FITNESS

Fitt's Law and Fitness

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Fitness1

Importance of weight training2

Fitt's law3

Application of Fitt's law to weight training4

Fitt's law and the most common causes of injury5

Incorrect technique5

Overweight6

Bad spotting6

Forced reps6

Overtraining7

Stretching7

Inadequate warm up7

Negatives8

Poor Training8

Distractions8

Functional fitness and its importance8

Conclusion10

References11

Fitt's Law and Fitness

Introduction

Weight training, often referred to as strength training, is a way of improving the strength of the muscles in the human body. The weight, in the form of dumbbells, bars or weight stacks, gets used to provide the force of gravity to go with the weight (R. H. Y. & Cheung, 2002). The purpose of this gravitational force is to oppose the force that generates from the muscles owing to eccentric or concentric contraction. There are different machines for different types of movements involved in the weight training as well as for the different set of muscles. Weight training is commonly confused with Olympic weightlifting, sports, bodybuilding, powerlifting and other types of exercises. This could not be farther from reality as weight training is essentially only a part of athletics training.

Fitness

The purpose of weight training is to improve fitness. This fitness has two dimensions to it. One is what can be called the general fitness while the other can be called specific fitness. General fitness refers to the overall state of well being and health while specific fitness means the ability of a person to perform specific tasks. For instance, a sportsperson's fitness as a measure of his ability to remain competent in his sport is something that comes under specific fitness. In the olden days, a healthy person meant a person who is able to carry out the day's work without feeling fatigue. As the dynamics of life has changed significantly over time, so has the definition of fitness (Balakrishnan, 2004). A fit person in today's age means a person who is able to perform all the mundane, as well as essential tasks of the day, stay healthy and deal with emergency situations. The many problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle have increased the importance of weight lifting and functional fitness multifold.

Importance of weight training

It is interesting to know how one word can have so many meanings. For instance, the word strong when used for a child or a young man means something to do with the muscles but the same word used for an elderly person means something to do with either the character or the ability to deal with touching instances. There are many benefits of weight lifting. As a person ages, the muscles in the body wear down. This wear and tear is more pronounced in females than in males. Hence, weight training is one of the solutions that can ensure a fit body for a longer time period. There are many benefits of strength training discusses hereunder (Health, 2011).

When the muscles in the body are strong enough, they stimulate the metabolism and help the body shed those extra pounds. The ability of a muscle tissue to burn calories is far more than the ...