Let’s define fitness.
You work out consistently, 3 days a week at the gym. Or maybe you walk daily in your neighborhood, plus you wear a step counter, so you know when you take that 10,000th step. Odds are you’re probably doing enough to be physically fit, but how do you know for sure?
The New World Encyclopedia defines physical fitness as, “ the capacity of the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and muscles to function at optimum efficiency”. https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Physical_fitness
The American College of Sports Medicine expands on that concept stating, “Physical fitness has been defined in several ways, but the generally accepted definition is the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits and meet unforeseen emergencies”. https://www.acsm.org/docs
Are you doing enough?
There are 5 pillars of fitness generally accepted by medical and fitness professionals.
- Cardiovascular endurance
- Muscular strength
- Muscular endurance
- Flexibility/mobility
- Body composition
Most professionals would agree that there are several other components that should be addressed considering age and recreational activities, such as balance, agility, and nutrition.
Cardiovascular endurance is easily achieved by walking or running (if your knees allow), swimming, biking, or even a Zumba class. Essentially any activity that increases your heart rate for a prolonged amount of time on a consistent basis will be benefit your heart health.
Muscular strengthening results from overloading you’re your muscles with resistance. The amount of force a person can exert measures their general strength. Resistance activities required to increase strength can be lifting free weights, using resistance bands or loops, working out on nautilus machines, or simply your using own body weight in certain positions.
Muscular endurance is a little trickier. To increase the endurance of a muscle, one must be able to exert force repeatedly for a prolonged period. These activities involve long distance running, biking, or swimming as a triathlete would do, but could also include other exercises like squats or sled push/pull.
Flexibility and mobility are essential to proper movement during daily life activities as well as recreational pursuits. Flexibility is the availability of motion at your joints. Mobility is dependent on flexibility essentially. Stretching exercises and activities like yoga increase flexibility.
Body composition refers to the ratio of muscle, bone (and other non-fatty tissue) to fatty tissue through out the body. That’s the simplest explanation. Body Mass Index (BMI) is measured by calculating a person’s body weight and height. It’s a tool commonly used by medical professionals now to determine general health. It has been a source of contention due to not addressing other factors such as activity level of the subject and true body mass ratio, which is better calculated by several other, but more expensive and skilled, means.
Now, what does all that mean?
A well-rounded fitness routine should be comprised of cardiovascular, muscle strengthening and endurance, and flexibility exercises. Physical fitness should address all of the factors that would allow you to perform everyday tasks, i.e. laundry, self-care, walking the dog, as well as play a round of golf or run with the kids in the backyard.
A great way to incorporate most of the aforementioned pillars of fitness is Pilates. For more info on Pilates benefits, click here.
A “fit” person would ideally be able to achieve good body composition because of incorporating the above items, as well as including proper nutrition.
Everyone isn’t going to compete in the Ironman, but everyone should be able to move their body through space daily, with normal effort and minimal fatigue. Now if your goal is competing, that requires another level of training several steps above general fitness practices.
