- To be optimally able to perform all required daily living activities and all required work and chosen leisure activities.
- Unencumbered by endurance, strength, flexibility or balance issues.
- To sleep well.
- To control stress.
- To generally feel good, both physically and mentally.
- To have an appropriate amount of body fat mass consistent with not having excess visceral abdominal (belly) fat. See the Fat tab for research that provides more specific risk information than the following broad guidance.
- Men = circumference of waist divided by circumference of hips = less than 1 (your waist should be less than your hip size).
- Women = circumference of waist divided by circumference of hips = less than 0.85 (your waist should be less than 15% of your hip size).
- For a clear and concise article that explains the issue see the following link:
- For an article that provides further detail see the following link:
- Core to overall fitness is to be cardiorespiratory fit – The focus of most information on this site
- Cardiorespiratory fitness is also known as; Cardiovascular or Aerobic fitness and often just referred to as Cardio.
- A good level of cardiorespiratory fitness is, in simple terms, when your heart, lungs and the rest of your bodies circulatory system all work together very efficiently. This goes right down to a cellular level with your body basically having better functioning / stronger cells. Exercise adapts your neuromuscular and cardiorespiratory systems to improve the delivery of oxygen from the air to the mitochondria within your cells and enable better regulation of muscle metabolism.
- Good heart health supported by good heart muscle fitness helps prevent heart attacks which can lead to heart muscle damage. Unlike other muscles in the human body heart muscles once damaged cannot be repaired.
- "Skeletal muscle changes after exercise training include more and larger mitochondria and increased oxidative enzyme activity, which allow for a greater sustained level of aerobic capacity with lower blood lactate levels. In addition, trained muscle exhibits increased utilization of fatty acids during submaximal exercise, which extends endurance. Muscle fiber type and size adaptations reflect changes that enhance aerobic potential. Each of these adaptations contributes to greater capacity to use oxygen and improve endurance. Endurance training enhances the ability to perform exercise at both submaximal and maximal intensities but is specific to those muscle groups that have undergone training (training specificity). This is reflected either by the ability to exercise longer at a similar workload or by an increase in the workload attained at a given HR. Furthermore, the results of these adaptations increase the anaerobic threshold (the point at which blood lactate begins to accumulate). Adaptation to submaximal exercise is also associated with a lower HR–systolic blood pressure product for a given exercise task, reflecting reduced myocardial oxygen demand for that level of work." - Source = Exercise Standards for Testing and Training - A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Gerald F. Fletcher, et al:
- https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/CIR.0b013e31829b5b44
- Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness result from the hearts ability to pump more blood as a result of increased heart muscle strength and through adaption of the heart to accommodate a larger amount (volume) of blood. Improvements in the lining of blood vessels (endothelium) and an increase in the number and extent of blood capillaries also enables increased blood flow and improved distribution of blood throughout the body. For a video about this (which shows preserved human body parts) see the following link:
- Cells with mitochondria contain hundreds to thousands of them.
- For a research articles about physical exercise and mitochondrial function in human muscle see the following link:
- For a video about human physiology and the impacts of exercise see the following link:
- For an anatomy video about cardiorespiratory changes to the human body following exercise training (showing relevant preserved body parts) see the following link:
- Mechanisms via which physical activity has beneficial effects on health
- For an overview video about of what happens to your body when you start exercising regularly see the following link:
- For an article that explains the bodily adaptions of extremely fit individuals, in this case, marathon runners, see the following link:
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