Wellness vs. Fitness Overview

Wellness

• Wellness is a balance of health-related elements in one's life, encompassing physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, spiritual, and occupational well-being.
• Wellness involves a constant and deliberate effort to maintain health, avoiding risk factors, and achieving one's full potential.
• Wellness lifestyles lead to positive outcomes across all seven dimensions of wellness.

Fitness

• Fitness focuses on physical fitness and health, enabling individuals to perform specific physical tasks effectively.
• Fitness aims to develop the physical dimension, including physical appearance and aesthetics.
• This involves effort and sacrifice to achieve physical goals.

Wellness vs. Fitness

• Wellness aims at improving quality of life while fitness focuses on physical development.
• Wellness encompasses physical, emotional, and social well-being, whereas fitness primarily targets physical conditioning.
• Wellness emphasizes balance and harmony, while fitness prioritizes pushing limits.
• Wellness activities include yoga, tai chi, pilates, dance, and walking; fitness activities include HIT, TRX, Body Pump, CrossFit, and spinning.

Healthy Behaviors

• Healthy lifestyles encompass a range of habits and practices, including physical activity, nutrition, personal hygiene, sleep, road and environmental safety, sexuality, and social participation.
• Healthy habits, acquired during university, form a foundation for adulthood.

Physical Activity

• Adults (18-64) should aim for 150 minutes per week of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic physical activity, plus strength training two or more days per week to maintain health.
• This contributes to reducing fatigue, improving sleep, academic performance, and cognitive function, and preventing health problems.

Nutrition

• Adherence to a Mediterranean diet, rich in fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats, along with moderate intake of legumes, fish, and white meat, is recommended.
• Avoiding excessive consumption of red meat, processed foods, and sugary drinks is crucial.
• Healthy consumption patterns are beneficial for cardiovascular risk prevention.

Sleep

• Sleep is essential for neurological restoration and optimal functioning.
• Quality sleep includes aspects such as sleep induction, wake-up time, total duration, and overall quality.
• Sleep disturbances can exacerbate stress levels and negatively impact academic performance and mood.

Progressive Overload

• Progressive overload involves progressively increasing training demands to enhance physical aptitude.
• It's crucial to be mindful of frequency, intensity, time, and type of training to avoid negative impacts.
• It's important to progress gradually to avoid injuries and maximize benefits.

Specificity

• Training should be tailored to specific qualities and the needs of the sport or activity.
• Different sports demand specific adaptations and abilities for optimal performance.
• Example: martial arts prioritize strength, velocity, and flexibility.

Continuity

• Consistent training, proper nutrition, hydration, and rest promote continued progress and adaptation.
• These elements prevent interruptions and ensure sustained fitness goals.

Reversibility

• Training adaptations and benefits can be reversed if training intensity and duration decreases.
• Consistent training is vital for maintaining physical qualities over time.

Supercompensation

• Supercompensation follows periods of physical stress (training) and allows recovery before resuming training, leading to improved performance.
• This adaptation is essential for optimal progression and avoiding overtraining.

Individual Differences

• Every individual responds differently to training.
• Initial conditions, innate characteristics and responses need to be considered, tailored towards specific individual needs, and avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach.

Cardiorespiratory Fitness

• Neural, humoral, and hydrodynamic mechanisms interplay to regulate various physiological responses during exercise.
• Cardiovascular adaptations (heart rate, blood pressure, venous return) occur in response to training.

Respiratory Fitness

• The relationship between ventilation and perfusion (VE/Q) is crucial, with a need for linear increase of both parameters with respect to exercise intensity.
• Ventilatory threshold marks the transition from aerobic to anaerobic energy metabolism.

Muscular Fitness

• Muscular strength and endurance are essential for various physical activities.
• Muscular power is a crucial aspect that determines performance in several sports or activities.

Flexibility

• Flexibility is a prerequisite element for movement, it is a conditionable quality.
• This quality is directly linked to the range of motion.

Body Composition

• Human body composition comprises water, fat, protein, and minerals.
• Body composition analysis methods include BMI, anthropometry, DXA, and BIA.
• Maintaining healthy body composition is significant for overall health, contributing to physical health.

Nutrition for Body Composition

• A varied and balanced diet providing appropriate proportions of macro-nutrients is crucial.
• Different sports have specific nutritional needs, adapting the diet to specific sporting requirements.

Weight Management

• Weight management is a continuous and committed process, with various diets such as low-fat, low-carb, or high-protein diets.
• Weight loss can improve health-related indicators and metabolic biomarkers; focus should be on body composition rather than weight alone.

Stress and Disease

• Stress impacts physiological systems and can be linked to disease development, impacting coping strategies, and affecting disease progression/mortality rates.

Substance Use and Abuse

• Substance use, like protein and creatine, can potentially improve some aspects of physical performance.
• However, substance abuse, especially anabolic steroids and erythropoietin, can lead to serious and detrimental health outcomes, including cardiovascular issues and even death.