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There are a number of components of physical fitness that are important to maintain. These components can be understood in two different categories – health related components and skill related components. It is important to maintain some form of fitness to keep your body healthy. After all, we have been told so often that a healthy body is a healthy mind.

The components of physical fitness that fall into the category of health related components are the following – cadiorespiratory or aerobic endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility and body composition. Aerobic endurance is simply your ability to perform moderate strenuous exercise over a period of time. This will give you a good idea as to how well your heart and lungs are working together and ensuring that your body is receiving blood and oxygen while you are exercising.

Muscular endurance and strength are also important components of physical fitness. Muscular endurance can be measured by your ability to hold a position over a period of time, or repeat a specific movement a number of times.

Muscular strength is measured by your ability to exert a force by lifting the heaviest weight you physically can. Both muscular endurance and strength are important components of physical fitness and should be checked up on regularly.

Flexibility is another vital components of physical fitness. Your flexibility can be measured by your ability to move a specific joint through its full range of motion without any physical discomfort. This is in a sense, the elasticity of your muscle, and will define how supple you are. Flexibility is something you can improve on, and something you should improve on. Being supple, will prevent your body from sustaining any injuries whilst working on the other components of physical fitness.

Your body composition is part of the many components of physical fitness and can be understood as the ratio of body fat to lean body mass. This is made up of your muscles, bones and even the water that is retained by your body. However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that your body composition is simply referring to your weight or even your figure.

The skill related components of physical fitness are equally important to your over-all fitness. Speed is the first component that is important. Your speed is determined by your ability to move as quickly as you can from one point to another. Agility is the second component, where it is determined by your ability to change your body’s direction as quickly as possible. Although speed and agility can be interpreted as the same components of physical fitness, it is important that they remain separate when exercising.

The remaining components of physical fitness are balance, co-ordination, reaction time and power. Each component is equally important. The safest way in which to ensure that you do not sustain any injuries while exercises, is by working on each component of physical fitness individually. It is important that you build up your strength slowly. Do not rush! But if you are already at the peak of physical fitness, then you must maintain it and keep on with your exercises in the individual components of physical fitness.