9 Essential Fitness Skills for Physical Excellence

Everyone should know that when training, there are 10 essential fitness skills that we all need. They include cardiorespiratory endurance, speed, strength, power, flexibility, toughness, coordination, accuracy, balance and agility. Working on all of these promotes a balanced fitness program and unparalleled performance. However, most programs today that teach physical fitness should focus on maximizing a specific attribute, usually speed, size, strength or endurance. But in order to be completely physically fit, it is best to master all ten. Here's what you need to know.

9 Essential Fitness Skills for Physical Excellence

Cardiorespiratory Endurance
Cardiorespiratory endurance is your body's ability to gather, deliver and sustain enough oxygen during a hard workout or stressful activity. The more in shape you are, the better you can do so, and the longer you can work out.

Speed
Usually, sports and other activities will require speed. For instance, in the case of long distance running, you need to be able to have bursts of speed, even if the idea is long and strong. Though obvious, speed is the ability to move quickly. It’s not really how fast you can get your body from point A to point B. This can be relative to specific parts of the body, and is only one part of it. For instance, with golf or baseball, you must have speed in the upper arms and body while swinging the bat or driving the ball.

Reaction Time
How fast your brain can respond to something and deliver an appropriate response is called reaction time. It’s very important in most sports. For instance, when a gunshot begins a race, you must react quickly. This would be the same as a badminton player being able to quickly react to a smash shot. Reaction time is a learned skill, and should never be underestimated when training.

Agility
You must be able to change the speed and direction at which you are going, very quickly and efficiently. This is important in games like dodge ball, football or tennis. You need more than speed to get manuevre your way around the court - agility ensures that you don't trip, fall or injure yourself when you have to be quick on your feet.

Balance
The ability to maintain ones equilibrium while moving or standing still is dynamic balance. It’s very important to have in most sports, but you can see this being especially important to a ballerina or gymnast too. Agility and balance go hand in hand. To change directions quickly, you must have good balance. Furthermore, balance helps with form - you want to look and feel strong, so that you can avoid injury and also psyche your opponents out!

Coordination
Coordination is the ability to use more than one body part or sense at the same time, and effectively. This is important in sports like swimming, where you have to kick and pull at the same time. Football utilized coordination too, especially for quarterbacks, who must run and throw at the same time.

Power
Having combined speed and strength is power. Can you knock over a big guy if you charged at him? This will give you a good idea about power. This is important in weightlifting. You shouldn't ALWAYS be thinking about power, but you should think about it whenever you max out (which should happen about once a month).

Flexibility
This is imperative for good physical fitness. This means that you have a good range of motion in the joints and can bend and stretch easily without problems. This is likely the most forgotten aspect of fitness, which is unfortunate, because imagine having the ability to touch your toes without strain, or do the splits. Imagine how limber you'd be! Try some yoga to maximize your flexibility.


Toughness
This is a little more abstract, but just as important. You must be touch! You need sheer determination and mental strength to do anything physical well. If you're not tough, you won't see the results you need. Work on this by psyching yourself up, practicing positive self-talk and hanging out with other tough people at the gym.

As mentioned before, never focus on just one or two skills. They should all flow together flawlessly - the benefits will be obvious in your performance!

Guest post by : Amber Jorgensen writes about fitness, finance & saving money at BACKGROUNDCHECK.ORG.