We always have our ways of insinuating whether a person is fit or not. For instance, athletes, actors, and supermodels with toned and chiseled muscles, and to-die-for curves are always considered as the ideal body structure – the DREAM BODY; while having a love handle, a beer belly, or being too skinny are just some of the features that we consider as unfit and unhealthy.
But hey, it's 2020, guys, and before you use your prying eyes again to judge whether someone is fit or not, let me break this to you – a person’s physique is an unreliable indicator of one’s fitness.
According to a paper published by the American College of Sports Medicine, fitness and fatness can’t be considered “mutually exclusive” as what society has dictated us to believe over centuries. What does this imply? Lead researcher Glenn Gaesser says that it is possible for someone to be obese or overweight in the BMI but still be considered healthy.
While most of us are led to believe that achieving society's ideal body type is the best definition of becoming fit, Gaesser wants us to focus instead on improving one's CRF or cardiorespiratory fitness. When a person just focuses on losing weight instead of doing workouts that would improve our CRF, there is an increased chance of developing chronic body weight disability that would then cause hypertension, insulin resistance, and even enhanced weight gain.
In other words, instead of just dieting and exercising in order to lose weight, you should aim to enhance your CRF level. And guess what, by targeting an improved CRF, you'll actually earn more benefits apart from achieving your weight goals.
What's CRF, again?
As defined by Exercise Biology, Cardiorespiratory fitness is the ability of a person's heart, lungs, and muscles to intake oxygen and use it to make energy. When your CRF is higher, then it means that your body is efficient with the whole process.
Now, here's an important question that should be asked, how do you increase your CRF? Well, improving your CRF requires basic activities such as walking, brisk walking, jogging, swimming, playing sports, and even climbing stairs. Any kind of activity that would increase your heart rate will also increase your CRF, so always keep that in mind.
Although physique training is also super important, you should transform your strength and make it your core goal to do workout routines that makes your CRF better than ever.
So, the next time you pry on someone and determine his or her fitness state, don't just rely on the mere physique, or you'd be a laughingstock. Or better yet, forget about judging and labeling and focus on your own healthy habits instead. This year, let’s all aim for a higher CRF state. Let’s do it fitfam!
Reference:
https://globalsportmatters.com/health/2019/09/19/physique-is-not-a-true-indicator-of-fitness/