Fitness today

Fitness in modern times has become very popular. Even in terms of the clothing side of things, everyone wants to look good working out. So they go out and spend hundreds of euro on Nike runners and expensive leggings and tops. When i researched it, a pair of Nike leggings were €50 and a Nike runners were around €120, which is quite a lot of money for workout gear. It seems that sometimes it is more about the fashion than the actual fitness. 
But the amount of gyms that are being opened across the country is substantial which shows that there is such has a high demand for them. A 24 hour gym has even been opened in my area, which I think is quite a clever idea. I presume this would be for people such as doctors and nurses who cannot get to the gym during the day and could go during the night one or twice a week instead. Overall in fitness, there have been hundreds of advancements throughout the years. 
From the high tech machines such as treadmills and rowing machines to weights to spinning and Pilates classes. There are so many ways to help us get fit other than just running. So if you don't like just running, there are plenty of alternatives. I hope the popularity of fitness keeps increasing because if it does we could be on our way to healthier and fitter generations.




This is a 24 hour gym called 'Anytime Fitness'  in Dún Laoghaire

                                           Image-www.dramaticphysiques.wordpress.com

Types of fitness

 These are the four main types of fitness:

1. Cardiovascular fitness: 

This is to do with your heart and how effectively it pumps blood and oxygen around the body and how it is then pumped through the body. To improve your cardio fitness you should get your heart rate up for a long period of time (say around 30 minutes) by doing a high intensity activity like running or cycling up a hill.

2. Muscular strength fitness: 

This is the exercise we do to strengthen our muscles such as boot camps or circuit training with weights. With the right nutrition, the muscles should start getting bigger and stronger after a few weeks or training. This muscle strength can also be built up by running up hills or on beaches.

3. Muscular endurance fitness

This is where your muscles are working non-stop for a long period of time, so it is building muscle as well as endurance. An example of muscular endurance activity is cross country running.

4. Flexibility: 

This isn't necessarily about touching your toes but about having free movement in your muscles and joints without pain or stiffness. Stretching after sporting activities, yoga and pilates are good ways at improving flexibility. Recovery sessions and warming down after training sessions also helps.                                  

                                     

                                                Image-http://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk    
Sources
www.lazyrunner.com/                                            

Fitness through the years

Two civilizations in history who were very focused on their fitness, especially in their military, were the Greeks and the Romans.
Roman Civilization (500 BC-476 AD)- The Roman Empire ordered that all its citizens have good physical fitness and be ready for army service. Everyone between the ages of 17 and 60 were able to join the military and trained for it by running, marching, doing the long and high jump and carrying heavy bags for long journeys. This was one on the main reasons of the Romans success on conquering most of Europe due to their fit army compared to other countries who were not prepared. However, the fitness levels of the Empire declined as entertainment and wealth became more important to them than their health. They had become much wealthier due to the massive empire that had conquered. But the Roman civilization was eventually destroyed by stronger forces as a result of this.
Ancient Greek Civilization (2500-200BC)- The Greeks were one of the first civilization that were completely focused on their health and fitness. Gymnastics was taught to Greeks at a young age and they believed that fitness was equally as important as education. In Sparta (a city in Greece), the government had special fitness programs for boys to make sure they become fit soldiers when they joined the army. Females also had remain fit so they would have healthy male children. Hence why Sparta became one of the most physically fit societies in history.

Sources:

www.ideafit.com

Why is fitness so important?

Fitness is so important in today's society. We are moving quickly towards

generations who don't exercise and stay inside all day on their phones and computers and who eat unhealthy, processed food. This is resulting of a higher amount of kids getting diseases such as diabetes and becoming obese. Regular physical activity, even just simply a cycle or a walk for 30 minutes everyday will help you with a numerous things. It will decrease your risk of disease, and make you feel and look better physically and mentally. According to research from the American Journal of Preventative Medicine says that regular exercise can add up to five years to your life. Not a bad reward for just a bit of exercise everyday!
Regular exercise can reduce your risk of:

• Anxiety, stress, and depression 
• Heart disease 
• dementia 
• Stroke 
• High blood pressure 
• Type 2 diabetes 
• Obesity 
• Depression
• Breast and colon cancer 
• Osteoporosis 

They also believe that 6-10% of diseases such as heart disease, diabetes are caused by physical inactivity.
As well as these physical differences to your body exercise can do. Mentally, many changes can be noticed. Your brain power can dramatically change in ways such as:

• Thinking with more clearly 
• Increased attention, creativity and concentration 
• Quicker thinking 
• Improved memory

Sources
http://www.ajpmonline.org/
http://fitness.mercola.com/

The Origin of Fitness

Fitness has become so important in our lives. We strive to be the best at what we do. Whether that be in the gym, on the hockey and rugby field or wherever. But have we ever questioned why this is so? Fitness seems to be a relatively new idea, doesn't it? All these high tech machines in the gym, the rowing machines , the treadmill, all these were never around before. As true as that is, fitness has been around since the beginning of time. Even though the world's first people may have not realised it or thought of it as exercise, it was simply a way of life or survival. Centuries ago, mankind did not have all the machines and weights and gyms that we have today, and yet they were in better shape than we are today . “Survival of the fittest” was key throughout history and the evolution of mankind. It is a way of describing, natural selection, which is the survival and reproduction of different species due to their unique traits. This best translated as "Survival of the species that will leave the most copies of itself for years to come." Herbert Spencer first used this, after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. 

This is a short video of a quick summary of the history of fitness from 'TrainOnline'

Introduction

Hey guys, this is Jodie and this is my new blog called, 'Fitness Trend'. In this blog, I will be talking about the history/origin of fitness and the civilizations that first started to focus on fitness. I will also talk about the different types of fitness and why it has become so important to us in our lives. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!