Tom said `I am really fit, I can bend down and touch my toes with ease.’

`What nonsense’ said Dick `Look at my waist, trim and only 30 inches. I am the most fit.’

Harry said `I can perform 100 push-ups and lift all three of you with one hand. I am the strongest and the fittest’.

Larry was silent.

Just then the bus arrived, and as is customary, went 100 yards past the stop and then came to a halt. All the four went after the bus. Tom the flexible started panting and gave up. Dick the trim had no strength to push his way through the crowd. Harry the strong, was too stiff and bulky to negotiate the entrance. Meanwhile Larry the cool, ran the distance, dodged the crowd with great agility and hung on to the bus with ease.

As the bus started Tom, Dick and Harry had realized Larry was really most fit. They then understood that to be fit, one needs to have a trim body, flexibility, strength and endurance like Larry. If one does not have them all it is very easy to miss the bus !!!

REAL FITNESS may be defined as:

The ability to carry out daily tasks without undue fatigue, with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits, to meet unforeseen emergencies and manage stress effectively.

If there was a scale ranging from "death" to "abundant life", REAL FITNESS would be a positive state of health found very high on that scale. REAL FITNESS is a way of life, very close to bliss.

REAL FITNESS comprises various factors like endurance, body composition, flexibility, muscle fitness and the ability to achieve mental relaxation. REAL FITNESS would also include good posture and balance. These factors are required to carry out daily activities without fatigue and effectively.

Endurance is possibly the most important fitness factor as it mirrors the status of the cardiovascular system.

Cardiovascular fitness, Aerobic capacity and stamina are other words commonly used for endurance.

Endurance reveals how well your heart and lungs comply with the oxygen demands of your body. When you exert, the cells of your body require more oxygen. The efficiency of the lungs and the heart ensures proper oxygenation of the tissues. Less than optimum Oxygen in tissues results in fatigue.

A person with good cardiovascular fitness would climb a few flights of stairs with ease as compared to an unfit person who would be huffing, puffing and having palpitation. A person with good endurance recovers more quickly after exertion and has a lower heart rate and blood pressure at rest. Better cardiovascular endurance is generally associated with a cheerful disposition and a lively personality with less vulnerability to stress.

A person with poor endurance would be having a high resting heart rate, breathlessness on exertion and feeling of tiredness towards the end of the day.

While the weighing scale merely tells you how much you weigh, body composition reveals what you are really made up of. Your body is made up of lean tissues like bone and muscle and there is fatty tissue. Fat content can be actually measured with instruments that tell us the exact percentage of fat content in the body. Higher the fat percentage lower would be the fitness.

Today fat percentage is of more value than the height/weight chart. More weight with less fat is any day better than less weight and more fat. In fact weight reduction programs should actually be termed fat reduction programs.

Fat weighs less than muscle tissue and occupies more space. Thus persons with high fat content look more bulky than persons weighing the same, but having less fat content. If you weigh 80 kilos and people comment that you don’t look that heavy then, probably you don’t have a high fat content.

Having extra fat is like carrying a sack of potatoes and going through life. Excess fat means useless extra kilos, which make you tired, increase load on the heart, put excess weight on the joints and invite a host of diseases. REAL FITNESS is a crusade against this killer called fat.

Flexibility or suppleness is the capacity of the muscles, tendons and ligaments to stretch without getting injured. Flexibility allows the joints to go through the full range of movement. To imagine ultimate flexibility you could picturise a world class gymnast doing a complete backward arch. On the other end of the flexibility spectrum is somebody you know who struggles to tie his shoelaces.

Muscle fitness includes muscle strength and muscle endurance. Muscle strength deals with maximum force applied in a single effort by a muscle, like in weight lifting or in arm wrestling. Lifting off a heavy travelling bag from the conveyor belt at the airport would need muscle strength.

Muscle endurance on the other hand is needed to carry out sustained muscular effort like carrying a bag for a long time. It is also required for repetitive muscular action as in rowing a boat over a long distance.

Good posture is one of the most neglected facets of fitness. Poor posture or body attitude is realized only after posture related diseases have already struck. Static posture as in standing, sitting, sleeping, reading etc involves correct position of the head, spine and limbs. Dynamic posture involves good body position and balance while walking, running, playing, lifting objects etc. Correct static and dynamic posture avoids several musculoskeletal problems and makes you look graceful.

A great rapport between body and mind is mandatory for achieving REAL FITNESS. The association of mind and body is not new. Psychosomatic illnesses have been described where mental conditions like stress and depression have been shown to have disastrous effects on the body. Conversely the `healthy body creating a healthy mind’ concept is also true. REAL FITNESS deals with the ability of a fit body to create a calm and happy mind.