Health Versus Fitness - How the Pursuit of One Could be Taking Us Further Away From the Other
Health Versus Fitness
how the pursuit of one could be taking us away from the other
Years ago when I started training, I had a goal to add muscle. This goal came about as a guess and analysis of myself.
At the time I was suffering from depression; part of this I believed came from the the feeling I got when I walked into a room full of people. I felt like nobody noticed me. So my guess (it makes sense in a round about way) was if I physically got bigger, people would notice me.
And so I started lifting weights and eating anything I could to add weight. It worked. In two years I went from 63 kilograms to 83 kilograms.
Looking back and comparing to my life currently, this was achievable because I was single and depressed. I was motivated and focused because of the low I was feeling, and I had time and money to burn.
Fast forward to now as I write this, more than 13 years after I started training. I have a beautiful partner, I have my own business and I'm facing an autoimmune issue which is limiting not only the food I can eat, but the exercises I can do at the gym. As you can imagine, these are two very differing situations, with very different goals.
This is a classic example of pursuing fitness (when I was young) versus pursuing health now. Neither are right or wrong, but they can get confused, and understanding what you want is important.
In an industry where before and after's are the go to method of marketing (even though this only shows the people who are successful, and never the people who aren't), it's easy to get caught up in the "fitness" side of fitness. This is the body fat percentages, the 5km run times and the response to "how much do you bench?". And these measures might actually be what you want, but there's another side of this industry that can help you live a healthier life through better habits and overall balance in life.
So I wanted to take a look at both so you can decide what your goal actually is, and train, eat and live accordingly.
What is Fitness?
Fitness generally is considered to be some measure of physical performance, but in this case I wanted to include the aesthetic side of things as well.
It's important to note that fitness, in the classical understanding, is context dependent. So when we talk about someone being fit or conditioned, that fitness is based on the particular sport or environment in which they spend most of their time. Of course, if someone is fit in a particular sport, some of this will carry over to another sport, but they would likely still become pretty fatigued and feel somewhat out of their depth in the second sport. In fact, this idea of being fit, is more likely to be classed as "conditioned", which takes in the context or environment in which that relates to.
So having a big bench press may have a solid amount of carry over for someone playing a contact sport, but they still might not be fit or conditioned for the sport. They may also not be classed as "fit" just by someone looking at them.
This is part of the DNA of Crossfit, which aims to find the fittest people on earth, by testing them a cross a broad range of context, from longer endurance events like running, rowing or mountain biking, to pure strength and power events like the clean and press. So the winners of the Crossfit Games for example, are the people who perform the most consistently across that broad range, classing them as the fittest. And yet, if many of these competitors were put into a completely different sport, there is a good chance we would not see them even close to the results. In this example, people at the high levels of Crossfit are fit for that sport, fit relative to someone who doesn't do Crossfit, but probably not fit for the sport of cross country skiing, until of course, they practiced for that sport and those conditions, and became fit.
As mentioned, for this article I also want to include in this section the purely aesthetic side of fitness. We see people who perform in sports being lean and muscular (again, a great example of this is high level Crossfit competitors), and yet they wouldn't compete in a fitness model competition. In this type of competition the aim is to look fit, without necessarily being classed as a high performer across a broad range of fitness performance tests like Crossfit. This does not take away from their effort or the sacrifices they have to make, but it's important to note that looking fit and actually being fit (at least in one particular sport), are two very different things.
In terms of physical performance, these are two of the mostly commonly aimed for goals when people start training, along with the combination of both; looking physically fit while performing at a high level.
What is Health?
When we think of healthy, we think mainly of the opposite of being sick; that is, not having a disease or a medical condition. The World Health Organisation makes a broader definition if health ‘as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’. I actually believe that health, in today's society, is an even broader term, encapsulating not only the physical body, but the mind, spirit, and the environment you live or spend most of your time in.
In this way, catching up with friends for a casual drink, spending time in nature, doing things which are in alignment with a meaningful purpose and rest, recovery and reflection, are all part, I believe, of a healthy life. This is much more than physical health that we often think. It also touches on things that can't be easily tested unlike our physical fitness which has a huge range of tests we could do to show baseline and progress.
For this reason, someone who is not 10% bodyfat with a six pack and a triple plate squat, could very much be healthier than someone who does have those things, but is out of alignment and possibly doing more harm to their body than good.
As mentioned, a further aspect to this is our mental health. I was a prime example of someone who ate healthy foods, looked fit and healthy, and yet had poor mental health. Taking a snapshot of me at the time would show I "was down", yet poor mental health can take more than just your physical health, it can take your life.
What has happened, at least from my perspective, is we've developed a strong desire, through great marketing (and being marketed to very easily), to look physically fit in a classic "cover model" way and/or look successful (which also appears healthy if we don't analyse it deeply), and along the way introduced more health problems. For example, how healthy is someone who spends most of their free time at the gym, uses (injects, either legally or illegally) substances to look a certain way and can't enjoy spending time eating good food with friends?* How healthy is someone who obsesses about uploading videos of them trying to get fit and healthy, and then obsesses over who likes it? How healthy is someone who is constantly on their phone, wasting their precious time and not truly connecting with others, or at the very least, resting and reflecting on their life and how to grow as a person?
My belief is that we need to look at health more broadly, but even if we look at it purely physically, we can see some clear differences between fitness and health which can change how we approach things.
Why Not Both?
As mentioned before, the two are not separate from each other however. You can easily imagine someone who is obese, changing their lifestyle to become healthier and living longer, becoming lean, adding muscle, strength and performing impressive at physical fitness tests. The aim may have been to reclaim their health, but along the way they've improved their fitness greatly. Equally, someone who is after fitness can learn and implement the habits which actually help them live a healthy life while they aim to reach their fitness goals.
Here at PEAK, the fitness side of things is a measure of the physical changes we make. This is not the only thing measured, it's rarely even the main thing focused on, but it is one way to measure progress in our lives.
Indeed, I believe that strength and overall fitness are a part of your health; the idea that because you eat your vegetables, have good blood work levels and walk every other day is what makes you healthy is limiting (similar to how Crossfit aims for a broad level of fitness). Indeed, while training with context in mind is important, that is, training for our day to day lives, it's also important to train for a worst case scenario which might require more of ourselves. Add to this the effect training for strength can have on our overall mindset and way of life, and it becomes an important part of our lives, and even the key component to unlocking potential.
Indeed, looking fit, being fit and being healthy in all aspects of our lives is possible, but of course, not easy.
What Is Your Goal?
It's easy to get caught up in the standard fitness industry story about looking a certain way. This isn't a bad story, it's just an incomplete one. Ultimately it's up to you to determine what goal you want. As mentioned earlier, it's not a better or worse situation, it's simply what you want, based on your current life and values.
If your goal is to add muscle, burn fat and look amazing as you spend your summer on the beach or overseas living it up, then focus on that, understanding that to achieve your goal, you may need to do things which aren't healthy, especially in the long term.
If your goal is to have more energy, feel more proud and confident, and live your life at a healthy weight range, then focus on that, understanding that to achieve that goal, you may have to give up the idea of looking cover model ready (although it may get you close).
*I understand that some people are getting ready for competition and prepare for weeks before so they need to be strict, but many of those people relax afterwards as well
If you'd like help with your health, fitness or mindset, book in for an Intake Interview to find out more about how PEAK Strength & Nutrition can help you.
HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL RECEIVE WHEN YOU JOIN PEAK
Access to the Fundamentals Program: Not just one session covering all you need to learn, but up to 8 sessions of programming to take you from beginner to knowledgable or to improve you current training methods.
Vision Casting Session: Beyond your normal goal setting session, this will be cover your goals AND provide you the blueprint and habits required to achieve your goals across multiple areas of life.
Free Custom Nutrition Plan: A nutrition plan not only based on your goals, but also on your current schedule and capacity, the nutrition will be designed for you.
Unlimited Access to Coaches: Access to coaches for help with training, nutrition or mindset
Access to In Depth Mobility Library: learn how to take care of your own body with a 50+ video exercise archive that will help you feel great from head to toe!
Free goodies such as shirts, books, sweat towels: look and feel the part not only with your training and nutrition, but with your accessories too!
And much more…
Simply fill out the form on the right and I’ll be in contact with you within 24 hours to discuss the best time for the interview. I’ll be happy to answer any questions you have before the interview as well.
