Cardiorespiratory endurance
"Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability to persist in a physical activity requiring oxygen for physical exertion without experiencing undue fatigue."¹

The cardiorespiratory system is responsible of the distribution of the oxygen and the nutriments. It allows also the elimination of some body waste. This system is composed of the heart, the lungs and the blood vessels.

For a better performance of the cardiorespiratory system, it is essential to carry out a training that requests the heart and the lungs. Jogging, cycling, swimming, cross-country skiing, skating and walking make these organs work. With an appropriate intensity and duration, you will improve your cardiorespiratory system.

Note that a trained heart will pump blood more efficiently which permits it to do its work better. Indeed, the more the cardiorespiratory system is effective, the more it is easier to walk, to run and to do all the daily life tasks. For health, the cardiorespiratory system is without a doubt the most important one.

Muscular strength
"Muscular strength is the ability or capacity of a muscle group to exert a one-time maximal force against resistance through a full range of motion."¹

Sports and everyday physical activities require always some muscular strength. We expend a lot of force when we play football, tennis and in all the other sports that we practice. The same applies to walking, gardening and all the other everyday physical activities that we do.

A good muscular mass allows to avoid numerous injuries. For example, backaches can be avoided with strong abdominals. The risk of a sprain, elongation and dislocation decreases greatly with a strong muscular body.

A good muscular mass favours better health and allows better performance in sport.

Flexibility
"Flexibility is the ability to move freely throughout a full, nonrestricted, pain-free range of motion about a joint or series of joints."¹

Every person should do flexibility exercises, because an increased flexibility allows to do the daily tasks efficiently. For the sportsman and sportswoman, a greater flexibility improves the performance generally.

A better flexibility decreases the risks of backaches, arthritis and posture problems.

Note: Many people neglect to do their stretching before and after a training session and a sport activity because they find this tedious. Nevertheless, stretching and warming-up exercises decrease greatly the risk of injuries. Do your stretching, you will avoid many injuries.

Muscular endurance
"Muscular endurance is the ability of a muscle or muscle group to perform or sustain a submaximal muscle contraction repeatedly over a period of time."¹

Many physical activities and sports require a muscular effort on a prolonged period, such as walking, soccer and basketball. Since this quality is require in many activities, it is highly recommend to develop also the muscles in endurance.

Body composition
"Body composition relates to the makeup of the body in terms of muscles, bone, fat and other elements."¹

The bones
To have strong bones, it is important to eat well and to do regularly physical activities or sport. Sports with ground contact such as jogging and walking decrease the risk to have osteoporosis.

The muscles
We must do sport and exercises to develop our muscles, because we know that the development of the muscular mass improves the general state of health and also the performance in sport.

The fat
In our society, we consider fat like a genuine scourge for health! In fact, a person who have an excess of weight makes her hearth work harder and expose himself to illness such as diabetes. And yes, these are factors which diminish significantly the life expectancy of someone. However, one must comprehend that the body need a certain level of fat in order to draw from it the necessary energy, at the proper time. So, it is important to do the effort to have an appropriate percentage level of body fat. By eating well and by moving regularly, it’s the way to be in good health.

1. The definitions of the five components to develop to be healthy were taken, and adapted, from the book Fitness for college and life by William E. Prentice.