What is fitness? How Do I Get Started to Be Fit?

 

Many people share the goal of being fit. After all, being fit is the same as being healthy.

A high degree of general fitness is associated with a decreased risk of chronic illness and an improved capacity to handle health problems when they arise. Improved fitness also encourages more usefulness and mobility throughout one’s life.

Additionally, being active may improve your daily functioning in the near term, including your mood, attention, and sleep quality.

In other words, our bodies are designed to move, and when we’re in better shape, our bodies tend to work better.

Having said that, it’s also critical to understand that there are several approaches to fitness (compare the lifestyles of a sprinter and a gymnast, for example, or a ballet dancer and a bodybuilder). Additionally, there is no one “look” for fitness. In actuality, you can’t always tell anything about someone’s habits, level of fitness, or even if they are physically active, just by looking at them.

What does being fit mean?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has established the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which include the following five elements of physical fitness:

Your VO2 max is a common way to gauge your fitness for the heart and respiratory system. According to Abbie Smith-Ryan, PhD, professor and head of the Applied Physiology Laboratory at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, it’s your body’s capacity to take in and use oxygen, which powers all of your tissues. This capacity is directly linked to your well-being and overall health.

• Fitness for the Musculoskeletal System Power, stamina, and muscular strength are all included in this.
• Adaptability This is your joints’ range of motion.
• Harmony This is your capacity to maintain your balance and prevent falls.
• Quickness This is the speed at which you can move.

Fitness Types

Fitness consists of a few key elements, each of which is crucial for creating an exercise program that is comprehensive. The ones listed below are those that are a part of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, which HHS highlights as crucial components of weekly physical activity. (It’s important to note that various definitions of fitness also take into account other elements, such the previously stated endurance, muscular endurance, power, speed, balance, and agility.)

• Cardiovascular Aerobic Exercise

For good reason, the cornerstone of every fitness regimen is aerobic exercise. According to the American Heart Association, this kind of physical activity, also known as cardio exercise or cardio, raises your heart rate and breathing rate, which enhances your cardiorespiratory fitness.

According to the Physical Activity Guidelines, aerobic exercise includes things like brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, aerobic fitness programs (like kickboxing), tennis, dance, yard work, and jumping rope.

• Rest and Healing

Including days for rest and recuperation gives your body the time it needs to heal from the natural harm that exercise does to your muscles. By definition, physical activity strains the body’s muscles. You get stronger (and fitter) through the process of mending or healing from that stress. However, for the body to fully recover after an exercise, you must allow it enough time to relax.

Recovery days may be spent doing nothing physical at all, or they might take the form of an active recovery day, during which low-impact, low-intensity exercises like strolling or light yoga are performed. In general, Dr. Sallis advises engaging in some kind of daily exercise, such as taking a brisk ten-minute stroll outside.

• Strengthening Exercise

Strength training is a crucial component of improving general functioning and mobility, especially as you age. “Losing muscle mass as you become older may significantly lower your quality of life. Strength training strengthens bones and muscle, and having more muscle helps prevent falls and fractures that can occur as you age, according to Robert Sallis, MD, chairman of the Exercise Is Medicine initiative with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and a family physician at Kaiser Permanente in Fontana, California.

• Working Out Improves Your Mood

Research has shown that regular exercise may act as a protective factor against anxiety and sadness. Furthermore, a scientific study mentions that further research demonstrates how exercise may assist control and even cure the symptoms of depression. Exercise has been shown to help lower inflammation, which has been found to be elevated in depressed individuals. The researchers speculate that exercise may also encourage positive changes in the brain.

• Exercise Helps You Sleep

Regular exercise might improve your quality of sleep at night. Out of the 34 studies that were part of the systematic review, 29 indicated that exercise increased the length of sleep sessions and enhanced the quality of sleep. In addition to causing chemical changes in the brain that promote sleep and, as previous study suggests, perhaps easing presleep worry that may otherwise keep you awake, it may help regulate your body clock so that you are alert and drowsy at the proper times.

However, it’s important to remember that high-intensity exercise should be done earlier in the day since doing it too soon before bed (within an hour or two) might make it harder for some individuals to fall asleep.

What Should You Eat Before, During, and After Working Out?

Exercise also benefits greatly from proper and healthy dietary nutrient intake.

Prior to Working Out Follow your body’s hunger signals if you’re working out just after waking up, advises Jackie Dikos, RDN, a sports nutritionist in Westfield, Indiana, and the author of Finish Line Fueling. You may not require anything if you had a later or heavier supper the previous evening. You could need a little food if you have a strenuous exercise plan and are ravenous.

• You may fuel yourself for the job ahead by eating easy-to-digest carbohydrates, like a banana or some cereal right before an exercise, or a mix of carbs and protein, such as toast with nut butter, 30 minutes earlier. You may be able to completely forego the snack if you’ve just had a meal.

• While You’re Working Out Longer sessions of endurance exercise need mid-exercise feeding; shorter exercises do not. The International Society of Sports Nutrition advises consuming 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour after the first 60 minutes of exercise. One option is sports drinks.

• Following Your Exercise Refueling after a low- to moderate-intensity activity, like a 45-minute brisk stroll, is not necessary right away, especially if your next meal is not far away, according to Dikos. However, your body will need nourishment if you just completed a strenuous exercise, if you know you’ll be working out again that day, or if you have an intense session the next day. In addition to 10 to 20 grams of protein, Dikos suggests consuming half a gram of carbohydrates for every pound of body weight.