| Course | HLTH 4340 Fit and Well: Core Concepts in Exercise Science |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 1 |
| Paper type | Discussion post |
| Length | About 570 words, 4 pages |
| Format | Discussion post, APA 7 citations |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | BS in Public Health |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for HLTH 4340 Week 1
Week 1 Discussion: What Counts as Physical Fitness
Five Health-Related Components, Named From One Source and Kept Apart From the Tests That Estimate Them, With "Endurance" Corrected as the Worked Term
I am working from the component set that Caspersen et al. (1985) published in Public Health Reports, because most later texts, including the ACSM position stand, build on its wording. The paper describes physical fitness as "a set of attributes that are either health- or skill-related" (Caspersen et al., 1985, p. 126) and adds that the degree to which people have them can be measured with specific tests. It names five health-related components: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, body composition and flexibility.
Each one names a capacity, not a test. Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of the heart, lungs and blood vessels to supply oxygen to working muscles during sustained activity. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle group to keep contracting against a submaximal load over time. Muscular strength is the greatest force a muscle group can produce. Body composition is the relative amount of fat and fat-free tissue in the body. Flexibility is the range of motion available at a joint. A mile run, a push-up count, a one-repetition maximum, a skinfold sum and a sit-and-reach score are procedures that estimate these capacities; none of them is the capacity itself, and each estimates it with some error.
The term I want to correct is "endurance" used by itself. In everyday speech, and in a lot of gym advertising, "endurance" and "stamina" mean one general ability to keep going. The source separates two endurance components that are not interchangeable. A person who can run for an hour has high cardiorespiratory endurance but may manage only a few push-ups, which is low muscular endurance in the upper body. Writing "she has good endurance" leaves a reader unable to tell which capacity, and which test, is meant. The ACSM position stand keeps the two apart for the same reason, describing cardiorespiratory exercise and resistance exercise as separate parts of a program with separate prescriptions (Garber et al., 2011).
The five components exist to organize assessment: they tell a tester what to measure and keep one good score from standing in for overall fitness. They are not a ranking of people.
Question for the board: did your assigned text use the same five labels, or does it fold muscular strength and endurance into one "muscular fitness" component?
Reply to Marisol
Marisol, your list adds agility, balance and power to the components. Caspersen et al. (1985) list those, along with coordination, reaction time and speed, as skill-related components, separate from the health-related five, because they are tied more closely to athletic performance than to disease risk. So the two lists may not disagree about what exists; they disagree about which group each attribute belongs to. Which grouping does your textbook use for balance? The federal guidelines now ask older adults for multicomponent activity that includes balance training, which treats balance as a health concern for that group (Piercy et al., 2018).
Reply to Devon
Devon, you described the sit-and-reach as "measuring flexibility." I would narrow that. Flexibility is joint specific, and the sit-and-reach mainly reflects hamstring and low-back range at one movement. A good score there tells us little about shoulder range. The ACSM stand describes flexibility exercise by muscle-tendon group for that reason (Garber et al., 2011). Would you change your post to say the test estimates hamstring and low-back flexibility?
References
Caspersen, C. J., Powell, K. E., & Christenson, G. M. (1985). Physical activity, exercise, and physical fitness: Definitions and distinctions for health-related research. Public Health Reports, 100(2), 126-131. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1424733/
Garber, C. E., Blissmer, B., Deschenes, M. R., Franklin, B. A., Lamonte, M. J., Lee, I.-M., Nieman, D. C., & Swain, D. P. (2011). Quantity and quality of exercise for developing and maintaining cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal, and neuromotor fitness in apparently healthy adults: Guidance for prescribing exercise. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 43(7), 1334-1359. https://doi.org/10.1249/MSS.0b013e318213fefb
Piercy, K. L., Troiano, R. P., Ballard, R. M., Carlson, S. A., Fulton, J. E., Galuska, D. A., George, S. M., & Olson, R. D. (2018). The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. JAMA, 320(19), 2020-2028. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.14854
Reading the HLTH 4340 Week 1 instructions
The opening prompt wants to know what physical fitness is and which components it contains, and it expects that answer to come from a named authority. A strong post says whose list it uses in the first sentence, because the count and labels of components vary from one textbook or position stand to the next. Each component then gets a definition phrased as a capacity of the body. The prompt also tends to ask for one term in everyday use that blurs the science, which the post should correct with a quoted source. Faculty want peer-reviewed or federal material here, not fitness blogs or gym marketing. Walden threads normally add replies to classmates on a later day, and those replies should bring a second list or a sharper reading of a test. Nothing in this thread calls for advice to readers about how much to exercise. A post of roughly 400 words leaves room for all of that without padding.
Inside the HLTH 4340 Week 1 example
Its first paragraph attributes the component set to Caspersen et al. (1985) and quotes their definition of fitness as a set of health- or skill-related attributes. A list of the five health-related components follows in the order the paper printed them. Then comes one sentence per capacity, each written so that a reader can see the difference between, say, flexibility and the sit-and-reach. The third paragraph is the correction: "endurance" in casual use covers two capacities that the source separates, and a runner with weak push-up numbers shows why. Garber and colleagues' ACSM stand backs the split by prescribing aerobic and resistance work separately. A short paragraph says the components organize assessment and are not a ranking of people. The reply to Marisol moves agility, balance and power into the skill-related group and cites the 2018 federal guidelines on balance for older adults. The reply to Devon narrows a test claim to hamstring and low-back range.
Where the marks sit in the HLTH 4340 Week 1 rubric
Walden discussion rubrics generally score the initial post for content and the use of sources, then score responses and writing quality separately. For a definitional week, the content row is read almost literally. Five components where the assigned source names five, each matched to the right capacity, is the expected standard; adding skill-related items to the health list, or defining strength as the test that measures it, is marked as an error. Source credit depends on whether a grader can open the cited list and compare it, which is why the post names a journal article with a PMC link. The response row rewards a reply that brings something the classmate did not have, such as a second grouping or a narrower claim for a test. Writing quality covers APA entries for a multi-author article and a position stand. Top-band posts also stay inside the question set and avoid advice about workouts.
HLTH 4340 Week 1 help from the desk
Most lost points on this first thread come from three habits. The first is writing a component list from general knowledge with no attribution, which leaves the grader nothing to check. The second is naming a test as if it were the capacity, as in "flexibility is the sit-and-reach." A third is padding the post with motivational lines about staying active, which the prompt never requested. Before posting, compare your list against the exact page of your source and keep its order. Pick one term to correct rather than complaining about vague language in general. Check that every in-text citation has a matching reference entry, including the year. In replies, quote the specific sentence you are responding to and end on a question your classmate can answer from a text. If your section frames Week 1 as a short paper rather than a thread, a custom version can be built on whichever component list your instructor assigned.
Get a HLTH 4340 Week 1 example written to your instructions
Post the assignment prompt plus the rubric to the desk; a model entry on the same component set lands inside 24-48h. The first custom sample is free. Authorship stays where it started, so what returns is a study object, not a thread entry with a name already waiting on it.
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HLTH 4340 Week 1 questions, answered
Where can I find a free HLTH 4340 Week 1 sample paper?
A complete Week 1 initial post on the five health-related fitness components, with replies to two classmates and three APA references, is printed on this page with the reasoning behind each paragraph noted in the margin.
Which source does the HLTH 4340 Week 1 example use for the components?
It uses the 1985 Public Health Reports paper by Caspersen, Powell and Christenson, which separates five health-related components from six skill-related ones and remains the base for later texts.
Is the sit-and-reach a measure of flexibility?
It estimates range at the hamstrings and lower back in one movement. Flexibility is specific to each joint, so the reply in the example asks a classmate to narrow that claim.
Why does the post correct the word endurance?
Used alone, the word blurs cardiorespiratory endurance with muscular endurance. The source treats them as separate components measured by different tests, and the post shows the gap with a runner.
Are balance and agility health-related fitness components?
In the Caspersen list they are skill-related, along with coordination, power, reaction time and speed. Federal guidelines now ask older adults for balance training, which one reply points out.