The true meaning of being “fit”

Alexandra Beck challenges the way we think about fitness, looking beyond appearance to strength, stamina, balance and mobility - and why real fitness is about building a body capable of supporting the life you want to live, now and in the years ahead.

Photograph: Hendrik Morkel on Unsplash

Text: Alexandra Beck

I have a slightly annoying question I like asking people: what exactly are you trying to get fit for?

We tend to use the word “fit” all the time. We want to get fit, stay fit, feel fit. We describe other people as incredibly fit. But when you stop and think about it, what does being fit actually mean?

Is the person who can run a marathon fit? Almost certainly. But what if they struggle to lift something heavy from the floor?

What about the person who can deadlift twice their bodyweight but gets completely out of breath climbing a few flights of stairs?

And perhaps more importantly, when did looking fit become interchangeable with actually being fit?

Because they are not the same thing. Fitness is more than one thing.

Physical fitness is actually made up of several different qualities:

Cardiovascular fitness: how effectively your heart, lungs, and circulatory system can support you during sustained activity.

There is muscular strength: your ability to produce force. Muscular endurance: your ability to keep producing it repeatedly.

Mobility and flexibility allow your body to move through the ranges of motion you need. Balance and coordination help you control those movements. And power, which is our ability to produce force quickly, becomes particularly interesting as we get older.

None of these exists entirely in isolation, and being very good at one doesn’t automatically make you good at the others.

You can be an excellent runner and still benefit enormously from getting stronger. You can be incredibly strong and still need to work on your cardiovascular fitness.

If you can run 10 kilometres but require assistance opening a particularly stubborn jar, we may have identified a gap in the programme.

“Being fit isn’t about how your body looks. It’s about what it can do.”

Then there is how fitness looks

This is where things get really complicated.

We have become very good at associating fitness with a particular appearance. Lean. Muscular, but not too muscular. Visible abs certainly help.

The problem is that you cannot look at someone’s body and be certain about how physically capable they are.

Body composition can be one piece of the health and fitness picture, but it isn’t a fitness test.

A smaller body isn’t automatically fitter. A larger body isn’t automatically unfit. And the person who looks fantastic in gym clothes isn’t necessarily stronger, healthier or more physically capable than the person standing next to them.

When we reduce fitness to appearance, we miss most of what makes physical fitness useful in the first place. And I think useful is a much more interesting word.

What can your body actually do?

As a personal trainer, I’m interested in what happens inside the gym, of course. But ultimately, we’re training for what happens outside it.

• Can you carry your shopping home?

• Can you lift your suitcase into the overhead compartment without looking around hopefully for someone taller?

• Can you get yourself comfortably down onto the floor and back up again?

• Can you run for the Metro when the doors are about to close?

• Can you spend a day walking around a new city, climb the stairs when the lift isn’t working, move some furniture, ride a bike, play with your children or grandchildren, or try something new without immediately wondering whether your body will cope?

Fitness advertising rarely features those things. But they’re fitness.

And as we move through our 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, I think this definition becomes increasingly important.

Training for the body you’ll need later

One reason I am such an advocate for strength training, particularly through midlife, is that muscle isn’t simply something that changes how our bodies look.

It’s useful tissue.

We naturally lose muscle mass and strength as we age, especially if we don’t do anything to maintain them. Bone health becomes increasingly important too, especially for women around and after menopause.

We also tend to lose power faster than strength as we get older. Power helps you react quickly, catch yourself when you stumble, or get up a flight of stairs efficiently. Balance matters. Cardiovascular fitness matters.

Suddenly, training isn’t just about what your body can do this year.

You’re making deposits into a physical savings account you’ll hopefully be drawing from for decades.

That doesn’t mean everyone needs to become a powerlifter or train for a marathon - quite the opposite.

For most of us, being reasonably good at several things is probably far more useful than being exceptional at one.

Lift something heavy. Carry things. Push. Pull. Squat. Step. Rotate. Get your heart rate up. Move in different directions. Practise balance. Occasionally move quickly.

And keep doing it.

Your definition of fit is allowed to change

We really should normalise this. What you wanted from your body at 25 doesn’t have to be what you want from it at 45, 55 or 65.

There may have been a time when being fit meant running your fastest 10K, fitting into a particular pair of jeans or seeing a certain number on the scales.

Maybe now it means something else.

Maybe you want to feel strong.

Maybe you want to keep hiking on holiday.

Maybe you want enough energy to get through your day without feeling exhausted.

Maybe you want to pick up your grandchildren one day.

Maybe you simply want to trust your body.

No single exercise makes somebody fit, and no particular body shape proves it.

Fitness is capacity.

It’s having enough strength, endurance, mobility, balance and cardiovascular fitness for the demands of your life, with a little in reserve for the unexpected.

And perhaps that’s a definition worth holding onto.

Because ultimately, being fit isn’t about creating a body that looks as though it exercises. It’s about building a body capable enough to let you live the life you want.