Class Health and Physical Fitness

This CU approaches health promotion through physical exercise and lifestyle modification, supported by updated scientific evidence, reflecting the importance of sleep, reduction of sedentary lifestyles and promotion of physical activity. The CU enables an approach to the real needs of the sports coach, as well as the promotion of health in the athlete, according to the global vision and commonly accepted in the scientific community of salutogenesis and well-being associated with physical exercise. The UC seeks the extension of contents covered in previous years at the level of prescription and exercise in apparently healthy populations, deepening for the young/adult athlete, with reference to the prevention of injuries and the management of more common pathologies in athletes.

Thus, the UC is articulated with the others by an approach that aims the integration of previously acquired knowledge.

1.Physical Activity and Health

1.1. Interrelationship between concepts of physical activity, physical exercise, sedentary behaviour and health

1.2. Epidemiological surveillance of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour; methods of physical activity assessment in children and adolescents (objective and subjective methods; advantages and disadvantages).

2. Deleterious effects of Sedentary Behaviour

3. Risks associated with physical activity/exercise.

4. The importance of sleep for health.

5. Exercise Prescription:

5.1. for health promotion in young athlete

5.2. for health promotion in adult athlete

6. Methods for physical fitness assessment in children and its association with health – FITEscola and FitnessGram

7. Recommendations for the 24-hour movement behaviours.

This CU will use expository methods and experiential learning. There will be three moments of continuous assessment during the semester: one written assessment (60%), group work and respective oral presentation (25%) and analysis of the existing evidence and resolution of case studies (15%). Grades below 7.5 are considered insufficient and a supplementary assessment test must be performed whenever the average of the partial grades is equal to or higher than 9.5. This recovery test can be oral or written, to be held in the last class of the semester. The final exam will involve a written test with oral assessment; these two components (written test and oral test) will each have a weight of 50% for the final mark of the exam. The students must attend 70% of the total number of classes.

• ACSM (2017). Guidelines for exercise testing and prescription (10th Edition). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
• Teixeira, D. S., Gaspar, C., Marques, P. (2017). Manual do Técnico de Exercício Físico. Porto Salvo: Edições Manz.
• The Cooper Institute for Aerobic Research. FITNESSGRAM - Manual de Aplicação de Testes (2009). 3ª Edição, Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Lisboa.
• Malina, R., Bouchard, C. & Bar-Or, O. Maturation, Growth and Physical Activity (2004). 2^nd Edition. Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL.