In the last blog post on exercise and the immune system, I made reference to the “Sickness/Wellness/Fitness Continuum”. We established that if we are on the “fit” side of the curve, it stands to reason that we need to move past “well” before we digress to “sick”. It’s a very simple illustration, yet something that we may have not thought much of before.
Greg Glassman, the founder and CEO of Crossfit, is a master of coming up with simple illustrations (most of them only need to be deciphered like Coach Jay’s handwriting) to explain some pretty heavy topics. In this particular case, he has made a simple arch to help us “place our needle” on the arch in a hopes of moving it towards the “fitness” end.
There are a list of “bio markers” listed in the center in this particular picture of it. Bio markers are things that we can measure and place a scientific value to. Blood pressure, body fat, bone density and the like. Now, all of these bio markers are things we can change quite easy without exercise. We have pharmaceutical drugs for nearly everything that ails us. They will change those bio markers and make them have a value that moves that needle over towards the right. However, are we any more “fit” because of this?
Greg has made another very good illustration that I have shared with many of our Fit Over 50 members. If we take a cocktail of pills that moves all of those biomarkers to have a value over towards the “fitness” side but do nothing else, are we any more fit? We can make those numbers say whatever we want but at the end of the day if we can’t get ourselves back up if we fall down or get off the toilet, are we then still fit? In Crossfit we focus on “functional movements”. We want to maintain function along with having great biomarkers without needing a cocktail of pills every day. I am not saying there is anything wrong with those pills. There are certainly things outside of our control that can cause us to need them. The things inside our control though, need to be addressed.
In an effort to move that needle over to the “fitness” goal, let Crossfit be your swimming coach. We will get those biomarkers moving in the right direction through “constantly varied functional movements performed at high intensity”. Keeping that function of every day life late into our years. We will “teach you to swim” addressing the things inside of your control. If something outside of your control happens and you need a lifeguard, then look into whatever medication or interventions you require.
Make “fitness” your goal and I guarantee you everything else will also start to improve and your needle will move towards that end of the scale. This has always been our goal as coaches here at 306; to move each person’s needle. Our programming and community are built to help you along the way.