5 Essential Components Health Related Fitness

What are the five areas of fitness? The 5 basic components of physical fitness not in order of importance are as follows:


Composition: The things your body is composed of in relation to one another. Usually when talking about fitness it refers to the amount of fat in relation to the rest of your body components like muscle, bone, etc. There are various ways to measure this percentage or relation, some more accurate than others. Ask your doctor or fitness trainer to show you how to do a simple calculation


Strength: Physical strength is mainly determined by muscles. Though other factors apply, how strong you are is essentially a measure of what your muscles can do over a short period of time. For example, lifting a weight or doing a bench press with a weight bar. To do repeated weight lifting over an extended time period verges on another one of the 5 dimensions of health.


Endurance: This usually refers to body movement which can also involve the heart and lungs or cardiovascular system. The muscles are of course involved as well since they are needed for body movement but the period of time is longer than the strength component. There is naturally some cross over between strength and endurance.


Endurance is usually broken down into two types. Muscular endurance and cardio endurance. Muscular is usually dealing with body movement that takes under a couple of minutes whereas cardio is usually over a couple of minutes and triggers higher heart rates.


Flexibility: Often referred to as range of motion of the limbs and joints of the human body. Many aches and pains are associated with lack of flexibility. Lower back pain is often caused by a tightening of central body area of modern humans thought to be caused partially by the large amount of sitting we do over the course of a lifetime. Flexibility also can effect cardio performance and hence muscles and strength. Don’t under estimate the importance of flexibility.


There you have it, the 5 components of physical fitness. Keep these in mind when you plan any type of exercise routine or fitness plan or even daily activities.