What are the four components of physical fitness? We have four main elements that define physical fitness.

Aerobic-cardiovascular fitness – The body’s ability to take in and use oxygen to supply energy throughout the body.

Body composition – The amount of fat tissue in relation to other tissue in the body.

Flexibility – The ability to move joints and stretch muscles fully through their normal range of motion.

Muscular fitness – The strength and endurance of muscles. This is examples of the main four components of physical fitness.

All these four are important elements to consider when analyzing your personal fitness. But aerobic fitness is a central component. Increasing your aerobic fitness has many health benefits, and can best be improved with exercise that dynamically employs large muscle groups, such as walking, running, cycling, an aerobic group fitness class, rowing and cross-country skiing.

The working ability of a muscle depends on sufficient blood flow and intake of oxygen and nutrition.

The body uses Aerobic system and Carbohydrates system to supply the muscles with energy. The use of oxygen by your muscles will match oxygen intake, at lower training intensities. This activity can be sustained for long periods of time. However, your heart and lungs cannot supply enough oxygen to keep up with the demands of your muscles, at high intensities. As a result, your muscles begin to work anaerobically.

The problem with anaerobic energy production is that after a few seconds, waste products like lactate rapidly build up. Lactate blocks fat metabolism and forces the body to stop exercising. The metabolic turning point at which the body shifts from the aerobic to anaerobic energy system is called the anaerobic threshold -  AT.

Your Anaerobic Threshold – AT is the exercise intensity at which you begin to go anaerobic and build up lactate. If you want to improve your performance, it is useful to train for  three to five minutes at a heart rate just below your AT.

If you are out of shape, your AT might be at 70-80% or less of your maximum heart rate. However, if your training progresses intensively, your AT will increase. In very fit competitive athletes, AT can be at 90% of maximum heart rate.

One of the most important components of overall physical fitness is Aerobic fitness. It reflects the amount of oxygen in the blood pumped by the heart and transported to the working muscles, as well as the muscles’ efficiency in using that oxygen.

When you’re working hard, your body’s metabolism increases. When faced with increasing energy demands, your body eventually reaches a limit for oxygen consumption-uptake (represented as VO2). At this point VO2 reaches a peak value referred to as your aerobic capacity, or maximal oxygen uptake.

Increasing your aerobic fitness means increasing your heart and cardiovascular system’s capacity to perform their most important task, supplying oxygen and energy to your entire body. The best way to improve your aerobic fitness is  through activities that put the body’s large muscle groups to work dynamically – for example, exercises for physical fitness components walking, jogging,running, cycling, an aerobic exercise class,swimming, skating, , and cross-country skiing.

Although your exercise habits have a big affect on your aerobic fitness, it’s also related to age, gender and heredity. Maximum fitness values occur between the ages of 15 and 30, decreasing progressively with age.

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