The Health and Fitness Lifestyle

When people think of health and fitness we all generally include the attributes of happiness and success thrown in as well. But to many people health means absence from illness. However, according to the World Health Organization:
"Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." So when we think of a healthy and fit lifestyle we are more than likely correct in assuming that it also includes success and happiness which starts and ends with attitude.
Let's take a look at the specific definition of what this means considering what is written above. The first step is physical fitness which is generally defined as "the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits and to meet unforeseen emergencies."
In order to achieve this it must be improved through long-term and regular participation in exercises, as well as maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Physical fitness can also be classified into two categories: (1) health-related fitness and (2) sport-related fitness.
But it goes a step farther as the components of health-related fitness also generally known as physical fitness include; cardio-respiratory endurance, muscular strength and muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition, and neuromuscular relaxation.
Cardio-respiratory Endurance refers to the ability of the circulatory system and the respiratory system (i.e., heart and lungs) to supply oxygen to the working muscles and remove metabolic wastes (e.g., carbon dioxide) at the same time. This a vital component of health-related fitness because the human body and the brain must have sufficient oxygen supply to work normally. The more sufficient the oxygen supply, the more efficient the different body parts can work.
Studies done have shown that the capacity of the heart to pump blood and the body to absorb oxygen reduces 5% to 15% every 10 years after the age 25. However if one participates regularly in endurance training it is undoubtedly beneficial to cardio-respiratory efficiency.
Muscular Strength refers to the maximum force that can be produced by a muscle or muscle group in a single contraction (i.e., 1-RM). However muscular endurance refers to the ability of the muscles to contract repeatedly, or maintain a submaximal force for an extended period of time.
The bottom line is that heavier workloads cannot be overcome with insufficient muscular strength and endurance, which may also lead to premature muscular fatigue and muscular pain. Insufficient muscular strength and endurance is also a factor of sport injuries, or other chronic musculo-skeletal injuries.
Flexibility refers to the ability of a joint or a series of joints to move through its full range of movement. This is an important factor when looking at total health and fitness as with better flexibility movement can be performed at higher efficiency (e.g., hurdling). Besides, good flexibility also helps to prevent sport injuries (e.g., strains).
The next item for consideration when looking at total health and fitness is body composition and this refers to the proportion of fat to non-fat components (i.e., bones and muscles) in the human body. Overweight and obesity is not only detrimental to sports performances but it will also increase the chances for suffering from cardiovascular diseases.
The last consideration is your neuromuscular relaxation which refers to the ability to reduce or even eliminate unnecessary tension or contractions of muscles due to stress. To put it simply being able to relax not only enables one to work more efficiently, but also facilitates sport performances.
Sport-related fitness includes all of the attributes mentioned above as well as the following: Agility, Balance, Coordination, Reaction Time, Speed and Power. This is something that could be considered as part of a healthy and fit lifestyle but that would depend on your specific sporting objective obviously.

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