Fitness means different things to different people.
For some fitness is the ability to excel in a chosen sport, yet for others the opportunity to easily play with their grandchildren or simply perform daily activities without pain.
It is not necessarily a state of being, and could just be a state of mind i.e. do you see yourself as a fit or unfit person?
To help you to understand how important fitness is to me and why I prioritise it in my life, I need to tell you a story.
Just over 10 years ago I was at a very low point in my fitness life-cycle. My heart health (I was born with congenital heart defects) had declined to the point I no longer identified with myself as an athlete or coach.
My symptoms made it increasingly difficult for me to remain active, and although I never stopped pushing myself, it was more as an effort to hold on to what I was losing, rather than to see progress.
The character traits which I wanted to share with the world had been stripped away one by one, and I honestly wasn’t sure how, or if, I would ever be able to rebuild.
I hit an incredibly low point a few days after my 2005 open heart surgery, when having been helped from the bed to a chair I found that I could not reach my breakfast which had been placed on the table just in front of me.
No matter what I did, I did not have the strength to reach out and pull a miserable little wheeled table towards me, and after struggling for several minutes I just broke down and cried.
Deep down I knew that that the life-saving surgery was necessary, but nothing had prepared me for the helplessness which I then felt.
I’ve spent many years identifying with, and feeling proud of myself, as Beth the athlete and Beth the personal trainer, and was left feeling somehow bereft when I thought that I could no longer live up to my idea of how I wanted the world to perceive me.
Yet somewhere in that moment I knew that I had a choice. I could give up and resign myself to a world of helplessness and lost ability, or I could accept where I was and commit to build on it and move forwards.
I chose the latter.
Once a friendly nurse had seen my plight and helped me to access my breakfast, I started the slow and at times painful process of rebuilding my fitness levels and my life.
At first my daily goals amounted to standing up and making a circuit around the ward (I had discovered that it was possible to go in a circle down one side and up the other), and soon I had extended this to one, two or three circuits before taking a break.
Before long I was keeping a little tally of my progress and aiming to build on it each day, and I’m pretty sure that I had to be discharged from the hospital earlier than expected because I was wearing a path in the flooring!
Once home I carried on setting my own daily challenges, firstly walking every day, then two weeks’ post-surgery returning to the gym where I rode the exercise bike for 50 minutes. Just six weeks after my operation I took part in a mini triathlon consisting of a short swim, bike and run, and to my delight was far from last.
I’m not telling you this so you can be impressed or think that I’m superhuman, but rather to show you that if you want something badly in life and are prepared to work for it, then almost anything is possible.
I would love it if you could find it within yourself to set a fitness challenge or goal which signifies everything to you, and use this very moment to make a start.
I have had many more ups and downs with my health in recent years, but I’ve learned that my only true failure in life is to give up and accept less of myself and I’m capable of.
I still place a huge priority on my own health and fitness, and am even more lucky that my professional life as a personal trainer and rehab specialist still extends to helping others towards their physical goals.
So how do I measure and define my own fitness?
1. An ability to physically achieve what I want to when I want to, without fearing that my body or mind will let me down. Over the years my expectations of myself have certainly diminished slightly (I no longer guarantee that I would able to run 20 miles or cycle a century at the drop of a hat), but I still expect that I could achieve what I want given the appropriate training. Most years I aim to set myself at least a few physical goals to work towards, be that a recognised competition or a personal challenge. I tend to need the motivation which comes from having a quantifiable goal if I am to stay consistent with my workouts and eating habits, and I am always tracking my progress so I can stay accountable.
2. To not have to hold myself back or measure out my daily activities based on fear that what I do will make me overly-tired or in pain. I hate that feeling that my physicality has limits, and that if I do too much today then I will be less able tomorrow. This was certainly a feeling I have had in periods of poor health, but I will always aim for it not to be a regular occurrence. I accept that with increasing age comes a natural decline in physical ability, but it is my aim to slow this process as much as I can!
3. To be relatively pain-free and able to move my body with ease. Honestly, I may not be as flexible or agile as I was 20 years ago, but I will not accept that with increasing age comes a definite decline in ability. My knees now creak and groan whenever I move, and squatting down or stepping from a height takes a little more forethought and preparation, but if I give in and do less the most basic functions would soon be lost. I look at some of my clients, the oldest of which are in their late 80’s, and realise how much capability they still have. You might wrongly believe that the ones who attend my classes are the more physically able to start with, but when you talk to them you would realise how much they value their fitness, and how hard they are prepared to push themselves to keep it! Two of our Merlin Fitness core values are ‘no limits’ and ‘no excuses’, and the members generally epitomise these traits.
4. To maintain appropriate levels of weight and body fat. My weight has fluctuated by a few stone over the years, going from my lowest ‘racing weight’ of 9st10lbs when I was at my competitive peak in 2000-2001, to nearer 11st10 about 5 years ago. These days I hover happily around 10st10lbs, and although I could probably stand to lose half a stone, I judge my weight based on I look and feel rather than a number on the scale.
5. Not to prematurely die or have my life made more difficult by an easily preventable illness caused by my own poor lifestyle choices. Given my cardiac history, I have been forced to accept that my health will continue to decline, and ultimately it (or consequences of it) will likely reduce my quality and quantity of life. What I will fight against is knowingly adding to my problems by not taking the appropriate amount of exercise, maintaining a reasonable weight, or making other poor health choices. I acknowledge that there are no certainties in life, and no matter how ‘good’ I am I can still be struck down by cancer, diabetes, a stroke or a heart attack, and in fact my odds of further illness may be worse. Certainly, the fact that I have one limiting condition does not mean that I am immune to getting another, so I see it as imperative that I do what I can to minimise those risks.
Why I love being a personal trainer
Reading back through what I have just written, I can see so very clearly why I love what I do. My job as a personal trainer brings me into contact every day with people who are prepared to make the necessary sacrifices to maintain or even build on their own fitness levels. Many of my rehab clients are already facing their own health challenges, be that cancer, heart disease, COPD, arthritis or host of different conditions, yet they choose not to let that diagnosis hold them back.
We all have the power within us not to allow our current reality to define what we are capable of, now or in the future. It is far easier to prevent a health crisis than it is to overcome it once it has done its worst, but even for people facing an uncertain medical future there is always hope.
Personally I will never stop fighting to maintain the ability which I now have. I acknowledge that it will slowly or even quickly be taken away, and for that reason alone I will make the most of it now whilst I can.
Alongside that, I want nothing more than to be able to help other people feel empowered and positive about their own health, and understand that no matter where they are now, there is always a path to be better.
I hope that you use this message as an opportunity to spend some time defining exactly what fitness and health means to you. Whereas we may share some common desires, I would bet that you have some reasons which are very individual to your personal circumstances.
All too often we don’t value what we have until it is taken away.
If you learn nothing else from reading this, I hope that you now see your own fitness (no matter how it currently looks) as something to be prioritised and nurtured.
You are unique and amazing, whether you believe it or not!
