Preventative Medicine

"You're doctor is a life guard, not a swim coach." - Greg Glassman

As soon as you are visiting your doctor three times per week and organizing medication in a MTWThF pill box, chances are you won't be going to a gym any time soon. The doctors and pharmaceutical companies are there to mitigate all of our health problems - they are a life preserver.

They won't prevent you from being on the brink of death, from losing your independence, and from decrepitude. The last thing you'll want is a swim coach. At that point you won't be able to swim, you'll be drowning, and you will need a life guard. 

Unfortunately, thats the way the vast majority of our country has approached their health. It is seen the rise in obesity, heart failure, rising health care costs, diabetes, and cancer over the past 40+ years.

Your fitness is a snapshot of your health. 

A person's ability to lift heavy loads over long distance, and to do it quickly is a measure of your work capacity. 

One mile run, one rep max deadlift, clean and jerk, 2000 meter row, muscle up, box jumps, 400 meter sprint, max deadhang pull ups - these are all measures of your work capacity. They measure how fast you are, how high you jump, how much you lift, and how much work you can do in a certain amount of time. 

The better your work capacity is over broad time and modal domains, the chances are the other metrics of health and fitness - V02 max, lactic acid threshold, blood pressure, triglyceride level, flexibility, muscle mass - will fall into line. 

So work capacity is a measure of fitness and fitness is a snapshot of your health. Work capacity, and your ability to maintain it throughout life, determines your health. Your work capacity is your health.

Sickness, on the other hand, is the lack of work capacity. It is on the other end of the sickness/wellness/fitness spectrum. Chances are, if your work capacity over broad time and modal domains is poor, the metrics of health and fitness mentioned above will reflect that. 

Take home message - you need to be an athlete to move your way to the other side of the sickness/wellness/fitness spectrum. The good news: Everyone is an athlete. 60 year old athletes participating in bootcamps, strength programs, and cross-training are stronger than non-athletes in their prime at 28. Athletes are stronger, have more bone density, muscle mass, reduced coronary heart disease, have less colds, and less depression than non-athletes.

Take your preventative medicine and avoid the doctor and the pill box. Go to a gym, hit the running trail, go for a swim, or register for a 5k. At the very least get outside, throw a frisbee or play catch with your child during the beautiful Minnesota summers. Get acquainted with your "swim coach".

Pat Costello is the owner and operator of CrossFit Mendota and Get 'Em Bootcamps, located in Mendota Heights, MN. He is CrossFit Level 1 Certified and a USAW Sports Performance Coach.