COMPONENT OF PHYSICAL FITNESS

Health-related physical fitness is primarily associated with disease prevention and functional
health. Participating in regular health-related fitness helps you control your weight, prevents
diseases and illness, improves your mood, boosts energy, and promotes better sleep.
It is made up of five sections: cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular
endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
 Cardiovascular endurance is the ability of your heart, blood cells, and lungs to work
continuously for extended periods of time. This is how efficiently your body takes in,
transports, and uses oxygen while exercising. Having efficient heart and lungs leads to
increased energy throughout the day.
 Muscular strength is the maximum amount of force a muscle can produce in a single
effort or how much you can lift in one attempt. Performing exercises that use your own
body weight, free weights, or weights on a machine are excellent ways to develop
muscle strength. Having muscular strength will ensure that you have the strength
needed to lift a heavy object, for example a box full of books.
 Muscular endurance is your ability to contract your muscles several times without
excessive fatigue. Another way to think about it is the length of time your muscles can
continue to work before tiring. What this means is once you have picked up that heavy
box of books, you can then carry that box for a long period of time before you need to
take a break.
 Flexibility is the range of motion that your joints have during movement. Maintaining
flexibility can improve your performance in physical activities in addition to decreasing
your risk of injuries by helping your joints move through their full range of motion,
therefore, allowing your muscles to work most effectively. Stretching and yoga can be
done to help improve your flexibility.
 Body composition is the ratio of water, bone, muscle, and fat in the body. A healthy
body composition indicates that you may have less risk of developing obesity-related
diseases, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and even some cancers.

Skill-related physical fitness

It is the ability to perform during games and sports; It is also called performance fitness. This
type of physical fitness is important for performing the more technical aspects of many sports.
 Agility
It is the ability to change the position of your body and to control the movement of your
whole body. Agility is an important quality in many sports, because you must change
direction rapidly and always have your body under control.

 Balance
It is the ability to keep an upright posture while either standing still or moving. Good
balance in essential in many activities like skating, surfing, skiing, and gymnastics.

 Power
It is the ability to perform with strength at a rapid pace. Strength and speed are both
involved in power. Football players, swimmers, shot-putters, discus throwers, and high
jumpers are examples of athletes who typically have a high degree of power.

 Reaction Time
It is the amount of time it takes to start a movement once your senses signal the need to
move. People with good reaction time can usually start quickly in track and swimming or
react quickly in ping pong or karate.

 Coordination
It is the integration of eye, hand, and foot movements. This component is necessary for
success in such sports as baseball, softball, tennis, golf, and basketball.
  Speed
It is the ability to cover a distance in a short amount of time. Speed is a very important
factor in many sports and activities. Short runs are used to evaluate speed.

FITT Principle

The FITT Principle (or formula) is a great way of monitoring your exercise program. The
acronym FITT outlines the key components, or training guidelines, for an effective exercise
program, and the initials F, I, T, T, stand for: Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type.

 Frequency: refers to the frequency of exercise undertaken or how often you exercise.

 Intensity: refers to the intensity of exercise undertaken or how hard you exercise.

 Time: refers to the time you spend exercising or how long you exercise for.

 Type: refers to the type of exercise undertaken or what kind of exercise you do.

Frequency
Frequency is a key component of the FITT Principle. Remember that it’s important to know why
you’re exercising and what you want to achieve before rushing into any exercise program.
Adjust the number of times you exercise per week to reflect your current fitness level, the time
you realistically have available, your other commitments like family and work, and the goals
you’ve set for yourself.

Intensity
This is an extremely important aspect of the FITT Principle and is probably the hardest factor to
monitor.

Time
The time you spend exercising is also an important part of the FITT Principle. The time
dedicated to exercise usually depends on the type of exercise undertaken.

Type
Like time, the type of exercise you choose will have a big effect on the results you achieve.
That’s why it’s important to know what you want to gain from your efforts.

For example, if you’re looking to improve your cardio-vascular fitness, then exercises like
walking, jogging, swimming, bike riding, stair climbing, aerobics and rowing are very effective.

For weight loss, any exercise that using a majority of your large muscle groups will be effective.
To improve muscular strength the best exercises, include the use of free weights, machine
weights and body weight exercises like push-ups, chin-ups and dips.

The 4 Principles of Fitness Training

1. Overload Principle

To make improvements in your fitness you need to overload your body. You need to stress or
challenge the bodily system (aerobic/musculoskeletal) beyond what it is used to.

Eg. If you lift some heavy weights which are difficult to move, your body says...

"Whoa tiger! I need to get bigger, better, faster"

And that's exactly what happens. Your body changes to accommodate the challenge.
The same thing happens with your aerobic system. If you run for 20 minutes and find it difficult,
your body will make improvements while you rest. This makes it easier for you the next time you
complete the run.

BOTTOM LINE: You need to subject your body

to gradual and progressive overload. That is, make sure your workouts
slowly but surely get harder over time.

BENEFIT: You are guaranteed to improve over time.

2. Specificity Principle

Your exercise program must be specifically related to your training goals.

This means you need to overload your muscles in the best way for your particular purpose.

For example, the training you do for building a hot set of 6 pack abs is very different to the
training to improve your physical performance at martial arts.

Lets look at why...

Martial arts training: You would do many compound exercises to build strength in your whole
body. You might also do some specific strength training in your arms and shoulders because
these are frequently used for punching. You would do high reps with less weight because
muscular endurance is required. Interval training would also be important for those short bursts
of energy that are necessary whilst sparring (fighting).

Another example of specificity is: The common goal of total body fitness. Your exercise
program should be designed specifically to get you to this goal. Your exercise program for total
body fitness would include:

 Aerobic exercise/Cardio
 Flexibility
 Resistance exercises
 etc.

Many people think that by just lifting weights or running that they are building full-body-fitness.
However, in reality, a true full-body fitness program covers all bases mentioned above.

BOTTOM LINE: To achieve your fitness training goal... You need to design
your program so that you are working the specific areas of your body that
you want to improve. You also need to make sure you're exercising in the
right way (correct # sets, reps, weight etc.)

BENEFIT: You'll get specific results where you want them.

3. Individuality Principle

Remember this from school? "Everyone is different, which means everyone is special"

As sickeningly mushy as it sounds, your teachers were right.

 Everyone's body is different.

 Everyone has got different things which motivate them.
 Everyone has got different levels of exercise experience.
 Everyone has had different injuries.

This means that when you take up an exercise program, you're going to get different results
from Joe Bloggs down the road.

You may be someone who gets rapid strength gains from lifting weights. Whereas Joe might
respond well to long distance running.

I know that my body seems to love weight training. I put on muscle very quickly. But my
flexibility, on the other hand, comes a lot more slowly. I really have to work at it to get decent
gains.

BOTTOM LINE: Building your own fitness training plans is an advantage.

No-one knows your body as well as you do which means that no 'off-the-
shelf' fitness plans will be as good as anything you can build for yourself.

BENEFIT: Your plans will be perfectly suited to you.

4. Reversibility Principle- "Use it or lose it"

Were you ever really good at something when you were younger? And then years later, after
trying it again, you discovered "It just aint what it used to be"

Well then, you've experienced the principle of reversibility.

The exact same thing happens with fitness training. If you stop exercising, gradually the gains
that you initially made begin to disappear. It's a sad thing, but there's no avoiding it.

That's why it is so important to stick with your exercise programs. Sure, life throws some sticky
situations at you every now and again. But the people who keep exercising through thick and
thin are those who get the best results.

BOTTOM LINE: Plan for the worst. Build some emergency mini-workouts
which you can do when times are tough.

BENEFIT: Stops your hard-earned gains from disappearing into thin air.

The 4 principles of fitness training you just learned will strengthen your fitness plans immensely.
Use them as the foundation for all training decisions you make and you can't go wrong!