5 Components of Physical Fitness

When talking about health there are 5 components of physical fitness. These 5 components account for the different body processes that are strengthened by different exercises. Some exercises only strengthen one of the five components, while others work on several.

The first component of physical fitness is cardiorespiratory endurance. This is a big fancy term for explaining how efficiently our bodies transports oxygen and nutrients to various places in the body. These nutrients and oxygen are used for waste removal, and muscular activity. Doing exercises that keep your heart rate up will help improve your cardiorespiratory endurance over time.

The next component is muscular strength. Most people know what muscular strength is and most people have tried to improve their strength at one point or another. Muscular strength is simply the weight a particular muscle group is capable of handling in one single effort. Improving muscular strength has the benefit of making you stronger and also makes you body more efficient at burning fat!

Muscular endurance is similar to muscular strength, the only difference being that endurance has to do with how long you can handle weight instead of how much. The best way to increase muscular endurance is to slowly build up to your goal. Trying to do too much too fast will result in injury so be careful!

Flexibility is one of the 5 components of physical fitness that is often overlooked. The range of motion that you are able to move through with a certain muscle group can be vital to a healthy body. It doesn't matter how strong you are if you can't bed over to pick up a weight! Simple stretching exercises will increase your flexibility over time. There are some routines like yoga that will also help increase your flexibility.

Last, but certainly not least, is body composition. This measures the amount of fat you have in relation to your total body mass. Having too much fat can cause problems in nearly every system in the human body. Exercising will help to keep your fat levels at a healthy ratio while also strengthening the rest of your body.