Everyone has an idea about what “fit” must look like because some people define physical fitness as having a sleek body, while others define fitness as having a perfect hourglass figure or big muscles. However, fitness is not defined by the body shape or appearance as there are 5 components of physical fitness that one should consider to reach the total fitness level.
One can determine its total fitness by analyzing who well they perform in each component of physical fitness. It is not about how well you can lift weights in the bench press, as you also need to determine how well you can perform while running a mile or two. So, let us dive into those physical fitness components.
- Cardiovascular Endurance
The lungs and heart can pump oxygenated blood throughout the body to provide fuel during sustained workloads. For instance, jogging, swimming, running, cycling, etc., would require instant oxygen to fuel the body and make it sustain the workload for a more extended period. Therefore, one can test its cardiovascular endurance abilities through a cooper run, which is mostly used to test the heart and lungs’ performance.
- Muscular Strength
It refers to the amount of force that a muscle fiber can produce, and to measure your muscle strength; one should consider a push test that means in which your muscle contract and relax during a particular movement. For instance, bicep curls, leg extension, bench press, triceps press down, etc., would help in determining muscle health.
- Muscle Endurance
It refers to the muscle fiber’s ability to perform the contraction and relaxation process without fatigue continuously. For instance, one can determine muscle endurance through a sit-up test because it is most often used. Muscle endurance exercises would include step machines, cycling, and elliptical machines.
- Flexibility
The muscles and joints ability to move up to a specific range of motion and determine flexibility; one should consider performing functional movements like lunges or stretching individual muscles to test who far they can stretch their muscle. It will help you determine how flexible their joints and muscles are. Hence, you can test your flexibility through sit and reach tests, as it is an excellent exercise to test your flexibility.
- Body Composition
It refers to the amount of fat mass compared to bone, organ, and lean muscle mass. Therefore, one can measure its fitness through skinfold readings, underwater weighing, and bioelectrical impedance. Moreover, underwater weighing is the gold standard for measuring fat percentage in the body.
Due to its size and expense of the measuring equipment, it is available in few places where you can do this type of measurement. Moreover, there are other options too, like skinfold readings, which will provide correct enough readings about your body fat percentage, and according to you, you can set your diet plans and a workout routine.
Conclusion
If you want to determine your overall fitness, you should measure your performance in all 5 components of physical fitness mentioned above.
