What Are the Four Components of Physical Fitness?

An individual is never in top shape unless they have a well-rounded exercise program that allows them to improve flexibility, muscular strength and endurance, cardiovascular endurance and their overall body composition. If any one of these four components of fitness are left out of an individual’s lifestyle they are not in peak physical condition.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance

Cardiorespiratory endurance is important because it has to do with the body’s ability to supply the muscles with oxygen during physical activity. Possessing good cardiorespiratory endurance allows you to work out or participate in physical activity for a longer period of time without becoming fatigued. This is the reason that people who are out of shape have a hard time exercising for very long when they first begin an exercise program. To achieve a good level of cardiorespiratory endurance, be sure that you’re participating in cardiovascular activities such as swimming or jogging a few times per week.

Muscular Fitness

Muscular fitness includes muscular strength along with muscular endurance so some refer to it simply as muscular fitness. Muscular strength refers to the ability of lifting a heavy amount of weight just one time where muscular endurance has to do with the ability of lifting a lighter weight multiple times. It’s important to have a good balance of both muscular strength and endurance to maintain a good level of fitness. To improve muscular fitness, it’s important to make sure resistance training is included in your regular workout program. Train your major muscle groups with both heavy weight and lighter weight to achieve good muscular fitness.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the most often overlooked component of fitness. A person’s flexibility is determined by the range of motion they have around a group of joints or a single joint in the body. Flexibility can be improved with stretching and activities like yoga and pilates. Good flexibility can help prevent stiffness in the muscles and injuries too.

Body Composition

If you possess good cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle fitness, and flexibility it’s likely that your body composition will also be in a healthy range. Body composition has to do with how much fat you have in your body in comparison to the amount of lean mass that your body has. We all know what body fat is but lean mass refers to all of the other mass that makes up the body. This includes muscle mass, bone mass, and bodily organs. The lower your body fat percentage is the better. When people have a high amount of body fat it’s very dangerous because it causes all of the major organs in the body such as the heart and lungs to work much harder than they should. If the body’s major organs are being overworked it creates added stress which can result in serious illness, disease, or even death.

When an individual has a good mix of these four components of fitness included in their exercise program it greatly reduces their risk of injury and helps to keep all of the muscles in good balance. While it may be difficult to balance everything equally, if you’re working on all four components you’ll be in pretty good shape.

Resources

Education.com: “Components of Physical Fitness” https://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Physical_Everyone/

Buzzle.com “5 Main Components of Physical Fitness” https://www.buzzle.com/articles/5main-components-of-physical-fitness.html