We all have an idea of what a fit body should look like. For some people, it means to have a perfect hourglass figure or massive muscles, while for others it means having a sleek body. But fitness is not defined by the appearance. There are five components of physical fitness you need to deal with.
The eight components of physical fitness
* Cardiovascular Endurance: It is your body’s ability to keep up with the exercise that helps to stimulate your cardiovascular system to work for longer periods of time. With good cardiovascular strength, the heart and the lungs will fuel your body with oxygen that is required by your muscles. Thus, ensuring that they have enough oxygen for the work they are doing.
* Muscular Strength: It is defined as the maximum push or pull that can be exerted one time by a muscle group. This helps you to carry heavy objects. In the absence of muscular strength, your body would not be able to keep up with the stipulations lodged on it.
* Muscular Endurance: It is the ability of muscles to apply sub maximal force to hold a contraction for a continuous length of time. Low levels of muscular endurance may lead to muscle or joint pain, musculo skeletal problems and poor posture.
* Flexibility: It is one of the most important, yet often neglected components of physical fitness. Without flexibility, the joints and muscles grow stiff and movement would be restricted. Flexibility assures that your body can move through its entire length of motion without stiffness or pain.
* Body composition: It refers to the amount of fat in your body. To characterize as fit, men must have a body fat composition lower than 17 percent and women should have lower than 24 percent. Having high percentage of body fat as to lean muscle has shown to increase the risk of certain cancers, heart diseases, strokes and diabetes.
* Coordination: It is the capability to integrate several distinct movement patterns into a singular definite movement. Coordination is a skill-related component of physical fitness. This usually consists of lower and upper body movements being performed at the same time.
* Balance: It is the ability to control the induction of the body’s center of gravity in alliance to its support base. This skill related component of physical fitness can be improved by increasing the overall core strength.
* Speed: It is the potentiality to lessen the time cycle of a repeated movement.
The eight components of physical fitness should be incorporated into your daily exercise routines. Bringing together all the components of physical fitness into your exercise program will help you to be faster, stronger, increase your flexibility and improve your balance. Thus, certainly making you to perform your daily routine tasks without exhaustion and fatigue.