I am constantly having people come in to see me in my practice saying, 'I am fit, I am on my feet all day, I run every day or I go to the gym everyday - aren't I fit?' What these people often don't realise is that there are 10 different aspects to fitness and that you cannot be truly considered fit unless you are able to perform in each of these areas.
The 10 recognised general fitness skills are endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. By definition, if you are not great at any of these 10 facets then your body is performing at less than its best. When your body is not performing at its best, it of course affects your ability to do these physical activities wherever they may crop up in your life. But perhaps more importantly, it affects your overall health.
For instance, it is well known that endurance exercise is good for your heart, but did you know that doing interval training - where your heart rate goes rapidly up, and then recovers - helps to prepare your heart to cope with sudden increases in demand (like when you're stressed), hence reducing your risk of heart attack? Interval training has also been shown to increase metabolic rate, improve lung function and reduce stress.
So as you can see, these 10 different facets of fitness are not just good for your body - they are essential for your body, just like your dietary requirements. They will help you in many more ways than just merely athletic performance.
How can you train in order to exercise all of these 10 areas? The first and most important component is that you need to keep your training regime broad and constantly varied.
Secondly, you need to make sure that you are doing lots of compound activities. If you try and do all 10 components separately, you will be training all day and you still won't get the same effect that you would by doing several together. For example, doing a series of squats correctly can help you to improve your endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy all at once.
Interval training is also a vital component of a well-rounded exercise routine. Put simply, interval training is repeating short spurts of high intensity exercise with breaks in between. Many people do long cardio sessions (eg. running) followed by lots of separate weight exercise, not realising that the two are working against each other. Every time you do a long cardio session it actually reduces your muscle strength, power and speed. Doing your exercise in short intervals, however, allows you improve muscle strength, power and speed whilst improving your cardiovascular fitness and decreasing body fat at the same time.
To do a complete work-out (using all 10 components and compound activities) will require good technique and will need to be personalised to your level of fitness. So unless you are already very knowledgeable about health and fitness and a wide range of exercises, it may be a good idea to get yourself a personal trainer.
Whatever you do, if you can incorporate some more well-rounded exercise into your regular training routine, you will not only perform better but you will be a lot healthier as well.
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