Components of Health and Physical Fitness

The Pillars of Excellence: Health and Fitness Department

The Five Components of Health and Physical Fitness:


Physical activity plays an essential role in the quality of life because it increases energy, promotes physical, mental and psychological well-being, and serves as preventive medicine. Several studies have explored the relationship between physical activity and the overall quality of life. In 1996, the Surgeon General’s Office released its Report on Physical Activity and Health, which reviews the evidence relating physical activity to reduced risks of a variety of health problems. There is evidence that physical activity is related to a lower risk of premature development of many health problems like: anxiety, arthritis, back pain, cancer, depression, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, insomnia, lung disease, memory problems, and osteoporosis. A longer life and increased energy, as well as physical, mental, psychological, and social well-being are some of the compelling reasons to improve your health through physical fitness.

According to the experts at the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), the organization that literally teaches the nation’s top personal trainers how to get their clients into shape, total fitness involves an integrated approach that is dynamic, multidimensional, and also relates to heredity and environmental factors.

Although heredity influences physical fitness and health, we can all lead healthy or unhealthy lives regardless of our genetic makeup. It is not possible to establish the relative portion of an individual’s health or fitness that is determined through heredity, therefore your genetic background neither dooms nor guarantees success in achieving total fitness. Our environment includes our climate, altitude, and pollution, as well as social factors like friends, parental values, and workplace characteristics that affect our fitness and health. Our past and present environments affect us all, and can have a substantial impact on our health and wellness. Likewise, one of the major components of fitness involves personal choices: time spent in the sun, smoking, drinking, arguing, and worrying. People who, over a lifetime, have neglected health and fitness practices suffer higher levels of “disease” (maladies, ailments, injuries—the absence of ease) compared to those who have lived a fitness lifestyle.

As important as the mental and psychological components of fitness are, it is through physical activity that we can improve our quality of life by preventing or delaying the premature development of the aforementioned health problems. Below is what the technical support staff of the trainers to the personal trainers told us are the five principle physical components of fitness:

Cardiovascular endurance is an important (most physicians would state categorically that it is the most important) component of physical fitness. When your muscles need oxygen, your aerobic (cardiovascular) system must be able to efficiently deliver it to them. When your body has waste products that need to be expelled (e.g. carbon dioxide and metabolic waste products), your heart-lung complex must be up to the task. These two tasks form the functional basis of aerobic fitness. Also, engaging in aerobic exercise can burn up to one thousand calories an hour depending on the specific type and intensity of activity. As a result, individuals who want to reduce their level of body fat sensibly, instead of starving the weight off, have a positive, user-friendly option at their disposal. In addition, the value and impact of aerobic fitness extends beyond the boundaries of the workout room: engaging in aerobic exercise can increase your life span and your level of available energy; aid in relieving depression, stress, and anxiety, as well as in preventing certain types of cancer; enhance self-image; reduce the risk of heart disease; “slow” the aging process; and even improve mental sharpness and the quality of sleep.

Strength is your ability to exert musculoskeletal force against an external object, such as a barbell, the ground, or an opponent, and it stems from four main sources:

Structural/anatomical factors – How your body is put together as an efficient “machine”
Physiological/biochemical factors – How your internal systems work to create energy and promote repair, remodeling, and growth in response to training
Psycho neural/psychosocial factors – How your skills, attitudes, belief systems, and tolerance to pain interrelate to allow your body to function at peak efficiency
External/environmental factors – How factors external to your body (e.g., weather, gravity, equipment) can be manipulated to produce greater force output

In addition to cardiovascular concerns, a lack of adequate muscular strength in conjunction with a decrease in bone density due to an increase in age is a definite health concern of our general population. A lack of adequate muscular strength can lead to a decrease in our musculoskeletal functions. Strength developed through resistance training helps to develop our musculoskeletal system.

Sound nutrition is the consumption of food that provides your body with all the nutrients it needs to remain healthy and active. There are six major nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals and water) necessary for a healthy body. A deficiency in any one of these nutrients can reduce your chances of success in reaching your fitness goals. Considerable data indicates that the safest and most effective way to accomplish weight control is to combine sensible eating habits with a program of sound exercise including both aerobic and weight training.

Flexibility is the ability to flex, extend, or circumduct the joints through their full intended range of motion. The term flexibility refers only to joints’ mobility and how muscles, ligaments, tendons, or other soft tissues affect it, and not to the “looseness” or “suppleness” of those soft tissues themselves. How much flexibility do you need? Although the answer varies from individual to individual, it can safely be said that you need enough flexibility to meet the demands of your daily activities with ease, plus a little bit more to spare for life’s little emergencies (e.g., falling on ice, tripping, etc.). Most fitness enthusiasts typically tend to overemphasize flexibility training, to the neglect of developing functional strength while in the stretched position. Significantly improving your joints’ range of motion without also improving the strength of your surrounding musculature (especially at its new range of motion) can be an invitation for injury. For this reason, strength and flexibility training programs must occur concurrently.

A positive attitude may seem like a mental component of fitness, but this element of physical fitness is the most important of all! The YMCA adopted a triangle (in which the points of that triangle were “mind,” “body” and “spirit”) from the Native Americans. All religions in one way or another recognize the importance of this Mind-Body-Spirit link. Will it help you run faster? Fight through a tackle? Concentrate on a free throw? Well, miraculous things have happened! However, any individual who does not focus on their overall happiness with life will indeed suffer and never realize his/her full potential.

I hope this helps and it has provided you with new knowledge on healthy living or at least reminded you of what you already know. I love providing these articles because I love giving others information they can use so please put it to use. One thing I always say is start slow enough to make sure you do to over do the work as this is the one reason most fail to continue living a healthy lifestyle. Keep up the great work and I hope to see you in one of the Pillars events!

Thanks a Million and Live Life to the Full!

Dr. John P. DeMann

A Well Formed Outcome Made Simple!

By: Dr John P. DeMann
JHP: Special Series
Well Formed Outcomes

We will be looking at Patterns of NLP in the next series of articles from the Journal of Human Performance, JHP. I do believe in making personal development easy to use and make it so you do not have to think about what you need to do to succeed at any task. To do this I will provide you two formulas per pattern, one that is suggested by NLP and one that I create to make them more usable. I will also provide you the reader the ability to provide the readers with your ideas that can improve any pattern for success. This is crucial to the development of any field or profession and is something I like to try and promote in the personal and professional development arena.

Please understand I am note saying that I have a better way, however in the 23 years of coaching I have recognized that people and organizations will not use what they learn if it is complicated or just long. I have worked literally with thousand in one on one sessions and I have found that people use what is easy to use. What I have done is created a basic understanding of how to apply the patterns for ease and workability. I have also created these from the information gathered from clients so I have to give credit to all the people I have worked with who, not only came in for help, but in that process gave me the opportunity to learn from them. In fact, much of my knowledge comes from real life experience that either I have attained through my own actions or by the actions of others.
Below we begin the series with the foundation patterns, specifically the pattern of a well formed outcome:

The Well Formed Outcome Pattern: This pattern is really used in all circumstances that require any outcome. It should be used consistently in all activities for 3 weeks where you will find yourself using it unconsciously. The first pattern will be the typical NLP pattern for a well formed outcome and the second will be for those who like to have things simplified and want to internalize the pattern for daily use.
1. State the outcome in the positive: What do you want? Do not state what you do not want!
2. State what you can do and maintain in the creation of the outcome: In this we want to describe the skills needed and the resources needed to complete the outcome successfully.
3. Contextualize, when, where, with whom… This requires you to state when you will attain the outcome, where you will attain it and who you will attain it with or who you will need to attain it with.
4. State the outcome in Sensory based words: Anytime you have an outcome/goal set it is very important to attach as much emotion to it as possible. This means placing great pain to not attaining the goal and pleasure to attaining the goal. Pain and pleasure are built in motivation resources.
5. Sequence the goal into bite sized stages: It is easy to give up if the outcome is too easy to attain or if it is too difficult. For this reason we need to evaluate our ability and what makes us stay motivated. Know your limitations so you do not get overwhelmed, but just as important so you do not under stimulate your needs.
6. Load up your goal description and plan with plenty of resources: Here you want to be ready to attain the outcome. Many times we end up starting to take the appropriate action but get sidelined because we run out of resources. Always have available abundant resources.
7. Specify your evidence for fulfillment: Here we are setting the stage for success. We need to know what it is we are after in terms of results and we need to know exactly when the result is achieved.
8. Make it compelling: This is the example where I need to show you why this can be reduced. Compelling is really an emotion and we are doing that in step 4 where we use sensory based words to gain greater pain and pleasure. But for the formulas sake we need to be going after something that is desired greatly. Many times goals are not compelling and we all have experienced going after an outcome then drifting away from the outcome because it was not compelling enough.
9. Check for ecology: This simply means, is the outcome good for you, others and the environment?
Now let’s go back over the formula, but this time let’s make it simple so you can look at this and follow through in a few simple steps. I also want to make certain that you try and create your own patterns. This can be done once you see how these are made simple and then applying the same idea to your own ideas.

The simplified formula for a well formed outcome:
1. Know the outcome you desire: Simply know what you are after and describe it in detail. This means place emotion into the description so you can continually motivate yourself towards the well formed outcome.
2. Define the purpose for attaining the goal: This will motivate you to attain the outcome. This is important because most people, 97%, fall short of attaining the outcomes that they set because they fail to define the purpose for attaining the goal. In fact, when people use this simplified version compared to the extended version above they receive a 98% success rate in attaining the outcomes they desire compared to a 3% return on the formula above.
3. The next step is to define the action steps needed to complete the goal: It is best to make the action steps small and manageable, but difficult enough to maintain interest. The truth is that when action is taken regularly it keeps us motivated and allows us to feel the emotion, that we defined in step one, to be experienced daily and not only when the outcome is received.
4. Finally determine if what you are doing is working and if it is not, change your action, then approach it from another angle. Anyone who has reached even minor success will tell you that attaining outcomes requires you to constantly evaluate if what you are doing is working or if it is not. This step requires that you look daily at what you are doing which will allow you to see if what you are doing is working or not. When we are aware that something is not working, we usually change the approach automatically. Even if you do not move closer to the goal immediately you succeed as long as you learn and change the approach. Remember failure is only feedback and if you apply what you learn it will be inevitable that eventually you will reach success.

If you look at the above formula you will notice that it is much simpler then the well formed outcome of the NLP pattern. This does not mean you should follow the easy formula to the “t” it only means that you can probably think of an easier way to accomplish goals you set. However, do not fall into the trap of making it too easy so it takes away interest or causes you to miss important actions that are required to reach your goal. Motivation is best supported when the work is interesting and meets your desire for challenge. If the actions you are taking are boring and if they are not challenging you will eventually give up.

I hope this has helped and I know if you apply this strategy you will find great success. In fact, try now to make this simpler and email me the revised version and I will show it to all my readers. In any field the communication between the professionals and those who use the products is extremely important for the growth and success of the profession. I believe this is where NLP has had a problem; the content has not been reorganized since it was introduced and this has created a lack of improvement to the NLP process. Think about the progress that can be made and what can be done if we can communicate the most efficient way and the best way to do something. How many people can we reach?

Go to play and have fun, start to use this everyday and let me know how it went. Also, if you love to develop personally or you love to help others develop personally and or professionally communication is important to success. No matter what field of work you are in communicating ideas is what makes that field grow. Let’s all start to communicate our ideas and really get powerful techniques out there.

Thanks A Million,

Dr. John P. DeMann

Do You Really Need a Multi-Vitamin?

Article #5: Do You Really Need a Multi-Vitamin?
Dr. John P. DeMann, Performance Coach, the Pillars of Excellence.


Do you really need a multivitamin and mineral supplement? Do supplements have any real benefit?

These are two questions we are asked on a daily basis at the Pillars of Excellence. While there are many variables involved such as past medical conditions, allergies, and other issues that need to be addressed by a medical professional before taking any supplements, the below list provides an answer for many common supplements and what they are reported to do for the body.

This is by no means a complete listing of all the vitamins and minerals that you would need to supplement your diet. This is simply an interesting list of the responsibilities of some of the vitamins and minerals.

Vitamin A Vision, bone formation, cell membranes, and reproductive function.

Vitamin B1 Energy production.

Vitamin B2 Vision and cells.

Vitamin B3 Cardiovascular system and serum cholesterol.

Vitamin B5 Energy production and helps you handle stressful situations more easily.

Vitamin B6 Mental clarity and immune system.

Vitamin B12 Nerve structure and red blood cells.

Vitamin C Joints, tissues, bones, blood vessels, as well as your body's immune.

Vitamin D3 Healthy bones and calcium absorption.

Calcium Nerves, tissues, cells and energy production. Also helps prevent bone loss.

Magnesium Cardiovascular system, blood pressure, and energy production.

Potassium Water balance, pH levels and energy production.

Iodine Energy production, skin, nerves, and energy production.

Zinc Immune function, joints, and tissues.

Copper Nervous system and cell respiration.


For more information about these supplements and others, visit http://www.cdc.gov/ or
http://www.nih.gov/

NLP Pattern: Well-Formed Outcome Pattern

We are going to look at a series of Patterns that can help create change in your life. We will be providing step by step instructions for how to run the brain and create the change we need to make in order to achieve human excellence. My interest in life is the creation of human excellence and I have found the best and most effective way to attain excellence in any activity is to model it. This allows us to take a short cut and learn from others who have attained what we want to attain.

In the coaching style approach to change we focus on the outcome. Outcome thinking is really a powerful approach to change and is one of the best ways to fin achievement in life.

I wrote once that Flow is attained when one knows what they are after and that the actions taken to achieve the outcome are actions that are taking one closer to the desired outcome. This allows us to feel as if we are productive and when this state is attained we simply can't help, but to feel like we are making progress.

Outcome based thinking is only the start and you must realize that with outcome based thinking we must know the actions needed to attain the outcome. The actions we need to take can be considered the patterns, I also call a set of action steps the model. Let us consider a pattern we can use to achieve an outcome, we call the pattern a Well-Formed Outcome Pattern. Below I have provided you a step by step approach that you can use to achieve any outcome you desire. I suggest that you do this for all activities in life and first thing everyday I would suggest you look at your desired outcome and review it. I would also suggest you determine the emotions or the state you will be in when you attain the outcome. The truth is that you will feel the state everyday as long as you are moving toward the outcome by taking the steps in the Well-Formed Outcome Pattern:

1. State the outcome in the positive: There is something to be said about positive thinking as research shows that those who are positive have a much higher success rate in achieving their goals.

2. State what you can do and maintain in order to attain the outcome: Here is the place you want to decide what actions you must take to achieve the outcome. It is important that you find daily actions that will take you closer to the outcome, this is what will allow you to experience the state you desire experience when you attain the outcome, but this will allow you to have the experience now!

3. Contextualize when, where and with whom: Make the outcome very clear. This means to be sure to have detail in the pattern so you know when it will be achieved, where it will happen and who else will be involved.

4. State in sensory-based words: State what you will see, hear and feel. The more emotion you add to your pattern the more likely you will achieve the outcome. If you have any experience with my teachings you know that I believe that goals are emotions that we seek. To attain any desired outcome we need to know what it is we are after in terms of emotions. All goals have a emotional base to them.

5. Sequence the goal into bite-sized steps and stages: Many do not reach their goals because they are too big. Sometimes people do not attain their goals because they are too small. The idea here is to make sure that the goal actions are set up in sequence and chunked down so it feels like you can achieve the goal.

6. Load up your goal description and plan with plenty of resources: Determine the resources you will need to attain the goal. This includes material and emotional needs. Do you have the confidence, the financial backing, the support etc.

7. Specify your evidence for fulfillment: Determine how you will know you have reached the goal. Also set up a way to know that you are moving towards your goal by making daily plans and make sure you follow these plans so you know each day you are making progress. This is very important because it allows you to feel like you are making progress which will motivate you to continue moving to attain the outcome you desire.

8. Make it compelling: Is the goal you seek compelling, in other words is it important to you, does it excite you.

9. Check for ecology: Does the goal fit with other goals you have? Does the goal meet your values? Will the goal enhance your life, empower you, empower others?

There you have it! Using the Pattern above for yourself and for others if you are in the helping profession provides a way to quality control objectives. If you use what you have learned I promise you will experience results that will make your desired goals a reality. Start now and use this pattern for something simple, but meaningful and see for yourself the power it holds.

I look forward to providing you many more patterns so please remember to keep a look out for more to come. I will provide over 70 of them and they will help you manage your life in a more organized and fulfilling way.