Heath, fitness and well-being

• Health


  A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
• Well-being


  The state of feeling safe, happy and healthy
• If you have a good level of well-being you feel positive and satisfied with life
• Fitness


  The ability to meet the demands of the environment
• Being fit means you're physically able to do whatever you want or need to do, without getting tired quickly
• Fitness relates to physical health, but you can have a high level of fitness without necessarily being physically healthy
• Regular physical activity

  • Improves physical, emotional and health and well-being
  • Helps prevent high blood pressure (hypertension)
  • Helps reduce the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)
  • Helps increase bone density and prevent fractures
  • Helps prevent obesity
  • Helps prevent and manage type-2 diabetes
  • Strengthens muscles and bones, and improves joint flexibility
  • Improves fitness so you are less prone to injury
• Regular exercise helps your cells become more sensitive to insulin, which reduces the chance of becoming insulin-resistant
• Social health


  Your social health and well-being is about how you interact with others
• Physical activity and sport


  • Can provide social benefits like making new friends, a sense of belonging to a group, and combatting loneliness
• Friendship


  • Doing physical activity can help you make friends with people of different ages and backgrounds, like elderly people who may have limited opportunities to socialise
• Belonging to a group


  • Taking part in team activities like football can increase your sense of belonging, and help you feel more integrated in society
• Combatting loneliness


  • Building bonds through exercise and sport can be very helpful for elderly people who are at risk of becoming lonely
• Social benefits from doing physical activity and sport

  • Friendship
  • combatting loneliness
  • belonging to a group
• emotional health


  how you feel about yourself
• emotional benefits of taking part in physical activity

  • Self-esteem and confidence
  • Image
  • stress management
  • likelihood of depression
• Self-esteem and confidence

  • makes you feel better about yourself
  • releases ‘feel good’ hormones, which make you happier
• image

  • seeing improvements in your physical health e.g loosing weight or gaining strength
  • makes their confidence better
• stress management

  • relieves stress and tension by taking your mind off whatever is worrying you and makes you feel happier
  • helps prevent stress related illnesses
  • can be good for young people who have schoolwork or jobs