Physical Condition and Health in Physical Education

Physical condition and health have the dual aspect of their implementation by society.

Despite the increasing number of experts in the area, physical condition is often governed by trends, myths, and excesses. Additionally, the goals pursued are not always educational or healthy.

Curriculum in physical education and physical condition

The curriculum states that the subject of physical education has as its main purpose to develop people’s motor competence.

Understood as the integration of knowledge, procedures, attitudes, and feelings linked mainly to motor behavior¹. Therefore, not just anything will do.

An unknown and undervalued fact is the existing relationship between physical condition and academic performance. López de los Mozos-Huertas, J. (2018)² analyzed the existing relationships between overall physical condition and school performance in a group of compulsory secondary education adolescents.

The average results of all subjects taken during the academic year were obtained and compared with the average of the three tests that define the students’ physical condition.

The results showed that there were substantial positive relationships between academic performance and physical condition.

Therefore, the physical education teacher has the responsibility to show their students exercises that allow them to have a healthy physical condition. In addition to ensuring they know how to plan their physical exercises outside school hours.

Blair and Connell (1996) consider that moderate-intensity physical activities are associated with an improvement in physical condition and health and a lower risk of morbidity and mortality compared to low levels of physical activity or fitness.

Furthermore, a key and determining element for the correct development of physical condition for health is the work on hygiene and postural education. Therefore, physical condition for health should encompass the following aspects:

• Cardiorespiratory endurance.
• Strength and muscular endurance.
• Muscular elasticity.
• Body composition.
• Postural education and hygiene.

Next, we will analyze what physical condition is, what it consists of, how it has evolved over time (which will help us understand how it might be in the short and medium-term future), the systems to develop it, and some guidelines for its correct application with students and thus its positive transfer to society.

Definition of physical condition

Navarro (4) says that:

“Physical condition is a part of the total condition of the human being and comprises many components, each of which is specific in its nature. It therefore involves the combination of different aspects in various degrees.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines “Physical condition as comprehensive bodily, mental, and social well-being” as it appears in the Dictionary of Sports Sciences (1992).

In his book, Verjorshanski (2000) presents this definition:

“Physical condition is the ability to perform a specific task, withstand the demands of that task under specific conditions efficiently and safely where tasks are characterized by a series of elements that involve specific physical and psychological attention.”

What is physical condition?

The concept of physical condition and health, as we currently understand it, first appeared in 1916. Its origin is due to Lian’s attempt to measure people’s fitness. This term is a translation from the English physical fitness.

Before delving into physical condition, it is first necessary to make a distinction between different concepts:

• Physical capacity: the attributes that contribute to the effectiveness of motor tasks (endurance, strength, speed, and flexibility).
• Physical condition: the degree of development a person has of basic physical capacities and motor qualities (coordination and balance).
• Physical form: indicates the level of potentiality of physical or conditional capacities.
• Physical preparation: refers to the actions taken to reach the physical or conditional level that allows performing movements or tasks with a specific purpose.

How has physical condition evolved?

Next, we will see how physical condition has evolved over time…

Ancient Greece

Although “physical fitness” is from the 20th century, its origins are found in Ancient Greece.

Here the first concepts related to sports performance appear: “Tetra” or four-day plan, Paidotribo as a coach, and even training programs adapted to the season of the year, climate, or the athlete’s physical state.

Egypt

In pharaonic Egypt, however, the idea of physical condition has a marked militaristic character. While in China and India they maintain a gymnastic system similar to Ling’s Swedish system, through Kung Fu.

The same occurs with the Aztec Culture, where exercises were used as preparation for individuals through fights, weight transport, element throws…

Roman Empire

The break between athletic preparation exercises and hygienic ones occurs in the Roman Empire, thus, physical exercise is presented with military purposes.

A concept that will be enhanced during the Middle Ages mainly due to the existence of countless wars and the tremendous opposition of the Catholic Church to physical culture.

Renaissance

Arriving at the Renaissance, there is a return to classical ideals and physical exercise is understood as part of individuals’ education.

Although it is in 1896 with the Restoration of the Modern Olympic Games that the greatest interest in the study of physical condition arises.

The intention to improve records leads to the use of methods and training systems based on physiological and biochemical foundations.

Currently

In physical education, we work on physical condition and health, an essential component of a better quality of life.

All this under the basis of developing some basic physical capacities (strength-endurance, cardiovascular endurance, joint mobility-flexibility) and motor qualities (coordination and balance). Enhanced under daily postural education and correct exercise technique and methodology.

All of the above leads us to achieve better body composition and have a healthy lifestyle. Said at the end but not least important, other aspects such as psychology, personal, family, work relationships… have a decisive influence on physical condition.

The development of physical condition has evolved over time. Using different procedures as a result of the application of scientific research and empirical knowledge to the field of training and not so much to physical education.

The reason that motivated these movements ranges from improving preparation for war, the rise of gyms and sports facilities as a time occupation or for aesthetic reasons, the medical advice to include daily physical activity for health improvement, or for sports performance purposes.

Basic physical capacities

We will quickly comment on the physical capacities that have been categorized within the field of health and therefore of physical education.

Strength

Strength with or without weights has extended to other sports and the field of health and rehabilitation. Moving away a bit from the exclusivity and prototype of bodybuilder hypertrophy.

Strength, as the ability to generate tension as a result of a muscle contraction, has been recognized as a source of positive effects, both in sports training, in maintaining and prolonging health, as well as in the field of physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

Many professionals agree on the priority and need for strength training.

Flexibility

Regarding flexibility, it has gone from performing usually static stretches and bounces without considering any control parameters, to other techniques based on kinetic chains or with parameters suitable for a specific purpose.

But above all, not losing the joint mobility component that deteriorates with age but is also accelerated by specific practices that do not compensate for certain gestures.

Therefore, flexibility can be defined as the ability to perform, maintain, and recover positions through joint movements supported by optimal muscle elasticity.

Endurance

Endurance is the ability to perform physical efforts for a prolonged time, delaying the onset of fatigue and recovering quickly after the effort (Navarro, 1995)⁴.

Notable about this capacity was how the continuous and natural system was followed by the interval method, today very popular with HIIT systems of Tabata where the aim is to obtain the intended benefits in less time, albeit at higher work intensities.

Speed

Speed is the ability to perceive, react, start moving, perform a gesture, make a decision, and maintain an effort as quickly as possible.

If we look, for example, at a 100-meter race, the runner will have to be quick in reaction time.

That is, the time between hearing the gunshot and their brain perceiving it, the reaction time, understood as the time that passes between perceiving the stimulus and being able to start moving, the acceleration capacity to go from being stationary to developing the maximum possible speed, and the resistance to speed loss.

This last one being the ability to maintain that speed peak for as long as possible.

Additionally, all this is influenced by gestural speed (running technique through leg, arm movements…).

In other modalities, decision-making speed is more evident, for example in an opposition-cooperation sport or speed resistance in the sense of being able to perform many sprints at high intensity.

Types of speed

Below is a clearer display of the types of speed that exist:

• Reaction time and reaction speed
• Acceleration speed
• Maximum
• Resistance to speed (to loss)
• Resistance to perform a high number of sprints
• Gestural speed
• Mental speed (decision making)

Coordination

Coordination is the motor quality that allows performing physical and technical actions with greater efficiency and therefore energy savings and greater effectiveness.

In exercise, a complex of muscle synergies is necessary to favor, for example, spending less time on a task, performing it with less physical effort, with more precision, etc.

Balance

Balance, also currently well known as proprioception, is the body’s ability to recognize its position relative to itself and the environment.

The joint component plays a fundamental role, and although the use of unstable surfaces and monopodal work has been overemphasized, it goes much further.

The simple act of walking (gait) requires moments of balance (monopodal support). Therefore, strengthening a muscle like the gluteus medius helps in preventing, for example, falls in older people.

Also, proprioceptive work of the shoulder joint is key to avoiding imbalances and alterations of the scapular musculature.

Evolution over time

However, all of the above cannot be understood if we do not analyze how the evolution of the different trends that have marked the development and course of a type of orientation of physical condition has been.

Already in ancient civilizations like the Greek, Milo of Croton, a Pancratium wrestler, trained under the “Principle of Progression,” by running while carrying a calf on his shoulders as the animal grew.

But the systematic training of physical condition, as we conceive it today, does not appear until the 19th century.

In line with the evolution of the different trends that drove the science of physical conditioning from different possible perspectives.

Trends in physical education

In this sense, we can find trends such as:

• The Gymnastic Trend: based on the concepts of gymnastics by Amorós and Jahn promoted during the previous century. This trend is characterized by the rigor of its approaches based on the development of physical-motor capacities with a clear utilitarian nuance.
• Hygienic: based on the hygienic aspect of physical exercise and the balanced development of the body and mind through an analytical system, although the evolution within the trend itself led to greater dynamism in its approaches, favored by greater use of global exercises, the introduction of music and rhythm, or a more participatory and inherent methodology for the child, among other aspects.
• Sportive: based on the development of recreational-sportive practices, exalting their multiple educational values and beneficial effects on physical-motor development.
• Expressive: based on performing physical exercise under a reunion with the natural rhythm of movement and the psychophysical function of body expression (for example, by Rudolf Bode, his Modern Gymnastics, or by Dalcroze, his Rhythmic).
• “Naturalist”: based both on the application of natural exercises based on basic locomotions inherent to the child’s own playful nature, and on the importance of performing physical exercise in the natural environment, emphasizing of course the values of respect and enjoyment of this as an ideal medium for physical activity and the integral development of the person (for example, by the French Hébert, his Natural Method, or by the Austrians Karl Gaulhofer and Margaret Streicher, their Austrian Natural Gymnastics).

Physical condition and characteristics

The classification of physical condition shown below is a personal proposal.

It is based on the development of a series of capacities, qualities, and other elements that influence and interrelate with healthy physical condition, which is the orientation that interests us from physical education.

Physical condition and health: development systems

Taking into account the previous overview of what composes and sustains healthy physical condition, we will describe and detail some of its most important factors (basic content):

Flexibility

When training flexibility, we highlight the following methods:

•  The dynamic method: in this case, the student, through their voluntary muscle activity, performs a dynamic exercise (circumductions, oscillations…), trying to ensure that normal joint ranges are not lost and maintaining the muscle’s elastic capacity.
•   The static method: is based on maintaining the posture in a static position for a certain period of time with a muscle elongation greater than normal.

This can in turn be achieved in three ways:

• Actively: by the person’s own intervention.
• Passively: without the person’s intervention, being other external means (another person, gravity, through implements) that move the body segment.
• Mixed: where the person’s voluntary action and the external help exerted are combined. PNF exercises –Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation– fall into this category.

Endurance

Training methods to improve endurance capacity can be basically classified into:

• Continuous methods: are those tasks or training where the work is done without intermediate recovery pauses. Their essential purpose is to improve aerobic capacity.
• Continuous at a uniform pace: in turn, differentiating between those with a predominance of the duration of the effort over intensity (Extensive continuous method); and those others where high intensity predominates (more than 90%), with the purpose of raising the anaerobic threshold (Intensive continuous method).
• Continuous at a variable pace: consists of maintaining an effort for a certain time by changing the running pace. Within this group, the most well-known training system is Fartlek, which alternates heart rates between 140 beats per minute in slow sections and 180-190 bpm in intense sections.

Other types of endurance training

Other types of variable training would be “progressive continuous runs” or “speed games,” the latter consisting of alternating both distances and pace.

• Fractionated or interval: are those where the distance to be worked on is determined, the interval or recovery pause, the repetitions or number of times the work distance is repeated, and finally, the intensity of each repetition. Generally, the work is done in series where the distances are shorter than usual but at higher intensity, with the purpose that when longer distances are performed, the benefit of interval work can be taken advantage of, not to go as fast as in these series, but somewhat faster and above all with less effort than if only continuous training were done.

Although they are shorter series than continuous training, they are subdivided based on duration and intensity into:

• Aerobic-oriented fractionated: this section includes all those intensity efforts that exceed 2 minutes in duration. We are facing what could be called aerobic power.
• Anaerobic-oriented: this section includes all those efforts that due to their high intensity can only be maintained from 15 seconds to 1-2 minutes. It is a very high aerobic power effort and can also be seen as a development of speed endurance.

Strength

Depending on the manifestation to which strength training is oriented (adaptation, endurance, hypertrophic, submaximal, maximal…), we can find the following methods:

• Maximum efforts: short-duration and rather slow efforts are executed, perfectly expressed in practice by resisting large loads, close to 1RM. For example, in practices like weightlifting and “power-lifting.”
• Maximum repetitions: in this case, the aim is to perform the maximum number of repetitions of a series until exhaustion. The efforts are now longer and faster than in the previous methods, and loads between 60% and 80% of the maximum load are used. That is, medium and submaximal loads are worked. This method is widely used in hypertrophy phases.
• Repetition method: it could be said that this method is more “light” than the previous one in that it does not aim to seek exhaustion, but to perform a high number of repetitions without reaching muscle failure. This method is often used in the field of health and school education.
• Direct stimulation: develops the athlete’s special strength, training it specifically for each sports specialty. For example, isokinetic, plyometric training, and especially those that simulate the sports action or are integrated into them.

How to improve physical condition

It is essential that physical condition during the educational stage lays the foundations for future healthy habits. Always favoring complete and adequate development, avoiding injuries of any origin.

At these ages, the focus should first be on achieving a base, technical-coordinative, and multilateral work. Since they will be the foundations on which to base future works of another kind, and above all, because at certain ages, acquiring some skills becomes difficult.

For more intense work but without any motor difficulty, there is more time for enhancement. Additionally, we will avoid injuries and premature boredom (qualitative versus quantitative aspects).

Activities should be proposed that the student can and knows how to perform in their adult life. Because if sedentary people can become active.

There is a risk among those young “athletes” who then usually end up leaving the modality they practice. They switch to another with wrong motivations or even move to total sedentarism.

Also, as we will see in the following image, an activity at very high intensity is less healthy than a more moderate one, this depends on frequency and intensity. In this case, of running, about hip or knee arthritis.

Prioritize the playful component

In the early courses, more emphasis should be placed on activities with a playful component that promote a healthy and active life and gradually introduce the student to practices more oriented to adult life.

So that their passage through the P.E. subject allows them to plan for themselves and/or have criteria to choose the activities offered by society. Knowing without myths what allows a healthy physical condition and the methods to achieve it.

The didactic orientation that can never be lost is the educational one. Games and sports, physical condition exercises, activities in the natural environment… are useless if they are accompanied by bad practices. Habits contrary to health or against a better society and planet.

Motivating sessions that reach the students must be proposed. They must know useful things such as that their peak bone mass is achieved at an early age.

Everything they have not “saved” from maximum bone potential in this case will mean that when an inevitable phase of loss arrives. This will start to empty the piggy bank not being full, but half or less. Hence the importance, whether they like it or not, of physical exercise. It is never too late to start, but reserves must be obtained early.

Practical applications to improve physical condition in children

To cite some examples, regarding endurance, we must make them see that physical education is for life.

Not just for now that they are in 3rd of E.S.O. or 1st of Bachiller, therefore they must learn the importance of working on physical condition within the so-called “Healthy Activity Zone” (between 60-85% of maximum heart rate).

Strength-endurance is worked with self-loads, transport games, wrestling games, etc.

What is important is to dispel the false belief that flexibility is lost from birth. Apart from being the basis for other qualities, it is true that as a child there is great capacity, but this can be maintained high or even better integrated into the body’s functioning if there is adequate work.

After puberty, the very marked deterioration that exists is due to not working on it. What we must avoid is that after just a few decades of life or even without reaching them, there are people who find themselves limited in their daily lives by not being able, for example, to reach the ground with their fingertips or not being able to touch the center of their back.

In the end, in adulthood, these limitations combined with certain overexertions and poor technique will cause “frozen shoulders,” shortening of the Achilles tendon, etc.

The Eurofit battery has made an important step in separating mere sports performance from health-related performance.

Returning to flexibility, for example, when teaching massage, it is necessary to take advantage of the opportunity to experience the P.N.F. technique, everything will be much clearer for them.

Practical proposal according to José Devís

Inspired by Devís’s proposal (2007)⁵, it is advisable to insist on a realistic action plan of 3-4 days a week of healthy physical exercise for students. That is, for them to say “I am going to do some sport or training.”

They should include aerobic capacity exercises mainly with a modality that works the body globally (brisk walking, running, cycling, swimming…).

Strength-endurance through various general muscle exercises (it has always been said around 12-15 repetitions per series but it will depend on the intensity of the exercise because a pull-up, for example, has a very big challenge). Either in self-load or with materials or machines (push-up, rowing, squat…) and flexibility-joint mobility.

Also, some of the exercises can have coordination and balance components. For example, in this last case, one-legged squats. For how long? A complete session of no more than an hour is usually quite effective.

As previously mentioned, healthy physical condition encompasses many components. Therefore, it is not about dedicating an hour to exercise and the rest of the day being sedentary with bad habits.

An attempt should be made to lead an active life in general, walking to places, doing some household chores, etc.

It is also necessary to re-educate those students with erroneous exercise orientations, obsessions, bad practices, or future sedentary individuals.

Evaluation of physical condition

The following battery of tests has the main objective of establishing an approximate estimation of healthy physical condition through a series of simple indicators to apply and obtain in any context.

Elasticity

For this capacity, a test that involves the musculature on which postural control depends has been chosen: the erector muscles of the back and the hamstrings.

This is the test called “Sit and Reach.” The purpose of this test is to assess the extension capacity of the dorsal and hamstring musculature by bending the trunk forward (7).

The decrease in elasticity of this musculature produces pelvic retroversion and dorsalization of the spine, which can also cause: hyperkyphosis, disc herniation, inversion of the lumbar spine, aggravation of Scheuermann’s disease, etc. (9, 10).

Ferrer and collaborators indicate that strength training, prolonged standing, and heavy muscle work can lead to hamstring shortness (10).

In the case of this test to measure physical condition, the necessary material is a box with the following measurements:

• Length: 35 cm.
• Width: 45 cm.
• Height: 32 cm.

The top of the box where the measuring tape will be attached to take the measurement should be about 55 cm long, 45 cm wide, and protrude 15 cm from the standardized length of the box.

The subject, barefoot, will sit in front of the box with their legs extended, so that they fully support their feet on the box.

The subject should bend the trunk forward avoiding bending the knees and extending both arms with the palms of the hands parallel and facing down, trying to advance along the ruler as far as possible.

Upon reaching the maximum position, they will remain still for two seconds to properly record the result obtained. The test evaluation is as follows:

• Normal: Greater than -6 cm.
• Moderate shortness: Between -6 and -15 cm.
• Excessive shortness: Less than -15 cm.

Cardiovascular system

In this test to measure physical condition, 30 deep leg flexions are performed between 30 and 40 seconds with the arms on the hips, and the pulses are taken before starting, at the end of the test, and at the minute of recovery. The following formula and evaluation scale are applied (7):

(P1 + P2 + P3) – 200 / 10

• P1: Resting pulses.
• P2: Pulses just after finishing.
• P3: Pulses at the minute of recovery.

Evaluation:

• 0 to 5: Excellent.
• 5 to 10: Very good.
• 10 to 15: Regular.
• More than 15: Bad.

Strength evaluation

We propose the “Drop Jump” test designed by Bosco as a battery to measure this physical condition (11). It consists of letting oneself fall from a certain height, to then move as far as possible.

The drop height is not advised to be greater than 50 cm. as it could inhibit the reflex component of strength.

With this test, we can assess important components of muscle action such as explosive concentric action, elastic capacity, and reflex action, which can indicate to us in some way the subject’s muscle coordination capacity important for basic postural and locomotor aspects.

Body composition

In controlling body composition, it is essential to maintain a neutral energy balance.

If the expenditure is greater than the intake, it is possible to lose a large part of fat tissue but also lean tissue, and if the intake is greater than the expenditure, adipose tissue deposits will increase (7).

In the evaluation of body composition, we can assess parameters that are easy to apply in the school environment, thus we find:

• Body mass index (BMI).
• Amount of body fat (sum of skinfolds).

González and Villa (11) establish the following general evaluation scale for BMI:

• Normal: 22-27.
• Underweight: less than 21.
• Severe weight reduction: less than 15.
• Obesity: greater than 27.
• Increased mortality and morbidity: greater than 30.

The formula to obtain BMI is as follows:

BMI = WEIGHT / HEIGHT²

• Weight = Kilograms.
• Height: Meters.

It is necessary to comment that BMI underestimates results in sedentary adults and overestimates them in trained people or children and adolescents.

Body composition in its four basic components (muscle, fat, bone, and residual weight) can be obtained simply through the methodology extracted from the Spanish Group of Kinanthropometry (13) based on the techniques used by De Rose and Guimaraes (14).

The measurement (millimeters) is carried out using a caliper or skinfold compass, with a measurement capacity of 0 to 48 mm, and with a precision of 0.2 mm.

The folds will be taken on the right side of the body, repeating each measurement three non-consecutive times, noting the average, after eliminating clearly erroneous records (7).

Postural statics

Whenever we talk about postural hygiene, we mainly think of the spine, although we must not forget that alterations or misalignments of the lower limbs (knees and feet), can cause serious repercussions on postural statics and the spine (7).

For the evaluation of postural statics, we have a large number of tests and indicators, both objective and subjective, such as the plumb line test, grid board, and mirrors, which are fairly simple measurement methods to implement, economical, and not as sophisticated as those used in rehabilitation and orthopedics centers (7).

Physical condition in the elderly

There is a worldwide interest in preventing this type of disease and promoting health through the implementation of more active lifestyles since many of these physical limitations can be alleviated with physical exercise, as it has great benefits for the person, both physiologically and psychologically or socially.

Physical activity is one of the main public health strategies in this group, as there is a decrease in physical capacity as age advances, a predictable phenomenon that can be stopped or slowed down by paying special attention to the level of physical condition and physical activity.

Many older people, due to their sedentary lifestyles, are dangerously close to their maximum capacity level during normal daily life activities.

Currently, the positive effects of moderate physical exercise on maintaining general health are known.

The important thing is that the activities are adapted to the individual’s possibilities, are presented appropriately, occupy the right place in the programming, and receive didactic treatment, in such a way that allows all participants to perform them successfully.

Therefore, it is necessary to carry out an evaluation and analysis of both the physical activity to be performed and the elderly’s physical condition.

They cite ACSM in 2000 and Kligman and Pepin in 1992, to indicate that to achieve the maximum benefits of exercise for each person, most studies highlight the importance of an individualized prescription adapted to each one’s functional and personal characteristics.

Therefore, it is vitally important to know the elderly’s physical condition for the correct prescription of exercise.

The evaluation of physical condition should be considered an aspect to take into account when determining the functional capacity of the elderly (4, 8).

Currently, there is a large number of test batteries aimed at evaluating the physical condition of the population.

Most of these batteries to measure physical condition are designed for specific population groups, so it would not be reliable and advisable to apply a battery indiscriminately to any age group due to the risk it could pose.

To solve this methodological problem, different test batteries and adaptations of existing ones are emerging to specify an age group to which it is directed (4).

Batteries

Below, the main batteries used to know the level of physical condition in older people will be highlighted.

ECFA Battery – Evaluation of Physical Condition in the Elderly

This battery to measure physical condition is structured based on six physical capacities and indices from which the eight physical tests that make up the battery arise.

With these eight tests, both those physical capacities that determine the physical health status of any subject are evaluated, and on the other hand, perceptual-motor capacities such as static monopodal balance with vision and manual agility, capacities that are severely altered over time.

Through normative values, the physical condition of the elderly population can be determined with considerable accuracy, and thus intervention programs can be specified to stabilize or improve physical condition.

The ECFA battery consists of the following tests:

1. Body composition: To evaluate the morphological component, the body mass index (BMI) has been calculated, which is determined by the coefficient between weight in kilograms and height squared in meters.
2. Maximum handgrip strength: This test consists of measuring the maximum grip strength of each hand.
3. Monopodal balance (with vision): With the development of this test, the subject’s general static balance is evaluated.
4. Abdominal endurance strength: In the evaluation of endurance strength, we have used a single test, which has been the abdominal endurance strength test or curl-up test. The objective of the test is to evaluate the endurance strength of the abdominal musculature.
5. Trunk flexibility (anterior trunk flexion): The objective of this test is to assess the flexibility of the posterior part of the trunk and legs.
6. Maximum lower body strength: The second test used to quantify maximum strength has been the one involving the lower body. Its objective is to evaluate the maximum strength that the extensor musculature of the lower body is capable of developing.
7. Oculo-manual coordination (manual agility): The objective of this test is to evaluate oculo-manual coordination and the execution speed of the upper limb.
8. Cardiorespiratory endurance (walking 2 kilometers): To evaluate the aerobic capacity of this group, we have applied an aerobic endurance test that consists of walking a distance of two thousand meters.

To learn more about each of the tests and their normative values, I indicate the following link about this test battery.

Senior Fitness Test

This battery to measure physical condition was designed by Rikki and Jones to assess the physical condition of older people at different ages, specifically between 60 and 94 years old.

It has reference values expressed in percentiles for each of the tests, allowing us to compare the results with people of the same sex and age.

The physical condition parameters included in this battery are: muscle strength (upper and lower limbs), aerobic endurance, flexibility (upper and lower limbs), and agility.

It consists of a total of 6 tests and has been developed in the USA in such a way that the normative values of these tests that we have refer to the American population.

The tests that make up this battery are as follows:

1. Chair stand test (sitting and standing from a chair): To evaluate lower body strength.
2. Arm Curl test (arm curls): Evaluates upper body strength.
3. Minute walk test (6-minute walk test): For measuring aerobic endurance.
4. Minute step test (2-minute march): Evaluates aerobic endurance.
5. Chair-sit and reach-test (trunk flexion test in a chair): Evaluates lower body flexibility.
6. Back scratch test (test of joining hands behind the back): Test with which we can measure upper body flexibility.
7. Foot-up and go test (test of getting up, walking, and sitting back down): To measure agility and dynamic balance.
8. Height and weight (weight and height): To assess BMI

In the following link, a link will be shown to learn more about the tests in detail.

VACAFUN Battery

The objective of this battery was to create and validate a test battery for assessing functional capacity in older people and the relationship between lifestyle and the subject’s well-being.

The VACAFUN battery uses 7 tests through which body composition, (dynamic) balance, flexibility (upper and lower body), maximum strength (upper body), endurance strength (lower body), and aerobic endurance are quantified.

It is noteworthy that the batteries to measure physical condition have established a continuous scale to place each evaluated person at a specific point on the scale.

The tests that make up the following battery are:

1. Arm curls with weight: to evaluate upper body strength.
2. Sitting and standing from a chair: the objective of this test is to measure lower body strength.
3. Walking 6 minutes: to calculate aerobic endurance.
4. Reaching hands behind the back: to evaluate upper body flexibility.
5. Sitting and reaching the extended foot: to measure lower body flexibility.
6. Round trip: in which dynamic balance is evaluated.

To learn more about this battery, the following link is shown below.

BCF Battery (2)

The physical capacity tests presented were adapted from others that were previously used and according to the method proposed by Guralnik and collaborators, where the inclusion of tests that mainly evaluate the function of the lower limbs is preferred.

This “physical capacity battery” combines a series of measurements that allow evaluating balance, gait, strength, and endurance, in addition to reflecting motor planning and corresponding cognitive strategies.

1. Balance on one foot (EP): this test consists of asking the subject to stand on one foot for as long as possible, thus measuring the subject’s balance.
2. Walking speed over four meters at a normal pace (VM): This test aims to measure walking speed at the “usual” pace.
3. Standing up from a chair five times (LS): this test serves to evaluate lower limb strength, and also reflects the subject’s balance and mobility.
4. Timed “up & go” (TUG): this “get up and go” or “Lazarus” test evaluates the mobility and balance of older adults.

The association of the BCF with the degree of physical activity was also included. The latter was determined by the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE).

To delve into this battery, the following link is indicated.

AFISAL-INEFC Battery (9)

The AFISAL-INEFC battery for assessing healthy physical condition in adults was developed as part of the AFISAC project (Physical Activity and Health for Adults in Catalonia) at the National Institute of Physical Education of Catalonia from 1992 to 1995, with the aim of assessing the healthy physical condition of the adult population participating in different phases of the project.

For the development of the AFISAL-INEFC battery, a wide series of tests aimed at assessing healthy physical condition in adults were analyzed.

To do this, they cited Rodríguez et al. in 1994 and 1995, to review and discuss the tests and items commonly used to assess the following components and factors of healthy physical condition: health status, body composition, maximum upper body strength, abdominal endurance strength, lower body explosive strength, balance, flexibility, and cardiorespiratory endurance.

The assessment of healthy physical condition in adults using the AFISAL-INEFC battery is carried out through the administration of 8 tests, performed in the following order:

1. Physical activity aptitude questionnaire (C-AAF).
2. Body composition assessment: The objective will be to measure anthropometric parameters and calculate the indices that allow assessing individual body composition. Some of this data complements the use, interpretation, or utility of the results obtained in the other tests of this battery.
3. Maximum grip strength: This test assesses the maximum isometric strength of the hand’s finger flexor muscles.
4. Static monopodal balance without vision: To assess the general static balance of the body.
5. Abdominal endurance strength: This test will indicate the endurance strength of the trunk flexor musculature (abdominal).
6. Trunk flexibility: It will indicate the flexibility of the posterior thigh muscles (knee flexors) and the trunk.
7. Lower body explosive strength: Assesses the explosive strength of the lower body extensors, with free synchronization of trunk and upper limb movement.
8. Submaximal test for predicting maximum oxygen consumption (walking 2 km).

For more information about this battery, the following link is indicated below.

Comparison of physical condition batteries

All the batteries to measure physical condition show several factors in common. On the one hand, the measurement of aerobic endurance stands out, although the tests vary, and balance and coordination, which, like endurance, also vary among the different batteries.

Regarding strength, all batteries, except the BCF battery, include tests. We find strength tests for both the lower body and the upper body, but only AFISAL-INEFC and ECFA contemplate abdominal strength tests.

In flexibility, we find tests in the Senior Fitness Test and VACAFUN batteries for the upper and lower body, while the rest only contemplate one of the two. But in the case of the BCF battery, it does not include any.

Only two batteries to measure physical condition include body composition: AFISAL-INEFC and ECFA. The ECFA battery is based on BMI (Body Mass Index), while the AFISAL-INEFC battery highlights the WHR (Waist-Hip Ratio) and the subject’s fat percentage.

Only the ECFA battery indicates an oculo-manual coordination test. An apparently relevant aspect, due to the loss of fine motor skills that older people suffer.

It is important that the tests are accompanied by normative reference values so that professionals involved in assessing older people can place their evaluated person concerning the general reference population based on sex and age.

All the batteries described throughout the article offer normative values for the evaluation of subjects.

With this article on physical condition, it is not intended to sway readers towards one battery over another, only to show from an objective point of view the different batteries we can use for evaluating physical condition in older people.

Conclusions

The concept of physical condition is very clear today, and from the field of health and P.E., we have a clear orientation.

The orientation of healthy and educational physical condition has evolved and taken the best from those past and current trends and tendencies that have marked the character of exercise in each era.

The student must clearly know what the components of a healthy physical condition are and know how to put them into practice in their daily life.

School P.E. must educate students with effective, educational, useful, and motivating teaching-learning situations.

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