Personal & community Health wellness project

Posted: August 12th, 2013

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Personal & Community Health Wellness Project

Introduction

Physical fitness is one of the best wellness programs of preventing diseases and especially those that are heart related. Fitness programs meant to increase physical activity reduce the changes of heart related diseases by a huge margin (Biddle and Mutrie 200). Additionally, a physical fitness program is ideal for dealing with stressing moods and improving general appearance. Most noteworthy is the ability to prevent diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle where physical activity is limited. I have lived a sedentary lifestyle for some time now, which is affecting my productivity level in all areas of life especially due to low moods and general fatigue. My goal is to improve my physical activities through setting enough time for exercises and engaging in a routine that increases physical activity such as taking stairs instead of elevator, walking home in the evening instead of taking a cab or driving home. Additionally, my plan involves an exercise program at the gym. Objectives of the program include engaging in physical activities for at least 2 hours a day by the end of the sixth week with one hour spent in a gym.

Dimensions of the program

Physical fitness has its emotional, mental, physical, economic and social benefits to the person. In undertaking this physical wellness program, I expect several benefits within these dimensions. Socially, physical fitness will increase my self-esteem and confidence. With both self-esteem and confidence, one has the potential to reach out to other people within the society. This will benefit other people around me as much as it will benefit me. It will help me in establishing new friendship and helping others with their own wellness as well. Physically, it will enhance my body function, enabling me to perform my duties and other activities at optimum. This will increase the performance and fitness of the heart, lungs and muscles as well. With physical fitness, I will feel better generally, which will also improve my emotions. With confidence and good self-esteem, my emotions will be better managed. More significant is the ability of physical fitness to help in reducing anxiety and depression (Kohl, Kohl III and Murray 155). Regular exercises are known to increase levels of serotonin, endorphins amongst other hormones and chemical within the body responsible for calming the body and mind. With increased physical fitness come economic benefits from not having to visit the doctor for preventable illnesses. Physical fitness is the first basic prevention of diseases. A physically fit body has all that is necessary to fight against illnesses especially heart related ones. This helps in reducing the amount of money spent in hospitals (Kohl, Kohl III and Murray 156).

Need and Warning signs for a physical program 

I choose this program because it is exceptionally cheap and easy. More so, it provides maximum benefits to the whole body and mind as well as general appearance. Some of the warning signs that indicated the need for this wellness program include low moods for doing anything physical. For some time, my ability to engage in vigorous physical activities has reduced quite significantly. Tasks that did not make me quite tired now seemed to hard to do. This was the indicator that I needed a physical fitness program to increase my physical activity. Additionally, my general moods to physical activities had reduced as well, making me feel lazy in many occasions (Hoeger and Loeger 17). I also realized that it had been quite long since I had engaged in any physical fitness activity due to indoor activities such as watching television, video games and too much internet browsing. This has also reduced my education performance in the classroom, where studying seems a tiring activity.

Action plan

The first step within the action plan is measuring my current fitness level. The assessment will aim at assessing my aerobic, muscular fitness, flexibility and body composition. This will be recorded for purposes of monitoring progress. The first assessment will involve recording the time it takes for me to walk one mile, which is 1.6 kilometers. I will record the pulse rate before and after the walk for cardiovascular fitness (Biddle and Mutrie 205). Additionally, I will assess my cardiovascular endurance by how much time it takes for me to run at my full speed. For my muscles, I will record the number of push-ups I can do at one time. For flexibility, I will assess how far I can reach in front seated on the floor with my legs in front. For weight, I will assess my body mass index and measure the circumference of my abdomen above the hip bone (Hoeger and Hoeger 126).

The second step is designing the fitness program, which will involve several activities depending on my goals. The goal of this program is to stay physically fit and to increase physical activity. At the end of the sixth week, I intend to increase my endurance in running by one and half times, walk the one-mile without panting or an increased pulse and reach the furthest point while seated. I will then create a balanced routine of exercises. I will start at a slow pace and increase the activities as I progress. I will include different activities such as running, walking, swimming and going to the gym. Additionally, I will allow some time for recovery. Although my diet is not bad, I will increase more fruits to my diet and increase water intake.

The next step is assessing what I will need for the program. Some of the materials needed include the right shoes for running and walking and the right outfit. The other requirement is the equipment necessary such as the treadmill. Considering the cost of such equipments, enrolling for a gym will be better. After this assessment, I will be ready to start the program, which is the fourth step. In starting the program, I will start slowly with simpler activities such as walking and jogging, sit-ups, press-ups and cycling. As I progress, I will increase the level of activity such as lifting in the gym, running further and swimming. The final step of my action is monitoring progress through a tracking plan that is detailed in the table at the end of the paper.

Barrier to the program

Some of the behaviors that might hinder me from achieving my goal include the indoor activities that include watching too much television, playing video games and surfing the internet. Although they are indispensable, I will reduce the amount of time I take in each. Additionally, I will set time for playing some of the video games within the week as opposed to playing them every day. Additionally, I will select the most important programs to watch in the television at specific times. The other behavior I have to deal with is using a vehicle all the time even for short-distance travel. This I will deal with by ensuring to walk for short distances and avoid keeping car keys out of sight.

Conclusion

Physical fitness is particularly essential in the prevention of diseases and improving general appearance and moods. Additionally, it boosts the emotion, social and mental well-being. Thus, it is for such reasons I choose to take up this program to improve my overall well-being (Kohl, Kohl III and Murray 155). Additionally, I have been having a hard time engaging in physical activity, which I believe is causing unwarranted fatigue and lack of enthusiasm in my activities. Considering it is a new program, there is no data to show any progress. However, if the goal and objective will not have been reached by the end of the sixth week, I will consider revising the plan to make any changes. If the goal is achieved, I will continue with the program and add more to it to keep the progressing and avoid monotony.

Tracking table

            The tracking plan for this program will involve recording of information that will be recorded during the assessment step that acts as the base of evaluating progress every week.