It is analysed current trends and trends in preventive orientation of sports and recreation activities during physical education. It is pointed out priority tasks of physical education consisting of development of students' knowledge and skills of physical fitness, meaningful relationship to the preservation of his health. It is proved that existing approaches to the formation of theoretical knowledge on the basics of a physical fitness does not always take into account the individual characteristics of health status, the structure of the modern diseases of students, the motivation for a physical fitness.