How Match Do You Must Be?: Half 1

The next few blog posts will be my journey and thoughts on the matter. Part of it will be science and most of it will be an opinion and a personal experience as I have dealt with this topic for many reasons in my personal life. Take me with you, and I hope you all find some value in how I break this up and why.

Where should I start? I still don't know. My fitness life has changed, has evolved, and continues to do so. The vast majority of people come to the gym to lose unwanted body fat, feel better, have more energy, and live healthy lives. But what does that mean? The boundaries between health and fitness can often counteract themselves. Because some people pursue high levels of fitness, they are likely to be less healthy. It all depends on how you define health. I think this is where we will start. What is health

The dictionary definition of health, "the state of being free from disease and injury". There's a lot to unzip, and I'll need a few blog posts for that.

In the world of functional fitness and CrossFit, health is defined as: “Increased work capacity in wide time, modal and age ranges. Work capacity is the ability to do real physical work as measured by force x distance / time. Fitness then is the ability to work in as many areas as possible. So health is measured by your ability to maintain fitness. “This is a full mouth and can be difficult to understand and digest. Basically, with this definition, you are not considered healthy if you are unable to produce work. For example, in functional fitness and CrossFit, someone who can run 5km in under 20 minutes but cannot pull-up or deadlift is a good runner, but they are not healthy or fit. Their ability to produce work is limited. On the flip side, the person who can lift two times their body weight but cannot walk a mile is not healthy or fit either.

Interestingly, one CrossFit athlete / trainer, Adam Klink, only covered a mile under 5 minutes and then crouched the same day. This was something in the world of athletic performance that was considered impossible. Is this person at the peak of health and fitness? Is Matt Fraser, Tia Toomey, or so many other crazy CrossFit athletes?

When I think of CrossFit's definition of health, following and looking up many great CrossFit athletes in the industry, I can see why the last decade of my journey to functional training has led me to a performance-based thought process. And in that thought process, my current struggle is trying to achieve health and to live an optimal life.

In my pursuit of performance in my early 20s, I neglected the theoretical hierarchy of an athlete's development in order to achieve optimal health and fitness. I left out the reason for this and failed to recognize, implement and properly train my body based on energy systems and also take into account stressors and other things that happen with a developing life. I'm here today to break this because I've questioned my own thoughts, beliefs, and goals about health and fitness.

Next week I will summarize how I am developing my thoughts on the Health Pyramid in relation to my life today and how I would like to help people lead healthy and fit lives in the future. Here is a picture of how I am approaching my health and fitness right now.

How Fit Do You Need To Be ?: Part 1 first appeared on Double Edge Fitness.

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