Foundations of Physical Fitness

24 05 2005

Exercise is important because it sustains the overall physical fitness of people. Being physically fit helps your body systems work together efficiently so that you can engage in the everyday activities and be able to do them with the least amount of effort. Fit people are able to accomplish several tasks and feel good about themselves.

-The definition of health has changed over time, as early definitions focused on illness. Some of the first medical doctors concentrated on helping people recuperate from illnesses. Health was considered the absence of disease. However, the medical and public health spectrum have received better training and now focus on both the prevention of illness and disease and the treatment of those already sick. Now, the definition of health is considered to be more than the absence of disease.

-A combination of diet and physical activity is best for maintaining ideal levels of body fatness because your level of body fatness depends on these two factors. The diet you have warrants how much energy you have available, because the amount you eat deciphers how much body fat you will gain, lose, or maintain. The amount of physical activity you do contributes to your ideal level of body fatness because your body burns these calories from the foods you eat to gain energy. The amount of activity you do decides how much you ought to consume, so that you can maintain an ideal level of body fatness.

-Physical activity can help you deal with stress effectively because you are able to engage in a sport or exercise to relieve stress. Exercise helps you to release feel good endorphins and it improves your fitness, helping you feel better about a situation or your self-image.

-Physical fitness is the ability of your body systems to work together efficiently to allow you to allow you to be healthy and perform many activities of daily living.

-You should develop a lifetime physical activity plan even if you’re in the good fitness zone right now because you will not always be as nimble and flexible as you are right now. You must use the principle of progression and principle of overload to understand that your body cannot get accustomed to only one specific type of exercise at the same intensity, because otherwise your strength and agility will not increase. You want to maintain your physical strength and wellbeing, which is why you must keep up with a lifetime physical activity plan.

-Wellness is the positive component of health that includes having a good quality of life. This includes a good sense of well being as exhibited by having a positive outlook on life, being happy and fulfilled.

-Aerobic activity is activity that is steady enough to allow the heart to supply all the oxygen your muscles need. Moderate lifestyle physical activities are considered to be aerobic because you can do them for long periods without stopping, but they may not be intense enough to produce cardiovascular fitness, like riding a bike or taking a leisurely walk. Active aerobics is one type of aerobic exercise, which is more vigorous and elevates the heart rate high enough to build cardiovascular fitness. Active aerobics can provide health benefits and give the advantage of improving physical fitness.
Anaerobic activity is activity that is so intense that your body cannot supply adequate oxygen to sustain it for long periods of time. For this reason, it is frequently done in short bursts. Anaerobic activities include sprinting, swimming very fast, and bursts of activity in sports such as football. Anaerobic fitness is important to being a good sports performer, but anaerobic activities are not always a type of activity that provides significant health and wellness benefits.

-You should assess your strength before you start a strength-training program because good muscular fitness is needed for most physical exercises. To measure this level of fitness you already have helps to decipher how much you can exercise to progressively improve your level of fitness and the size of your muscles, which says how much stronger they can become.

-The frequency of how often you perform your strength-training program can vary. Rest and recovery is important for strength, so that you can allow your muscles time to rest and recover after a workout. You should allow at least a day in between strength workouts, which is why strength exercises are typically performed two to three times a week.

-Muscular endurance exercises can be done more frequently than strength exercises. Muscular endurance exercises can be done on most days of the week because they do not require maximal contractions, and so multiple sets can be performed. It is probably best to take one day a week of from exercise.

-You should do some mild cardiovascular exercise before stretching because it helps to strengthen your heart and improve other parts of your cardiovascular system, which contribute to overall fitness. This will get the blood pumping and better prepare you for those stretching exercises, increasing flexibility, which are dependent on your blood flow.