Fitness Tips from Fitness 2J2: Balance to achieving physical fitness
- Joel Pedersen | January 26, 2015
Although heredity influences physical fitness and health, we can all lead healthy or unhealthy lives regardless of our genetic makeup. So the takeaway is our Moshum or Kokum’s background neither dooms nor guarantees success in achieving physical fitness.
We as holistic people know that balance is required and the physical aspect is only part of it. We need to include mental, spiritual and emotional to provide basis for health life. Some factors that may influence balance include environment: climate, altitude, and pollution, as well as social factors like friends, parental values, and workplace characteristics that affect our fitness and health. The past and present environments affect us all, and can have a substantial impact on our health and wellness. Likewise, one of the major components involves personal choices: time spent in the sun, smoking, drinking, arguing, and worrying. People who over a lifetime have neglected health and fitness lifestyle suffer higher levels of “disease” (diabetes, heart, breathing, stress) compared to those who have lived a healthy fitness lifestyle.
Mental and psychological components are important to the achievement of total fitness. It is through physical activity that we can improve our quality of life by preventing or delaying the early development of health problems and diseases. Functional Fitness is how we at Fitness 2J2 get our team and clients into physical shape. Total fitness involves an approach that is dynamic, multidimensional, and includes developing strength through resistance training.
The musculoskeletal system is a body system that consists of the bones, joints, connective tissue, and muscles. Strength is your ability to exert musculoskeletal force against an external object such as: a barbell, the ground, or an opponent, and it stems from four main sources:
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Structural/anatomical factors – How your body is put together as an efficient “machine”;
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Physiological/biochemical factors – How your internal systems work to create energy and promote repair, remodeling, and growth in response to training;
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Psychoneural/psychosocial factors – How your skills, attitudes, belief systems, and tolerance to pain interrelate to allow your body to function at peak efficiency;
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External/environmental factors – How factors external to your body (e.g., weather, gravity, equipment) can be manipulated to produce greater force output.
We need more than just physical muscle strength; we need to have the balance to restore the connection of mind, body, spirit and emotion to live healthy lives.
This month we are in the community of Black Lake First Nation, working directly with the students and staff of Father Porte Memorial Dene School and community, bringing some Functional Fitness and healthy lifestyle for a full week. 3-2-1-GO!
Check out these previous Fitness Tips from Fitness 2J2:
Visit our Health & Sports sections for more Fitness Tips from Fitness 2J2!