a) Sub 6-minute mile
IV. Endurance
A. Time. The most consistent metric to use to measure your endurance level is how long you can maintain an elevated heart rate without needing to rest. I tend to use 75–80% of maximum heart rate (oh, look, it’s already becoming important!). Here the time is the same for both males and females. You’ll see there is a large range, and that’s because we’re talking endurance, the ability to exert yourself for a long time. You could even divide up the advanced section into multiple brackets, but these serve as good starting places.
1. Beginner
a) < 1 minute — 20 minutes
2. Intermediate
a) 20 minutes — 90 minutes
3. Advanced
a) > 90 minutes
V. Flexibility
A. In the included workouts, flexibility will be the only component that doesn’t categorize you as beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Wherever you start, you will end up doing the same amount of flexibility work. But it is important to get a clear idea of where you’re starting from, so here are good ways to check. Bonus: most of them double as pretty good stretches for flexibility training when we get to workouts!
1. Single Leg Floor Touch Test (100); Two-Legged Variety (101) With this test, you are checking for imbalance between your hamstrings and back — and the ability to hold a position, rather than getting there by bouncing or quick movement. In the case of flexibility, bouncing is both dangerous and can lead to muscle pulls, strains, and tears.
a) Find a short stool (6–10 inches high)
b) Put one foot on the stool, keep the other leg straight, and reach slowly for the foot on the floor with both hands
c) Hold the stretch for 10 seconds at a time
d) Switch sides
2. Groin Flexibility Test (102)
a) Sit on the floor, with knees to each side and feet together
b) Pull your heels back toward your groin, keeping your feet together
c) See how close to your groin you can pull your feet without significant discomfort
3. Trunk Twist (103)
a) Standing in a bent over position, place your left hand on the outside of your right leg
b) Reach your right arm up toward the ceiling while opening up your body to the right side
c) Hold where you begin to experience discomfort for 10 seconds
d) Switch sides
4. Back Scratch Test (104, 105)
a) Reaching back over your shoulder with one arm, place your fingertips on your back
b) Reaching the other arm behind your back, place the knuckles on the back
c) Try to bring both hands to touch
d) Preferably, have a partner measure the distance between your hands so you can gauge it
e) Switch sides and repeat
Okay, so those are ways to discern where you are starting from. Again, each one, the point is just to get a clear idea of where you are beginning. You may be ahead in one category and behind in another. You may be significantly ahead or behind of where you expected to be in a category, or overall. No matter what the circumstances, resist the temptation to despair or to be too self-satisfied. Both come from pride, and both will inhibit the possibility for real learning, growth, and change.
Part 2
The Components of Fitness
Chapter Six
Strength
“Having faith does not mean having no difficulties, but having the strength to face them, knowing we are not alone.”
— Pope Francis
The foundation of any physical fitness program is strength building, plain and simple. “But I don’t want to get too big,” you say. There are two answers to that.
One: Seriously, do you think you’re going to go to bed one night in the body you’re used to and wake up the next morning as a human tank? Growth, generally speaking, happens gradually, and there will be no Hulk transformations, I promise.
Two: Size and strength are not synonymous. The goal of this chapter is to help you find an appropriate level of strength to meet your needs and desires. “But I can’t lift weights… I have injuries!” you cry. Wow, you’re full of excuses today. I promise we’ll address them. But first, let’s start with why strength training is so important.
Literally every part of physical fitness involves strength in some capacity. From the beginning, Genesis tells us that God makes us in his own image, to share in the act of creation, to have dominion over the earth and subdue it (see Gn 1:26–28). Apparently, that’s hard enough work that even God himself takes the seventh day to rest! God doesn’t give us any capacity or gift to be left unused. As Jesus reveals in the parable of the talents (Mt 25:14–30), and like we discussed in Chapter Three on virtue, every repetition of good action builds our ability to repeat good action in the future. Similarly, God created our bodies to respond to work and stress by growing stronger as well. Noticing a pattern at all?
It bears repeating that since God made us a unity of body and spirit, there are generally cognates in the physical life that directly mirror the spiritual life. Any good spiritual action will produce growth in strength of virtue, and physical actions will result in more basic physical strength.
Obviously, this applies to the other fitness components as well. Speed necessitates strong fast-twitch muscle fibers; endurance requires strong slow-twitch muscle fibers; flexibility requires pliability and isometric strength. But this also applies to our daily lives. As my friend Carlen says, “What’s the point of fitting into a size zero dress if I can’t carry my groceries?”
