Physical Fitness Components - Factors to Consider in Your Quest for Fitness

Body composition generally describes the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in the body. Muscle tissue takes up less space than fat tissue. Leanness is determined by considering muscle tissue versus fat tissue along with our weight.

For example, if you and I share the same age, gender, fitness level, height and body weight we may still look completely different from one another physically because of our body composition.

Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygen to skeletal muscles during sustained physical activity (e.g., swimming, jogging).

Regular exercise makes these systems more efficient by enlarging the heart muscle, enabling more blood to be pumped with each stroke, and increasing the number of small arteries in trained skeletal muscles, which supply more blood to working muscles.

This is one of the most important physical fitness components since every day activities revolve around your cardiovascular fitness (e.g., keeping up with the kids, dashing to the car to get out from the rain, walking quickly or running when you're late to an appointment).

Jogging improves your cardiovascular fitness since it increases the amount of oxygen inhaled and distributed to your body tissues.

Flexibility refers to a person's ability to move their joints through a full range of motion. Flexibility in your muscles allows for more movement around the joints and you can achieve this with a basic stretching workout.

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle to do continuous work over a long period of time. Muscular endurance is determined by muscle twitch or more specifically how well your slow twitch muscle fibers are developed. They allow you to build endurance and jog further distances.

Muscle strength is achieved through strength training providing significant benefits to overall health and well-being, including increased bone, muscle, tendon and ligament strength and toughness, improved joint function, reduced potential for injury, increased bone density, a temporary increase in metabolism, improved cardiac function, and elevated HDL (good) cholesterol. Physical fitness components are elements that if properly implemented will help you achieve your fitness goals. Jogging is a natural way to incorporate these components, but including stretching and a strength training routine will also provide you with a well balanced plan.

Physical Fitness Components to Jogging101