What Is Physical Fitness really all about?

 

Physical fitness is commonly used to describe the state of health and well being of a person. It is more specifically used to describe the ability to perform aspects of sports, occupations and daily activities. Physical fitness can be achieved through consistent training, proper nutrition and enough rest. Regular exercise with gradual increase in physical activity is the best suited strategy to be fit. Physical fitness refers to the ability of your body systems to work together efficiently to allow you to be healthy and perform activities of daily living. Being efficient means doing daily activities with the least effort possible.

Before the industrial revolution, fitness was defined as the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue. However, with automation and changes in lifestyles physical fitness is now considered a measure of the body's ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations.

Physical fitness is made up of 11 parts - 6 of them are health related and 5 are skill related. All of the parts are important to good performance in physical activity, including sports. The 6 parts are also related to our health, because scientists have shown that performing these activities are beneficial for promoting good health and also reduce your risk of chronic diseases. These parts of fitness are body composition, cardiorespiratory endurance, flexibility, muscular endurance, power, and strength. They also help you function effectively in daily activities.

As the name implies, skill-related physical fitness components help you perform well in sports and other activities that require motor skills. For example, speed helps you in sports such as track and field. These 5 parts of physical fitness are also linked to health but less so than the health-related components. These 5 parts are balance, coordination, speed, reaction time, and agility. For example, among older adults, balance, agility, and coordination are very important for preventing falls (a major health concern), and reaction time relates to risk for automobile accidents.

Power, formerly classified as a skill-related part of fitness, is now classified as a health-related part of fitness. A report by the independent Institute of Medicine provides evidence of the link between physical power and health. The report indicates that power is associated with wellness, higher quality of life, reduced risk of chronic disease and early death, and better bone health. Power, and activities that improve power, have also been found to be important for healthy bones in children and teens.

Physical fitness has always been an important part of life. It is theorized that when people left a hunter-gatherer lifestyle and formed fixed communities based around agriculture that physical fitness levels declined. This is not to say that levels of physical labor decreased but that the type of work undertaken was not necessarily as conducive to a general level of fitness. As such, regimented fitness regimes were either invented or became more common.

Gymnasiums which would seem familiar today began to become increasingly common in the 19th century. The industrial revolution had led to a more sedentary lifestyle for many people and there was an increased awareness that this had the potential to be harmful to health. This was a key motivating factor for the forming of a physical culture movement, especially in Europe and the USA. This movement advocated increased levels of physical fitness for men, women, and children and sought to do so through various forms of indoor and outdoor activity, and education. In many ways, it laid the foundations for modern fitness culture.