![]() The best way to do this is with body-weight exercises like push-ups, pull-ups, and squats. Instead of measuring the weight, you set the weight and measure the reps. Muscular endurance seems only a little trickier. You only need three lifts (back squat, deadlift, press) to cover the basic human movements. Strength is easy enough to test - the amount of weight that can be lifted, as a percentage of body weight if you want to get all fancy. One of these things is not like the others but, even so, not a bad start. The article breaks fitness down into five elements: strength, cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body fat composition. Seeking the mainstream perspective as a point of departure, I found an article on FitDay, photo-decorated by beaming wiry older folks doing yoga. But what are the right categories? How can we cover the most fitness ground with the fewest, least ambiguous tests? The Marines clearly have the wrong categories - upper-body pulling, torso flexion, and mid-distance running. Well, Sir, I can’t fight or shoot or carry a person or stay calm under pressure or work with a team or lead or evade capture, but check out these abs!Įvery test takes the same approach, whether explicitly or implicitly, of breaking fitness into categories. Really? Could these three factors possibly predict who’s fewest and proudest? It’s not a bad test of the things it tests, but it tests very few things and they’re not the right things. Take the Marines test, which consists of pull-ups, crunches, and a three-mile run. There are all kinds of tests, from the Navy SEALs to the NFL Combine to the one where a doctor hits your knee with a rubber mallet, but they tend to disappoint. (Addressing limiters to general fitness might be a better use of specificity than picking a single goal and dedicating your life to it.) On the other hand, if I don’t pass, I will know my limiters and be able to make a plan to improve those areas. To know - if I pass this test, no staircase can wind me, no package will remain unlifted, no pickup game shall provoke hesitation. To know the categories that divide a comprehensive fitness and the measures that divine it. So to this day I yearn for a way to certify my fitness. Yet a subversive undercurrent runs beneath all this division of labor, with an approach that goes back at least to the Stoics, the approach of being emotionally, intellectually, and physically ready for whatever life might bring. For most people the idea of anything both serious and general has no meaning. The urge to equate seriousness with specificity runs deep in our culture. This situation has improved greatly in the intervening years, but the basic dynamic still remains. ![]() There was no middle, no information for the serious generalist. You know, the 12 best exercises to tone your love handles, that sort of thing. On the other end of the spectrum was the cursory treatment of the subject matter found in mainstream publications, a mix of half-true headlines and generalizations aimed at the lowest common denominator. These sources were specific and voluminous but extremely narrow. There was information of an extremely technical nature, in academic publications, and information targeted to very particular communities, like competitive bodybuilders. It didn’t take long to notice a frustrating gap in the literature. What does it even mean to be fit?Īs a kid I always played sports and took an intellectual interest in them, too, but that didn’t transfer to the weight room until the years after college, when I became interested in fitness and started supplementing my workouts with reading on exercise physiology and nutrition. Even setting aside the issue of standards (i.e., how fit should I be?), the question is a tough one. Hiding behind our modern, general sense of the word are a million little ways to be fit. Fit for what? As far as I can tell the Middle English fitten just meant suitable and was not a synonym for healthy or any other vague combo of strong, fast, and sproingy.įitness is peskily specific. Or you hit some invisible wall and just can’t go any more - even when it seems like you’re barely pushing (which is how I feel on a rower).įitness is a word that was never meant to be without a modifier. Maybe you can deadlift 400 pounds but can’t do a pullup. How to Evaluate Fitness? Posted: | Author: james | Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a commentĭo you ever feel like you’ve “missed a spot” in your training? Like you eat well, work hard at the gym, make progress in your sport, feel pretty fit overall, and yet there are problem areas that just don’t make sense? Maybe you can run a marathon but get winded walking up a couple flights of stairs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |