Tuesday, March 24, 2009

5 Components of Physical Fitness

1. Cardiovascular Endurance
What is cardiovascular Endurance?
This is the body's ability, over sustained periods of physical activity, to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and remove wastes. To understand the terminology you should know, cardio = heart, vascular = related to blood vessels, and pulmonary = related to the lungs.
Why is Cardiovascular Endurance Important?
Cardiovascular endurance is very important because the more cardiovascularly fit you are, the healthier your lungs, heart and vascular systems will be and this will be obvious while your exercising.
Demonstrating high cardiovascular endurance during exercise, you have a more efficient heart, lungs and vascular system while at rest which takes up the majority of your time.
This means less stress is put on your heart and lungs around the clock which enables you to avoid illness and live a long healthy life. Many experts will agree that cardiovascular endurance is the most important part of the 5 components of physical fitness.
Physiologically, endurance deals with the efficiency of your body's (heart, lungs and vascular system) ability to transfer oxygen rich blood to your working muscles during activities lasting longer than 90 seconds.
2. Muscular Strength
What is Muscular Strength?
This is the muscle's ability to exert force against resistance over a short period of time, anaerobic (without oxygen) activities. Resistance includes objects such as free weights or household objects as well as your own body weight.
Why is Muscular Strength Important?
The primary reason why muscular strength is important is your efficiency in activities of daily living (ADL). While ADLs vary from person to person, being able to perform activities that require you to push or pull and carry heavy objects is part of daily life. Each of the 5 components depends on one another but poor muscular strength can negatively effect aerobic fitness and muscular endurance.
Physiologically, muscular strength is the ability of your body to suppy ATP (Adenosine Tri-phosphate or muscle engery) to your muscle fibers for concentric and isometric contractions in short times, which range from 0 to 15 seconds.
3. Muscular Endurance
What is Muscular Endurance?
This is the ability of a muscle, or group of muscles, to sustain repeated contractions or to continue applying force against extenal objects and other anaerobic activities lasting less than about 90 seconds.
Why is Muscular Endurance Important?
Muscular endurance bridges the gap between muscular strength and cardiovascular endurance. To be cardiovacularly fit, you must must demonstrate muscular endurance.
Physiologically, muscular strength deals mainly with type II, fast twitch muscle fibers, muscular endurance deals mainly with type I, slow twitch fibers. Your body contains both but only anaerobic exercises which last longer than 15 seconds and less than 90 seconds strengthen your type I muscle fibers.
4. Flexibility
What is flexibility?
Flexibility is the range of motion possible for each of your joints or groups of joints.
Why is flexibility Important?
To some degree, your flexibility may determine how efficient your muscles are. Increased flexibility has also been associated with decreased risk of acute and chronic (overuse) injury.
Poor flexibility can directly effect cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance.
Physiologically, flexibility can include extra-muscular (range of motion at a joint) and intramuscular factors such as hypertonicity (knots) within the muscles themselves.
5. Body Composition
What is body Composition?
Body composition is the percentage of your body's tissues (ratio of lean mass to fat) which you exhibit.
Why is Body Composition Important?
Body composition depends on other components of physical fitness. Having a poor body composition has many negative effects on overall health such as an increased risk to variety of diseases and depression. Unhealthy lifestyle choices including lack of proper exercise and poor food choices may lead to being overweight and obese, but decreased bone mass may lead to diseases such as osteopenia and osteoporosis.
You are only as physically fit as your weakest link!
All five of the above components are interdependent upon each other. You could change the order of the above physical fitness components but not one out ranks the other. The best approach to fitness is to have a balanced fitness program including all five components being consistent with your workouts.
You can be very lean and cardiovascularly fit, but if you can't reach down to tie your shoe laces you need to work on your flexibility. If you are very strong but can't run to the corner to catch the bus without gasping for air, you need to focus on your aerobic exercise.

No comments: