Mirror mirror on the wall. Who is the fittest of them all?
“What is fitness to you”? According to the Oxford dictionary, the word ‘fitness’ is a noun that means ‘The condition of being physically fit and healthy.’
Is that all? To some people fitness might mean…
- Doing housework without getting tired
- Looking fit and fabulous
- Having better immunity
- Exercising regularly
- To be able to eat whatever one wants and yet stay healthy
Fitness and being fit doesn’t exactly have a single definition. It can mean different things, to different people with different ideas.
What is fitness in general?
Fitness is a state where you feel physically and mentally healthy. It isn’t just about stamina and agility, but also strength, flexibility, endurance and so much more, depending on the person.
In some way or the other, we all aspire to be fit and healthy. To be truly fit, you need to understand the different components to fitness.
Overall, there are five main components of fitness
- Body composition
- Flexibility
- Cardiorespiratory endurance
- Muscular strength
- Muscular Endurance
Body composition
Our body is made of organs, bones, muscles, water and fat (food reserves). We can easily maintain the same weight but at the same time we can also change the ratio of each of the components that makes up the entire body weight.
For example, two people weighing 70 kgs can have very different fitness levels. One could have 40% of weight as body fat and be highly obese and other could have just 12% body fat and 45% muscle weight and be an Olympic level athlete.
The ideal body composition varies depending on your sex, age, height and sometimes genes.
Flexibility
Flexibility is the ability to move freely without any tension or strain in your joints, tendons and ligaments. Having good flexibility is considered important because it prevents premature ageing of bones and ligaments.
It also slows down the wear and tear of ligaments. Modalities like Yoga, cool down stretches after a rigorous warm up and mobility stretches help in improving flexibility.
Cardiorespiratory endurance
Our body works like an engine and breaks down fuel to release energy when we do physical activities. Cardiorespiratory endurance refers to how well this engine works.
It denotes how efficiently our bodies can supply fuel and energy during physical activities, through the body’s circulatory and respiratory systems.
Activities that cause an elevated heart rate for a limited amount of time help in improving cardiorespiratory endurance. Heart muscles are strengthened and lung capacity improves so more oxygen reaches to different muscles faster.
Muscular strength
Muscular strength is the ability of muscles to exert force during physical activities. There are various ways to measure the muscular strength in a person. This usually includes lifting or pushing a set of weights.
Usually, if a muscle is toned consistently and regularly, it will gradually increase in strength. Gaining muscular strength is beneficial for making your muscles much stronger and adjoining body parts (bones, ligaments, tendons) more efficient.
Muscle Endurance
Apart from muscular strength, fitness also includes muscular endurance, which is the ability of a muscle to continue releasing force without tiring easily over time. Muscle endurance will help improve your stamina, making daily tasks easier.
Training for muscle endurance also increases bone density which aids in bone strengthening and preventing fractures. Different kinds of exercise will help in the increase in endurance capability of a muscle.
These five major components make up your bricks to the path of fitness. There are many ways of exercising, toning and training to getting your body fit which we will learn about on the way.
Trying to stay fit is not as tough or strict as it seems to be, understanding the components of fitness and sustainably working on these makes the journey to fitness easier and fun.
Along the way, we will come across more landmarks such as the key to staying fit, types of exercise and their benefits and much more…
Until then, Stay healthy, Think healthy and be healthy!
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