Lesson 5.4: Fitness Planning

Overview

This lesson provides students with the elements necessary for fitness planning: understanding the components of a fitness plan, identifying the different components of a SMART goal, and understanding the training principles.

Learning Targets

  • Describe what a fitness plan is.
  • Explain what each letter of the FITT principle acronym stands for.
  • Evaluate the three reasons it is important to set SMART goals.
  • Apply the training principles to your fitness plan.
  • Analyze why it is important to monitor your fitness plan.
  • Incorporate the training principles into your fitness plan as needed.

Preparation

For the Warm-Up Activity: Write the journal question on the board, or identify (and copy as needed) the worksheets you plan to use:

For the Content Focus: Open the Lesson 5.4 PowerPoint slides, or make copies of the Lesson 5.4 Note-Taking Guide.

For the Lesson Focus: Copy the Lesson 5.4 Setting Goals Using My Fitness Plan Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.

Warm-Up Activity

Select a warm-up activity to help get your class focused and on task.

  • Journal Question: Explain why you think it might be important to develop a weekly plan in order to keep track of the physical activity you are doing. How would a plan help you keep track of whether you are making progress toward your physical activity goals?
    • Option: Write or project the question, and have students respond in their journals as they enter class.
    • Option: Have students discuss the question with a partner or in a small group.
  • Vocabulary Review: Have students work individually, in partners, or in small groups to complete the Lesson 5.4 Vocabulary Review Worksheet.
  • Quiz: Have students complete the Lesson 5.4 Quiz to assess their prior knowledge.
    • Option: Collect the quizzes, and use them alongside posttests to demonstrate student learning.
    • Option: Have students share their answers with a partner and then go over the answers together as a class.

Lesson Content

Review the content from the textbook lesson.

Option: Use the Lesson 5.4 PowerPoint slides to review the chapter content.

Option: Have students use the Lesson 5.4 Note-Taking Guide to review chapter content. Ask students to work alone, in pairs, or in small groups. Review the questions as a class if time permits.

Lesson Focus: Setting Healthy Goals

  1. Provide each student with one copy of the Lesson 5.4 Setting Goals Using My Fitness Plan Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet.
  2. Direct students to complete this assignment individually. Remind students that their goal should be focused on improving a specific area of fitness in their lives.
  3. Students will start by identifying which aspect of their fitness they want to work on.
  4. Once students have chosen which aspect of their fitness they want to improve, direct them to move to the second half of the worksheet, where they will outline each component of a SMART goal and create a plan for each component that helps them improve the aspect of fitness they identified on the top half of the page.

Challenge Activity

Have students who need an additional challenge work on the following critical-thinking task.

Compare your fitness plan with a classmate’s fitness plan to see whether either of you has an activity the other person didn’t think of, and decide whether you should add the activity to your fitness plan if possible. Then, brainstorm two recreational activities each of you would be willing to do, and add them to your fitness plan.

Reflection and Summary

Review the critical content from today’s lesson. Review the learning targets, and ask students to answer each question posed.

Can you…

  • Describe what a fitness plan is?

    A fitness plan is a detailed plan designed using the FITT principle that serves as a guide for meeting your fitness and activity goals. The fitness plan should include cardiorespiratory, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility activities.

  • Explain what each letter of the FITT principle acronym stands for?
    • Frequency: how often you exercise
    • Intensity: how hard you exercise
    • Time: how long you exercise
    • Type: the actual exercise you do based on the fitness component you are working on
  • Evaluate the three reasons it is important to set SMART goals?
    • Help to clarify what it is you want to achieve
    • Help to keep you accountable
    • Help to keep you motivated
  • Apply the training principles to your fitness plan?

    The training principles are used to help you get as much out of your fitness plan as possible. The training principles consist of specificity, progression, and overload. Specificity is doing specific kinds of exercise to improve specific muscles or specific types of fitness. Progression is increasing the amount or intensity of the exercise to continue to see progression. Overload happens through exercising more often, increasing the intensity of your exercise, exercising longer, or doing more sets and reps than you normally do.

  • Analyze why it is important to monitor your fitness plan?

    It is important to monitor your fitness plan to see whether it is working as you need it to.

  • Incorporate the training principles into your fitness plan as needed.

    After monitoring their fitness plans, students can adjust their plans using the training principles as needed to meet their goals.

Assessment

Complete one or more of the following assessment tasks for this lesson.

  • Quiz: Have students take the Lesson 5.4 Quiz.
  • Vocabulary Review: Collect the Lesson 5.4 Vocabulary Review Worksheets, and evaluate them for accuracy.
  • Note-Taking Guide: Collect the completed Lesson 5.4 Note-Taking Guides, and spot check one or more items for completion and accuracy.
  • Skill-Building Worksheet: Have students submit the Lesson 5.4 Setting Goals Using My Fitness Plan Skill-Building Challenge Worksheet, and use the Goal Setting Holistic Rubric to evaluate their skill development.
  • Journal Question: Ask students to respond to the journal question again, adding information they learned from today’s class. Require a one-paragraph response that uses proper grammar.

Take It Home

Teach a family member how to set a SMART goal for incorporating physical activity into their daily life.