Overall Health – A Function of Fitness

No matter what your goals with your fitness, whether it is to compete in a sport at an international level, or simply just to lose some weight and feel better, the ultimate aim of becoming “fit” is to improve your health.

For example, a person training to compete in the 100m sprint at the Olympics needs to be very “fit” and be in good health to ensure they can perform. They are improving their overall health in order to improve their overall fitness (optimal weight, improving their cardiovascular capacity to complete tasks, improving their strength, improving their ability to fight of viruses, etc.).

A person who just wants to lose some weight, feel a bit better and improve their fitness are also doing essentially the same thing as the elite athlete – striving to improve their health (i.e. maintain a healthy weight, improve their cardiovascular capacity to complete tasks, improve their strength, improve their ability to fight of viruses, etc.). There have been many studies conducted over the years concluding that, in general, the more “fit” you are the more healthy you (a good summary article can be found here from the Scientific American journal: “Does Exercise Really Make You Healthier?”).

Consider the following model, showing that your health is directly related to your level of “fitness”.

Basically, this model shows that if every measureable factor of health can be placed on this continuum (i.e. blood pressure, body fat, bone density, triglycerides, cholesterol, flexibility, muscle mass, insulin levels, resting heart rate, diet, etc.), the more “fit” you are the healthier you are. Conversely the less “fit” you are, the less “well” you are, and the more likely you will become “sick”.

Further to this, in general if you improve your fitness, moving further away from the “sickness” side of the continuum through “wellness” towards “fitness”, your degree of health will also improve.

A fitness regime should support health, and done right, fitness provides a great margin of protection against the ravages of time and disease (Greg Glassman). CrossFit is very good at this as it provides a very broad and well-rounded fitness, targeting improvements in both physical as well as mental health.

I have seen this in myself. Before starting CrossFit I had lost a lot of weight (about 30kg, mostly the wrong way, basically through starvation), and through this I had developed a few conditions including stomach cramps, stomach ulcers and a borderline eating disorder, requiring occasional medication to treat these. CrossFit gave me back my confidence in myself, and as my fitness increased I felt stronger and healthier than at any other time in my life. Now, 5 years down the track, I very rarely even get a cold (touch wood)! While I can’t put this solely down to CrossFit (i.e. there are other factors such as diet, sleep, lifestyle, etc.), I know I have a much better level of health than I once did, or would have now, without CrossFit!

- Adam