Does Elite Sport Performance Equal Elite Health And Fitness?

michael6186

Does Elite Sport Performance Equal Elite Health And Fitness?

I'm of the opinion that it does not but still many have argued against that. So you tell me?

It's difficult to measure and define health and fitness since there are so many different ways and standards but I'm open and just looking to hear your thoughts.

Let's just use a general definition to define elite sports performance as top ten athletes in the sport of your choosing.

ninerbuff

Easy answer no. One of the biggest examples are competitive bodybuilders especially at the pro level.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

Hiawassee88

Synchronicity. Today, I was thinking about this very thing. Some of the healthiest people in the world don't go to the gym. Natural movement is the common thread for the world's long-lived peoples. In our world, USA, almost everyone is tied to their computer screen. The kids don't walk to school and they can't even walk to their friend's house. Some people are healthy because they're too busy dodging bullets and they can't worry about the gym.

If you don't work from home, there are long commutes. Our bodies were designed to move, move, move and it does not have to be in a gym. I understand. We have to replicate hard work in the gym because we're not doing much of anything. Farming, ranching, gardening, walking uphill both ways to school and barefoot in the snow....oy vey. We're sitting on the couch at the speed of zero between grinding through HIIT workouts and running and lifting heavy things. We're not producing or manufacturing anything.

Yes, we are creating elite athletes and they look good in their yoga pants. Yes, they will live longer so they can spend more time on the couch at the speed of zero, streaming movies. I am a horse of a different color. I don't pump iron, join gyms or run marathons. I lurve the people who do and I think there are some wonderful trainers here. I would enjoy their training advice. Most of all, I would enjoy their personalities.

I'm blue because of the blue zones. They don't overthink life or fitness. They're not consumed with fitness and food rules. I simply take everything back outside. I think about the world's long-lived people groups. They're elite in my book and they don't need lotsa splainin' for their quality of life.

Lietchi

I think this doesn't just concern specifically top 10 athletes, but elite professional athletes as a larger category: many of them push their body to the limits, their musculoskeletal system at least. Based on anecdotal evidence purely: (former) athletes talking about aches and pains, and obviously the injuries that are so frequent in top sports (although some athletes are more prone than others).

Side note, but some professional athletes have a lot of issues staying 'in shape' when they quit. I can't judge cardiovascular fitness by looks, but weight issues at least. So even if they might be healthier while being an athlete, they might not be afterwards.

sijomial

"Does Elite Sport Performance Equal Elite Health And Fitness?"

That's two separate questions.

Yes elite sport performance equals fitness but that fitness might be very specific and not translate to multi-sports. e.g. If you see the top road race cyclists without their shirt on their lack of upper body muscle is very evident.

Health is more complex, to a degree the very top elite athletes are a bit like racing cars - tuned to perfection but always right on the edge of breaking down.
As for long term health that's going to vary massively between different sports, some are pretty punishing on the body but others are not.

But if you compare elite athletes to the general population I would guess they are far healthier as a lot of major health risk factors (smoking, over-fat for example) are often (not universally) incompatible with performing at the highest level.

Xellercin

Lol, nooooope.

As has been said above, many athletes won't have the kind of lifestyle illnesses that the general population has, thanks to their exercise and generally superior diets, but they often have a slew of other health consequences.

Plus there are exceptions. I have a patient who is a world-class athlete in a sport that requires him to be big and strong. He's obese and has uncontolled high blood pressure in his early 30s, and signs of diabetes. I highly suspect he will die young as he has no intention of modifying his lifestyle, and he puts his cardiovascular system under enormous strain.

I also know one of the Cirque du Soleil choreographers, and their performers tend to have short careers and suffer catastrophic health consequences.

I have a genetic illness that makes me get injuries like professional athletes just from doing normal activity. I consider myself very unhealthy as a result. But my lifestyle is excellent and I'll likely never have the lifestyle illnesses other people get.

I go to sports med rehab with a lot of athletes and many of them are far worse off than I am. So even though they're tremendously fit, can they be considered "healthy?"

I have a torn hip labrum, which I'm waiting to get fixed. Meanwhile an athlete at my center is on her 7th torn labrum repair and described her legs as "trying to separate from [her] body."

That's not healthy.

AnnPT77

Not necessarily . . . especially if you look at the full arc of a life. Most elite athletes are pretty healthy when concurrently performing at peak, because they have to be . . . but potentially one injury away from a crash/burn, just as vulnerable as anyone else to non-sports injuries or pure genetic issues, probably nearly as vulnerable to other poor-health triggers (disease, environmental triggers, and the like).

I know several elite athletes - former elite athletes - in my sport (on-water rowing). Careers are fairly short, at true elite level (US national team, for the ones I know). Those who've stayed active post-career are pretty healthy - healthier than average for their demographic overall. The ones I know happen to be striving, achieve-y kind of people - character that's probably over-represented among elite athletes. That keeps them going, mentally engaged, wanting to be high performance in various realms lifelong. In that sense, their character may be a bigger influence on their whole-life health arc than their athletic talent/skill per se. (I know that some former elites suffer some kind of identity crisis and have difficulty succeeding overall in life. I don't think that's the most common story overall, certainly not common in rowing (no fame/glamor/sycophants in the first place, really.)

I also know a bunch of people fairly well who were sub-elite athletes, i.e., high performers at the collegiate level in NCAA Division I sports, mostly rowers but also a basketball player and a gymnast. Those who mostly dropped or dramatically reduced athletic pursuits after college have a high incidence of being overweight - similar to general population, possibly a little beyond. They got used to high food intake when training/competing, didn't fully adjust. For them, that's going to lead to the same metabolic health issues the general population has. (Most of the ones I know are on the young side for that to have come home to roost yet.)

In general, looking around me at the former high level or elite athletes I know, I don't think they're massively more healthy - in whole-life terms - than other highly engaged, striving people of equal activity level. I do know quite a few people who have stayed active lifelong - partly through active jobs, partly through enjoyment of sports or other active hobbies - and they seem at reasonably equivalent general health to the former elites of similar age who've stayed active. (I'm comparing a range of age groups, 30s to 60s+. I know former high-level or elite athletes in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. I don't know any who are in the 70s yet.)

I don't see any point in talking about the probably-mostly-high health of athletes at their reasonably brief peak. To reach top 10 in the world kind of level, a person has to be optimizing nearly everything, and in many sports that would include general health factors. But to most of us, as a practical matter, it's the whole-life arc of health that matters, not our peak few years, y'know?