How Fit is Fit?

Some time ago, I gave a talk called “Why Exercise?” to groups consisting mostly of women. I began each talk by discussing the definition of fitness, and the different groups came up with their own definitions of what it actually means. Overall each group had very similar ideas. These included:

1) Being able to get through the day without feeling shattered Having enough energy to do the housework and play with the children

2) Being able to walk to work and use the stairs instead of the elevator

3) Having enough energy to walk the dog without getting out of breath .

All of these are very accurate definitions of fitness and describe what fitness means to each individual. What would your definition of fitness be?

Having discussed the merits of being fit, I then asked the women (and some men) to write down the name of someone they could think of who was fit. Their suggestions included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Jordan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and many other similar figures. These are all elite athletes, people who, through very intensive training, have become the best in the world. I then asked them to look again at their original definitions of fitness, and together we went through the list and asked the questions: “Were these athletes fit enough to get through the day without feeling shattered?” “Could they walk the dog without getting out of breath?” The answer to both these questions was clearly ”yes,” but most important, did these athletes actually need to be as fit as they were in order to do these everyday things? The answer was, of course, “no.”

Many people today seem to have the preconceived idea that fitness is something unachievable. When I talk about fitness, I am talking about the following: a body that is healthy enough to be able to withstand disease; a body that can recover quickly from minor illness; a body that allows its owner freedom to complete everyday tasks without the restrictions of breathlessness and discomfort.

The human body is nothing short of a miracle. I have been designing workouts and studying nutrition for more than 15 years, and yet it still astounds me that the body uses so many interrelated and complicated systems in order to function. In addition to this, I have seen people literally change their lives and their health—not to mention their shapes—just by training their bodies and teaching them to improve their efficiency. There is no piece of machinery in the world that has this ability to improve itself by training, but the human body can. The secret is quite simple—challenge your body to work slightly harder than it does already.

How many of us could recite our 13 times table if asked? I certainly couldn’t because I have only been programmed to recite my tables up to 12. Your body has the same limitations—it will function only according to the demands you place on it and no more. If you don’t exercise regularly and don’t challenge your heart and muscles, they will become smaller and weaker because your body thinks they are not needed. All you need to do to reverse this process is to start to place gentle demands on your body’s systems. If you do this regularly, your body will get stronger and improve itself in order to adapt to the new demands. The heart will get stronger and pump more blood, and the muscle fibers will get stronger to give you more strength. In fact, muscle fibers can even get longer to allow you more flexibility.

The good news is that you don’t have to work very hard for these miraculous changes to occur. You will, in fact, reap the most benefit in the first few weeks of training. Someone who has never exercised can improve fitness levels by a staggering 25 to 35 percent in the first few weeks. You will start to feel fitter because you will be teaching your body to use more of the oxygen you are breathing to help provide you with energy.