Being Healthy & Fit - Are They The Same?

 

 

In today society, people are looking more into improving their quality of life and many are getting more concerned with their body health conditioning and status. However, a lot of people still had the wrong interpretation for Health and Fitness definition and often regard healthy alone to comprise of one being physically fit.

Health is defined as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO 1994).

Fitness, on the other hand has a more specific definition, which is defined as the ability to perform a certain task. Taking for instance, is one physically fit to climb a flight of twelve story stairs without stopping, or is one physically fit enough to run a half marathon within a certain time constraint? These usually involve aerobic fitness, which is a measure of how well your blood transports oxygen around the body, and how well your muscles utilize the oxygen.

Thus, one can be healthy but may not be physically fit enough to perform the above task. In order to be physically fit to perform a certain task, the body needs to undergo progressive training and overloading to condition the body for the task; this usually involves undergoing a specific training program.

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