As you may have read, I don’t buy the compartmentalized, academic definition of fitness that you will find in personal training manuals or in the dictionary. I have a new way of defining fitness:
Fitness: The process of using discipline to make specific life choices regarding diet, physical activity & rest to improve the overall function of the human body in all of its capacities.
There are two key words in this definition – the first of which is process. The state of being fit (or the struggle to get more fit) is not static – it is always evolving, always in flux. To improve over time we must be able to adapt our choices to our current level of fitness. In other words, the more fit you are, the more you have to adapt your choices to get to the next level. This is also the case with unfit people. The unfit person is involved in a process of making choices that negatively impact their level of fitness. The more unfit they become, the more that their choices become detrimental. Either way, fitness is not a fixed concept – it is the relationship between our choices and their results. Every choice affects the resulting condition of our bodies, and that condition then reinforces or influences the next choice.
For example, the unfit person who finally looses 20 pounds and feels better about themselves will want to continue their progress and slowly begin to modify their lifestyle (become more fit). In the same way – a fit person who “falls off the wagon” and gains 10 pounds will strive to re-evaluate their choices and get back on track. Both of these scenarios can also progress in opposite direction. When the unfit person gets results, they might slack off thinking that they have done enough, and the unfit person who gains weight may think, “whats the point?” and just let go of their fitness goals.
The only way to make fitness a reality (as a process) is through discipline - the second key word in my definition of fitness. This is not an important word in America – we do not value moderation in the U.S. – we value excess. To make any process predictable and transparent, we need discipline. Unfortunately, there is no glory in being disciplined. No one will thank you for being disciplined, they probably won’t even notice or understand.
As a 23 veteran of martial arts and a personal trainer, I understand better than most people how discipline is realted to fitness. All of my most successful clients and students are those who do not miss their classes or workouts. The people who are consistent will get results regardless of their natural ability level. Discipline is a skill in itself, and it will yeild better results than natural talent in almost every case. There is no substitute for hard work, and there is no short-cut to becoming fit – contrary to whatever you might read in your trendy magazines.
To wrap this one up – my advice to anyone who is reading this is:
If you consider yourself fit: Do not get comfortable in your routine – if you think you have everything figured out because you are doing well right now – that is not what fitness is about. Fitness is about always improving – so whatever you do now is rapidly becoming obsolete, now get to work on finding out what new challenge is awaiting you.
If you are “out of shape”: Many of you are not working out because you can’t decide what kind of exercise is the best for you, or what fits your schedule. That is not what fitness is about. What you need to do is start making different life choices: eat less, eat better food, cut the soft drinks, take the stairs, walk your dog, ride your bike, stop watching so much TV. These every-day choices are what is important.
This entry was posted on July 16, 2009, 9:43 pm and is filed under General Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.
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Fitness Defined Part 2
As you may have read, I don’t buy the compartmentalized, academic definition of fitness that you will find in personal training manuals or in the dictionary. I have a new way of defining fitness:
Fitness: The process of using discipline to make specific life choices regarding diet, physical activity & rest to improve the overall function of the human body in all of its capacities.
There are two key words in this definition – the first of which is process. The state of being fit (or the struggle to get more fit) is not static – it is always evolving, always in flux. To improve over time we must be able to adapt our choices to our current level of fitness. In other words, the more fit you are, the more you have to adapt your choices to get to the next level. This is also the case with unfit people. The unfit person is involved in a process of making choices that negatively impact their level of fitness. The more unfit they become, the more that their choices become detrimental. Either way, fitness is not a fixed concept – it is the relationship between our choices and their results. Every choice affects the resulting condition of our bodies, and that condition then reinforces or influences the next choice.
For example, the unfit person who finally looses 20 pounds and feels better about themselves will want to continue their progress and slowly begin to modify their lifestyle (become more fit). In the same way – a fit person who “falls off the wagon” and gains 10 pounds will strive to re-evaluate their choices and get back on track. Both of these scenarios can also progress in opposite direction. When the unfit person gets results, they might slack off thinking that they have done enough, and the unfit person who gains weight may think, “whats the point?” and just let go of their fitness goals.
The only way to make fitness a reality (as a process) is through discipline - the second key word in my definition of fitness. This is not an important word in America – we do not value moderation in the U.S. – we value excess. To make any process predictable and transparent, we need discipline. Unfortunately, there is no glory in being disciplined. No one will thank you for being disciplined, they probably won’t even notice or understand.
As a 23 veteran of martial arts and a personal trainer, I understand better than most people how discipline is realted to fitness. All of my most successful clients and students are those who do not miss their classes or workouts. The people who are consistent will get results regardless of their natural ability level. Discipline is a skill in itself, and it will yeild better results than natural talent in almost every case. There is no substitute for hard work, and there is no short-cut to becoming fit – contrary to whatever you might read in your trendy magazines.
To wrap this one up – my advice to anyone who is reading this is:
This entry was posted on July 16, 2009, 9:43 pm and is filed under General Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.