yogabook / movement physiology / fitness
In the narrower, sports science sense, fitness means a largely quantifiable state of physical performance that is characterized by the 5 core components
- Power
- Endurance
- Speed
- Flexibility/Mobility
- Coordination
The first four components are very easy to quantify, as is coordination. Sport and fitness training in a healthy amount have been proven to contribute to an increase in health and well-being. However, in excess or with the wrong parameters, they have corresponding side effects and can disrupt both. If one follows the positive definition of the World Health Organization (WHO) of „health“ as a „state of complete physical, social and mental well-being“ and not merely negatively as freedom from illness, a certain proximity of the terms health and fitness becomes apparent, whereby the idea of performance is foreign to the term health, but neither term follows from the other, counter-examples can easily be constructed. The identification of the two terms, which is sometimes found, is therefore not correct.
Some of the positive health-relevant effects of sport and fitness training of many kinds are an increase in immune performance and an elevated mood, which is also relevant to health from a psychoimmunological point of view. It has also been proven that strength training has a good preventive effect against osteoporosis, that moderate, physiological movements, especially of a cyclical nature, have a protective effect against osteoarthritis (arthrosis) and that endurance sport is one of the best ways of having a preventive effect against cardiovascular diseases such as ischaemic stroke, heart attack, vascular dementia, arteriosclerosis, arterial hypertension and insulin resistance diabetes. The preventive effect obviously depends more on the fact that a certain minimum amount that is relevant to health is done on a semi-regular basis and less on the overall performance or the work performed. The focus is not on performance, but it should also help to maintain or even improve a certain level of performance.
The level of fitness that can be achieved depends largely on the type, scope and quality of training, as well as other factors such as nutrition, regeneration, any existing health restrictions and age. There are also constitutional factors such as anabolism and catabolism. Training can focus specifically on one or two of the core components, but can also be more broadly based. If the training is too specialized in one component, it can generally lead to insufficient growth in the other components or even to a decline in another component. For example, a pure strength athlete or bodybuilder who does not train to maintain flexibility by only using specific parts of their ROM (intervals of smaller sarcomer length), will experience a loss of flexibility. The long-distance-runner can hardly expect any increase in his upper limb strength, and the gymnast who only trains for flexibility will not achieve any increase in strength or endurance with his training.
In a more general sense, which is close to the English verb „to fit“, fitness means health, fitness, efficiency and a few other things. A French winegrower will have a different specific fitness than a postman, a package deliverer, a pub garden waiter, a heating engineer, an industrial climber, an urban fitness athlete or a Sherpa. In this sense, we can also say that a person is fit in relation to the context of their life.