Improving fitness is a performance-based concept. Fitness is
generally related to improved health and wellness, both physically and
mentally. Most people associate fitness to lower weight. This is not
always the case.
Let us begin by reviewing a definition of fitness:
"Total
Fitness is the ability to combine disease avoidance, efficiency in
everyday life, ability to do desired activities, (e.g. sports, dancing,
playing with children), healthy mental attitude, and good social
behaviors, in order to achieve an optimal quality of life.
[1]
This
definition of fitness calls for enhancing both the physical and mental
qualities of life. For a review of how psychological activity relates to
fitness, see "Do Not Underestimate the Psychological Affects of
Fitness". The best way to determine fitness is to establish measurements
that relate to the above definition. Measurements are the best way to
determine performance.
Why are measurements so important?
Measurements are the premise for feedback. Feedback links directly to
improving performance. In a research project conducted by Miriam Erez it
was found that feedback, "Facilitates the display of individual
differences in self-set goals on the basis of knowledge of individual
past performance. Then when self-goals are set, it provides knowledge
for future performance to be consistent with the self-set goals.
[2] "
Feedback begins with a study of your current reality, e.g. current body
fat percent, body circumference. The next step is to create a vision
that establishes a desired future state. Once this is done you need to
define the measurements for the future state using the same measurement
criteria you used to determine your current reality. After completing
this step, it is easy to compare the two measurements and realize the
performance gap. It is important to realize that knowing this
information (knowledge) does not ensure a change in performance. How you
use the information (monitoring & action) dictates change that
leads to performance that is more effective.
Many people hire personal
trainers because of their ability to establish measurements and monitor
the progress of their clients. Unfortunately, this can lead to
dependence on the trainer. This is bad for two reasons. First, the
dependency is costly. Second, it transfers the client's performance
accountability to the trainer. When the client decides to cease using
the personal trainer, there has not been enough learning on the client's
part, to transfer the skill sets of monitoring and action planning for
continued fitness performance. Consequently, the client often abandons
their monitoring resulting in non-performance. This often leads to
abandoning fitness development and a regression back to the previous
state.
Performance improvement accountability rests with the
individual. When hiring a personal trainer it is important to make sure
the trainer's focus is to educate the client on the monitoring process
and provide them with the skills and tools to monitor their own
performance. There are several internet and PDA tools available via the
internet. These tools provide goal setting, body measurements, food
monitoring, calorie tracking, activity tracking, and behavioral tools,
e.g. mood monitoring and journals. Monitoring tools establish feedback,
e.g. calories burned vs. calories consumed, activity calorie
expenditure, and comparison of mood-to-calories. Individuals who
establish fitness goals and use such tools have a better chance of
achieving the self-fitness goals than those who do not.
Monitoring
and feedback also establish effective performance behavior patterns.
Once the link between feedback and successful results are established,
people make the connection between what they did, and the improved
performance results, i.e. when a person sees a correlation between
reduced body inches and intense resistance training; they are more
likely to continue the resistance training on their own. Over time, a
person who monitors his protein, carbohydrates, and fats soon recognize
the foods that provide the right balance of these nutrients.
They then
instinctively begin to select the right foods and portions that keep
their nutrition program on track. Monitoring is self-regulated and
feedback is done on an exception basis, i.e. a person realizes they have
eaten too much for the holiday and records the data for that holiday,
sees how much they have detoured from their nutritional program, and
what they need to do to correct the situation.
Feedback through
monitoring becomes less cumbersome and frustrating as you move to a
maintenance program vs. a progressive fitness program. The people who
sustain fitness and continuously improve fitness always have well
established feedback-monitoring systems in place. These tools have
become second nature to them, because of the repetition. You never want
to eliminate monitoring and feedback. As you reach your goals and
establish a maintenance program, you will use these tools less, but
never abandon them.
You need to find the right monitoring and feedback
tools that work for you. Everyone has different needs and different
circumstances. The important point is to find monitoring and feedback
tools that you will use. Once the tools become second nature you will
become more proficient at designing and implementing a strategy for
fitness.
