Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Tyler DiGiovanni, BSBM
FACT CHECKED
When people think of fitness, they look at it through a single lens. Are you fast? Are you strong? How many push-ups can you do? None of these single-handedly prove someone is fit. However, they all demonstrate various components of fitness. You see, to say you're truly fit, you must master more than just one area. This article will go through the 5 components of fitness and why you need them in your life!
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What Is Fitness?
One of the greatest questions ever asked is, "What is fitness?" This seems like a simple question with a straightforward answer, but it's actually not as clear-cut.
Some will define it as those who may have;
- Won Ironman triathlon
- The world's strongest man
- The fastest man in the world
- The best NFL running back
The problem is that "fitness" has never been properly defined. Some would say that it is being proficient across numerous modalities. Others would say that fitness ultimately means being healthy, as there's a direct correlation.
Greg Glassman of Crossfit famously defined fitness as having;
"increased work capacity across broad time and modal domains."
This idea is based on the idea that a truly fit individual would be able to excel in multiple different areas rather than specialize in just one. In a way, these different modalities act as a sort of check-and-balance and mitigate any extreme direction.
For example, an elite long-distance runner may only be focused on improving their running distance and performance. As such, they forgo strength training and lose mass and strength.
On the other end, a pure strength athlete may ignore cardio or endurance training for fear it will affect their strength training. As a result, they could develop poor cardiovascular health and possibly obesity.
In the grand scheme of things, this is likely our best definition today.
Whatever you want to define it as, here are the 5 accepted components of fitness.
The 5 Components Of Fitness
No matter how bad social media wants you to think, having big muscles isn't the main component of fitness. In fact, it's probably the least important in the grand scheme of things.
So, let's look at the five components of fitness. Keep in mind that these are the "official" components. Further, keep a mental checklist and see which aspect you need to improve.
1. Cardiovascular Endurance
Cardiovascular fitness is first on the list. In the world of bodybuilding and strength sports, cardio is infamous for being ignored.
Cardiovascular endurance is the ability to perform a task of moderate or high intensity for an extended duration. This is simply the breakdown of the two terms.
- Cardiovascular refers to anything that involves your heart (cardio) and blood vessels (vascular).
- Endurance refers to the ability to perform a task for a prolonged period.
However, we can go a little deeper.
The cardiovascular system plays a crucial role in delivering oxygen and nutrients to tissues and organs and removing waste products like carbon dioxide.
This specifically refers to the ability of your cardiovascular system to deliver oxygen to working muscles while clearing metabolic waste.
Obviously having better cardiovascular endurance will lead to better performance. However, it also means you have a stronger and healthier heart! This is crucial for being fit or being healthy.
This is why it's stressed so much, especially to bodybuilders and strength athletes. Contrary to belief, lifting weights does offer cardiovascular benefits, at least to a degree, assuming you're training at a proper intensity. However, nothing beats good 'ol endurance training and low-intensity activity for prolonged duration.
How To Improve Cardiovascular Endurance
It's difficult to give a specific test to measure your cardio. However, running a sub-30-minute 5k or 8-minute mile is a good goal for most people.
Improving your cardio to obtain "fit" levels is relatively easy. The primary factor is consistency.
You have two options;
- Long and slow
- High-intensity or intervals
Both options will improve your cardiovascular fitness; ideally, your program has both components. Further, you can improve your cardio across numerous modalities; it doesn't have to run.
The basic idea is to increase your time on your feet and intensity weekly. For example, here's how a 3-day running program may look for a runner with some experience.
- Session 1: Run 2 miles for time
- Session 2: 1:00/1:00 intervals for 20:00 followed by a 10-minute recovery jog
- Session 3: 40-45-minute run @70% HRmax
From here, you'd simply increase the variables such as time and intensity.
Remember, you can use treadmills, bikes, rowers—whatever you like. Further, if you just want to keep it simple, you could do 30-60-minute sessions of low/moderate intensity every time. Again, the key to reaching healthy fitness levels is consistency.
2. Muscular Strength
In the gym world, muscular strength is the one that most people meet. However, many people still don't understand what muscular strength is or how it differs from muscle size.
Contrary to belief, muscular strength is a different variable from muscle size. In the simplest definition, muscle size is the total cross-section of a number. To increase it, various physical adaptations occur, increasing the cross-section area.
On the other hand, muscular strength is an expression of one's neuromuscular system, that is, how well one's brain talks to one's muscles.
This means you can increase muscle strength without adding muscle size—your existing muscles begin to work better together and can create more force. Another way to think about it is that muscle size is quantity while muscle strength is quality.
This is why muscle strength is so important: It's an indicator of how healthy your neuromuscular system is and your level of function.
While we're young, this is important to improve performance. As we get older, the importance shifts from improving our deadlift to maintaining an independent lifestyle and quality of life.
Muscle strength is one of the best indicators of quality of life and, more importantly, mortality.¹
All this means is that everyone must be stronger.
How To Increase Muscle Strength
Many people get strength training wrong because they associate it with bigger muscles. As we mentioned, they are definitely related to strength, which is a different adaptation than increasing muscle mass.
Another issue is that people think going to the gym to "tone" muscle will work. This will have a beneficial effect, especially in the beginning; you will need to increase the intensity to continue seeing results.
The best way to do this is simply to use progressive overload, which states that in order to continue progressing, you need to continually place greater stress on the muscle.
One important aspect of building strength is using a heavy enough load to stimulate the neuromuscular system. Research has shown that loads of 85% of your 1RM or greater are ideal; this weight is around your 6-rep max.
However, if you're new to lifting, you could still get decent results using 80%1RM or your 8-rep max. You could use higher intensity and greater loads as you become more comfortable.
The simplest way to do this is to use one of these rep schemes.
- 5X5
- 3X5
- 3X6
- 3X8
Choose a starting weight and increase the load once you can complete all three sets with that weight. This would be sufficient for most people to achieve pretty good strength levels.
3. Muscular Endurance
Above, we talked about cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength. Now, we're talking about muscular endurance.
Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles to contract and produce force for an extended duration, so while cardiovascular endurance measures your heart's functionality, muscular endurance measures your muscle's endurance functionality.
When talking about muscular endurance, it could actually refer to two aspects;
- Anaerobic endurance- This is the ability of your muscles to perform repeated events of maximal performance.
- Aerobic endurance- is the ability of your muscles to continue performing low-intensity activity, i.e., running a marathon.
Again, ideally, you train both aspects, as we feel this aligns with the general definition of being fit. That said, realize that improving your muscular endurance relies on other systems as well.
For example, your cardiovascular and metabolic systems will be involved.
How To Increase Muscle Endurance
You should utilize two different modalities as there are two types of endurance.
1) Aerobic Endurance
Aerobic endurance refers to the ability to perform a movement repeatedly. When it comes to your lower body, your regular cardio training will take care of that, at least for prolonged durations.
One of the best ways to improve your upper body is to use EMOMs (every minute on the minute). To perform an EMOM, you will first select a duration, usually 5 or 10 minutes. You will then start a clock and perform an exercise for a prescribed number of reps. When completed, you will then rest for the remainder of the minute.
For example, if the exercise takes 20 seconds to complete, you'll rest for 40 seconds before you perform the next set.
You would want to use a lightweight with many reps and sets to improve aerobic endurance. For example, use 40% of your 1RM and perform 10 reps for a 10-minute EMOM (100 total reps)
2) Anaerobic Endurance
Anaerobic endurance involves repeating maximal efforts for a continued duration. This means performing high-intensity movements, allowing partial rest, and then repeating. Ultimately, this improves muscular endurance and your anaerobic metabolic systems.
A great protocol would be to use EMOMs again. However, you're 85%1RM and then perform 3 reps for a 5-minute EMOM.
Other ideas would be to use intervals with maximal effort but insufficient rest periods, such as raptors of 1:1 or 1:2.
4. Flexibility
The fourth component of fitness is flexibility. Flexibility refers to the range of motion of a joint or group of joints without pain or discomfort.
Having good flexibility is important for everyday activities. It can make tasks like maintaining balance, reaching high shelves, or bending down to pick something up much easier.
Certain activities, such as gymnastics, dance, and martial arts, require greater flexibility.
While there is some debate about whether stretching can reduce pain or prevent injury, it is widely accepted that regular stretching can improve flexibility and may enhance performance in activities that demand greater flexibility.
Of the 5 main components of fitness, flexibility is the most nuanced. In fact, some leading sports scientists believe it shouldn't even be considered a component.²
This may seem surprising as we hear about it so much. However, this viewpoint makes sense if we think about it a little deeper. There are a few key points to consider.
- Having suboptimal flexibility isn't going to have a major effect on your health or longevity.
- Being more flexible is not always better and can actually be worse for you.
- Being able to touch your toes doesn't make you more fit than someone who can't, as flexibility has no direct influence on your health.
- If you're going through life with no injury from not being flexible enough, you're flexible enough.
The general idea is that there's a range of flexibility, including a minimum and maximum.
For example, gymnastics and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners need more flexibility than the average person.
In fact, studies have shown differences between short-distance runners and long-distance runners. Short-distance runners and sprinters need greater flexibility as they take much longer strides.³
On the contrary, long-distance runners perform better with less flexibility as the muscles stay tense to create more force.
As long as a person is within this range, they're good to go. To randomly tell someone to "increase flexibility" serves no purpose.
How To Increase Flexibility
Increasing flexibility is actually quite simple. One of the best things people can do is perform resistance training with a full range of motion.
Performing exercises like squats and overhead presses requires a good deal of flexibility in all joints. Therefore, simply following a proper resistance training program is a great way to increase flexibility.
In addition, you should utilize dynamic stretching before every training session as well.
Now, if you need extra help with flexibility, adding a stretching component to your training program can yield great results. Such as band stretching.
If you need extra help, adding an extra static stretching component is sufficient for most people. The basic idea is to bring the joint to its maximal range and hold it for 20-30s.
If you feel like you need this, be sure to do your stretching after your warm-up. Too much stretching before working out can actually decrease performance. Further, your muscles will already be warm and extra supple after your workout.
5. Body Composition
The fifth component of fitness is body composition. Body composition refers to the percentage of muscle and fat mass. This is then usually compared to weight and total height.
While most people want to improve their body composition to look good, this has a lot more benefits than just sporting a six-pack.
We have known for a very long time that body composition directly correlates with overall health and mortality.
Researchers have connected obesity to an increased risk of multiple conditions⁴, including;
- Diabetes
- Various cancers
- Cardiovascular disease
- Heart disease
Most people associate "body composition" with fat loss. However, having muscle mass is also important.
A person of "normal weight" with low muscle mass is at higher risk of various conditions such as diabetes (because your muscles store glycogen) and overall lower mortality.⁵
At the same time, everyone will lose muscle mass as they age through a condition known as sarcopenia, the natural wasting of our muscles. However, we can combat this through continuing strength training as we age. At the same time, if we begin to age with more muscle mass, we can "afford" to lose more!
The point is that body composition does not only apply to having low-fat levels; you also need muscle! This is why it's recommended that everybody trains twice a week.
How To Increase Body Composition
Improving body composition has two components;
- Increase muscle mass
- Decrease body fat
The optimal range can vary from person to person. However, the general guidelines for adults are as follows;
- Men: 18-24% (Normal) 14-17% (Fit)
- Women: 25-31% (Normal) 21-24% (Fit)
You need to follow a resistance program that utilizes your primary movements and progressive overload to increase muscle mass. As we mentioned above, you should train at least twice a week. However, 3-4 days a week would likely yield better results.
To decrease body fat, you need to follow a diet that places you in a small caloric deficit of 300-500 calories. Then, follow a diet that concentrates on whole foods and mitigates;
- Junk food
- Processed food
- Added sugar
- Fried foods
In addition, you should increase your physical activity. There are a few easy ways to do this, including;
- Count your steps! Being sure to get 10,000 steps a day is an easy and effective way to improve your body composition.
- Find a sport or hobby you enjoy. This can be anything from cycling to fishing. Obviously, more movement is better, but even standing by a lake with your rod is much better than sitting on a couch and watching Netflix! The idea is to find something that gets you outside and moving.
Curious to know what your body comp currently is? You can use one of these tests to find out.
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Are You Fit?
So, now you see the 5 components of fitness, are you fit? Or do you need to work on a couple areas? Remember there is no black and white cut-off but rather a continuum; everyone can't be the best at everything. However, we should all strive to have a component of each as they all bring a unique benefit. Therefore, figure out what you need to work on and add it to your training!
References
- García-Hermoso, Antonio, et al. “Muscular Strength as a Predictor of All-Cause Mortality in an Apparently Healthy Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Data from Approximately 2 Million Men and Women.” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, vol. 99, no. 10, Oct. 2018, pp. 2100-2113.e5, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2018.01.008.
- Nuzzo, James L. “The Case for Retiring Flexibility as a Major Component of Physical Fitness.” Sports Medicine, vol. 50, no. 5, 16 Dec. 2019, pp. 853–870, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-019-01248-w.
- McMillian, Danny J., et al. “Dynamic vs. Static-Stretching Warm Up: The Effect on Power and Agility Performance.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 20, no. 3, 2006, p. 492, https://doi.org/10.1519/18205.1.
- Abdelaal, Mahmoud, et al. “Morbidity and Mortality Associated with Obesity.” Annals of Translational Medicine, vol. 5, no. 7, Apr. 2017, pp. 161–161, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5401682/, https://doi.org/10.21037/atm.2017.03.107.
- Son, Jang Won, et al. “Low Muscle Mass and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Middle-Aged and Older Adults: Findings from the KoGES.” Diabetologia, vol. 60, no. 5, 19 Jan. 2017, pp. 865–872, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00125-016-4196-9.
Garett Reid
Author