Health is Not Static or Health is Not The Absence of Disease

I made reference to this idea in a previous post and it is a frequent topic of conversation with the general gym populace.

Your health is not static.

I'll relay a recent conversation I had with a gym regular.  In this same conversation I learned that this gent. is 100lbs. less than when he started "hitting the gym" and building healthy habits.  It is also quite clear that he is at least 100lbs. north of what might be considered a "healthy bodyweight."  Anyhow, he smirked as he mentioned his visit to the doctor earlier in the day and the "clean bill of health" he received for the 3rd time in a row.  To be fair, this means his blood sugar, pressure and lipids were all largely within, at least, reasonable ranges, etc.  But, to be honest, let's look at the reality of things.  There is simply nothing healthy, long- or short-term, about carrying around 100+ pounds of (largely central) adipose tissue.

And here's the real take-home point.  When I stated that fact as clearly as I could.  I could see in his eyes before he verbally acknowledged that it was the truth.  That he was/is largely kidding himself to think of his current state as "healthy."  Because, probably more accurately stated...

health is not simply the lack of disease.

He is not diabetic or cancerous or any of these hazardous and traumatic states we associate with being "unhealthy" but should we not begin to give the correlational credit where it is due and rightfully consider that obesity bears a striking resemblance to disease?

And couldn't we also consider that simply because it may not seem immediately life threatening, there is nothing healthy (and certainly nothing beneficial or economical) about being overweight or obese?

Isn't it time to question being happy with being not unhealthy?

Or maybe more absurdly, isn't it time to consider being unhealthy... unhealthy?

iMapMyFitness

The odds are pretty good that you, like me, invest an inordinate amount of money in a ridiculously advanced and all-consuming phone-like product (i.e. a smartphone).  Now, I tend to be behind the times with technology these days (partly deliberately) but I don't recall hearing about an app that will go so far as to exercise for you but there are several simple and easy to use Applications that have proven to be, at worst, extremely entertaining and, generally, very helpful.

I enjoy hiking and walking/jogging/running around with the wife and dog and I encourage my clients and the general membership to follow suit.  And by simply hitting "record" in the iMapMyFitness application I can get a presumably accurate picture of how fast I got the walk or run or ride down, just how far I went and a map view of the course I followed.

This makes it exponentially easier to try and do the same route a touch faster or to simply go farther next time and so on.

So, a big fancy phone with fancy gadget-try attached (my wife has a flashlight application... almost ridiculous) isn't on my "required" fitness tools list, but they're damned helpful.

Try it out.

Do gyms allow fitness?

In a previous post I talked about some of the differences between training to be healthy, training to be fit, training for performance and the hierarchy we find here.  I think of these as I spend my days at a good representation of the spectrum of gyms (big box, 24 hour joints, etc) and I'm forced to question; are the top two tiers of this hierarchy promoted or even tolerated in said facilities?

Being of the legitimate "meathead" group which has largely been shunned to garage gyms and warehouse facilities (this should be addressed in later posts) and yet still having the "insider" view of things as a professional in the field I am obligated to say that no, generally, they are not.  There are some "ins and outs" here but let's keep it general for now.

I say this because along with training to "be fit" comes a need to push limits.  To push the limits on physical capacity, exercise/activity selection and probably the most problematic for the management and stuffy regulars... social norms.

The first of these should seem reasonable enough.  In order to improve one's overall fitness level it will be beneficial to progress; decrease your 3k row time, improve your 10RM overhead barbell press or, if it might strike your fancy, score a better "Fran" time.  Whatever it is, do it faster, higher and stronger.  Citius, Altius, Fortius, as it were.  And you will find this happening although it is certainly not the normative behavior for the average gym-goer.  And what a shame.  The simply act of writing down a workout so that you can improve on it next time around (do it faster, with less rest, with more weight, with more reps or whatever the metric might be) can be a slippery-slope into the progress and results we all talked about when we first joined the gym, so its advisable to tread wisely.  You could mess around and get in shape...


Why this simple step is not pounded into the heads of any gym's membership is simply unfathomable.

When it comes to what people actually do at the gym (or their workouts abroad) its a pretty standard state of affairs.  "Resistance training" on one day and "cardio" on another or some variation thereof.  The resistance training most often meets expectations; some bench pressing, simple dumbbells stuff, an inordinate amount of sitting on a machine and pushing through one plane of motion.  The cardio is your standard cyclical activities like walk or running on the treadmill or otherwise, riding bikes, ellipticals, etc.

Riddled with bodybuilding dogma, to be sure.

Frankly, even with your choice of exercise you begin facing limit number 3.  All activities listed above are certainly what you would "normally" see at the gym and any deviation from those choices attracts attention.  And attracting attention at the gym can be a bad thing; complaints from other members and warnings from a staff that may not be privy to the idea of a "muscle-up" or a "kipping pull-up" or a "one-arm dumbbell snatch."  And this could jeopardize your membership at the facility and your fitness level.

To back up for a moment, what recently lit this flame under my rear is a group of gals at one of the gyms where I train clients.  (It's actually Charlotte Anderson and company whose antics and musings I recommend you follow).  These gals are extremely passionate about fitness and have taken on the hobby of pushing the limit.  One of their more recent pursuits has been hand-stands (and, I would assume, hopefully soon hand-stand push-ups, etc.).  As you might imagine this is way outside the normative behavior for this particular gym.  It draws attention, scowls and I would guess that this, and other "acts of fitness," have gotten them in, at least lukewarm water, with the folks in charge as a result.  But, do you know what is really wrong with doing "crazy shit" like that at the gym?

Nothing.

And frankly, I would suggest that a little less interest in boring, mundane workout "routines" and having a little more fun at the gym would serve the general public well.  Very well.  Extremely well.  This is at least one element of the now cumbersome "Crossfit" phenomenon that I find to be glorious.  Stand up, run around, do some impressive shit and be fit.  In general terms, what's wrong with that?

Overall, the third limit that must be pushed is, as much as anything, a societal norm.  Ask anyone about fitness or a good workout or what they do at the gym and it is very likely to be similar to what I described above ("some cardio, some weights").  And, especially at larger gyms, the masses flood in and practice reinforce this very low, very boring standard of what it means to "workout" and it is far too often ignored by the working professionals available to them.

The people who need the help, set the standard.  And the people who should be providing the help, far too often, support it... or at least aren't willing to challenge it.


Pick things up, put them down.  Eat good food.  Go do stuff.


- PMH