Fitness Load and Exercise Time in Secondary Physical Education Classes

This study investigated the effect of secondary school physical education on fitness load. Fitness load was defined as the product of the mean heart rate above threshold (144 bpm) and fitness time (the duration of the heart rate above threshold). The relationship of fitness load and skill level of students was also studied. Teachers of 24 classes classified students as having high, moderate, or low skill ability. Seventy-two students, 1 from each skill level in each class, wore heartwatches to record heart rate at 15-s intervals. Student behavior was videotaped and coded. Twenty-one percent of the classes produced an overload effect, and 79% did not. The highly and moderately skilled students achieved fitness load more frequently than their lower skilled colleagues. The relationship between fitness load and percentage of time exercising was r = .66, indicating 44% common variance.