What do you believe fitness to be? Many believe fitness to mean exercising, working out, training, or rehabbing. Others believe it to be an industry inclusive of a wide variety of training modalities and philosophies. Yet the actual definition of fitness describes the term as a state of being physically capable of completing a desired task, successfully reproducing, and actively living quantifiably ‘good health’. With the knowledge of ‘fitness’ by definition it becomes apparent that fitness is “the stitching holding together the many different fabrics of life ” rather than a 1-2 hour-a-day class or program to be completed 2-5 days a week.
I believe true participation in fitness is best actualized by incorporating health boosting practices into your daily lifestyle. The more effectively your fitness practices translate to your lifestyle demands (like a physically demanding job, a stagnant job, children, etc.), the better your physical, mental, and spiritual results will be. More importantly, you are far more likely to sustain lifestyle applicable fitness practices than you are a standalone workout program. Every workout brings with it the demands of varying stress levels (depending on the exercises, workout type, and duration) from which an adequate level of recovery or restoration is necessary. With a focus solely on working out you add to the amount of stress your body must deal with on a daily basis without necessarily adding to your body’s ability to manage and recover at an equal rate.
I have found abundant success in my pursuit of a sustainably healthy lifestyle and fitness status through holistic fitness as defined by 4 Pillars: Preparation - Nutrition - Exercise - Restoration. Each pillar aligns a principle of fitness that together include all things conducive to a healthy fitness status. Let’s discuss how…
PREPARATION: Most things in life can be prepared for and fitness is no different. When you prepare for the coming week ahead of time you can meal prep, map out time daily for meditative breathing breaks, short walking breaks, and leg draining periods to name a few examples. Each of these practices make your fitness routine more effective and sustainable.
NUTRITION: This expands far beyond what you eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Nutrition is inclusive of water consumption, proper supplementation, exposure to natural elements, and hygiene (to name a few). Each practice provides your body with nutrients essential to proper organ function.
EXERCISE: Arguably the most tangible and recognizable health boosting practice. Yet, what often goes unnoticed is just how prevalent exercise is in the average life. When you realize that breathing, talking, standing, walking, sitting, bathing, showering, changing clothes and more are exercise, you start to realize how many opportunities exist in a 24hr day that can be leveraged to improve your health status.
RESTORATION: This is literally what keeps all of our bodies functioning. For every function and movement made by your body’s major organ systems, there is a natural recovery process that makes it possible for you to continue on. Aging has everything to do with your body’s steadily declining ability to recover as fast as it is damaged. For this reason, any and every opportunity to assist your body’s natural recovery process should be included in your lifestyle fitness improvement routine.
Begin infusing holistic fitness principles into your lifestyle today for sustainable fitness results and a healthier YOU.
~ Coach Tae
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