Sometimes there are as many definitions of fitness as there are people in the room!
Fitness in the physical sense is a combination of things, which individually and together make us better placed to live a healthy, enjoyable life, and reduce the risks and consequences of what life can throw at us. It's not just about strength, endurance or fat content, but a combination of all these. You might be strong but have no endurance. You might have endurance but have little flexibility. What you want to strive for is balance.
Listed below are the key components important to a good definition of fitness. Consider areas where you are strong and the areas where you are weak. Strive to improve in all these areas, because the results will permeate your overall well-being and quality of life. There are several major components of physical fitness that are divided into two groups as follows:
Those that relate to individual health
- Body Composition (a person's physical makeup of height, weight, bone girths, muscular tone and fat deposits)
- Cardiovascular Endurance (a measure of a person's aerobic capacity which is the ability of the heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to the working muscles during sustained exercise)
- Flexibility (the range of motion at each joint)
- Muscular Strength and Endurance (strength is the force or tension a muscle or muscle group can exert against a resistance, and endurance is the ability to exert the force repetitively)
Those that relate to specific skills, activities or sports
- Agility (the ability to change direction whist maintaining a fast pace)
- Balance and Coordination (balance is the ability to maintain stability whilst performing movements, and coordination is the ability to perform complex tasks requiring the execution of more than one skill simultaneously)
- Power (muscle power is the ability of a muscle to exert a large amount of force at a fast rate)
- Speed (the ability of a person to move from place to place as quickly as possible)
Hence one can be "fit for life" without being good at a sport, or vice versa. When training it is important to assess which components are needed and ensure that exercise programmes take account of them.
