5 ASPECTS OF COMPLETE FITNESS

Are you only walking or only doing Yog/dance/weights for exercise? Choosing to do only one type of exercise improves only some aspects of fitness and does not develop overall fitness. Let’s find out the 5 fitness components you should work on to get well rounded, balanced physical fitness.

I should point out that I am going to focus on 'Health related physical fitness' in particular. What do I mean by that? Is there any other type of physical fitness? Isn't everyone trying to improve his health and maintain body weight? Yes, it's true that all of us hope to get better physique and health after regular exercise. But the type of exercise and how much we will exercise will depend on our specific goals. E.g., an athlete is looking to improve her performance in a sport and will have to engage in fitness goals which challenge her limits. Therefore, the intensity of her workouts will be much higher than an average person. She will also need to focus on practising some special skills which are required for her sport e.g. components such as speed, agility, balance and coordination in addition to the 'health related fitness components'. 

However, most of us are working out to improve our functional fitness. We want to develop enough strength and stamina to do our day-to-day activities better and also maintain overall health and body weight. Therefore, our workout will look different than that of an athlete. 

So here are the 5 components of 'health related physical fitness’ that we should include in our workout: -

1] CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE	It's the capacity of our heart, lungs and blood vessels to supply enough blood to the exercising muscles. This component is what we refer to as our 'stamina'. We can improve our cardiovascular endurance by regular walking, jogging, dancing, swimming etc.
2] MUSCULAR STRENGTH	Muscular strength indicates the maximum weight our muscle is capable of lifting. It's the maximum force a muscle can produce. Better muscular strength will make the bones stronger, improve the shape our body and reducing inches for fat loss. We can work on this fitness component by including weight training in our fitness regime.
3] MUSCULAR ENDURANCE	Muscular endurance is the capacity of a muscle to keep contracting and relaxing without taking a break. This tells us how many repetitions a muscle can do without getting tired. This is also a type of 'stamina'. Having good muscular endurance avoids muscle fatigue. We can improve our muscular endurance by including weight training to our fitness regime.
4] FLEXIBILITY	Good flexibility is the capacity of a joint to perform an action through the complete range of motion. It tells us if all the joints and the muscles move and stretch normally as we do our work. Maintaining good flexibility is very important to avoid injury while doing various actions all through the day. Stretching all the joints and muscles regularly will improve flexibility.
5] BODY COMPOSITION	A healthy body composition is to have a balanced ratio of lean body mass and fat mass in the body. We want to have more lean mass (bones, muscles, other organs) in the body than the fat. This will improve the shape of the body and reduce the risk of  heart disease.

    There are many combinations of exercises one can try, to include these components in the workout. If you are working out on your own, consult a qualified fitness trainer and get a fitness routine customized for yourself. You can always change it after a few weeks or months. This approach will also help you to make overall health as your priority and not just fixate on weight. To develop a body which is healthy, strong and energetic we should ensure that we work on all these components every week. This is important no matter what age you are as we need all these attributes for our daily life.

    Before I end, I want to congratulate all those who are doing some type of any type of physical activity regularly. Whether you are already exercising or not, give this article a careful read and try to improve your fitness regime. Happy Exercising and remember my mantra:

'WHEN IT COMES TO EXERCISE BEING REGULAR IS MOST IMPORTANT'

AT A GLANCE