Fitness, Health and Performance: Definitions
Fit and healthy are not the same thing! Nail the key definitions and learn why a top athlete with a cold is fit but not healthy.
Justify the choices, the way you are assessed
Free interactive practice on the decisions the assessment actually asks you to justify.
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Fit is not the same as healthy
People use "fit" and "healthy" as if they mean the same thing. In PE they are different ideas, and examiners love to test the difference. Get the definitions exact, and the marks follow.
Four key definitions
Learn these word for word:
Match each term to its definition
- Health
- Fitness
- Exercise
- Performance
- Complete physical, mental and social wellbeing
- The ability to meet the demands of the environment
- Activity done to maintain or improve health and fitness
- How well a task is completed
Defining health
Which is the fullest definition of health?
- Complete physical, mental and social wellbeing, not just the absence of illness
- Simply not being ill
- Being physically strong
- Winning at sport
Linked, but not the same
Fitness and health are linked but they are not the same thing. Good fitness can improve your health, and poor health can limit your fitness. But being fit does not guarantee you are healthy.
Fit but not healthy?
A top athlete is training hard but has a heavy cold. This shows that a person can be...
- Fit but not healthy
- Neither fit nor healthy
- Always both at once
- Healthy but not fit
The exam point
The classic mark: fitness does not guarantee health. A fit athlete can catch a cold or pick up an injury and so be fit but not healthy. Equally, someone can be reasonably healthy but not very fit. Always keep the two ideas separate.
True or false
Select the TWO true statements about fitness and health.
- Fitness and health are linked but not the same
- Being fit does not guarantee being healthy
- Fitness and health mean exactly the same thing
- Health only means not being ill
Match each person to the best description
- A trained runner with a heavy cold
- A well person who takes gentle walks
- A footballer recovering from injury
- A well person who trains hard every day
- Fit but not currently healthy
- Healthy but not very fit
- Temporarily less fit due to injury
- Both fit and healthy
Definitions frame
Health is complete physical, mental and social _____, not merely the absence of illness. Fitness is the ability to meet the _____ of the environment. Being fit does not _____ being healthy, so an athlete with a cold is fit but not _____.
Fit, healthy or both?
Classify each person using the definitions.
- A marathon runner in peak training catches flu. Right now they are...
- A well office worker who never exercises is best described as...
- Being fit, on its own, means a person is...
Two more definitions
Fitness is the ability to meet the _____ of the environment, while performance is how well a _____ is completed. Exercise is activity done to improve health and _____.
Explain the difference
Explain the difference between fitness and health, and give an example showing that a person can be fit but not healthy.
- Define fitness and define health
- State that they are linked but not the same
- Give the fit-athlete-with-a-cold example