Everyone Has a Fitness Weakness. Here's How to Handle Yours

When it comes to our personal physical fitness, we tend to gravitate toward things we like, things we are good at and have the time and equipment to work on. If we genuinely want to be well-rounded, physically active and healthy, it's important to assess the components of fitness and see where we can develop.

Fitness is a constant work in progress, and there's no reason to get bored or stuck in a rut. Even adding one new component every day can only take a few minutes and help strengthen your fitness weakness. Consider the list of fitness components below and see what you can add into your routine.

Flexibility and Mobility

Flexible muscles allow for a better range of motion in the joint, increasing joint mobility. These components are essential as improvement in these areas allows for greater power, balance, coordination, and speed and agility development. Joint pain can also be decreased as you develop these components. Sometimes, your ability to learn new skills is purely a mobility issue, as your joints are not capable of reaching a full range of motion.

Body Composition

Many fitness journeys start with wanting to look better, but controlling the body fat we collect can make you feel better and healthier, too. Building muscle and losing fat are the keys to optimal performance and longevity. Body fat matters, with a weight measurement over 40 inches (men) and over 35 inches (women) being a sign of metabolic syndrome.

Higher fat and lower muscle composition decrease the body's ability to improve other fitness components and increase the likelihood of diabetes, cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Cardio Endurance

Endurance training is one of the components that creates avid fans and haters. Most people who exercise either do it regularly or try to replace it and call lifting faster a form of cardio. The truth is that working in the aerobic system has health benefits, from burning calories to improving heart and lung efficiency to fighting chronic illnesses such as obesity, some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

Cardio endurance training includes walking, biking, rowing, elliptical machines and swimming. Do it daily. Many endurance training lovers may skip strength training, but that can be an issue for healthy bones, joints and muscles later in life.

Muscular Strength

Many athletes start their fitness journey chasing the ever-progressive, one-rep max. Muscular strength is how much weight you can lift. Health research shows that muscle mass is one of the keys to longevity.

However, many strength training lovers neglect cardio training, which can lead to reduced longevity with many of the cardio endurance benefits being missed. Don't blow off walking or doing some form of cardio daily.

Muscular Stamina

How long can you work? While strength is about how much you can lift, stamina is about how many times you can continue to lift it and recover from previous bouts of lifting. Most military fitness tests have two-minute max repetition tests, such as push-ups, sit-ups and pull-ups for as many reps as you can. Muscle stamina must be developed by progressively increasing volume each week. Developing work capacity is a function of increased muscle stamina. When you build muscle stamina, you also develop your ability to recover quickly from physical exertion.

Speed and Agility

These activities are often well-developed in our youth. Still, as sports and athletics transition to work and adulthood, workouts that involve sprinting, jumping, stopping and suddenly changing direction are neglected. Playing recreational sports can help you maintain these components longer.

Still, if you are not engaging in fast and explosive activities, you may want to add them to your regular workouts progressively. For instance, do a few 50- to 100-meter sprints and practice stopping quickly when jogging. You will lose these components of fitness if you do not practice regularly. Many injuries occur when sprinting again after not doing it frequently.

Power

Power is a function of strength, but the measure is how fast you can move the weight and make power. Explosive and quick movements can be added a few times a week to normal lifting and calisthenics activities to improve one's power. Lift weights slowly on the down movement and explode quickly to the up position. Jumps and clapping push-ups are two calisthenics ways to develop power in the legs and chest and arms, respectively. Try adding a few reps of your regular workouts while moving fast.

Balance and Coordination

Practicing any position by standing on one leg is a fundamental way to develop balance. Pushing the central nervous system to create pathways that allow the muscles, joints and brain to work together creates balance and coordination. Whether hand-eye coordination, one-legged balance drills or catching yourself when you trip, these abilities are enhanced with reaction time and quick movements from other components of fitness such as speed, agility, flexibility and mobility.

Stability

Balance is a function of stability. Building stable joints depends on strength, balance, mobility and flexibility. Think of a table with perfectly balanced legs and not too much weight on the surface. Our bodies are similar. Stability is an essential component of fitness that keeps us upright and from falling over when we lose balance. Flexibility and mobility play their role in creating a stable joint and body, but strength and balance are critical to a joint's stability.

Reaction Time

Your ability to react quickly to your changing environment combines balance, coordination, stability and speed or agility. Quick reactions require the practice of not only movement but thinking, too. Hobbies such as juggling, throwing, catching and even video games can help you develop a quick-firing reaction time that may one day save your life -- increasing your chances of having greater longevity.

What Is the Most Important?

Well, this answer depends on your age and goals, as we tend to evolve throughout life, with fitness goals ranging from looking good and achieving optimal athletic performance to health, wellness and longevity. What is important is finding something you enjoy and making that your main activity. However, throughout the year, take some time off to spread the above components to develop your weaknesses while maintaining your current strengths.

Overall, metabolic health, wellness and longevity require developing all these components. You do not need to be a master in any of them; you need to be good enough to have developed a basic understanding of each component of fitness. As you age, ensure you stay on top of skills you used to have well-developed, as being a well-rounded, highly active person is key to living fully at your highest quality.

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