Fitness versus health. Know the difference? I didn’t when I got started.
When you google the definition of fitness the first two results are:
1. The condition of being physically fit and healthy
2. The quality of being suitable to fulfill a particular role or task
When you google the definition of health the first two result are:
1. The state of being free from illness or injury
2. A person’s mental or physical condition
What I take from this is that fitness or being fit is the ability to do stuff effectively while avoiding injury. Running 10k, lifting your body weight, lifting double your body weight, jump high, being flexible…etc. Healthy is then more a state of being where you are injury free, able to do stuff physically and you are mentally there.
So is a couch potato healthy? Maybe. But an active fit person will probably be more healthy.
Would a bodybuilder who lifts 500+ pounds, wrecks his knees and joints, and is barely mobile be healthy? Maybe not. They may be more fit then someone lifting half that weight but not necessarily more healthy if there fitness quest has caused them injury and forces them to live with pain.
So my moto is to find balance between being fit and healthy. I believe that by staying fit, while avoiding over extending your physical abilities that you will intern be able to live at your healthiest. I also believe that finding balance with your spiritual life for whatever you may believe, is also very important to achieving a healthy balanced life, but that’s a topic for another post.
So…
Stay Fit & Live Healthy,
Jon Felske