This is some text prior to the author information. You can change this text from the admin section of WP-Gravatar  Shane Doll is a certified personal trainer, fat loss expert, author, and founder of Shaping Concepts Fitness Training Studios. Shane specializes in helping people achieve amazing body and health transformations with his unique personal training programs. Read more from this author

What does it mean to be “fit?” Fifty years ago if you asked ten people this question you’d get very similar answers. Today the definition may be significantly different depending on who you ask. Perception plays a big part. Some people see in their mind a runner or cyclist as someone who is really fit. For others it might be the image of a bodybuilder, figure competitor, gymnast, or dancer when they think of someone who is fit.

I believe the reason that we have so many different views of what it means to “be in shape” is because fitness has become so specialized.

So how do you really examine how fit you are? The first thing we need to do is come to an understanding of what fitness really is. While any one of the people mentioned above would need to train and condition their body it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily fit. It might simply mean they’ve become very good at one physical skill. It is my opinion that a true measurement of fitness should never specialized.

Let me give you an example. Let’s take a runner who regularly does 4-5 miles at a 5:00 minute/mile pace. He is lean, trim and has strong aerobic capacity. To some people he is seen as someone who is very fit.

Personally, I’m not going to be so quick to see this guy as being fit in my book. It just shows me that he’s very good at running. He’s become specialized. If I take this same individual and ask him to do some high intensity/ short duration work like let’s say… a barbell power clean with an overhead press (using even a light load like half of the person’s bodyweight) his cardio-respiratory system would probably fail miserably in a matter of minutes. Why? Because his body wasn’t conditioned to work in that energy system.

On the other hand, if we take the weightlifter and ask him to run 4-5 miles, his cardio-respiratory system will fail in a matter of minutes as well. So which one is really fit? I say neither one.

They’re specialized, they do what they do well but outside of doing their preferred activities they have a ton of limitations. That’s not being fit in my book.

You show me the guy who can run a 6:00 minute/mile pace for 4 miles AND then do some barbell cleans/overhead presses at the end and I’ll show you someone who is fit!

Being fit means you can complete any variety of tasks no matter what you’re called upon to do. There are 10 physical skills that are commonly used to evaluate the performance and function of the human body. They are as follows.

1. Cardiovascular/ Respiratory endurance: the ability of the body systems to gather, process, and deliver oxygen
2. Stamina: the ability of the 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 production.
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 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 patter 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.

Just because you’re really good in one of these physical skills doesn’t make you fit. More often than not when specialization is the goal in fitness training you’ll always have limitations. Any limitation could be the difference when you’re called upon to use your physical skills. How confident would you be in your “fitness” in the following situations?

• Run down 20 flights of stairs to escape a burning building…
• Pull your bodyweight up a rock face using only your bare hands to reach safety…
• Sprint to escape an attacker and actually have the strength and stamina to defend yourself if you couldn’t outrun the person…
• Run several miles only to swim across a channel, then climb up over a steep hill, and finally lift several heavy objects out of your path to reach safety.

In these situations, you could brag all day long about how you can bench press 400 lbs or cycle for 20 miles but it will be “what you can’t do” that will make the difference in winning/losing (which may be life/death). You might look like you’re in really great shape and have a body that people “perceive” as being fit but could you actually depend on it to serve you in ANY situation.

Is it worth it to develop cardio-respiratory endurance at the expense of strength, power, speed, or agility for example? I would say no although that’s exactly what a cyclist, spinner, or runner does when they don’t develop and work on the other physical skills.

Now don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with people doing whatever exercise they prefer. If you like long-slow distance running, spinning, cycling, or other cardio-endurance work go knock yourself out. My point is that specializing in these activities ALONE will not make you fit in my book.

There is however a way to improve all 10 physical skills and develop true “fitness” across the board. What’s the answer? You simply need to work your body in all the energy systems, varying the demands you place on it. This is best accomplished with combinations of any of the human movement patterns (reaching, rotating, pushing, pulling, level changes, and locomotion) all done in different degrees of intensity.

Short duration/high intensity exercise using compound movements is the best way to develop all areas of physical skill and minimize limitations and weakness. This type of fitness training (also called “burst training”) will develop a body that functions as good as it looks…regardless of what you throw at it.

The beauty of it is when you vary the demands of your workouts while still focusing on short duration/ high intensity workloads you’ll see improvements in all areas, including your endurance.

Here’s an example of “burst training.” You can take most any compound movement and measure your work capacity of the exercises compared to time.

For example:

• Push-Ups
• Pull-Ups
• Bodyweight Squats
• Box Jumps
• V-Up’s

A workout might consist of completing 10 repetitions of each movement for a total of five rounds (for time). The lower your time gets (over time with training) the “fitter” you become. There’s no way you can drop your time on this workout and not improve in one or more areas of physical skill.

If you haven’t done “burst training” before I encourage you to try it. You’ll quickly see just how good of shape you’re really in. The other cool thing is you’re always competing against yourself. If it took you 15:39 to complete the workout above and three weeks later it takes you 13:22 then you’ve won! You’re improving; you’re seeing progress and getting better. There’s huge benefit in seeing this in your numbers and not just basing everything off of how you look or feel.

For more information on the benefits of “burst training” go to www.shapingconcepts.com