It's important to know where you are to start so you can measure progress at the end of the semester.
Keep your answers available so you can compare them at the end of the semester.
- What is your age and gender?
- Where do you live? We have students from all over, so this is just to see where everyone is from.
- What is your height and weight?
- What is your BMI? Figure it by Clicking here and inserting height and weight measures to get BMI. BMI will be discussed in depth later in the semester.
- What is your waist measure and any other measurements you care to include.
- Give the number of push-ups you can do in a minute. Time yourself and see where you are to start the semester.
- Give the number of crunches you can do in a minute.
- Take a regular route - on a track or a route near your house - and time yourself on how long it takes to complete the route. The distance is up to you and the mode is up to you. You need to pick a route, though, that can be repeated at the end of the course to gauge improvement. You'll do the same route and mode at the end of class.
- Can you touch your toes without bending your knees?
- How many times a week do you eat at a fast food restaurant?
- How much soda do you drink a day? Is it regular or no calorie?
- How many cups of fruit do you typically eat in a day? How many cups of vegetables?
- What do you do when you feel a lot of stress in your life?
- Do you smoke? If yes, how much?
- Do you use chewing tobacco?
- Do you have any health conditions that limit what type of exercise you can do?
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Week Two - Due Sept 13
TOPIC: Introduction to Wellness, Fitness, and Lifestyle.
CLICK HERE to find out more about wellness, fitness, and lifestyle.
Are you wasting your time in the gym?
The bottom line: Make the most of your gym experience.
Click Here to read about the six major mistakes that most people make when doing fitness training.
Questions to be answered:
1. List the five primary components of fitness.
2. List two common mistakes people follow when working out at the gym that can lead to reduced fitness improvement.
3. What is the minimum number of cardiovascular exercise session recommended each week?
4. According to the Surgeon General's report, how many days a week should you exercise, and for how long each day?
5. Look at your weekly exercise program and describe what you are doing - or plan to do - to meet all four exercise components.
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Three - Due Sept 20
TOPIC: Cardiorespiratory Fitness
CLICK HERE to find out more about cardiorespiratory fitness
Answer the following questions and submit your answers with your weekly
journal:
1. Define cardiorespiratory fitness and give one example of an exercise that fits this category (include type of exercise, duration and intensity).
2. What is your age? Calculate your target heart rate zone for exercising
at 60 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate. NOTE: The answer is a range, not a single number.
3. Why is a primary aerobic activity, such as running continuously for 30 minutes, better for cardiorespiratory fitness than a game of racquetball?
Note: Racquetball, basketball, and other activities may not be as good as running continuously for cardiorespiratory fitness but they are still excellent forms of exercise!
4. What is the age-adjusted maximum heart rate (NOT the target range) for a 20 year old man?
For a 20 year old woman? Both answers are a single number, not a range of numbers.
5. What four factors affect the effectiveness of aerobic or cardiorespiratory training?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Four - Due Sept 27
TOPIC: Muscular Strength and Endurance
CLICK HERE to find out more about muscular strength and endurance.
CORE STRENGTH is a hot topic right now and is a specific target of muscular strength and endurance training.
CLICK HERE to find out more about Core Strength.
Click Here for a recommended core workout plan that takes only 20 minutes! This is the program devised and recommended - and used by the instructor, Amber Travsky.
Do you REALLY want to get faster and/or stronger? CLICK HERE for more information on Training basics.
Answer the following questions:
1. What is an advantage of using weight lifting machines over free weights?
2. What is an advantage of using free weights over lifting machines?
3. What is one impact resulting from the loss of muscle mass as we age?
4. What is meant by “Core Strength” (which muscles does it include)?
5. How would you weight train for muscular strength, versus training for muscular endurance
(both involving lifting weights)?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Five - Due October 4
TOPIC: Flexibility and Balance
Click here to find out more about flexibility.
Answer the following questions for this week:
1. What is flexibility?
2. When stretching, what is the range in how long should you hold a stretch?
3. Of the two types of stretching (static and ballistic), which type is not recommended?
4 and 5. Describe the two phases of a stretch.
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Six - Due October 11
TOPIC: Body Composition
CLICK HERE for information on body composition.
Important clarification: Body mass index has nothing to do with percent body fat on a person. The BMI is a number that is computed based on height and weight only. Percentage of body fat is the amount of fat on your frame, versus muscle and other tissues. Don't confuse the two because one has nothing to do with the other.
Answer the following:
1. What are the "normal" body fat ranges for men? For women? - DON'T GIVE ESSENTIAL LEVELS!
2. What does the Body Mass Index measure (two factors) and what are the desirable levels for men and women?
3. What is your BMI? - use Web site link on the info page for easy calculation.
4. Describe one method for determining body fat percentage.
5. What is one criticism of the BMI?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Seven - Due October 18
TOPIC: Diet and Nutrition
What you eat is vitally important to a healthy lifestyle. The information
out there about what to eat can be both confusing and conflicting. For
the next couple weeks we will examine diet and nutrition in the fitness
equation.
CLICK HERE for information on diet and nutrition.
Research has found that keeping a food journal can help a person lose weight, if that is their goal, or to get a better feel for how healthy they're eating.
Keeping a food journal is not required for this class, but it can be helpful.
Click Here for more info on keeping a food journal.
The instructor keeps a journal using an Excel program. Click here for a template journal - modify for your own use.
Questions to be answered:
A. In general, how many cups of fruits and vegetables should you eat each day?
B. Which is most calorie-dense (having the most calories per gram): fat, carbohydrate or protein?
C. What is the basic equation that results in weight loss, weight gain, or maintaining weight?
D. Fad diets often work over the short term. What factor results in this weight loss (it is common to pretty much all fad diets, regardless of the "rules" of the diet)?
E. Which type of edible fat is healthier: that that is solid at room temperature, or that that is liquid at room temperature?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Eight - Due October 25
TOPIC: More Diet and Nutrition
You are what you eat.
CLICK HERE for more on the topic of diet and nutrition.
Questions to be answered:
1. Give an example of a claim of a fad diet that is truly bogus.
2. How much exercise is really needed to keep the pounds off, especially as we age?
3. What is the recommended amount of weight loss per week to ensure the weight stays off?
4. What can you do to keep losing weight after an initial weight loss period seems to stall out?
5. Name a food that burns fat.
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Nine - Due November 1
TOPIC = Fitness Myths
There are a number of myths having to do with fitness, training, and diet.
CLICK HERE for information on five myths being examined this week.
Questions to be answered:
1. What is better for heart health: 30 minutes of running OR three 10-minute
sessions of running, assuming the same intensity?
2. Why may a person not lose weight when they initially start an exercise program?
3. What is better for working your heart when you are healthy: 30 minutes of
running or 30 minutes of walking?
4. How can a person spot reduce to get rid of their love handles?
5. If your goal is losing weight, should you go at a lower exercise intensity to burn more fat calories? Is that more effective at weight loss than going harder and burning more carbohydrate calories, rather than fat calories?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Ten - Due November 8
TOPIC: More Fitness Myths
As we discussed last week, there are a number of myths having to do with
fitness, training, and diet.
CLICK HERE to examine six more myths.
Questions to be answered:
1. Is it OK to swim after eating?
2. At what point is more exercise not better?
3. Is it OK to exercise every day?
4. When should you drink water as it relates to a workout?
5. Does muscle turn to fat if you quit exercising for a while?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Eleven - Due November 15
TOPIC: Cardiovascular health
CLICK HERE to find out more about cardiovascular health.
Questions to be answered:
1.List a controlable major risk factor for CVD.
2.List a second controlable major risk factor for CVD.
3.What is one risk factor for CVD that a person can't control?
4-5. List at least two lifestyle behaviors a person can follow to reduce their risk for CVD.
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Twelve - Due November 22
TOPIC: Weight Management
CLICK HERE to find out more about this topic.
Questions to be answered:
1. How important is genetics to weight control?
2. What is a physiological factor affecting weight management?
3. What is a lifestyle factor affecting weight management?
4-5. Provide two lifestyle changes or current behaviors you have that YOU can incorporate or continue to ensure weight management.
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Thirteen - Putting it all Together - Due November 29
CLICK HERE to find out more about overall health and setting up a long-term fitness program.
Questions to be answered:
1 - 2. List two tips that help in setting up a long-term personal fitness program.
3-4. Provide your plan for how you will keep active even after this class has ended - assuming that will happen.
5. Answer the following to see how your fitness and health might have improved over the semester.
