Components of Fitness

The Health Components of Fitness are what every person needs to carry out life every day. If you are not fit in any one of these, your life will be affected. Low Cardiovascular Endurance will mean that walking around the City on a site seeing excursion is challenging or that you cannot run to make the bus if you are late. Low muscle strength will make it hard to get out of bed, or stand up from a sitting position. A lack of flexibility will make it hard to tie up your shoe laces, or to get dressed or brush your hair.

Skill-related fitness components are important as we get more involved in specific sports. People that are more involved with sports will see the specific skills fitness improve.

Body Composition is different for those who are into specific sports. A elite competitive swimmer will usually be tall with unusually long torso and arms that allow them to slip through the water efficiently and take long strokes. Usually they have loose ankles which add more power to their kick. Swimmers need to be buoyant and so will have more fat (which makes then more buoyant) than an elite runner.

For non-elite athletes we want to consider a body composition that has a healthy amount of fat and muscle and as we age, our bodies will change based on the activities that we do. Consider the activities that you play or do on a regular basis, what are you doing that is affecting your body composition? Our genetics will make up a huge part of our body composition - whether our parents are tall or small/ pear shaped or lean, we are going to be following their genetic make up and so we can only control so much with our activity and diet.

Watch this YouTube clip (4m32s) on Fitness Components.

As you are watching, take note of anything that is interesting, insightful or informative to share.

Think. Pair.Share. Share your observations.

What fitness components are involved in Swimming? If you were to swim four strokes/ dive/ turn and complete 2+ sessions a week (30-45minutes) of swimming, what Health benefits would you expect? What skill-related benefits would you expect? Discuss.