Understanding The Components Of Physical Fitness

As you get ready to build your workout program, it’s important to spend some time thinking about the components of physical fitness so you can be sure you have all areas covered and are going to get the best results from your program.

Many people neglect one of the components of physical fitness and this very often leads them wondering why they are not reaching their goals. In order to have both well rounded fitness performance as well as optimal health, all must be included.

Here are the four main components of physical fitness that you must touch upon.

Strength Training

The first important aspect that your workout program must include is strength training. Performing weight lifting exercises on a regular basis will help to strengthen the muscles, bones, and ligaments, preventing injuries from taking place and making it easier to complete the everyday activities you do regularly.

Since we normally lose muscle mass as we age, it becomes incredibly important for older individuals to pursue a good resistance training program at least three days a week. It doesn’t take that much time – as little as twenty minutes each workout, to see very good benefits from this type of activity.

Cardiovascular Exercise

The next important component of physical fitness is cardiovascular exercise. The main health benefits you’ll receive from this include increased circulation, improved cardiovascular fitness, decreased blood pressure, as well as a decreased resting heart rate.

Cardiovascular exercise such as walking, jogging, swimming, biking, or rowing also helps to boost your energy levels over the long term, so while it may feel hard getting started, once you do begin doing it regularly, the rewards will be well worth it.

Agility and Balance

Third up on our list of the components of physical fitness is agility and balance training. While you will definitely maintain some degree of balance simply by exercising regularly, you may also want to take some time out to work on this aspect of fitness as well.

You could perform such exercises as balancing on one leg, doing walking lunges (which will test your balance) or doing more of your workout on an exercise ball to improve agility.

This will be especially important for those individuals who are participating in sporting activities, since often balance and agility will be tested and reflect in their performance level.

Stretching and Flexibility

Finally, the last of the components of physical fitness that you should incorporate into your workouts is stretching and flexibility. Having a good range of motion as you get older is important so that you aren’t limited with what you are able to do physically and also so you reduce your risk of injuries.

Flexibility training is something that must be done on a regular basis, so aim to complete ten minutes five days a week. You can do your daily stretching at any point in the day – after a workout, during commercial breaks, or even while talking on a cordless phone; just be sure that you do a gentle warm-up first so as to prevent tearing a muscle tendon or ligament.

If you create a program around all four of these components of physical fitness, you should get the best results and see noticeable changes in how you’re feeling in a few weeks time.

Author

This article was written for Insights-on-Health.com by Shannon C, a certified personal trainer as well as a freelance writer who researches and writes on various topics.