Which Activity Fits the Goal?

Which activity would you choose for a strength goal?

Suppose you want to improve muscular strength. You have three choices. You could go for a brisk twenty minute walk. You could spend some time stretching. Or you could do an activity where your muscles have to push, pull or lift something challenging. Which would you choose? Go back to what strength means. Muscular strength is about how much force your muscles can produce. Walking for twenty minutes asks your body to keep moving. Stretching works on flexibility. Pushing, pulling or lifting something challenging asks your muscles to produce more force. That makes it the best match for a muscular strength goal. The activity you choose should give your body practice at the thing you want to improve.

Make the choice: Your goal is muscular strength. First ask: Which muscles? Then choose one activity you could do. How would you train that muscle?? That is, how many times would you repeat the movement to strengthen that muscle? How many times would you repeat the sets of those repeated movements? How much rest would you take between sets of the movement?

Could different activities fit the same goal?

Now the goal is muscular endurance. Carrying manageable bags back and forth for several trips would improve muscle endurance. So could repeated body movements such as sitting down and standing up 20 times (try it and see). You could also hold something in place while your muscles continue working. These activities do not look the same, but they have something important in common. Your muscles have to keep working rather than produce one big effort and stop. That means there is not only one activity that fits a fitness goal. The trick is to look past the activity itself and ask what your body will be doing. If the goal is muscular endurance, choose an activity where the muscles you are using have to continue working to better prepare them (train them) to do the task asked of them.

Put it to work: You want your leg muscles to become better at working for longer. What activity could you choose that would make your leg muscles work repeatedly?

What would you choose if you wanted to keep going longer?

Think about riding a bike for ten minutes and riding for an hour. Or dancing to one song and then dancing through several. To keep going longer, your legs are not the only part of your body that has work to do. Your heart beats faster, you breathe faster, and blood carries oxygen to your working muscles. Together, your heart, lungs, blood and muscles help you keep moving. That is cardiorespiratory endurance. If that is what you want to improve, choose an activity that keeps much of your body moving for a while. Brisk walking, biking, dancing, swimming and active games can all do that. They are different activities, but they give your heart, lungs and working muscles the same kind of job: keep supplying what your body needs while you continue moving.

Make it yours: Choose something you already do that gets you breathing harder and keeps you moving. What could you change so you gradually become able to do it for longer?

When would flexibility be the fitness goal?

Think back to the gymnast doing the splits. Now think about a dancer lifting a leg high or someone doing a martial arts kick. Strength matters in those movements, but so does how far the hips can move. If someone wanted to improve that part of the movement, doing more heavy lifting or going for longer walks would not directly work on the goal. They would need movements and stretches that gradually work on flexibility at the hips. Change the activity and the place where flexibility matters may change too. A swimmer may work on movement at the shoulders. A gymnast may work on movement at the hips. The activity you choose for flexibility should match the part of your body that needs the movement.

Make the match: Choose an activity where flexibility matters. Where does the body need plenty of movement for that activity?

Start with the goal

Here are four possible goals: become stronger, keep your muscles working longer, keep your whole body moving longer, or improve flexibility. What would be one activity you can do for each one? You will end up with different answers, although more than one activity may fit each goal. That is the point. There is no special list where walking is always “cardiorespiratory,” carrying is always “strength,” or stretching is always “flexibility.” What matters is how you do the activity and what you are trying to improve. Start with the goal. Think about what that goal asks your body to do. Then choose an activity that gives your body practice doing it.

Final challenge: Pick one fitness goal. Choose an activity that matches it. Explain the connection in one sentence: What do you want to improve, and what will your body be doing?

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