While there may be some truth in that, it massively oversimplifies a large umbrella term with a distinctive definition depending on the context you use it in and who you ask.

We tend to reduce fitness down to what we appear like. While body composition does come into it, it’s solely one part of what fitness includes.

So, what actually is fitness? What does it mean to be fit? How can we discover a definition and a value that fits us, encourages us to get involved, and plays the ideal role in our life?

What Are the Different Types of Physical Fitness?

While we talk about fitness, we’re often referring to physical fitness. But there are other kinds too—skill-related fitness, dietary health, mental and emotional fitness. A good reminder that our health isn’t completely made up of our body’s ability to do squats.

In terms of physical fitness, our capabilities can be put into four categories: cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility/mobility. Body composition can also be seen as a physical fitness component, but it isn’t connected to a particular workout; it just describes your body fat/bone/water/muscle ratio. So, for the purposes of this article, we’ll omit it.

With physical fitness, you can excel in one type and struggle with the other—an excellent reminder to broaden our perspective a little when we talk about being fit. People may have different levels of fitness in various categories.

Cardiovascular Fitness

Cardiovascular fitness is our body’s ability to deal with oxygen. Specifically, the efficiency with which our lungs and heart can take it in, transport it, and use it to fuel our movements. Activities that test and develop our cardiovascular fitness, or cardio as we love to shorten it to, are things like running, swimming, biking, and most sports.

Muscular Strength

While we consider their muscles, it’s easy to think of strength exclusively. Muscular strength relates to the amount of force a muscle can exert. It requires a particular type of muscle fibre. As our strength grows, the number of these fibres increases and our muscles will increase too. Strength lets us lift heavy. However, it’s not the sole form of muscular fitness.

Muscular Endurance

Muscular endurance is the amount of time our muscles can work for without getting tired. The maximum force here is less relevant, and it’s more about the prolonged demand our muscles can manage. Muscular endurance requires a different type of muscle fibre. Endurance lets us go for longer.

In real life, you need both muscular strength and muscular endurance. It’s hard to have one barring the other. The way you train in the gym will determine which type of fitness you’re developing more.

Flexibility/Mobility

Flexibility and mobility are grossly underrated aspects of fitness. They get overlooked a lot. But without them, we’d be unable to do all our physical movements. Flexibility is the ability of our muscles to extend. Mobility is our range of movement within a joint. Maintaining good levels of these is essential to staying active and injury-free.

In fact, exercise doesn’t enhance one element of fitness exclusively. Activities, sports, and workouts will likely test multiple types of fitness at a time. A Yoga session will likely test your muscular endurance, a bit of strength, and your flexibility. A HIIT class will probably test your cardiovascular fitness, your strength, and your endurance. A weightlifting session will likely have a go at your muscular strength and endurance.

How Do You Define Fitness?

At what point can we say we are fit? As with most things, the answer to complex questions like this is usually the same—it depends on the individual.

Quantitative measures of fitness will differ between males and females. Between older people and young people. Between parents and people without kids. The list goes on. The NHS guidelines recommend that people aged 19–64 should do 150 minutes of activity a week that is moderate in intensity, or 75 minutes that’s vigorous in intensity. What classifies as intense can be very different depending on the individual and their current fitness levels. Still vague.

If we strip it down to its bare bones, fitness is a physical state of health and well-being, which means that we are able to fulfil a task. So, what determines if we’re fit or not is what we need to be physically capable and healthy for.

Fitness for professional athletes means being fit enough to qualify for the Olympics. Fitness for a first-time marathon runner means being healthy enough to complete all 26.2 miles. Fitness for Melanie from Herne Hill means being able to stay on her feet all week at her job as a retail assistant and play netball with her friends on her day off.

You know when you say a word so often that it loses all meaning? We’ve done that with fitness.

We can always be encouraged to do better, but that doesn’t mean we’re not enough right now. Remembering that fitness is defined by the individual and not by the appearance of abs is a good start. It’s time to re-calibrate our mindsets and understand what fitness means to us and the role it should play in our lives.

How Do You Improve Fitness?

Because we all have different starting points, the path to developing fitness can be different too. However, some essential principles of training help guide us into understanding how changes will occur.

The Principles of Training

Make It Specific

As we’ve touched on, the type of exercise you do should be specific to your goals. Don’t expect to train in one way, then excel in another. If you want to run for longer, then don’t spend time doing bicep curls.

This rule gets quite granular, even within a specific type of fitness. For example, you could develop great cardio fitness and be a fantastic runner. Still, you won’t perform at a truly high level on the bicycle if you haven’t trained on it.

Plan for Progression

Doing the same workout over and over again won’t lead to any improvements. If the demands on the body stay the same, it won’t need to make any changes to progress. To see increases in fitness, you’ll need to make it harder when it becomes easy. That could mean more workouts per week, a heavier weight, more reps, less rest time, or a quicker pace.

Understand It’s Reversible

The unfortunate truth about fitness is that what isn’t used is lost. As the body changes to adapt to demands, if those demands aren’t there anymore, then the changes will be reversed. Your body will focus its efforts elsewhere. So, if you don’t train for a while, you can expect to lose a bit of fitness. That’s why making it a habit that you enjoy and can sustain is so important.

Prioritise Recovery

All these adaptations to the body that we’ve been talking about happen when we’re at rest. That’s why recovery is essential for developing fitness. Beginners will need more recovery than more advanced exercisers, so make time for it. Not resting will stunt fitness progress.

Consider Your Individuality

There are loads of individual differences that will impact how you develop fitness. Your natural ability and rate of progression are affected by genetics, age, and sex. Measure your fitness only against yourself and never someone else.

How to Define Fitness for Yourself

Finding a role for fitness and exercise in our lives is rooted in belief and being motivated by the benefits it can bring us.

Some people want to achieve weight loss or a specific appearance. Some want to increase their strength or speed. Others want to feel good and get those endorphins going.

Defining your fitness goals isn’t as straightforward as it’s made out. Start by thinking big. Then you can narrow down your focus and figure out exactly what you need to be doing in the gym to achieve it and how often you need to move.

Fitting fitness in is honestly the most challenging part. When surveyed, a group of people mostly believed that their fitness would be improved if they had more time on their hands and it was easier to do. Relatable, right?

We’ll let you in on a little secret. Using Hussle’s Monthly+ pass and getting unlimited access to multiple gyms, pools, and spas at thousands of different locations across the UK helps. The Monthly+ pass also includes subscriptions to digital fitness apps for the days it works to work out at home. Plus, if things get weird, which they often do because life is unpredictable—just pause your pass and come back to it when you’re ready. We’re all about that anti-contract life.

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