Use this concept of physical fitness to stay...

...motivated and reach your goals, and beyond. The concept of physical fitness you use is important. Learn how the best of the best in any field reach their goals.

After getting stuck on how to define what the concept of fitness is I realized that it’s always relative, fitness isn’t when you are able to run or dance for a long time, when a dumbbell becomes light, or you can do full splits. Fitness is being able to do something BETTER, lift a heavier dumbell, run, dance, play , spar longER, kick higher or crouch lower.

Instead of comparing yourself to what others can do because there’s power lifters who can lift more than you will ever be able to, contortionists who are more flexible than you EVER be, and world class marathoners whose endurance will ALWAYS be better than yours, get over it:-)-

On the other end the average fitness level of the “average” person is not a good goal either because it’s probably well below your potential, and theirs too.

Here’s a thought, compare yourself to yourself!! Unless you’re a professional athlete or elite personal trainer you can IMPROVE your fitness, even then you can. Instead of looking to be slightly better than not dead, or a world class athlete think of fitness as IMPROVING your strength, endurance and flexibility.

Think of physical fitness as YOU improving any of the three basic components of YOUR fitness.

      1) Strength- is how strong you are…obviously, think of it as how much you can lift, pull, push or carry for a short time at maximum or near maximum effort.

The fastest way to improve your strength is to train at maximum effort. Check out the Muscle page for strength training tips.

      2) Endurance- how long you can do a physical activity known as “aerobic" or "cardiovascular" fitness.

How well your heart, lungs and organs transport and use oxygen to produce work is the measure of cardiovascular fitness. The better your cardiovascular fitness, the longer you can do an activity.

The best way to build cardiovascular fitness is using intensity intervals. Go to the metabolism page (coming soon) to learn more about fast, effective cardio and fat loss training.

      3) Flexibility- how far you can stretch your muscles and joints without injury. The more flexible you are the further you can stride, the higher you can kick and the lower you can limbo;-)

Go to the Flexible page (coming soon) to find resources on how to improve your flexibility.

Make your concept of physical fitness “ I improve my fitness compared to MYSELF” and you’ll have the ideal lifelong definition for physical fitness;-)