Health and Fitness for Life

Raschel Larsen

Description

Health and Fitness for Life is an introductory college textbook that shows students how to improve their habits related to physical activity, eating, or stress management. With a focus on real-world activities and practices for increasing overall wellness, this book includes grounded examples of practical health-based situations and healthy choices from diverse perspectives that will give students strategies for identifying and improving areas of their health.
This book covers the basics of exercise and healthy living, as well as more advanced topics, including:
• Cardiorespiratory fitness
• Muscular strength and endurance
• Flexibility training and mobility
• Body composition
• Nutrition planning and guidance
• Stress management
• Chronic and infectious disease
• Substance use and abuse
• Environmental health
This book’s data-driven study of health and fitness is goal-oriented, instructive, and encouraging for students of varying backgrounds and states of wellness. The approach in these pages creates relevant links between guidance from official health organizations and everyday life. There’s something for everyone here, whether you’re looking to improve habits related to physical activity, eating, or stress management, or to better understand your place in the world as a healthy individual.
Written by community college health faculty, Health and Fitness for Life blends down-to-earth instructional text with numerous examples of relevant situations and outcomes for students from all demographics.

Sujets

• Santé et bien-être
• Diététique
• Santé du quotidien
• Santé au quotidien
• Santé au quotidien
• Healthy Living
• Exercise
• Reference
• Wellness
• Strength
• Physical exercise
• Training
• General officer
• Health
• General
• Survêtement
• Fitness
• Nutrition
• diététique

Informations

• Publié par: Chemeketa Press
• Date de parution: 01 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781955499125
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 20 Mo

Extrait

Health and Fitness for Life
Raschel Larsen
Health and Fitness for Life
© 2022 by Raschel Larsen
ISBN-13: 978-1-955499-00-2
All rights reserved. Edition 2.0 2022. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Chemeketa Press
Chemeketa Community College
4000 Lancaster Dr NE
Salem, Oregon 97305
[e-mail]
chemeketapress.org
Cover design by Ronald Cox
Interior design by Ronald Cox
References to website URLs were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor Chemeketa Press is responsible for URLs that have changed or expired since the manuscript was prepared.
Printed in the United States of America.
Land Acknowledgment
Chemeketa Press is located on the land of the Kalapuya, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz Indians, whose relationship with this land continues to this day. We offer gratitude for the land itself, for those who have stewarded it for generations, and for the opportunity to study, learn, work, and be in community on this land. We acknowledge that our College’s history, like many others, is fundamentally tied to the first colonial developments in the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Finally, we respectfully acknowledge and honor past, present, and future Indigenous students of Chemeketa Community College.
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction to Health and Wellness
Chapter 2: Fitness and Exercise
Chapter 3: Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Chapter 4: Muscular Strength and Endurance
Chapter 5: Flexibility
Chapter 6: Body Composition Basics
Chapter 7: Nutrition
Chapter 8: Stress Management
Chapter 9: Chronic Disease
Chapter 10: Infectious Disease
Chapter 11: Substances
Chapter 12: Environmental Health
Acknowledgments
Appendix A
Appendix B
Endnotes
Index
This textbook does not provide medical advice.
The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained in this textbook is for informational purposes only. This material is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this textbook.
Chapter 1: Introduction to Health and Wellness
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you should be able to do the following: Describe the dimensions of wellness. Identify the major health problems in the United States today and discuss their causes. Describe the behaviors that are part of a fit and well lifestyle. Identify the factors that influence your wellness behaviors. Develop a personalized plan for successful behavior change, including appropriate goals and strategies for overcoming behaviors.
Key Terms chronic disease decisional balance dimensions of wellness locus of control growth mindset theory health health disparity healthy life expectancy Healthy People 2030 infectious disease locus of control life expectancy morbidity rate mortality rate public health self-efficacy SMART goal setting social determinants of health social support Stages of Change model wellness
Introduction
Chuck eats fast food from the comfort of his couch each day. He rationalizes his lifestyle by saying “life is short” and you have to “live life to the fullest.” Chuck may be enjoying those onion rings and his couch right now, but what about a year from now, or 10? When friends ask him to hike up to the top of Multnomah Falls to see the view, will he go? Could he even make it to the top?
Your health doesn’t just happen overnight. Like Chuck, the little choices you make each day add up over the course of your lifetime—good or bad. They can make the difference not only in how long you live but also in what you are able to do with that time. Imagine if Chuck, instead of sitting on his couch, had made a series of healthy choices, even small choices, over the course of a year. Instead of munching on onion rings, he might be hiking with his friends or getting a promotion due to his efforts at work. There are short- and long-term payoffs when we make decisions that impact our health and wellness.
This chapter will define and explain health and wellness, show why wellness is so important, and describe a basic goal-setting method for improving individual behaviors associated with wellness. The more we take charge of our health and wellness, the happier and healthier we are as a society. As a whole, our goal should be to spend less of our energy on treating illnesses and more on preventing them by making healthier choices. This book will encourage you to be healthy yourself and to focus on your personal wellness.
Understanding Health and Wellness
The terms “health” and “wellness” are often used interchangeably. While one refers to the general condition of our bodies and minds, the other can be considered a deliberate effort to actually be healthy. Health is a person’s physical and mental state. Wellness is a set of multidimensional factors of an individual’s health that can be improved through changes in behavior. Public health refers to the health condition in a group of people and is linked to life expectancy, disease, and general wellness.
These three key terms are interconnected. To improve public health, individuals must make choices that improve their own health and wellness. But it’s not just about individual choice. Public health systems need to be in place to assess a population’s health and to create science-based strategies for improved health. Public health services need to be accessible to everyone in the community in order to support and promote health and wellness.
Thinking back to the opening scenario, it’s easy to say that Chuck just needs to put down the fast food and take a walk. However, the solution is not that simple. It requires us to look at the big picture, including the available community resources. If Chuck cannot find safe places to be physically active outdoors, he might have a harder time being physically active. Figure 1.1. Academic Performance Challenges . Students report their top ten problems affecting their academic performance in Spring 2021. Source: American College Health Association.
The term “health” has evolved since Hippocrates (circa 460 BCE), one of the most noted medical practitioners in ancient Greece, began teaching people ways to fight diseases and to look at the body as a whole unit. In 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) was founded as an agency within the United Nations to promote health worldwide. The WHO defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” a definition they still use today. 1 What both Hippocrates and the WHO have in common is the idea that health is not only about being free from sickness but also about the holistic nature of the body and its capability to help us thrive.
Wellness is a work in progress in the United States, and its importance comes down to keeping people alive longer and maintaining or improving quality of life. Our population’s average life expectancy, our likelihood of developing disease and disability, and the average amounts of physical activity we perform are all used to measure how healthy we are as a nation. These measurements help determine public policies that can lead to a healthier population.
The United States still struggles with certain health-related issues, but we’ve made monumental progress since Hippocrates. Much of this is the result of medical care and programs that bring awareness to individuals about the importance of health and wellness. As a student, the stresses of life can be overwhelming ( figure 1.1 ). 2 But even now, you can make changes to help you live a longer, happier life and avoid disease. If enough people pursue improved wellness, the status of our public health can improve with it. Those changes happen within the dimensions of wellness. Figure 1.2. Illness-Wellness Continuum. Your health is related to where you fall on the illness-wellness continuum.
Dimensions of Wellness
Wellness is an active process. Each dimension of wellness factors into individual wellness, and each well person contributes to the public health of their community. All people are somewhere on a continuum with wellness at one end and illness at the other, and every action they take causes them to shift their position on that continuum, either toward illness or wellness ( figure 1.2 ).
The dimensions of wellness encompass seven aspects of an individual’s well-being, including physical, emotional, intellectual, social, spiritual, environmental, and occupational wellness. Each dimension has its own important qualities, but they all should be thought of as an interactive web where each overlaps and intersects with others in different ways. The whole group of seven dimensions makes up overall wellness ( figure 1.3 ). The dimensions all have this in common: they require both recognition of the dimension’s importance and action based on that knowledge.
Physical Wellness
Physical wellness is the complete physical conditioning and functioning of the body. It includes physical fitness, eating habits, sleeping habits, and choices that affect your risk of illness or injury, such as substance use/abuse, sexual habits, safe driving habits, and other self-care practices like getting regular checkups and recognizing symptoms of disease. It gets more complicated to care of yourself as you age ( figure 1.4 ).
Physically well individuals