The Basics - SHIELD TRAINING SYSTEMS, LLC

THE HEALTH AND FITNESS ELEVATOR PITCH

How to abate Analysis Paralysis in starting your health and fitness journey.

Elevator Pitch (noun) –
– A succinct and persuasive sales pitch. [Google Dictionary, ie – Oxford Languages]
– A short description of an idea, product or company that explains the concept in a way such that any listener can understand it in a short period of time. [Wikipedia]
– A brief talk or pitch intended to sell or win approval for something [Dictionary.com]

The Breadth Problem

Not to be confused with “The Bread Problem”, which doesn’t exist, because carbs are fine.

Picture this scenario. You, being like 95%+ of the American population, participate in less than thirty minutes of physical activity each day, and you, along with two-thirds of the American population, are overweight or obese. However, having mustered up the courage to actually do something about this and improve your health and fitness, you set out to find some answers.

As of this writing, a Google search of “how to be healthy and fit” provides just over 2 BILLION results. Ask ten of your close friends or relatives that question, and you will likely get ten different answers. Ask ten health and fitness professionals that question, and you will still likely get different answers. The amount of information available, while awesome, can be cumbersome to navigate, and can (and does) lead to many people becoming paralyzed when trying to figure how to get started. There are just so many different types of exercise and diet plans, with each one having just as many opinions as to its efficacy or lack thereof. This is muy no bueno for someone already burning a lot of willpower just getting through the initial stages of change; they’re exhausted before they’ve even begun!

I don’t necessarily think that anyone is to blame here, but there is still an issue that needs resolved. There should be a way for someone to confidently take action on their own, right away, and then fuss about the details later, as “just showing up” is the most important determinant of success, at least initially. The vast amount of information available should promote, not inhibit, healthy habits.

The Depth Problem

In addition to the issues caused by the sheer volume of different information, there are also issues, at least from the fitness professional’s perspective, at the individual level as it pertains to specificity. I very often find myself having conversations with folks that usually involve some iteration of the following two questions in a scenario in which I have a very short time to convey a response:

1 – “I’m trying to get healthy. What should I do?”

2 – “I want to lose weight/get in shape. What are your thoughts on [insert flavor of the month diet/exercise program], my [friend/doctor/television/magazine/Instagram feed] says that it’s the best way to do it.”

Usually, in an attempt to be thorough and provide the best possible response for that particular individual, the conversation proceeds with me asking questions to glean information about that person’s specific goals, training history, preferences, etc. Unfortunately, with the time constraints that come with these sorts of interactions, there just isn’t enough time. In the best cases they’re left with their question unanswered, and in the worst cases they’re left completely confused by my lack of brevity and overload of information. OOPS!

“What do”, then? Is the simple concept of “being fit and healthy” so complex that it’s impossible to actually define, not only succinctly, but at all? Is there a way to give short, general recommendations applicable to most people that are universal and easy to understand but yet precise enough to be able to implement? In other words, is a health and fitness elevator pitch possible?

The Solution

Over the past several months, as these conversations have tended to occur more frequently, I have distilled down my basic response to common questions to something that resembles the following:

It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do, as long as you are doing at least 150 minutes per week of aerobic based activity and two days per week of strength based activity that trains every muscle group, and it doesn’t matter how you eat, as long as you’re able to achieve and maintain a waist circumference of less than 40″ (if you’re male) or less than 35″ (if you’re female).

In reference to the first statement, The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans provides very simple metrics to meet to realize the majority of health benefits of exercise. Thus, as long as what you’re doing meets the criteria, you’re well on your way to optimizing your health. If you want to get more results later, then you can for sure tinker, get more in-depth, and optimize. For now, though, literally anything that meets the criteria will get you most of the way there.

In reference to the second statement, the train of thought flows as follows: 1) If someone maintains the recommended waist circumference, then he or she will be at reduced risk for a majority of the chronic lifestyle related health conditions and will likely be within his or her recommended body weight. 2) If someone only maintained a healthy body weight and ignored all other aspects of “healthy eating”, then he or she would still see the majority of health benefits derived from nutrition. 3) The only long term determinant of body weight is calorie balance. 4) Therefore, it does not matter how one eats initially, as long as he or she eats in such a way to control calorie balance, which promotes a healthy body weight and waist circumference, which provide the majority of health benefits as it relates to nutrition. If, later on, you want to eke out more potential benefits, then you can focus on other aspects like food composition, macronutrient ratios, food timing, etc. For now, though, focus on one metric that will drive the majority of health benefits.

So, to put this idea into action, if you are just starting out, then as you consider various options for exercise and nutrition, compare it to the elevator pitch to see if it passes muster. Similarly, if you’ve been training for any amount of time, check and see if your current program meets the guidelines. If not, you may benefit from some adjustments. If you’re a fitness professional that, like me, often finds yourself in short conversations or scenarios in which you just don’t have much time to get in depth, try some version the elevator pitch. Your friends, family, coworkers, and potential clients will likely benefit.

Summary

That’s the elevator pitch. Although unlikely to win any marketing or advertising awards, it does do the job of giving pretty much everyone quick and simple guidelines to get started immediately to obtain pretty much all of the health benefits one can achieve via diet and exercise.

I appreciate your time and attention! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.

-Dexter

P.S. – If you’d like an entry level program that is 1) based off of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2) requires no equipment, and 3) is FREE, then grab a copy of PROSPECT, found here.

Resources:
https://www.hhs.gov/fitness/resource-center/facts-and-statistics/index.html
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-pro/guidelines/current/obesity-guidelines/e_textbook/txgd/4142.htm

The Basics, Part II: What is Health? (and How to Improve It)

The Basics Series is our starting point for those who may be new to exercise and training. In this series we will define and discuss some fundamental concepts in health and fitness.

What is Health?

This is a stock photo of “The Key to Health”, so you know S#!T’s about to get real!

The World Health Organization defines Health as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. The WHO’s definition of health hasn’t changed since 1948, so we would assume they’re pretty satisfied with it.

As it is with Fitness, this definition is a bit nebulous and doesn’t give us much to use at face value, so we will need to spend a little bit of time unpacking each part of it in order to get some practical use out of it.

Let’s break the definition of Health down into four separate parts, define what each of those mean, and then discuss what we can do about improving them.

We can break the WHO’s definition of health down into four components:
1 – absence of disease or infirmity
2 – physical well-being
3 – mental well-being
4 – social well-being

The Absence of Disease or Infirmity

Of the four components of health, this component is the one that is usually the most apparent. The consequences of neglecting your social well-being may take years to materialize and even then be hard to quantify, but if you have a staph infection, it’s quite obvious. The immediacy may vary (heart attack vs chronic asymptomatic high blood pressure), but knowing whether or not you’re free from disease is usually pretty easy to evaluate:

“My leg is broken.”
“I have high blood pressure.”
“I had bronchitis, but now I don’t (ain’t nobody got time for that!).”

Physical Well-Being

Are you physically capable of pursuing and participating in all of the physical activities that you want to do or have to do? Do you maintain a healthy body weight? Do you pay attention to what you eat? Do you practice good sleep hygiene? Physical Well-Being is likely the component of health that most people think of when they consider what they should be doing to improve their health.

“I should exercise more.”
“I need to eat better.”
“It might be a good idea to stop smoking crack.”

Mental Well-Being

Once again leaning on the WHO, mental health can be defined as “a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community”. The significance of mental well-being shouldn’t be ignored, considering that almost 1 in 5 adults have some form of a mental health issue.

Social Well-Being

Being a little bit more elusive than the other components of health, social well-being refers to one’s ability to interact with people around them. Having supportive and meaningful relationships and being involved in the greater community can lead to a longer, healthier life, improved immune function, faster healing times, higher cancer survival rates, reduced risk of chronic illness, and more.

I tend to like the WHO’s definition of health. There are the obvious components like being free from illness and your physical well-being, but your mental and social well-being are also important. Now that we have a better grasp of what defines the different components of health, let’s look at how we can improve it.

Improving Health

So, we know health is composed of being free from illness and having good physical, mental, and social well-being, but how do we prioritize our efforts to make sure that we’re getting the most bang for our buck when we actually do try and make a change? We have a decent grasp of what each component of health looks like, but how do we decide which one to focus on first? The concept of health is a very large subject, but we can still draw some general recommendations by looking at health from a certain perspective.

Let’s start by defining what exactly we are trying to do when we are trying to improve our health? When you think about being “more healthy”, what does that mean to you? What advantages does a “healthy person” have over an “unhealthy person”? Likely, the main objective when trying to improve health is to increase longevity and quality of life, or, in other words, to reduce the risk of premature death.

To “improve health” is to therefore “reduce the risk of premature death”. How do we reduce the risk of premature death? Well, to put it bluntly, we have to find out what it is that is most likely to kill us and then do what we can to reduce the risk of that happening.

Leading Causes of Death

In 2017, the twelve leading causes of death in the US were as follows:
1 – Heart Disease – 23%
2 – Cancer – 22%
3 – Accidents – 6%
4 – Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease – 6%
5 – Stroke – 5%
6 – Alzheimer’s Disease – 4%
7 – Diabetes – 3%
8 – Influenza/Pneumonia – <2%
9 – Kidney Disease – <2%
10 – Suicide – <2%
11 – Septicemia – <2%
12 – Chronic Liver Disease – <2%

As you can see, heart disease and cancer are, by far, the most common causes of death, accounting for almost half of all deaths. If you add in accidents, chronic lower respiratory disease, stroke, alzheimer’s disease, and diabetes, then you’re up to approximately 70% of all deaths. From a general perspective, if we focus our efforts on reducing risk for the top seven causes, then we will likely improve our outcomes for health.

Reducing Your Risk

Before focusing on the top seven causes, the first step in reducing risk for you is to evaluate your specific circumstances. For example, if you have a family history of certain types of rare cancers, then that should take priority. Likewise, even though suicide is number ten on the list and only accounts for <2% of deaths, if you have a history of depression then then your priorities should be different. So and and so forth. This highlights the importance of visiting your healthcare provider often for “routine maintenance”.

Once you’ve evaluated your family history and particular circumstances, then it’s time to identify the risk factors for each of the leading causes of death and determine what you can do to reduce the likelihood of each one.

Let’s take a look at what the risk factors are for the top seven leading causes of death.

Heart Disease:
-High Blood Pressure*
-High Cholesterol*
-Diabetes
-Poor diet
-Physical Inactivity
-Obesity
-Excessive alcohol consumption
-Smoking/Tobacco use*
-Heredity/Genetics
-Age
-Sex
-Race/Ethnicity
*Key risk factor

Cancer:
-Age
-Heredity/Genetics
-Excessive alcohol consumption
-Cancer-Causing Substances
-Chronic Inflammation
-Poor diet
-Hormones
-Immunosuppression
-Infectious Agents
-Obesity
-Radiation
-Sunlight
-Smoking/Tobacco use

Accidents: (Three Leading Causes)
-Unintentional Falls
-Motor Vehicle Traffic Death
-Unintentional Poisoning

Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease:
-Smoking/Tobacco use
-Indoor/Outdoor Air Pollution
-Allergens
-Occupational Agents
-Poor Diet
-Physical Inactivity
-Age
-Heredity/Genetics

Stroke:
-High Blood Pressure
-High Cholesterol
-Smoking/Tobacco use
-Diabetes
-Poor Diet
-Physical Inactivity
-Obesity
-Certain Heart/Vessel Conditions
-Sickle Cell Disease
-Drug abuse
-Excessive alcohol consumption
-Poor sleep habits
-Age
-Heredity/Genetics
-Sex

Alzheimer’s Disease:
-Age
-Heredity/Genetics
-Head injury
-Heart Disease
-Diabetes
-Stroke
-High Blood Pressure
-High Cholesterol

Diabetes:
-Age
-Heredity/Genetics
-Race/Ethnicity
-Obesity
-High Blood Pressure
-High Cholesterol
-Physical Inactivity
-History of Heart Disease or Stroke
-Depression
-Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Some of the risk factors are out of our control. For example, your age, family history, and genetics are risk factors for all seven causes of death, but there is nothing that you can do about them other than to not let them deter you from doing something about the risk factors that you CAN control.

When looking at the lists above, we start to see that certain conditions or behaviors are risk factors for most, if not all, of the top seven causes of death. These are the particular risk factors we should pay close attention to, as addressing them should provide us with a comprehensive reduction in risk.

The major risk factors to focus on are…
1 – High Blood Pressure
2 – High Cholesterol
3 – Obesity
4 – Smoking/Tobacco use
5 – Excessive Alcohol Consumption
6 – Poor Diet
7 – Physical Inactivity

At the very least, pay attention to these seven things before anything else. Once you have these dialed in, you can focus on other risk factors to further reduce your risk (safe driving, avoiding pollution, not accidentally poisoning yourself (DOH!), etc…).

Looking at these seven risk factors closely, we can see how they relate to one another, and we can begin to tie them together with the idea of health encompassing not just freedom from illness but also physical, mental, and social well-being.

For example:
-High blood pressure and high cholesterol are directly linked to obesity, which is directly affected by physical inactivity and poor diet.
-Someone with a strong support system of friends and family (social well-being) will likely be much more successful with giving up tobacco or starting a new exercise regimen.
-Someone with strong self confidence and good stress management skills (mental well-being) will likely be able to resist the temptation to cheat on their weight loss diet than someone who lacks self confidence and coping skills.
-And so on…

Rather than attempting to reduce the likelihood of literally every possible risk factor for every possible cause of death in order to improve health, it makes sense to concentrate on what the current data says is most likely to harm us. We focus our efforts on the factors that are most prevalent and that we can control, and we simply just don’t stress about the ones that we can’t control or that are extremely unlikely to affect us. This, to us, seems like a reasonable approach for most folks who want to maximize their health without getting to neurotic about things.

Putting It All Together

Want to maximize your health? Do the following. . .

1 – Find a good healthcare provider and see them regularly – this will ensure that you’re taking care of your specific needs as well as getting routine appropriate screening (blood pressure, blood work, etc).

2 – Manage your weight – A waist circumference of <40″ for men and <35″ for women is a good place to start.

3 – Don’t smoke.

4 – Limit alcohol consumption – No more than two drinks per day.

5 – Eat of sufficient quantity and quality – Eat enough to maintain a healthy weight, and, if possible, stick to lean meats, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and unsaturated fats.

6 – Exercise regularly – The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans is a great place to start. Here’s a free program that covers everything you need to know.

7 – Don’t neglect your mental well-being – pursue a challenging but rewarding career, practice good financial habits, make time for self-improvement and reflection, etc.

8 – Don’t neglect your social well-being – seek out positive relationships and toss out toxic ones, be active in your community, be a part of something bigger than yourself, etc.

Conclusion

Health, like fitness, is a vast subject that can be overwhelming if you’re not sure where to start. Pair this with the near infinite number of differing opinions on what health is and what you should do to improve it, and it’s easy to just say “forget it” and not even try.

We’ve spent a little time defining and breaking down the World Health Organization’s definition of health into understandable chunks, and we’ve provided a place to start and some direction for those interested in improving their health.

Thank you for reading, and let us know what you think!

Sources:
https://www.who.int/

http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/

https://www.counseling.org/news/aca-blogs/aca-member-blogs/aca-member-blogs/2016/05/31/evidence-for-social-wellness—part-1

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

https://www.healthline.com/health/leading-causes-of-death

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk

https://www.who.int/gard/publications/Risk%20factors.pdf

https://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/AboutStroke/UnderstandingRisk/Understanding-Stroke-Risk_UCM_308539_SubHomePage.jsp

https://www.alz.org/alzheimers-dementia/what-is-alzheimers/causes-and-risk-factors

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/risk-factors-type-2-diabetes

The Basics, Part I: What is Fitness? (and How to Improve It)

The Basics Series is our starting point for those who may be new to exercise and training. In this series we will define and discuss some fundamental concepts in health and fitness.

What is Fitness?

Is Stick Van Dyke here exercising or directing traffic?

Do you know what Fitness is? What does it mean to be fit? If you look around on the internet, television, magazines, etc, or if you ask the opinion of the people you know, you are probably going to get a wide variety of responses, which will likely leave you feeling more clueless than before you started looking.

We will discuss two common issues with defining fitness and then attempt to make the water a little less muddy with some steps to take to find what is right for you.

The Vagueness Issue

Webster’s New World dictionary defines fitness as “the condition of being fit; suitability, appropriateness, healthiness, etc…“, and subsequently defines fit as “in good physical condition; healthy”…

…(pauses for dramatic effect)…

….and there you have it, folks! Thanks for tuning in, and we’ll see you next time.

The problem with these and other common definitions of “fitness” is that they are too vague; they don’t actually tell us anything that we can use to improve our own fitness. What is “good physical condition”? What is “healthiness”?

The Complicated Issue

On the complete other end of the spectrum, some popular fitness brands have defined “fitness” as a combination of ALL of the following (very abridged on my part) standards:

Train, practice, and develop the “Ten General Physical Skills”, which are cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy (you know what each of these are and how to improve them…right?)
Being able to perform well at ANY AND EVERY TASK IMAGINABLE (seems reasonable….right?).
Be competent in using each of the body’s three energy systems (because training ten different physical skills over an infinite number of possible tasks clearly isn’t enough.)

So, by this definition, I can be fit as long as I…
…train my cardiovascular/respiratory endurance
…train my stamina
…train for strength
…develop flexibility
…train for power
…train for speed
…practice coordination
…train agility
…train balance
…train accuracy
…train my phosphagen energy system
…train my glycolytic energy system
…train my aerobic system
…somehow train all of these different physical skills in a manner such that my training is completely random but yet still intelligent enough to actually develop improvements in these skills in order to LITERALLY BE ABLE TO PERFORM WELL AT ANY AND EVERY PHYSICAL TASK IMAGINABLE!

The issue with this view of “What is fitness?” is the exact opposite of the issue with the vague definitions, but the resulting problem is the same. While there is definitely no shortage of information, the individual is still left with nothing useful to use because he or she is likely paralyzed by the amount of information and doesn’t know where to begin.

There has to be a better way…

Fitness is Specific

The problem with “fitness” is that it cannot be generalized very well (see the second definition above – “JUST DO LITERALLY EVERYTHING!”). Fitness is specific to the activity being trained.

We will cover the Principle of Specificity in more detail in another article, but, to briefly summarize, the principle of specificity, or the SAID principle (specific adaptation to imposed demands) states that the type of demand placed on the body will dictate the type of adaptation to occur. In other words, the type of exercise will dictate the type of improvement in some physical quality. Running will make you better at running than cycling will.

This means that “to be fit” means “to be well prepared to do something specific”. It would be reasonable to argue that an NFL linebacker is fit to play football, and that a Boston Marathon competitor is fit to run very long distances. Both of these athletes have high levels of fitness. Is an NFL linebacker fit to run a marathon? Is a marathon runner fit to tackle a 200 lb NFL running back? Absolutely not.

Their fitness is specific.

“…what do I do with this information?…”

Remove the term “General Fitness” from your vocabulary, and always be specific when discussing fitness, because there are different types of fitness (see example of NFL linebacker vs marathon runner above).

“Well, what kind of fitness is most important, and what should I do as exercise to improve that fitness?”…you might ask. “I’ve read so many articles that seem to contradict each other about what type of exercise to do!”

The answer to this question is completely dependent on the individual. There is no such thing as the best type of fitness, the best type of exercise, or the best training program. Your situation will be different from someone else’s situation. Your situation RIGHT NOW will be different than your situation LATER ON.

There are no absolute, hard and fast rules. It all depends.

“…okay. So where do I begin?…”

When deciding what type of exercise program you should follow, ask yourself the following questions…

-Do I have any specific fitness goals? If so, what are they?
If you’ve always wanted to run a 5k, then I would look for a running program. If you want to learn how to swim, I’d find a pool. So on and etc…

-Does my job have fitness requirements? If so, what are they?
This could be an explicit requirement (ex – annual fitness assessment) or an implicit requirement (physically demanding/dangerous job where certain types of fitness will increase chances of success/survival).

-Do I have any current medical conditions that would be directly improved by improving a certain type of fitness?
EX – Resistance training for osteoporosis, aerobic training for improved cardiovascular function, etc…

The answers to these questions should provide you with some direction in determining what type of fitness is important for you and how to go about improving it. This is, in our opinion, a much better method of determining what to prioritize than just trying to “get better at everything because we want to be prepared for anything”…whatever that means.

“But Those Don’t Apply…”

If you answered “No” to all of the above questions, then is it even necessary that you embark upon an exercise routine to improve some aspect of fitness? Probably not! There are millions of people all over the world who never exercise regularly and still manage to live a long, productive, and fulfilling life. However, health circumstances are almost certain to change, exercise and physical activity have numerous positive benefits, and the drawbacks/risks are practically non-existent. So even if you answered “no”, it is still probably worthwhile that you start exercising.

But you already knew that. 😉

“….just tell me what to do….”

So what should you do if you have no specific fitness goals, no job related fitness requirement, and no medical conditions that would be improved by exercise, but still want to incorporate some physical activity? Likely the best place to start is the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, put together by the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans provides evidence-based guidance to help Americans maintain or improve their health through physical activity.

Click HERE to learn about the current guidelines in detail.

In short, if you are just starting out, aim to meet the following:
-150-300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity physical activity
OR
-75-150 minutes per week of vigorous-intensity physical activity
OR
-An equivalent combination of moderate-intensity physical activity and vigorous-intensity physical activity.
AND
-Two or more days per week of moderate or greater intensity muscle-strengthening activities that train all muscle groups.

We’ve created a FREE, entry level program designed from the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. It’s suitable for all ability levels and requires no equipment. Check it out HERE.

Conclusion

In this article we’ve briefly touched on some common definitions of Fitness and the drawbacks associated with them. We’ve touched on how fitness is specific, and that the right “type of fitness” for you is completely dependent on your own individual situation. We discussed some useful questions to ask yourself when contemplating setting up your own training program. Finally, we shared a few recommendations that we prioritize along with a free program to give you a place to start.

Thank you for reading!

What are your thoughts on the definitions of fitness?

Let us know what you think in the comment section!

-STS