What does it mean to be fit? Is it a hard body? Ripped abs? Popeye biceps?
Fitness is not about how you look; it's about what you can do. What you do can change how you look but evaluating fitness by appearance is like assuming a car is fast because it's red, sleek, and has cool tires.
What you can do - how well you move, how long you can sustain
movement, how fast, how much you can lift, push, pull, carry - is a
function of your physical capacity (and this includes your joint
strength and endurance) but that's not all of it.
My definition of fitness then is, "being suitably adapted for a task, situation, or environment." If fitness is about what you can do and what you do is an extension of what you think and feel, then fitness has at least three dimensions - physical, mental, emotional - all of which must be "suitably adapted for a task or environment".
Have you ever found your self unable to recall a name or place or person even though it's someone or something you actually know? Sometimes that's just a goof; sometimes it means your mental fitness has slipped a bit.
Or, what about having to confront someone about something that you really don't want to talk about but you know you should? That's your emotional fitness at work.
Your fitness strategy should include mental and emotional "training" as much physical and maybe even more.
Are you training your head and your heart along with your body?
DK
