The 5 components of physical fitness

Cardiorespiratory or Aerobic Endurance

Aerobic endurance measures the ability of your heart and lungs to support moderately strenuous activity over a long period of time. It reflects your body's ability to efficiently pull oxygen out of the air and deliver it to the working muscles. Many factors are involved including capillary density in your lungs, red blood cell count, stroke volume of each heart beat, and more. If you feel "out of breath" when you try to jog a mile and moderate speed, you are feeling the effects of limited aerobic endurance. Learn more about aerobic actvity here.

Muscular Endurance

Think long distance running, rowing, biking when you picture muscular endurnace. It refers to the ability to repeatedly contract your muscles over long periods of time. Push up and sit up tests are another example of muscular endurance in action.

Muscular Strength

Muscular strength is an aspect of fitness that measures your ability to exert maximum force, such as in a 1 repitition maximum lift. This is a localized quality, meaning that it's possible to have high strength in your upper body for instance, and relatively low strength in the lower body. You train for muscular strength by lifting weights or by performing some bodyweight exercises. To train this component of physical fitness most effectively you would work in the 2 to 5 rep range.

Flexibility

Flexibility refers to your ability to move a joint through a proper range of motion and it's related to the elasticity of the muscle and tendons. This is by far the most overlooked aspect of the 5 components of physical fitness. The reason is that you can't see the result in the mirror, and let's face it most people want to look better for their efforts in the gym.

Body Composition

Body composition is a phrase used to describe body fat percentage. You body fat percentage is the proportion of fat in your body as compared to the total weight that includes bone, muscle, connective tissues, fluids, and fat. A fit range for men is between 10-16%, and for women it's more like 15-21%. Inreased levels of body fat have been linked to heart disease and stroke.

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Reference: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Physical activity and health: a report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion; 1996 You can get the entire 300 page report here.

The Benefits of Physical Fitness

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