Overall Health by A. Louis Blackwell - HTML preview

Chapter 2:

The Basics On Physical Health

Synopsis

The act of reading this article demonstrates that you are ready to be physically healthy. However, the greatest challenge of staying fit is not the vigorous exercises or the preparation of a well-balanced food. It is the commitment that you have for yourself that makes all these things about staying fit become extremely difficult.

Create Good Physical Health

Most of us have the intention of staying healthy, but not all of us can sustain healthy living. This is the reason why a lot of self-help tools were made including this article as it can help you continue and eventually achieve your health goals.

To be able to carry on with this seemingly difficult task, it has to be perceived as something you do with no questions. We do these things because we believe that it is important and that we cannot live a day without doing it. The same concept applies when we decide to exercise every day. We need to have that mindset that exercising is the missing piece that will complete the process of staying physically fit and without it our other efforts will not suffice.

Learning the basics of physical health will help you understand what is it that you want to achieve and how it will benefit you. To begin with, there are four basic components of physical health.

1. Cardiovascular endurance - This can be taken care of with activities like swimming and running. Enhancing this component will improve the oxygen and nutrients supply in the body tissues and at the same time remove stored waste in the body.
2. Muscular strength - This can be improved with various weight lifting and stretching activities. Enhancing this component will help you to have stronger muscles that can respond quickly with less effort.
3. Muscular endurance - This can be enhanced through daily pushups as it can effectively strengthen the arms and shoulder muscles. Enhancing this component will improve the ability of the muscles to withstand repetitive contractions.
4. Flexibility - This can be improved with regular stretching as it can enhance the tractability of your muscles. Enhancing this component will improve your body's capability of moving your joints as well as using your muscles in their full range.

Having these fundamentals in mind, it is best that your exercise program must include activities that can take care of the four components in order for you to achieve optimum results. As a general guide, make sure that you start your workout with a good warm up and end it with a calming cool down. Also, try not to overwork your body, avoid doing hard exercises consecutively for the whole week.