What is fit?

[MusclesMarinara]

I curious to what is the prevailing view point of what a fit person is capable of. ( at least here in the strength and conditioning forum)

judge by your own standards and goals.

one of the challenges I typically put myself through to measure my fitness is a 300 push up challenge. I bang 'em out for time. My best is 18:35.

 

[modena1983]

Being able to roll around with a 100lb heavy bag.

 

[bacon]

Main Entry: fit
Function: adjective
Inflected Form(s): fit

 

[Tosa]

Being able to roll around with a 100lb heavy bag.

Lulz.

But seriously, we can talk about various measures of fitness, like strength on particular lift, Vo2max, muscular endurance, or certain things a fit person should be able to do like run, swim or squat. But I don't see how someone can possibly put exact numbers on things, at least without significant statistical evidence. For example, the squat (any variation) is a good measure of muscular strength, which is a component of fitness. But who could possibly say how much a person needs to lift to be considered "fit"? Same goes with any other measure. Additionally, most, if not all measures wouldn't be objective. For example, if you used a timed run as a measure of fitness, it would give a distinct advantage to those who run for conditioning, vs. those who do something else.

To measure "fitness" you'd first have to measure it's components, and it's hard enough to get people to agree on how to measure those. We can talk about what's necessary to avoid increased risk of health problems, but I don't think that's what most people would consider "fitness".

 

[callador]

I curious to what is the prevailing view point of what a fit person is capable of. ( at least here in the strength and conditioning forum)

judge by your own standards and goals.

one of the challenges I typically put myself through to measure my fitness is a 300 push up challenge. I bang 'em out for time. My best is 18:35.

No way I could do that! Nice work.

 

[Searcher]

To have a low resting heart rate in order to be able to push some things without sweating much or running out of breath. Muscular endurance to me comes from absolute strength. Anything other than that is just specific goal training. Like your push-up challenge.

I think what you want Muscles, is crossfit. Those guys mix it up a lot, don't really have a goal in mind, lift a bit, and just want to do tough shit.

 

[turbozed]

As bacon's post suggests, the term 'fitness' as used in terms of health and exercise is often misused. You are fit for a purpose. You are not *just* fit. This is a usage of the term that has always bothered me and I think most people on this forum implicitly sense the inherent flaw in the concept.

 

[MusclesMarinara]

To have a low resting heart rate in order to be able to push some things without sweating much or running out of breath. Muscular endurance to me comes from absolute strength. Anything other than that is just specific goal training. Like your push-up challenge.

I think what you want Muscles, is crossfit. Those guys mix it up a lot, don't really have a goal in mind, lift a bit, and just want to do tough shit.

I've done quite a few Crossfit workouts and really enjoyed that 'style'. It's somewhat responsible for me pursuing a more total fitness approach to my workout program.

I would feel remiss if I didn't have some form of running, heavy resistance training and functional movement in my program.

I known there are a lot of barbell and dumbbell guys here so I was wondering what they use to judge a level of fitness.

 

[MusclesMarinara]

Posting in this forum is like arguing with Socrates and moron.
Your question will get answered with another question and the morons are self explanatory.

What, nobody here has there personal challenges?

Is it all simply about max lift?

 

[bacon]

Posting in this forum is like arguing with Socrates and moron.
Your question will get answered with another question and the morons are self explanatory.

What, nobody here has there personal challenges?

Is it all simply about max lift?

Before this was S&C, it was S&P. As in Strength and Power. Conditioning used to be a totally seperate forum. The transition to an all encompasing forum is a slow one. Especially since the conditioning guys are always out running or whatever.

And to be honest, most of your threads have been done to death.

 

[MusclesMarinara]

Before this was S&C, it was S&P. As in Strength and Power. Conditioning used to be a totally seperate forum. The transition to an all encompasing forum is a slow one. Especially since the conditioning guys are always out running or whatever.

And to be honest, most of your threads have been done to death.

Most???? this is my second thread. You must have meant both.

I'd imagine every subject has been done to death. Exercising the human body is only so complicated. On a surface level you could break it down to three things; strength, endurance, and flexibility. That reminds me, I should start a thread on Yoga. I'm sure most Strength and Power guys will know it only a milk-based Turkish food.

 

[Dafreeclinic]

Posting in this forum is like arguing with Socrates and moron.
Your question will get answered with another question and the morons are self explanatory.

What, nobody here has there personal challenges?

Is it all simply about max lift?

Dont come in here ask a stupid question then get butt hurt and get mad at us. Fitness is an evolutionary term defining an individuals capabilities to pass on genes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_(biology)

Its now a sales gimmick for physical fitness.

 

[bacon]

Most???? this is my second thread. You must have meant both.

I'd imagine every subject has been done to death. Exercising the human body is only so complicated. On a surface level you could break it down to three things; strength, endurance, and flexibility. That reminds me, I should start a thread on Yoga. I'm sure most Strength and Power guys will know it only a milk-based Turkish food.

And you're kind of a douche bag too, so that's not helping your case.

 

[MusclesMarinara]

Pilates.

 

[modena1983]

Posting in this forum is like arguing with Socrates and moron.
Your question will get answered with another question and the morons are self explanatory.

What, nobody here has there personal challenges?

Is it all simply about max lift?

Bench 315
squat 495
dead 585
press my bw overhead
clean and jerk 315

these are all goals I have at some point.

 

[ssdd]

Fitness is super subjective. I never played any sports other than baseball as a kid but when I hit highschool I was outlasting seniors on the first day of track practice. But I remember there was also a dude who never lifted or worked out that sat down and banged out 225 on the incline bench like 15 times. Who was more fit? My self, able to run all day long, or this dude who will probably always be able to best me in tests of strength and strength endurance? My personal challenge used to be how fast I could run a 2 mile boardwalk in town. Now its how consistently can I wake up early and hit the gym, in addition to work, school, BJJ, and MT; am I stronger on the mat, is my technique getting better, is it taking longer to get GAsed out hitting the bag and sparring? Am I better than the week before? It doesn't apply to anybody else. If you're looking for tests, look at the conditioning challenges that have been posted in here- 50 burpee time, 100 burpee time, burpee run time, max back squats in a given time, etc... or just buy a book by Ross Enamait and go to town with those workouts

 

[TrainingAdict]

Your thread creating privileges need to be revoked.

BTW MM, are you related to OJisinnocent by any chance?

 

[SocraticMethod]

/thread

 

[modena1983]

/thread

Best answer yet.

 

[PowerHungry]

I think the average person who doesn't compete in sports and has a job they aren't satisfied with and somewhat envies athletes of various stripes and military men and warriors/athletes of yore just wants to think of himself as a badass. That's his definition of fit.

The problem is that he moves so randomly from goal to goal that he never really accomplishes any and just keeps chasing ghosts. He wants to bench 275, then he wants to be able to do 20 pulls up, then he wants to be able to run a 5 minute mile, then he wants to be able to look like Gerard Butler from 300, then he wants to be able to damn near kill people like Lesnar and Carwin, then he wants to be like Bruce Wayne bacause he's seen Batman Begins or read a few comics, then he wants to be like a Navy Seal because he saw some documentary about how difficult their training is, then he wants to deadlift like Bolton or KK because he saw a video on youtube, then he wants to be able to do one armed pullups or one finger pushups like Bruce Lee, then he wants to street fight like Kimbo Slice because he saw a video, then he wants to be able to rush the passer like Demarcus Ware because he saw a game, etc. etc. etc.

Here's a quote from Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash that I think parallels a lot of males' mentality when it comes to their potential and ill-defined and unreachable goals.

Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad. Hiro used to feel this way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this was liberating. He no longer has to worry about being the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken.

The problem is that most people just aren't satisfied setting modest goals like get stronger each week or each month and sticking to them one at a time. They have to aim for some sort of super soldier/renaissance man that is great at EVERYTHING status because they have some residual hope that one day they'll get a call from The President asking them to save the world from killer alien ninja robot zombie pirates or some shit.

Edit: I also had somewhat of a minor revelation about Crossfit and things of its ilk. It is geared toward this nebulous jack of all trades fitness as well. But it would seem to take pride in being able to be better than people at something which isn't their sport. For instance, a Xfitter couldn't beat a weightlifter at OL but he could beat him at running 3 miles. He couldn't beat a powerlifter at squatting, but he could beat him at a burpee run. He couldn't beat a sprinter in the 100 m, but he could beat him in a BB complex. It just seems sort of absurd to take pride in beating people... at things they don't train for and not being able to beat people at anything they train for.