What is Fitness?

When I teach a course on health and fitness assessment, I always ask students to start by defining those two words. In particular, what is fitness? Sometimes I’ll show students a picture of a fitness model from some magazine cover and ask them if the individual is fit. Typically my students want to say yes, but they sense a trap and hold themselves back. We are all conditioned, day by day, month by month of checking through the grocery store cashier line, to think that the gods of fitness are the bronzed airbrushed models that adorn magazines such as Oxygen or Men’s Fitness. But, the immediate qualifier that must follow any question about your fitness is: “Fit for what?” Marathon runners are very fit for endurance running. Gymnasts typically have great flexibility, balance, and coordination. Football players might be very fast, strong, or powerful, depending on their position. But try interchanging these athletes into each other’s sports and you suddenly have the comical scenario of watching someone with no fitness trying to compete. Fitness is very specific. You cannot simply get “in shape”. The fundamental problem with exercise training is that you must choose what system(s) you want to train. To be sure, it is possible to increase in strength, flexibility, endurance, and coordination all at the same time. But it is not possible to maximize all of these components of fitness simultaneously. Choose your goals, and progress appropriately. There are a number of components of fitness, typically categorized into those associated with health (aerobic fitness, muscular endurance, strength, flexibility, body composition) and those associated with skillful performance (speed, balance, coordination, reaction time). An athlete might have to train in both health-related and skill-related components of fitness while an individual interested only in exercise for health would typically focus only on the health-related components of fitness. Yet, even within the health related components there is a wide range of outcomes. Many individuals who primarily train with weights in a gym are only interested in increasing strength, increasing muscle mass and reducing fat. This addresses only two components of fitness (strength and body composition) while ignoring many others. Again, one must think about one’s goals before setting up a training programme.

A critical part of increasing fitness is knowing your fitness level to begin with. Setting goals, progressing through increased levels of fitness, and eventually achieving your goals all starts with assessing where you are to begin with.