Bifalgorithm post · Health Education · Adding Physical Activity to Your Life
FITT Principle
FITT Principle (Health Education · Adding Physical Activity to Your Life) — "Using the FITT principle is one way to remember the guidelines for physical activi…
Ideas in this flowchart
- The FITT principle guides physical-activity prescriptions to improve health-related physical fitness.
- FITT organizes exercise guidelines by frequency, intensity, time, and type.
- FITT components
- Frequency is how often a person performs health-related physical activity.
- Intensity is how hard a person exercises; it can be measured differently according to the health-related component.
- Time, or duration, is the amount of time or number of repetitions used during physical activity.
- Type is the kind of exercise or physical activity being performed.
- Cardiorespiratory fitness: frequency 3–5 times weekly; intensity 50%–60% of heart-rate reserve; time 20–60 minutes continuously; type includes running, cycling, swimming, and large-muscle activities. Increase as fitness improves.
- Flexibility: stretch during warm-up and cool-down; stretch major muscles and joints for 15–30 seconds, using 1–3 repetitions; continue 10–20 minutes; use static and controlled dynamic stretches. Increase time as fitness improves.
- Muscular endurance: exercise daily for some muscle groups or 3–4 times weekly; use less than 50% of predicted 1-repetition maximum, beginning with body weight; perform 15 or more repetitions for 1–3 sets; continue 30–60 minutes; use resistance training. Increase frequency, intensity, and time as fitness improves.
- Muscular strength: exercise 3 times weekly with different muscle groups; use 60%–80% of 1-repetition maximum; perform 8–12 repetitions for 1–3 sets; continue 15–60 minutes; use resistance training such as body weight, tubing, medicine balls, or free weights. Increase frequency, intensity, and time as fitness improves.
