After reading Max's blog on the TTT website, my personal view of fitness for my self has taken a significant turn. Understanding the 5 rules of fitness based on his interpretation of the phrase, is eye-opening enough to the point of sitting back and meditating on it for a good while. He also brings up several points within fitness that I have found myself questioning as well, so I feel as though I can appreciate these viewpoints even more.
With that said, here's my expression on fitness, as an athlete, to/for me and my body...
1)
Fighting to become injury free and avoid career-ending/life-altering injuries.
- My family is littered with joint and spinal issues, on my paternal and maternal sides. As I age, I would like to be the older dad/grandpa that can still go on hikes, etc. with my kids and still be able to play touch-football or ultimate frisbee with my grandkid(s) without having anything limiting my movements, other than the possibility of general, overall soreness.
2)
Maintaining some general, aerobic capacity and greatly improving strength and power.
- My genetics involve a lot of "farmer" strength and prides itself in being able to perform functional, bodyweight movements (muscle-ups as big people is one primary example). In essence, you could compare my genetics to a fat Thomas Clavier...we hone the ability to run the walls, and not really give a shit. In short, I believe that my body develops really well, in regards to performance and body composition improvement, when absolute strength and power takes priority. As an athlete, I believe that I am best when I'm the strong guy who can rock out a handful of complex bodyweight movements.
3)
Mobility and movement quality is key.
- Going along with the injury aspect, my family generally stays not-so-mobile. With that said, I have always been "naturally" flexible and have not had to work towards generating the necessary mobility to complete a complex movement (i.e. squat clean and snatch, basic squat, muscle-up, etc.). However, my mobility crutch has always been dorsiflexion, so pistols are not a strong suit, still.
4)
Being fit enough to perform all movements required to demonstrate when coaching.
- Being a good coach also means that I need to be fit enough to be able to get my members/athletes to believe that the quality of programming they're receiving is legitimate, either based upon my performance history or my physical one...that's one thing that no one, other than a couple people, in my family has really ever been able to fulfill. I don't necessarily mean 'look like or perform like the pros', but at least 'look the part'.
5)
Getting my nutrient uptake in check.
- This has been a very big struggle for me and, if it continues the way it is, I could find myself in a world of trouble with diabetes or obesity (based on my family history on both sides). I have been through many bodily changes and the common denominator is often food and the quality of food. Food lays the molecular foundation of body composition and performance. Right now, I would consider myself to be a poor example of appropriate nutrition, even though I have a decent (but far from perfect) understanding of food.
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