Grade by Grade
A–B. Active Living and Movement Competence · Active Living and Movement: Train with Purpose, Play with Strategy

Track It: Assessing Fitness During Activity and Monitoring Change

A2.3 1.1About 70 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can assess my health-related fitness while I take part in a variety of physical activities, not only in formal tests.
  • I can calculate session load (effort × minutes) and weekly load, and use percent change to check that increases are gradual.
  • I can use one-minute heart-rate recovery to monitor cardiorespiratory fitness.
  • I can smooth out day-to-day ups and downs with an average and describe my trend over time.

Words to know

session load
A simple measure of how hard a training session was: effort rating (0 to 10) × minutes.
weekly load
The total of all session loads in a week.
heart-rate recovery
How much your heart rate drops in the first minute after you stop hard exercise. A bigger drop usually means better cardiorespiratory fitness.
benchmark
A repeatable task you measure inside your normal activity (for example, laps of a set route) to compare over time.
moving average
The average of the last few results (for example, the last 3), recalculated each time, which smooths out random ups and downs.
training log
A record of each session: what you did, how long, how hard, and how you felt.

Remember from Grade 9

In PPL1O you chose valid tests for each health-related component, did a 3-minute step test with recovery heart rate, calculated change and percent change (change ÷ baseline × 100), and looked at a trend line over 8 weeks.

Grade 10's expectation A2.3 asks you to assess your health-related fitness during various physical activities and monitor changes over time. So this lesson focuses on tracking fitness inside your normal activity, week after week.

Hook: the fitness test you take every day

You don't need a test day to know your fitness. Think about it:

  • the hill on your walk to school that used to leave you breathless;
  • how many points in a row you can play before needing a break;
  • how quickly your heart settles after running for the bus.

These are real-life fitness checks. With a few numbers and a log, you can turn them into evidence.

Assessing fitness during activity

Use benchmarks inside the activities you already do:

  • Cardiorespiratory endurance: time for a set route (a loop of your neighbourhood or 4 laps of a park path); one-minute heart-rate recovery after a fixed effort; how long you stay in your target zone during a game.
  • Muscular endurance: reps completed at a circuit station in 45 s; how many sets of a skill (like volleyball digs) you can do with good form.
  • Muscular strength: the hardest version of an exercise you can do for 8 to 10 good reps (wall, knee or full push-ups).
  • Flexibility: how far you reach in a cool-down stretch (for example, fingertips to shins, ankles, toes).

Keep conditions the same each time (same route, same time of day, same warm-up) so the comparison is fair.

Tool 1: session load

A simple tool used by many coaches is session load:

session load = effort (0 to 10) × minutes

Rate effort for the whole session about 15 to 30 minutes after you finish. Add the sessions to get weekly load.

  • Load helps you check progressive overload: is your training slowly increasing?
  • Many coaches suggest raising weekly load gradually, often by no more than about 10% a week, and planning a lighter week every few weeks.
  • A big sudden jump (for example, 40% more than last week) raises the risk of overuse injury and exhaustion.

Percent change in load = (this week − last week) ÷ last week × 100.

Noah's weekly training load (effort × minutes)04008001200load (units)900Week 1980+8.9%Week 21060+8.2%Week 3800lighter weekWeek 4
Noah's weekly load rises gradually (about 8% to 9% a week), then drops in week 4, a planned lighter week for recovery. Gradual increases plus planned recovery are a safe way to apply overload.

Tool 2: one-minute heart-rate recovery

  1. Do a fixed effort that gets you into your vigorous zone, the same each time (for example, 3 minutes of skipping at a steady pace, or a 400 m run at the same effort).
  2. Immediately take a 10-second pulse (× 6). That's your end heart rate.
  3. Rest standing or walking slowly. At exactly 1 minute, take another 10-second pulse (× 6).
  4. Heart-rate recovery = end heart rate − heart rate at 1 minute.

As cardiorespiratory fitness improves, the drop usually gets bigger: a fitter heart and nervous system settle faster. Track it every week or two.

801001201401601800306090120seconds after stoppingheart rate (bpm)week 1: 168 → 150 (drop 18)week 6: 166 → 136 (drop 30)1 minute
Ravi's heart rate after the same 3-minute skipping effort in week 1 and week 6. In week 6 it drops 30 bpm in the first minute instead of 18: a sign his cardiorespiratory fitness has improved.

Tool 3: smoothing the bumps with a moving average

Single results jump around: a bad sleep, a cold, a windy day. A 3-session moving average helps you see the real trend:

  • Average sessions 1 to 3, then 2 to 4, then 3 to 5, and so on.
  • Compare the averages, not single days.

For times, remember that lower is better; for reps and heart-rate recovery, higher is better.

Living skill: self-monitoring (1.1)

Monitoring is about you, not about comparing with others. Keep your log private if you like. Write one line of reflection after each week: What changed? Why might it have changed? What will I do next week?

Worked example

Let's calculate Noah's loads

Noah's week 2 sessions: Monday run 30 min, effort 6; Wednesday ultimate 50 min, effort 7; Friday circuit 25 min, effort 8; Sunday hike 50 min, effort 5. Week 1's load was 900. Find each session load, the weekly load and the percent change. Is the increase gradual?

  1. Monday: 6 × 30 = 180.
  2. Wednesday: 7 × 50 = 350.
  3. Friday: 8 × 25 = 200.
  4. Sunday: 5 × 50 = 250.
  5. Weekly load: 180 + 350 + 200 + 250 = 980.
  6. Percent change: (980 − 900) ÷ 900 × 100 = 80 ÷ 900 × 100 ≈ 8.9%.

Week 2 load is 980, about 8.9% higher than week 1: a gradual increase, under about 10%. This matches the graph.

Worked example

Let's find a trend with a moving average

Ravi's 1-minute heart-rate recovery (bpm) over 6 checks: 18, 22, 19, 24, 27, 30. Find the 3-check moving averages and describe the trend.

  1. Checks 1–3: (18 + 22 + 19) ÷ 3 = 59 ÷ 3 ≈ 19.7.
  2. Checks 2–4: (22 + 19 + 24) ÷ 3 = 65 ÷ 3 ≈ 21.7.
  3. Checks 3–5: (19 + 24 + 27) ÷ 3 = 70 ÷ 3 ≈ 23.3.
  4. Checks 4–6: (24 + 27 + 30) ÷ 3 = 81 ÷ 3 = 27.0.
  5. Describe: the single results dipped at check 3, but the averages rise steadily: 19.7 → 21.7 → 23.3 → 27.0.

The trend is upward: Ravi's heart-rate recovery is improving, which suggests better cardiorespiratory fitness. The dip at check 3 was just a bump.

Hands-on activity

One week of in-activity monitoring

You need: a notebook or phone log, a timer, running shoes, water, a skipping rope (or skip without one), and a measured route (for example, 4 laps of a park path or a loop of your block).

  1. Log every session this week: date, activity, minutes, effort (0 to 10), session load, and one feeling word.
  2. Heart-rate recovery check (twice this week): after a warm-up, skip steadily for 3 minutes, then take your end pulse and your 1-minute pulse. Calculate the drop.
  3. Benchmark: time your measured route at a steady, hard-but-controlled effort once this week. Same route, same warm-up next time.
  4. Station reps: in one circuit, count the reps you complete in 45 s at two stations (for example, squats and push-ups).
  5. End of week: total your weekly load. Write a 3-sentence reflection.

Repeat for 4 to 6 weeks, then calculate percent changes and moving averages.

Safety: warm up before the skipping test and the benchmark route. Choose a flat, safe route away from traffic, or go with a buddy. Stop if you feel chest pain, dizziness or unusual shortness of breath.

Just for fun

Monitoring fact: your heart beats roughly 100,000 times a day. Good news: you only have to count it for 10 seconds.

Your turn

1

What two things does A2.3 ask you to do in Grade 10?

2

Write the formula for session load.

3

A 40-minute swim at effort 6 has what load?

4

How do you calculate 1-minute heart-rate recovery?

5

Is a bigger or smaller heart-rate recovery usually better?

6

Give a benchmark you could use to track muscular endurance during a circuit.

7

Find the percent change in weekly load from 1000 to 1100.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is a training log?

2

Find the load: 20 minutes at effort 9.

3

Why keep conditions the same for a benchmark route?

4

For a route time, is lower or higher better?

5

Why plan a lighter week every few weeks?

More practice: on your own

1

Week 3 load: run 35 min effort 6, soccer 60 min effort 7, yoga 30 min effort 2, circuit 24 min effort 8. Find the weekly load.

2

Last week's load was 800. This week is 1120. Find the percent change and comment.

3

Find the 3-session moving averages of route times (min): 14.0, 13.6, 14.2, 13.4, 13.0.

4

A student's end heart rate is 172 bpm and 1 minute later it is 145 bpm. Find the recovery. Six weeks later: 170 to 136. Has it improved?

5

Why should effort for session load be rated 15 to 30 minutes after the session, not during the hardest part?

Challenge

1

Noah's weekly loads for 6 weeks: 900, 980, 1060, 800, 1100, 1180. Find the percent change between each pair of weeks and identify any week that breaks the "about 10%" guideline. Was week 5 reasonable?

2

Design a monitoring plan for a student whose only activity is playing ultimate twice a week, without using formal fitness tests.

3

Two students' heart-rate recovery: Asha 25 → 26 → 31 → 24 → 33 → 35; Ben 30 → 29 → 30 → 28 → 29 → 30. Use 3-check moving averages to describe each trend.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Session load for 45 minutes at effort 6 is:

2.

One-minute heart-rate recovery is:

3.

Weekly load goes from 1000 to 1400. The percent change is:

4.

A moving average is useful because it:

5.

Which is an example of assessing fitness during activity?

6.

As cardiorespiratory fitness improves, 1-minute heart-rate recovery usually:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Expectation A2.3 asks students to assess their health-related fitness during a variety of activities and monitor changes over time. This lesson adds three tools to Grade 9's tests: session load (effort × minutes), one-minute heart-rate recovery and moving averages.

How to help at home:

  • Help your teen keep a simple log; ask about the reflection line more than the numbers.
  • Time the heart-rate recovery check for them (call out "stop" and "one minute").
  • Let them practise the percent-change and average calculations with you.

Common difficulties:

  • Forgetting that lower is better for times.
  • Reacting to one bad day. Point to the moving average.
  • Big jumps in training. Encourage gradual increases and lighter weeks.

Safety: warm up before hard efforts, and stop for chest pain, dizziness or unusual breathlessness. Keep monitoring private and about personal progress.