Health related fitness is what everyone should have whether they play a sport or not. Keeping the body fit for health incorporates the following components: Badminton Health Related Aerobic Fitness Aerobic fitness increases the amount of oxygen that is delivered to your muscles, which allows them to work longer. Any activity that raises your heart rate and keeps it up for an extended period of time will improve your aerobic fitness. This is necessary in badminton because you need the aerobic fitness to be able to move across the court for a long time.
The best way to test someone’s aerobic fitness is the VO2 max test. This is where athletes run on a treadmill and all the air expired is collected in a Douglas bag. The athlete works to exhaustion and then the volume and oxygen content of the expired air is measured. It is then calculated. Flexibility Flexibility is the range of movement possible around a joint and depends on the amount of stretch allowed by the ligaments, joint, tendons and muscles. Babies have a natural suppleness and can suck their toes but we lose this as we grow older.
Increasing you flexibility aids performance and helps to avoid unnecessary injuries. Increasing body temperature also helps improve flexibility this is why athletes warm up. In badminton flexibility is needed so the athlete can move across the court and aim high or low for the shuttlecock and sometimes in places where it is usually hard to hit. The best way to test flexibility is the sit and reach test. The athlete sits on the floor with their legs straight, their toes pointing upwards and their feet in contact with the box.
He or she then reaches forwards as far as possible and the distance from the toes in measured. Muscular Endurance Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscle to continue to perform without fatigue. A marathon runner is an example of someone who has high muscular endurance due to running very far for a long time it needs the muscle to work for a long period without getting tired. Muscular endurance is important in badminton because the athlete has to move around the court at all times when the shuttlecock is in play therefore they don’t want their muscles to tire or they would not be able to continue.
To improve your muscle endurance, try cardio respiratory activities such as walking, jogging, bicycling, or dancing. Strength Strength is a general term for applying a force against a resistance. In most team sports the resistance you are working against is your own body weight and, although you are not using your maximum strength, you do need to keep working for long periods of time. In other activities, such as weightlifting, you are applying more force and working to the maximum. In sport we therefore need to state more specifically the type of strength being used.