Physical Fitness Exercises

There are numerous amounts of physical fitness exercises that you can do to improve your fitness level. Depending on what you want to accomplish, they can range from doing simple exercises that you may already be doing and require no special equipment to joining a fitness center and using more specialized equipment.

After you have taken the time to determine your health and fitness goals, the easiest way to decide which physical fitness exercises you would like to do is to follow the 5 components of fitness (cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and body composition).

So let’s look at some exercises you can do for each component.

1.) For cardiovascular fitness, the best exercises are aerobic exercises. In other words, any exercise that is low intensity but require a lot of oxygen for a prolonged period. Typically, an aerobic activity should last for at least 20 minutes. Of course there are many recreational activities that are enjoyable and aerobic in nature. Some examples are jogging, swimming, cycling, inline skating, dancing, and speed walking. Aside from those types of activities, one of the easiest ways to get a good aerobic workout is to get an aerobic workout video. A simple internet search should provide you with more than enough choices.

For elite performers and athletes, there might be a need to separate the next two physical fitness components. However, for everyday people, it is probably not necessary, but of course you can work on each component individually if you like.

2.) Muscular endurance exercises are the opposite of cardiovascular (aerobic) exercises. Muscular endurance exercises are anaerobic, meaning they have a high intensity for a short period of time so they don’t require a lot of oxygen. Some examples of exercises to help you improve your muscular endurance would be push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, sprints, a high-repetition circuit strength workout.

3) Muscular strength exercises are just that – exercises that strengthen or build muscles. Examples are weight lifting or strength training. Specifically, some exercises are bench press, leg press, bicep curls, and shoulder press. Go into any weight room and you’ll see that there are dozens of exercises that you
can do.

4) Flexibility can be improved through stretching. There are two types of stretching – dynamic and static. Dynamic stretching is more advanced and involves moving. For most, static stretching is best. Static stretching is the type of stretching you’re probably used to. There are numerous stretching exercises for each joint! Some body part stretching you could do would be for the calves, shin and hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, gluts, inner thighs, outer thighs, abdominal, upper back, lower back, shoulders, and triceps. A suggestion for proper stretching would be 2-3 static stretches for each joint. Make sure you stretch to the point of tension not pain. Always listen to your body, because if it hurts, you’re probably stretching too far.

5.) Your body composition is actually based on the extent that you perform the other four components. There are no special physical fitness exercises you need to do beyond the suggestions mentioned above. Just make sure you eat healthy and exercise.

There is a lot of information on the internet that will allow you to gather numerous exercises. I seriously doubt that one site could have every possible physical fitness exercise. So define your health and fitness goals and that will allow you to determine the best exercises for your needs.