Physical inactivity is a key determinant of health across the lifespan. A lack of activity increases the risk of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, osteoporosis, anxiety and depression and others diseases. Emerging literature has suggested that in terms of mortality, the global population health burden of physical inactivity approaches that of cigarette smoking. The prevalence and substantial disease risk associated with physical inactivity has been described as a pandemic. The prevalence, health impact, and evidence of changeability all have resulted in calls for action to increase physical activity across the lifespan. In response to the need to find ways to make physical activity a health priority for youth, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment was formed. Its purpose was to review the current status of physical activity and physical education in the school environment, including before, during, and after school, and examine the influences of physical activity and physical education on the short and long term physical, cognitive and brain, and psychosocial health and development of children and adolescents. Educating the Student Body makes recommendations about approaches for strengthening and improving programs and policies for physical activity and physical education in the school environment. This report lays out a set of guiding principles to guide its work on these tasks. These included: recognizing the benefits of instilling life-long physical activity habits in children; the value of using systems thinking in improving physical activity and physical education in the school environment; the recognition of current disparities in opportunities and the need to achieve equity in physical activity and physical education; the importance of considering all types of school environments; the need to take into consideration the diversity of students as recommendations are developed. This report will be of interest to local and national policymakers, school officials, teachers, and the education community, researchers, professional organizations, and parents interested in physical activity, physical education, and health for school-aged children and adolescents.

Grade level: 6, 7, 8, 9, e, i, s, t.

From Charles Atlas to Jane Fonda, the fitness movement has been a driving force in American culture for more than half a century. What started as a means of Cold War preparedness now sees 45 million Americans spend more than $20 billion a year on gym memberships, running shoes, and other fitness-related products. In this first book on the modern history of exercise in America, Shelly McKenzie chronicles the governmental, scientific, commercial, and cultural forces that united-sometimes unintentionally--to make exercise an all-American habit. She tracks the development of a new industry that gentrified exercise and made the pursuit of fitness the hallmark of a middle-class lifestyle. Along the way she scrutinizes a number of widely held beliefs about Americans and their exercise routines, such as the link between diet and exercise and the importance of workplace fitness programs. While Americans have always been keen on cultivating health and fitness, before the 1950s people who were preoccupied with their health or physique were often suspected of being homosexual or simply odd. As McKenzie reveals, it took a national panic about children's health to galvanize the populace and launch President Eisenhower's Council on Youth Fitness. She traces this newborn era through TV trailblazer Jack La Lanne's popularization of fitness in the '60s, the jogging craze of the '70s, and the transformation of the fitness movement in the '80s, when the emphasis shifted from the individual act of running to the shared health-club experience. She also considers the new popularity of yoga and Pilates, reflecting today's emphasis on leanness and flexibility in body image. In providing the first real cultural history of the fitness movement, McKenzie goes beyond simply recounting exercise trends to reveal what these choices say about the people who embrace them. Her examination also encompasses battles over food politics, nutrition problems like our current obesity epidemic, and people left behind by the fitness movement because they are too poor to afford gym memberships or basic equipment. In a country where most of us claim to be regular exercisers, McKenzie's study challenges us to look at why we exercise-or at least why we think we should-and shows how fitness has become a vitally important part of our American identity.

Man develops during phylogenesis and ontogenesis as an active creature and his most striking external manifestations include physical activity. From this ensue efforts to investigate the human organism with regard to its functional diagnosis mainly during activity, in relation to the level of that physical activity. The amount and qualitative aspect of physical activity is subject to some laws associated with the developmental stage, type of higher nervous activity, health, nutritional status, external environment inc!. social position, profession, hobbies, etc.; thus it is also one of the important ecological factors. During the period before the onset of technical civilization physical fitness and performance were essential prerequisites for survival and successful existence. At present and from the aspect of the perspective development of our civilization the importance of physical fitness is pushed into the background; nevertheless adequate physical activity level is even today an important prerequisite for normal function of the organism as a whole.

The Science of Fitness: Power, Performance, and Endurance clearly explains the vital connection between diet and exercise in the human body. With this knowledge, you can use the right exercise and nutrition to obtain a higher quality life, prevent disease, and slow the aging process. Authored in a straightforward style and with color images throughout, this book explores the cellular science behind fitness, protein synthesis, and healthy living. With it you will learn the most recent and important discoveries in the relationships between physical fitness, nutrition, weight loss, and weight management. It provides key information on the body's mitochondrial processes and their role in aging, along with well-informed discussions on general nutrition, sports nutrition, exercise physiology, how to enhance athletic performance, and how exercise strengthens the mind. Whether you are interested in how to eat healthy, train for your first (or next) marathon, take your fitness to the next level, find the best super foods, or simply want to improve your vitality through healthy, doable practices, this book will help you on your journey regardless of age or fitness level. - Presents the connection between exercise, nutrition, and physiology in a way that is ideal for both experienced athletes and newcomers - Provides the scientific basis for mitochondrial functions and their relationship to fitness, protein synthesis, quality of life, and the aging process - Synthesizes the latest research on nutrition, sports nutrition, super foods, and the brain/body connection - Co-Authored by legendary cyclist Greg LeMond, who illustrates key points using his own athletic journey

Physical fitness affects our ability to function and be active. At poor levels, it is associated with such health outcomes as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Physical fitness testing in American youth was established on a large scale in the 1950s with an early focus on performance-related fitness that gradually gave way to an emphasis on health-related fitness. Using appropriately selected measures to collected fitness data in youth will advance our understanding of how fitness among youth translates into better health. In Fitness Measures and Health Outcomes in Youth, the IOM assesses the relationship between youth fitness test items and health outcomes, recommends the best fitness test items, provides guidance for interpreting fitness scores, and provides an agenda for needed research. The report concludes that selected cardiorespiratory endurance, musculoskeletal fitness, and body composition measures should be in fitness surveys and in schools. Collecting fitness data nationally and in schools helps with setting and achieving fitness goals and priorities for public health at an individual and national level.

​The science of human physical activity and fitness is ripe for a novel theoretical framework that can integrate the ecological, genetic, physiological and psychological factors that influence physical activity in humans. Physical inactivity dominates most developed nations around the world, and is among the leading causes of disease burden and death worldwide. Despite the wide array of physical and mental health benefits, few people get the recommended level of physical activity to achieve these benefits. Current research on physical activity has not, as of yet, been successful for the development of effective exercise interventions. Several researchers have advocated a more integrative approach that takes evolutionary history into account, but such a framework has yet to be advanced. To that aim, the first goal of this book is to present a comprehensive evolutionary and life history framework that highlights the domain-specific aspects of the evolved psychology and physiology that can lead to a more integrated and complete understanding of physical activity across the lifespan. It summarizes and extends previous work that has been done to understand the ways natural selection has shaped physical activity in humans in traditional and modern economies and environments. In many ways, humans are adapted to be physically active. Overall, however, natural selection has shaped a flexible, but energy conscious system that responds to environmental and individual costs and benefits of physical activity to optimally allocate a finite energetic budget across the lifespan. This system is adapted to respond to cues of resource scarcity and high levels of obligatory physical activity, and conserves energy to favor allocation in ways that increase the likelihood of reproductive success and survival. This nuanced application leads to a more thorough understanding of the circumstances that natural selection is predicted to favor both sedentary and active behaviors in predictable ways across the lifespan. The second goal of this book is to synthesize and interpret cross-disciplinary research (from biological and evolutionary anthropology and psychology; epidemiology; health psychology; and exercise physiology) that can illuminate original approaches to increase physical activity in modern, primarily sedentary contexts. This includes a breakdown of the human lifespan to discuss the predicted costs and benefits of physical activity at each stage of life in order to differentiate the obstacles to physical activity and exercise that are functionally adaptive—or were in the environments that they evolved—and identifying which factors are more modifiable than others in order to develop interventions and environments that are more conducive to physical activity. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}