Maintaining a good level of physical fitness is important. However, it can be difficult to determine what fitness entails. Various components of physical health can help determine physical fitness.
Experts define physical fitness as “one’s ability to execute daily activities with optimal performance, endurance, and strength with the management of disease, fatigue, and stress and reduced sedentary behavior.”
This description goes beyond being able to run quickly or lift heavy weights. Despite being important, these attributes only address single areas of fitness.
This article provides details of the five main components of physical fitness.
Cardiorespiratory performance
Cardiorespiratory endurance indicates how well the body can supply fuel during physical activity via the body’s circulatory and respiratory systems.
Activities that help improve cardiorespiratory endurance are those that cause an elevated heart rate for a sustained period of time.
These activities include:
- swimming
- brisk walking
- jogging
- cycling
People who regularly engage in these activities are more likelyTrusted Source to be physically fit in terms of cardiorespiratory endurance. It is important to begin these activities slowly and gradually increase the intensity over time.
Exercising increases cardiorespiratory endurance in a number of ways. For example, the heart muscle becomes stronger so that it is able to pump more blood per heartbeat.
- Maintaining good physical fitness can help prevent some conditions.
- With exercise, body composition can change without changing weight.
- Athletes’ hearts show different changes depending on their chosen sport.
Although the heart steadily strengthens over time, the respiratory system does not adjust to the same degree. Lung size does not change, but the lungs do use oxygen more effectivelyTrusted Source.
In general, exercise encourages the body to become more efficient at taking on, distributing, and using oxygen. Over time, this improvement increases endurance and overall health
