What does it take to be "fit"? (Burpees required?)

Not at all. Fitness is an extremely broad term that means different things to different people. Some people consider "fit" to be someone who can deadlift 500lbs. Some people consider "fit" to be someone who runs marathons. Some people consider "fit" to be someone who can get up a set of stairs without gasping for breath. It's all relative.

What you're describing is very high impact, intense cardio/circuit training type work. Some people like it, some people don't. You'll have to decide for yourself.

The word fit means

1.
(of a thing) of a suitable quality, standard, or type to meet the required purpose.
"the meat is fit for human consumption"
synonyms: suitable, good enough; More

So to determine if you are "fit" one must ask oneself "fit for what"?

I'm beginning to look at fitness like training a dog.

You don't take a dog and just look at it and say "do something cool" and it performs random tricks.

No. First you have to decide what the desired behavior is. Then you slowly and repeatedly instill that behavior into the dog via various forms of reinforcement.

Our body is the same way. First, you need to decide what you want your body to do.

Want to run for long distances? Ok. Train for that.

Want to be able to lift small cars for fun? Train for that.

Don't really care what you can do, just want your body to look a certain way? Within reason, you can do that.

So who is more fit? The powerlifter or the marathon runner? Well, they are both more fit for thier chosen task. That's it.

One day our triathlon club was having a social outing at a baseball game. The seats were in nosebleed, up near the highest rows. As we were climbing up there, this guy next me says, "This is killing me and I do ironman races." Dude can log a 140+ mile race, but struggled to climb stairs. Why? Because it's what you're used to. ANYTHING is difficult if you're not used to it. I'm sure if he spent a month or two climbing ballpark stairs every day for a few hours, he'd be great at it.

If you ask me, the trick to being "fit" is to find a physical activity you love and then just do it. Some people lift. Others ride bikes. Still others run 10K's and marathons and stuff. And we all know about those crazy Crossfit folks. I have a friend who gets his jollies doing pickup basketball. He loves his pickup basketball.

Find what makes you absolutely joyous working yourself into a big stinky sweat, and just do it. That's about as fit as you'll ever need to be. In my opinion.

trijoe wrote: »

One day our triathlon club was having a social outing at a baseball game. The seats were in nosebleed, up near the highest rows. As we were climbing up there, this guy next me says, "This is killing me and I do ironman races." Dude can log a 140+ mile race, but struggled to climb stairs. Why? Because it's what you're used to. ANYTHING is difficult if you're not used to it. I'm sure if he spent a month or two climbing ballpark stairs every day for a few hours, he'd be great at it.

If you ask me, the trick to being "fit" is to find a physical activity you love and then just do it. Some people lift. Others ride bikes. Still others run 10K's and marathons and stuff. And we all know about those crazy Crossfit folks. I have a friend who gets his jollies doing pickup basketball. He loves his pickup basketball.

Find what makes you absolutely joyous working yourself into a big stinky sweat, and just do it. That's about as fit as you'll ever need to be. In my opinion.

This is so true! There was someone in class last week who did Triathlons and he was struggling. Crossfitters have come and struggled. I take a stair class and marathon runners and a crossfitter have struggled.

I know I could never do a Tri, or even a 5k because I don't train for them or do them. But I still consider myself fit. For example, I love my dog and having had a previous large dog that needed to be lifted and carried as a senior it's important for me to know that if a medical emergency happens I can get my current large dog to the car, etc. Another example, I work in a large building. I like knowing that if there is an emergency I can get out using the stairs. Unfortunately I can't say the same about everyone on my floor. So things like that factor into how I define being fit too.

@rosebette
I just turned 54 and have been performing those four times a week for over two years. It's tough. But soon you will be able to add in some Dumbbells to your routine. Just make sure you put form over speed.

Fitness has several different modalities that we should all seek to maximize in our lives. Among them is:
- strength
- muscle mass/body composition
- muscular endurance
- cardiovascular
- mobility
- balance
- agility
- speed

The workout you experienced is similar to a crossfit met con (metabolic conditioning). It mixes strength, endurance, speed, balance, mobility and agility into a single session. Fun, huh?

The question you should ask yourself is what matters most to you. It is a different answer for each of us and it can change over time. I’m 49, and I’m seeing myself and others do things that people in their 40’s were never able to do before. So, the rules of age are being questioned, and in many cases, shattered. People in their 90’s are breaking records (for their age group).

One minimum fitness standard I have for myself is to be able to wipe my own butt when I’m 105. But I joke about that, but I know that strength, mobility, and balance are the keys to an improved lifestyle as I age. So, my standard for myself now is I want to be able to deadlift 500 lbs and do Fran (an intense crossfit workout) within 10 minutes before I turn 50. What standard do you have for yourself now and as you age?

The only way I will ever do a burpee is if I decide to run a spartan race and have to do penalty burpees.

rosebette wrote: »

I was pretty much destroyed by the end of the class.
I guess my question is: Is this the type of workout that is necessary for fitness?

I can think of a few emergency / survival situations where that level of conditioning could come in handy. So if that's important to you, perhaps diversify your routine. Not necessarily burpees, but similar dynamic exercises, like kettlebell swings, boxing, and speed skaters, for example.

foursirius wrote: »

To me if you're going to a strength training class you should be focusing more on a goal of "Are you strong?" Out of the big 3 the general basic benchmark is 1.5xbw on squat and dead with 1.25 on bench. This is just a general guideline but if you can do this in the gym you're not doing shabby at all.

As others have said there are a lot of measures of fitness basedon what you are training for. In the class you took it sounds like more of an aerobic exercise class than strength training.

So my squats pretty much there, my dead is far past, and I'll be challenging the CPU national bench record before I'm not doing shabby at all. Got it.

rosebette wrote: »

Does "fit" then mean competition level weight lifting?

Perhaps to some weight lifters ...
I have a friend who is a ballet dancer and she believes all weight lifter are in terrible shape because their posture is awful (it is compared to hers, but everyone's posture sucks compared to hers). Every single pilates and yoga instructor I have met also thinks weight lifting is a waste of time and their way is better. And if you decide to run a marathon, how much you can lift is really soemthing no one will care about. But then again a marathon runner might not be the best choice as a valuable addition to a basketball team. And so on