Maintaining a good level of physical fitness is important. However, it can be difficult to determine what fitness entails. Various components of physical health can help determine physical fitness. 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 People who regularly engage in these activities are more likely Trusted Source 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 effectively Trusted 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.