Why Just Being Active Can Leave You Unfit

Being active is a good thing. The more active you are, the more likely you will remain active as you age.

A patient of mine, a physician who loved to run, injured her knee from running too much. When I asked her why she ran as often as she did, she said, “Well, I figure the day I stop running is the day I start becoming less and less active and get more and more out of shape.”

Now, you might assume that since she was a doctor that she would know that running too much isn’t really a good thing for you and that running, by itself, is not how you get in shape nor stay in shape.

But her assumption – that being active means being in shape – is shared by a lot of people.

Check out this note from a reader:

“…My doctor said my heart and lung function looks normal (whatever that means), but that there were some signs of “de-conditioning”.  I asked him what he meant by the term and he said ‘You are not in as good shape as you once were.’

Kind of cryptic.  And, how does a CPET show that kind of thing, anyway?

Well, needless to say, I was pretty surprised, given the fact that I run 3 miles twice a week and swim for 40 minutes twice a week.

But, I guess I am not placing as much demand on my body as I need to be.

Apparently, I have some degree of muscle atrophy, including heart muscle, due to not having to deal with high demand.  Maybe I am not getting my heart rate up high enough for long enough snaps of time.

I was telling my wife that it is bothersome to come to the realization that I have probably spent 20-25 years getting exercise solely to avoid GETTING FAT (which I think I have mostly managed to do) and have falsely concluded that if you exercise enough to burn off the calories you are taking in, then you are IN SHAPE.  But, in fact, if you don’t constantly place some level of DEMAND on your body, you are going to end up getting OUT OF SHAPE, no matter how many calories you burn.

What an eye-opener.

Doing a little research today, I also learned that over time most people lose muscle fiber (natural aging process) but also lose muscle mass due to living sedentary lives.  The loss of mass is largely reversible.  But here is exactly where the problem comes in – being something other than non-sedentary is NOT ENOUGH.

Better late than never, I guess.” – John (name changed to protect his privacy).

Why Being Active Is Not Enough

A CPET is a CardioPulmonary Exercise Test (CPET) is a test that evaluates your heart and lung function and how well your body uses oxygen. Although his test was fine as far his heart and lungs were concerned, his physician dropped the “D” word on him: de-conditioned.

“De-conditioning is adaptation of an organism to less demanding environment, or, alternatively, the decrease of physiological adaptation to normal conditions.”

So, what John is struggling with is that although he has consistently exercised for years (running and swimming), he is not as fit as he needs or wants to be.

How is this possible? How could he be unfit or de-conditioned?

“Fitness is being suitably adapted to the environmental demands – physical, mental, and emotional.

It ‘s the adaptation of an organism to the demands of the environment, or alternatively, an increase of physiological adaptation to normal conditions (that’s my definition by the way).

So, one of the problems is that your body will adapt to the demands you place on it and unless you deliberately and periodically raise the demand, you will become less fit over time.

If you use running to stay “fit”, you have to work on running faster or using speed intervals to increase the demand. The same would be true for swimming.

But, it still may not be enough.

Complete Fitness Through Complete Movement

The human body has been designed to work through multiple planes of motion and withstand demands across several domains or performance categories (think of power, stamina, strength, flexibility, balance and coordination, aerobic capacity).

Shoveling snow is a good example of three planes of motion – bend forward, bend sideways and turn.

If you’re not training to achieve fitness across those domains, you lose “fitness” and the only way you’ll know you’re not fit (unless you have a special test like a CPET), is when you need to call on one of those domains and it’s not there.

For example, springtime often brings enthusiasm to get outside, work in the yard, start some outdoor projects.

And for a lot of people, this leads to soreness, aching, stiffness, and sometimes injury.

Why?

Because you’ve not prepared your body by physical training to withstand the physical demands of the outdoor activities.

Your training should be persistent while consistently varied to achieve maximal adaptation across fitness domains and through multiple planes of motion.

Bottom line, as John pointed out, just being active is not enough to be fit. You have to embrace the demand.

What To Do

If you’re like John and doing some type of “cardio” exercise regularly, you don’t need to stop or slow down unless you’re in the over-achiever category and logging a lot of miles or hours per week (excessive cardio exercise is not healthy for your heart).

What you’ll need to do is add other types of physical training each week that uses multiple muscle groups through multiple planes of motion.

And to start with, this training can use body weight and dumb bells for resistance. Drills such as:

• Squats
• Push-ups
• Sideways lunge
• Stand on one leg and perform a “bicep curl”
• Plank

Whatever you decide to do, I encourage you, if you are active, stay active but add the necessary training to make your fitness complete.

What are you doing to stay in shape?