Fitness: The benefits of being Fit

In this Article (Index)

What are the benefits of being fit?

• What is Fitness
• Some Definitions regarding exercise and fitness
• The Benefits of Being Fit
• Being Fit Reduces Health Risks
• Sitting is bad for your health
• Fitness protects you from disease

What is Fitness

Definition: The Components of Physical Fitness

Fitness is defined as "the quality or state of being fit."
Being fit means (1):
"(1): adapted to an end or design: suitable by nature or by art.
(2): adapted to the environment so as to be capable of surviving." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary

And that is what fitness is all about: physical harmony, adaptability, being able to survive, live life well, in comfort, with better health.

Physical fitness consists of five basic components:

Types of Fitness

1. Cardiorespiratory endurance
2. Muscular strength
3. Muscular endurance
4. flexibility
5. Body composition.

Some other factors that makeup fitness are your motor skills: balance, coordination, agility, speed, power, and reaction time.

Each of the Five Components of Fitness

1. Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability of your lungs and heart to intake and distribute the oxygen necessary for your metabolic functions during normal activities and during those that require an effort.
2. Muscular strength is the force that a muscle group can apply.
3. Muscular endurance is the ability to contract repeatedly or remain contracted for a given period. You need strength to lift objects, move them, pull and push, climb, run.
4. Flexibility is how your joints, body, and limbs move gracefully and efficiently. Lack of flexibility can cause pain, discomfort, and increase the risk of injury.
5. Body Composition refers to the fat and lean tissue components of your body. The "fat" makes up your "body fat" while the rest is known as "lean body mass" (muscle, internal organs, bones).
   To be fit means having the correct fat-to-lean-body-mass ratios. Too much fat is bad for your health, lack of muscle or muscle loss (which takes place as you age) also affects the quality of life.

A Holistic View of Fitness

Holistic means viewing something as part of a whole, and not in isolation. Your overall wellness and fitness is not only about improving our physical fitness or losing weight through exercise, or balanced diets, or body care, it also includes the mind, and the spiritual aspects of your inner self.

Being Fit is also about mental fitness, internal energy, and vitality, developing positive ethical and personal values, keeping your mind alert and active (mental fitness), aging well, learning how to relax, balance your work with your free time, and sleep better.

Exercise, sports, and fitness will keep your body healthy and also help you vent the stress that builds up inside of you. But it is only a part of the whole picture. The image below shows the Positive feedback loop associated with wellbeing, notice how Fitness and Exercise (at the top) is part of a cycle that keeps you well.

Some Definitions regarding exercise and fitness

Sometimes the terms "exercise", "physical activity" and "physical fitness" are taken as synonyms, but they aren't.

They are words that describe different concepts (2):

• Physical activity is the bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that result in energy expenditure.
• Exercise is the physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive to maintain physical fitness.
• Physical Fitness are attributes (which we have described further up) that are related to skills and health.

But what are the benefits of being fit?
See the next section.

The Benefits of Being Fit

Being Fit Reduces Health Risks

You are aware that being overweight increases health risks and shortens lifespan. But when you include fitness in the equation, you will find some surprising results, as shown by Blair and Brodney in a study they conducted back in 1999 (3).

These scientists asked themselves if higher levels of physical activity reduced the health risk in obese or overweight individuals and how do "active" obese - overweight people compare to "inactive" normal-weight subjects.

They also wondered which was the most important predictor of mortality: being inactive or being overweight? This is what they found:

• Being active and fit had a protective effect against the hazards of being overweight or obese (meaning that it lowered the risk for all leading causes of death - cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes- except cancer).
• "This apparent protective effect was often stronger in obese individuals than in those of normal weight or who were overweight."
• "Regular physical activity clearly attenuates many of the health risks associated with overweight or obesity."
• "Active obese individuals actually have lower morbidity and mortality than normal weight individuals who are sedentary."

This means that the answer to their first question was: Yes! Physical fitness protects "active" obese people, and their death rates are lower than that of "inactive" "thin" people.

Regarding their second question, both being overweight or obese and inactive or unfit are equally important as mortality predictors.

A later study by Fogelholm (2010) (4) mirrors these findings:

The health risks caused by poor fitness -being physically inactive- are worse than those of being overweight:

People that are overweight (have a high Body Mass Index or BMI) yet have good aerobic fitness have a lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality than individuals that have a normal weight but poor fitness.

But the fitness effect did not protect the overweight subjects from suffering from a greater risk for the incidence of type 2 diabetes and the prevalence of cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors, compared with normal BMI with low physical activity.

Sitting is bad for your health

Being fit means keeping physically active, building cardiorespiratory endurance, muscle strength, endurance, and flexibility, and also losing fat, and to do so you have to get up and begin to move.

Sitting is not good for your health even if you fulfill your weekly quota of physical activity as per the guidelines published by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

A study by Pesola, Pekkonen, and Finni (2016) (5) found that "excessive sitting [is] a health risk even if recommendations for physical activity are fulfilled."

The reasons for this seem to be the lack of muscular movement that increases insulin resistance affecting how fat is transported and oxidized in the muscles (and being active later cannot reverse this side-effect of sitting).

Fitness protects you from disease

The COVID-19 pandemic provoked a high mortality rate and higher hospitalization levels among people with comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and those who were overweight or obese.

Dwyer et al. (2020) (6) looked into the effect of physical activity and overall fitness as a way to help reduce susceptibility to the disease.

They concluded that "provided that social distancing is respected, PA [Physical Activity] is suggested during the COVID‐19 pandemic due to its multiple benefits on physical and mental health. Personalized training according to age, clinical conditions, and level of fitness is paramount; therefore, specific recommendations to address home‐based training during this time are highly needed."

Mental Health benefits form being fit

Other studies investigated the potential protective benefits of exercise against COVID-19 and mental health issues associated with it, finding benefits in physical activity to improve mental health during lockdown. (7),(8),(9).

A study (10) published on October 29, 2024 found that "weekend warriors" physical activity is linked to a lower risk of mild dementia, equivalent to the protection obtained by those who exercise regularly and not only once or twice a week on weekends.

More Fitness resources on our website

We have included more webpages with plenty of information, advice, and tips on becoming fit, losing weight, and shaping up:

Fitness: Guide to getting started

Getting Started with your fitness program: Prepare your physical activity plan and start today. Reach your exercise goals, keep motivated and inspired.

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Get Fit & Lean

Tips to exercise more, lose weight, and get into shape. Fitness and exercise are as important as diet in your body weight control program. Feel fitter, leaner, and healthier.

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The Science behind Exercise

Science and exercise: the proof, facts & studies behind the benefits of physical activity. Scientific information about exercising, getting fit, and its health benefits.

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