Sunday Story...the Biggest fitness Lie

Sunday Story…The Biggest Fitness Myth

So…last week was the biggest diet myth…a calorie is a calorie is a calorie is a lie. All calories do not perform the same way in your body. The types of calories you are eating directly influence your body’s ability to perform and be healthy. So know you know that one!

The Biggest Fitness Myth…All movement is created equal. All you have to do is get up and move for 20 or 30 minutes a day and you too will be fit. And the movement doesn’t matter…walk, run, zumba, Tae-Bo, yoga, lift weights, blah, blah, blah…just get up and move. This is a lie. The quality of the movement matters.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t start moving, whether it is walking, riding your bicycle, or just getting off the couch. You need to move, that is clear. But we are talking fitness here. So the quality of your movement is going to determine your fitness. You can’t sleep walk through your 45 minute tread mill workout and expect to get fit. It isn’t going to work.

Ask yourself this question…does that world champion marathoner look fit? He is gaunt, thin, and has little to no muscle mass to speak of. Or how about this one…does that power lifter look fit? He is big, often has a huge belly and is strong as an ox but can’t move quickly. Why are there fat zumba instructors? Why are there too skinny yoga instructors? How is it that someone who dances for hours every week can still be weak and overweight? The answer is really very simple…when I do something (run, lift weights, and dance) I get good at doing those things. If I run a lot I get good at running. Notice I said I get GOOD (read efficient) at running. If I zumba every day I get good at zumba, or yoga if I yoga daily. Nothing about this says I will get fit and healthy if I do those things.

This is not meant to be an indictment against running, zumba, yoga or power lifting (put the pitchforks away, please). I have done, or do those things from time to time over my life. But I wasn’t “fit” when I was running 50 mile races. Yoga didn’t make me “fit” when I was doing it 4 days a week. And when I was squatting 500# I wasn’t “fit” either. It isn’t you or me it is the quality of the activity.

So what is “fit”? How are we going to define it and how are we going to get there and how are we going to know when we get there? Coach Greg Glassman of Crossfit defines fitness in 100 words or less (read it here: http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ_Trial_04_2012.pdf ) but if you read fitness magazines you will rarely see a definition. Outdoor magazine declared the Ironman Triathlon winner the fittest man on earth one year. At the Crossfit games they declare the winners to be the fittest on earth (go here: http://games.crossfit.com/ ).

Fit may be best defined as the ability to move how, when and where you either choose to or are forced to. If you had to run around the block right now could you? If you had to pick up 20 100 pound bags of cement and walk them to your back yard could you? If your kid wanted to see who could climb a rope fastest, or could do the monkey bars, could you? If you had to walk from here to some place 20 miles away could you? If you had to spend the day moving dirt by hand all day could you and still be able to get up tomorrow and go water skiing with your friends? How about not being the slowest guy when the bear is chasing you?

Fitness isn’t about running 100 miles or being able to do down dog for 10 minutes, or power lifting 500 pounds or running circles around your aerobics instructor. Fitness is your ability to use your body on a daily basis in ways that get things done. This may best be characterized as “general physical preparedness.” You never know what life may throw at you. But being “fit” will give you a better shot at getting it done than if you aren’t “fit.”

You must specialize in not specializing. You must get comfortable with being uncomfortable. You must be ready to try and play and do different activities and games and things you have never done before. You must bring intensity and focus to your activity. This is the quality of movement we are talking about. But I can’t just be intense at the same thing every day. My body will adapt and get efficient at that activity. But it won’t be “fit” based on the above definition. The point is that we get fit by design. We get fit by using complex movements in intense environments. We get fit by moving large loads over long distances quickly and then moving them faster next time, farther next time, larger loads next time. We get fit and more fit through an unrelenting pursuit of being more fit.

This pursuit is going to be hard. You will have to sweat. You will have workouts where you wish you had stayed home. You will have days where you hurt and those are the days after the workouts. You will have sore muscles, skinned knees and shins, busted knuckles, torn calluses, and blisters. Getting fit, being fit and getting fitter is not easy. It is not for sissies, wimps, or the dilettante. You must decide that being fit is important to you, just like you did when you decided eating right was more important that eating cheap or eating poorly.

Fitness isn’t a thing you do once in awhile; fitness is a way of life, a mind set, a way of being. When you put it together with proper nutritional support you are on the way.
In the end…eat high quality natural food and move like your hair is on fire.


Namaste
John
“Teaching Focus, Inspiring Transformation”
www.martialartsnevada.com

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