General Physical Preparedness - GPP

Hey! Friends..,

Let us talk about GPP to start with.., - General Physical Preparedness or in other words, the ability of our body to tackle challenging day to day tasks or activities with relative ease and without much discomfort. An improvement in GPP means bringing in improvement in the quality of our life. Talking of GPP, there are 5 important components of it:

1. Cardio Respiratory Endurance
2. Muscular Endurance
3. Musculo-skeletal Strength
4. Flexibility &
5. Ideal Body Composition


First things first! Cardio Respiratory Endurance- In other words is the stamina of your heart and lungs working together. There are 2 types of activities which we do inside a Gym, i.e, Aerobic & Anaerobic.

Aerobic covers: Jogging, Cycling, Skipping, Stair Climbing, Swimming to be more specific.
Anaerobic covers: Weight lifting, Sprint, or any short duration sport that ends with in a time frame of say 3 minutes, say for example- High Jump, Shot Put, Long Jump etc. 

Muscular Endurance- It is the ability of our muscles or muscle groups to contract maximally or sub-maximally for a prolonged period of time without getting fatigued. It is an activity based and is limb specific, say for example- Running will improve the muscular endurance only in the lower body (legs) and only for running specific activity!

Musculo-skeletal Strength- It is the ability of our muscles to contract maximally against a given load. it is the combined ability of our muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments. It can be improved by doing high intensity weight training exercises!

Flexibility of Body Parts- It is the ability of our body to achieve a full range of motion around it's various joints. Depending upon 2 attributes:
1. Extensibility 
2. Elasticity

These can again be improved by doing Mobility & Dynamic stretches  and Passive/Static stretches by the end of each work-out.

Ideal Body Composition- It is the ideal ratio of body fat to lean body mass.
In Men, fat percentage should be between 4% to 15% of total body weight.
In Women, this ratio is 8% to 20% of total body weight.
Such a body composition can again be achieved by following or making all above attributes as part of one's life.

It is of prime importance for any beginner who intends to be fit, to understand all above attributes before entering a gym. In order to be FIT, INJURY-FREE & ATHLETIC through out life one needs to build a strong foundation based on above 5 points! and make no Mistake! I am here to help you guys on the same..

Till next time!
Safe Sweating.. 😉

Chandeep