Intersection of Physical Activity, Sport, Music, and Dance(PESMD)

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       UNIT 1: 

     AWARENESS, MISCONCEPTIONS, BIASES, AND BARRIERS.

 

 

 

1.1 UNIQUENESS AND SELF-AWARENESS

 

Self-awareness represents the capacity of becoming the object of one’s own attention. In this state one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self. Self-awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection.

 

Self-awareness refers to the capacity of becoming the object of one’s own attention (Duval & Wicklund, 1972). In this state one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self. The important distinction here is as follows: One can perceive and process stimuli from the environment (e.g., a colour, food) without explicitly knowing that one is doing so (consciousness). One becomes self-aware when one reflects on the experience of perceiving and processing stimuli (e.g., I see a blue object; I am eating food and it tastes good). Self-awareness represents a complex multidimensional phenomenon that comprises various self-domains and corollaries. To illustrate, one can think about one’s past (autobiography) and future (prospection). Similarly, one can focus on one’s emotions, thoughts, personality traits, preferences, goals, attitudes, perceptions, sensations, intentions, and so forth. The list of potentially relevant self-aspects is very long indeed (see Ben-Artzi, Mikulincer, & Glaubman, 1995). Emotions or traits are private self-aspects that can be distinguished from public self-dimensions – visible characteristics such as one’s body, physical appearance, mannerisms, and behaviours (Fenigstein, 1987). Examples of self-awareness corollaries are sense of agency, Theory-of-Mind (ToM; making inferences about others’ mental states), self-description, self-evaluation, self-esteem, self-regulation, self-efficacy, death awareness, self-conscious emotions, self-recognition, and self-talk (Morin, Uttl, & Hamper, forthcoming).

 

While it may not be possible to attain total objectivity about oneself (that’s a debate that continues to rage throughout the history of philosophy), there are certainly degrees of self-awareness. It exists on a spectrum. Although everyone has a fundamental idea of what self-awareness is, we don’t know exactly where it comes from, what its precursors are, or why some of us seem to have more or less than others.

 

Four Proven Benefits of Self-Awareness

 

Now, let’s shift our attention to research on the outcomes of being self-aware.

As you might imagine, there are many benefits to practising self-awareness:

 

• It can make us more proactive, boost our acceptance, and encourage positive self-development (Sutton, 2016).

  

• Self-awareness allows us to see things from the perspective of others, practice self-control, work creatively and productively, and experience pride in ourselves and our work as well as general self-esteem (Silvia & O’Brien, 2004).

 

• It leads to better decision-making (Ridley, Schutz, Glanz, & Weinstein, 1992). 

 

• It can make us better at our jobs, better communicators in the workplace, and enhance our self-confidence and job-related wellbeing (Sutton, Williams, & Allinson, 2015).

 

The benefits listed are reason enough to work on improving self-awareness, but this list is by no means exhaustive. Self-awareness has the potential to enhance virtually every experience you have, as it’s a tool and a practice that can be used anywhere, anytime, to ground yourself in the moment, realistically evaluate yourself and the situation, and help you make good choices.

 

Three Examples of Self-Awareness Skills

1.Bob at work

 

Bob struggles with creating a quarterly report at work, and he frequently produces subpar results. He notices the discrepancy between his standards and performance and engages in self-evaluation to determine where it comes from and how to improve.

 

He asks himself what makes the task so hard for him, and he realizes that he never seems to have trouble doing the work that goes into the report, but he struggles with writing it up cohesively and clearly.

 

Bob decides to fix the discrepancy by taking a course to improve his writing ability, having a colleague review his report before submitting it, and creating a reusable template for future reports, so he is sure to include all relevant information.

 

2.Monique at home

 

Monique is having relationship problems with her boyfriend, Luis. She thinks Luis takes her for granted and he doesn’t tell her he loves her or share affection enough. They fight about this frequently.

 

Suddenly, she realizes that she may be contributing to the problem. She looks inward and sees that she doesn’t show Luis appreciation very often and that she overlooks the nice things he does around the house for her and little physical touches that show his affection.

 

Monique considers her thought processes when Luis misses an opportunity to make her feel loved and notes that she assumes he purposely avoids doing things that she likes. She spends time thinking and talking with Luis about how they want to show and receive love, and they begin to work on improving their relationship.

 

3.Bridget on her own

 

Bridget struggles with low self-esteem, which causes depressive symptoms. She doesn’t feel good enough, and she doesn’t accept opportunities that come her way because of it. She begins working with a therapist to help her build self-awareness.

 

The next time an opportunity comes her way, she thinks she doesn’t want to do it and initially decides to turn it down; but, with the help of some self-awareness techniques, Bridget realizes that she is only telling herself she doesn’t want to do it because of her fear that she won’t be good enough.

 

Bridget reminds herself that she is good enough and redirects her thoughts to “what if I succeed?” instead of “what if I fail?” She accepts the opportunity and continues to use self-awareness and self-love to improve her chances of success.

 

These three stories exemplify what self-awareness can look like, and what it can do for you when you tap into it. Without self-awareness, Bob would have kept turning in bad reports, Monique would have continued in an unsatisfying relationship or broken things off, and Bridget would never have taken the opportunity that helped her grow.

 

If you look for them, you can find these stories everywhere.

 

Now we have some clear-cut examples of self-awareness in mind. We know what it looks like to embrace self-awareness and grow. But how do you do it? What did our leading characters do to practice self-awareness?

 

There are many ways to build and practice self-awareness, but here are some of the most effective:

 

1. Practice Mindfulness and Meditation

Mindfulness refers to being present in the moment and paying attention to yourself and your surroundings rather than getting lost in thought or ruminating or daydreaming.

 

Meditation is the practice of focusing your attention on one thing–like your breath, a mantra, or a feeling–and letting your thoughts drift by instead of holding on to them.

 

Both practices can help you become more aware of your internal state and your reactions to things. They can also help you identify your thoughts and feelings and keep from getting so caught up in them that you lose your hold on your “self.”

 

2. Practice Yoga

Yoga is a physical practice, but it’s just as much a mental practice. While your body is stretching and bending and flexing, your mind is learning discipline, self-acceptance, and awareness. You become more aware of your body and all the feelings that manifest, and you become more aware of your mind and the thoughts that crop up.

You can even pair yoga with mindfulness or meditation to boost your self-awareness. 

3. Make Time to Reflect

 

Reflecting can be done in multiple ways (including journaling; see the next tip) and is customizable to the person reflecting, but the important thing is to go over your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours to see where you met your standards, where you failed them, and where you could improve.

 

You can also reflect on your standards themselves to see if they are good ones for you to hold yourself to. You can try writing in a journal, talking out loud, or simply sitting quietly and thinking, whatever helps you to reflect on yourself.

 

4. Journaling

The benefit of journaling is that it allows you to identify, clarify, and accept your thoughts and feelings. It helps you discover what you want, what you value, and what works for you. It can also help you find out what you don’t want, what is not important to you, and what doesn’t work for you.

 

Both are equally important to learn. Whether you like to write free-flowing entries, bulleted lists, or poems, writing down your thoughts and feelings helps you to become more aware and intentional.

 

 

5. Ask the people you love

 

It’s vital to feel we know ourselves from the inside, but external feedback helps too. Ask your family and close friends about what they think about you. Have them describe you and see what rings true with you and what surprises you.

 

Carefully consider what they say and think about it when you journal or otherwise reflect. Of course, don’t take any one person’s word as gospel; you need to talk to a variety of people to get a comprehensive view of yourself.

And remember that at the end of the day, it’s your self-beliefs and feelings that matter the most to you!

 

Four Tips for Improving Self-Awareness in Relationships

 

If you want to be more like post-reflection Monique than pre-reflection Monique (referring to examples of self-awareness skills in action above), or if you’re going to help your clients with their relationship woes, here are some excellent tips for introducing more self-awareness within the context of a relationship:

 

1. Practice mindfulness, especially when interacting with your loved ones. Pay attention to the words they say, their tone, their body language, and their facial expressions. We often communicate far more information with the latter three than we do with our words alone. Give your loved ones your full attention.

 

2. Have regular discussions about the relationship. It’s important to keep things in perspective and ensure that nothing is falling between the cracks. When you have regular conversations about your relationship with your loved ones, it’s much harder to avoid or ignore things that can turn into problems. It also helps you reflect on your part and come prepared to discuss your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, along with your loved ones.

 

3. Spend quality time together and apart. This is especially important for romantic relationships, as we often find ourselves spending most or even all of our free time with our spouse or partner. However, much you love and enjoy spending time with your partner, everyone needs some quality time alone.

Make sure you and your partner are both getting some quality “me” time to think about what you want, what you need, and what your goals are. This will help you keep yourself from merging too much into your partner and maintaining your independence and stability. Then, since there will be two independent, stable, and healthy adults in the relationship, it will be even more fulfilling and satisfying to both partners when they spend quality time together.

 

4. Share your perspective and consider theirs. It’s easy to get too caught up in our perspective on things; however, healthy relationships require that we consider others’ needs in addition to our own. To know what our loved ones need and to deliver on those needs, we must first identify and understand them. We do this by practising our self-awareness and sharing that awareness with our friends and family.

 

If you never check in with your loved ones on their views or feelings, it can cause you to drift apart and inhibit real, satisfying intimacy. Ask your loved ones for their perspective on things and share your perspective with them.

 

Self-Awareness in Students and Children 

Self-awareness isn’t just for managers and employees; it can also substantially benefit students, children, and adolescents. The same benefits that make us more productive in the workplace can make students more productive in the classroom and at home: better communication with teachers and peers, more confidence, and more satisfaction with performance can all lead to happier, healthier students.

 

 

1.2 MISCONCEPTIONS AND BIAS OF PE-MUSIC & DANCE

 

A misconception is an idea that is wrong or untrue, but which people believe because they do not understand the subject properly. It is about having wrong or negative idea, notion or perception about something of someone due to misinformation or ignorance.

 

Bias on the other hand, is inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group or something, especially in a way considered to be unfair. Here, it is not due to ignorance or misinformation but one’s personal or selfish interest or emotions.

 

 

NB: Discuss the difference between misconception and bias with the class.

 

Misconception and Bias in Physical Education

 

• PE is not important as other subjects like English Language, Mathematics and so on. The reason for this argument is that PE is not examinable at the basic and second-cycle levels. But it is examined at colleges and some universities.

 

• PE is for the low-minded people that is PE educators are not scholars, which is false as we have professors, PhDs who lecture at the universities and colleges of education.

 

• PE is just played and so does not need supervision or instruction. It is rather unfortunate most basic schools use PE as a free period for other activities like play and since children like playing, therefore, it does not need supervision. This is a fallacy because play is not the same as PE.

 

• Some ladies also have the notion that when you take part in sports and PE you will become masculine. This argument is false because there are women who do not do sports yet they are rigid and masculine. This is a genetic factor

 

• People especially women have that when you participate in PE and sports you will not give birth. Since women cherish marriage and childbearing, it has prevented most young ladies from playing sports. This is not true because PE has no effect on fertility, research has shown that women who do regular exercise have an easy delivery and free flow of menses.

 

 

Misconceptions and Bias in Music and Dance

 

From teachers to students to even studio owners and managers, if you are in the music world, you have been exposed to misconceptions about learning music. We have come a long way in today’s information-based society, but despite a large number of music schools out there, many misconceptions about learning music are still going strong.

A love for music often begins at a young age and can continue throughout your entire life.

Though your tastes may change, music plays an integral role in most people’s lives. Below are some misconceptions about music and dance.

 

1. Natural talent is required

 

Many people believe that without natural talent, music lessons are a waste of time. This is one of those misconceptions about learning music based on almost no fact whatsoever.

According to Malcom Gladwell, “Practice is not the thing you do once you are good. It is the thing you do that makes you good. The fact is that time trumps talent every time while natural talent might offer a head start, it does not guarantee success. Hard -work, dedication and hours and hours of practice is the true formula for a great musician. Even someone who starts off with a certain amount of talent can’t get by just on that. It’s not enough. So, no matter what level you are at when you start, practice makes perfect

 

2. There is an age limit

 

One of the most common misconceptions about learning music and dance is that you have to start early in life. Expressions like “you can’t teach an old dog new trick” certainly help to perpetuate that notion. The truth is, it’s never too late. It’s a myth that adult cannot learn music. In fact, adult music classes have been known to enhance memory, spatial reasoning and language skills. Music can also help adult cognitive function.

 

3. Music and Dance are for less talented in Academics

 

Music is a field of practice which touches on all learning domains, including the psychomotor (the development of skills), the cognitive (the acquisition of knowledge), and, in particular, and the effective domain (the learner’s willingness to receive, internalize, and share what is learned), including music appreciation and sensitivity. Music incorporates the usage of mathematical skills as well fluid usage and understanding of a second language or culture. Studying music enhances academic achievement.

 

4. It’s too early to learn

 

A conflicting misconception about learning music is that you can start too early. Many music schools insist that children under five years of age lack the sub-conscious understanding that learning music requires. While this belief may be applied to formal lessons, banging pots and pans, clapping your hands and singing in the car are all fine examples of how toddlers start to informally recognize and make their own music at a very early age. Thinking that a music appreciation begins at a certain age is one of those misconceptions. Starting music lessons early in life (formally or informally) could just be the start of a lifelong love of music

 

Physical education, Music and dance are not as important as numeracy and literacy content: The content and the pedagogical experience will review that physical education, sport and music are unique and worthy and cannot be compared to numeracy and literacy content. It will further reveal that numeracy and literacy content can be reinforced in physical education, music and dance setting.

Physical education, sport and music content can give the three main domains, (cognitive, psychomotor, and affective) and can be used to express one’s interest, emotion and feeling than any other discipline.

 

Physical education, sport and music are for less talented in academics: Student teachers will know and apply music, dance and sport knowledge which sharpens cognition and reinforces important scientific and mathematical concepts. For example, addition, multiplication, use of force, etc.

 

1.3 TRANSITION TO ITE AND PEMD ENVIRONMENT

 

1.4 BARRIERS TO IMPLEMENTATION OF PEMD IN ITE INSTITUTIONS AND BASIC SCHOOLS

 

 

 UNIT 2

 

Inter-connections or relationships between PEMD and other disciplines

 

 

 

Inter-disciplinary connections 1: Creative Arts

 

Notes on Kojo Antwi Concert Recorded at the Theatre in Ghana

 

Highlife is a music genre that originated in present-day Ghana early in the 20th century during its history as a colony of the British colony. Kojo Antwi is one of the artists who perform highlife music. His music is essentially vocal. There always has to be a vocal interlude even when played with varied instruments. The theme of the song is love. He used the melodic and main rhythmic structures of traditional Akan music but is played with the Western instrument. The instrumentation of this song is made up of a combination of Western and Afro- Cuban instruments. The Western instruments comprised both melodic and harmonic instruments such as the guitars, brass, keyboard and the drum-kit. The Afro-Cuban instrument in this song is the conga drum. The keyboard serves as the main accompaniment for the vocal solo.

 

The melodic line of this song can be examined from diverse angles, however since the song is built around the vocals, we consider the vocal solo as the main melodic line. The text of the song is in the Asante language of the people of Ashanti of Ghana. The song employs strophic verse and chorus song form which is a conventional popular music song structure. It is ‘call and response’ (solo and chorus alternation) in nature.

  

The cultural importance of his song is the fact that it is “inter” tribal or ethnic and standardized. It serves as a type of popular music, which may be heard on the lips of the cross-section of the people (the bread seller, the workman, students as well as the professional musician) - a piece of popular music that may be sung by virtually anyone.

The stage lighting is there to help you see the performers and set on stage. When the audience can see the performers clearly, they can fully understand and take in all of the words, actions, and moods that the performers are portraying – down to facial expressions. Almost every time the music swells, the lighting brings in some colour and matches the mood.

 

Creative Arts:

 

The arts refer to the human application and expression of creativity through skills and imagination to produce objects, environment and experience. It is the use of imagination or ideas, especially in the production of artistic work. Creative arts activities include Dance, Drama, Music, Visual arts, Media arts

 

Dance: Dance is a means of expression or communication in which one moves rhythmically, usually to music, using prescribed or improvised steps and gestures. In dance, you leap or skip about excitedly, or move slowly and deliberately.

  

McGreevy-Nichols and Sche & Sprague (1995) state “dance is a movement created and executed to satisfy a need. It can be stylized, done to music or not, tell a story or not, create images, use space, define moods, create and channel energy”.

 

Loeffler (2007) expands this description “Creative movement and dance is an enjoyable way for young children to develop their physical skills, channel their energy, stimulate their imagination and promote their creativity. Creative dance involves using body actions to communicate an image (the wind), an idea (a journey) or a feeling (strength)”

  

Dance provides children with the means to express and communicate what they really feel and know about themselves and the world…. Socially, children enjoy interacting with others

 

through movement. They laugh and talk with each other while sharing an experience that is fun and personally rewarding.

 

Dancing is rhythmic movement that speaks – of joy and sorrow, of love and hate, of hope and fear. It can describe the world inside me and the world around me. It can be as gentle as the rocking of a cradle or as violent as an explosion. A dance is like a poem – and movements are its words. A dance is like a song – and movements are its melody.

 

Dance recognize the contributions of the many cultures that make up our society and increases our understanding of how dance represents traditions, beliefs and values of a culture.

 

 

Drama: The art, or practice, of writing or producing dramatic works. It involves exploring life situations, developing trust, defining relationships and creating and performing discoveries.

 

Aspects of drama are based on play.

Drama is a way of exploring and understanding the world. In common with language arts, it teaches communication skills and the use of language and imagination. Like physical education, it involves physical development and coordination, and it shares with art an interest in creativity and self-expression.

 

Drama enables both individuals and groups, to explore, shape and symbolically represent ideas and feelings and their consequences. Drama is the exploration of ideas and feelings through improvisation and acting.

 

 

Music: The art of arranging sounds in time, to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.

 

Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm. It can be performed using a variety of instruments and styles and is divided into genres such as folk, jazz, hip hop, hiplife, highlife, etc. As an art form, music can occur in live or recorded formats and can be planned or improvised. As music is a protean art, it easily coordinates with words for songs as physical movements do in dance. Moreover, it has the capability of shaping human behaviours as it impacts our emotions. Music is important not only for its intrinsic value but also to assist children in developing skills and learning in other areas of the curriculum. Music, as with the other arts (drumming, dancing, media arts, singing) will support students in developing problem-solving techniques and in becoming independent thinkers and learners.

 

Visual Art: Artworks, such as painting, construction, textile, photography, or sculpture, that appeals primarily to the visual sense and typically exists in permanent form.

 

Media Arts: the study of human communication through film, photography, video, audio, digital arts, and interactive media.

 

Creative Arts Integration

Creative Arts integration is an approach to teaching in which students construct and demonstrate understanding through an art form in all subject areas. Arts integration promotes student's engagement in a creative process in subjects outside the arts. This integration connects an art form and another subject area and meets evolving objectives in both.

 

As the Arts are a form of communication, they can be effective in the enhancement of a child’s well-being. The Arts have links to other curriculum areas and most importantly they have links to our cultural heritage.

 

Learning in the Arts can not only impact how young people learn to think, but also how they feel and behave. This is supported by Paynter and Paynter (1974) when they maintain The arts arise from Man’s need to understand himself and his environment.

Their principal function is to yield insight. They help us ‘understand’ things that cannot be comprehended by any other means…the arts are about feelings and Man’s emotional response to the intangible information he receives through his senses.

 

The questions can, therefore, be asked - Will the Performing Arts help students to think more deeply, to understand those who are learning with them to become successful and lifelong learners?

 

Are the Performing Arts the way that teachers can implement a ‘new’ curriculum that gives students the skills to solve problems? Jensen (1998) would say ‘yes’ to both of these questions, as he believes that:

 

Our brain may be designed for music and arts, and music and arts education have positive, measurable and lasting academic and social benefits. In fact, considerable evidence suggests a broad-based music and arts education should be required for every student. The brain seems to work musically- learning with the aid of music becomes almost effortless. It is no coincidence that so many of us learned the alphabet through the Alphabet Song. According to Jensen (2001), the

 

“arts are not only fundamental to success in our demanding, highly technical, fast-moving world, but they are what makes us most human, most complete as people. Arts contribute to our growth as human beings”.

 

The arts have been part of us from the very beginning. The arts have described, defined and deepened human experience (and) society and people without the arts are unimaginable, as breathing would be without air. Such a society and people could not long survive.

 

The arts offer students opportunities to develop fine and gross motor skills as they explore and express life experiences through Drama, Music and Dance.

 

They are given occasions to work on their own as they create an Arts work, or to work with a team of others as they devise and present Music, Dance and Drama creations.

 

The arts inform as well as stimulate, they challenge as well as satisfy. Their location is not limited to galleries, concert halls and theatres. Their home can be found wherever humans chose to have attentive and vita intercourse with life itself.

  

The Arts encompass those artistic pursuits that express and communicate what it is to be human through dance, drama, media, music and visual arts.

 

Through these five distinct and separate disciplines, we develop, share and pass on understandings of ourselves, our histories, our cultures and our worlds to future generations. The Arts, separately and collectively, can balance and enrich students’ experience by fostering unique and significant knowledge, skills, processes and attitudes that are transferable to other areas of learning.

In the areas of the performing arts of dance, drama and music, the outcome is action, sound or movement performed by the body over a period of time. The performing arts must be observed and experienced in time and performance must be seen to embrace the processes involved in their creating and making

 

The arts are an essential method of communication and learning and are strongly linked to language. Children’s communication and self-expression take many forms including sharing stories and symbols from their own culture, re-enacting well-known stories and using creative arts, such as drawing, painting and sculpture, drama, dance, movement and music to communicate with others.

 

In every society, the arts play a pivotal role, socially, economically and culturally. The Arts encourage the development of skills and the exploration of technologies, forms and processes through single and multimodal forms. They fuel the exploration of ideas that cross the gamut of human emotions and moods through holistic learning using cognitive, emotional, sensory, aesthetic, kinesthetic and physical fields.

 

Young children's first attempts to communicate ideas and feelings are through one or more of the arts forms. A simple gesture is captured in dance, a mood is expressed through music, an idea is painted on paper and a response is mimed”

 

In all cultures the arts provide important ways of expressing and representing ideas, emotions, values and spiritual beliefs and as such are grouped as a key area of learning and human activity. The arts are experienced through the direct use of the senses and engage both feelings and the mind. The Arts are concerned with understanding and expressing the qualities of human experience. Through music, dance, visual arts, drama and the rest, we try to give form to the feelings and perceptions that move us most as human beings; our experiences of love, grief, belonging, and isolation, and all of the currents of feeling that constitute our experience of ourselves and others.

 

Performers often adapt their appearances such as with costumes and stage makeup, such as lighting and sound.

 

Songs serve to unify groups of people and to move them to common action or help them express common emotions. In times of national crisis, certain songs seem especially appropriate. They express widely shared values or experiences and emotions that help define a group’s identity and solidarity.

 

Songs, singers and genres also help people construct self-images and provide models for how to behave in the community. Song lyrics also express judgments- an even conflict- about lifestyles, values, and appearances. Songs can express attitudes and values by how it sounds.

Various popular forms like hip pop, hip-life rock ‘n roll sounded defiant like an assault on the ears, as the values of older generations.

 

Historians sometimes consider songs as more or less straightforward “reflections” of the society and culture in which they were produced. These songs are then used to illustrate what historians already think they know about that society and culture.

 

Many historians have used song lyrics to help understand the culture and consciousness of the people who sang and listened to them. Especially when considering people who left few written accounts of their lives, song lyrics can give important clues about what people thought and felt their daily struggles and their dreams about the future.

 

The arts develop the artistic and aesthetic dimensions of human experience. They contribute to our intellectual ability and our social, cultural, and spiritual understandings. They are an essential element of daily living and lifelong learning.

 

The Creative Arts through songs and videos offer ways of developing skills needed to be productive members of society, assisting in the understanding of others, teamwork and problem solving. Through the use of the arts, a range of skills are enhanced, such as the development of voice, the ability to collaborate with others toward a shared goal, and critical thinking skills as choices are weighed, eliminated, selected, and developed.

 

 

The Role of Physical Education/Activities

 

The role of Physical Education/Activities in our creative art industry cannot be underrated. Most of the activities involve movement which is the basis of Physical Education. Through physical education/activities, the learner is taken through fundamental movement skills where basic movements are learned to perform in these arts.

 

The body needs to function well to be creative and artistic in our performance. Here, through the teaching and participation of physical fitness programmes/components, the individual develops; flexibility, muscular strength/endurance, cardio-respiratory endurance (stamina), and good body composition, which are very vital when it comes to creative art.

 

Sections of the four major content areas described in the Visual and Performing Arts Framework (1996) as used by O’Malley (2001) have been identified as important in a residential outdoor education programme that could be linked to Physical Education. These include components in dance, drama/theatre, music, and visual arts. Students at an outdoor school often participate in skits, morale songs, and nature crafts. These activities involve vigorous movement of the body from one end to the other.

 

Visual and Performing Arts Components Examples of Outdoor Education and Physical Education Activities

 

Goals of Visual and Performing Arts Artistic Perception: Participate in arts and crafts activities; skits, storytelling, and

 

To develop a capacity to enjoy artistic expression in diverse forms and to feel comfortable participating in all of the arts.

 

Creative Expression:

 

To develop respect for originality in one's own creative expression and sensitivity and responsiveness to the expression of others.

 

Aesthetic Valuing:

To develop the capacity to experience aesthetic qualities in the environment. songs during campfire.

-Create art projects out of natural objects found in nature.

-Cooperate with cabin members to produce a campfire skit. Sing songs; make up verses. Politely listen to and watch performances by other groups. Enjoy the natural environment at the outdoor school.

 

Music

 

-To develop listening skills.

-To develop musical responsiveness, involvement, and discrimination.

-To develop performance skills, which include singing.

-To understand that music is a part of living and is related to historical and social movement; people use music to communicate and to express feelings, to lighten labours, to tell about their world, and to satisfy emotional needs. Listen carefully to learn songs. Take part in all aspects of singing.

-Learn various parts of songs.

-Sing rounds.

-Use hand signals and other body languages to strengthen concepts and "visualize" what is being sung.

-Make and play "primitive" musical instruments.

-Sing many songs during campfire programs. Lead and/or perform songs in front of a group. Sing a wide variety of songs. Learn the origins and meanings of some songs and discuss why people like to sing.

 

             Visual Arts

 

By focusing on process and product, assist students in developing the capacity to understand their own and others' creative expressions. Participate in various arts and crafts using items and/or inspirations from nature.

For example:

-Create a miniature replica of a forest.

 -Sculpture items out of wood, clay, or rock.

 -Build a texture board.

 -Weave from natural objects.

 -Design a nature mosaic or collage.

 -Sketch, draw, paint, or colour a natural scene.

 

Dance

Assist students in expanding their capacity to expresses themselves and be able to learn nonverbally. Participate in movement activities designed to reinforce a concept or term. 

Relationship between PEMD and Mathematics and Science Relationship between PEMD and Rites of Passage

 

A Rite of passage is a ceremony or ritual of the passage which occurs when an individual leaves one group to enter another.

 

It is those structures, rituals, and ceremonies by which age-class members or individuals in a group successfully come to know who they are and what they are about-the purpose and meaning for their existence, as they proceed from one clearly defined state of existence to the next state or passage in their lives (Mensah, 1990).

 

Traditionally, African rites of passage have been rites which accompany every change of place, state, social position, and age (van Gennep, 1960). Such rites, also called transitional rites, indicate and constitute transitions between states where transition is regarded as a process, a becoming, and even a transformation (Turner, 1987).

 

The rites of passage are rituals and ceremonies that punctuate the phases of life of man on earth, such as, birth, childhood, passage from puberty into adulthood, marriage, old age, death and passage into the next world (Onuh, 1992). According to these traditional African life-span models, healthy human development requires one to progress through five critical stages of: (1) Birth, (2) Puberty years, (3) Marriage (adulthood), (4) Elder ship (old-age), and (5) Death. Collectively these various stages can be called the African spiritual/life cycle (Mensah, 1990; Onuh, 1992; Kenyatta, 1938; Turner, 1987; van Gennep, 1960). During each period of this life cycle, mental, physical and spiritual well-being and successful development depend on resolving crises and mastering tasks related to the prominent role strains. Passage of rite and other religious events have in the past been the primary socially approved means of participating in pleasurable activities and religious has been a primary vehicle for music, song, dance and other forms of aesthetic experience.

Dance has a functional role and it included in every activity between birth and death. There are dances for secret societies, weddings, funerals, naming ceremonies, harvest, wars, passing from childhood to adulthood, welcoming of visitors and the coronation of a new chief. For each of life’s activities there is a ceremony of rite of passage, whose purpose is to assist the individual in passing from one position to another

 

Indigenous music comprising of singing, clapping, drumming and dance are ritualized events occurring at funerals, ceremonies, festivals, weddings and other public and private gatherings. At festivals and celebrations, the music and dance will be a social ritual that tells a story or reenacts an event of historical significance to the tribe. Among most traditional societies, death is an occasion not only to mourn loss but also to reflect on and celebrate the life of the deceased. A burial and funeral often last for several days, and are accompanied by songs and dances that move with the event from mourning to celebration

 

Relationship between PEMD and Geography

 

In Ghana, music and dance are part of everyday life and will be heard and seen everywhere.

Each ethnic group has their own traditional dances, with specific dances for different occasions.

Some of these specific dances are meant for funerals, celebrations, storytelling, praise and worship. There are various dances in Ghana performed by the sixteen regions across the country, most frequently during festivals and occasions such as funerals, marriage ceremonies, etc. These dances are performed to entertain and educate people.

Music and poetry reflect the culture and folklore of a society. This is seen in our national rhythm, compatriotic song, traditional songs, which emerge from classical literature, epics and heroic poems. Songs and music mirror history, values, norms and the mentality of a society. When folklore and cultural ceremonies are celebrated with songs and music, it is to demonstrate the tradition and customs of a society. Music is a significant part of our changeless culture. Music is the reflection of heroism, valour, history and culture of a society.

For example, using children’s music to teach regions in Ghana and what reflect the culture of the regions. With these, it will offer opportunities for the children to gain experience with basic polyrhythmic ensembles. Singing, chanting, dancing and playing instruments are all included.

 

Other areas in geography that songs can be used to teach are map reading skills, directions, continents, oceans, states and capitals

 

Relationship between PEMD, History and Festival

 

Inseparable from traditional music and dance, ceremonies that accompanies are used to greet gods and spirits, to re-enact or tell a story or legend, or simply as a social recreation. These ceremonial dances may occur at funerals, celebrations, important historical dates and festivals. Music is an essential way of life. The numerous traditional ceremonies include music for dance and entertainment, along with dynamic percussive invocations and historical songs.

At festivals and celebrations, the music and dance will be a social ritual that tells a story or re-nacts an event of historical significance to the tribe.

Agbadza is a dance mainly performed by the Ewes of the Anlo- Tongu people of the southern part of Volta Region. History has it that, the people of Anloga migrated from “Notsie” and settled at the southern part of the Volta Region around the Keta lagoon. They were ruled by a king called Agokoli who maltreated, punished and killed the people for no reason. Because of this, the people thought it wise to escape from the cruel king. They consulted a wise old man called Togbui Charlie who advised them to let the women pour their household water on the lower part of the wall surrounding the village which served as a border and prevented the people from escaping. This was done to weaken the foundation of the wall, to help them escape.

After their plan of weakening the wall was executed, strong men in the village pushed down the wall for an exit when the chief and his elders had gone to sleep.

During their exodus, they walked backwards and forward whiles flapping their arms with their front facing the village. This movement was made so that in case they were being traced, there would not be any idea about the routes they took 

The escapees then settled in Southern part of the Volta Region, and there, they were advised by the older people to teach and tell the younger ones the pains and sufferings they went through at Notsie, and also teach them the method with which theyused to depart from the village. It was through this that the Agbadza dance was brought into existence. Agbadza is danced with a vigorous body movement which involves strong chest contractions and releases amidst flapping of arms. The songs of Agbadza still show the Ewe ancestry. During the performance of the dance, performers sing praises to honour their past heroes who helped them to escape from Notsie, and the wicked king Agokoli.

 

The other examples are:

1. The atsiagbeko dance which depicts the war between the anglos and their opponents when migrating to their existing place. 

2. The piece or style played in the fontomfrom ensemble talks about the war between the British and the Ashantis.

3. The history behind the gome ensemble for the people of Ga in the Greater Accra region of Ghana etc.

Music develops continuously over space and through time, stimulating, absorbing influences and constantly changing. As with other cultural artefacts, music – genres, instruments, performing styles – spreads from various points of origin and is adopted and adapted by other cultures. The music of any given provenance metamorphoses, a process augmented and amplified in the contemporary world as sounds of different provenance meld. There is nothing particularly unusual about this: adaptation is part and parcel of the diffusion of cultures and the globalisation of music has never been a one-way process but multi-channelled.

 

 UNIT 3

 

Assess the level of physical fitness to improve health and performance.

SEARCH...... 

 

4.1 Human body parts

 

4.2 Physical fitness

 

 

NB: Practical activity: Demonstrate physical fitness skills including sit-ups, push-ups, and sit and reach.

 

 

UNIT 4

 

Traditional aerobic musical genres I & physical fitness concepts, principles and strategies

 

 

 

Video Documentary Analysis:

 

• watch and listen attentively to portions of video clips on these three vigorous-intensity indigenous aerobic dances (viz., Bɔbɔɔbɔr, Kpanlogo and Agbadza) and analyse the movement patterns involved.

 

https://youtu.be/wkaL7xpVR8c (Bɔbɔɔbɔ)

 

https://youtu.be/1zb69xgp5Ho (Kpanlogo)

 

https://youtu.be/QwiU1y-U0rg(Agbadza)

 

 

• Briefly describe key components of the indigenous genre including their ethnicity, social organisation, repertoires other material culture of the genre. Refer to Paschal Younge’s textbook Music and dance traditions of Ghana: History, performance and teaching. (2011). Pp. 46, 160 & 367.

 

 

NB: SEARCH FOR:

WARM-UP AND COOL DOWN (WARM DOWN)

• Importance of Warm-Up

 

• Importance of Cool Down

 

THE NEED TO DRINK WATER DURING AND AFTER PHYSICAL ACTIVITY

 

• Importance of drinking water

 

 

 UNIT 5

 Traditional aerobic Musical Genres ii & Motor skills and movement patterns Video Documentary Analysis

 

• Watch and listen attentively to portions of video clips on these three moderate-intensity indigenous aerobic dances (viz., Adowa, Kundum and Apatampa) and analyse the movement patterns involved.

 

https://youtu.be/zIrrwPTxb60 (Adowa)

 

https://youtu.be/OL1iuXAMfBg (Apataampa)

 

https://youtu.be/aSsmOSZKvm8 (Kundum)

 

  

• Briefly describe key components of the indigenous genre including their ethnicity, social organisation, repertoires other material culture of the genre. Refer to Paschal Younge’s textbook Music and dance traditions of Ghana: History, performance and teaching. (2011). Pp. Pp. 167‒180.

 

 

 UNIT 6

Traditional aerobic Musical Genres iii & Maintaining a level of physical fitness for health and performance

 

Video Documentary Analysis:

 

Watch and listen attentively to portions of video clips on these four moderate-to-vigorous intensity indigenous aerobic dances (viz., Bawa, Bamaya, Nagla and Takai) and analyse the movement patterns involved.

 

https://youtu.be/wkaL7xpVR8c (Bawa)

 

https://youtu.be/1zb69xgp5Ho (Bamaya)

 

https://youtu.be/QwiU1y-U0rg (Nagla)

https://youtu.be/QwiU1y-U0rg(Takai)

 

 

• Briefly describe key components of the indigenous genre including their ethnicity, social organisation, repertoires other material culture of the genre. Refer to Paschal Younge’s textbook Music and dance traditions of Ghana: History, performance and teaching. (2011). Pp. 206‒238.

 

 

UNIT 7

 

Introduction to the requirements and recommendations for physical activity

 

 

PHYSICAL FITNESS

 

Getchell defined Physical Fitness as “the capacity to carry out everyday activities whether work or play without excessive fatigue or with enough energy in reserve for emergencies”. He also defined Fitness as “the capacity of heart, blood vessels, lungs, muscles etc. to function effectively. He believed that to be fit one requires vigorous effort by the total body.”

 

Another man by name, Harrison Clarke defines Fitness as “the ability to carry out task with vigour and alertness without undue fatigue and with ample energy to engage in leisure-time pursuit.” Physical Fitness includes Health and Skill components.

 

HEALTH-RELATED FITNESS COMPONENT

 

This comprised of those fitness components closely associated with functional health. Satisfactory levels of fitness of these components have been identified as contributing measurably to a healthy lifestyle and to the prevention of health problems. The health-related fitness components are:

 

1 Muscular strength: it refers to maximum tension that muscles can develop in a single contraction, e.g. lifting a bucketful of water from the ground to the chest level. It is also the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to exert force in a single effort against resistance.

 

2 Muscular endurance: it is the quality that enables one to persist in a localized group of activities for a time period e.g. engagement in a task that involves repeated contraction against maximum resistance. That is occurring in 45 - 90 seconds. E.g. pull-ups, press-ups, sit-ups, etc. It could also be explained as the ability of the muscles or muscle group to repeatedly exert force against resistance for an extended period of time.

 

3 Cardiorespiratory endurance: often referred to as cardiovascular endurance is the entire body’s ability to exercises vigorously for an extended period of time without undue fatigue. This vigorous exercise must be supported by the heart (cardiac) and the lungs

 

4 Flexibility: It is the range of movement that is available at a joint. It is also the ability of the various joints of the body to move through their full range of motion.

 

5 Body composition: it is defined as the relative percentage of fat and fat-free (muscles) of the body mass. It is an important core related to cardiovascular function as far as health-related fitness is concerned. Excessive amounts of fat take the form of excess baggage when it becomes necessary to move the body from one place to another. Therefore, for any given amount of work, the energy expenditure is increased as in the obese. The greater demand for energy causes the circulation system to work harder. Also an obese person always usually consumes a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

 

 

CAUSES OF OBESITY

 

1 A high standard of living.

 

2 Increase mechanism.

 

3 More leisure time.

 

4 Low physical activity.

 

5 Insufficient knowledge about weight control.

 

6 Lack of motivation with regards to weight control

 

 

 

SKILL OR PERFORMANCE-RELATED FITNESS COMPONENTS.

 

Skill-related fitness is concerned with those physical qualities that enable the individual to perform movement and sports skills effectively. The six skill-related fitness components are as follows:

 

1. Agility: it is the ability to rapidly change direction or body movement while moving.

 

2. Balance: is the ability to maintain the body’s equilibrium while in various positions while moving and in stationary positions.

 

3. Co-ordination: it is the ability to integrate sensory and motor systems (that is eye-hand co-ordination or eye-foot coordination) to produce efficient movement.

 

4. Speed: it is the rate of movement and often refers to the ability to move rapidly.

 

5. Power: often referred to as explosive strength, is the ability to effectively integrate strength and speed to produce maximum muscular force at maximum speed.

 

6. Reaction time: is the time required to produce appropriate and accurate mechanical responses to some external stimuli.

 

8.1 Increasing periods of time for physical activity

 

8.2 Active play

 

Warm-up and cool down

. Warm-Up

 

It's important to warm up before your workout. Doing so can help prevent injuries and improve your athletic performance. It can also improve your flexibility and help reduce soreness after your workout. Simply start your workout with some aerobic exercises like arm swings, leg kicks and walking lunges.

 

Alternatively, you can warm up by doing easy movements of the exercise you are planning to do. For example, walk before you run.

 

Cool Down

Cooling down is also important because it helps your body return to its normal state.

Taking a couple of minutes to cool down can help restore normal blood circulation and breathing patterns and even reduce the chance of muscle soreness. Some cool-down ideas include light walking after aerobic exercise or stretching after resistance training.

 

 Listen to Your Body

If you're not used to working out every day, be mindful of your limits. If you feel pain or discomfort while exercising, stop and rest before continuing. Pushing through the pain is not a good idea, as it can cause injuries. Also, remember that working out harder and faster is not necessarily better. Taking your time to progress through your fitness program can help you maintain your routine in the long term and make the most of it.

 

Principles of Training

 

To get the most out of your training, you must follow some basic simple training principles which are overload, specificity, reversibility, and variance. Overload means we must put our bodies under more stress than normal for adaptive changes to be made. Specificity relates to ensuring the training done is specific to the sport or activity. Reversibility means if you don't keep it up you will lose it and variance relates to varying the training activities.

By using the principles of training as a framework we can plan a personal training programme that uses scientific principles to improve performance, skill, game ability and physical fitness.

A successful training programme will meet individual needs which are personal fitness needs based on age, gender, fitness level and the sport for which we are training. A successful training programme will also include exercise in the correct heart-rate target zone.

 

The key principles when planning a programme are:

 

• Specificity – training must be matched to the needs of the sporting activity to improve fitness in the body parts the sport uses.

 

• Overload - fitness can only be improved by training more than you normally do. You must work hard. We have to put our bodies under additional stress. Doing this will cause long-term adaptations, enabling our bodies to work more efficiently to cope with this higher level of performance.

• Progression – start slowly and gradually increase the amount of exercise and keep overloading.

 

• Reversibility – any adaptation that takes place as a result of training will be reversed when you stop training. If you take a break or don’t train often enough you will lose fitness.

 

• Variance – try to vary your training, to keep you interested and to give your body a different challenge. Remember a change is as good as a rest. Many professional athletes will play a completely different sport in-between their main season, to keep their fitness up whilst still having a rest.

 

In planning a programme, use the FITT principles to add the detail:

• Frequency - decide how often to train.

 

• Intensity - choose how hard to train.

 

• Time - decide for how long to train.

 

• Type - decide which methods of training to use.

 

You should also consider the principle of moderation. It is important to have rest periods that allow the body to adapt. Too much training (overtraining) can lead to injury.

 

Response and Adaptation to Training and Exercise

 

When getting back to the grind after a good break from a long season, or when at the beginning of a new training or exercise routine, the body usually feels sore. This soreness is called delayed onset muscle soreness, DOMS. However, as you continue to exercise, the body will respond and begin to adapt to the different stimuli, allowing you to increase the intensity and be more efficient.

 

As your body is introduced to a new stimulus or reintroduced to a stimulus, damage occurs to muscle fibres. These small tears may be what causes the decrease in muscle function, tenderness and swelling in certain areas felt 8 to 72 hours after exercise. As the muscle fibres begin to repair themselves, you will be able to handle the workload much better. Your body will respond and begin to adapt to the training or activity.

 

The ability of the body to respond to a new stimulus and adapt to these demands is what allows us to exercise and improve fitness. There are two kinds of responses to physical exercise or training:

 

I. Acute response is an immediate response to exercise, lasting for the duration of the exercise or training session. This could include changes in the cardiovascular, respiratory and muscular systems depending on the intensity and duration.

 

AI. Chronic adaptation refers to long term changes, over 6 or more weeks, that occur during exercise and can include improved cardiovascular adaptation, respiratory adaptation, muscle tissue adaptation to aerobic training, cardiac hypertrophy, muscular hypertrophy and increased muscle stores.

 

Some people quit the activity due to the pain and soreness that occurs hours after exercising. The feeling of soreness is only temporary and, after a few days of recovery before going back to the activity, the muscles will be more resilient, and less damage will occur. As you continue to exercise, the muscles will adapt to the stress; this is known as the repeated bout effect. Essentially for the soreness to go away and for you to get any long-term benefits from your exercise, the exercise has to be repeated over and over again. When getting back to the grind after a good break from a long season, or when at the beginning of a new training or exercise routine, the body usually feels sore. For seasoned veterans, early season training feels very challenging; let’s face it, getting back into shape can feel like a daunting task.

 

Calculating target zones and thresholds of training

 

To train effectively you must know:

 

• your current level of fitness

 

• the amount of aerobic training you need for your sport

 

• the amount of anaerobic training you need for your sport

 

For example, sprinters use mainly anaerobic training and marathon runners use mainly aerobic training.

You can use your maximum heart rate (MHR) to calculate how hard you should work your heart to develop either aerobic or anaerobic fitness.

 

To calculate MHR:

 

• 220 - age = MHR

 

Aerobic fitness is another way of describing cardiovascular fitness, or stamina. You can improve aerobic fitness by working in your aerobic target zone. This is found between 60-80% of your MHR. You cross your aerobic threshold, the heart rate above which you gain aerobic fitness, at 60% of our MHR.

You can improve your anaerobic fitness, which includes strength, power and muscular endurance, by working in your anaerobic target zone. This is found between 80-100% of your MHR. An anaerobic threshold is the heart rate above which you gain anaerobic fitness. You cross your anaerobic threshold at 80% of your MHR. Below 60% MHR you do not improve your aerobic or anaerobic fitness at all.

When working anaerobically you create an oxygen debt and can only keep going for a short time. Oxygen debt is the amount of oxygen consumed during recovery above that which would normally be consumed during rest. This results from a shortfall of available oxygen during exercise.

You can monitor your fitness levels by recording your recovery rate after exercise. The recovery rate is the time it takes for the pulse rate to return to normal after exercise.

Remember that percentages of MHR are approximate and personal levels of activity and fitness will cause differences in the thresholds.

 

Basic elements of training activities

1.Warm-up

 

• Whole body exercise to raise heart rate and body temperature.

 

• Stretching to prepare muscles, ligaments and joints.

 

• Practising skills and techniques to be used in the session.

 

2. Main activity (Workout) - this could be:

 

• fitness training - which may be linked to repeated technique work

 

• skill development - drills or team practices

 

• modified or conditioned games

 

3. Warm down (sometimes called cooldown)

 

• Light exercise to help remove carbon dioxide, lactic acid and other waste products. Gentle stretching to prevent muscle soreness and stiffness later.

 

Promotion of Physical Fitness and Wellness

 

Promoting physical fitness and wellness among groups of people is not an easy task. It requires educating the clients by engaging in the following steps:

 

1. Educate patients and clients about the health benefits of physical activity.

 

2. Make patients and clients aware of the current recommended minimum guidelines for physical activity.

 

3. Explore perceived barriers to physical activity.

 

4. Promote self-efficacy for exercise.

 

5. Encourage goal setting and monitoring outcomes.

 

6. Include strategies for helping patients and clients to prevent relapse.

 

7. Build social support. 

NB: SEARCH FOR:

Teaching and learning activity to achieve the learning outcomes Physical performance of health-related fitness components.

 

UNIT 8

NB: SEARCH...

Introduction to the requirements and recommendations for physical activity.

UNIT 9

 

Introduction to WHO recommended physical activity Components

 

WHO developed the "Global Recommendations on Physical Activity for Health" with the overall aim of providing national and regional level policymakers with guidance on the dose-response relationship between the frequency, duration, intensity, type, and the total amount of physical activity needed for the prevention of NCDs.

The recommendations set out in this document address three age groups: 5–17 years old; 18– 64 years old; and 65 years old and above. These age groups were selected taking into consideration the nature and availability of the scientific evidence relevant to the prevention of non-communicable diseases through physical activity.

 

Recommended levels of physical activity for children aged 5 - 17 years

 

For children and young people, physical activity includes play, games, sports, transportation, chores, recreation, physical education, or planned exercise, in the context of family, school, and community activities.

To improve cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, bone health, and cardiovascular and metabolic health biomarkers 

Children and youth aged 5–17 should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity daily.

Amounts of physical activity greater than 60 minutes provide additional health benefits.

Most of the daily physical activity should be aerobic. Vigorous-intensity activities should be incorporated, including those that strengthen muscle and bone*, at least 3 times per week.

*For this age group, bone-loading activities can be performed as part of playing games, running, turning or jumping.

 Physical activity for all

 

These recommendations are relevant to all healthy children aged 5–17 years unless specific medical conditions indicate the contrary. The concept of accumulation refers to meeting the goal of 60 minutes per day by performing activities in multiple shorter bouts spread throughout the day (e.g. 2 bouts of 30 minutes), then adding together the time spent during each of these bouts. Whenever possible, children and youth with disabilities should meet these recommendations. However, they should work with their health care provider to understand the types and amounts of physical activity appropriate for them considering their disability.

These recommendations are applicable for all children and youth irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or income level. A progressive increase in activity for inactive children and youth to eventually achieve the target shown above is recommended. It is appropriate to start with

smaller amounts of physical activity and gradually increase duration, frequency and intensity over time. It should also be noted that if children are currently doing no physical activity, doing amounts below the recommended levels will bring more benefits than doing none at all.

 

 

Benefits of Physical Activity for Young People

 

The appropriate practice of physical activity assists young people to:

 

• develop healthy musculoskeletal tissues (i.e. bones, muscles and joints);

 

• develop a healthy cardiovascular system (i.e. heart and lungs);

 

• develop neuromuscular awareness (i.e. coordination and movement control);

 

• maintain healthy body weight.

 

 

Physical activity has also been associated with psychological benefits in young people by improving their control over symptoms of anxiety and depression. Similarly, participation in physical activity can assist young people's social development by providing opportunities for self-expression, building self-confidence, social interaction, and integration. It has also been suggested that physically active young people more readily adopt other healthy behaviours (e.g. avoidance of tobacco, alcohol and drug use) and demonstrate higher academic performance at school.

 

 

Recommended levels of physical activity for adults aged 18 - 64 years

 

In adults aged 18–64, physical activity includes leisure-time physical activity (for example walking, dancing, gardening, hiking, swimming), transportation (e.g. walking or cycling), occupational (i.e. work), household chores, play, games, sports or planned exercise, in the context of daily, family, and community activities. To improve cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, bone health, reduce the risk of NCDs and depression:

Adults aged 18–64 should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity 

Aerobic activity should be performed in bouts of at least 10 minutes duration.

For additional health benefits, adults should increase their moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes per week, or engage in 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity.

Muscle-strengthening activities should be done involving major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week.

Physical activity for all

 

These recommendations are relevant to all healthy adults aged 18–64 years unless specific medical conditions indicate the contrary. They are applicable for all adults irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity or income level. They also apply to individuals in this age range with chronic noncommunicable conditions not related to mobility such as hypertension or diabetes.

These recommendations can be valid for adults with disabilities. However, adjustments for each individual based on their exercise capacity and specific health risks or limitations may be needed. There are multiple ways of accumulating a total of 150 minutes per week. The concept of accumulation refers to meeting the goal of 150 minutes per week by performing activities in multiple shorter bouts, of at least 10 minutes each, spread throughout the week then adding together the time spent during each of these bouts: e.g. 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity 5 times per week.

Pregnant, postpartum women and persons with cardiac events may need to take extra precautions and seek medical advice before striving to achieve the recommended levels of physical activity for this age group.

Inactive adults or adults with disease limitations will have added health benefits of moving from the category of “no activity” to “some levels” of activity. Adults who currently do not meet the recommendations for physical activity should aim to increase duration, frequency and finally intensity as a target to achieve them.

 

Benefits of physical activity for adults

Overall, strong evidence demonstrates that compared to less active adult men and women, more active individuals:

 

• have lower rates of all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon and breast cancer, and depression;

 

• are likely to have less risk of a hip or vertebral fracture;

 

• exhibit a higher level of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness; and

 

• are more likely to achieve weight maintenance, have a healthier body mass and composition.

 

 

Recommended levels of physical activity for adults aged 65 and above

 

In adults aged 65 years and above, physical activity includes leisure-time physical activity (for example walking, dancing, gardening, hiking, swimming), transportation (e.g. walking or cycling), occupational (if the individual is still engaged in work), household chores, play, games, sports or planned exercise, in the context of daily, family, and community activities.

To improve cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, bone and functional health, reduce the risk of NCDs, depression, and cognitive decline:

Older adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity. 

Aerobic activity should be performed in bouts of at least 10 minutes duration.

For additional health benefits, older adults should increase their moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes per week, or engage in 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate and vigorous-intensity activity.

Older adults, with poor mobility, should perform physical activity to enhance balance and prevent falls on 3 or more days per week.

Muscle-strengthening activities, involving major muscle groups, should be done on 2 or more days a week.

When older adults cannot do the recommended amounts of physical activity due to health conditions, they should be as physically active as their abilities and conditions allow.

 

Physical activity for all

 

These guidelines are relevant to all healthy adults aged 65 years and above. They are also relevant to individuals in this age range with chronic NCD conditions. Individuals with specific health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, may need to take extra precautions and seek medical advice before striving to achieve the recommended levels of physical activity for older adults.

There are several ways older adults can accumulate a total of 150 minutes per week. The concept of accumulation refers to meeting the goal of 150 minutes per week by performing activities in multiple shorter bouts, of at least 10 minutes each, spread throughout the week then adding together the time spent during each of these bouts: e.g. 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity 5 times per week.

These recommendations are applicable for all older adults irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity or income level.

The recommendations can be applied to older adults with disabilities however adjustments for each individual based on their exercise capacity and specific health risks or limitations may be needed.

Older adults who are inactive or who have some disease limitations will have added health benefits of moving from the category of “no activity” to “some levels” of activity. Older adults who currently do not meet the recommendations for physical activity should aim to increase duration, frequency and finally intensity as a target to achieve them.

 

Benefits of physical activity for older adults

Overall, strong evidence demonstrates that compared to less active men and women, older adults who are physically active:

 

• have lower rates of all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, colon cancer and breast cancer, a higher level of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness, healthier body mass and composition;

 

• have a biomarker profile that is more favourable for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and the enhancement of bone health; and

 

• exhibit higher levels of functional health, a lower risk of falling, and better cognitive function; have reduced risk of moderate and severe functional limitations and role limitations.

 

9.2 Frequency, intensity & duration

 

 Heart rate, blood pressure

 

The health-related component of physical fitness is used for the performance of daily activities in our lives. Therefore, we must take measurements to know our bodies well by taking the heart rate, measuring our blood pressure, checking our BMI and body composition.

 

Taking Your Heart Rate:

 

Heart rate is a measurement of how many times your heart beats in one minute. Resting heart rate is how many heartbeats you have per minute when you aren’t exercising or otherwise under stress. Resting heart rate can be an important measure of the health of your heart muscle. It’s helpful to be able to check your own heart rate for your general health, when exercising, or if you experience symptoms such as dizziness.

 

How to Measure Your Heart Rate?

First, you have to identify a pressure point. Some of the pressure points can be found at the radial, the carotid, petal and brachial arteries. For example, to measure the radial pulse, follow the following steps.

 

Method 1: Radial pulse

To check your pulse using this method, you’ll be finding the radial artery.

1. Place your pointer and middle fingers on the inside of your opposite wrist just below the thumb.

 

2. Don’t use your thumb to check your pulse, as the artery in your thumb can make it harder to count accurately.

 

3. Once you can feel your pulse, count how many beats you feel in 15 seconds.

 

4. Multiply this number by 4 to get your heart rate. For instance, 20 beats in 15 seconds equal a heart rate of 80 beats per minute (bpm).

 

However, several devices can tell you your heart rate, such as at-home blood pressure machines, digital fitness trackers, smartphone apps, exercise machines. The most accurate device for checking your heart rate is a wireless monitor that’s strapped around your chest. It reads out to a fitness tracker worn on your wrist.

 

The chart below shows the estimated maximum and target heart rates for various age groups:

Blood Pressure

 

Blood pressure is the measurement of the pressure of the blood in the artery.

Blood pressure peaks when the heart muscle contracts and pumps blood, a cycle called systole. It falls when the heart relaxes and refills with blood, a cycle called diastole. Systole is the top number and diastole is the bottom number. It is displayed as two numbers, e.g. 120/80 mmHg. 

The top number is your systolic blood pressure. (The highest pressure when your heart beats and pushes the blood around your body.) The bottom one is your diastolic blood pressure (The lowest pressure when your heart relaxes between beats).

An optimal blood pressure level is a reading under 120/80 mmHg. Readings over 120/80mmHg and up to 139/89mmHg are in the normal to high range. Blood pressure over 140/90mmHg is generally considered to be high. When your blood pressure is high your heart and arteries can become overloaded.

 

How to control high blood pressure

The good news is you can control (and even help prevent) high blood pressure by making healthy lifestyle choices. These include:

 

• Following a healthy diet; reducing salt and fat intake and eating plenty of fruit and vegetables

• Regular physical activity

• Maintaining a healthy weight

• Limiting your alcohol intake

• Stopping smoking

 

Sometimes changes in your lifestyle alone may not be enough. Many people will also need medication to help reduce their blood pressure.

 

Body Mass Index: How to Measure It and Its Limitations

 

Body mass index (BMI) is calculated using height and weight measurements and is more predictive of body fatness than weight alone. BMI measurements are used to indicate whether an individual is underweight (with a BMI less than 18.5), overweight (with a BMI over 25), or obese (with a BMI over 30). High BMI measurements can be warning signs of health hazards ahead, such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases. BMI-associated health risks vary by race.

 

Calculating BMI

To calculate your BMI, multiply your weight in pounds by 703 (conversion factor for converting to metric units) and then divide the product by your height in inches, squared.

 

BMI = [weight (lb) x 703] ÷ height (in)2 or BMI = [weight (kg)] ÷ height (m)2 Measuring Body Fat Content

 

Water, organs, bone tissue, fat, and muscle tissue make up a person’s weight. Having more fat mass may be indicative of disease risk, but fat mass also varies with sex, age, and physical activity level. Females have more fat mass, which is needed for reproduction and, in part, is a consequence of different levels of hormones. The optimal fat content of a female is between 20 and 30 per cent of her total weight and for a male is between 12 and 20 per cent. Fat mass can be measured in a variety of ways. The simplest and lowest-cost way is the skin-fold test. A health professional uses a calliper to measure the thickness of skin on the back, arm, and other parts of the body and compares it to standards to assess body fatness. It is a non-invasive and fairly accurate method of measuring fat mass, but similar to BMI, it is compared to most young to middle-aged adults. Other methods of measuring fat mass are more expensive and more technically challenging. They include:

 

• Underwater weighing. This technique requires a chamber full of water big enough for the whole body can fit in. First, a person is weighed outside the chamber and then weighed again while immersed in water. Bone and muscle weigh more than water, but fat does not— therefore a person with a higher muscle and bone mass will weigh more when in water than a person with less bone and muscle mass.

 

• Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA). This device is based on the fact that fat slows down the passage of electricity through the body. When a small amount of electricity is passed through the body, the rate at which it travels is used to determine body composition. These devices are also sold for home use and commonly called body composition scales.

 

• Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry. It also can determine fat content via the same method, which directs two low-dose x-ray beams through the body and determines the amount of energy absorbed from the beams. The amount of energy absorbed is dependent on the body’s content of bone, lean tissue mass, and fat mass. Using standard mathematical formulas, fat content can be accurately estimated.

 

Measuring Fat Distribution

 

Total body-fat mass is one predictor of health; another is how the fat is distributed in the body. You may have heard that fat on the hips is better than fat in the belly—this is true. Fat can be found in different areas in the body and it does not all act the same, meaning it differs physiologically based on location. Fat deposited in the abdominal cavity is called visceral fat and it is a better predictor of disease risk than total fat mass. Visceral fat releases hormones and inflammatory factors that contribute to disease risk. The only tool required for measuring visceral fat is a measuring tape. The measurement (of waist circumference) is taken just above the belly button. Men with a waist circumference greater than 40 inches and women with a waist circumference greater than 35 inches are predicted to face greater health risks.

 

The waist-to-hip ratio is often considered a better measurement than waist circumference alone in predicting disease risk. To calculate your waist-to-hip ratio, use a measuring tape to measure your waist circumference and then measure your hip circumference at its widest part. Next, divide the waist circumference by the hip circumference to arrive at the waist-to-hip ratio. Observational studies have demonstrated that people with “apple-shaped” bodies, (who carry more weight around the waist) have greater risks for chronic disease than those with “pear-shaped” bodies, (who carry more weight around the hips). A study published in the November 2005 issue of Lancet with more than twenty-seven thousand participants from fifty-two countries concluded that the waist-to-hip ratio is highly correlated with heart attack risk worldwide and is a better predictor of heart attacks than BMI. Abdominal obesity is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as having a waist-to-hip ratio above 0.90 for males and above 0.85 for females.

 

 

Estimating Energy Requirement

To maintain body weight, you have to balance the calories obtained from food and beverages with the calories expended every day. Here, we will discuss how to calculate your energy needs in kilocalories per day so that you can determine whether your caloric intake falls short, meets, or exceeds your energy needs. The America Institute of Medicine has devised a formula for calculating your Estimated Energy Requirement (EER). It takes into account your age, sex, weight, height, and physical activity level (PA). The EER is a standardized mathematical prediction of a person’s daily energy needs in kilocalories per day required to maintain weight. It is calculated via the following formulas:

Adult male: EER = 662 − [9.53 x age (y)] + PA X [15.91 x wt (kg) + 5.39.6 x ht (m)]Adult female: EER = 354 − [6.91 x age (y)] + PA x [9.36 x wt (kg) + 726 x ht (m)]Note: to convert pounds to kilograms, divide weight in pounds by 2.2.To convert feet to meters, divide height in feet by 3.3.

 

9.4 Height and weight Barriers to regular participation in health-related physical activities

 

 NB: SEARCH:

10.1 Muscular strength & endurance

 

10.2 Balance & flexibility

 

 NB:

10.3 Aerobic endurance (Refer to the Physical Activity and Ghanaian Traditional Musical Genres as aerobic activities).

 

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR EXAMS...