Muscular Fitness - It ain't all about lifting heavy weights ya know.

Hey guys! Hope you all had a good weekend. This week I thought I'd talk about the components that make up physical fitness.

When most of us think of healthy and fit people I’m sure we imagine those people running, cycling, lifting weights, Boot-campers and Cross-Fitters, and in general people leaping around energetically in gym attire. However, there is more to health and fitness than just exercising hard or competing regularly.

When I studied for my CYQ qualification I learned that total fitness refers to, and I quote, “the ability to meet life’s demands without exhaustion or undue stress. There are several components to total fitness and the level of fitness in one area can influence other aspects of total health. The components for total health are emotional and mental, spiritual, social, medical, nutritional and physical”. It’s therefore important that we manage our well-being in all of these aspects to have optimal health.

Physical fitness can have a beneficial impact on all of the components of total fitness.

So this week I’m going to look at some of the components that make up the Physical aspect. These are flexibility, motor skills (including balance), cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and muscular endurance.

We'll start with muscular fitness. It ain't all about lifting heavy weights ya know.

Muscular Fitness

Firstly let me explain what Muscular Fitness is. In Fitness terms Muscular strength is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to use maximum force. Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or group of muscles to perform continued repetitions.

We all need muscular strength and endurance in our daily lives to perform all sorts of activities - for lifting, pushing or pulling objects. We need muscular strength and endurance for carrying the shopping, doing the housework, household maintenance and gardening for instance, even walking.

The World Health Organisation recommend that Adults aged 18-64 should perform muscle-strengthening activities at a moderate or greater intensity, involving all major muscle groups on two or more days a week. The same also applies to adults over age 65 (my personal view is that the older you get the more you need to make the effort to keep your muscles strong). If you have any medical conditions or are over 50 and have never exercised please check with your doctor first.

The biggest message is to make sure you are not inactive. Activities of daily living such as gardening, housework, cleaning the car can help keep your muscles strong. However, sometimes we need more. Being sedentary leads to muscle atrophy. The consequences of which are greater weakness, poor balance, and even frailty. Adults should do some type of physical activity every day. Any type of activity is good for you – anything is better than nothing and the more you do the better.

Some of the activities that help strengthen your muscles are: • lifting weights • working with resistance bands • heavy gardening, such as digging and shovelling • climbing stairs • hill walking • cycling • dance • push-ups, sit-ups and squats • yoga

If you have any questions please message me.

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Karen is a qualified personal trainer and nutrition coach living in Cyprus near Paphos with her husband Mal and their cat Dave. She has been a personal trainer for 14 years and a qualified nutrition coach for over 2 years. She is passionate about working with people of any age and fitness level to improve their health and wellbeing.

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