Introduction
When coming up with an exercise regime, you need to know “what are the critical components of physical fitness?” Each of them has specific training effects and hence the reason to combine them for excellent results. According to experts, physical fitness varies from one person to another, but they include aerobic endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, body composition, and flexibility.
Your overall physical fitness is defined by how much you perform each of these physical components. You have to combine all of them for maximum benefits. Here is a close look at each of them.
Aerobic Endurance
Aerobic endurance is also known as cardiorespiratory fitness. This fitness component works on the heart, blood vessels, and the lungs. The exercises help to enhance the flow of oxygen in the body and assist in the removal of toxins.
Aerobic endurance includes physical activities with dynamic, repetitive, and prolonged movements where the body uses groups of major muscles. Some of the activities to engage in for aerobic endurance are cycling, jogging, walking, hiking, and swimming.
Muscular Strength
Muscular strength is the same as muscular strength and keeps the muscles fit; this component focuses on training the neurovascular system by applying force on the tissue. All workouts for muscular strength are repetitive. You strengthen the muscles by lifting weight repeatedly and examples of these exercises are loaded squats, bench press, and leg press.
To get the best results, you must work out various parts of the body. If you concentrate, one area will gain muscular strength while the others remain weak.
Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance refers to your muscle’s ability to resist fatigue during training. In simple words, it’s how long your muscles hold a specific position or repeat a given movement without breaking down. It takes repetitions to gain muscle endurance.
A lighter weight is used than for muscular strength, but the repetition and prolonged contraction gives you the strength. In fact, weights as light as two pounds can be used. You can hold for five minutes or lift to 20 times, and by the time you are through, your muscle’s endurance will be maximized. Some examples of these workouts are sit-ups, pull-ups, and push-ups. But they must be done until it is completely fatigued.
Muscular strength is important in your daily for tasks such as lifting or moving things. Besides your lengths need power to walk and the core muscles must be strong to support the body.
Flexibility
Flexibility refers to the smooth movement of joints. This fitness component prevents the imbalance of muscles while keeping the joints flexible. The common ways of enhancing flexibility are dynamic stretching and static stretching. In static stretching, you hold for between 30 and 60 seconds and for dynamic stretches you hold on for few seconds but repeat several times. Stretching increases the heart rate depending on the type of training you engage in, but mostly it remains in the standard rate or just a slightly above.
Body Composition
Body composition is about fat and lean muscle ratio in the body. You are in better health when the fat mass is lower than your muscle, organs, bones, and other parts. It is measured in different ways, including the underwater weighing and biomedical impedance. Underwater weighing is not common, but you can use what is available to keep fit and lower or eliminate unhealthy fat.
The size of the body does not tell how much fat one has. A good example is a person weighing 100 pounds. If this person has 25% fat, the rest, which is 75% is lean mass. For you to be fit, you should at least have the following the following:
- If you are male, your fat composition should be lower than 17%
- Women should have less than 24% body fat composition.
However, an average male usually has body fat between 18% and 24% and the average female has between 25% and 31%.
The above five components of fitness keep you healthy and improve your performance in different activities and sports. You can set goals and work towards achieving them. It will bring out a change on your physical look while working on your body to strengthen and lower body fat. This is a choice you can make, and if not sure, you can look for professional help. A doctor will advise you on the best fitness components to incorporate in your life.
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