Relevant Matters of Organising Physical Education for Students at The Initial Stage of University Studies

The problem of determining the physical fitness of 1st year students and identifying their risk of developing cardiovascular disease in the first stage of physical education before the students’ medical examination is considered. During the analysis of literature sources, test tasks were selected in order to investigate and assess the level of physical fitness of students according to the methodology proposed by the Jyvaskyla University (Finland) and the risk of cardiovascular disease according to A. Z. Zapesochny’s methodology. 670 first-year students participated in the study. The assignment to evaluate fitness levels consisted of recording the walking time at a maximal pace over a 2 km distance and determining the post-exercise heart rate. The evaluation of the results was performed against the fitness level index. When testing according to Zapesochny’s methodology, the following indicators characterising risk factors for cardiovascular disease were considered: body weight and length, gender, blood pressure, hereditary factors, bad habits and physical activity. All the results, which were evaluated in scores, were combined to calculate the cardiovascular disease development risk level. An analysis of the results showed that 32.24% of first year students had a high level of physical fitness and only 8.21% had a low level. In 48.07% of the tested persons, the risk of cardiovascular diseases was absent. The explicit and maximum risk observed in 2.98% of the tested persons. This data helped in the first stage of physical education to select an appropriate physical activity for the students without risk of harm to their health prior to undergoing medical check-up.