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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – It’s back to work, back to school, and “It’s Back to the Gym” too! It’s post Labor Day so getting back on track isn’t new. Similar to getting back to work and school after summer, getting back on the fitness track is a great head start to practice and achieve our goals before those New Year resolutions! I’d also like to say that all of us can improve our fitness regardless of our current fitness level, so this may mean our taking a look at our fitness regime. This includes every single one of us from young to old, thin to overweight, athlete to couch potato, and from healthy to managing disease. Now, back to the gym doesn’t mean we must go to the gym to become fit. We can make an exercise room, or corner. So this week let’s look at what makes a well balanced fitness program.
What does it mean to be fit? Can we judge fit people just by their weight? Well, the truth is that very thin people can be very unfit! Fitness has several components that include measurements of health. Let’s begin by reviewing these components so that we can decide what areas we need to improve in the new year.
The Components
Cardiovascular Fitness:
This can be estimated by a sub-maximal stress test at our local gym, or it can be measured by a stress test in a cardiologist’s office. It determines how efficiently our heart and lungs deliver oxygen to the cells of our body. The more efficient our heart and lungs become, the more workload we can produce. For example, can we walk up a flight of stairs without losing our breath, or without our legs getting tired? Can’t? Most likely, if we can’t, our fitness level isn’t as high as someone who can. Another indicator of fitness is having a low resting heart rate, and normal blood pressure. Usually after participating in an aerobic exercise program regularly, we can more easily walk up stairs, and our resting heart rate and blood pressure lowers at rest. The average resting heart rate is 72 Beats Per Minute while elite athletes can have resting heart rates as low as 48 BPM. Cardiovascular exercise also enhances the flexibility of our blood vessels (ever hear of hardening of the arteries?)
Strength: How strong are we? Strength is an important component to our health also. Strong muscles not only help us to function in our daily activities, but they help us to keep our bones strong and our joints function without pain and injury. Our strength levels are usually measured by how much resistance or weight can we lift one time (most gyms test strength using more than one lift for us regular folks). Another type of strength that is also measured and a component of fitness is muscular endurance. It is equally important to be able to lift our bag of groceries, as it is to be able to carry them for a few blocks (at least a block or up a flight of those stairs?). Muscular endurance is our body’s ability to produce workload over time. Not just a single effort.
Flexibility: How flexible are we? While we shouldn’t expect to bring our toes of one leg to our ears while standing like a ballerina, it is important to be able to bend and lift an object without straining our back and hamstrings and other body parts. Each joint of our body along with its muscles has a “range of motion”, which allows us to move in the direction and length that they are meant to, pain and injury free, that is.
Body Composition: This correlates to healthy lean weight vs. unhealthy fatty tissue weight. How much body fat do we have versus lean mass? This is what is meant by body composition. Dieticians use another measurement to determine the fat-health connection called BMI. Most of us already know that the higher our weight goes above the desired range, the higher our “risk for disease” connection becomes. A BMI <24.9 is considered a healthy weight for both sexes that carries the least disease risk. Body fat measures have different optimal percentages. Depending upon our age, sex and activity level, our desired weight and body composition will differ. Women have and need higher body fat mass than men, and athletes such as gymnasts need and have lower body fat mass than us regular weekend warriors. Very low body fat can carry health risks as well; so let’s not always consider that the lowest is always better.
These are the components of fitness. They each have an important connection to our health and healthy living aside from just looking good and being in shape. They are all an important part of an exercise program. Do you see a component of fitness that needs more of your attention? Now’s the time to review your needs and pick a place to get back on track. And what could be a better time to start than now, with a new season upon us!
Follow me Junefit every Sunday on Twitter for a new tool taken my book featuring “A Salad a Day” (www.amazon.com/Its-Not-Diet-Creative-Eating/dp/1432743597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259605985&sr=1-1) and find me on Facebook! Need help with your fitness regime? Contact me for a personalized fitness and/or weight loss program. All sessions via skype, and email support.
June M. Lay M.S.
JuneFit
Need a partner in crime for weight loss? Find a partner at Weight Loss Buddy (http://weightlossbuddy.com/)
Junefit is included in Google’s top ranked women’s health resources http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Women’s_Health/Resources/
June is Lifestyle Columnist at www.healthnewsdigest.com/
(c) junefit 2011
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