A Holistic Approach to Fitness

When we hear the word “Fit,” we probably think of our male friends with broad shoulders and large arms, who can confidently go shirtless at the beach. For women, we think of those with capsule-like figures with slender thighs and arms.

But being fit is not only about how one looks physically. Body composition is just one component of fitness. Actually, it has five major components and we should aim to keep them in balance as we approach fitness holistically.

#1: Cardiovascular Health

According to the World Health Organization, Ischemic Heart Disease is the leading cause of death globally. Risk factors of this disease include but are not limited to having a sedentary lifestyle, stress, and obesity. Suffice to say, it is always good to include cardiovascular activities in our training regimen.

How to Improve Cardiovascular Health: You can do cardio workouts such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and jogging. I recommend cardio to be done on a separate day from your resistance training so you can perform at your best on either session. Walking is also a great form of cardio activity. To increase the intensity, you can use resistance bands in between your thighs as you walk.

#2: Muscular Strength

This pertains to our ability to lift and transport our body, as well as objects, from one place to another. From furniture, groceries, or appliances whenever we clean our house, lifting is an everyday movement. Sure, we can use carts to make life easier, but as they say, “Use it or you’ll lose it.”

There is a great correlation between strength and muscle growth, so if you aim to grow a muscle group, aim to lift heavy weights that will induce sufficient damage and stimulus.

How to Improve Muscular Strength: If you are doing resistance training, continue to incorporate progressive overloads. This ensures you get stronger every session. Basic bodyweight exercises such as pushups, pull-ups, and jump squats may also help if you don’t lift weights.

#3: Muscular Endurance

By the time we need to use our muscle strength, how long can we sustain it? If you are into sports like swimming, basketball, or cycling, muscular endurance is your bread and butter to stay on the game for an extended period. The good news is, as you improve on your muscle strength, muscle endurance is likely to improve as well. It’s because as you become stronger to perform movements, the easier it is to go the distance.

How to Improve Muscular Endurance: Apart from doing activities that improve your muscle strength, you can also try to reduce weights by a bit to perform high rep ranges of 10-12. During your gym day off, you can incorporate activities such as swimming or cycling.

#4: Flexibility and Neuromotor

Flexibility allows us to move on a wider range of motions with ease while neuromotor entails motor skills such as balance, coordination, agility, and gait. That being said, these two reduce pain and the risks of injuries in our training and whenever we perform functional movements in our daily lives. These two are the most overlooked component of fitness, and thus, we can see fitness enthusiasts suffer from pain and injuries.

How to Improve Flexibility and Neuromotor Fitness: You may explore Yoga Poses during your day off such as Cobra, Triangle, Down Dog, Warrior I-III, and Tree Poses. Yoga itself addresses both our flexibility and neuromotor fitness. You can also incorporate gym exercises that will challenge your stability than usual. This may include one leg dumbbell rows and Bulgarian Split Squats.

#5: Body Composition

Goals as to how your body looks depends on your preference. One may want to look athletic. One would want to have bigger traps similar to that of a bodybuilder. But more than the potential praises or Instagram likes you can garner from having a nice and ripped body, having an appropriate level of body fat reduces the risks of deadly diseases such as cardiac arrest, hypertension, and Type II Diabetes.

How to Improve Your Body Composition: Engage yourself in various physical activities, such as resistance training, cardio workouts, circuits, and/or walking. Use the fuel (calories) that you’re consuming and stop being sedentary for the rest of the week. Otherwise, you’ll likely store it as body fat. It’s good to use tools such as weighing scale and calipers to determine regularly whether you’re on or off track, then adjust your diet and/or routines accordingly.

Conclusion

Fitness entails not only having gigantic muscles and ripped abs. Aside from building strength and gaining size, let us not forget the other components of fitness that will benefit our overall health as we age.