While you start on new health and fitness goals, always consider that there are five main components of health-related fitness, and it is important to understand all of them. Having a firm grounding in these basics will help you set fitness goals for yourself and improve your performance and physical fitness.

Health and Fitness Terms

• Agility: Agility is defined as your ability to stop, start and change direction quickly. You use agility when avoiding defenders around a goal, as well as in myriad other situations.

• Muscular Strength: Muscular strength is the measure of muscular ability. It comes into play with things like shooting a basketball, throwing a baseball or returning a tennis serve.

• Muscular Endurance: Your muscular endurance is a measure of how long you can play at a certain intensity. For instance, hiking 10 miles requires a considerable amount of muscular endurance, as does pitching for nine straight innings.

• Spatial Awareness: This is your awareness of the playing field as a whole, where other players are, where defenders and teammates are positioned and your relationship to all of these.

• Coordination: Coordination comes in two primary forms, hand-eye coordination and eye-foot coordination. Hand-eye coordination is important for catching things, while eye-foot coordination is important for running as well as kicking. 

Always consider that evaluating the progress of your personal health and fitness plan is important for several different reasons. First, it gives you a benchmark by which to judge your success. Second, it allows you to judge your progress based on other students around the nation. 

One of the most important parts of your personal fitness plan is having a personal monitoring system that will allow you to track all the components of health-related fitness. While using an Consider, too, that there are several such systems available, including using paper and pencil to track your progress. 

However, you can also use electronic devices, such as pedometers and pedometer/fitness sets that track the number of steps you have walked, as well as your heart rate and more. These systems offer important information, particularly if you are trying to reach a percentage of your target heart rate.

Choosing Appropriate Workout and Training Options

Working out and training are vital components of good physical fitness, as well as solid performance in sports and other activities. However, you need to ensure that you choose the appropriate workout and training options. Injuries and poor results can be discouraging, and they can even force you to stop your routine. 

There are several factors that need to go into your decision for workouts and training. Here are some examples:

• Your current physical fitness level

• Any current health conditions

• Your muscular strength

• Your muscular endurance

• Your specific goals

• The amount of time available to you

• The intensity of your workout

• The frequency of workouts and training

Evaluating Effectiveness

With any practice or workout regimen, you need to evaluate how effective your efforts are. While working out, always consider that this is vital for several reasons.

• It allows you to see your progress

• It allows you to identify other areas for improvement

• It allows you to identify areas that need special attention

• It allows you to modify your plan to achieve your goals if the plan is not effective

• It allows you to modify your plan to reach different goals as they change throughout your life