1. Children with a good level of fitness can run, swim or cycle without getting too out of breath. They recover quickly from exertion and are not over-prone to injury. They can reach, stretch, experiment, lark about, and have good physical fun. They can cope with the physical demands of a normal day and have energy to spare. Children with a low level of fitness tend towards lying in front of a telly and with only enough energy to open another pack of sugary and high-fat snacks.
You can see why it makes sense to get fit.
2. What improves fitness? In a word, exercise. One set of researchers defined exercise as "planned, structured and repetitive bodily movement done to improve or maintain one or more components of fitness". Aerobic exercise - which raises the heart rate and can get you out of breath - increases endurance and reduces body fat. This is also known as cardiovascular or respiratory fitness because it deals with the efficiency of the heart and lungs. For muscle strength and stamina you do resistance training, and for flexibility you stretch.
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