PHYSICAL FITNESS

Physical fitness is a state of health and well-being and, more specifically, the ability to
perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. It is the ability to perform daily
physical activities without getting out of breath, sore, or overly tired. Physical fitness is generally
achieved through proper nutrition, moderate-vigorous physical exercise, and sufficient rest.

The Benefits of Being Physically Active

An important part of living a long, healthy life is to say physically active. Regular physical
activity leads to a physically fit body. A certain amount of physical activity every day has been
shown to keep you healthy and lowers your risk of certain diseases. An overall reduction in the
daily activity levels of children, teens, and adults has led to an increasingly unfit population.

Exercise is an excellent way of keeping a high level of activity in your daily life. Exercise is
any physical activity that improves or maintains physical fitness. Exercise can be a formal set of
activities or be informal play. However, other everyday activities, such as raking leaves and
walking to school, can also help to keep you fit and healthy.

Five Components of Health-Related Fitness

Physical Fitness can be classified into five components. These are commonly called health-
related components of fitness. Health-related fitness describes qualities that are needed to
maintain and promote a healthy body. The five components of health-related fitness are
muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, flexibility, and body
composition

Muscular Strength is the amount of force you can put forth with your muscles. It is often
measured by how much weight you can lift. People with strength have fewer problems with
backaches and can carry out their daily tasks efficiently. Examples of muscular strength include
push-ups, weight lifting heavy weight with few repetitions, and pull-ups. Fitness testing will be
measured by doing push-ups.
 Muscular Endurance is the ability to use the muscles, which are attached to the bones,
many times without getting tired. People with good muscular endurance are likely to have better
posture, have fewer back problems, and be better able to resist fatigue than people who lack
muscular endurance. You can improve muscular endurance by lifting weights with many
repetitions or doing sit-ups. Measuring the number of sit-ups you can do correctly is used for
fitness testing.

Cardiovascular Endurance is the ability to exercise the entire body for long periods of
time. It requires a strong heart, healthy lungs, and clear blood vessels to supply the body with
oxygen. Activities to improve fitness in this area include running, swimming and aerobic dance.
A person must do the activity continuously for a minimum of 20 minutes within their target heart
rate zone. Endurance/cardiovascular activity should be done a minimum of 3 days per week.
Every other day is preferable. The mile or the pacer will measure fitness testing in this area.

Flexibility is the ability to use your joints fully. You are flexible when the muscles are long
enough and the joints are free enough to allow movement. People with good flexibility have
fewer sore and injured muscles. Stretching before and after activities will help to improve
flexibility. The sit-and-reach and the trunk lift are two tests used to measure flexibility.

Body Composition is the percentage of body weight that is fat compared to other body
tissue, such as bone and muscle. People who have a high percentage of fat are more likely to be
ill and have a higher death rate than lean people. Exercise and eating the right foods in the proper
amounts can improve body composition. Body composition can be measured using an
instrument called calipers, a specialized scale, or it can be calculated by using the body mass
index (BMI) which uses height and weight to determine your BMI.

Six Components of Skill-Related Fitness

 Skill-related fitness describes components of fitness that are important for good athletic
performance. The six components of skill-related fitness are agility, balance, coordination, speed,
power, and reaction time.

Agility is the ability to change and control the direction and position of the body while
maintaining a constant, rapid motion. For example, changing directions to hit a tennis ball.

Balance is the ability to control or stabilize the body when a person is standing still or
moving. For example, in-line skating.

Coordination is the ability to use the senses together with body parts during movement.
For example, dribbling a basketball. Using hands and eyes together is called hand-eye
coordination.

Speed is the ability to move your body or parts of your body swiftly. Many sports rely on
speed to gain advantage over your opponents. For example, a basketball player making a fast
break to perform a layup, a tennis player moving forward to get to a drop shot, a football player
out running the defense to receive a pass.

Power is the ability to move the body parts swiftly while applying the maximum force of
the muscles. Power is a combination of both speed and muscular strength. For example, fullbacks
in football muscling their way through other players and speeding to advance the ball and
volleyball players getting up to the net and lifting their bodies high into the air.

Reaction Time is the ability to reach or respond quickly to what you hear, see, or feel. For
example, an athlete quickly coming off the blocks early in a swimming or track relay, or stealing
a base in baseball.

Benefits of Being Physically Fit

1. It Can Make You Feel Happier

 Exercise has been shown to improve your mood and decrease feelings of depression,
anxiety and stress. It produces changes in the parts of the brain that regulate stress and anxiety.
It can also increase brain sensitivity for the hormone’s serotonin and norepinephrine, which
relieve feelings of depression. Additionally, exercise can increase the production of endorphins,
which are known to help produce positive feelings and reduce the perception of pain.

2. It Can Help with Weight Loss

Some studies have shown that inactivity is a major factor in weight gain and obesity. To
understand the effect of exercise on weight reduction, it is important to understand the
relationship between exercise and energy expenditure. Your body spends energy in three ways:
digesting food, exercising and maintaining body functions like your heartbeat and breathing.

3. It Is Good for Your Muscles and Bones

Exercise plays a vital role in building and maintaining strong muscles and bones. Physical
activity like weight lifting can stimulate muscle building when paired with adequate protein
intake. This is because exercise helps release hormones that promote the ability of your muscles
to absorb amino acids. This helps them grow and reduces their breakdown. As people age, they
tend to lose muscle mass and function, which can lead to injuries and disabilities. Practicing
regular physical activity is essential to reducing muscle loss and maintaining strength as you age.

4. It Can Increase Your Energy Levels

Exercise can be a real energy booster for healthy people, as well as those suffering from
various medical conditions. One study found that six weeks of regular exercise reduced feelings
of fatigue for 36 healthy people who had reported persistent fatigue.

5. It Can Reduce Your Risk of Chronic Disease

Lack of regular physical activity is a primary cause of chronic disease. Regular exercise has
been shown to improve insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular fitness and body composition, yet
decrease blood pressure and blood fat levels. In contrast, a lack of regular exercise — even in the
short term — can lead to significant increases in belly fat, which increases the risk of type 2
diabetes, heart disease and early. Therefore, daily physical activity is recommended to reduce
belly fat and decrease the risk of developing these diseases
6. It Can Help Your Brain Health and Memory

Exercise can improve brain function and protect memory and thinking skills. To begin
with, it increases your heart rate, which promotes the flow of blood and oxygen to your brain. It
can also stimulate the production of hormones that can enhance the growth of brain cells.
Moreover, the ability of exercise to prevent chronic disease can translate into benefits for your
brain, since its function can be affected by these diseases

7. It Can Help with Relaxation and Sleep Quality

Regular exercise can help you relax and sleep better. In regards to sleep quality, the
energy depletion that occurs during exercise stimulates recuperative processes during sleep.
Moreover, the increase in body temperature that occurs during exercise is thought to improve
sleep quality by helping it drop during sleep.

REFERENCES:

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Fitness Focus. (n.d.) Retrieved from
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Physical Fitness and Your Health. (2012, September 9). Retrieved from
https://www.slideshare.net/Valerieb64/physical-fitness-pdf
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