INTRODUCTION

Being inactive might cause harm to the human body. Being inactivity for so long may cause diseases like heart, bone and muscle diseases. But we know we can prevent or maintain good health through physical activity. Regular exercise can give us a healthy, sound mind and body. There are lots of benefits man can achieve through exercise. That is why we need a well-planned exercise regimen. This is important because it will help us study about wellness programs and this will help me prepare a physical activity program for myself. This program will be divided into parts: the physical activity, preparing for physical activity, the correct amount of physical activity, the correct type of physical activity, cardiovascular fitness, strength and muscular endurance fitness, and my 3-month fitness program. I have read some useful sources for me to prepare this program. This will help me also in the future.

THE BENEFITS OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Regular physical activity has lots of benefits to man in general. Regular exercise reduces the risks of many chronic diseases such as cardiovascular and cholesterol problems. It also reduces and maintains weight, beats obesity, and tones muscles, too. Other benefits include helping the person to relax, helping the body to build and maintain healthy bones, and slowing the aging process. All the above-mentioned diseases (also known as hypokinetic diseases) are caused by physical inactivity. A 30-minute daily physical activity lowers the risks of these diseases caused by lack of regular physical activity. It is really important that to differentiate the skill-related physical fitness components from the health–related physical fitness components.

PREPARING FOR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

It is recommended that one should prepare for a fitness program by assessing readiness before starting. One can assess his/her readiness to do certain type of physical activity by checking on health risk techniques. The PAR, or physical activity readiness, and the identification of fitness zones, healthy zones or target zones are examples of those health risk assessment techniques. The British Columbia Ministry of Health and the Multidisciplinary Board on Exercise developed the PAR-Q, or the physical activity readiness questionnaire, to identify and know if it is safe to use a particular physical activity. One has to consider different factors. The warm up and cool down part of the exercise must be considered too. Physical activity must fit the weather. The equipment is also being considered. Some activities do not require special equipment. The use of special equipment might be not suitable for others. One must prepare a suitable exercise program under careful consideration.

THE CORRECT AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

Physical fitness programs should follow the principles of physical activity. These are the principle of overload, the principle of progression, the principle of specificity, principle of reversibility, dose-response relationship and principle of diminished returns. The principle of overload states that producing fitness and health benefits through physical activity it is required that the body does more than normal. The principle of progression states that the amount of exercise intensity should be gradually increased. The principle of specificity tells us that a specific type of exercise results in a specific benefit. The principle of reversibility is like the principle of overload and that it tells that being inactive results in loss of benefits that may have gained from the overload. Dose-response relationship states that the specific gains leads to specific dose. The more benefit I get from the overload, the harder additional benefits are to be achieved is what the principle of diminished returns states. The FITT stands for Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type; frequency is the number of physical activity periods per week, intensity is how hard the physical activity is performed, time is duration of the physical activity period, and type is the kind of activity done to build a specific component of fitness or to gain a specific benefit. FITT score will know the right amount of physical activity. FITT answers the following questions:
• How often physical activity is performed?
• How hard a person performs physical activity?
• How long I do the physical activity?
• What kind of activity I do to build a specific part of fitness or to gain a specific benefit?
The answers to questions will help me choose the physical fitness exercises that are right for my goals so that I will get the best benefits from them.