What health-related components refers to the ability of the muscle to perform in a full force?


Physical fitness is divided into different component categories that vary from person to person. Each person can be trained on these components of physical fitness to improve certain skills or performance in activities. Building on specific components can bring about the changes you desire in your fitness levels, mental health, and lifestyle.Read on to know about and understand these physical fitness components.
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Being able to run a kilometre or two or being able to bench press isn’t enough; to gauge how fit you really are, it’s imperative to tick all the boxes! Total fitness is defined by how well your body performs in all the components of physical fitness. Image: ShutterstockHere are the health-related physical fitness components: (Kal, mention a sentence on what this.) Fitness professional and nutritionist Neha Godiawala Shah says, "Improving cardiovascular fitness can reduce the risk of developing heart disease by increasing efficiency of our heart, lungs, and blood vessels! If cardiovascular training is effectively executed, your heart’s contraction strength, the elasticity of your blood vessels and the efficiency of your blood to carry oxygen will improve. If your cardiovascular fitness is good, you will be able to do all aerobic and strength training activities very confidently. The easier it is to pump blood through your body, the less taxing it is on your heart."
Muscular strength is a measure of the greatest amount of force that muscles produce during a single maximal effort! "Examples of exercises that develop muscular strength include resistance training, such as weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, and resistance band exercises. Running, cycling, and climbing hills are also options. One of the most common ways to test muscular strength is the one-rep max: lifting as much weight as you possibly can during a given exercise for one repetition only. Examples are chest press, squats, deadlifts, etc. Lifting heavier weights and just a few repetitions, around 4-8, is strength! Research shows it can fight osteoporosis, prevent injury and counter bone loss," Shah says.

She further adds that muscle helps burn fat, so the more muscles you have, the more calories your body burns, even at rest and over the course of a day.

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle to repeatedly exert force against resistance. Shah says, "If your muscles contract in a similar pattern more than once, you are using muscular endurance. Multiple repetitions of an exercise, whether weight training, resistance training or increasing your cardiovascular endurance with activities like cycling, swimming or running are forms of muscular endurance.

An effective muscle endurance programme includes a good mix of exercises that put to use one or two limbs or joints. Examples include push-ups, planks, squats, lunges, sit-ups, etc. Whether it's day-to-day life activities like household chores or you're in the middle of a workout, your body needs muscular endurance. When you have a lot of it, you will not feel fatigued and will be able to withstand more while using less energy. If you compare both components of physical fitness, muscular strength is like sprinting, and muscular endurance is like running a marathon!"

Image: Shutterstock Flexibility is the ability of your joints to move freely through the available range of motions, particular to each joint, for example, stretching individual muscles or performing functional exercises like lunges. Higher flexibility allows you to perform daily chores and movements like picking up objects from the floor, tying shoelaces, etc., easily.
Image: Shutterstock One of the most valued of all components of physical fitness, body composition refers to the ratio of lean mass to the amount of fat in the body. Lean mass of body tissue includes the total mass of muscles, bones, and organs. Also known as Body Mass Index or BMI, this ratio is the yardstick of physical fitness. Higher body fat increases the risk of heart disease and other health complications.
Tip:
Pay attention to these physical fitness components to improve posture and muscle and joint functioning.
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Skill-related elements are nothing but fitness modules that pertain to specific tasks, for example, sports. These components of physical fitness help the performer improve in different areas like speed is important for football while the balance is important for gymnastics!

Learn about the skill-related physical fitness components:

This is both, a physical component as well as a skill-related component of physical fitness. Power refers to the maximum force a muscle or muscle group can apply but in the shortest period of time. In other words, it is the ability of muscles to exert maximum force in the shortest amount of time, like when you run or swim. This fitness component is related to cardiovascular endurance. Image: Shutterstock Shah says, "Agility is the ability to change direction quickly and effectively by maintaining proper posture. If you struggle to move side-to-side or find yourself off balance a lot, agility training will help improve your performance. It helps you to learn the skill of turning, moving limbs and pivoting quickly. Being agile can improve how you move day-to-day. Whether you want to improve your balance, flexibility, control, build your mind-body connection or improve your recovery time, agility training will get you there." This skill-related component is linked to agility and refers to the ability to move upper and lower limbs on the ground fast, like grabbing, pulling, or throwing objects. Speed training is important not just for athletes, but also for those whose jobs involve handling heavy objects. Image: Shutterstock Reaction time refers to the time taken to respond to external stimuli that are constantly changing, like in football, boxing, and such sports. Exercises to decrease reaction time include running on the spot at full speed or running on a treadmill. This component is the body’s ability to direct itself and it’s a force towards a particular point. Accuracy, along with agility, come into play in sports like javelin throw, long jump, high jump, etc. Accuracy can be increased with concentration, meditation, and practice. Image: Shutterstock Constantly changing postures and movements require the body to stay balanced, i.e., upright. Body coordination refers to the body’s ability to move more than one body part together, effectively and efficiently.

Tip: Skill-related fitness components require higher levels of fitness than health-related ones.

Image: Shutterstock A. Shah says, "Regular workouts or any physical activity promotes strong muscles and bones. It improves cardiovascular health, respiratory health and overall health. It also helps maintain a healthy weight, reduce the risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and reduce the risk for some cancers. There are lots of benefits if you prioritise physical fitness. It’s important to understand what fitness is, and how a person can go about getting fit. It’s important to focus on all components of physical fitness as it helps you in organising and executing your own well-balanced workout routine." Image: Shutterstock A. Shah advises, "Work out with a goal of improving a specific skill. It is important to design fitness programmes that improve overall fitness as well as include exercises that support daily activities. So depending on what you do in your everyday life, there are certain skills involved where your fitness training can assist in making you better."

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In many studies related to physical fitness and health, researchers have focused on exercise, as well as on the more broadly defined concept of physical activity. Physical activity is defined by the World Health Organization as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure, while exercise is a form of physical activity that is planned, structured, repetitive, and performed with the goal of improving health or fitness. So, although all exercise is physical activity, not all physical activity is exercise. Although physical activity and exercise are defined concepts, the ultimate focus of the health related components of physical fitness is to provide a framework for components that are necessary for good health. They are cardiorespiratory (CR) endurance (also called aerobic endurance), flexibility, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and body composition.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance

  • Aerobic endurance: The ability of the heart, blood vessels, and lungs to work together to accomplish three goals:
    1. deliver oxygen to body tissues
    2. deliver nutrients
    3. remove waste products.
  • CR endurance exercises involve large muscle groups in prolonged, dynamic movement (ex. running, swimming, etc)

Table \(\PageIndex{1}\)

Examples of Different Aerobic Physical Activities and Intensities
Moderate Intensity Vigorous Intensity
  • Walking briskly (3 miles per hour or faster, but not race-walking)
  • Water aerobics
  • Bicycling slower than 10 miles per hour
  • Tennis (doubles)
  • Ballroom dancing
  • General gardening
  • Racewalking, jogging, or running
  • Swimming laps
  • Tennis (singles)
  • Aerobic dancing
  • Bicycling 10 miles per hour or faster
  • Jumping rope
  • Heavy gardening (continuous digging or hoeing, with heart rate increases)
  • Hiking uphill or with a heavy backpack

Aerobic physical activity should preferably be spread throughout the week. Research studies consistently show that activity performed on at least 3 days a week produces health benefits. Spreading physical activity across at least 3 days a week may help to reduce the risk of injury and avoid excessive fatigue.

Both moderate- and vigorous-intensity aerobic activity should be performed in episodes of at least 10 minutes. Episodes of this duration are known to improve cardiovascular fitness and some risk factors for heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The Guidelines for adults focus on two levels of intensity: moderate-intensity activity and vigorous–intensity activity. To meet the Guidelines, adults can do either moderate-intensity or vigorous-intensity aerobic activities, or a combination of both. It takes less time to get the same benefit from vigorous-intensity activities as from moderate-intensity activities. A general rule of thumb is that 2 minutes of moderate-intensity activity counts the same as 1 minute of vigorous-intensity activity. For example, 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week is roughly the same as 15 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity. A person doing moderate-intensity aerobic activity can talk, but not sing, during the activity. A person doing vigorous intensity activity cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.

  • Muscular strength: The ability of muscles to exert maximal effort.
  • Muscular endurance: The ability of muscles to exert submaximal effort repetitively (contract over and over again or hold a contraction for a long time).

Activities for Muscular Strength and Endurance

These kind of activities, which includes resistance training and lifting weights, causes the body's muscles to work or hold against an applied force or weight. These activities often involve relatively heavy objects, such as weights, which are lifted multiple times to train various muscle groups. Muscle-strengthening activity can also be done by using elastic bands or body weight for resistance (climbing a tree or doing push-ups, for example).

Activities for Muscular Strength and Endurance also has three components:

  • Intensity, or how much weight or force is used relative to how much a person is able to lift;
  • Frequency, or how often a person does muscle strengthening activity; and
  • Repetitions, or how many times a person lifts a weight (analogous to duration for aerobic activity). Repetitions play a key role in determining if an activity is improving muscular strength or endurance. Low repetitions with more weight will focus more on muscular strength, while high repetitions with less weight will focus more on muscular endurance. The effects of muscle-strengthening activity are limited to the muscles doing the work. It's important to work all the major muscle groups of the body: the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms.

Muscle-strengthening activities provide additional benefits not found with aerobic activity. The benefits of muscle-strengthening activity include increased bone strength and muscular fitness. Muscle-strengthening activities can also help maintain muscle mass during a program of weight loss.

Muscle-strengthening activities make muscles do more work than they are accustomed to doing. That is, they overload the muscles. Resistance training, including weight training, is a familiar example of muscle-strengthening activity. Other examples include working with resistance bands, doing calisthenics that use body weight for resistance (such as push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups), carrying heavy loads, and heavy gardening (such as digging or hoeing).

Muscle-strengthening activities count if they involve a moderate to high level of intensity or effort and work the major muscle groups of the body: the legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders, and arms. Muscle strengthening activities for all the major muscle groups should be done at least 2 days a week.

No specific amount of time is recommended for muscle strengthening, but muscle strengthening exercises should be performed to the point at which it would be difficult to do another repetition without help. When resistance training is used to enhance muscle strength, one set of 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise is effective, although two or three sets may be more effective. Development of muscle strength and endurance is progressive over time. Increases in the amount of weight or the days a week of exercising will result in stronger muscles.

Flexibility is the ability of moving a joint through the range of motion. Flexibility is an important part of physical fitness. Some types of physical activity, such as dancing, require more flexibility than others. Stretching exercises are effective in increasing flexibility, and thereby can allow people to more easily do activities that require greater flexibility. For this reason, flexibility activities are an appropriate part of a physical activity program, even though they have no known health benefits and it is unclear whether they reduce risk of injury. Time spent doing flexibility activities by themselves does not count toward meeting the aerobic or muscle-strengthening Guidelines. Although there are not specific national guidelines for flexibility, adults should do flexibility exercises at least two or three days each week to improve range of motion. This can be done by holding a stretch for 10-30 seconds to the point of tightness or slight discomfort. Repeat each stretch two to four times, accumulating 60 seconds per stretch.

The percentage of the body composed of lean tissue (muscle, bone, fluids, etc.) and fat tissue. Changes in body composition usually occur as a result of improvements in the other components of health related physical fitness, as well as changes in eating habits. This is discussed in more detail in the Weight Management and Healthy Eating Chapter.

There are also other components of fitness related to sports performance rather than just health. They are called skill-related components of fitness or motor fitness and include power, speed, agility, balance, and coordination. For the purpose of this class we will focus mainly on the health-related components of fitness.