Fitness Testing
One of the goals of the course is to improve your fitness during the term. To help gauge this, we will do pre-course and post-course fitness tests. These tests will be done at the MIT Zeisiger Center and are called fitness assessments.
The tests will consist of the following:
- Age
- Resting heart rate
- Resting blood pressure
- Weight
- % body fat using calipers to measure skin folds
- For females—tricep, hip and thigh
- For males—chest, abs and thigh
- Flexibility: sit and reach
- Push-ups
- Aerobic conditioning VO2: Bike test
The pre-course test will establish your baseline fitness level. See how your training program can improve it during the term, as determined by the post-course test.
Training Schedule
Spring 2013 PE workout schedule (PDF)
Training Journals
Part of research is to document your experiments. Since you are using your own body as the experimental device, you need to document how the experiment is going. You will keep a training journal throughout the term.
Things that you want to think about for your training journal:
- Think about the entire term as preparation for the race at the end of the semester.
- Write down distance, time, intensity of each of your workouts for each day.
- Indicate how the workout went: for example, “felt great” or “was unable to focus.”
- Keep track of your eating habits and how it relates to your physical performance.
- Keep track of the amount of sleep you get.
- Keep track of hydration.
- Review on a weekly basis to gauge how your training is going.
Triathlon
Students were required to participate in a mini-triathlon during the second to last week of the course.
