Zach squatting 675[/caption]Most of us would agree that the prevailing cultural mindset in the US places an extreme emphasis on appearance. Every day we are inundated with pictures of people who have dedicated their lives to vanity in the pursuit of fame. Most of the images we see do not even accurately represent the people they depict. They have spent hours in makeup; the lighting has been adjusted to hide imperfections and emphasis attributes; and finally the images are photo shopped to get the desired flawless effect. As a result of growing up in this culture, we have accepted that such images exemplify health, fitness, and the ability to perform at a high level in a chosen sport. We now subconsciously carry these assumptions with us and use appearance to judge the health, fitness, and athletic performance abilities in ourselves and others.
So how does this relate to athletics? Most of us have come to associate being lean with being in shape, assuming that the leaner someone is the better shape that they are in. Though the two can and often do go hand in hand they are, in reality, two very different things. Being lean is measured by the amount of body fat someone has, while being “in shape” is generally referring to the level of conditioning that someone has achieved. It is possible to become very lean while being extremely out of shape. Similarly someone could achieve a very high level of conditioning while maintaining a higher body fat percentage. To summarize, though it is common to see individuals who are out of shape and possess higher levels of body fat, there is no direct correlation between body fat percentage and work capacity.
During my time in the military, I saw numerous examples of individuals who appeared to be in excellent shape but were unable to match the run times and Physical Fitness Test (PFT) scores of some of the so-called “fat bodies”. I myself was threatened with disciplinary action for being “too fat” while scoring in the top five percent of the company on the PFT and achieving the only perfect score in the company on the Combat Fitness Test. This goes to show how our culture has become obsessed with appearance even at the price of performance. I must admit that I enjoyed joking about being fat and out of shape, then crushing the scores of those who took me seriously and foolishly thought that because I looked fatter than them I was out of shape. Other similar examples can be seen in performance-oriented sports such as MMA, Strongman, and Powerlifting where competitors are often not lean but still possess immense work capacities. Fighters are one of the best examples; many of them look out of shape while actually being among the most highly conditioned athletes in the world. Many athletes competing at high levels in these performance-oriented sports have higher body fat percentages and still possess a tremendously high level of conditioning. Some athletes even benefit from having high body fat percentages because it can improve their leverages allowing them to lift more (powerlifters, strongmen, and throwers), enabling them to generate more momentum (football), and protecting them from injury. This is especially true in contact sports, but also in many sports that aren’t considered contact sports. If body fat drops too low then hormonal imbalance, increased risk of injury, and decreased levels of strength can result.
So what does this mean to you? The first thing is to decide what your goals are. Then understand what will best help you to achieve those goals in the safest and most effective way. This may mean losing or increasing body fat, depending on the specific demands of your sport. Goals will fit into one of three categories – health/fitness, performance, or appearance. While many people have goals in more than one category, it is important to understand that if you want to achieve a goal in one category, your goals in the other two categories may need to be adjusted accordingly. There is nothing wrong with having goals in multiple categories, but you have to decide what is most important to you and what you are willing to do or give up to accomplish it. A general rule for pursuing high level goals is you can be really good at one thing, OK at two things, or you can suck at three or more things.
Contrary to mainstream thought, being lean, healthy, and conditioned are not the same thing nor are they an accurate indicator of the others. Know your goals and what is needed to safely and efficiently reach them, then determine and maintain the appropriate levels of body fat and conditioning.
Jacob Layer
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