Hierarchy of Fitness

When I was in my 20s, I made some serious life decisions without giving them as much thought as I would if faced with those same decisions today, including:

• Getting married at 23
• Having first kid before age 26, having two more before age 30
• Quitting high-paying investment banking job to pursue start-up professional soccer franchise (rowdiessoccer.com)
• Moving across country 4 times

No one was there to tell me how much of a challenge keeping a kid alive and raising them would be.  No one was there to tell me what a challenge starting a business without relevant experience would be.  Actually, maybe I did get told what dumb choices I was making, but thought I knew better.  But nowadays, I try to approach major decisions with more consideration. 

Similarly, as you assess where you are in your fitness journey and where you want to go, it’s important to understand what is required to achieve different levels of physiques.  Your results will vary depending on many factors, including general interest level, willingness to commit time and energy to nutrition tracking/planning, access to training equipment.  Below, you can get a good idea below of where you’ll end up from a physique perspective at various levels of the above factors. 

The key takeaway is that there are a few simple things you can do to stay out of the obesity zone and start a path towards a healthy and fit physique.  I’ll go through some of those simple steps in another post, but for the below discussion, I want to establish the pyramid concept generally, starting with the basic level.

Decent Shape (15%-ish Bodyfat)

Being in decent shape is easy if you know the basics of nutrition and how your body works.

• Just a few tricks to insure you’re in a deficit or that you aren’t overeating
• Just a few tilts to the mix of foods towards protein and fats.
• Recommended sources: Four Hour Body, Athean-X, etc.
  • Body hack type stuff that works, doesn’t really matter why.
  • Intermittent fasting works because it limits your ability to overeat (read more on that here)
  • Bodyweight exercises, not much equipment needed beyond a kettlebell and pull-up bar
• Effort Level: low
  • Not much effort required, fitness doesn’t dominate your life.

Great Shape (12%-ish Bodyfat)

By going a bit further on nutrition and training, achieving a great physique is well within your potential.

• Tracking calories, having an appropriate macro breakdown.
  • 0.6 to 1.0g of protein for every pound of bodyweight, tracking macros most days and hitting them for 5 of 7 days
• Adhering to nutrition targets in 75% to 80% of the time, making mostly good choices.
• Professional programming that has been proven to generally work, having a goal, using the right program type for that goal (bodybuilding, powerlifting, endurance goals)
• Probably requires access to weights to add resistance progressively.
• Recommended sources:
  • Barbell medicine, YouTube guys like Brian Alsruhe and Alan Thrall
• Effort Level: High
  • Requires some level of passion that might be seen as weird by those close to you who don’t share the same perspective.

Really Great Shape (10% Bodyfat and Below, or Some Other Strength-Focused Standard)

By really dialing in the nutrition and weight training components, you can achieve a physique that is truly extraordinary in today’s very sedentary and overweight society.

• Counting calories, tracking macro nutrients with higher degree of compliance probably required.
• Setting goals for training, getting high end custom coaching and programming.
• At this point you are entering powerlifting or bodybuilding competitions, running marathons, etc.
• You are seen as obsessed by peers, you have read or watched an embarrassing amount of information on the subject of fitness.
• You probably pay for coaching, you probably plan meals days in advance
• Effort Level: Extreme