There is no book for this class. All information will be via the class site on Desire-2-Learn
This website is an alternate site, used only as a back-up to the Desire-2-Learn site.
The basics on handing in assignments:
All class assignments and journals are due on Mondays.
Handing in on Sunday is fine, too.
- If you know you'll be late with an assignment, let the instructor know ahead of time to avoid any late penalty points.
- Send the assignment within the email - NO ATTACHMENTS WILL BE ACCEPTED.
- Use full sentences in answering the weekly assignment. Your email is not a text message - use proper English, with correct punctuation.
- You'll get full credit when your assignment is handed in on time (by midnight, Monday).
Please be on time!! There is a one point deduction if handed in on Tuesday, 2 point deduction on Wednesday, and 3 point deduction on Thursday.
No credit on assignments handed in after Thursday of the week they are due.
- Send all assignments to: atravsky@wyoming.com
- When handed in on time, if you don't get a response from the instructor within 24 hours, it is the student's responsibility to follow up to be sure the assignment was received.
- Tip: Check your spam file for responses. Sometimes they get sent there by your email server.
If you'd like to learn more about the instructor, Amber Travsky,
check out her personal bio page
GETTING STARTED
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 no later than January 17, 2014:
atravsky@wyoming.com
Week One - "Class" and fitness journal starts Monday Janaury 13.
The assignment is due to be handed in on January 21 (a day later than normal due to the holiday).
TO DO THIS WEEK:
Keep a journal of your exercise starting on Monday, January 13.
Use the Recommended Journal Format.
Click Here for pointers on setting up your workout plan and several workout plan examples.
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 30 minute workout every day of the week (or pick the number of days that work for you - make it a challenge but doable).
- 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.
3-4. Describe a tentative workout program and time each day of the week 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.
5. Answer the following to give you (and the instructor) 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? An estimate is fine but it's best to do the actual weigh-in to give yourself a REAL baseline starting point.
- 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. Mention if they are with knees on the ground or the "full" push-up.
- Give the number of crunches you can do. Go for a minute if you are good at these. Just your shoulders come off the ground; they aren't full sit-ups.
- 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 January 27
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?
Click Here to read about the six major mistakes that most people make when doing fitness training.
Week 2 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 sessions 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 (you don't need to mention the body composition component).
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Three - Due February 3
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 February 10
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 muscles are involved in Core Strength?
5. How would you lift weights to 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 February 17
TOPIC: Flexibility and Balance
Click here to find out more about flexibility.
Answer the following questions for this week:
1. What is flexibility?
2 & 3. Name two benefits of flexibility workouts.
4. What is the recommendation about bouncing when stretching?
5. Back pain can result from poor flexibility in what parts of the body?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Six - Due February 24
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. There are essential body fat levels - what we need to just stay alive - and then the fat added to that that is considered "normal." What are the "normal" body fat ranges for men? For women?
2. Describe one method for determining body fat percentage.
3. What does the Body Mass Index use (two factors) and what is the desirable BMI range (it is the same for men and women)?
4. What is your BMI? - use Web site link on the info page for easy calculation.
5. What is one criticism of the BMI?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Seven - Due March 3
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:
1. Name the five food groups that are illustrated in the MyPlate diagram and which one you should eat the most.
2. Which is most calorie-dense (having the most calories per gram): fat, carbohydrate or protein?
3. What is the basic equation that results in weight loss, weight gain, or maintaining weight?
4. 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)?
5. 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 March 10
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. For this question, fad diets are those that certainly aren't what you could stay on for the long term.
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 March 24
Note: Because of Spring Break this is not due until the following week.
The instructor will be unavailable to respond to any emails sent from March 17 through March 21.
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 bicycing OR three 10-minute
sessions of bicycling, assuming the same intensity?
2. Why may a person fail to lose weight when they initially start an exercise program even though they may lose inches?
3. What is better for working your heart when you are healthy: 30 minutes of
running or 30 minutes of walking? (in other words, is higher intensity more helpful for working the heart?)
4. How can a person spot reduce to get rid of their love handles?
5. If your goal is losing weight, is low intensity or high intensity exercise the best way to shed the pounds?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Ten - Due March 31
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 April 7
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 April 14
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 factor affecting weight management that a person can't control?
3. What is a lifestyle factor affecting weight management - something they can control?
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 April 21
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.
Did you meet your goals? Describe what they were and how you did or did not meet them.
Did your weight change?
List the number of push-ups you can do now, compared to the start of class.
List the number of cruches you can do in one minute now, compared to the start of class.
Take the regular route you did at the start of the class and time yourself again. Did you improve and, if so, by how much?
Did you change the amount of fast food and/or sodas you ate/drank in a week?
Did you improve on the amount of fruit and vegetables you eat compared to the start of the class?
If you smoked/chewed at the start of class, do you still smoke/chew?
Send to: atravsky@wyoming.com
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Week Fourteen - Final Exam - Due April 28
CLICK HERE for the FINAL EXAM.
Note that there is NO JOURNAL due the final week. Feel free to hand in the final early.
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