Fitness isn’t just a numbers game.
Can an overweight person be fit? World-renowned wellness resort Canyon Ranch says the short answer is yes – even an obese person can be fit.
By one definition, fitness is the ability to execute daily activities with optimal performance, endurance and strength, while managing disease, fatigue and stress and reducing sedentary behavior, regardless of what the scale says.
“We put ‘skinny’ on a pedestal but it has nothing to do with your fitness level and shouldn’t be your goal at the gym,” says Danielle Kireczyk, an AFAA Certified Fitness Trainer in Vero Beach.
She says that trained professionals who work in the fitness industry are interested not in your “surface” looks, but in the things that are part of your everyday life, like range of motion, endurance, balance and your ability to get up after you’ve fallen.
A study done at Arizona State University found that sedentary, obese men and women who began to exercise lowered their risk of premature death by as much as 30 percent or more, even if their weight didn’t budge.
This improved fitness generally put them at lower risk of early death than people considered to be of normal weight but out of shape.
Kireczyk says athletes prove the theory that you don’t have to be thin to be fit. “Look at linemen on football teams [who average 315 pounds in the NFL], or the starting line at a 5K.
You’ll see every body type – and weight is no predictor of who will run a good race.”
The psychological side of exercising is as important as the physical side, says Kireczyk. “My spin classes are just as much mental as they are physical,” adding that we need to be teaching people there are better reasons to work out than the calories you burn.
NetDoctor lists 12 benefits of working out other than losing weight:
- Healthy bones – regular weight-bearing exercise promotes bone formation and increases bone density.
- Immunity boost – exercise helps your immune system find and deal with pathogens.
- Improved mood – a cascade of mood-boosting hormones and neurotransmitters flood your brain when you exercise.
- Increased energy levels – exercise lifts you from a sloth-like state by improving your blood flow, which allows more oxygen and nutrients to reach your cells.
- Better sleep – people sleep significantly better and feel more alert during the day if they get at least 150 minutes of exercise a week.
- A great sex life – exercise supercharges your self-esteem, boosts your circulation – vital for a healthy sex life – and crushes libido-killing stress.
- Improved memory regular aerobic exercise – like running or cycling – increases the size of your hippocampus, the area of the brain responsible for verbal memory and learning.
- Greater productivity – you’ll give your concentration levels and creativity a tangible boost by scheduling a workout into your day.
- Smoother skin – exercise releases IL-15, a protein that interacts with the mitochondria in your cells to slow skin aging and stimulates the production of collagen.
- Stronger muscles – building stronger muscles boosts your heart health, improves posture and keep injuries at bay.
- Chronic disease risk – regular exercise reduces your risk of developing cancer, heart disease, dementia, stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, obesity and high blood pressure.
- Live longer – exercising at least 150 minutes a week can add up to seven years to your life.
Kireczyk says people get in trouble when they compare themselves too much to other folks they see in the gym. “It’s important to keep comparisons in your own lane,” she says. “Don’t compare yourself to people who are other ages. A 60-year-old is never going to look like a 30-year-old, but that doesn’t mean he or she isn’t fit.”
Realbuzz.com is a healthy active living website that helps people who want to challenge themselves and lead a more active and healthier lifestyle. It says that running, jumping, dancing, stretching and bending will help you to appreciate the many capabilities of your body – which is not just a clothes hanger to be preened and pummeled into shape, but rather an amazing machine.
This realization can help you to judge your body not just on what you see in the mirror, but on what your body can do as well.
Focus on the joy of movement and the satisfaction of noticing how your body responds to activity, rather than how many calories you burned or inches you’ve lost and you’ll soon be whipping your body image into better shape.
Danielle Kireczyk is an AFAA Certified Personal Fitness Trainer and an AFAA Certified Primary Group Exercise Instructor who is personal training director at Vero Fitness, 1060 6th Ave., Vero Beach. 772-567-1400.