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Experts define physical fitness as “one’s ability to execute daily activities with optimal performance, endurance, and strength with the management of disease, fatigue, and stress and reduced sedentary behavior.”

This description goes beyond being able to run quickly or lift heavy weights. Despite being important, these attributes only address single areas of fitness.

This article provides details of the five main components of physical fitness.

Fast facts on fitness:

Maintaining good physical fitness can help prevent some conditions.

With exercise, body composition can change without changing weight.

Athletes’ hearts show different changes depending on their chosen sport.

Muscle strength increases due to fiber hypertrophy and neural changes.

Stretching to increase flexibility can ease a number of medical complaints.

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Overview

Being physically fit depends on how well a person fulfills each of the components of being healthy.

When it comes to fitness, these components are:

cardiorespiratory fitness

muscular strength

muscular endurance

body composition

flexibility

The following sections will look at each of these components individually.

Cardiorespiratory performance

Cardiorespiratory endurance indicates how well the body can supply fuel during physical activity via the body’s circulatory and respiratory systems.

Activities that help improve cardiorespiratory endurance are those that cause an elevated heart rate for a sustained period of time.

These activities include:

swimming

brisk walking

jogging

cycling

People who regularly engage in these activities are more likely to be physically fit in terms of cardiorespiratory endurance. It is important to begin these activities slowly and gradually increase the intensity over time.

Exercising increases cardiorespiratory endurance in a number of ways. For example, the heart muscle becomes stronger so that it is able to pump more blood per heartbeat.

At the same time, additional small arteries grow within muscle tissue so that they can deliver blood to working muscles more effectively when needed.

How does heart health change with exercise?

The heart’s efficiency changes and improves after persistent training. However, recent research suggests that different types of activity change the heart in subtly different ways.

All types of exercise increase the heart’s overall size, but there are significant differencesTrusted Source between endurance athletes such as rowers and strength athletes such as football players.

The hearts of endurance athletes show expanded left and right ventricles, whereas those of strength athletes show thickening of the heart wall, particularly the left ventricle.

How does lung health change with exercise?

Although the heart steadily strengthens over time, the respiratory system does not adjust to the same degree. Lung size does not change, but the lungs do use oxygen more effectivelyTrusted Source.

In general, exercise encourages the body to become more efficient at taking on, distributing, and using oxygen. Over time, this improvement increases endurance and overall health.

Health benefits of cardiorespiratory fitness

Cardiorespiratory fitness can help reduce the riskTrusted Source of conditions including:

heart disease

type 2 diabetes

stroke

Muscular strength

There are a number of ways to measure muscular strength. Generally, lifting a set weight in a prescribed position and comparing the results against any given population is the best way.

In general, if a person works their muscles consistently and regularly, they will increase in strength.

There are various ways of putting the muscles through rigorous activity, but anything that works a muscle until it is tired will increase muscle strength over time.

How does muscle structure change with exercise?