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The Components of Fitness

The Basic Elements of Physical Activity

The components of fitness are the basic qualities that you develop when you exercise. Which ones you develop depends upon your goals and the exercise regimens you use to achieve them, including your weight training program. It helps to be know exactly what fitness really means so you can target your fitness goals.

Denise Wood, Discus 1981 What is physical fitness exactly? The definition is vague in the minds of most of us because it can be defined and, therefore, measured in different ways. A basic definition of physical fitness is the ability to complete daily tasks with energy, reduce health risks due to inactivity, and be able to participate in a variety of physical activities. 1

How do we measure fitness? Fitness itself is not directly measurable by using a single test item. It is broken down into more specific components (with some overlap) that we can define and measure. Multiple test items are used to measure these components for Fitness Assessments.

Denise Wood

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports classification of physical fitness components into two groups--performance-related and health-related. 2

The 5 components of physical fitness that are deemed health-related are: cardio, strength, endurance, flexibility, and body composition. In addition, speed, agility, power, balance, and coordination have been identified as performance-related, but all are qualities inherent in exercise regardless how they have been of the classified.

The following links tell more about the components of fitness including examples of activities, how to develop and measure them, and how weight training can improve them:

Definition of Strength

Strength Building

Speed and Agility

Muscular Power

Muscular Endurance

Body Coordination

Flexibility and Stretching

Balance and Stability

The components of fitness are evident to some extent in most physical activities. Because of the natural overlap between them, most test items measure more than one component.

Training with resistances is most widely understood to affect strength; hence, the term strength training is often used. But weight training can develop all of the components of fitness--even coordination.

Coordination, or skill, is involved in all movements, and especially in athletic performances. Weight training exercises are skills, although most of us do not think of them in that way. At this site I've shared a bit about how weight training exercises transfer sport skills as well as sport fitness. 3,4,5,6

For more information about developing fitness for sports and much more, I highly recommend

Sports Training Adviser: Fitness Components

For more on women's weight training for sports at this site:

Weight Training for Sports

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References

1. Safrit, M.J. & Wood, T.M. (1996). Introduction to measurement in physical education and exercise science (3rd ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.

2. United States Department of Health and Human Services, President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. (2000, March). Definitions: Health, fitness, and physical activity. Retrieved August 29, 2008, from http://www.fitness.gov/digest_mar2000.htm

3. Kroll, W. (1974). Neuro-motor aspects of strength. Proceedings of the National Strength Research Symposium, Montclair State University, NJ.

4. Laycoe, R.R. & Martinuik, R.G. (1971). Learning and tension as factors in static strength gains produced by static and eccentric training. Research Quarterly, 42, 299-306.

5. Wood, D.K. (1985) The effects of two free weight training programs on selected closed motor skills. (Doctoral dissertation, The University of Tennessee-Knoxville, 1985). Dissertation Abstracts International. (BF259 152.334)

6. Garhammer, J.J. (1981). Force-velocity contraints and elastic energy utilized during multi-segment lifting/jumping activities. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, (Abstract) 13, 96.