The five main components of real-world fitness are as follows:
- Strength
- Power
- Endurance
- Agility
- Flexibility
Applying the Five Components of Fitness
In the following section, we define the Five Components of Fitness so that you can better understand how each one is beneficial. You will gain a new appreciation of the concept of real-world fitness and how it will enhance your physique. These changes result in aesthetic enhancements in the form of muscle symmetry, lower body fat, increased muscle density, and improved posture.
Strength
Function—Strength determines how easily you can pick heavy objects up or move them around. If you have greater strength, you can manage difficult and heavy tasks without injuring yourself. You are less likely to be dependent on others; when you have to lift something heavy and others aren’t around, you can do it on your own. The sense of independence is priceless!
Aesthetics—To lift heavier weights, your body must “recruit” more muscles. When more muscles are used, more calories get burned, so having greater strength means that you can do things that are more metabolically costly. This helps you become lean and stay mean!
Power
Function—Power determines how fast you can move against a resistance. The resistance can be your own bodyweight or an external weight. Power helps you to jump higher, throw farther, and generally move more explosively. It puts “oomph” into your movement. Power is one of the keys to staying young and athletic.
Aesthetics—Moving faster means that your muscles must contract at a higher velocity. When your muscles do this, the power generated is high, but for that to occur, your metabolic power output must be high. (A high metabolic power output means that you burn a large number of calories, which helps you become lean and staying lean.)
Agility
Function—Agility brings life into your life! This ability allows you to move in ways that surprise and impress onlookers and sometimes even you. Have you ever chase a playful dog? Or chased a child who had eaten too much chocolate? Have you ever recovered from a stumble and wondered how on earth you did not “bite it hard” or fall on the ground? Agility allows you to move quickly, to change directions abruptly and with startling accuracy, and to decelerate and accelerate in a blink of an eye. You’ve heard the saying, “Young and agile.” Agility is a great thing.
Aesthetics—It takes a lot of energy to move quickly, just as it does to move powerfully. When you accelerate and decelerate, your muscles must overcome a lot of inertia. Muscles must contract readily and with a lot of force, which means they must use a lot of energy. This energy is provided by burning calories, and this is a great way to stay lean!
Endurance
Function—Endurance determines how long you can last while doing an activity. It means that your muscles can contract repeatedly without premature fatigue. With better endurance, you can run farther, bike longer, lift a weight for more repetitions, get more work done, and generally tire less easily. Endurance allows you to accomplish and enjoy the many activities that life has to offer.
Aesthetics—When your muscles contract repeatedly, they must receive constant fuel, and that fuel is provided by burning calories. Although there are short-term ways of burn a lot of calories, long-term burning of calories ensures that you get lean and stay that way.
Flexibility
Function—The ability to move your body through a full range of motion is important. With good flexibility, you can move freely and accomplish tasks more easily. Flexibility also reduces the chances of injury (strains or sprains). It is important to recognize that flexibility by itself is not enough, and it must come with strength and control. In other words, no matter how much you stretch a limb, you must be able to exert control over that limb. Flexibility without strength and control can make the corresponding joint “flimsy” and predispose it to injury. With this in mind, when we speak of flexibility, we mean functional flexibility.
Aesthetics—Having freedom of motion helps prevent injuries, which allows you to stay active and on-target with your fitness routine. Having a greater range of motion forces the muscle to contract a greater distance through its entire length. The metabolic “cost” is higher, you burn more calories, and you get lean!
Optimize the Five Components to Maximize Your Real-World Fitness
You can now see the importance of optimizing the Five Components of Fitness. Although working on one or two components to the exclusion of the others is not a complete fitness plan, yet we see many people doing just that. It is like writing a novel but using only a third of the alphabet.
When you target all five components in your workout program, you achieve real-world fitness and speed up the process of making your body strong and lean!
If the program you’re using doesn’t address all these elements, isn’t it time that you use one that does?