What does it mean to be fit? How fit does a person need to be?

These are questions that I often hear from people in regards to their overall physical fitness. The answer to that really depends on the particular demands required for the task at hand or a person’s individual goals.

For a professional fighter like myself, those demands include having the power, strength, and stamina to take down and submit an equally sized opponent. This is of course, in addition to having the speed and agility to punch and kick said opponent in their face, all the while (hopefully) avoiding their strikes.

These requirements are going to be very different from the competitive powerlifter or a high school basketball player. Thus, the term fitness, is relative.

Now for the average person (who is hopefully not getting into fist-fights regularly), the fitness demands of everyday life are going to be slightly less. Unfortunately in this day and age, most people’s daily physical activities are so minimal that we need to modify our definition to incorporate what tasks a person “might” have to do.

These could include: running a couple of miles to get help, carrying a loved one to safety, or fending off a would-be attacker. Setting these parameters as our baseline for fitness, we now have a clearer picture of where we need to be in terms of our fitness requirements. The question that remains is how do we get there, from where ever we are currently?

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