In 2014, Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman in history to make it up the warped wall in American Ninja Warrior Competition. In 2016, Chen Wei-Ling squatted 463lbs breaking the current world record. In 2017, Eluid Kipchoge of Kenya ran the fasted marathon (26.2 miles) in history at 2 hours and 25 second.What is more impressive? Who is actually more “fit”? Can we even compare them all?

Just as Gardner proposed the theory of “multiple intelligences”, there are multiples components of physical fitness. The 5 components are:

1. Muscular Strength

This aspect of fitness describes how much power or force your muscles can exert at one time. Think about squeezing your hand as hard as you can or how much weight you can push with your legs in 1 try.

2. Muscular Endurance

This characteristic describes how long your muscle can repeat the same action until it becomes too tired. Try holding a 10 lb dumbbell and seeing how many arm curls you can do until you cannot do any more. Alternatively, try seeing how long you can pedal at the same speed until your muscles become too weak.

3. Cardiovascular Endurance

Cardiovascular endurance tests how healthy and “fit” our hearts are. How long will it take you to reach your maximum heart rate in beats per minute (bpm)? If your heart is healthy and fit, it should take you longer to reach your max than if you are unfit.

Heart Rate (beats per minute) = 220 - your age

4. Flexibility

Flexibility is a component of fitness that is often forgotten or undermined. This part of your fitness tests how far your muscles can stretch. Try siting straight and reaching for your toes. Can you touch them?

5. Body Fat Percentage

The last component of fitness deals with how much fat our body has compared to muscle. In the grand scheme of things, the weight on the scale means nothing. It is the type of weight we carry, such as fat or muscle, that determines how healthy we are. Someone could weight 150 lbs with 25% of this be fat, while someone else could weigh the same with only 15% of this weight coming from fat. We need all need certain levels of fat in our bodies to be healthy, but too much is when our health can take a toll.

Determining Your Fitness

1. Muscular Strength

To test your muscular strength you need to figure out your 1 rep maximum. This is the heaviest weight you can move during one full specific movement. Figuring this out takes experimentation with different weights. You can find your 1 rep max for many different body movements such as a squat, bench press, deadlift, etc. Once you have your number, you can find value online to compare based on your age and biological sex.

2. Muscular Endurance

There are many different tests to figure out muscular endurance. One common test a simple push-up test. Count how many push-ups you can do in 1 minute. You can compare your number to other normative values online as well.

3. Cardiovascular Endurance

The best indicator of your cardiovascular endurance is your VO_{2 max}. This value defines the maximum amount of oxygen your heart can circulate throughout your body in 1 minute. There are different ways you can find out your value. The best way to determine your VO_2max is doing a designed exercise while hooked up to a special mouthpiece that monitors the amount oxygen your body is taking in during 1 minute. This tends to be expensive and difficult. You can even estimate your VO_2max based on the equations found online without doing the test, although it will be a little less accurate. You can find comparable values online.

4. Flexibility

The easiest flexibility test to do is the sit-and-reach test. Sit on the ground and measure how far your arms can reach toward your toes from neutral position. Try to stop naturally rather than over stretching as this could lead to injury.

5. Body Fat Composition

There are multiple avenues to determine your Body fat composition as well. One easy way is to perform a skinfold test with a special instrument called a skin caliper. You can find special instructions online. In addition, you can use a method called Bioelectrical Impedance. A special device can estimate your body fat percentage in minutes simply by holding on to the sensors. Do not worry this is painless! A healthy range for male is between 14-24%, and females is between 21-31%.

NOTE: To be safe I advise you to have professional supervision during these tests if you feel at all uncomfortable/inexperienced in these fields. Make sure to talk to your doctor about your fitness testing to make sure you are safe to undergo these tests.

To see how fit you really are you need to take into account all of the components. Personally, I have strong muscular strength and endurance, but I lack flexibility and cardiovascular endurance. In my opinion, each of the athletes listed above are equally fit in their own way. Catanzaro has incredible muscular endurance; being able to use her strength through many difficult obstacles back to back. Wei-Ling can lift 334lbs all in one push, which is about triple her own body weight! Kipchoge effortlessly ran 26.2 miles without even thinking of stopping to catch his breath. Overall, for the average Joe, improving your score in any of these categories is improving your fitness, and you can decide which direction you choose. Most importantly, don’t forget to have fun!