There are 5 areas of fitness which are considered to be health-related. These 5 areas are cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, and body composition.
When a person improves in one of these areas it has been shown to significantly reduce that person's risks of premature death and debilitating diseases.
This is your body's ability to sustain activity for a prolonged period of time. This activity involves large muscles moving repeatedly at a moderate to high intensity for this period of time.
By improving your body's capacity to sustain this type of activity you will see improvements in your health and decrease your risks for premature death. In particular, this will strengthen your heart and lungs, open up blood vessels, and reduce insulin needs. These will, in turn, increase good (HDL) cholesterol, increase low blood pressure, decrease hypertension, decrease triglicerides, stabilize blood sugar, and reduce the incidence and intensity of angina. (For specific scientific trials indicating each of these benifits, please contact the author of this site or visit the sites of the ACSM, AMA, American Diabetics Association, or the American Heart Association).
The most effective way to improve your cardiorespiratory endurance is to do an activity which uses the larger muscle groups (like the legs) repetitively for a prolonged period of time. This activity should be done for 20 to 60 minutes on 3 to 6 days each week. There are a number of ways to measure intensity. The simplest way is to ask yourself frequently during the activity, "How hard am I working?" [on a scale from 0 (nothing) to 10 (maximal)]. The answer should be 6 to 8.
This is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert a maximal force.
By improving your body's ability to exert a maximal force and by balancing strength around each joint you will see improvement in your health and reduce your risks for injury or even death. There may be a time in your life when you are unable to carry your own groceries or push yourself out of a bathtub. This weakness is NOT a necessary result of aging. This is an avoidable consequence of inactivity. In addition, participating in resistance training will also increase your bone density thereby reducing your risks of becoming bed-ridden as a result of a broken hip or of developing osteoporosis.
The most effective way to improve your strength is to challenge each of your major muscle groups with resistance exercises 2 to 3 days per week and allow at least 1 day of rest in between. These resistance exercises should be done at an intensity near your maximal ability so that you are only able to do the movememt 3 to 8 times without stopping. This can be repeated for up to 3 sets. Because this is such a strenuous activity it should be avoided by anyone with high blood pressure or other heart disease risk factors. These activities can be introduced when the fitness level improves and these risks are reduced.
This is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to exert a force repeatedly or to sustain exertion for a period of time.
By improving your body's ability to sustain exertion of a force you will see improvement in your health and posture and reduce your risks for debilitating musculoskeletal conditions like low back pain and osteoporosis. By improving a muscle's ability to exert a force repeatedly you will see improvement in your health and ability to perform daily activities and reduce your risks for certain musculoskeletal injuries.
Muscular endurance is similar to muscular strength in some ways and different in others. Whereas strength is a measure of maximal force endurance is more concerned with duration of exertion. Therefore, the way to improve your endurance is to challenge your muscles to work longer. The most effective way to do this is to do resistance activities 2 to 4 days per week at an intensity which you can only repeat 9 to 25 times without stopping. This can be performed for 2 to 5 sets.
This is the range of motion available in a joint.
By improving each joint's range of motion you will see an improvement in your health and posture and reduce your risks for musculoskeletal injuries and conditions.
This is the relative percentages (out of 100) of tissues (fat, muscle, etc.) in the body.
To improve your body's composition, you will need to reduce the relative percentage of fat either directly (by losing body fat) or indirectly (by increasing muscle mass thereby reducing the relative percentage of fat). This improvement is different from simply reducing your body's weight which may involve fat loss or muscle loss or water loss. Fat loss has been associated with improvement in cardiorespiratory function and endurance, increased energy levels, and increased mobility. The process of losing and gaining weight repeatedly and/or drastically has been associated with heart problems, reduced muscle mass, and lowered self esteme.
The most effective way to improve body composition is to combine cardiorespiratory conditioning (for fat loss) with resistance training (for increased muscle density aka "toning") with proper nutrition (not potentially dangerous dieting).