Dear athlete,
Welcome to Teach the Athlete. A continuous blog for many followers who will dive into the “whys” and “hows” of CrossFit in our box.
In this first episode, we will introduce you to the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness Continuum (a model that powerfully demonstrates why we love CrossFit so much).
This will provide insights on the relationship between health and measurability, gym and CrossFit.
From sickness to fitness
As part of the first articles released by CrossFit in the early 2000’s, the Sickness-Wellness-Fitness continuum was used by Greg Glassman (the founder of CrossFit), and has since then been an inherent part of it. The continuum shows that sickness, wellness and fitness are three measures of the same quality: your health.
Every individual can place him or herself somewhere on that continuum, based on measurements that correlate (not necessarily determine) with their current health status. These measurements include blood pressure, body fat, bone density etc., measurements that are widely used by the modern health industry.
Let’s have a look at the different ends of the spectrum. Sickness is the least desirable state to be in, a person that is sick suffers from chronic diseases, loss of hormone production as well as loss of functional movement capacity, extreme amounts of bodyfat and the inability to do a full squat or adhere to a clean diet. It is important to note here that sickness refers to the lifestyle diseases, that can be prevented by lifestyle choices.
Being “well” means that a person is free of these dangers and inabilities, which sounds good right? However, being well just means “not being sick” , therefore there is practically no buffer between wellness and sickness. That is why at CrossFit AKA, we do not settle for wellness but strive for fitness (basically “super-wellness”). The further we can get you away from sickness, the more you will be able to deal with the ravages of time and disease.