Health-Related Fitness Components Pt. 1

If a person were asked to consider himself or herself to be physically fit what criteria would be used to answer the question? To answer, he or she would first have to decide what it means to be physically fit. Physical fitness is defined as a set of attributes or characteristics individuals have or achieve that relates to their ability to perform physical activity.1 According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), these characteristics are broken up into five health-related fitness components and 6 skill-related fitness components.  Due to the strong relationship between physical fitness and health-related fitness components, the main focus of this blog series will be on the health-related components.

The five health-related fitness components include cardiorespiratory endurance, body composition, muscular strength, muscular endurance and flexibility with the focus today being on cardiorespiratory endurance.  Cardiorespiratory endurance is related to the ability to perform large muscle, dynamic, moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise for prolonged periods of time.1 This is considered to be one of the health-related fitness components of physical fitness because increased levels of cardiorespiratory endurance have been shown to decrease the risk of death from all causes and specifically from cardiovascular disease.  High levels of cardiorespiratory endurance are also associated with higher levels of habitual physical activity.

The ACSM and the American Heart Association recommend that all healthy adults aged 18-65 years old should participate in moderate intensity, aerobic activity for a minimum of 30 minutes 5 days a week or vigorous aerobic activity for a minimum of 20 minutes 3 days a week.  Examples of moderate intensity activities include walking at 3-4mph, sweeping floors, mowing the lawn (push mower), shooting a basketball, ballroom dancing, and recreational volleyball to name a few.  Vigorous activities include walking at a pace of 4.5mph or faster, jogging at a pace of 5mph, running at a pace of 7mph, playing a basketball game, cycling at 12-16mph leisure swimming or a casual soccer game.1 Improving ones fitness in this area can lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, increase life span, reduce risk of Type 2 diabetes, raise self-esteem, increase bone density, reduce body fat, improve sleep and along with many other benefits.2 Below, is a table that shows how people between the ages of 20-39 would rank in maximal aerobic power based age and gender according to ACSM guidelines.3

1. Pescatello, L. (2014). ACSM's guidelines for exercise testing and prescription (9th ed., p. 2,72,88,91). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Health.

2. Cardiorespiratory Fitness & Energy Systems. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2014, from http://wserver.flc.losrios.edu/~willson/fitns304/handouts/cardio.html