The difference between fitness and aesthetics

Going to the gym or doing exercise is becoming a part of today’s lifestyle. Generally people go to gym for fitness. But the scenario is bit different actually. Teenager and young boys go to gym for building muscle. Girls do it for shape their body. And the rest of the people do it for weight loss (Why? because their doctor warned them to do it).

What do you think what is happening in 80% of the gym all around the world? People are becoming aesthetics obsessed. And the worst part is they think they are doing “fitness”. Conventional gym movements are very small piece of the actual fitness world. Doing these exercises 4 to 6 times a week for 1 hour WON’T make you fit. Yes it will help to make you feel good in the starting days and will burn some fat but after that your obsession for aesthetics will increase and then at this point your perspective will change from becoming fit to becoming more aesthetic. The truth is that aesthetic is not same as fitness.

Let me give you an example. Let’s take a professional fitness model and an amateur track and field athlete. What do you think who is more fit and healthy???  You know the answer. An amateur athlete is way more healthy and fitter than a professional so called “fitness model”. They are not fitness models at all. They are physique models. I respect them a lot they work so hard to make their body look so good. But that doesn’t mean they are fit.

So the question here is ‘what should you do to be actually fit?’ To answer this question let me ask you another question. Have you seen a nice dancer who is so fat? Have you ever seen an obese athlete? Probably not.Have you ever seen a fatty gymnast or martial artist? No. You have not. Why? What is the common thing in all of these?

Here’s the answer, they do NOT focus on building muscles or loosing fat instead they focus on performance.

Conventional gym movements focus on strength and cardiovascular endurance. These are just a small part of your total fitness. There are other areas where you need you focus if you want actual fitness. As adapted by crossfit community there are 10 components of fitness.

• Strength
• Speed
• Cardiovascular endurance
• Agility
• Flexibility
• Power
• Accuracy
• Balance
• Coordination
• stamina

I believe that this is 100% true. Crossfit has revolutionized the approach of the fitness. I am not saying that crossfit is the only way to be fit. I will say it is more effective than the conventional gym or bodybuilding if your goal is to be fit.

There are lots of functional fitness gyms which can be your best choice. You need to become more functional if you want to be fit. Try out yourself and you will see a massive change in your everyday work capacity. Fitness is not about doing bench press at 300 lbs. Fitness is when you are able to run, climb, play with your family and friends at the picnic or outing. So choose your exercises wisely.

According to me the best way to be fit is to learn as many disciplines as possible (i.e. any sport, martial art, gymnastics, dance, yoga etc.). Explore the exercises and movements associated with these disciplines. Your results will be unbelievable. You might think its jack of all master of none approach but in general fitness the jack of all approach is the best approach. You are not an athlete so you don’t want to be specializing in any one type of movement.

At the end of all its up to you to decide which way you like more. An aesthetic body which has very limited functional abilities or a better functional body which is actually fit and of course aesthetic as well. Aesthetics is a by product of actual fitness but not vice versa.