Monday, September 28, 2009

Assessing cycling abilities


Components of Physical Fitness:

Health Related components: Those factors that are related to how well the systems of your body work

1. Cardiovascular Fitness: The ability of the circulatory system (heart and blood vessels) to supply oxygen to working muscles during exercise.

2. Body Composition: The relative percentage of body fat compared to lean body mass (muscle, bone, water,etc)

3. Flexibility: The range of movement possible at various joints.

4. Muscular strength: The amount of force that can be produced by a single contraction of a muscle

5. Muscular endurance: The ability of a muscle group to continue muscle movement over a length of time.


Skill Related Components: Those aspects of fitness which form the basis for successful sports participation.

1. Speed: The ability to move quickly from one point to another

2. Agility: The ability of the body to change direction quickly

3. Balance: The ability to maintain an upright posture while still or moving

4. Coordination: Integration with hand and/or foot movements with the input of the senses.

5. Reaction Time: Amount of time it takes to get moving.

6. Power: The ability to do strength work at an explosive pace.

The Components required for Cycling:

1. Endurance: The ability to continue a ride at an aerobic effort level without the onset of undue fatigue. This is specific to an event, and is the most basic and important ability.

2. Speed Skills: The ability to move the pedals quickly and efficiently, while being totally relaxed.

3. Force: The ability to overcome resistance as in climbing short steep hills or turning a bigger gear, or riding into a head wind.

4. Muscular Endurance: The ability to sustain a high muscular effort for a sustained or prolonged period of time, as in a time trial. This is a combination of force and endurance.

5. Anaerobic Endurance: The ability to resist fatigue while turning a high cadence in a bigger gear. A combination of speed and endurance.

6. Power: The ability to apply maximum force in the shortest time possible. A combination of force and speed.

Above was extracted from various sources.

1 comment:

Adelante4 said...

People often overlook muscular strength and then wonder why they can't push a big gear. It's important to develop every element of fitness to get the best out of cycling!

Jason from Bleep Test