Fitness is Health and Health is Fitness

The purpose of this article is to put all my thoughts regarding fitness and training onto a single document for ease of reference and future editing.  Disclaimer up front…  I am not a scientific researcher and I do not own a lab. Instead I spend a ton of time reading and listening to fitness professionals.  None of the data I present here is original to me, but is pulled from many sources.  I will cite as much as I can to the original source of the data.

My training philosophy is my basic living philosophy.  There is no doubt that I am passionate about fitness and the expression of fitness (sport).  Sometimes it can be quite overwhelming and this has forced me on several occasions to take a step back and really look at what I am trying to accomplish.  During one of those breaks I took the time to drill down why fitness, and ultimately healthy living, is important to me.  Over the course of my lifetime I have watched poor health habits impact the people I care the most for.  Some of these habits were from ignorance and being the victim of relentless societal pressures and others were purely from severely poor choices.  In the end, both have taken their toll and have influenced my current thoughts on the subject. 

I take the fitness is health and health is fitness approach to training.  There is no doubt that fitness can be counter-productive to health and thus needs to be snapped back to center.  There are definite times when it is okay for fitness to come at the expense of health but that is for the purpose of an event and not where the average person needs to stay.  For instance, it is a fact that participating in a full Ironman distance race is bad for your health.  There have been documented studies of blood work post race that shows elevated markers comparable to a heart attack.  Does this mean you should not participate in an Ironman?  Absolutely not!  It just means that you need be aware of this and balance your training. 

An event is nothing more than an expression of your fitness.  This expression is not exclusively reserved to paying $80 to run a road race.  Your fitness can be expressed by a hike with your family, an outdoor challenge you have always wanted to do, or even a day kicking a soccer ball with your kids.  You define what that expression looks like.

My daily goal is to find balance in what I do.  No, it doesn’t always happen but it is what I am aiming for.  Brooks Pritchett, dietician and owner of LegitFit Nutrition, LLC, strives to have her clients follow an 80/20 rule.  80% of the time you should eat very clean, but you need the 20% to keep your sanity.  Fitness has to fit into a holistic approach to health and cannot be the dominant domain. I am of the opinion that everyone needs a coach...here is mine.  You need someone to help you navigate the pitfalls of endurance sports and life.  

Why should you listen to me?  Well, the beauty of it is that you don’t have to.   I am “bigger” guy that runs kinda slow and will probably never be on the podium at a race finish.   Definitely not the ideal image of a coach that you would see on the front of I Am Super Coach magazine, but what it means is that I also struggle to keeps things in balance and truly understand the needs/wants/desires of the average age group athlete. 

Okay…. let’s get to it.

Food and Nutrition

Food is what affects us the most.   In Matt Fitzgerald book, Diet Cults, he discusses the pros and cons of different “cultic” methods of eating.  Cultic thinking is defining how we eat and it is just not working.  In the media you often hear labels like, Paleo, Vegan, Ancestral, Raw Food, etc.…  In reality, we should just eat a balanced diet based upon sound principles.  In Michael Greger’s book, How Not To Die, he uses scientific data to come up with a “Daily Dozen” list of food we should eat on an everyday bases.  The key point is that it is plant based and diverse.  Yes, you can eat meat but the vast majority of your daily calories should come from whole food and plant-based sources.  Also, eating probiotic rich food or taking a daily over the counter probiotic is a great way to keep the pipes in good repair.  This is the sauerkraut recipe I use.  

The other key to successful eating is to keep in mind what you are eating for and the quality of your food.  The food you eat is for fueling your body for activity.  If you are exercising then you need to eat more.  If you are not exercising then you need to eat less.  We live in a culture that celebrates excess and this has taken its toll.  Also, you should eat the highest quality food you can afford.  Ultimately, if you can afford eating 100% organic food with grass fed beef, free-range poultry, and wild caught fish then that would be the gold standard.  Not all of us can afford that and we have to work with what we have.   Dr. Andrew Weil has a list titled “DirtyDozen Plus.”  In his opinion these are the foods that you should always buy organic due to the high amount of pesticide used on them. 

In theory, if you eat a plant based/whole foods diet that is balanced then your need for supplements is pretty low.  I do recommend taking a daily vitamin to round things out.  I like MegaFood vitamins .   I use a high quality fish oil to aid with general cardiovascular health and inflammation.  There is evidence on both sides of the aisle.  I just listened to Rich Roll’s interview with Darin Olien.  I found it absolutely fascinating and plan to incorporate some of the superfoods he talked about into my recovery protocol. Bottom line is that you have to find what works for you and what your body can tolerate.

Fitness

If you are a triathlete then you need to exercise across all three systems.  If you are runner then the majority of your training has to be running.  If you are the average age group athlete that works, has 2.5 kids, is involved with the PTA, etc.… then you can benefit from a balanced training regime that looks very much like how a triathlete trains.  In my opinion, cross training provides balance and can be a successful in minimizing injury.  Another type of training is using the MAF method to build an aerobic base.   The current fitness trend is to blast yourself with the hardest workout possible on as many days as possible.  This may be sustainable for the professional athlete but if you resemble the person described earlier in this paragraph then this will not work for you.  You will eventually become hurt, bored, burnt out, etc.…  Instead, slow it down.  Matt Fitzgerald in his book 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Fasterby Training Slower states that we should be running about 80% of our efforts at a slower more sustainable pace.  In fact, Phil Maffetone, creator of the MAF method, uses a heart rate formula of 180-your age to come up with a maximum training HR.  Bottom line is you need to slow down to get stronger.

 I like CrossFit….CrossFit doesn’t like me.  I spent a lot of time training at a CrossFit gym and was hurt for most of it.  Yes, I did get fitter…just not as fit as I wanted to be.   I wanted to use CrossFit to become a better endurance athlete.  I was searching for the fitness hack of training with intensity for a shorter period to reduce the overall training amount.   It just didn’t work for me.  In my humble opinion if you want to be an endurance athlete then you have to do endurance athlete stuff.    I too am a believer in the power of community and I argue that this is one of the main attractors to CrossFit.   If that is your thing then join a CrossFit gym.   If you want to be an endurance athlete and also be a part of a community then join a endurance group or create your own.

I will say that lifting weights definitely has a place in your training.  Being stronger for doing human stuff should be a part of your holistic training approach.   I like this Elite FTS article as basic approach to strength training for endurance.  There are many out there just like it and you have to pick what is right for you.

I spend a lot of time traveling and in international hotels that may or may not have a fitness center or even a place to run.  This requires thinking outside the box and working with what is available.   Here is a list of workouts that you can do with little or no equipment.  Yes, they are labeled “CrossFit” but they mostly all use your bodyweight and are a ton safer than throwing a bunch of weight around for time.   

One of the most influential articles I have come across was this article about daily habits for a CrossFit athlete.  Yes, again we are talking about CrossFit.  This article could easily be substituted with 50 ways to become a better endurance athlete.  A lot of the suggestions cross over into what we do, but really the bottom line (and reason I like the article) is that it boils down to discipline.  It takes discipline to work on the things you suck at in order to get better.  It takes discipline to eat to fuel your workouts when you are out on the town with your friends.  It takes discipline to be the person and athlete you want to be.  

Life

Drinking enough water and getting 8-10 hours of sleep every single day are two of the most important hacks to your training/recovery.   It is important to build a strategy to ensure you do both.  Drinking enough water has to be something you think about throughout the day.  Getting enough sleep needs to become a ritual.  Without either you are just spinning your wheels and will not achieve your potential. 

Speaking of water, you need to drink the cleanest water you can.  I personally use a Berkey water filter with an attached fluoride filter.  I just want to drink water without all the extra chemicals. 

For the average athlete, and especially the aging athlete, recovery is of critical importance.  Sleep has to be a priority!  I measure my sleep with my Garmin watch and also use a HRV app with heart rate strap first thing in the morning to measure my resting HR, HRV, and Stress.  These numbers give me a peek into how my body is feeling and I can use this data to tailor my workouts.  One bad day of numbers isn’t the end of the world, but if I see multiple days then I know something is awry.  I can often tell if I am coming down with a cold by my HRV numbers. 

There are many recovery techniques out there.   I like Mark Sisson’s article and believe he hits the target right on.   Active recovery, mobility work, proper nutrition, and sleep need to be the pillars of your recovery.

In reading Mark Twight’s book, Extreme Alpinism: Climbing Light, Fast and High, he recommends the use of contrasting showers to hasten recovery.  They are a dreadful as it sounds but I have noticed a marked improvement in recovery.  I use the 2.5 minutes of hot and then 30 seconds of cold X a couple of times.  At first it is miserable but now it really is no big deal and actually helps to reinvigorate me after a hard session.   

Mobility work is all the rage these days.  Practicing yoga has incredible benefits for both strength and flexibility.  If you like yoga then make it a part of your training week.  1 to 2 times a week should do the trick and won’t over tax your rapidly shrinking free time.  If you do not like mobility then take the time to work on your hamstrings, quadriceps, hip flexors, back and shoulders.   A coach of mine told me I should sit in a full squat for 10 minutes everyday to open up my hip flexors.   With commuting an hour to work each way every day this has impacted my flexibility and has caused lower back issues.  When I stay on top of my mobility work everything becomes a lot more manageable. 

 Finally, you own your health.   You have to take control of your well-being and manage where you want to be.  No one else can do this.  Allopathic Medicine (modern Western medicine) has a place in a holistic system but should not be the basis for it.  Allopathic doctors are great at fixing things that are broke, but not so good at managing your health.  There are absolutely some things that must be treated with medicine by a doctor.  I offer up that there are other options worth looking into.  Medicine has been around for thousands of years and there are truths in different cultures.  Look around and find what works for you.  (Disclaimer**** I am not a doctor).  Here is a podcast by Rich Roll that has three different practitioners describing the system they use.