Discover the changing face of fitness

It's very rare that I write, comment or otherwise download online, but after thinking about the idea several times I decided to share some of my thoughts with you on what fitness is, what it really is and that should be considered eligible. Of course, this is just my opinion at this point in history, but it deserves to be mentioned anyway. I am writing this, admittedly, a disappointment. I have read article's Fit people, newsletters and blogs constantly, in order to learn and improve myself in this area which we call welfare, but lately I've met a number of very fit people drawing lines in the sand (about what fitness is), which, in my opinion, do not need to be there.

Now that you have heard that a million times! Fitness (technically) is usually defined in a way that has something to do with optimal levels of :

• Cardiovascular endurance. 
• Muscular endurance. 
• Muscular strength. 
• Flexibility.
• Body composition (fat mass than lean).

Even if this is true, and I certainly agree, I think what we're talking about is a quantitative way to look at a question of quality. Yes, sports are quantitative. How much, how many, how low, how high, how strong, how much, how big, how long - these are things that are often associated with the sport. In America, we tend to be a society quantitative. We want to know how much money a person has, which has the largest number of friends, who spend more on clothes, which has the lowest percentage of body fat, who can bench to press more weight and that can perform the longest distance in the shortest time. We are obsessed with numbers, quantities, and keeping score.

So I raise the question: physical fitness is really a quantitative thing? Or it could be that physical fitness is a thing of quality? Maybe a combination of both? What do you think? 

The only thing I can say is that (for me) physical fitness is more than how many times you can lift a weight, how far you can run, or if you are flexible enough to put your feet behind your head or not. For me, the physical shape about things that cannot always be measured by the numbers, it is more than a number, weight, distance, score. 

I tell my clients that we all have strengths and weaknesses at various points in our lives. At age 24, I had 9% body fat all year, I was able to squat 700 pounds and bench press 405 pounds for reps. I cannot do it anymore. But I can do 35 pull-ups, standing on a stability ball for almost the entire time, and I want to touch my face to my knee when stretching, all the things I could do as a beast-boy 24 - year-old. So I was in better shape then or now? 

Take a look at the people around you. What is their history? What are their experiences? I'm fat? I'm too skinny? Maybe they are really weak and cannot lift much weight. Maybe they have a low level of resistance and cannot run very far before getting out of breath. Think about it for a moment, then ask yourself if maybe their current level is better than it was before, the fact that they do not live up to your idea of ​​what should be the fitness really matter? If you think any of these things that we all depend on one thing: your perception of that person. I take the position that the fitness evolves as a person goes through life. What did you think of fitness early in your life may not be the same idea of ​​fitness you later? I encourage you to embrace fitness for life, no matter what he does now. 

Improve! Better in some way. It may not always be able to do what you did as a young person, but there are ways you can become even better than they were. And I've seen people who were very sedentary people such as young people who have progressively improved their fitness level as they age. A client of mine, Lisa, told me that (in his 60s) in the best shape of his adult life. Is not that what fitness is about? If you really think about fitness, it is not to improve, enhance, and do what you have to do to feel better about yourself and your physical body? Are not those things, for the most part, on the quality and not the quantity? 

I think so. I think that fitness has an infinite number of faces and takes on an unlimited number of features. I encourage you to try not to see fitness in an area so close that you forget that the physical form, above all, is about people. It is always better to people, not being the best. Fitness is not a sport, not a race and no one is keeping score. Fitness is about you as an individual. You can be a phenomenal success as an athlete Lance Armstrong or Drew Brees (both people trained), or you can be like my client Lisa (also the right person) that in his 60 years he decided he wanted to walk with more energy, more stable and be able to play with the grandkids. 

Now I encourage you to consider this: Lisa can honestly say that she is in the best shape of his adult life, Lance Armstrong can now say the same thing? So, what level of physical fitness of the person they need more? I'll let you decide. 

Try to think of fitness as something that is inclusive and not exclusive. The sport is wonderful to have a winner, and we have to keep score and compare against each other. I encourage you to leave the score keeping athletes on the playing field, and only on the playing field, and not in the day-to-day activities that people carry in their quest for fitness.

Pursue Fitness for Life! 

* Note : Image from Internet