Fitness Matters
This is a comprehensive, yet easily accessible book, designed for the general course in physical activity, fitness, and health at colleges and universities. The overall goal of the book is to provide students with skills and knowledge necessary for behavior change.
Chapters cover all of the traditional components of physical fitness, including aerobic fitness, body composition, and muscular strength, endurance, and flexibility. In addition, other chapters that focus on physical activity and health, exercise prescription, physical activity adherence, stress management, and nutrition are written with the goal of behavior change in mind.
Each chapter has associated laboratory activities that can be detached and turned in as class assignments.
Chapter features include:
- A list of chapter objectives at the beginning of each chapter.
- Key points placed in boxes throughout the chapters to provide extra focus.
- Graphs to highlight key research findings in particular areas.
- Pictures to break up the text and make the text appear less threatening so that students are more likely to read the book.
- A summary of key points at the end of each chapter.
Other attractive features of the book include:
- PowerPoint slides for each chapter provided to book adopters to simplify class preparation.
- Pre-recorded lectures for each chapter (associated with PowerPoint slides) to simplify putting the class online.
- Online quizzes for each chapter.
- Detailed procedures for fitness tests, such as the Mile Run/Walk, PACER, and Non-Exercise model to estimate aerobic fitness; calculation of maximum heart rate reserve for exercise intensity; estimation of percent fat from skin folds and from body mass index; and the curl-up, push-up, and modified pull-up for muscular endurance.
- Step-by-step lab experiences that students can do in class or outside of class.
- Extensive pictures in the muscular strength and endurance chapter to demonstrate to students how to appropriately perform many exercises they will find in their student recreation centers, including lower body, upper body, and core exercises.
- Exercises in the chapters on physical activity adherence and stress that help students change behavior, including goal setting, decision balance sheet, identifying barriers to and rewards of an active lifestyle, and stress management.
- Easy to understand nutrition information that provides students with healthy alternatives to poor diet choices.
- A glossary of key terms.
- Suggested readings for students interested in pursuing additional information.