The Components of Physical Fitness
-How well your body can perform 4 of the 5 components of physical fitness, can best demonstrate your overall physical fitness.
-The last fitness component relates to body fat vs. muscle mass. -Many health centers, fitness groups, and even many school districts, use these physical fitness components as a guide. -They can be used quite effectively to show how fit their members are, and what specific forms of exercise or other activities could be done to improve on an individual component.
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-It's pretty obvious to most of us that just being able to lift a huge amount of weight over your head, isn't necessarily a good indicator of someone's overall physical fitness. -That's the basic concept of the 5 components of physical fitness, to gauge how well your body performs as a whole, under different conditions. -Let's take a look at each fitness component individually: #1 -Cardiovascular endurance Of all the components of physical fitness, this is probably the most important. This is your heart and lungs, and how efficiently they work together to provide your body with the necessary oxygen, over a sustained period of time. Bicycling, swimming, aerobic dancing, anything that gets your heart and lungs pumping for a certain amount of time are good examples of this. The Cooper 12 minute test run is often used to test cardiovascular endurance. The person runs as far as possible, at a rate as steady as possible, and the distance run is measured. The distance is then read from a table to determine their fitness level. #2 -Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles to perform a certain exercise (using minimal weight) over a set amount of time without tiring out, and one of the five essential components of physical fitness. Good examples of this would be deep knee bends, lunges, and squats. A very common exercise that is often used in testing is sit-ups.The subject does as many as possible over a set amount of time. #3 -Muscular strength is one of the main components of physical fitness, and not to be confused with the previous endurance component. This is the ability of your muscles to lift a moderate amount of weight for your body size, with a certain amount of control. Various forms of weightlifting are obvious examples of this, although the everyday push-up is the most common test for muscular strength. #4 -Flexibility is another of the key components of physical fitness. The ability of your body's various joints to move through a wide range of motions, while your muscles can stretch and lengthen, then relax through a full range of movements. Stretching to touch your toes and Yoga are good examples. This is very important for preventing stiffness and balancing the muscle groups of a particular joint. It can also help increase the range of movement to prevent an injury, or in the rehabilitation of a joint, after an injury. #5 -Body composition Last, but certainly not the least important of the 5 components of physical fitness, body composition concerns the amount of stored body fat vs. organs, water, bone mass and lean muscle in the body. A healthy eating plan may be in order. There are numerous methods of measuring body fat, such as; Bioelectrical impedance, Skinfold and caliper, and Underwater weighing. Some of these can be done at your fitness center or gym. The Body Mass Index (BMI Chart) Although not an exact measurement of body fat, the BMI chart is very commonly used to estimate body fat in relation to a person's height and weight taken together. -What's the big deal with the 5 components of physical fitness, and what does it all mean? -They simply give you a good idea of how physically fit and healthy your body is, as a whole. What can I do about each one? -If you've found that you do have a high body fat content, through testing or using the BMI chart, you definitely need to add a healthy eating plan to any fitness program you do decide to begin. -A high body fat is related to many diseases such as: Heart disease and Stroke, Diabetes, many cancers and even osteoarthritis. -If Flexibility is the fitness component you lack, you'll probably experience more day-to-day aches and pains, backaches etc. You're also more likely to get an injury in the first place. -You might be quite surprised at just how good it feels, to include stretching exercises and yoga into your daily exercise routine. - Muscle strength is one of the components of physical fitness that you need in your daily life for lifting and working around the home. Strong muscles lessen the risk of back and other injury. -Weight lifting with emphasis on the amount of weight, and general strength training will be beneficial to increase muscle strength. -If you tire early and often during the day or during sporting activities, muscular endurance is the fitness component you want to work on. -Weight lifting, stressing the repetitions rather than the amount of weight, will help here. -What's the most important component of physical fitness? - Again, of the 5 components, Cardiovascular Endurance is the one we all strive for the most. It is the one fitness component that has the greatest effect on our overall health. Your heart and lungs are obviously very important, and if there's a problem you can definitely feel it .... don't wait until there is! -Starting a treadmill running program, jogging or chi walking for longer distances will all help with this. Swimming and bike riding are good as well, but should also be of longer duration if possible ...but start out slow. Starting out at shorter distances and increasing the distance a bit at a time is the best way to go about it. (As always, talk to your doctor first) 15 minute intervals is a good starting point. see calories burned chart. -Working on this component of fitness has the added benefit of helping all the other components in the process. It can be very dangerous for someone who is not in good physical shape and exercises very little, to participate in fitness training and testing out of the blue. -Starting Out Slow Is Critical! (You may have heard this) -If you do plan on starting a physical fitness program (and we all know, we really should) -It's important to include all 5 of the fitness components, ....for the best overall fitness and exercise benefit.
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