Everyone has probably heard that it is important to your health to be fit, but what is fitness? The meaning and the benefits of being fit seem to remain largely unknown. If you don’t believe me, just look at the general population.
Some definitions might help to give us a general feel for what fitness is:
- fit: the condition of being physically fit and healthy.
- fitness: good physical condition; being in shape or in condition.
Well, that’s a start.
Essentially there are two broad areas that you can look at when you talk about fitness, those are general fitness and specific fitness. General fitness refers to an overall state of being healthy while specific fitness gets more involved in fitness as it pertains to a specific sport or activity. Most people don’t need to be able to run a mile in under 4 minutes or bench press 450 pounds and, frankly, neither do I, so I’ll target more general fitness here.
My Definition of Fitness: For me, being fit means that I can perform my daily activities easily without being dead tired at the end of the day and that’s it!
I want to be more comfortable just walking around and doing the normal stuff that I do on a daily basis – cooking, working, cleaning, standing, walking… I think you get it.
In addition to those “just existing” activities, my daily activities include the extra things that make life enjoyable like playing games with my daughter, enjoying leisure sports and activities like skiing, tennis, bowling and mountain bike riding (without huffing and puffing after a short, small hill). And my goal is to find a way to do that which is both obtainable and sustainable for the long term.
I think that’s a fair definition and one that a lot of people can relate to. Your definition of fitness may be different than mine, and that’s okay, it’s great actually because each and every one of us is unique and how we approach this fitness thing is going to be a very personal thing.
I should mention that I’m not an expert by any means, but I do have the one thing that we all have in common… a body that came with no operating manual. For the most part, we are left alone to figure out how to operate the darn thing!
To make matters worse, we are bombarded with confusing and often contradictory information on what is good for us. From how we should exercise to when and how much. Throw in the nasty way that the food industry has commercialized food (are you loving it?)… and you end up confused to the point of inaction. I want to help reduce the confusion and turn inaction into action.
There are essentially 4 areas that will be the main focus of this site, although each can be broken down into many sub-categories:
- Cardiovascular Fitness
- Muscular Strength, Endurance and Power
- Flexibility and Balance
- Body Composition
Remember, you want to find a way to incorporate fitness into your life so that it is an obtainable and sustainable goal.
So what is fitness to you?
