The Dogmatic & Narrow Minded World of Fitness

[Guest guest]

A person i know who considers himself a scientist is telling people

they are unfit if they cannot:

A. Run a mile in 6 min. for males

B. Row 2000 meters in a certain amount of time.

For the rowing he takes your body weight runs it through the

calculation to determine your met level, and then of course compares

that with the standardized guidelines put out by concept 2. The people

who put out the Concept 2 rowing ergometer. He states that because i

weigh 240 and have a 2000 meter time of 7:19, that i am unfit. He

states that I should be able to row 2000 in 6:38. He states that

everyone should be able to perform at 60% of an elite athlete. Now

granted, I was a Weightlifter all of my life except for high school

sports and Recreational sports, but can you say i am unfit just

because i don't meet these standardized calculations?

Can a marathon runner carry 100lbs up five flights of stairs or squat 500lbs?

Are

they unfit?'If one person is 250 lbs and a strength athlete, and

another athlete is a 175lb marathon runner, can you compare them and

say one is unfit? I would very much appreciate any help you can give

me with this. I know you are very busy but if you could give me any

help on this i would very much appreciate it. If you can only point me

in the right direction i would be grateful.

His test also includes:

1. Sit and Reach

2. Push-ups (52 for men)

3. Dips (11 for men & 9 for women)

4. Pull-ups (11 for men & 9 for women)

5. Sit-up (A) feet not anchored, hands on thighs

( feet not anchored, hands across chest

© feet not anchored, arms behind head, dowel

through the elbows and behind neck. Almost no one achieves the last

sit-up. I believe from a biomechanical standpoint it is almost

impossible. The question remains if it is trainable.

6. Back Extension (held for 3 minutes)

I pass all of the tests except for the last sit-up, 2000 meter row,

and the back extension, yet i have the fastest rowing time and the

highest score on a Medx back strength test.

Although I am not just talking about sports training this topic

applies to both the strength & conditioning field as well as the

" fitness " field. People in both industries are always looking to

define who is fit and who is not. Can you define what makes someone

fit or unfit. On one hand a person with 35 percent body fat and

emphysema that can hardly get out of a chair or walk ten feet with out

being exhausted might be unfit. But can you also take a person that

has no apparent pathological conditions with just a small amount of

body fat and call them unfit.

I ask this because in so many cases, especially in the field of fitness, people

use these standardized guidelines and apply them to everyone. Aren't guidelines

such as the sit and reach test, a one mile run, a push-up or sit-up test, body

fat norms, and etc. without merit and impractical? If they are then should we

even have them. I would think we would have to figure a way to get the general

public and athletes in shape while not using generalities to do so.

You are very well educated and have much experience. What is fitness?

How do you define it? How do you measure it for everyone? Can you

apply one set of guidelines or one test to everyone? Should everyone

be able to perform at 60% of an elite athlete? If a weightlifter can

not run a mile in six minutes or perform a sit and reach test to the

standard numbers are they unfit? If a marathon runner can not squat

his own body weight is he unfit? If someone has a low VO2 are they

automatically a prospect for heart disease? If they are not within

certain numbers of body fat percent are they unhealthy?

If these guidelines do not measure one's fitness, and the results do not

specifically make one prone to disease. How did research come to these

conclusions and how do you measure one's fitness? Due to specificity I

believe an athlete's fitness would be much easier to conclude but what

about the general fitness enthusiast?

I have posed this same question to Dr Siff and others with great

responses. What do you think?

Sincerely,

Darin s