Weight just a number

Editor's note: Adam Rees is Founder of GRIT GYM, a gym based on results, creating a culture and lifestyle of performance, strength, health and freedom.

By Adam Rees, community contributor

Random thoughts about your fitness, health and nutrition:

l I hear athletes and general fitness people say this every day - 'I have to make weight.”

I hear this even more now that I'm training more of the fitness crowd - wrestlers and baseball players. The word 'weight” always gets me. So does the phrase that commonly follows - 'I need to do more exercise.”

Upon asking what types of exercise they are referring to, I hear different answers that usually are just as interesting as they are ambiguous.

This is the perspective of a guy with a view from three big points of the spectrum in regard to the human body - the physical therapy point of view, the elite sports performance coaching and now back to the middle with high school athletes and general fitness folks.

'Weight” and 'fat” are different. 'Weight” is a number on a scale. It is simply the body's relationship with gravity, nothing more. It has nothing to do with fat content, beauty, personality, character or anything else.

This is something that needs to be explained over and over again.

l Every human body is different with differing needs. But all human bodies operate under the same concepts. So exercise for an athlete or general fitness person needs to adhere to the same concepts.

But if we are all in the same boat, why are we not rowing in the same direction?

Goals are relative to the individual.

Everyone needs a plan and an assessment before exercise is absolute. Exercise without a plan is like traveling without a destination and exercise without an assessment is like allowing a child into a pharmacy with pills spilled on the floor.

For instance, proper joint angle is proper joint angle, but 'proper” is subjective to the individual.

l I cannot emphasize enough the importance of a 'program” over 'workouts.” Specific design for individual needs is better than a one-size-fits-all generic workout.

An outsider usually will have a better perspective because you cannot see yourself move, and even if you could, would you know what you are looking for or what to do with it if you did?

What does your body need? Does it need to improve 'core” strength, improve soft tissue quality, does it have any dangerous asymmetries (we all have these, and they are the second highest indicator of risk for injury right behind previous injury). This list could go on for days.

Doctors assess your current state, assume you'd like to feel better and provide treatment. Personal trainers find your current state, where you want to go and then develop a program to get there. It's making a plan for success.

The cliché 'if you are not planning, then you are planning to fail” is true.

You have to know the start and the destination to complete the journey with success.