With endurance athletes it is obvious that they have vast amounts of these components, however some components might be lacking or not as good as they should be. With the increased focus on endurance comes the chance of tight muscles, tight muscles in turn raise the injury rate.įor all athletes, possessing the skill related fitness components is essential to do well in their specific sport, but it is also essential and a bonus to possess high levels of health related fitness. Flexibility can be defined as the range of motion (ROM) available at a joint2. Another health component that is generally lacking in endurance athletes is flexibility. This could be detrimental to an endurance athlete's career. Without strength the increased chance for injuries skyrockets. What generally happens with endurance athletes is a focus on their CRF and muscular endurance and not their basic strength. Endurance athletes are strong, but sometimes not strong enough. Muscular strength is vital in everyday life, it helps us avoid injuries and maintain good posture. Muscular strength can be defined as the ability of a muscle to exert a force to overcome a resistance. That should be good enough to be a healthy individual, right? Not necessarily. So, endurance athletes strongly possess three of the five health related fitness components. However, according to the American College of Sports Medicine Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription text, a healthy range of body fat for males and females is 10%-22% and 20%-32% respectively. There are no universally accepted “norms” for body composition. Anyone seen a picture of a marathon runner? Those athletes are very lean, which is typical of endurance athletes as they are using the oxidative system more than power athletes. Body composition can be expressed as the relative percentage of body mass that is fat and fat-free tissue, or in other words lean muscle mass, bone, cartilage, etc. The last component for endurance athletes is body composition. One has to possess great muscular endurance to cycle for approximately 100 miles in an Ironman Triathlon, do they not? Again, endurance sports have this nailed down. Muscular endurance, unlike strength, is the ability of a muscle to make repeated contractions over a period of time. CRF usually goes hand in hand with another health related fitness component, muscular endurance. I think it’s safe to say that “endurance sports” probably have cardiorespiratory fitness down to a T. The components typically seen in endurance athletes are cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance, and body composition.Īccording to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is related to the ability to perform large muscle, dynamic, moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise for prolonged periods of time1. The five health related fitness components are: Cardiorespiratory Fitness, Muscular Strength, Muscular Endurance, Flexibility, and Body Composition. As with skill related fitness components, the levels of health will vary from person to person, but with the participation in endurance sports, some components will overall stick out more than others. These are your health related fitnesscomponents. These are all great things for the body to possess, but there are other components necessary for overall health. Some athletes can jump higher than others, or might be able to sprint faster than others. In all sports there are skill related fitness components, these are components that vary from athlete to athlete and from sport to sport. But participating in sports doesn’t just give you an athletic body, it gives you a healthy one too. This usually causes images of great bodies with lean muscles. When people see or hear the word sports they tend to think of athletes.
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