Class Health and Physical Fitness

The Curriculum Unit of Health and Fitness is a structuring discipline in approaching the global concept and integrating the main action of the Exercise Physiologist - the promotion of health through physical exercise and behavior modification. Updated and evidence-based approaches reflect the importance of reducing physical inactivity and promoting physical activity as structuring tools for a healthy and developed society. The notion that well-being is associated with an active lifestyle is essential in the 21st century salutogenic approach and will be taken as the structural pillar of the discipline. It will be given particular emphasis on the possibility of interdisciplinary nature, seeking the extension of content addressed and developed in previous years in terms of prescription and exercise in apparently healthy populations, and deepening this stage in populations with conditions or diseases diagnosed.

Not applicable

1. Concepts related to health and exercise 1.1. Interrelationship between physical activity, exercise, sedentary behavior, and health 1.2. Epidemiology of physical activity 1.3. Components of physical fitness related to health   2. Prescription of physical exercise for specific conditions, pathologies/illnesses, or special phases of life 2.1. Exercise prescription during pregnancy 2.2. Exercise prescription for children and adolescents 2.3. Exercise prescription in excess weight 2.4. Exercise prescription in metabolic syndrome 2.5. Exercise prescription in liver disease 2.6. Exercise prescription in diabetes 2.7. Exercise prescription in hypertension 2.8. Exercise prescription in cardiovascular disease 2.9. Exercise prescription in cancer 2.10. Exercise prescription in osteoarthritis and low back pain 2.11. Exercise prescription in dementia 2.12. Exercise prescription for the elderly

In the Curricular Unit will be used exhibition methods and experiential learning. Throughout the school year, moments of reflection and analysis of data and projects associated with issues close to future professional intervention will be operationalized. In  the continuous evaluation regime, there will be four moments of evaluation. Two written tests (30% each, to be performed at the end of each semester), a literature review proposed in class (20%) and the exercise prescription for two populations (20%). Classifications below 9.5 values are insufficient, and an additional evaluation test should be performed, whenever the average of the installment classifications is equal to or greater than 9.5 values. The recovery test of one or two elements shall be oral and will be held at the end of the year. The exam will involve a written, practical and oral test. Attendance should correspond to 70% of the total number of classes.

Schoenfeld, B. & Snarr, R. (2022). NSCA Essentials of Personal Training (3rd Edition). Champaign: Human Kinetics. ACSM (2021). Guidelines for exercise testing and prescription (11th Edition). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Haff, G. & Tripplett, T. (2016). NSCA Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning (4th Edition). Champaign: Human Kinetics. Teixeira, D. S., Gaspar, C., Marques, P. (2017). Manual do Técnico de Exercício Físico. Porto Salvo: Edições Manz. ACSM (2014). Resource manual for guidelines for exercise testing and prescription (7th Edition). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.