Vivo Active

In order to create a programme that is specific to you and your particular goals and needs, it is necessary to create an in-depth understanding of the components of fitness involved. You or your fitness professional should consider what you want to be achieved and then how you are going to get there. It is hard to define ‘fitness’ as different people have their own perceptions of what it is to be fit, whether you wanted to be able to achieve everyday tasks without feeling fatigued or you wanted to be able to complete the marathon in a specific time. This short piece will hopefully give you a further understanding of the components of fitness involved in your particular programme and also how to utilize them effectively.

There are 5 different components of fitness;

• Cardiovascular fitness
• Muscular strength
• Muscular endurance
• Flexibility
• Motor fitness

Cardiovascular fitness

Cardiovascular fitness is basically the ability of your cardio-pulmonary system to process oxygen. By process I mean getting the air into the body and delivering it to the working muscles. Your cardiovascular fitness can be measured by performing a simple VO2 max test which will decipher the maximum amount of oxygen that can be processed in a unit of time (ask your fitness professional to perform a VO2 max test in order to gauge your CV fitness).  Following a prescribed CV training programme, this will promote certain anatomical changes to the structure and function of your heart;

• The left ventricular myocardium increases in strength so that it can pump more of the blood out in systole, so your stroke volume improves.
• Your resting heart rate will decrease so that it will do less work when supplying the body with blood when carrying out every day functions.
• In individuals who are mildly hypertensive (high blood pressure) their systolic blood pressure can reset at a lower level as arterial elasticity and smooth muscle contractility in arteries improves.
• There is less variation in the electrical conductivity of the heart throughout repeated cardiac cycles, reducing the risk of arrhythmias (variation in heart rate).
• There are also changes in blood chemistry that can have a positive effect on people who suffer from type 2 diabetes.

Now it is important to note that many of these changes improve at a lower level of intensity than those need to improve VO2 max (lower levels of intensity CV exercise have better health gains).

The best way to measure an indication of improved CV endurance capacity is to assess whether there has been an increase in the anaerobic threshold, which is the intensity it is possible to work up to without any increases in lactate levels above a steady state. Once again, intensity levels lower than those needed to improve VO2 max can raise the anaerobic threshold.

 It has been said that the minimum levels of exercise intensity needed to improve your VO2 max and your anaerobic threshold is 55-65% of your maximum heart rate (MHR= a rough guide is 220 – your age).

An important factor to take into account is that intensity and duration are interrelated and cumulative. By this I mean is that studies have shown that the extent of adaptive improvements on the body is determined by the total volume of exercise in terms of calories used each week (calories are a measure of energy expenditure). For example it has been shown that a minimum of 700 calories up to 2,000 + expended each week has proven to have positive health related adaptations on the body. For individuals who are training for a specific sporting or athletic event and need to improve their performance are expected to expend beyond the above amount. These figures are an estimate and are dependent on individual’s fitness levels; please consult a fitness professional to assess your individual requirements.

According to the dose response curve any combination of time and intensity that accumulates to the same expenditure will have the same effect, although 10 minutes seems to be a threshold minimum. This basically means that as long as you complete your target exercise load over the course of the day you will achieve the required goals. For example if your target for the day was a 30 minute, moderate intensity cardiovascular session you could either do this in one go, or do 3 x 10 minute sessions as they would both have the same desired effect as long as the total energy utilised was the same.

It has been said that the frequency needed to improve an individual’s VO2 max is 3 times per week. Studies have shown that there is NO added improvement to individuals who train over 5 times per week but there is an increase in the risk of picking up an injury. In terms of training frequency for health related fitness, current guidelines are 30 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise 5 times per week, however further research needs to be carried out in this particular field.

Tags: Components of Fitness

Author: Adam Tinnion

Serial Vivo Active Information Putter Upper-er

Adam Tinnion has written 27 articles for us - View profile »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Health & Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.