The main components of personal fitness

Trying to decide what the main components of personal fitness are usually depends on your own individual needs or goals.

But I am guessing, as with many of us, your goal is to lose weight and improve your fitness and/or appearance...

.......you want to look good on the beach right?

I know we all want this but there is more to it than just looking good.

Improving your fitness by including some form of physical exercise can have many other benefits which we can look at in more detail later.

But how can we define the components of fitness training?

The table below from the Presidents Council of Physical Fitness probably outlines these main components adequately enough:

...but we could just describe the main components of personal fitness as:

• Cardiovascular fitness - The ability the body can supply oxygen via the respiratory and circulatory systems during exercise.

• Flexibility Training - The range of motion of a joint without causing physical discomfort or pain.

• Strength Training - The ability of the muscle to exert force (also dependent on tendon strength).

• Muscular Endurance - The ability of the muscle to perform for longer periods without fatigue (also linked to good cardiovascular fitness as the transport of oxygen to the muscle can help improve performance).

• Body Composition - The relative amounts of muscle, bone and fat on the human body (more usual to see skin fold calliper testing carried out in Gyms by personal trainers and also health professionals in order to determine body fat percentages. Just for your information other methods include underwater weighing, but this is not something the average person will have done).

• General Skill Training - The development of skill and agility within sports. This is more about improving sports performance than strictly about the health elements. This is where Plyometrics could be of most benefit.

However I believe there are some more components of fitness training that are equally as important to be considered.

Firstly and often overlooked is sleep - You need to get some good quality down time. This is because in order for the body to repair itself after training we need to get our nightly quota (approx 7 to 8 hours each night)

Secondly the importance of good nutrition - and I don't mean some kind of fad diet but a proper intake of quality nutrition split throughout the day (why is this part of the main components of personal fitness? (Check out the diet and finess section for further information).

Another component of fitness training and one of personal importance for me is "Core Training".

...And finally lets not forget we live in a technological age - there is software out there to make our lives easier such as calorie counters or complete packages that help store information. From heart rate monitors to sofware that helps you construct and store individual nutrition plans and training logs.

So do not turn your back on these as they can prove to be invaluable components of fitness training.