healthfulness
fitness
performance
Most people have goals of improving their health (weighing less, improve their blood sugar or blood pressure, "core strength," etc) and many appreciate the need to achieve beyond this minimum and have fitness goals (5k time, improved overhead press strength, the ability to meet a greater variety and intensity of daily life functions, etc.). The third category receives disappointingly little attention from the sweating, huffing masses. I think of it as a culmination of of the climb up the ladder from a sedentary lifestyle and/or obesity or from wherever you started. The bodies ability to simply perform, in any given circumstance, can and should be the ultimate crowning achievement for everyone. It isn't just finding yourself to merely be healthy, but knowing that your physiology (anatomy, etc.) can literally perform at a high level. It isn't having a decent ability to stabilize your spine but just being rock solid and injury free.
And let me emphasize this need not be running, riding or rowing in races or pushing, pulling or throwing heavy objects (or even people!), maybe this is simply appreciating the ability to take on any task (likely physical or otherwise) that might come your way in a given day. Pickle jars, heavy boxes, running away from... whatever might need running away from. Whatever the daily challenge may be, and it may simply be a challenge workout on your trainer's whiteboard at the gym... wouldn't it be nice to know that you're up for it, without even knowing what it might be?
"No citizen has a right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training... what a disgrace it is for a man to grow old without ever seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable." - Socrates
And part of this, as with the lower states on the scale, is knowing that part of the bodies ability to perform is being structurally sound and stabile enough to avoid the nagging and nattering injuries that plague so many in their day-to-day lives.
The pursuit of these states of the body is not linear and they are, as stated, not mutually exclusive but there is a hierarchy. And if you read Activity vs. Accomplishment you can probably guess my thoughts on climbing this hierarchy.
"Being healthy" is not enough and the state of the body is not static. Get healthy, get fit and then, perform.
Nice article! I personally feel like fitness goals are at the top for me. For example, if I can bust a sub-7 2000m on the erg I'm guessing shoveling my driveway won't be an issue. However the idea of training to be able to shovel my driveway with greater ease just doesn't motivate me. I was thinking about doing an upcoming post for The Peoples Dietitian on motivation to exercise or more specifically how trying to achieve fitness goals (eg training to snatch a 24kg kb 200 times in 10)is a indirect way to work out without the idea of dragging myself to the gym and going through the motions. Cardio generally bores me to tears and conditioning is not only hard but pointless since I don't need much air to AW. Trying to achieve the KB goal though is exciting and I'll no doubt get some monsterous conditioning in the process.
ReplyDeleteWord. Its all on a spectrum and where someone starts to focus is dictated by their current health/condition/conditioning, etc. A guy like you is likely of pretty strong health overall and that state is only reinforced by your training and activities. I think we can also se a trend on the other end wherein the training habits sort of work against our health status (i.e. there is nothing particularly healthy about offensive lineman, pro-bodybuilding, gymnastics, etc). But that is probably a seperate article.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see you do an article on O-line or something similiar. I argue with my wife's triathlete friends about NFL players all the time. They point out the bellies and talk about how they're not real athletes and I continue to point out that a six pack is not required nor useful for certain positions in the NFL.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad idea. Something along the lines of the general misunderstanding of what it exactly means to be healthy or fit... and how "running" isn't the be-all-end-all. Its a continuing discussion I have with people at the gym all day...
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