The truth about being fit

 

Ask ten people “What does it mean to be fit?”, and you’ll get ten different answers.

• To some people, being fit means being at the top of their sport.
• To others, being fit means being able to run a half-marathon, or simply hike for a couple of hours, without feeling like a wreck afterward.
• To others still, being fit means being able to play with their grandkids, or simply waking up without stiffness and pain.

Moreover, what fitness means to you today can change tomorrow. Case in point: Robbie VDM, Brain Labs Biotech Founder (i.e., me!).

Two decades ago, my main goal was to pack on muscle. Forays into powerlifting, bodybuilding … muscle was all I cared about. I had a 200-kg deadlift, and both my squat and bench were above 100kgs. I was roughly 82 kgs at 12% body fat, and my goal was to be consistently sub-10%. Also, I was/am an avid sailor and spent a lot of time putting my body & mind through gruelling workouts at sea.

(Note that I hail from a family of rail-thin Englishmen and was among the naturally skinniest of them. My max bench was a shaky, grind-it-out 60kgs after leaving school. Suffice it to say that my fitness journey took quite a lot of time, effort, and learning.)

Fast forward to today, and my definition of fitness has completely changed. I still research fitness on a daily basis, but now with a broader understanding of interconnected factors such as joint pain and sleep.

And years of research have taught me this: fitness is usually oversimplified. For many people, it is all about muscle and fat, weights and cardio; but to solve a puzzle as complex as optimal fitness, hammering the same routines over and over will not work. You need to figure out your personal bottlenecks among the six main fitness factors and take advantage of the most recent evidence to remove them, or even turn them into strengths!

 

And what are the six main fitness factors?     

  

1. Joint Health
Healthy joints allow your body to deal with the strains of exercise, sports, and normal everyday activities. A lack of pain  should be your everyday state!

 

2. Sleep
Deep, restful sleep lets your body recover from the day’s activities and wake up energized.

 

3. Muscle and exercise performance
Muscle is one of the two obvious fitness factors, but optimal muscle mass isn’t just for looks: it helps keep testosterone levels high and lets you enjoy physical activities.

 

4. Fat loss
Fat is the second obvious fitness factor: high body fat leads to lower testosterone, lower self-esteem, and accelerated aging.
Optimal testosterone levels have far-reaching benefits, including more muscle, greater mental clarity, and better mood.

 

5. Testosterone
Optimal testosterone levels have far-reaching benefits, including more muscle, greater mental clarity, and better mood.

 

6. Cardiovascular health
Cardiovascular health grows in importance as you age: improving it now will not only boost your recovery but also help prevent future heart complications.
Importantly, each factor affects all the others. So, don’t focus on just a couple and let the others become roadblocks in the years to come!