Your Body

Components of Fitness Every exercise programme should aim to improve all aspects of physical fitness. The components that make up the hard core of fitness can be classified as follows: • Endurance or stamina • Strength • Mobility

Endurance is the ability to keep on performing movements such as running, swimming, cycling and walking, for a long time. Endurance, often also called stamina, depends on how well your heart and lungs can deliver oxygen to the working muscles

When you run, your heart speeds up, blood flows quickly, and lungs work hard. If you are fit and have good stamina, you can keep on for a long time. However, if your endurance is low, you will be gasping for breath soon after you start to exercise.

Strength is the muscles’ capacity to exert force when they contract. Strength is determined among other factors by the size of the muscles if you are very strong; the thousands of movements that occur every day become a lot easier and more efficient.

Another important factor of fitness is mobility. It depends on flexibility, suppleness, balance and the agility to change direction quickly. Suppleness and flexibility decide the extent of movement in the joints. An agile and supple person can perform a wide strain on muscles and ligaments.

Training Before you begin your keep fit campaign, remember the following golden rules: 1. Train don’t strain. If you find your training leaves you exhausted the next morning, check your programme. Do not be lazy but do not try to become fit in a day or two.

2. Be dedicated. You will have to keep at it. Peak physical fitness may take a long time to reach, but once you stop training, your fitness level will drop very rapidly.

3. Start gradually. Be patient. Work hard and regularly but to not start by working until you drop exhausted. At the outset, take it easy and allow your body to adapt to the new demands.

4. Be progressive. After you have reached basic fitness, set yourself progressively harder tasks with the help of a professional fitness trainer / adviser. You can improve your fitness only by steadily increasing the amount of training. Be regular. Haphazard training has no value and it is always better to work a little every day rather than have a long session once or twice a week.