Fit, For What?
Everybody wants to workout. Everybody wants to get fit. The question to ask is what does fitness mean to you? Or what are you getting fit for? When speaking about getting fit, what is your frame of reference?
These questions are obviously well answered by an athlete, professional or otherwise. They wanna achieve the peak fitness that their sport demands. But to a regular office going 30 year old or a 40 year old housewife, it isn’t that simple. Ask them this question and they’ll say, well we wish to be fit, you know, reduce the waistline a bit, get rid of the flab or my favorite, just “general fitness”.
These questions are obviously well answered by an athlete, professional or otherwise. They wanna achieve the peak fitness that their sport demands. But to a regular office going 30 year old or a 40 year old housewife, it isn’t that simple. Ask them this question and they’ll say, well we wish to be fit, you know, reduce the waistline a bit, get rid of the flab or my favorite, just “general fitness”.
So what is general fitness? Again, what is your frame of reference when you say “general fitness”?
To answer these questions let me first elaborate on the five elements that form the fitness core of the body. That way, you’ll know what to expect or how to go about with your fitness endeavors.
To answer these questions let me first elaborate on the five elements that form the fitness core of the body. That way, you’ll know what to expect or how to go about with your fitness endeavors.
1. Cardiovascular Endurance - Goes without saying, your
cardiovascular capacity and the health of your heart are directly
proportional. Simply said, the better your stamina and heart condition
the less prone you are to get a stoke. This is the first of your
elements to be looked at and a quin-essential one. The effectiveness of
every activity depends on how good your stamina is. Cardiovascular
endurance goes a long way in keeping the heart strong and healthy
thereby minimising cardiac
diseases, improving stamina and provides and
overall boost in energy, something that most of us seem to seriously lack
before we even hit 30.
2. Muscular Endurance – Muscular endurance is the capacity of your muscles to endure prolonged series of physical movements. In daily application it applies to climbing a high flight of stairs and pushing your motorbike over long distances, if need be (trust me, it happens). You can’t attain peak endurance overnight, you body has to be trained for these emergencies. Most of our daily activities essentially call for muscular endurance, like when travelling to work in the train or bus (especially if you’re standing), walking a fair distance with groceries and supplies or even while carrying your infant (especially the women).
2. Muscular Endurance – Muscular endurance is the capacity of your muscles to endure prolonged series of physical movements. In daily application it applies to climbing a high flight of stairs and pushing your motorbike over long distances, if need be (trust me, it happens). You can’t attain peak endurance overnight, you body has to be trained for these emergencies. Most of our daily activities essentially call for muscular endurance, like when travelling to work in the train or bus (especially if you’re standing), walking a fair distance with groceries and supplies or even while carrying your infant (especially the women).
4. Flexibility – Flexibility is used to define the range of motion of any joint in the body and can this factor can never be over-rated. Flexible joints can contribute towards a wider range of motion with the expenditure of minimal energy while also enhancing circulation of blood within the body. Whats more important is that the more flexibile you are, the less likely you are to get injured during any activity. Injury arises when a muscle has to expend more energy to perform a task due lack of extensibility.
3. Musculoskeletal Strength – None of us who lead a normal life can
claim to say that they never have to lift anything of decent weight
while performing your daily chores, like shopping for groceries or
supplies, shifting furniture, carrying your luggage when travelling. I
believe I needn’t say more on this area. It’s needless to say that you’d
be geared to handle the situation better if you’d accounted for
strength training in your fitness regime.
5. Ideal Body Composition – Body composition refers to the relative amount of fat to other non-fat tissues like muscle, bones etc. An ideal composition would result in the individual being healthier and finding themselves able to move more free and efficiently. Achieving the Ideal body composition can a long way in contributing to a persons overall wellness. What most imporatnt is that and ideally composed body looks great.
I hope this helps you in getting a better perspective of what fitness is and hope you can structure your workouts effectively a direction that ensures the enhancement of all five elements of your body. When designing a fitness regime or when you’re sitting with your trainer to design a fitness regime, make sure all of the above factors are accounted for.
Train ahrd. Train safe. Stay fit.
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