Sign Up for free strength training and fitness marketing tips.

Five components of physical fitness

Everybody wants to keep his or her bodies in the best possible condition. They want to feel good, look good and have tons of energy. Achieving this is never easy, it takes months of hard work and dedication and then maintenance work once results have been achieved. Understanding the five components of physical fitness is essential in helping you to achieve the fitness levels your body deserves.

The five components of physical fitness consist of: muscular endurance, muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, body fat percentage and flexibility. It is important that all of these components are worked on simultaneously. One is not more important than the other in achieving fitness. One factor also contributes to the success of the other factors.

Muscular endurance, the first of the five components of physical fitness relates to the amount of time you are able to maintain a flexed muscle or how long you can exert a single muscle contraction. The higher your muscular endurance, the longer you will be able to maintain a flexed muscle state without becoming tired or feeling a great deal of pain. Partaking of particular cardiovascular activities such as cycling, jogging or yoga can enhance your muscular endurance. You cab start off with low resistance training and activities and slowly begin to increase the difficulty of your chosen activity.

The second of the five components of physical fitness is muscular strength. This depends on the amount of pressure a muscle can exert during a contraction. The greater the pressure, the greater your muscular strength and the fitter you probably are. Muscular strength can be enhanced by weight training. “Training” of this kind can also be achieved in everyday life by taking the stairs or lifting heavy parcels.

Cardiovascular endurance is another of the five components of physical fitness. This involves exercises that increase your heart rate and the rate at which you breath. Cardiovascular endurance measures the rate at which you circulatory and respiratory systems are able to carry oxygen to your muscles as well as the rate at which these same systems are able to dispel of waste products. These exercised such as bicycling or swimming do not have to be strenuous and it is digested that you begin slowly and gently increase the difficulty level as you become fitter.

The fourth aspect of the five components of physical fitness is flexibility. This can be measured in many ways but represents the amount of movement possible from a particular joint in your body. This kind of flexibility does not only depend on your joints alone, but also mainly on the flexibility of your muscles. Flexible muscles will prevent you from becoming stiff and sore after a workout and can be achieved by proper stretching before and after exercise.

Your body fat percentage makes up the final part of the five components of physical fitness. This measures how much of your total body mass is made of fat and how much of muscle. The higher the muscle percentage and lower the fat percentage, the fitter you are. This measure is a better indication of how fit you are than weighing yourself on the scale because muscle weighs more than fat.