Try to ask someone participating in a physical fitness program, or even someone in the fitness industry for that matter, to give you a clear definition of strength. A marathon runner will define fitness in terms of muscular and cardio respiratory endurance. A power-lifter will define fitness in terms of absolute power.

And a bodybuilder will define fitness in terms of muscle size and definition, etc. But the overwhelming majority of people participating in a physical fitness program are not professional athletes concerned with the improvement of only one physical capability. Therefore, basing your definition of fitness on one specific physical skill does not lead to a universal definition of fitness.

The fact is, however, your physical fitness success will be determined by your definition of health. So take some time to make sure you have a clear fitness meaning. The degree of competence and skill to perform in all the physical abilities of cardio respiratory endurance, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, accuracy and hardiness.

Because you cannot “maximize” the performance of all the physical abilities in this fitness definition at the same time, fitness is not about the “maximization” of one particular physical skill at one particular point in time, but rather the “optimization” of all physical skills at any given instance.

Thus, fitness is a compromise of all the different physical skills that make up human movement. Let's say all of the physical skills were tested separately. Not only is universal fitness a compromise of all the physical abilities but it is the over-all ability to integrate all of the physical abilities and flow from one ability to the next in a seamless fashion to successfully complete a job. So, what would adopt this definition of fitness do for you?

Well, your physical fitness training program would be assessed according to how well it “optimized” all the physical skills and not just how well it “maximized” one particular skill at the expense of all others and many people.

And basically, structuring your physical training to improve all the physical skills of this fitness definition would enable you to greatly improve over-all physical performance in a wider variety of behavior.