PHYSICAL FITNESS
From PE A to Z
A state of bodily ENERGY and organic vigor: it is person-specific, MUSCLE-specific, and activity-specific. It implies heightened biologic levels of function and responses of the body to perform physical activity considered beyond the normal demands of daily living.
Physical fitness has several component parts often thought of in two categories of HEALTH-RELATED FITNESS fitness and SKILL-RELATED FITNESS, although there is some overlap between the two groups. The highest levels of fitness are most likely reached by incorporating the greatest number of these component parts into an individual's personal fitness profile.
Health-related fitness components include:
- CARDIO-RESPIRATORY ENDURANCE (arguably the single most important factor in fitness)
- STRENGTH
- MUSCULAR ENDURANCE
- FLEXIBILITY
- BODY COMPOSITION
- DIET
Motor skill-related fitness components include:
Every individual is different (health, gender, size, age, needs, ability, shape, goals, temperament, personality, disposable income), every muscle is a separate entity and must be individually trained (trained biceps do not mean trained quadriceps), and all physical activities have different requirements including energy needs, strength needs, and motor skill needs. This makes physical fitness extremely difficult to measure and assess.
One person's fitness (the ability to run the 100-meter dash very fast) is another person's lack of fitness (the need to swim across the English Channel). That an individual has the ability to run at great speed does not mean the individual is capable of swimming great distances, or even capable of swimming at all, for that matter. The same degree of physical fitness is therefore not achievable or even desirable for all people. A fundamental question always accompanying physical fitness is: "Fit for what?"
Fitness is affected by a variety of factors apart from those above. The local culture, environment, and facilities are generally beyond the control of the individual. However, the use of tobacco, drugs, and alcohol consumption, as well as diet, and lifestyle can be altered by the individual to improve (or imperil) fitness levels.
Physical fitness is also one of the four major DOMAINs of PHYSICAL EDUCATION and lends itself to MEASUREMENT and assessment if only physical educators could agree on what physical fitness really is.
In recent years, as a result of the demands of educational accountability and a renaissance of fitness as a component of healthy living, physical education programs have begun to focus again, as they did in the 19th and early 20th centuries, on the promulgation of life-long fitness as perhaps the discipline's most important and worthwhile goal. SEE: HISTORY; PERSON-SPECIFICITY
