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Fitness and Exercise
(Part I)
Fitness and
exercise are words you hear constantly. These words, together with nutrition,
crop up in every conversation or article about health and disease prevention,
not to mention weight loss. Fitness is the goal and exercise is the road but
what actually constitutes a state of fitness and how much exercise is necessary?
Although
certain parameters of fitness can be measured, overall fitness is somewhat
loosely defined. It is similar to keeping a machine in its best condition for
optimal performance; it is the physical condition at which one looks, feels and
performs the best.
Performance
refers the ability to perform one's daily duties with vigor and have surplus
energy for both unexpected additional tasks and leisure time activity. Fitness
is the ability to withstand stress and continue to function. This immediately
brings most of us to a stopping point. We live in a culture where work is ever
increasing to occupy nearly all of out time. Most people have enough energy to
perform their jobs, but an extra hour of overtime or a longer than usual commute
wipes them out, and they return home to collapse in front of the TV. Shouldn't
life be more than that? Increased fitness is the path to getting the energy to
build a fuller, more rounded life.
Fitness involves distinct
measurable parameters such as heart and lung performance and muscle strength.
However, our minds and bodies are strongly linked and overall fitness includes
mental alacrity and emotional health. "Strong mind strong body." Often, our
physical condition drags down our spirits; we don't have the necessary energy to
do that extra thing that adds quality to our lives and we get depressed.
Exercise is the way to achieve extra energy and is perhaps the strongest known
natural tool in decreasing depression.
The individual parameters of
fitness, such as strength, increased lung capacity, increased endurance and
others are all individual goals that vary from person to person, according to
age, habit, sex and even heredity. Fitness goals should always be set within
one's personal limitations and optimal fitness will probably be more rigorous
for the younger than the older person, but everyone can achieve a state of
individual optimal fitness.
With
this understanding, if you are over 35, it is wise to begin a fitness program
with a visit to your physician for an exam that will provide you with some
baseline parameters and pinpoint any areas of concern, such as high blood
pressure. If you know that your health history has some problem aspects such
as diabetes or asthma, or if you have a familial predisposition to heart
disease, it is necessary to get clearance from your doctor before beginning a
fitness program. Next, decide what components of physical fitness are important
to you. Of course, you want to increase your overall fitness but perhaps
flexibility and increased endurance are more important elements to your
lifestyle than muscular strength.
There are several components
to physical fitness, all of which are important, but you may tailor your fitness
goals to highlight those that will contribute to your life and goals. The
integral elements are endurance, both muscular and cardio respiratory, strength
and flexibility. It is important to include exercise that will improve each of
these aspects, stressed according to your preference, into your regimen. This
will allow you to achieve your personal fitness target and gain another sought
after goal, improved body composition. Endurance refers the cardio respiratory
capability to deliver nutrients, especially oxygen, throughout body tissues and
to remove waste products over a period of time. The second factor is muscular
endurance; the ability of muscles to continue to contract or exert force over
time. This is different from muscular strength, which is a measurement of how
much force a muscle can exert at a given time.
Flexibility is an important part
of muscle performance and refers to the ability to enjoy a full range of muscle
or joint motion. Flexibility is essential to pain free and spontaneous
movement, which are prime fitness goals for most people, as is achieving the
correct ratio of lean mass or muscle to fat mass, which constitutes a balanced
body composition.
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