The fitness components make a good long list to include all factors that make up fitness, from factors relating to health, performance, physiological, to sports. The most importance among these are some health and performance related factors that are known to be interdependent on each other to keep the body at a particular fitness level.
These are commonly believed to be the most important of all the fitness components because they are the components that determine a person’s ability and endurance in physical activity, while the others are simply involved in regulating the body during rest.
So if you want to live an active lifestyle, these are the most important fitness components you should pay attention to.
Most Important Fitness Components for An Active Lifestyle
- Speed and Power
- Muscular Strength
- Muscular Endurance
1. Speed and Power
In any form of physical activity, speed and power are important. Both of these are performance or skill related components of physical fitness. Speed is scientifically measured as the distance traveled within a particular unit of time without any reagrd to direction. Speed is calculated as distance / time. This is different but closely related to velocity, which is the speed of an entity with regard to a specific direction. Therefore, velocity is equal to speed + direction.
Power, on the other hand, is the sum of force and the speed at which it was exerted. Power is usually measured based on the level of force achieved within a specific time period. It is calculated as (force x distance) / time.
2. Muscular Strength
The next highly important fitness component that determines physical activity is muscular strength. There are different types of muscular strength needed in different situations,based on the different ways the muscles contract. These are isometric contraction, dynamic contraction, and power contraction. Which of these components are used depends on the type and level of physical activity.
Isometric contraction occurs in certain exercises, namely iron cross or gymnastics, tug of war activity, squats, deadlifts, and many other exercises of the same level and category. Dynamic contraction occurs in weight training. Lastly, power contraction occurs in Olympic-style weight lifeting, in plyometrics, and in field events such as the shot put.
However, sometimes, physical activity requires components to combine. For example, power lifting, requires the muscles to be contracted both isometrically and dynamically.
3. Muscular Endurance
Another important component key to physical activity and performance is muscular endurance. There are three different types of muscular endurance: those that require continuous muscle tension, those that require repetitive dynamic contraction of the muscles, and those that require prolonged intense contractions with short intervals of rest.
Continuous tension is required in activities where you need to exert muscular effort for a given length of time without rest, such as when mountain climbing, playing tug of war, or in compound weight training exercises without lock out.
Repetitive dynamic contractions occur when running, rowing, and highly repetitive weight training exercises involving the same muscle.
Prolonged contractions with rest periods occur in sports such as football, handball, and in conducting multiple sets in weight training.
However, there are instances when these muscle fitness components also combine together. For example, in swimming, the body is required to exert both continuous tension as well as repetitive dynamic tension. In cycling, you also need repetitive dynamic contraction but with a bit of continuous tension as well.
Also, sometimes, activities that require continuous tension and repetitive dynamic contraction are conducted in a series, as part of an individual’s training program. Thus, this causes prolonged activity interspersed with short periods of rest.
General Body Conditioning Exercises to Enhance Fitness Components
There are some general body conditioning exercises that can enhance these important fitness components in the lack of the actual physical activity such as sports and performances.
To condition your body well, you can do general core stability exercises, full body conditioning exercises with the use of dumbbells, upper body conditioning exercises, leg conditioning exercises, lower leg strength exercise, and foot speed exercise.
Core stability exercises aim to stabilize the entire body. Some examples are the static floor exercises such as plank and side plank, dynamic floor exercises such as oblique crunch and straight leg raise, and exercises usiwith the medicine ball.
These exercises can be done at home or in the gym as replacement for the absent physical activity in order to keep the fitness components well developed.