Image by quickster This is the third and final installment of the “Shah Training is Not Bodybuilding” series. The first post talked about focusing on a long-term approach to fitness. In the second post we took that idea further and I asked you to take another look at your current goals. Are they really something that will bring you satisfaction in the long term?

This final post I want to dabble in the definition of fitness. The princeton.edu definition for fitness is – the quality of being suitable.

Suitable for what? For life? For bodybuilding? For powerlifting? For a particular job? For what?Princeton.edu provides a sample sentence: “They had to prove their fitness for the position.”

Interesting. I actually like this definition of fitness. I once made a short video where I stated something like, “Fitness has nothing to do with losing weight or gaining muscle. It has to do with being healthy.”

A Practical Example

A bodybuilder friend of mine responded by saying, “You’re contradicting yourself.” Lets do a little experiment in word replacement:

What I’m saying is, “Being fit means that you are healthy.”

Apparently, according to my bodybuilder friend means the same as:

“Having a six pack means you are healthy.”

or

“Having big biceps means you are healthy.”

or

“Being able to run 24 miles in a few hours means you are healthy.”

Here are my thoughts:

• A six pack does not necessarily mean that you are healthy, because you could have gone through some extreme form of dieting that could be potentially harmful to your body. In this case you look healthy, but may not be much healthy once you get your blood work done.

• Same goes for the guy with big biceps. How many guys are walking around with huge arms and inflated chest, along with a belly hanging down to the ground? They’re just strong, but don’t look very fit. They wouldn’t be able to run very fast, nor would they be able to lift their own bodyweight for high reps.

• Finally, lets take the last example. Most distance runners are extremely skinny. They lack fundamental levels of strength and some even look sick- borderline anorexic. I would not call them healthy.

So then, what exactly is the definition of fitness? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Image by jhhwild Hey guys,I’d thought I’d end this week with asking you guys what you think of my new layout. This new layout is approximately three weeks old (I think). I’ve been tweaking it steadily, and I believe it is finally where I want it to be. Here is why I decided to change the layout and focus of the site:

1. I felt that the old site was TOO hardcore, and scared away the average joe. In all honesty, my goal is to get regular people to start exercising and living a healthy lifestyle. This was never intended to be just another hardcore fitness site.
2. I felt that the old site was not user-friendly. When people came to the home page, they were subjected to read whatever was on the home page, or specifically my latest post. If the latest post was about kettlebells, but someone wanted to read about bodyweight training, then what would they do?
3. The header was so big was that I really limited to the information I could put over the fold. With this new layout, I can feature the last few stories that I have written, and also devote the sidebar above the fold in trying to get new subscribers to my site.

So, what do you guys think? Do you think this layout is fine, or should I revert back to my original? Is there anything else I can do to make the site more user-friendly?