Fitness is very much a relative term. Growing up I thought of myself as being a fit individual. I was always moving, enjoyed inline skating and rugby. I had a set of free weights that always seemed to be present in my living space, but very rarely did I end up doing much with them.
Fortunately, Vancouver is a great city to get exposed to new physical activities. After walking past the sign for a Capoeira class for months on end, I decided to pop in and see what it was all about. I was amazed to see men and women in their 20’s and 30’s performing handstands, aerial flips and kicks, all to the graceful flow of Brazilian string instruments. I trained with the Capoeira group for nearly two years, gaining flexibility, strength and grace. Their workouts typically focused on pushups and squats, bridges and hand stand work. My hips were incredibly tight from years of chronic cardio training, but I was amazed how mobile my body was willing to become with prolonged stretching. My 30 year old body was learning tricks that I didn’t believe myself capable of doing with I was half that age.
My next foray into fitness was an encounter with Crossfit Vancouver. I entered this gym curious about the combination of pull-up bars, gymnastics equipment and heavy weight lifting that seemed to be going on at the same time. Crossfit is a motley combination of high intensity exercises for time, power development, Olympic lifting and camaraderie. It’s a great way to maximize training efficiency and become competent at a wide variety of physical activities. I’m now focusing on increasing muscle mass and decreasing my fat mass to be able to perform better at these newly discovered pursuits.
I tell people how fat they are for a living. My company, Bodycomp Imaging, performs very accurate measurements of percent fat, muscle mass and bone density. I used to consider myself to be in pretty good shape at 20% body fat and 150lbs. I still weigh the same, but have dropped my percent fat to nearly 10% with weight training and a mostly vegetable and protein diet. My strength, speed and endurance have all increased. I’m not a serious athlete, but I enjoy being able to hike longer without tiring, being able to cycle up steep hills without a second thought and being able to lift very heavy things when required.
I encourage you to reassess your own athletic abilities. Regardless of your age or past sport history, it’s never too late to learn a new skill, or improve an aspect of your performance. Educate yourself, set a realistic goal and measure your results. Whether you are trying to improve your 10k time, decrease your percent fat or hit a new maximum dead-lift, your body will love you for presenting it with a new challenge and providing it with the nutrition and training required to take it on.
If you would like to be featured on Fitness Goop, please send your answer to the question, “how being healthy and fit has changed my life?” along with a recent photo of yourself to… getgooped@fitnessgoop.com.
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