What are the 4 main parts of a fitness plan?

To be healthy we all know that we need to do some form of exercise on a regular basis. But choosing what type of exercise we should be doing, how long should we be doing it for and how hard should we be working while we are doing it can be a little confusing? A complete fitness and exercise program should incorporate three basic components: Endurance (Aerobic), Flexibility, and Strength. Each of these components has specific guidelines, which govern their effectiveness.

Endurance, specifically Aerobic Endurance, is probably the most frequently participated in aspect of fitness due to its wide-ranging benefits. To be effective aerobic exercise should be optimally performed four times a week for 30 minutes or more at a training heart rate of 50-90%. People who are just beginning may need to start at 5 minutes and then gradually add time on until they reach 30 minutes or more. Exercise should be one that elevates your heart rate into your target range, is continuous in nature, and uses large muscle groups. Some examples of aerobic type exercise are Walking, Jogging, Running, Swimming, Bicycling, Stair Climbing, Rowing, Jumping Rope, Aerobics class, and Dancing.

For whatever reason Flexibility is one of the most often neglected aspects of a fitness program. We need to remember that muscles that lack flexibility do not move as well, which can restrict the movement of our joints and increase the risk of injury. Flexibility type exercise is best done when the muscle is warm. Warm muscles perform better. Active short duration flexibility exercises of 5-10 seconds, can be performed as part of a warm-up. Static flexibility exercises, where the exercise is held for longer duration’s, 30-60 seconds , should be performed at the conclusion of the exercise session.

Resistance training allows the body to retain and increase muscle mass. When we lose muscle mass we not only lose strength but decrease our metabolism. Increases in strength allow us to perform our everyday activities a little easier. Resistance training sessions can be performed two or more times a week and should incorporate all the major muscle groups. The amount of resistance and repetitions are dependent on what your over all goals are. The same muscle groups should not be exercised on successive days. Forty-eight hours rest should be given between strength sessions of the same muscle groups.

Each of these components is inter-dependent on the other and are necessary for a complete fitness program. They all can be incorporated into one exercise session. Contact your local fitness professional if you need additional assistance in organizing your program.

When planning a well-rounded exercise program, it is important to understand the five components of physical fitness and how your training affects them. The components include: cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. In general, achieving an adequate level of fitness in all five categories is essential to good health.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance

This component of fitness relies on proper functioning of your heart, lungs, and blood vessels to transport oxygen to your tissues and carry away metabolic waste products. Physical activity that trains for cardiorespiratory endurance focuses on repetitive, dynamic, and prolonged movements using major muscle groups. You are improving this component when you are jogging, cycling, swimming, hiking, and walking.

Muscular Fitness

While there are five components of fitness, muscular strength and muscular endurance can fall under the same umbrella of muscular fitness. Both of these components focus on training your neuromuscular system, but in different ways. Muscular strength refers to the maximum amount of force a muscle can produce at one time, also referred to as a one repetition maximum. You can train your muscles to be stronger by lifting heavy weights for a few repetitions. Common exercises that focus on muscular strength include loaded squats, leg press, and bench press.

Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle to resist fatigue while exerting a submaximal amount of force. Essentially, it is a measure of how long a muscle can withstand a prolonged contraction or many repeated contractions. Training for muscular endurance requires you to perform many repetitions at a lower weight than you would use for muscular strength. Some common exercises that assess muscular endurance include pushups, sit-ups, and pull-ups – all performed to a point of fatigue.

Even if you are not specifically training for muscular strength or endurance, they are still very important for daily living. Muscular strength, for example, must be called upon when lifting boxes and moving furniture. Meanwhile, your leg muscles must have enough endurance to walk long distances. Even the muscles of your core must stay “on” to support your posture when seated and standing.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the ability of your joints to move through a range of motion. This component of fitness helps to prevent muscular imbalances and allows you to move about with ease. Two common ways to improve flexibility are static stretching (holding a stretch for 30-60 seconds) and dynamic stretching (holding a stretch for a few seconds and repeating for multiple reps). Your heart rate response will vary with the type of flexibility training you perform; in general, your heart rate will be at or slightly above your resting value.

Body Composition

The last component of physical fitness, body composition, refers to the ratio of fat mass to fat-free mass (such as muscle, bone, organs, and more) in your body. Overall health generally improves when you have a lower amount of fat mass (or lower percent body fat) and higher amount of lean muscle mass. While your heart rate will not necessarily reflect your percentage of body fat, you can use your MYZONE belt while training to make specific changes in your body composition (more on this in a future blog post).

Although you can wear your MYZONE belt when participating in any component of fitness, the components you will receive the most feedback during will be cardiorespiratory (cardio) training (i.e. running, biking, kickboxing) and muscular fitness training (i.e. circuit training, resistance training). Your MYZONE belt is providing you with your heart rate in beats per minute as well as the percentage of maximum heart rate you are working at. Cardio training and muscular fitness training are the components of fitness that will elevate your heart rate most effectively.  

You will also see an estimate of the number of calories you have burned during your session as well as the number of MEPS points you have earned. Again, cardio and muscular fitness training are going to pack the most punch when it comes to burning calories and earning MEPs.

Track which components of fitness you participate in the most by using the Activity Calendar in the MYZONE App.  You can enter the type of training you did at the top of the screen for each move.  Monitor your patterns to see when you are earning the most MEPS and burning the most calories.
We would like to follow your progress!  When you complete a move, post it to Facebook or Twitter and use the hashtags: #myzonemoves #fitness #progress.  

Keep moving forward!

• The 5 components of physical fitness are often used in our school systems, health clubs and fitness centers to gauge how good a shape we are truly in. The 5 components that make up total fitness are:

  • Cardiovascular Endurance
  • Muscular Strength
  • Muscular endurance
  • Flexibility
  • Body Composition

  Total fitness can be defined by how well the body performs in each one of the components of physical fitness as a whole. It is not enough to be able to bench press your body weight. You also need to determine how well you can handle running a mile etc.

  A closer look at the individual components:

  Cardiovascular endurance is the ability of the heart and lungs to work together to provide the needed oxygen and fuel to the body during sustained workloads. Examples would be jogging, cycling and swimming. The Cooper Run is used most often to test cardiovascular endurance.

  Muscular strength is the amount of force a muscle can produce. Examples would be the bench press, leg press or bicep curl. The push up test is most often used to test muscular strength.

  Muscular endurance is the ability of the muscles to perform continuous without fatiguing. Examples would be cycling, step machines and elliptical machines. The sit up test is most often used to test muscular endurance.

  Flexibility is the ability of each joint to move through the available range of motion for a specific joint. Examples would be stretching individual muscles or the ability to perform certain functional movements such as the lunge. The sit and reach test is most often used to test flexibility.

  Body composition is the amount of fat mass compared to lean muscle mass, bone and organs. This can be measured using underwater weighing, Skinfold readings, and bioelectrical impedance. Underwater weighing is considered the “gold standard” for body fat measurement, however because of the size and expense of the equipment needed very few places are set up to do this kind of measurement.

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