What is being fit?

What does it mean to be fit? What does fit mean to you? What is fit?

For many of us, being fit means maintaining a healthy weight with diet and exercise.

In biological terms, “being fit” means “being able to provide for one’s own life and wellbeing; the fittest are those who can do so the best.”  Now that’s a little closer to what we should be working towards.  Not just being fit to the point of sufficiency, but being the fittest

So, my question is: What can you do to be the fittest you can be, or to obtain the best quality of life possible?

There is five components of physical fitness.  That’s right, there are five.  Not just “fitting into my favorite jeans or mini skirt,” “being able to run a marathon or fun run,” or “bench pressing twice my body weight.” 

Being fit should include;

Body Composition: This refers to the relative amount of muscle, fat, bone, and other vital parts of the body. Body composition can provide a better evaluation of overall health than weight or BMI alone, so it is important to maintain a level of body fat that is neither too low, nor too high.

A variety of body fat measurement tools exist including calipers and bio-electrical impedance devices, and although some are more accurate and expensive than others, all can help you monitor changes.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance: Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of the body’s circulatory and respiratory systems to supply fuel during physical activity.  This means being able to sustain an elevated heart rate.  Activities like walking, swimming, and bicycling will all lead to improvement, and the good news is that the activity you choose does not necessarily have to be strenuous (at least initially).

My tip for you is to choose an activity you enjoy and start slowly, increasing the intensity and duration over time.

Flexibility: Flexibility is the range of motion around a joint.  Maintaining good flexibility helps protect the muscles and joints from injury in all kinds of activity.  A basic stretching program, such as 10-15 minutes of light stretching for the upper body, lower body, and core after a workout, may be all you need to improve this oft-neglected fitness component.  Yoga and Pilates classes can also add more structure to your flexibility program.

My tip for you for improving flexibility is to make time for it! Add 10 minutes to the end of your workout to stretch or take 10-minute walking/stretching breaks at work.

Muscular Endurance: Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscle to continue to perform without fatigue.  You can improve muscular endurance by doing sustained activities such as walking, swimming, or bicycling.  When it comes to weight training, completing longer sets (12-25 repetitions) would be considered working in the endurance range.

My tip for you is to look for opportunities to activate and engage your muscles outside of your fitness session or program -   For example, walk to the grocery store and flex those biceps by carrying groceries ; ) 

Muscular Strength: Muscular strength is the ability of the muscles to exert force during an activity.  This means using your muscles against a resistance, whether that comes in the form of a dumbbell, resistance band, or your own body weight against gravity.

My tip for you is to take the stairs when you can, or do some pushups during TV commercial breaks.

To be truly totally fit, we need to focus on all five components of physical fitness, not only with this make us healthier overall BUT we will have a reduced risk of injury and disease prevention in the long run. 

This is therefore why I run outdoor fitness sessions- my fitness session's include all the areas we should be focusing on, wheather it's our body weight, the extra Weight plates, Dumbells, Battle Ropes or Resistance Bands I bring along or your cardiorespiratory or flexibility you need to improve- Im here to help!.... So what are you waiting for, get out there and get FIT!