Three components to being a good steward of your physical body …

When most people hear the term “stewardship” they probably relate it to how they manage or spend their money.

Or you might think of the teaching Jesus offered relating to stewardship.

What we often give little thought to is that our physical bodies are one of the greatest blessings — and stewardships — God has given us!

You get one physical body for this life, so rational thought would lead us to think we would be great stewards of them.

Most of us aren’t!

Even when we begrudgingly acknowledge that maybe we should “take better care of ourselves,” we tend to think that means doing something like cleaning up the content of our nutritional intake and adding some exercise to our lives. Those are good steps, but there’s more to being a good steward of your physical body than that. If you really want to be a good steward of the body God has gifted you, then you should understand there are three core components you need to steward as part of the overall stewardship of your body. Those components are fitness, health, and wellness. These three components are NOT synonyms but they are interrelated. Let’s get a basic understanding of each component:

FITNESS
When someone refers to your physical fitness, they are not talking about your general health, although the two are interrelated. So what do we mean when we talk about our physical fitness? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), physical fitness is defined as “the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure-time pursuits and respond to emergencies.” Based on this definition, fitness involves everything from getting out of bed to hiking to performing CPR.

In order to complete all of these tasks, one must consistently address their fitness levels. This requires proper conditioning through both structured exercise and leisurely activities.

Physical fitness is better understood by examining the components that comprise “fitness.” While there are differing opinions about what all of the components of fitness are, most would generally agree with these as outlined by MIT Medical:

Aerobic fitness or cardiorespiratory endurance. Malia Frey, writing for VeryWell Fit, explains, “Cardiorespiratory endurance is a measurement of how well your heart, lungs, and muscles work together to keep your body active over an extended period of time. Exercisers can improve cardiorespiratory endurance by participating in a program of regular aerobic exercise. Improved cardiorespiratory fitness provides numerous health benefits.

Muscular fitness refers to the strength and endurance of your muscles. Strength or resistance training can help you improve your muscular fitness. It also enables you to increase your body’s lean muscle mass, which helps with weight loss.

Flexibility is the ability to move joints and use muscles through their full range of motion. Flexibility can help with performing daily tasks, improve circulation and posture, aid in stress relief and enhance coordination. Many experts believe that stretching can help reduce the risk of injury due to physical activity.

Stability and Balance are associated with your body’s core muscle strength — the muscles in your lower back, pelvis, hips and abdomen. Strengthening these muscles can help to combat poor posture and low back pain. It also helps prevent falls, especially in older adults.

Body composition – Many leaders in the field of fitness include body composition as a component to overall fitness. Laura Williams, writing for VeryWell Fit, states:

• Body composition, or your body’s ratio of fat mass to fat-free mass, is the final component of health-related physical fitness. Because high levels of fat mass are associated with negative health outcomes, such as heart disease and type II diabetes, attaining and maintaining a healthy body composition is a goal of just about all regular exercise routines.

The good news is, improved body composition is often an outcome of working on and improving the other four components of fitness. If you’re regularly hitting the gym, doing cardio, strength training, and working on flexibility, chances are you’re developing muscle mass (some of that fat-free mass) while reducing fat mass. The combined effect is an improved fat- to fat-free mass ratio, and enhanced body composition.

We easily think of “exercise and nutrition” when we hear the term “fitness” because they are essential keys to becoming and staying “fit.” Exercise would mean exercise regimens to build and maintain cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular endurance, and muscular strength as well as flexibility, stability, and endurance. Healthy nutrition is the fuel for exercising and the activities of life.

HEALTH
Again, many people blur the terms “fitness,” “health,” and “wellness” as being synonyms, but they aren’t. Health is different – but interrelated – to fitness. The National Academy of Sports Medicine has a narrow explanation for “health”: “Health is the absence of disease both mentally as well as physically. Health means a person has good physical health, no injuries, diseases or issues, and good mental health and well being. An athlete can perform with injuries or have lots of mental issues such as depression or drug dependencies, and still be “fit” but not have health.”

Bonnie Wright, Ph.D., writing for the Honor Society of Nursing, stretches the definition of health: “The definition of health goes way beyond ‘the absence of disease.’ Even the World Health Organization uses a broader definition. It is also managing a chronic disease successfully to minimize complications and recurrences. Healthy people are able to utilize whatever resources are available to them to live their lives on their own terms. A paraplegic who goes to work every day, supports their family and enjoys being alive is healthy. A brilliant professor of mine defines health as functional competence. Over time, that definition has held up under scrutiny.”

Okay, so let’s see that broad definition for health taught by the World Health Organization: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Getting and staying healthy includes all the things you would do to get and stay fit, as well as other steps such as: having regular check-ups with your family physician, avoid using and abusing drugs, don’t smoke, only drink alcohol in moderation, get enough sleep, potentially take supplements/vitamins, and otherwise avoid activities and practices that can result in contracting a disease.

WELLNESS
That finally brings us to the “big umbrella” of what it means to being a good steward of our physical bodies – the act of practicing wellness.

“Wellness” is a buzz word that started on the fringes and has become more common as people are increasingly challenged to care about their fitness and health. Definitions for what “wellness” means vary broadly, but a leading one is this: “Wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a healthy and fulfilling life. Wellness is more than being free from illness, it is a dynamic process of change and growth.”

According to health and wellness definitions, wellness has a direct influence on overall health, which is essential for living a healthy life. A key difference between health and wellness is that health is the goal and wellness is the active process of achieving it.

In addition to varying definitions for wellness, there’s also differences in what’s taught about what components are included in wellness. Some teach there are five components to wellness, others teach 6, some teach seven, and still others teach eight! Those components include:

• • Emotional.
  • Environmental.
  • Financial.
  • Intellectual.
  • Occupational.
  • Physical.
  • Social.
  • Spiritual.

We don’t have the space here to explore all the possible components for wellness, the key is to understand the best stewardship of our bodies extends beyond just the more narrow needs to be fit, or the broader and important need to be healthy, but that our wellness would include other key factors such as our spiritual condition, our mental health, and even our social life. We may be fit for average life activities, but suffer from diabetes, be spiritually lost, and socially bankrupt … that does not make for wellness!

CONCLUSION
Many people find the idea of exercising regularly and eating well to be overwhelming concepts, so the idea of exploring multiple components to being good stewards of our bodies might seem to make it even more difficult for some.

It doesn’t have to be.

The goal of this exercise is to help you step back and more clearly identify ways to be a good steward of your physical body by highlighting the need to:

• • Get and stay fit.
  • To live in a way that promotes, builds, and maintains health and avoids disease (or manages chronic disease).
  • To practice the actions that foster overall wellness.

Are you being a good steward of the physical body God has blessed you with?

Scotty