When people hear the word “fit,” I think a lot of them immediately picture someone who is lean, fast, strong, and looks athletic. But the older I get, the more I think being fit has a lot less to do with what you look like and a lot more to do with what your body can actually do.
Quite frankly, as you get older, that is what starts to shift. You realize you want to stay independent as you age and continue doing the fun things you enjoy outside of the gym.
There are a lot of things to think about as we age, but one of the biggest for me is independence. I look at my parents, who are in their late 80s, and think about this a lot.
Can they get up off the floor without struggling, carry groceries, walk up and down a flight of stairs, catch themselves when they trip, and move well enough to keep doing the things they enjoy?
Of course strength matters. Endurance matters. Mobility matters. Balance matters. But none of those things really exist by themselves.
They all work together.
It’s really a combination of a lot of things — because you can have the perfect physique but not have great endurance or balance. You can be flexible and still not feel confident carrying something heavy.
One of the things I love most about training is watching someone realize they are capable of more than they thought they were.
Those milestones in the gym matter — using a heavier dumbbell, getting your first pull-up, making it through a 400m run without walking, or simply not needing to hold onto something when you balance.
Those things matter. A lot.
With all of those things, confidence gets built, and that translates into everyday life. You start trusting yourself more.
The goal is to become stronger, move better, have more endurance, stay independent, and feel more capable in your own body.
That means something different for everyone, which is one of the reasons I love CrossFit. The constantly varied training helps us work on all of it.
Fitness is not one thing.
It is strength.
It is balance.
It is mobility.
It is endurance.
It is confidence.
And most importantly, it is being able to keep living your life and doing the things you want to do.
That is what being fit means to me.
