5 Health-Related Components of Fitness & Why Is It Important?
The American College of Sports Medicine published the US Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report in 2019, which identifies several components of a healthy exercise routine relevant to physical fitness. To achieve total wellness, it may be helpful to understand what “fit” means.
The five components of health-related fitness are used to gauge how fit we genuinely are, and these components are:
- Cardiovascular Endurance
- Muscular Strength
- Muscular Endurance
- Flexibility
- Body Composition
Physical health can be defined by how well the body performs as a whole in each component of physical health. Furthermore, you should determine how well you can handle running a mile.
Let’s dig into more detail about the components of health-related fitness and why it is important.
Why Fitness Is Important?
A healthy lifestyle includes physical activity, one of the easiest and most effective ways to lower blood glucose levels, reduce the risk of heart diseases, and improve overall health and well-being.
It can be challenging to urge people to exercise and be physically fit in today’s world, where you can perform almost every necessary task online, on the phone, or from the comfort of your couch.
However, a survey shows only 30% of the United States adult population exercises the recommended 30 minutes daily, and 25% don’t exercise at all. A key factor behind the surge of type 2 diabetes in America is inactivity.
The term “fitness” can be represented differently, depending on your interests, sporting or family backgrounds, gender, or other factors.
Obesity and inactivity promote insulin resistance, which can lead to a variety of diseases. Taking up exercise is one of the easiest ways to control disease onset, and it is never too late.
When people are already at risk of severe diseases like diabetes and heart failure, exercising and being physically active can improve certain aspects of their health, such as insulin sensitivity, reduce the risk of heart diseases, and promote weight loss.
According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, lack of exercise and physical fitness was one of the most significant factors behind obesity and other severe diseases like diabetes. It is therefore vital that one stays healthy and physically fit to prevent such illnesses.
5 Components of Health-Related Fitness
A state of being physically fit and healthy or the capability of carrying out everyday activities without becoming overly exhausted and still having enough energy left over to respond to emergencies or deal with emergencies.
Let’s have a look at the health-related components!
- Cardiovascular Endurance
The fitness of the heart, blood vessels, and lungs to deliver energy for the maximum time an individual can sustain the aerobic effort.
In order to move your body, your heart and lungs must be able to absorb oxygen from the air and put it in your blood. You can improve your cellular metabolism by exercising regularly, enhancing your body’s oxygen delivery, and easing your daily physical activities by challenging your lungs and heart.
Exercises that improve cardiovascular health will keep your heart healthy for a more extended period. In addition to walking, running, jumping, swimming, cycling, circuit training, and dancing, there are many cardiovascular exercises you can do.
- Muscular Strength
A person’s muscular strength refers to performing one repetition of activity at their maximum force. Testing muscular strength through a vertical jump is one example.
A vertical jump test measures how high you can jump one time. Taking the time to jump as high as possible during this test will give us an idea of how strong your lower-body muscles are and how much force they can exert.
It is the Medical Research Council that is responsible for setting up the muscle strength testing standard. Five grades of muscle strength are categorized:
Grade 0 | No muscle activation/movement |
Grade 1 | Muscle activation with trace/flicker of movement |
Grade 2 | Movement over full ROM if gravity is eliminated. |
Grade 3 | Movement through full ROM against gravity without resistance |
Grade 4 | Movement through full ROM against gravity + moderate resistance |
Grade 5 | Movement through full ROM against gravity + full resistance |
Now that you’re familiar with how to test according to the MRC scale, make sure to practice by experimenting with different joints and muscles and figure out the correct position for your patient.
- Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance can be viewed as total-body endurance, where most major muscle groups in the body are required to carry out sustained performance.
Your overall muscle health improves with muscular endurance because it targets specific muscle groups. Because of this, your fitness goals and health should determine how much focus you should place on muscle endurance.
For example, in the case of a cyclist, you may be more concerned with developing your leg muscles than your arms. You may need to build your muscles’ endurance for everyday health purposes, like carrying groceries or climbing the stairs to your house.
Your daily activities will require you to develop endurance through strength training and low-intensity weight training. You may need to include sport-specific activities and high-intensity strength training in your workout routines if you wish to improve endurance while competing in sports, obstacle course races, or cycling.
- Flexibility
Flexibility is the body’s ability to achieve the range of movement demanded by a particular sport or activity.
Individual flexibility refers to the range of motion around a joint. It is a common specific characteristic, just like muscular strength and endurance. It is possible to have very flexible shoulders but tight and inflexible hips or hamstrings.
Any age requires flexibility. You can’t move freely without it, and it can affect your coordination, balance, and agility. You can enhance an athlete’s performance by maintaining a full range of motion at all major joints.
You become even more aware of the importance of flexibility as you get older. Older people may walk with a shuffle or have difficulty reaching their arms overhead.
The result may be a lower quality of life, since reaching things on high shelves, picking up items from the floor, and catching their balance more easily become challenging.
It may not be possible to reverse the aging process altogether, but protecting your joints and maintaining mobility can keep you in good health for many years to come.
- Body Composition
Body composition is the make-up of lean and fat tissue in the body. Muscle, bones, and organs compose lean tissue.
What makes up your body is your body composition: a person’s body composition, particularly the amount of fat, muscle, and lean tissue.
Weight and height are the most common ways to measure body composition, but they aren’t the best. In most schools, height and weight are used as measures of body composition since all that is needed is a scale and a measuring tape.
Many factors affect body composition, but the three main factors I always emphasize are getting enough sleep, staying active, and eating healthy foods.
Your diet, the amount of physical activity and sleep you get each day, and the types of foods you eat will determine how much sleep you need. Your body composition may be positive or negative.
FAQs
What is the importance of assessing health-related fitness?
A proper assessment assists you in identifying the right goals, catching injuries before they become serious, and determining whether or not your fitness program is effective.
What is skill-related fitness?
Skill-related fitness has six components: agility, speed, power, balance, coordination, and reaction time. Individuals are required to demonstrate a variety of motor skills and movement patterns by completing these skill-related components.
What is the difference between health-related fitness and skill-related fitness?
Health-related fitness is best for people who cannot exercise at high-intensity levels. The skill-related health approach is a good choice for people who can and want to perform well, but it isn’t suitable for most people due to its high-intensity requirements.
What is the difference between muscular strength and endurance?
A person’s muscular strength can be measured by how much force they can generate or how much weight they can lift. Having the ability to move a weight for an extended period without fatigue is known as muscular endurance.
Final Words
Physical fitness has different components, as demonstrated by this article when it comes to both athletic performance and health. No matter whether you’re training for a sports performance or your health, fitness training should include all the components mentioned earlier.
If you want to achieve all-around health, you should first think about the components and include them in your existing fitness regime.