Concept of Physical Fitness

Physical fitness is a general state of health and well-being or specifically the ability to perform aspects of sports or occupations. Physical fitness is generally achieved through correct nutrition, exercise, hygiene and rest. It is a set of attributes or characteristics that people have or achieve that relates to the ability to perform physical activity. Before the industrial revolution, fitness was the capacity to carry out the day’s activities without undue fatigue. However with automation and changes in lifestyles physical fitness is now considered a measure of the body’s ability to function efficiently and effectively in work and leisure activities, to be healthy, to resist hypokinetic diseases, and to meet emergency situations (Wikipedia, 2014).

The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports (2012) — a study group sponsored by the government of the United States—declines to offer a simple definition of physical fitness. Instead, it developed the following chart:

Physiological	Health related	Skill related	Sports
Metabolism Morphological Bone integrity Other	Body composition Cardiovascular fitness Flexibility Muscular endurance Muscle strength	Agility Balance Coordination Power Speed Reaction time Other	Team sport Individual sport Lifetime Other

A comprehensive fitness program tailored to an individual typically focuses on one or more specific skills, and on age- or health-related needs such as bone health. Many sources also cite mental, social and emotional health as an important part of overall fitness. This is often presented in textbooks as a triangle made up of three points, which represent physical, emotional, and mental fitness. Physical fitness can also prevent or treat many chronic health conditions brought on by unhealthy lifestyle or aging. Working out can also help people sleep better. To stay healthy it is important to engage in physical activity. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages the adult public, ages 18 to 64, to engage each week in at least one and a quarter hours of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity or two and a half hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity; that time can be met in any increments (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011).

Diet is an important component to overall health that works best in combination with exercise. A balanced diet and exercising regularly are important for maintaining good health. Obesity is defined as body mass index, a measure of weight in relationship to height (Blair, 1993). With obesity on the rise, the U.S. has implemented more exercise and diet plans. There are millions of programs, websites, television shows, magazines, and movies regarding health and fitness. Recently, the trends of diets and lifestyle habits have become more and more encouraged. Understanding the importance of the health benefits resulted from diet and exercise will help decrease the amount of obesity in this country. Physical activity and exercise is defined in terms of type, intensity, duration and frequency (Bailey, 2009). 

Developing research has demonstrated that many of the benefits of exercise are mediated through the role of skeletal muscle as an endocrine organ. That is, contracting muscles release multiple substances known as myokines which promote the growth of new tissue, tissue repair, and various anti-inflammatory functions, which in turn reduce the risk of developing various inflammatory diseases. Specific or task-oriented fitness is a person's ability to perform in a specific activity with a reasonable efficiency: for example, sports or military service. Specific training prepares athletes to perform well in their sports (Bailey, 2009). 

Examples are:

• 100 m sprint: in a sprint the athlete must be trained to work anaerobically throughout the race, an example of how to do this would be interval training.
• Marathon: in this case the athlete must be trained to work aerobically and their endurance must be built-up to a maximum.
• Many fire fighters and police officers undergo regular fitness testing to determine if they are capable of the physically demanding tasks required of the job.^[10]
• Members of armed forces will often be required to pass a formal fitness test - for example soldiers of the US Army must be able to pass the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT).
• Hill sprints: requires a level of fitness to begin with, the exercise is particularly good for the leg muscles. The army often trains doing mountain climbing and races.

In order for physical fitness to benefit the health of an individual, an unknown response in the person called a stimulus will be triggered by the exertion. When exercise is performed with the correct amount of intensity, duration and frequency, a significant amount of improvement can occur. The person will overall feel better but the physical effects on the human body take weeks, months, or even years to be noticed or fully developed. For training purposes, exercise must provide a stress or demand on either a function or tissue. To continue improvements, this demand must eventually increase little over an extended period of time. This sort of exercise training has three basic principles: overload, specificity, and progression. These principles are related to health but also enhancement of physical working capacity (Pedersen, Febbraio and Nat Rev Endocrinol, 2012).

Component of Physical Fitness

a.     Health related component

According to Health Galaxy (2014) health related physical fitness is defined as activity aimed to improve the overall health and well being. The goal of health- related fitness is prevention of disease or rehabilitation from disease as well as the development of a high level of functional capacity for daily tasks. Health related physical fitness is further divided into 5 parts. These 5 components of physical fitness are describes below:

• Cardiorespiratory endurance
• Muscular strength
• Muscular endurance
• Body composition
• Flexibility 

Cardio-respiratory endurance (cardio-respiratory fitness)

Cardio-respiratory endurance is the ability of the body's circulatory and respiratory systems to supply fuel during sustained physical activity. To improve your cardio-respiratory endurance, try activities that keep your heart rate elevated at a safe level for a sustained length of time such as walking, swimming, or bicycling. The activity you choose does not have to be strenuous to improve your cardio-respiratory endurance. Start slowly with an activity you enjoy, and gradually work up to a more intense pace.

EXERCISE: Cardiovascular exercises or aerobics -walking, running, biking, rowing, treadmills.

ASSESSMENT: A Max VO2 test in the laboratory is the best measure of cardiovascular fitness. Field tests like the mile run, the 1 mile run, the mile walk, various bicycle, step, and treadmill tests are usually done.

Muscular strength

Muscular strength is the ability of the muscle to exert force during an activity. The key to making your muscles stronger is working them against resistance, whether that be from weights or gravity. If you want to gain muscle strength, try exercises such as lifting weights or rapidly taking the stairs.

EXERCISE: Weight training exercises- push ups, pull ups, biceps curls, pectoral fly, leg extensions, back extension, etc.

ASSESSMENT: Lab and field tests are similar and involve the assessment of one repetition maximum. 1RM tests are typically conducted on resistance machines. Strength can also be assessed using dynamo meters.

Muscular endurance

Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscle to continue to perform without fatigue. To improve your muscle endurance, try cardio-respiratory activities such as walking, jogging, bicycling, or dancing.

EXERCISE: Strength training exercises such as running, jogging, cross-training on an elliptical machine, etc.

ASSESSMENT: Each major muscle group of the body is tested to check the endurance. Muscular endurance can be measured isometrically (static contractions) or isotonically (dynamic contractions).

Body composition

Body composition refers to the relative amount of muscle, fat, bone, and other vital parts of the body. A person's total body weight (what you see on the bathroom scale) may not change over time. But the bathroom scale does not assess how much of that body weight is fat and how much is lean mass (muscle, bone, tendons, and ligaments). Body composition is important to consider for health and managing your weight!

Body composition is the component which considers the individual body type, according to the height, weight, frame size and the ratio of the fat mass to lean muscle mass.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the range of motion around a joint. flexibility in the joints can help prevent injuries through all stages of life. If you want to improve your flexibility, try activities that lengthen the muscles such as swimming or a basic stretching program.

EXERCISE: Flexibility exercises- stretching, yoga, Tai Chi

ASSESSMENT: Flexibility is measured in the lab using devices such as a goniometer, flexometer.

b.     Performance related component

1. AGILITY -

It is a skill-related component of physical fitness. Agility relates to the ability of a person to rapidly change the position or directions of the entire body in space with speed and accuracy.

Being agile is all about being able to change your direction and the speed at which you are travelling, quickly and efficiently. This is common in sports such as football and rugby where the player with the ball dodges a defender, or in badminton or tennis, moving around the court quickly to reach the shuttlecock/ball in time.

ASSESSMENT: Agility is typically measured using a shuttle zigzag run. Tests of agility are common as screening tests among sports teams.

2. BALANCE -

Balance is the ability of a person to control human body or to maintain equilibrium while stationary or moving (static and dynamic conditions). E.g. hand stand, skating, skiing, catching a fly in baseball, etc

Balance is the ability to maintain equilibrium whilst stationary, or moving. Balance whilst moving is often called dynamic balance. Balance is important in all kinds of sporting situations, most noteably in gymnastics and ballet but also contact sports where having good balance may prevent you being tackled to the floor! Balance is linked to agility, as in order to quickly and efficently change direction you must be balanced.

ASSESSMENT: Balance is typically measured using a balance beam or tests that require holding a stationary posture after changing body positions. Balance is generally considered to be of two types- static and dynamic.

3. COORDINATION -

Coordination relates to the ability of the person to use the senses, such as sight and hearing, together with body parts in performing motor tasks smoothly and accurately.

Coordination is the ability to use the body parts and senses together to produce smooth efficient movements. We have all seen someone who is uncoordinated, their movement looks awkward and shaky. Being co-ordinated is vital in all sports, for example hand-eye coordination in racket sports and the co-ordination to use the opposite arm and leg when sprinting.

ASSESSMENT: It is typically assessed using measures of hand-eye or foot-eye coordination such as juggling, dribbling a ball or hitting an object. There are different types of coordination which require different tests for assessment.
4. POWER -

Power is a skill-related component of physical fitness that relates to the ability to the rate at which one can perform work. Power is considered to be a combination of strength and speed. It has also been defined as the ability to exert muscle force quickly. For this reason some consider it to be a combination of skill and health-related physical fitness. It is the ability of muscle to release maximum force in the shortest period of time.

Power = Force X Speed

Speed and force must be combined for effective performance in activities like baseball throw, jumps for height, football kick, boxing punch etc.

Power is the product of strength and speed. When we perform a task as quickly and as forcefully as we can, the result is powerful. For example, a sprint start, a shot-put or javelin throw or long-jump.

ASSESSMENT: Examples of power include putting the shot and vertical jumping. There are, however, many different types of power and total assessment would require many different tests.

5. SPEED -

Most sports and activities require some form of speed. Even long distance running often requires a burst of speed to finish the race ahead of your competitors. Speed is defined as the ability to move a body part quickly. Speed is not always about how quickly you can move your whole body from A to B. It also relates to body parts. For example, when playing golf, the speed of your arms and upper body in creating the swing are vital in driving the ball over a long distance.

Speed is the ability of a person to execute motor movements with high speed in the shortest period of time. It is equal to the distance covered per unit of time. Speed is an integral part of every sport and can be expressed as - maximum speed, elastic strength (power) and speed endurance. Speed is influenced by the athlete's mobility, special strength, strength endurance and technique. There are many different types of speed such as running speed, swimming speed, speed of hand or foot movement, etc.

The element of speed is involved in most of the athletic skills such as in sprint running, some skills of soccer, basketball, etc.

ASSESSMENT: Among athletes a 40 yard dash is often used to measure speed. There are a wide variety of laboratory measures of speed that are highly specific to different body parts and different human movement activities.

6. REACTION TIME -

A skill-related component of physical fitness that relates to the time elapsed between stimulation and the beginning of the reaction to it. Total response time includes stimulus to beginning of movement (reaction time) to end of movement (movement time). Like speed, reaction time is also greatly influenced by heredity.

Reaction time is how quickly your brain can respond to a stimulus and initiate a response. This is important in most sports. The most obvious being responding to the gun at the start of a race, but also a goalkeeper saving a penalty, or a badminton player reacting to a smash shot. The examples in sport are endless.

ASSESSMENT: There are many different types of reaction time and total assessment of reaction time would require many different tests. Sophisticated timing devices are used to measure total response time in the lab.