Most people train for a reason. 

Generally, that reason is to transform their physique or to get “fitter” in the hope of maximising their quality of life, but also to extend that time frame as well.
We have mentioned the “buffer system” before (which is also known as the sickness, wellness and fitness continuum), which explains that the fitter you are and the further to the right on the continuum you fall, the higher the quality of life you’ll have and the more “buffer” you will have when it comes to getting sick. 

In short, the fitter and stronger you are, the further away you are from dying (and everything in between).

The only issue is, most people don’t have a concrete definition of fitness and therefore struggle to: 

1. Know how to make it happen
2. Know when they are achieving their goals

Most people aimlessly turn up to workouts and judge their workout by how fatigued they feel or how much sweat they managed to leave on the gym mats.

Don’t get me wrong. These are definitely signs of a great workout and without them, you probably won’t be getting fitter, but they don’t actually give you much data in the way of defining how fit you are because they lack any objectivity. 

It’s purely a subjective resource that will be influenced by how you’re feeling on a particular day and lacks any validity due to failing to have any tests or retests of a single domain. 

If you asked a room full of people how they define fitness, you’d probably get most of them saying something like;
“It’s how far and fast you can run”
“Being able to go further than you could before”
“Not getting puffed as easily when you train”
Etc

Which are all correct, however, only loosely define one of the 10 physiological adaptations that you should be aiming to increase through training (cardiovascular endurance). 

Definitions like this fail to mention & measure the other adaptations that will also define how “fit” you are and the quality of life you’ll have. (strength, power, speed, flexibility, coordination, stamina etc)

So how do you do it? 

You should be making sure that you are constantly measuring all 10 of the physiological adaptations at some point, with objective data and retesting certain elements time and time again. 

You should be counting reps, weights, power ratios, and training loads across given time frames and modalities so that you can come up with an overall score that enables you to work out our overall “work capacity” and fitness (which we define as the amount of work you can do in a given time frame or the amount of time it takes you to complete a given task). Ultimately, the fitter you are = the more you can do. 

Your programming should be purposely designed to incorporate (and progress) the 10 physiological skills across a variety of modalities and time domains to give yourself the awareness to best chance to focus on areas you lack, whilst building on the areas you’re already strong and confident in, with the aim of increasing your “buffer”.

They say that knowledge is power and without measuring your fitness, you are at risk of falling victim to the mundane,  getting bored, plateauing your results, and then ultimately falling off the wagon. 

We’ve all been there, but you don’t have to keep making the same mistakes.

We take the guesswork and effort out of all of the above and constantly help you test and measure your fitness on a daily basis with our face-to-face coaching sessions and online programming. 

Every workout is purposely designed to either train you or test you across the 10 skills with a mix of undulating intensities so that you become the most well-rounded athlete (person) you can be. 

You’ll be able to record your performance and consistently test and retest so that you can progressively overload and improve. 

Click this link to find out more about our PT + group coaching. 

Click this link to get a free 7-day free trial to all 3 of our online programming.