Pages

Components of Fitness explained!

Their are 7 components of fitness! these components of fitness are..
  1. Flexibility
  2. Strength
  3. Aerobic Endurance
  4. Speed
  5. Power
  6. Muscular Endurance
  7. Body Composition

Flexibility!




Flexibility refers to the ability to move joints through their entire range of motion, from a flexed to an extended position. (http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/flexibilityandstretching/a/Flexibility.htm) Flexibility is a really important component of fitness however, not all sports require the same amount of flexibility. This is because for example if you are a swimmer you will need good flexibility in your shoulders so that you can generate more speed using your arms by rotating your arms or for example cyclists wouldn’t use much hip flexibility like people that do activities such as hurdles.

Flexibility benefits you in many ways some of these ways are; posture, reduce back pain, improve digestion and, improve your performance. You should stretch around 3 times a week at least and should hold a stretch around 30 seconds in order to make it effective. While stretching you should breathe in deep show that the muscles that are elongated can have enough oxygen. 

Strength!

"Strength is the ability to move a maximum weight. It can also be described as the maximum amount of force that a muscle can generate in a single effort." (http://www.sports-training-adviser.com/fitnesscomponents.html). By doing strength exercises not only your strength will increase but also your muscles will go through a process called muscular hypertrophy which simply means that the size of your muscles will increase. Also strength is a really beneficial component of fitness to have not only in sports but also in everyday life. For example when we are lifting a object up or when we are doing shopping and lifting the shopping bags up etc.
Strength makes life easier for you at the gym.. at home.. and EVERYWHERE you go!








Aerobic Endurance!

Aerobic endurance is the amount of time you can workout or do an aerobic activity without getting tired. In other words it is your stamina. Aerobic Endurance is one of the main fitness components” (http://www.topendsports.com/fitness/aerobic.htm). Many sports use your aerobic endurance for example activities such as marathon running use your aerobic endurance a lot because you use a lot of oxygen to be able to supply your muscles with all the oxygen they need so that they can function properly without getting tired too quick. However, remember that aerobic endurance improves your stamina which means that if your aerobic endurance is quite good then this will help you with everyday life also. This is because you might be doing activities such as walking to work etc which stamina will help you and you wont get as tired.



Speed!

“Speed is the ability of an athlete to move as fast as possible, through the optimal range of motion, in a deliberate and intentional manner, in a particular direction." (http://www.2athletes.com/Skills/Speed/speed-training-in-sports.html). Speed is a really important aspect in many sports however, speed is not only useful in sports such as sprinting but also in other sports. For example a sprinter would use muscle contractions from the legs to gain speed however, a table tennis player would use lots of his muscles in his arms to be able to be fast enough to hit back the ball. 
We use speed in everyday life for example when something drops of the table or couch and we try to catch it we call this reaction time however we use speed for this action or for example when we are running for a bus that will take you to school etc. This shows us that speed is beneficial mainly in sports however we could link it to small things in everyday life.








Power!


"Power is the ability of muscle to release maximum force in the shortest period of time." (http://www.articlesbase.com/wellness-articles/every-fitness-components-805124.html). Power can be used in many different sports for example a thrower in baseball, a basket ball player while jumping, a boxer would use power in a single punch or a football kick and so on. Power is a really important aspect in our everyday life because it will benefit us in many ways for example when lifting heavy objects at home or when your going for a walk and you want to jump over something or up something you will need power to carry many actions out. However, power in sport is really important because sometimes it can be the key to success for example in boxing without power you wont be able to carry out the final punch to finish the fight. 






Muscular Endurance!

“Muscle endurance refers to the ability of a muscle to perform a continuous effort without fatiguing. Cycling, step machines and sit up tests are often used to measure muscular endurance.” (http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/body-building/the-5-components-of-physical-fitness.html). Endurance exercises will with no doubt improve your health and improves your ability of performing every day life activities' making life easier for you. This is because endurance activities will improve your cardiac muscle, respiratory system and your circulatory system. While your endurance improves your stamina will increase allowing you to perform certain activities for a long period of time without getting fatigued too quickly. Improved endurance may also prevent you from getting heart-diseases, such as, colon cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases and prevent you from getting strokes. Every single one of you should do some muscular endurance exercises at least 30 minutes each day or every other day.

Body Composition!


"For many athletes, this is an area that they concentrate on to reach an optimal body shape for their sport. Consequently, many training or exercise programs are geared solely to modify body size and composition in some way." (http://www.topendsports.com/fitness/body-composition.htm). Many different training methods and exercises will change your body composition which means that your muscle and fat distributions will be different. You will start to see change in weight however, exercise wont increase or decrease your height so don't try working out forever thinking that you will get taller! 
If you think about it you will realise yourself that if your body composition is right then this will benefit in everyday life making every activity that you do less tiring. However, if you find that you are quite obese many everyday actions will be more difficult for example when walking up stairs you will get more tired or walking to the shop up a hill you will also get tired quickly.
Don't get the wrong idea that to be healthy an active you need to get rid of all the fat in your body because that is completely wrong! Their always has to be some fat in our body because fat has quite a few functions in our body such as being used for energy, protects internal organs and also "regulates hormones that perform various functions in body regulation" (http://weightloss.about.com/od/backtobasics/f/bodycomp.htm).