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The fitness world is very broad, and can be filled with a lot of confusing terminology for workout styles that donāt help people not already in the know. Iād like to take some time and discuss different types of fitness objectives to reach different goals, and then cover how different styles of training related back to those goals.
Goals of All Sorts
Thereās many different specific goals out there - running a marathon, doing a handstand, bench pressing 225lbs, doing 100 pushups - but we can categorize them into a few distinct buckets.
There is no one true way to ābe fitā. Thereās not even an accepted definition of fitness. Who you think of as āfitā and what you want for yourself will help you refine what your ultimate fitness goal is. Once you have that, you can slice this goal up into the different amount of each of the following four categories of fitness objectives:
Strength objectives cover the ability to move some external load, whether that is an iron bar, a bag of sand, a log, or even just your own body. Strength objectives are achieved by training the maximum force your body can output at a given time.
Physique objectives are all about how you look - either to yourself, or others. For a large majority of people in the developed world, this is more about losing body fat while maintaining muscle; though a decent amount of people have the opposite problem, having low body fat and low muscle. Nutrition is the most important factor for physique objectives, but proper strength training is required for muscle mass retention. Cardiovascular training can also help create caloric deficits to improve fat loss.
Endurance objectives are all about doing a thing for a long time. A lot of people think of running a marathon when they think of fitness - that is an endurance goal. But so is doing 100 pushups, jump roping for a long time, rock climbing, and similar. Endurance objectives are trained through smart repetition of the task you want to get better at.
Performance objectives are somewhere between strength and endurance objectives, but are their own breed. Performance objectives are about doing a complex, skilled thing and doing it well. A handstand, for example, takes a decent amount of wrist, shoulder, and core strength and endurance to maintain it, but need simple practice more than anything else. Backflips, frisbee throwing, pole vaulting, all of these could be considered performance objectives. Training here is also about good, solid repetition of the skill when fresh, without fatigue.
Great, But What Aboutā¦
I hear you, you have a certain type of goal that you think doesnāt fit in the above. Iād challenge you to take a step back and really think about it in terms of scale. Running a 5k is an endurance goal as much as a marathon is; squatting 135 is as much of a strength goal as squatting 315; and fitting into small shirts is as much of a physique goal as having a full 6 pack for the beach. Itās just a matter of degrees.
How Exactly Do I Train, Though?
Hereās the real crux of it. Letās say youāve thought about your goals and sort of have an idea of what you want. Maybe you think strength and physique objectives are where you want to start, with a small amount of endurance objectives coming in later. Great!
Iād highly recommend that anyone starting out focus on one, or at most two, of the above buckets. Physique objectives are where most people should start - working on nutrition first, eventually leaning into strength objectives using a simple program along with exercises that fit your goals.
It is worth noting that doing almost anything will provide strength, endurance, and cardiovascular adaptations for a novice. But what sort of stuff is actually out in the wild and how does it all relate back to my goals?
Circuit Training
Circuit training is a style of training focusing on doing one exercise after another, often limited by time. You might see the phrase āAs Many Reps As Possible (AMRAP)ā used. This style of training is made infamous by things like āThe Seven Minute Workoutā or DVD programs like P90x or Insanity.
Circuit training will provide a moderate amount of strength training to a novice, but that will taper off as you get more experienced with the workouts and simply increase the number of repetitions done in a time frame. Remember that endurance objectives are achieved through smart repetition, but strength training needs a system of progression rather than sheer repetition.
Circuit training often works to improve your bodyās energy systems and cardiovascular health, allowing you to perform for longer and longer, despite fatigue.
Conclusion: Circuit training will work for endurance objectives and some strength objectives; it can also help provide additional caloric burn for physique objectives, as long as itās coupled with good nutrition.
High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
HIIT is another popular term that gets bandied about in fitness marketing. Interval training is a term that covers a lot of ground, but it simply means alternating exercise with recovery - for example, sprinting some distance and walking back to the start. The āhigh intensityā part of HIIT really just indicates the level of effort needed to complete it. Alternating a light jog with sitting down might count as interval training, but it certainly isnāt high intensity.
There are a number of published styles of HIIT - Tabata being the most familiar term. These are really just prescriptions for how hard to work and how to rest. You can see another example when I talk about 4x4 interval training.
Some people have abused the terms as marketing, saying, for example, that doing a 20 second wall sit followed by some rest is a āTabata workoutā - this is false. You can read Professor Tabataās protocol at the link above and infer whether or not a 20s wall sit is going to approach you using 170% of your peak oxygen intake.
Conclusion: HIIT that follows actual interval training protocols is a great way to improve cardiovascular health. This means itās great for both endurance objectives and physique objectives, much like circuit training was.
Barbell Programs
Basic barbell programs like StrongLifts, Starting Strength, and Greyskull LP are very popular programs for beginning lifters to get strong. The focus of basic barbell programs is simple: improve whole body strength using a few big exercises.
All of these programs are good, and most barbell based programs out there will look similar to these, at least for novice and intermediate lifters. That is to say, any beginner lifter should be doing a very similar set of basic barbell exercises; and even more advanced programs should center around them.
Conclusion: Barbell programs are tailor made for strength objectives. If youāre a complete novice, this will also have an effect on endurance objectives and physique objectives, similar to how circuit training can improve strength at first.
Yoga
Without getting into any spiritualism, yoga when done as exercise is a series of complex postures that are moved into, out of, and held to varying degrees.
As with anything else Iāve listed, a novice can expect yoga to provide some strength training for the major muscle groups at first but it will eventually move towards endurance work as postures are hit more frequently or held for longer. But ultimately, performing yoga is about trying to perfect the individual postures and being able to use them in a yoga flow.
Conclusion: Beyond initial adaptations in strength and endurance, yoga is mostly about getting better at yoga. This means it is excellent for someone with specific performance objectives that align with yoga or specific yoga poses.
Calisthenics Programs
Oh boy are there a lot of calisthenics programs out in the world. Itās hard to talk about all of them as if there were one style.
There are programs that help you increase your rep count in pushups, chinups, or similar. There are programs that help you achieve a one legged squat, or your first chinup. There are also programs that teach you how to achieve static holds like body levers and planches.
Conclusion: You have to use all the information above to see if the program meshes with your goals. Programs that teach you to do harder exercises are for strength objectives, increasing rep counts are endurance objectives, and things like body levers or handstands are combinations of strength and performance objectives.
In Closing
An often overlooked part of fitness is determining what your goals are and determining how to train to achieve those goals. Too many people have a lumpy, shapeless idea of what fitness means to them, and they just sort of do anything and everything, yet wonder why they arenāt getting fit. Itās simple - they either donāt have a goal to work towards, or donāt know how to work towards their goal.
So figure out a goal. Be honest with yourself - plenty of people are scared to admit they want to look good naked, but itās a fantastic goal. Then take that honest goal, and figure out how you need to train to hit it.
So whatās your goal?
I have been thinking about this article a lot since I posted this comment on the 14th. First off, thanks for defining the terms that are thrown about in regards to methods of fitness.
Then I've been thinking about my goal. At first I thought maybe I had an endurance goal - ride a century, run a half marathon, do a triathlon. I think I still want to try to ride a century, but honestly, when it comes down to it, I think I'd just like to look good and feel good. Pointers?
I think you may have left out some more basic reasons to work out - flexibility, balance, and managing other health conditions. For me, flexibility and balance are important to me as I grow old. That's why I practice yoga (or at least did when the Y was still open). I guess maybe those fall under the performance category?
And then I have some underlying health conditions which cardio vascular exercise and weight loss (regardless of how I look) are part of my doctor's recommendations. Right now, I see physique, endurance, and strength as bonus results after my health numbers get into the correct ranges.
Which is not to say I can't ALSO be trying to drive towards Physique or Strength or Endurance objectives at the same time. And I think if I set one of those higher level goals, my lower level objectives will take care of themselves.
(You have also answered why marathon runners, weightlifters, decathletes, and body building champions all have totally different physical looks. Because their goals are different, so their training regimen is different.)