ICU 2019

Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Cluj, UBB Cluj, Bistrița Extension

Abstract

Functional measurement and evaluation contribute, in a favorable way, towards optimizing the time of training, education and development of motor qualities (eg. strength, speed, aerobic or anaerobic resistance) not only in performance sport but also in sport for everyone where by these measurements we can optimize somatic transformations (perimeters, kg, cm) but especially the functional ones (F.C., F.R., Vo²max) if they are analyzed, interpreted and adjusted according to the goals of the athlete.

In this essay we will interpret one of the functional indicators that when being measured, analyzed and interpreted can significantly contribute to optimizing the results of the subject in relation to its objectives.

Keywords: Fitness, motor measurement and evaluation, personal trainer, heart rate, aerobic effort, mixed effort, anaerobic effort, New Art of Body Gym – holistic approach in fitness.

The essential part

Both in performance sport and in sport for everyone we often meet athletes and coaches who use different measuring and evaluation tools in order to optimize their effort parameters in relation to their goals. Probably a statistic would confirm their less significant number compared to athletes and coaches who do not make any measurements, some of them even having results as well. The latter would probably greatly improve their time to achieve results, the number of athletes and their performances, if they considered a systematic training and also adapted to measurable transformations, not a “blind” or “plan template” one. However, our essay does not concern this aspect of statistics between some and the others, but of measuring and evaluating an indicative, which if optimally adjusted, participates to the improvement of the following aspects:

1. the parameters of physical effort;
2. physical condition (fitness);

Usually the recreational-fitness sport has recreational and compensatory functions. However, there is a fairly large segment of people who practice recreational sport and who outline their goals directly targeting certain motor qualities. Among the clients who participate in the “personal training” programs we often hear:

“I want to lose weight!”, “I want muscle tone!”, “I want to increase my stamina for the marathon … X!”, “I want to improve my speed for athletic competition … within the admission exam of the X Academy”,” I want to keep fit! “,” I want to increase my muscle mass! “,” I want to relax playing sports “,” I want to consume my energy “, an so on.

All these wishes (goals) are found in most of those who practice the sport for everyone. What are the differences between these goals and those of performance sport? Probably only the fact that some of them are legitimized in some sports clubs and train in this context, the others doing it … as a way of living. And both of them, among those who take part in different sports events, participate in competitions, some of them being common.

However, regardless of where these athletes come from and “where?” or “how?” are they trained, they have in principle similar objectives, to improve the motor qualities related to their personal purpose. And not infrequently we meet cases, among the winners, athletes who come from private programs (personal training) without belonging to any performance sports club.

In this context, and within our essay, we propose you, for the beginning, to define conceptually, with a general appearance, some of the notions that can facilitate the course of our work and its role in the evolution of the fitness industry and even beyond it. The multivalent semantics of the notion of fitness often produces interpretations even in the case of specialists and the term of motor qualities as well.

What is fitness for you?