Are You Fit Enough? 

‘Fitness’ is an elusive quality.  In the context of sport it is often specific to a particular event.  For instance, a marathon runner is ‘fit’ to run a marathon, but would fail miserably in the Olympic sport of weightlifting.  This inability to successfully cross-train in an event not one’s own does not simply reflect a skill deficit; rather it often shows a lack of preparedness in addressing all of the energy pathways that govern functional movement.  This is a subject we will return to again in greater detail.  For today, I simply want to address the topic of being fit for life.  What does this mean?

At some level it has to do with how well the various systems of the body function i.e. musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, hormonal, excretory etc…  If you can eat well, digest well and move and breathe well then odds are that you’re going to be fit.  On a social level being fit might mean being good with people, or good at your job.  Beyond this, what we might call being fit can have huge variance depending on the context.

For those of you out there who routinely check out (and importantly attempt) the Workout of the Day, I want to give you some landmarks of fitness that you can aspire to and hopefully surpass.  Like all landmarks, they’re fairly meaningless if your focus is pointed in the opposite direction, and totally redundant once you’ve exceeded them.  So for this, our definition of fitness is very narrow.  It falls mainly on the musculoskeletal end of the spectrum with a bit of cardiovascular/respiratory work sprinkled on top.  It’s going to address some of the main biomechanical movements in life; primarily a push, a press, a pull and a squat.  At some level every movement in life can be broken down into some version of these constituent parts (I know, I’m simplifying, but that’s not a bad thing).

So here’s what you should be aiming for, and that includes the women out there.  Read them and weep:
Pushups: 50-100 (done as quickly as possible without rest)
Presses: one-third to half your body weight (per arm)
Pullups: 10-20 (that’s all in one go!)
Squats: 100-250 (again, as quickly as possible)

If you’re involved in any type of sport, martial art, or general physical pursuit, these are good goals to aim for.  Getting there is half the fun.  And once you’re there… well, as they say, “There’s always a higher mountain”.  Now at least you have the puff to climb it!