1. Get enough rest, please.  The rest phase of training is as important as the work phase.  Try to get between 7-8 hours of sleep every night, and don’t push it to the max on every workout.  How can you perceive your training intensity if you always train with the same level of effort?
2. Eat a balanced diet, ALWAYS.  Do not under-estimate the effect diet can have on body weight, body composition, energy level and athletic performance.
3. Hire a trainer, coach or instructor – a good one.  A true exercise professional can help you understand what you need to take your fitness to the next level.  If your reason for “doing it yourself” is financial, think about how much your health self-image is worth to you.  If you are convinced that you know enough to train yourself, you are wrong, so wrong!
4. Let go of your ego and try something new.  So many people are unwilling to learn because they are self-conscious.  Making mistakes and feeling awkward is part of any learning process, there is no way to avoid it so don;t use that as an excuse to stay in your comfort zone.  Cross-training can yield some amazing benefits and keep you focused on your goals.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Wikipedia defines fitness in two categories:

1. general fitness (a state of health and well-being)
2. specific fitness (a task-oriented definition based on the ability to perform specific aspects of sports or occupations).

There is an obvious between these 2 categories – a person has to be generally fit before they can become specifically fit.  This is the abstract concept of fitness, but it does not give us any idea of what a fit person looks like or what he or she might be able to do.  To move from the abstract to the concrete definition of fitness we need to examine the key elements of fitness:

• Cardiovascular Fitness
• Muscular Strength
• Muscular Endurance
• Flexibility

There are various ways to test or evaluate a person’s fitness level based on these categories – 1 mile walk/run tests, aerobic step tests, push-up or sit-up tests, range of motion tests,  body fat calculations, body mass index, etc.  Then based on the “average” results of each age group we could assign every person a fitness level.  If someone wants to improve their fitness level, they need a good exercise program that addresses and improves all of these elements.

Now that we have an idea of what fitness means, the next question is what activity does one choose to become [more] fit?  There are so many modes or types of exercise to choose from – swimming, cycling, running, weight training, core training, yoga, martial arts, dancing, the list goes on and on and on.

Once we select a mode of exercise, then we have to determine how to quantify the actual workout sessions:

• Intensity – How hard do I work?
• Duration – How long do I exercise for?
• Volume  – How many sets and repetitions/workout?
• Load – How much resistance (if any) is needed?

At this point in the discussion, it is obvious that understanding and developing fitness is more complicated than most people realize! You would never have guessed it if you looked up the word “fitness” in the dictionary.  Websters online dictionary defines fitness as “the quality or state of being fit.”  That seems simple . . . However, the words “quality” and “state” are quite different terms to use in a single definition.   If someone has the “quality” of being fit it almost implies that it is part of who they are, and not the result of what they do.  On the contrary – the phrase “state of being” suggests that we have to actively do something to be fit.

I think all this information is important, but in my opinion, we need a new definition of fitness that is less academic and more functional.   When we separate fintess into categories and elements we get a piecemeal appraoch to exercise programming which is time-consuming and dull.  In my next post – Fitness Defined Part 2 – I will propose a new definition for fitness and explain why it might help more people understand and develop their own fitness level.

This fitness blog is here to educate my clients, friends/family and the public about what cutting-edge exercise programming is all about.  Most people (including personal trainers) are stuck in the stone ages of exercise – no wonder so few people are fit and enjoy exercise.  I hope this blog will re-define your ideas about exercise.