If someone plans to join the gym and you ask them “Why?” they would most likely respond with some vague goal like this: “I wish to increase my general fitness level”. What they mean by this has always confused me — the lack of a well defined purpose. But, let’s go ahead and assume the following:
- “I want to be able to do challenging exercise/sport stuff”
- “I want to counter the effects of my otherwise sedentary lifestyle”
- “I want to look better”
- “I wish to fall sick less often”
- “I want to have a fairly fit and healthy old-age”
Although this is a fair perspective, I think we can (should) do a lot better. Let’s take a moment to define fitness in a more concrete manner so that we could separate concerns and attack them in a systematic manner. Isn’t that how you would tackle a business problem — Why any differently in this case? This makes it possible for us to set tangible and realistic micro/macro-goals.
COMPONENTS OF FITNESS
To me, fitness is all about being Athletic. All the bullets above (and more) can be neatly covered in four concepts under Athleticism:
We saw in the previous chapter that looking better (Aesthetic physique) is all about improving Body Composition aka Gain Muscle and Lose Fat. Being Athletic and being Aesthetic are pretty closely linked as we see below:
Let’s have a look at each of the components of fitness in more detail
STRENGTH AND SPEED | Build Muscle
Bones give our body rigid structure and muscles contract to move this structure. Being stronger is a huge part of being athletic. Some sports where this is directly evident are Weightlifting, Powerlifting, Wrestling and Kabaddi. In sports like gymnastics and athletics, the importance of strength, although paramount, is not very obvious.
It’s time to throw away some layman’s ignorant notions like —
“Muscle gives bulk, makes you less flexible, makes you slow”
Very often, we forget something very basic — a bigger muscle is potentially a stronger muscle. By Newton’s second law — the higher the force applied, the higher is the acceleration. If you find a bodybuilder who is slow at running, it’s probably because he didn’t train specifically for it. A simple look at the fastest athletes of the planet (Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps) tells us this — Muscular growth is essential for speed.
The path towards building a more muscular physique is challenging but has great benefits — confidence, higher testosterone levels, higher metabolism, improved bone density, stronger immune system, fitter old-age,etc.
One of the most efficient ways to get stronger is Resistance Training aka Weight training aka Strength training aka lifting
A lot about this will be talked about in future chapters.
LEANNESS | Lose Fat
Staying at a relatively low body fat percentage has athletic advantages like increasing relative strength and agility. If you had to take a wild guess, who do you think can do pull ups — a fat guy or a lean guy? Similarly, who could probably run faster??
Additionally, staying lean requires that you have a well monitored diet and lifestyle which has huge correlation with reduced risk of heart diseases. The most efficient way to lose fat is diet control (as explained in the Fat Loss series here — Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4).
FLEXIBILITY | MOBILITY
This aspect of fitness is the ability to stretch your muscles and move freely through a relatively large range of motion of joints. Our joints have a certain range of motion which is limited primarily by:
- the joint-structure itself (bone shape)
- the muscle tightness
We can do almost nothing about the bone structure part but, we could try and understand more about muscle tightness. Muscle tightness might be due to two things:
- The muscle is at its maximum length (on the verge of tearing)
- Our brain perceives further elongation of the muscle as a threat
Most of the stiffness related issues that we see in our lives is due to our sedentary lifestyle and comes in the second form — the brain’s defense mechanism. Muscular imbalance causes tightness on the weaker side — commonly in the muscles around hips (hip-flexors, glutes, adductors). Muscles being weak through a particular range of motion makes our brains avoid letting the muscles stretch into those states. These are probably the root causes of most chronic muscle tightness and pain. Control and strength building through full range of motion of the joints has been shown to eliminate such tightness issues. Watch this great video by Juggernaut Training Systems about this:
Olympic Weightlifting and Gymnastics demand extreme levels of flexibility from the athletes. In sports like Rugby, the athlete could get pushed into a compromised position (like a deep squat) wherein, if the body is not mobile enough, injury is very likely. Even if that level of flexibility is not necessary for (or desired by) the common man, we need some tool to counter the effects of long hours of sitting. To improve general flexibility, at least regular stretching (yoga?) and mobility drills are recommended; especially for people with desk jobs.
STAMINA | ENDURANCE
One’s lung/heart capacity, the ability to provide glucose to the muscles and disperse/tolerate the lactic acid accumulated in the muscles are some of the biggest factors which determine how long one could continue doing a challenging physical activity. This ability is the bread and butter in sports like long-distance running, swimming and cycling.
Of course, to excel in these sports one should train as specific as possible i.e. run more to get better at running. But when a normal person says “Man, I have no stamina”, he/she is not aiming to do a Marathon level run. Maybe few hours of trekking drains them out; or maybe they go out of breath while playing with their kids. Anyone who has attempted to beat a personal record in 400 m sprint time knows the struggle. In general, what you’ll notice is that a person who complains about low stamina has one of either of the following two issues:
- Low muscle/strength (hence, every segment of the activity itself is tough)
- High fat percentage (where carrying oneself through the activity is tough)
I, personally, believe that one should address “stamina issues” only after making sure that the issues exist even after being considerably strong and lean. Don’t get me wrong — I have personally benefited from regular jogging. Having had almost no athletic activity throughout my childhood, I had developed breathing issues over time. Light jogging (~800 m) daily for about 3 months solved the issue. But if someone who can’t even do 15 push-ups starts complaining about stamina issues, he/she should probably reassess the situation and invest time more smartly rather than taking the plunge into cardiovascular activities for stamina.
How should your pursuit towards a FITTER YOU look?
- The majority of your training sessions should be some form of high intensity muscle/strength building activity.
- Take care of your diet for getting lean.
- Do mobility work at least once everyday i.e. don’t sit on the couch all day.
- Add some form of cardiovascular activity if necessary.
