Fitness, Health and Achieving Your Potential Introducing the New Fitness Pyramid ™

The American Heritage Dictionary gives as its first two definitions of the word fitness:

1.       The state or condition of being fit, suitability or appropriateness.

2.       Good health or physical condition, especially as the result of exercise and proper nutrition.

From this definition we might be justified in thinking that fitness and health are synonymous or at least closely linked.  However, in popular culture fitness is often associated with cosmetics (six pack abs) or even high athletic performances, at the expense of health.

A new disease was identified and a new term coined by an orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Nicholas DiNubile, the term “Boomeritis”. It refers to the explosion of “itises” of all kinds among the Baby Boomer generation.  This is the first generation to be this physically active in mass and pushing their aging frames to the limit.  According to 2006 statistics from US Department of Health and Human Services Center for Disease prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics, musculoskeletal symptoms were the number 2 reason for physician visits.  Some sources say they are the number one reason.

·         Musculoskeletal symptoms cost the US $850 billion dollars.  (American Academy Orthopedic Surgeons, 2008)

·         Back or knee injuries are the most prevalent

·         The cause of 132 million physician visits

·         Result in 440 million missed work days from musculoskeletal injuries.

According to Dr. Timothy E. Kremcheck, MD and a spokesman for the AAOS, Baby Boomers have two problems when it comes to exercise...

1.       They are sedentary  

2.       They forget their age

In other words this generation wants do at 45 what they did at 25 or at 65 what they did at 45.

 But lest we confine the discussion of fitness in American culture to Baby Boomers let us not forget individuals in all walks of life and athletes of all ages who fail to realize their potential due to injuries.  Their stories are epitomized by the tremendously talented Ernie Zamperini, a young Olympic athlete before WWII who aspired to compete in the 1948 Olympics.  His training was going well despite an ankle injury suffered during the war, yet when the ankle began to hurt he elected to push through the pain exacerbating the injury to the point of making his Olympic bid impossible.

It seems that there is a widespread belief in the old saying “no pain, no gain” an adage which apparently comes from a proverb of the 1500’s and that appeared in John Ray’s proverb collection of 1670 as “without pains, no gains” (American Heritage Dictionary) It may be time to lay this antiquated proverb aside.  Since the greatest capacity of mankind is to learn, perhaps we should embrace, “No brain, no gain”

I would like to propose a New Fitness Pyramid.™  It is new not because the individual ideas are new but because culturally we need a new concept of fitness.  I hope to be able to comment on the details later.

Scott Forrester, LPTA, CPT and Feldenkrais Student. awareathletes@gmail.com