Fitness comes from the Greek word ‘it can mean anything’. I am kidding. The statements ‘I am fit’, ‘I want to be fit’ are fill in the blanks statements. They need to be I am fit for _______ activity or I want to be fit enough to complete ____.
Family, work, time, health, goals, friends, quarantines, priorities, motivation and your ability to juggle it all determine which fitness goals make sense for you at the moment given your constraints.
So think of fitness as a constantly evolving journey where you keep drawing new goal posts that vary in intensity, ambition and scope, based on how your life is at the moment.
Fitness for a task could be a temporary state too. It could take weeks or months of prep to hopefully peak or ace an event. You could train hard for a local sport tournament, 1200 kilometre bike ride, bodybuilding meet or powerlifting competition and once the deed is done, not be able to replicate the effort for weeks or months.
Each will require you to invest different amounts of time, intensity and focus to the gym, kitchen, dinner table and life.Improving body composition, increasing muscle mass, improving strength, learning new skill, improving performance at a sport are all different goals in a fitness journey.
Your health can affect your fitness too. Disease, injuries and stress can temporarily compromise your fitness for tasks you can routinely complete on most days. It might take a day, a week or longer to rediscover or rebuild your capacity to get the task done. But if it is a priority, you can recover and get stronger.
Fitness is not a single measure. You can be fit enough to be an astronaut. Or fit enough to complete a trek to Stok Kangri. Fitness is a term to describe your capability to undertake and successfully complete a task, event or activity.
You could be fit enough to compete in multiple three set tennis match over a two week period. Or you could be fit enough to deadlift double your bodyweight or snatch your bodyweight.
Technical skill and competence goes hand in hand with fitness capability.
Family, work, time, health, goals, friends, quarantines, priorities, motivation and your ability to juggle it all determine which fitness goals make sense for you at the moment given your constraints.
So think of fitness as a constantly evolving journey where you keep drawing new goal posts that vary in intensity, ambition and scope, based on how your life is at the moment.
Fitness for a task could be a temporary state too. It could take weeks or months of prep to hopefully peak or ace an event. You could train hard for a local sport tournament, 1200 kilometre bike ride, bodybuilding meet or powerlifting competition and once the deed is done, not be able to replicate the effort for weeks or months.
Each will require you to invest different amounts of time, intensity and focus to the gym, kitchen, dinner table and life.Improving body composition, increasing muscle mass, improving strength, learning new skill, improving performance at a sport are all different goals in a fitness journey.
Your health can affect your fitness too. Disease, injuries and stress can temporarily compromise your fitness for tasks you can routinely complete on most days. It might take a day, a week or longer to rediscover or rebuild your capacity to get the task done. But if it is a priority, you can recover and get stronger.
Fitness is not a single measure. You can be fit enough to be an astronaut. Or fit enough to complete a trek to Stok Kangri. Fitness is a term to describe your capability to undertake and successfully complete a task, event or activity.
You could be fit enough to compete in multiple three set tennis match over a two week period. Or you could be fit enough to deadlift double your bodyweight or snatch your bodyweight.
Technical skill and competence goes hand in hand with fitness capability.