Fitness is capacity – your ability to do a whole bunch of stuff.
Most think of lung capacity when they first think of fitness: Your ability to run, skip, row, swim, bike, or do burpees. But this isn’t just lung capacity, but also your tissues ability to utilise oxygen. This is why someone could be a good runner but poor cyclist. Their lungs are good but their muscles aren’t adapted. If you only run or only cycle, for example, you’ll limit how much your lungs or your legs can adapt. If you do both, you can push past this plateau. Add in rowing, skipping, etc, and you build more capacity in your conditioning.
This leads us nicely to why we do so many things, and why we think it’s important. The more ways you make demands of your body while exercising, the better it gets at being ready for (almost) anything.
This is important if we think of our capacity in range of motion and strength. If you only do partial squats, you’re not strong if you get pinned at the bottom. If you never hang from a bar, you’re ultimately more likely to lose your ability to put your hands overhead. You slip on the ice or turn funny playing with your kids, and you haven’t done a full, varied exercise programme, you’re more likely to hurt yourself.
Some things are foundational, like squatting, hinging, pushing and pulling. We try do these things as regularly as we can without going into overuse territory. Other movements we’ll use more sparingly, to keep expanding the fringes of our ability.
Mentally as well, by doing things you’re not good at you build your resilience and fortitude. It’s also good for humility: you realise that failure isn’t that bad and it’s okay to be a beginner and always learning.
The greater your range of abilities, the fitter and healthier you are. So keep gently pushing the limits of way you can do and think you can do. If you want someone to help you and you live in South Dublin, just get in touch!