Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Fitness

Fitness, in the health and physiological sense, is the capacity of the body to perform physical activity efficiently, encompassing components such as cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and overall functional capacity. It reflects the integrated function of the cardiovascular, respiratory, a…

Curated from this journal's research 📚 12 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 59× across the literature 🗓 Reviewed June 2026

Overview

Fitness, in the health and physiological sense, is the capacity of the body to perform physical activity efficiently, encompassing components such as cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, and overall functional capacity. It reflects the integrated function of the cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal systems and is a key determinant of health, performance, and resilience to disease. Cardiorespiratory and exercise capacity are assessed to gauge fitness and to relate it to outcomes such as cardiovascular risk, and physical activity and structured exercise are the principal means of developing and maintaining it. Fitness interacts with sleep, cognition, and aging, with exercise training shown to influence working memory and executive function in older adults, and with the demands placed on the body under differing physiological and environmental conditions. In a distinct biological usage, the term fitness also denotes an organism's reproductive success and contribution to subsequent generations, a central concept in evolutionary genetics where allele frequencies, genetic drift, and selection shape adaptation and extinction. Research in this area examines the components and measurement of physical fitness, the effects of activity and exercise on health and function across the lifespan, and, in the evolutionary sense, the role of fitness in the dynamics of populations and adaptation.

Research published in this journal

12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 12 articles above have been cited 59 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Fitness, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in Osteoarthritis and Cartilage.

Journal editorial board
Giuseppe Maurizio Campo · ISRAEL

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.