Fitness versus Health

Our society views highly trained athletes as the healthiest of all people. This is one reason for the confusion when a young, seemingly healthy athlete dies during competition. These athletes, and those of all ages, who break down with a heart attack are clearly more fit than 99 percent of the general population, but obviously they are not healthy. So let’s separate the definitions of fitness and health for a clearer perspective.

Fitness can be defined by athletic ability, with the level of fitness associated with the levels of training and competition. But health is very different; it’s the optimal function of all the body’s systems—muscles and bones, organs and glands, heart and lungs, nerves and brain. It is very common for athletes to be fit but unhealthy. They can be world champions or “back-of-the-pack” joggers; many are even injured and sick more than the average out-of-shape person. And sometimes they die in the course of their chosen passion, often due to an injury of the heart.

广告：个人专属 VPN，独立 IP，无限流量，多机房切换，还可以屏蔽广告和恶意软件，每月最低仅 5 美元

Many athletes, including weekend warriors, spend much of their time getting fit but don’t pursue health with the same vigor. Many others can actually become less healthy as a result of pushing and sacrificing their bodies beyond some imaginary limit. In doing so, they induce significant stress from training, or overtraining, poor diet, or other factors, rendering them less healthy. The result is an injured knee, recurrent respiratory infections, chronic fatigue, and other health problems considered part of the game. But it’s not part of healthy training. These problems are indicative of an imbalance between fitness and health. One can have both good health and achieve very high levels of athletic performance.

Of course, most people don’t exercise at all, nor do they focus on their health. When a person in this group dies at a younger age, we say it was due to neglect. The fact is, being an athlete doesn’t convey health benefits any more than being healthy makes you a great athlete if you don’t train.