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Welcome to Article 2!

4 important words for you!

These are "The Four S's of Fitness":

Stamina
Strength
Suppleness
Speed

Stamina - this refers to cardiovascular endurance, in other words the ability of the body to perform and sustain aerobic based activity. Developing stamina increases the efficiency of the heart and lungs. It also reduces the chances of many physiological dangers such as heart disease. Stamina is improved by performing aerobic training. The training needs to create a demand for energy that is high enough to put the heart and lungs under stress by causing an in crease in ventilation, (breathing), for the intake of oxygen, and an increase in heart rate so that the oxygen and other nutrients can reach the working muscles. Activities such as running, swimming, and aerobics create a demand for oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles. Improved stamina allows a participant to do more and become more active in everyday life. This is because the body becomes better equipped to supply energy instantly on demand and for longer periods.

Strength - this is simply the muscles ability to do work. Muscular strength can be defined as the maximum force a muscle can exert in a single contraction. That's is the maximum amount person can lift or push once. Muscular endurance can be defined as the ability of the muscles to continuously contract for a long period, or simply, the number of times a weight can be lifted.

Suppleness - this is the range of motion permitted at a joint. This is directly related to the length of the muscles which act up the particular joint. Improving the flexibility of muscles (increasing the length of muscles), has many benefits, unfortunately flexibility is often a secondary component of exercise programmes and stretching is often forgotten. Flexible joints with good range of motion are more stable and stronger there is less chances of dangerous changes in body alignment which can often lead to injury.

Speed - In general the speed at which movements are performed in class is dictated by safety concerns. Exercises are performed at an appropriate speed for the activity whereby the risk of injury to participants is kept to a minimum. However, there are a great many sports that require bursts of speed and power. If you are involved in sprinting or a throwing sport for example, ballistic, (one fast movement at speed), forms of exercise maybe included in your regime in order to prepare you for the requirements of competition.