The Difference Between Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness are interlinked yet completely different aspects of well-being to focus on.
A person may be physically fit but not healthy or he may be healthy but not physically fit.
Up to a certain level, a person can increase his/her health by improving his/her physical fitness, similarly, he/she can improve his/her fitness performance by improving his/her overall health.
What is Health?
Health is:
- The state of physical, mental and social well-being, free from any ailment, disease and injury. It refers to the optimal state of physical and mental condition.
- An optimal state of being healthy is achieved when your internal biology, with all its organs and processes, is functioning optimally devoid of any ailment, sickness or inflammation. It is achieved with a great lifestyle which encompasses good nutrition habits, good exercise habits, good rest and recovery habits that allows you to rejuvenate properly.
Good Health is beneficial to us in several ways:
- Increased Longevity.
- Better ageing of your body.
- Improved Quality of Life
- Very low levels of Stress
- Low Blood Pressure
- Free of Disease, Sickness or Ailments
- Free of Inflammation
- Free of Pain and injury
What is Fitness?
Fitness refers to the state of being fit or able to do a given task through physical movement. It is a set of attributes that relate to the ability to perform physical activity.
Fitness is made up of many components, often referred to as: Domains of Fitness:
- Cardio-Vascular Endurance
- Muscular Endurance
- Strength
- Flexibility and Mobility
- Power
- Speed
- Coordination
- Accuracy
- Agility
- Balance
Here, it must be noted that specializing in one domain of fitness comes at the cost of another. There is always some sort of trade-off in such a scenario.
Physical exercise is central to achieving peak fitness in any domain of fitness. It must also be mentioned that the physical exercise regime undertaken must be backed by an activity-specific nutrition regime.
Peak physical fitness is achieved by physical exercise through a chain of processes that take place during the interval between two consecutive exercise sessions.
When any physical activity is performed against a resistance that is challenging to the body, the muscular structures get damaged in the process of working against the resistance. The molecular structures inside the muscle tissue face micro trauma and damages on several levels.
When the activity is stopped, the body supports the concerned parts of the body with increased anti-inflammatory agents and enhanced blood flow (causing the pump) which brings with itself lot of nutrients that are essential to promote damage control and repair.
When the person takes the appropriate growth-supportive nutrients through food and supplementation, the digestive system is activated. Its primary function is to break down various complex components of the food into the most basic and absorb-able form. Following this, the nutrients are transported via the blood to the concerned regions for repair and rebuilding the tissues.
When the body goes to focused-rest via sleep or a nap, the body goes into a complete repair and rebuilding mode and uses this time for serious changes at the molecular level of the damaged muscle groups.
Using the nutrients from the blood and the optimal hormonal state of growth and repair, the body is able to build the muscle slightly stronger-than-before in anticipation of the challenge previously induced by the given resistance.
