Hi, I'm Timothy Cho, currently a Kinesiolology student at SFU concentrating in active heath and rehabilitation and this blog is about physical activity, specifically exercise. I am a huge advocate for healthy living and I believe that exercise and a healthy diet are the key ingredients to good health. My goal in this blog is to discuss various topics on physical activity, examining articles, attempting to debunk misconceptions, and to just give my readers more insight on exercise in today's society. The messages on my blog are meant for everybody, not just for the science majors, exercise junkies, or those who are in desperate need of exercise.
It is undeniable that exercise is crucial to human life; humans not only require exercise but were built for it as well and in today's day and age it is overwhelmingly obvious, due to surges in obesity and other conditions, that people aren't exercising enough. Although it's easy to put the blame and label people as "lazy", one has to realize that society has changed. I mean who'd want to eat vegetables and go outside to play soccer when one can just stay home play the latest "Call of Duty" and eat "convenient" microwaveable dinners? The simple are usually more appealing choice in today's day and age is also the unhealthy choice whereas a few generations ago it was the opposite.
It is undeniable that exercise is crucial to human life; humans not only require exercise but were built for it as well and in today's day and age it is overwhelmingly obvious, due to surges in obesity and other conditions, that people aren't exercising enough. Although it's easy to put the blame and label people as "lazy", one has to realize that society has changed. I mean who'd want to eat vegetables and go outside to play soccer when one can just stay home play the latest "Call of Duty" and eat "convenient" microwaveable dinners? The simple are usually more appealing choice in today's day and age is also the unhealthy choice whereas a few generations ago it was the opposite.
Through blogging, I hope to be able to not only explore and help correct misconceptions on physical activity but also to encourage fitness. One should definitely exercise to be fit. But what defines "fitness"? The first thing that probably comes to mind are elite athletes and the "exercise junkies". This is usually because people rely on visuals to assess fitness, meaning they only look at body comoposition and judge based solely on what they see. The CrossFit journal, a renown exercise program, views fitness as 10 abilities to do various tasks as listed:
"1. Cardiovascular / respiratory endurance- The ability of body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina - The ability of body systems to process, deliver, store, and utilize energy.
3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility - The ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the body's center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy - The ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity."
(The CrossFit Journal, 2002, p4)
These 10 qualities are definitely a good way of assessing fitness but I find that when individuals see these terms they think of only the elite athletes and how fitness is all performance-based. A definition for fitness that I've grown to like is the definition used by a professor at my university, "Physical fitness is the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness, without undue fatigue, and with ample energy to enjoy leisure time pursuits and to meet unforeseen emergencies." (Exercise: Health and Performance, 2011, ch.1,p.4)
But okay... What's the point of all this? The point I'm trying to make is that modern society's view on fitness are usually based on either visual body comoposition and elite performance. Too often people think that only elite athletes and those who "look fit" can be fit. For example, bodybuilders are fit for lifting weights but usually they are not fit for running long distances. I'm not trying to say that bodybuilders aren't fit, but too often people exercise the sake of "looking better" and that other qualities of fitness, or even fitness itself, are unobtainable and only available to "elite athletes".There's more to fitness than just being "big and strong"; but fine, realistically speaking if one wants to exercise to look better than so be it; some exercise is overwhelmingly better than none.
In conclusion, I hope that I have been able to expand your knowledge of physical activity and fitness from this post and to change your perception or stereotype of what fitness really is. The take home message is that even the non-elite athletes and the average person can be fit with just adequate amounts of exercise.
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| Aric Sudicky Retrieved from: http://redcatfilm.com/fitness/ |
But okay... What's the point of all this? The point I'm trying to make is that modern society's view on fitness are usually based on either visual body comoposition and elite performance. Too often people think that only elite athletes and those who "look fit" can be fit. For example, bodybuilders are fit for lifting weights but usually they are not fit for running long distances. I'm not trying to say that bodybuilders aren't fit, but too often people exercise the sake of "looking better" and that other qualities of fitness, or even fitness itself, are unobtainable and only available to "elite athletes".There's more to fitness than just being "big and strong"; but fine, realistically speaking if one wants to exercise to look better than so be it; some exercise is overwhelmingly better than none.
In conclusion, I hope that I have been able to expand your knowledge of physical activity and fitness from this post and to change your perception or stereotype of what fitness really is. The take home message is that even the non-elite athletes and the average person can be fit with just adequate amounts of exercise.
References:
The CrossFit Journal (2002, October). General Physical Skills. Retrieved from http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ-trial.pdf
The CrossFit Journal (2002, October). General Physical Skills. Retrieved from http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ-trial.pdf
Leyland, Anthony (2011). Exercise: Health and Performance, Kendall Hunt.
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