Most people are aware of the health benefits when they make physical fitness their priority. The secret is to understand exactly what defines fitness and how one can accomplish that state of fitness. This is where the fitness’ five components step in. These components are considered the roadmap for most physical activities for health and can act as a beneficial tool for executing and organizing a workout routine that is well-balanced and optimal.
The Five Components Of Physical Fitness:
- Body composition
- Flexibility
- Muscular Endurance
- Muscular Strength
- Cardiovascular Endurance
Coming up with a fitness plan that covers all these components can assist individuals in ensuring that the health benefits they get from their workouts are optimal and multi-faceted.
In this article, we will look at the details of each component of fitness. If you want to know more, read on!
Fitness: Five (5) Key Components for Health
Below are the five (5) key components for fitness to ensure overall health and wellness:
1. Body Composition
This is the body’s fat mass to fat-free mass ratio and is part of the physical fitness component that is health-related. Due to increased levels of fat mass being linked with adverse health effects such as diabetes and heart disease, maintaining and attaining a body composition that is healthy should be the ultimate goal of every workout routine. To check on body composition improvements, it is crucial that the starting point is identified. Just getting one’s weight on the scale is not sufficient as knowing one’s weight won’t provide any details in terms of the body’s internal tissue mass ratio. To get one’s body composition, consult a trainer regarding the testing of the percentage of body fat.
Individuals can also try out a BIA or bioelectrical impedance analysis scale which can help in the estimation of the percentage of body fat. Another form of testing is known as hydrostatic testing which is at present, the measuring stick when it comes to body composition testing. For this test, people will get their weight taken while on land before using a scale that is underwater. With a fat composition that is greater, the weight underwater will be lighter.
Flexibility
This component of fitness is used to refer to the different movements one is able to accomplish in the joints. This component is specific to joints. For example, people may have inflexible and tight hips or hamstrings. Being flexible is crucial whatever age people are in. It can help in providing movement that is unhindered and can have an impact such as agility, coordination, and balance. The maintenance of a complete set of movements in the major joints can lower the risk of getting injured and improve physical performance.
As the aging process progresses, the significance of being flexible becomes much more apparent. A lot of seniors can have a difficult time stretching their arms while others may shuffle from one place to the next. This can adversely affect overall wellness and quality of life and make it more difficult to accomplish daily routines which include moving effectively to maintain balance, pick up objects from the ground, and reaching high shelves or stacks. While a complete stoppage of aging is not a possibility, ensuring that the joints are protected and ensuring that mobility is maintained can help in maintaining one’s quality of life during this or her senior years.
Muscular Strength
Generally, muscular strength refers to how resistant a muscle group is in terms of fatigue but it is also defined as the level of force a specific group of muscles can provide in an all-out and single exertion. It is an individual’s one rep maximum in strength training terms. Similar to flexibility, muscle strength is muscle group-specific. As such, people can have weak deltoids but have strong glutes.
People can also have weak hamstrings but strong pectoral muscles. This is the reason why a training program for strength that is well balanced and targets all the important muscles in the body is crucial for the overall strength of the muscles. How much one can train for muscular strength will all depend on the person’s overall health and fitness.
Those who wish to be generally healthy, the focus may be standing up from a chair with ease and being able to lift a box that is heavy. For the said example, muscle strength may simply be the byproduct of an exercise that targets the development of the endurance of the muscles.
Muscular Endurance
After muscular strength, the other factor that can contribute to muscular health is known as muscular endurance. Endurance is the ability of specific groups of muscles to contract continuously against some form of resistance. One example of muscle endurance is long-distance cyclists. For these athletes to continue pedaling a bicycle for long distances through inclines that are steep, cyclists need to have muscles that are resistant to fatigue in the glutes and in their legs.
These can all be indicators of increased levels of endurance for the muscles. Similarly, being able to hold the planking routine in the development of the strength of the individual’s core is another indicator of muscle endurance.
Cardiovascular Endurance
This is also referred to as aerobic fitness or cardiorespiratory endurance and is defined as the ability of the body to effectively and efficiently take in oxygen and transport it to the tissue of the body through the heart, veins, vessels, arteries, and lungs. Through the engagement of exercise that is regular which can challenge both the lungs and the heart people can achieve the following:
- Improve or at least maintain the efficient uptake and transport of oxygen to the systems of the body
- Boost the metabolism of cells
- Improve the ability to face the physical difficulties of daily routines
Since heart disease is a major concern all over the world, initiating a workout routine that can improve the fitness of the cardiovascular system is crucial for overall health and wellness.