List the Stages of the Fitness Continuum

Physical fitness is a continuum extending from optimum capacity to death, with people existing at every possible point along it. A person will often along this continuum throughout life, due to a broad range of factors that includes diet, exercise, age and any illnesses they may be suffering.

Optimum Capacity

• A person functioning at optimum physical capacity will have well-developed muscles and a healthy immune system. Such a person likely exercises regularly and consumes a healthy, well-rounded diet. Those at an optimum level of physical fitness are the least likely to contract a debilitating disease, though some types of illness can strike anybody, no matter their physical condition.

Lack of Disease

• Those who are, in the main, healthy usually have an average level of physical fitness. The body is in sufficiently good condition to prevent it from having contracted any severe illness, and such a person will be able to perform most normal physical activities. A person at this stage likely does not exercise regularly or eat a particularly healthy diet, but exists at a reasonably acceptable level of physical fitness.

Severe Disease

• Disease saps a person's body, destroying physical fitness. Those suffering from cancer or other severe illnesses often lose muscle mass very quickly. Prolonged disease usually forces a person to stay in bed and rest, and this lack of exercise, combined with the debilitating nature of the disease itself, leads to a very low degree of fitness.

Death

• A person on the verge of death generally has an extremely low degree of physical fitness, particularly if the death is the result of an extended illness rather than that of a sudden accident. The moment of death is when a person's body is unfit even to sustain itself. A corpse, obviously, is completely unfit, being unable to move of its own volition.