PHYSICAL FITNESS AS ASPECT OF TOTAL FITNESS MOTOR FITNESS

 The terms 'fitness', 'physical fitness' and 'motor fitness' are often used interchangeably, though these have slightly different meanings and connotations. Fitness has a broadar meaning which includes not only physical fitness but anatomical, psychological and physical fitness too. Thus, fitness is not a matter of mere muscules. Neither, it is a matter of physical capacity alone. It includes the realms of mental, moral, social and emotional fitness as well. According to American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (1965). Fitness is that state which characterizes the degree to which a person is able to function efficiently. Fitness is an individual matter. It implies the ability of each person to live most effectively with his potentialities. Ability to function depends upon the physical, mental, emotional, moral and spiritual components of fitness, all of which is related to one another and are mutually interdependent. The definition given by AAHPER clearly implies that one should view physical fitness only as a part or aspect of total fitness. The definition of physical fitness only as a part or aspect of total fitness. The definition of physical fitness as given by Clarke (1966) makes it amply explicit. According to him "physical fitness is the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigour and alertness without undue fatigue and with ample energy to enjoy leisure time, pursuits and to meet unforeseen emergencies". Thus, physical fitness is the ability to last, to bear up, to withstand stress and to reserve energy to face situations under difficult circumstances where an unfit person would quit? It is the opposite of becoming fatigued from ordinary efforts, to lacking energy to enter restfully into life's activities, and to becoming exhausted from unexpected, demanding physical exertion. This definition implies that physical fitness is more than "not being sick or merely being well". Clarke (1966) opined that motor fitness is different from immunity to disease. It is a positive quality extending on a scale from death to abundant life.