There are three key factors of fitness
- aerobic fitness
- strength
- flexibility.
A good fitness program is the foundation of good health. In fact, to put it another way, there’s not a shadow of a doubt that if you’re not keeping yourself aerobically fit, strong and flexible your health is on the slide.
It’s not hard to recognise the signs that you’re suffering from a declining level of fitness: – you’re over-weight, your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels are elevated, you feel tired all the time, you get frequent headaches and you’ve got an aching back. Where I come from, when you experience the symptoms that attend a lack of fitness they say you’re suffering from Scheissenhausen’s Disease!
If you’re like most people, when you feel a metabolic, musculo-skeletal or psychological ‘twinge’ you’ll hot foot it to a medical practitioner, chemist or a manipulative therapist, expecting them to help you restore poor function to good.
Chances are though that you’re suffering from a fitness problem and a fitness problem needs a fitness solution.
Going to the doctor is more likely to lead to the prescription of a drug to mask a symptom(s) than the fitness prescription that is likely to restore poor health to good.
There is a high likelihood that you’ll end up being the victim of ‘preventive health’, which is medical speak for what happens when the drug you swallow takes the place of a fitness program.
Apart from masking the symptom, all the pill does is prevent you from becoming healthier – your underlying condition – a lack of fitness – is getting worse – hence the term ‘preventive health’.
Of course, you don’t ‘prevent health’, you create it yourself by becoming fitter (and eating wisely …)
Good health depends on action, yours. It’s not something you can sub-contract out to someone else.
If you’re suffering from poor metabolic health you need an aerobic fitness training program.
Good metabolic health doesn’t come out of a bottle.
If you’re suffering from poor musculo-skeletal health you need a strength and flexibility training program.
Good musculo-skeletal health doesn’t come lying face down on a massage table.
If you’re feeling miserable, a good aerobic fitness program in which you get more oxygen into your body and stimulate the release of endorphins from your brain might be all you need to elevate your mood. Certainly the research shows that over a twelve month period, a daily dose of aerobic activity trumps a daily dose of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
If you want to know what a good all round, general fitness program looks like, click here to read more about the Complete Fitness Workout.
