Five Attributes to Boost Your Physical Fitness

Fitness is commonly misunderstood as a process of maintaining six pack abs or having a good muscle tone. But, it is actually about keeping the body in a good condition by maintaining moderate levels of energy and strength in the body. The following article is all about what an individual needs to know about fitness in order to stay healthy.

Physical fitness: Fitness is defined as a set of attributes that people have or achieve that help in their ability to perform physical activities. In simpler words, being fit is not about doing activities like running or lifting weights, but it is the ability to do them for long time, with high levels of intensity and having sustained levels of energy. It is about performing normal or high intensity activities without having a trace of fatigue.

Five attributes of fitness: As the definition says, there are attributes that constitute for fitness. The main components of fitness are broadly classified in to five types. Let's look into them in detail.

1. Cardiovascular endurance: Cardiovascular endurance, also termed as cardio-respiratory endurance, is the ability of the body's circulatory and respiratory system to supply oxygenated blood during sustained physical activity.

As our body needs more oxygen during increased physical activity, all the parts in the above mentioned systems like the heart, blood vessels, lungs, etc., should perform more in order to pump more oxygenated blood to different body muscles. Cardiovascular endurance helps in improving their ability to work more. By practicing cardiovascular exercises one can strengthen and increase the performance of these parts, so that they gain the ability to function well even during sustained physical activity.

Some of the exercises which can boost your cardiovascular endurance are brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming.

2. Muscular strength: Muscle strength is the ability of the body muscles to exert force against resistance. The more the muscle strength is, the more will be the amount of force exerted to do the activities with ease. We can improve our muscle strength by building and making them stronger.

The ability of the body to lift moderate amounts of weight against the gravity can determine the muscle strength of a person. Muscle strength can be gained by practicing weight lifting exercises like shoulder press, weighted squat, biceps curl and also by doing push-ups.

3. Muscular endurance: Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscle to continue the muscle strength. Good muscular endurance enables the muscles to work for long periods of time without fatigue.

Muscular endurance is highly essential for the people who play sports and for those who use their arms and legs to do activities. One can improve muscular endurance by performing regular exercises such as cycling, push-ups, sit-ups, squats, etc. But, unlike muscle strength exercises, they will not shape the muscles

4. Flexibility: Flexibility is defined as the ability of body's various joints to move through a wide range of motions. Improving body's flexibility improves the ease of movement during different physical activities, reduces muscle tension, gives good posture, and helps prevent injuries.

In order to improve flexibility one needs to try exercises such as swimming, yoga, muscle stretching exercises, etc. that enable the body to become flexible in different angles.

5. Body composition: Body composition refers to the amount of fat and muscle that your body is made up of. Proper balance of fat and muscle mass needs to be maintained in order to stay healthy. Body composition depends on the exercise, food and lifestyle patterns of an individual. For instance, the exercises meant to improve muscular endurance result in reduced fat and enhanced muscle mass.

These are the five attributes which a person needs to achieve in order to be physically fit. Balanced physical exercises along with a healthy diet enables a person achieve physical fitness.

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Eating Healthy: The Simplest Solution Just May Be The Best Solution

A 2013 international study punctuated our health dilemma. According to a January 2013 report from the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine, although America spends more on health care than other wealthy nations it ranks among the least healthy of all industrialized countries. This has to lead us to rethink our approach to disease treatment and prevention.

I believe healthy eating is the best medicine on the planet! No, I am not suggesting we rush accident victims to a organic restaurants rather than an emergency rooms. Nor am I saying that doctors aren't best qualified to treat acute illnesses. What I am saying is that there will be few illnesses to treat when more of us adopt Healthful Eating-styles.

In his groundbreaking book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge brilliantly demonstrates the challenge we often have with connecting outcomes to the actions that cause them. He emphasizes the general problem we have with identifying cause and effect relationships when it comes to complex systems and complicated problems. This natural weakness is one of the reasons so many people fail to connect poor health with their poor eating.

Because our bodies are so adept at compensating for poor nutrition, in the short-term, we often ignore the signs of declining health until major illnesses occur. For example when one receive the life shattering diagnose of a major disease it is common to think and speak like it is something that has come upon them suddenly. The truth is that many major diseases take months, years, and even decades to manifest.

When bombarded with unnaturally high level of sugar and other toxic substances our bodies automatically go about the business of detoxing. Likewise, when faced with a limited supply of micronutrients from food our bodies automatically take steps to synthesize most required micronutrients from stored materials. Because our bodies do not shutdown when confronted with nutritional challenges there is rarely any thought given to the impact of how we eat or for that matter how we feed our families.

There is substantial research that suggests that heart disease, diabetes, and cancers, to name a few of the leading causes of death, develop over time as a result of controllable behaviors. In other words, direct links can be made from our daily lifestyles and many diseases. However, because the connections are part of a complex system and occur over time they are easily ignored.

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