The five health-related components of physical fitness include aerobic or cardiorespiratory endurance, flexibility, and body composition (the ratio of fat and lean body tissue). Here you have a description of each one:
1- Cardiorespiratory fitness: refers to the ability of the heart to pump blood through the body efficiently. It is achieved through aerobic exercise or any activity, such as brisk walking or swimming, in which sufficient or excess oxygen is continually supplied to the body. In other words, aerobic exercise involves working out strenuously without pushing to the point of breathlessness.
2- Muscular strength: refers to the force within muscles; it is measured by the absolute maximum weight that you can lift, push, or press in one effort. Strong muscles help keep the skeleton in proper alignment, improve posture, prevent back and leg aches, help in everyday lifting, and enhance athletic performance. Muscle mass increases along with strength, which makes for a healthier body composition and a higher metabolic rate.
3- Muscular endurance: is the ability to perform repeated muscular effort; it is measured by counting how many times you can lift, push, or press a given weight. Important for posture, muscular endurance helps in everyday work as well as in athletics and sports.
4- Flexibility: is the range of motion around specific joints. For example, the stretching you do to touch your toes or twist your torso. Flexibility depends on many factors: your age, gender, and posture; how muscular you are; and how much body fat you have. As children develop, their flexibility increases until adolescence. Then a gradual loss of joint mobility begins and continues throughout adult life. Both muscles and connective tissue, such as tendons and ligaments, shorten and become tighter if not consistently used through their full range of motion.
5- Body composition: refers to the relative amounts of fat and lean tissue (bone, muscle, organs, water) in the body.
6- Functional fitness: performance of activities of daily living. Exercises that mimic job tasks or everyday movements can improve an individual’s balance, coordination, strength, and endurance.
joy of fitness
This post has given you the basic information you need to launch a fitness program. However, you’re more likely to succeed if you create a plan and follow it. If you want to determine where you are now and how to get to where you want to be, you need to motivate yourself, set fitness goals, think through your personal preferences, schedule exercise into your daily routine, assemble your gear (make sure you put your athletic shoes in your car and lay out the clothes you’ll need to workout), start slowly, progress gradually, and take stock. In other words, after a few months of leading a more active life, take stock. Think of how much more energy you have at the end of the day. Ask yourself if you’re feeling any less stressed, despite the push and pull of daily pressures.