What is fitness?

So, let's talk fitness. Most of my posts seems to start with some sort of caveat and this will be no different as fitness is a somewhat nebulous concept.

(yup, random pictures are back to hold your attention)

So here I'm just looking at the outputs, the final expression of being fit. Which for now means physical activity. Different people will have different priorities: strength, speed, agility, stamina... For a long time after I started making the effort, I considered myself relatively fit. I could hike all day, every day for a week over mountainous terrain. I could run endless sprints in an Ultimate tournament for 5-6 hours and come back the next day and do it again. I'd even been able to throw in respectable numbers of pushups - at least I kept them strict! But as far as basic measures of physical accomplishment go I had always struggled with the fact I couldn't even begin to do a pull-up. Strength gains can seem an open-ended goal, but while I prefer to focus on 'functional' activities there are undeniably some basic minimum levels I think a fit person should be able to achieve.

I think fit people should be able to get about. To support their own weight, pull themselves up, be able to lift and carry a 'reasonable' weight, to be able to get up and down from the ground or a chair, to sprint short distances, to run 10k and all of this on the spur of the moment without special preparation or warming up, and achievable into old age. Some of these are hard to achieve with a typical lifestyle, sat at a desk all day, driving from place to place etc. While this concept of fitness stems from our animal selves the reality is that we have to try and marry that innate heritage with all the other aspects of our life that seem to demand time and energy.

There are lots of ways to approach training with different levels of efficiency and efficacy to get in a physically fit state, and there are elements of technique or skill that need to be learned to be able to safely move around without injury - in truth these are aspects that should become so deeply ingrained that you don't have to think about it. But the hidden depths here go to maintaining a strong, healthy environment where you don't suffer in your efforts from exhaustion, hunger, injury, stress or weakness. Being fit isn't about breaking records. It's not what you can achieve on your best day, it's who you are on your worst.