When I was in college we learned about the American College of Sports Medicine’s 5 components of fitness. They are:
1. Muscular Strength
2. Muscular Endurance
3. Cardiovascular Endurance
4. Flexibility
5. Body Composition
According to ACSM this means a person who can lift heavy weights, high repetitions, keep an elevated heart rate, move their joints in a full range of motion and have acceptable fat/muscle ratios is physically fit. But it doesn’t take into account that this same person could walk around with bowed knees, collapsed arches, abnormal spinal curvatures, and no awareness of their own physical movement. But hey… they’re physically fit! Kind of….
ACSM’s 5 components of fitness are far too limiting. CrossFit expanded on these 5 components of fitness and created what they call 10 “fitness domains”. These 10 domains address not just the physical, but the neuro-kinetic components of fitness. They are:
1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory endurance – the ability of body systems to gather, process and deliver oxygen.
2. Stamina – the ability of body systems to process, deliver, store and utilize energy.
3. Strength – the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply force.
4. Flexibility – the ability to maximize the range of motion at a given joint.
5. Power – the ability of a muscular unit, or combination of muscular units, to apply maximum force in minimum time.
6. Speed – the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
7. Coordination – the ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
8. Agility – the ability to minimize transition time from one movement pattern to another.
9. Balance – the ability to control the placement of the body’s center of gravity in relation to its support base.
10. Accuracy – the ability to control movement in a given direction or at a given intensity.
According to CrossFit, all people of all fitness levels can benefit from training in these 10 domains of fitness. Thus, a well rounded human being seeks to achieve high levels of skill and competency in all 10 fitness domains… but may still walk around with their mind on autopilot, at the mercy of uncontrollable waves of emotional energy, have a completely depressed viewpoint on life, and generally be ruled by their ego and trapped by their mind. But hey… they have a great Murph time! So what...
Even CrossFit falls short of the total human picture that can be cultivated inside a gym. It is with great love that I would like to add 5 more domains to the trainable fitness paradigms. These 5 domains address the psycho-spiritual components of fitness. They are:
11. Focus - the ability of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy to be directed entirely and cohesively in a single moment or task, or a series of continuing moments and tasks.
12. Determination - the ability to harness physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy for task completion at varying intensities across broad time and modal domains.
13. Awareness - the ability to create instant physical, mental, emotional and spiritual connections to the subtlest movements, moments, existences, or energies.
14. Expression - the ability to use physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy to communicate a genuine state of existence through your physical body.
15. Stillness - the ability to rapidly release control of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy and enter a state of complete conscious relaxation.
These domains give validity to our thoughts, emotions and worldview as it affects our fitness. Once our internal workings are recognized as conscious things to cultivate, we can begin to unravel our jumbled mental and emotional ruts.
All people of all fitness levels can benefit from training these extra 5 domains of fitness. Elite athletes and successful people need the ability to focus, the determination to drive towards a goal, the awareness of life in and around them, and the ability to express themselves. The most successful of all will also master the ability to cultivate stillness, in which true self knowledge occurs.
Fitness is about more than just expanding parameters of the physical body. We are cultivating all things at every moment in some way, even inside the gym. Your awareness or lack thereof is determining what and how you are cultivating within yourself. Look at yourself, what do you see? To quote Yoda:
Your Homework:
Continue to:
1. Play; both inside the gym and outside.
2. Learn new skills or continue to master known ones (or both!)
3. Grow tall at least once a day for 5 consecutive minutes.
4. Perform core workouts daily.
5. Get breath!
6. Wake up!
7. Perform the 10 minute Squat test regularly!
8. Visit stillness in movements to master them.
9. Master the three basic functional movements!
No comments:
Post a Comment