Total Body Fitness: Why All 5 Components of Physical Fitness Matter

Do this exercise! Drink this smoothie! Cut out sugars! Do weights, not cardio!

Are you tired of all the fitness and health advice floating around out there? I’m sure you’ve come to realize that there is no one answer when it comes to achieving optimal health.

Whether you are looking to lose weight, tone down, or just feel healthier and happier, there is no one perfect way to reach these goals.

However, you can better work with your own body in determining what will be successful for you by understanding the five components of physical fitness!

What Are the 5 Components of Physical Fitness?

1. Muscular Strength

Muscular strength is what gives your body “power” and helps you lift and carry things. Without it, your body would not be able to keep up with physical demands.

You can increase your muscular strength by using weights – even at home! Start by using a weight that leaves your muscles feeling tired about 3 sets of 15 reps. Once you start to build strength, increase the weight.

2. Muscular Endurance

While muscular strength is how much your muscles can do, muscle endurance refers to how long you can do it for. For example, muscle strength refers to how much weight you can lift while endurance is how long you can lift it.

You can also increase your muscular endurance through weightlifting with light weights and increasing the reps as you build that endurance.

3. Cardio Endurance

Cardio endurance refers to your cardiovascular system and how well your lungs and heart can keep up with physical activities such as walking, running, and cycling for an extended period of time.

This is important for your overall health because your heart and lungs provide your body and muscles with oxygen.

You can improve your cardiovascular endurance by doing exercises that increase your heart rate within a healthy range.

4. Flexibility

Flexibility is an often overlooked component of physical fitness – but a very important one!

Being flexible prevents your muscles and joints from becoming stiff and your movements from becoming limited. Improving your flexibility will improve your overall range of motion.

You can test your flexibility by leaning forward and trying to touch your toes – or sit on the floor and reach toward your toes. The closer you are to touching your toes, the more flexible you are.

One of the best exercises for increasing your flexibility is yoga but stretching exercises will work as well.

5. Body Fat

When it comes to physical fitness, body fat refers to the amount of fat on your body. This number helps to determine your overall level of fitness.

For example, men are considered fit if they have less than 17% body fat, and for women, that number is 24%.

Exercise is often not enough to lower your body fat percentage, although it certainly does help. The best thing you can do to lower your body fat is to maintain a healthy and balanced diet by counting your calories.

Why Do All Of These Components of Physical Fitness Matter?

So, we’ve talked about what the five components of physical fitness are but why do they matter?

All too often, fitness and diet programs tout miracle weight loss methods by performing particular “miracle” exercises or drinking a “miracle” drink.

The truth is, our bodies are a system and each part of the system relies on the other. Understanding the components of physical fitness can improve your overall health as well as help you achieve your fitness goals and prevent injuries.

By knowing the importance of each component, you can now create a workout routine that will maximize your time and effort. You can focus on improving one component at a time until you achieve overall health.

Or, you can focus on all five regularly by performing total body workouts.

The choice is yours!

How to Maintain Overall Physical Fitness

You can maintain overall physical fitness not only by focusing on the five components but also by making healthy changes in your life, such as:

Exercising Daily

The more you exercise, the more changes you will see in a shorter period of time. That being said, you don’t have to follow the recommended advice of exercising every day for an hour.

Not all of us have that kind of time!

Instead, find enjoying exercises that you can easily fit into your schedule and aim to do them every day. You’ll find that, over time, you’ll be able to fit in more reps or increase the intensity of your workout without dedicating more time to it.

Eating the Right Foods

As much as we would all love to simply sweat off excess pounds and get in shape through exercise, total weight loss is 80% based on what you eat.

Exercising is a great way to build strength and endurance, but you won’t achieve overall health if you eat unhealthy foods.

Think of a car: You can pretty it up and make it look fancy with all kinds of upgrades. But, if you are sticking water in the gas tank, it’s not going to work.

But before you completely revamp your diet remember: Eating healthy is a lifestyle. In order to make sustainable changes to your lifestyle, you have to start small.

Begin by incorporating more fresh foods into your meals. Add more vegetables, lean meats, and seafood and slowly start to phase out processed carbs and sugars.

A great way to get our eating on track when it comes to portions is to try the CICO method. This simply involves counting calories and limiting your calories based on your size and goals.

Getting Enough Sleep

Unfortunately, we live in a society that praises busyness and paints rest and relaxation as laziness.

However, your body needs sleep! And it’s not just to recharge your batteries – when you sleep, your body repairs itself and recalibrates your entire system for the next day.

Without sleep, your body will more easily get stressed out which produces a hormone called cortisol. While little bursts of cortisol during the day are normal, excessive cortisol can stall your physical fitness goals and make it harder to lose weight and get in shape.

How much sleep is required for overall health varies from person to person. While 6-8 hours is adequate for most, you may require more or less.

To know if you are getting enough sleep, pay attention to how you feel in the morning. If you are excessively sluggish, it’s likely that you didn’t get enough.

Staying Motivated

Getting on track to being healthier and happier can be a struggle but it’s important to set goals and keep a positive mindset!

Start small and set your goals in increments. For example, instead of starting to count calories and exercise every day right from the hop, try to count calories for a week and exercise for two days.

Give yourself praise when you accomplish these smaller goals and increase your expectations little by little.

Overall Health = Overall Happiness

If there’s one thing the world of fitness can agree on, it’s that a healthier person is a happier person. Overall health will give you more energy and decrease your stress so you can lead your best life!

By understanding the five components of physical fitness, you can now go forth and find a lifestyle that works for you.

Just stay motivated and you will notice positive changes over time!

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