Differentiate among exercise, fitness, and movement.
Discuss the benefits of exercise and movement both in illness and in health.
Understand psychological, environmental, and other types of barriers to starting a personal fitness program.
Define mindful movement practices.
Identify recommended amounts of exercise for various age groups.
Review special considerations related to various populations and disease states.
Discern between a compliance or achievement model of fitness and a holistic model of engagement and adherence based on enjoyable activity.
Assess exercise and movement when working with individuals across the life span.
Involve clients in self-assessment of their movement and exercise patterns as a routine part of health promotion and as a strategy for management and recovery from illness.
Seek current clinical research regarding special health concerns and the recommendations for therapeutic exercise and movement, and make the information available to clients.
Learn about a wide variety of exercise and movement modalities and their efficacies and provide education to clients that will expand their options for activity.
Collaborate with clients to develop an individualized fitness plan that combines mindful movement and exercise.
Become aware of community-based health programs that support exercise and movement for various populations and age groups and disseminate this information as appropriate.
Act as a role model for daily movement and exercise.
Assess your activities and patterns related to both exercise and movement.
Experiment with new modalities of exercise and movement.
Practice mindful exercise and movement to increase self-awareness.
Practice centering techniques to become fully present when working with clients.
Cultivate equanimity and respect for every individual’s innate wisdom and timing of their unique process related to physical activity.
Flexibility is the ability to use a joint throughout its full range of motion and to maintain some degree of elasticity of major muscle groups. It is important for the following reasons:
It provides increased resistance to muscle and joint injury.
It helps prevent mild muscle soreness if flexibility exercises are done before and after vigorous activity.
TABLE 14-1 Fitness Paradigms for Exercise and Movement
Old Fitness Paradigm
New Fitness Paradigm
Compliance Model
Engagement and Adherence Model
Sense of obligation or dread
Enjoyable and fun
Rigorous and punitive
Mindful and reflective
Competitive with comparison to others
Self-aware with goal for personal best
Body focused and achievement oriented
Integration of bodymindspirit
Lacking in focus on breathing
Awareness of using the breath to energize and calm the body-mind throughout movement
Regimented routines with little variety
Encompassing many types of activities including interactive video games, aerobic and nonaerobic, group and individual practices
Compartmentalized time of the day or week dedicated to fitness: “all or nothing” view
Awareness of cumulative effects of activities throughout the week: “some better than none”
Muscle strength is the contracting power of a muscle. It is important for the following reasons:
Daily activities become less strenuous as muscles become stronger.
Strong abdominal and lower back muscles help prevent lower back problems.
Appearance improves as muscles become firmer.
Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to maintain blood and oxygen delivery to the exercising muscles. It is important for the following reasons:
It increases resistance to cardiovascular diseases.
It improves the ability to maintain activity levels (endurance).
It allows for a high-energy return from daily activities.
Postural stability is the body’s ability to balance and stay balanced during dynamic action. This ability declines naturally with age. Exercise and movement practices such as yoga, standing Pilates, and tai chi assist with fall prevention through integration of neuromuscular and sensory responses.
can be cultivated as well as a sense of being part of a greater unity and flow of life.
TABLE 14-2 National Physical Activity Guidelines (PAG) for Americans | |||||||||||||||
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are cumulative, and just 10 minutes of sustained vigorous activity can be beneficial and count cumulatively toward the weekly guideline totals.