By Kevin Hirose – BHK, CSCS

The football athlete posted in the picture above is clearly very lean and muscular and obviously fast and powerful – a case of an athlete looking fit and being fit for his sport.  However, he would not be the fittest person to a marathon or play as a lineman (the big guys on the front line football), despite the impressive physique. To reiterate the last point of Part 1 of this entry; I would choose the “fit’ individual vs the “fit-looking” one in any situation that required “fitness” or physical ability. Don’t get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with looking fit, lean and muscular but do not gauge one’s fitness solely on his/her appearance. You can get into trouble there, in more than one way.

With the exception of a “physique athlete” such as a bodybuilder or esthetics-focused sport/activity, PHYSICAL QUALITIES such as strength, speed and flexibility is more vital to being fit than looks. Look at the top athletes on each sport – do each of them necessarily have the best physiques? For example, the top marathon runners are very lean but have low muscle mass. And none of them are what you would call “muscular”. Why do think that is? Excess muscle mass would some them down over long distances. However, added strength with minimal muscle increase via strength training would likely improve performance. So in this instance, more muscle mass is NOT necessarily better.

GENETICS can play a huge part in body appearance. The media has portrayed certain physiques as ideal or at least very desirable. Sure, it can be a sign of health and vitality but I have witnessed many people who train very hard and eat healthy and still do not have the leanness and shape of those in the magazines and internet.

Two things:

1) Many of these models DO NOT look this year-round, in fact, many of them do not look like this the majority of the time. they will get in ripped for the shoot and maybe have some lighting “enhancement”.
2) Many of them have the genetics for muscularity and leanness illustrated by the body somatotypes (ectomorphy, mesomorphy, endomorphy) – some people are just born with it, despite eating poorly and not exercising like a maniac

So…please, pretty please, do not punish yourself for not being able to attain which may be an unrealistic goal – not everyone was meant to have a six-pack.

According to Medical New Today, some of the physical fitness components include:

cardiorespiratory fitness
muscular strength
muscular endurance
body composition
flexibility

None of these includes “physique”, muscle definition, ripped, shredded, super lean, etc

However, body composition is the closely related to physique and appearance and in my opinion is a solid indicator of health and to a lesser extent, fitness. Usually, body composition is a measure of lean mass versus fat mass and is given as a body fat% and where excess body fat is often an indicator of poor health and fitness levels.  At Apex Strength & Conditioning, we do not focus on weight loss much but much more on body composition and fitness improvements, especially since many of our clients do not lose a significant amount of weight because of increased muscle mass during the training process. This can lead to the illusion of a lack of progress but if I ask them to try on a pair of pants they haven’t been able to fit in a long time, they are often surprised they fit!! Body girth measurements and body composition tell a much better story than the number weight scale.

So if you are focused on improving your physique, I suggest to try improving fitness components in some measureable way that is NOT just on what you see in the mirror and also focus on NUTRITION. Perhaps make it a goal to increase the number of push-ups you can do or run 5 km just a bit faster than before.  I also highly recommend the guidance of a good personal trainer or strength & conditioning coach to help you safely and effectively reach your goal(s).