WHAT IS PHYSICAL FITNESS?
Physical fitness is a result of exercise or physical activity. It is the efficiency and capacity of your cardiovascular health, muscular strength, flexibility, as well as your overall body composition. Each of these components prove to provide different function for your body and often have separate training focuses, but they ultimately come together to provide total body function.
Compenent Concentration
The concentration on the type of physical activity or exercise programs will fluctuate as your priorities towards one of the main fitness components change. For example, training for cardiovascular fitness goals may look a lot different than training for Flexibility goals. This is not to say you can’t train multiple components at once, but to see the greatest results in one category of fitness, your program must prioritize that type of training and everything else comes secondary.
However, being physically fit doesn’t mean you are only excelling in cardiovascular fitness or only in muscular strength. All components of fitness go hand-in-hand. Yes, to train for specific fitness-related goals, you must focus more on training related to that goal, but if you are training your cardiovascular fitness, for example, building up your muscular strength or endurance will only help. The same goes for flexibility training or working towards your desired body composition.
The Fluidity of Physical Fitness
The great thing about physical fitness is its fluidity. Yes, you need to prioritize training that supports your fitness-related goals, but there may also be some overlap. I’ve touched on how training different components can go hand in hand, such as resistance training supporting cardiovascular training, but sometimes training for certain components can look similar. Take, for example, body composition and cardiovascular training. Certain training programs to improve cardio will also target a leaner body composition. Likewise different muscular strength programs may also see bulkier body compositions. These are just examples and not absolutes, but it’s important to know that different exercise routines influence different fitness components.
Unsure Where to Start?
Ultimately your fitness can be what you make it. It is all dependent on the work you put into your physical activity or exercise routine. If you are unsure where to start, or feel you’ve hit a roadblock in achieving your fitness related goals, don’t hesitate to reach out to a trainer or professional who can help tailor your exercise to achieve the success you want.