What is Fitness?
Beside the obviously rigorous definition offered by Coach and Crossfit fitness can definitely be classified as a subjective variable especially when used conversationally. If asked if you are fit many will defer to the negative while conjuring images of Commando Steve, Speal or even the person who last beat you by more than 20secs on a workout. So conversationally fitness is relative to the yardstick that you hold the person whose fitness is under discussion.
This discussion comes about because my perceived fitness failed to hit the mark tonight.
An E-pen friend Cheng from SouthernXfit did filthy fifty in 26:05 and said (without having ever worked out with me) "you probably have me on this one".
I replied that my current PB was 28:10 but that I would give it a hit out tonight - now I believed the hype that Cheng had slung my way so I was ready for a 2:30 PB to show him he was right - Unfortunately that didn't eventuate I got a 28:50.
So I am pretty happy with tonights hit out but I am bit disappointed I couldn't live up to the hype.
Are you fit?
7 comments:
your perceived fitness only in a certain combination of the 10 physical skills is lower than you thought. If you had of challenged me to that comp i would have thought "yes, i'll smash him because my respiratory endurance, stamina, speed, and combination of others are better than yours in this sequence of exercises".
challenge me to an o-lift or heavy strength wod and im thinking im in trouble as my strength, co-ord, power isnt as good.
strength i would say is the first yardstick that the common person uses as its easy to sit in the gym for years and go 'im stronger than you' (therefore fitter), or endurance, with long distance runners being perceived as the fittest peaple.
cheng may(?) be more strength, etc. orientated and so immediatley assumed his score in a met-con was going to be lower than an unknown crossfitter.
Nope, I'm not fit. I am however, fitter than I use to be and can perform more skills than I ever could.
People always say to me I'm a 'fitness freak', as I sure you guys also get. I look at it the other way though. I don't think I'm anything exceptional, in fact, far from it, and the people calling me this 'fitness freak' usually lack the drive and motivation to get off their ass in the first place.
I feel anyone could have my level of fitness. I do a bit of regular training and I'm not that careful with what I eat.
Perception and relativity are big governing factors, since BW, skills focused on and overall conditioning will all influence your perception of your own fitness level, when comparing to someone else doing the same workout.
To compare to Commando Steve, Speal, Kalipa etc i wouldn't consider myself 'fit' when in their company, but alternately comparing myself to either Joe average or even people at work, i'm going to say I am Fit, simply based of my known work capacity.
Your goal of doing a PB by 2:30 may have been a catalyst to not actually doing the PB since your mindset may have been wrong. I did a few PB's whilst i was away, but i never had set myself a nmber i wanted to hit, i just started the timer and went all out till i finished, and sometimes i got a plesant surprise...
So the only way to measure fitness that is able to be compared without varibles that maybe implied to have changed the outcome, the workout would need to be made relitive to possibly BW, and abilities to make it a fair comparision so everything is the same.
I think Scotty has nailed it without nailing it :)
The DS answer or PC answer is that as long as you are fitter than the you that was there a month ago you are doing ok.
I have issues with the relative to BW thing I much prefer relative to 1 RM or previous performance as I have harped on before.
Yup, as long as you keep improving and your not going backwards, then your on the right track I reckon.
Some people I train with down here only train at what they are good at. They check the WOD before the session and if it's something they aren't good at, they don't show. In the same breath, these guys can out chin me, out lift me, out run me etc etc. However, I don't want to become one of these people. I've finished WOD's first a couple of times down here and come last a couple of times too. At the moment I'm taking a lot of Brett is posting and trying to apply it. It's hard to put your ego aside and suffer at something your not so good at and come last in WOD, or for going a PB in favour of trying to fix a minor fault with your deadlift, or clean, or whatever the task may be. I also think he is on the money with scaling using 1RM
You know none of this shit is my idea
scotty I am just the lucky F#cker who has hours of internet time at work :)
But thanks for the props.
I love attacking WODs I know I can own someone on (see next post) because I am way too ego driven but I am lucky enough to feel guilty about the chinks in my armour that I still work them too.
so with a WOD like DT, it's more relivite to 1 RM or previous performance's at the rx'd weight opposed to BW to rx'd weight ratio/%??? This has me very intreaged?
I've become at ease with finishing last in WOD's, though i have occasionally finished 1st, it doesn't change if i like the WOD or not, most times it fits into the latter, but it's all about becoming fitter/faster/stronger of broad time and mordal domains - straight from Coach G and his speach's....
My Ego normally gets me when it comes to a WOD with a heavy weight, ego kicks in and load the bar to rx'd and sometimes that turns out to be a really bad idea, normally about 1/2 way thru the WOD this becomes very apparent.
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