Health & the Body · Foundation

Strength and Fitness

Most adults are told to exercise and very few are shown how training works. This course covers what the physical activity guidelines ask for and what they rest on, how the body adapts to endurance and strength training, how to judge effort, how to perform and progress the basic lifts, and what the evidence does and does not say about stretching, soreness, injury and the claims the fitness industry makes. It is the second course of the term on the body and the household, and it is a health course, so it says throughout what it is and is not entitled to claim and when a question belongs with a doctor.

What you'll learn

• State what the WHO, US and UK guidelines recommend, including muscle strengthening, and say which kind of study supports "exercise changes the body", "active people live longer" and "becoming active will make you live longer"
• Set and check training effort with the talk test, a 0 to 10 scale, heart rate and repetitions in reserve, and say how far a heart-rate formula can miss one person
• Explain how endurance and strength each adapt to training, and what load, sets, effort and frequency each do, with the people and durations the evidence comes from
• Perform the squat, hinge, push and pull patterns safely, in the six forms the NSCA teaches, and judge a technique rule by what the study behind it measured
• Write, run and progress a beginner plan inside current guidance, and say what each choice rests on
• Tell ordinary soreness from a warning sign, and judge a warm-up, stretch or recovery method by whether it changes how you feel or how you adapt
• Ask of any training claim "trained whom, for how long, measured on what?", and decide what, if anything, to change