25 of the SEHS glossary’s terms, each with the part of the syllabus where you first meet it.
An excess of body fat that impairs health; in adults it is commonly defined as a body mass index of 30 kg per square metre or more.
Learning that takes place by watching the behaviour of others and the consequences of that behaviour, without needing to perform it or be rewarded directly.
A group of reproductive hormones released mainly by the ovaries, which control the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, promote fat use and glycogen sparing and help maintain bone density.
The greatest mass that can be lifted once with correct technique through the full range of an exercise; a measure of strength used to prescribe resistance training loads.
A non-specific, exploratory goal with a measurable activity but no fixed target, such as seeing how far one can walk in 30 minutes, so that any result counts as an outcome rather than a failure.
A skill performed in a changing, unpredictable environment, so the performer must continually adapt the movement, for example a pass in hockey.
Control of a movement by a motor programme sent to the muscles as a whole, without using feedback during the movement; typical of fast, well-learned, discrete skills.
A Big Five trait describing an individual’s willingness to try new things, their curiosity, imagination and capacity for original thinking, and their willingness to be vulnerable.
A movement of the thumb across the palm so that its tip touches the tip of a finger, combining flexion, abduction and rotation; it allows a precision grip.
The level of arousal at which a performer produces their best performance for a given task; it is lower for fine or complex skills and beginners and higher for gross, simple skills and experts.
A change in results caused by the order in which participants complete the conditions, through learning, fatigue or boredom, rather than by the independent variable; reduced by randomising or counterbalancing the order.
A mini-theory of self-determination theory explaining how extrinsic motivation becomes more autonomous through internalisation, described by external, introjected, identified and integrated regulation.
A cause of pain and swelling just below the knee in active adolescents, caused by repeated pulling of the patellar tendon on the growing tibial tuberosity during growth spurts.
The concentration of all dissolved particles in a solution, in milliosmoles per litre; normal plasma osmolarity is about 285. Osmolality is the same measure per kilogram of water.
The net movement of water molecules across a partially permeable membrane from a region of lower solute concentration to a region of higher solute concentration.
A disease in which bone mineral density and bone quality are reduced, so that bones become porous and fragile and fracture easily; defined by a bone density T-score of −2.5 or lower.
A norm-referenced goal that focuses on the result of a competition compared with other people, such as winning, finishing in a certain place or being selected.
A data value that lies unusually far from the other values in a data set, and whose inclusion or removal must be justified by what happened during measurement.
The fall in intrinsic motivation for an activity that occurs when an expected, controlling extrinsic reward is given for doing it, so that the activity becomes a means to the reward.
A long-term decline in performance lasting months or longer, caused by an imbalance between stress and recovery, with severe physiological, psychological and immune symptoms; diagnosed by excluding other causes.
An injury caused by cumulative trauma, in which repeated loading of a tissue without enough recovery leads to gradual damage; called a chronic injury when it persists.
The release of an egg from an ovary, triggered by a surge of luteinising hormone (LH) around the middle of the menstrual cycle.
The energy system that resynthesises ATP aerobically in the mitochondria by completely breaking down carbohydrate, fat and some protein, producing carbon dioxide and water; slow but with a very large capacity.
The difference between the oxygen needed to meet the energy demand of exercise aerobically and the oxygen actually consumed, mainly at the start of exercise; the shortfall is met by anaerobic systems.
An S-shaped graph of the percentage saturation of haemoglobin with oxygen against the partial pressure of oxygen, showing loading in the lungs and release at the lower pO₂ of the tissues.