Extreme Fitness

Extreme Fitness seems to have a secret camaraderie, the kind you find among people who share pain.

The extreme fitness crowd and many thousands of other apparent masochists are redefining the American workout. The creed here is "go hard or go home". No treadmills here. Aerobics? Pilates? Go next door.

The American Heart Association seems to think that exercise is 20 minutes on a treadmill three times a week. The 20 minutes is a warm-up, and no one has broken a sweat. A newcomer gets a bad feeling.

Call it a bored-with-the-old-workout thing, or aging baby boomer denial, or a post-9/11 take-charge/damn the terrorists trend. Whatever it is, the bar on fitness has been raised. Most people have no idea of the level of endurance that the human body is able to attain.

Extreme physical activities are at the top of emerging trends. More people are exercising with a focus on enhancing their physical performance capabilities.

In the past, the focus was almost exclusively to derive health and fitness benefits such as lowering the risk of heart disease and weight. Now people are looking at exercise as a tool to become more competent at performing activities of daily living and more rigorous sports.

Only 30 years ago, most people regarded marathon running as an extreme fitness Olympic event. After American Frank Shorter won the 1972 Olympic gold medal for the 26-mile endurance test, the number of runners climbed from 25,000 in 1976 to 120,000 in 1980, 260,000 in 1990 and 451,000 in 2000.

Less than 10 years ago, century bike races (100 miles) were considered extreme. Now they are routine. Participation in the original century race at Tucson has risen from 198 in 1983 to more than 6,000 in 2002.

The number of people in these races is increasing so dramatically that 100-mile rides aren't considered extreme fitness anymore. Now, if you want to be extreme, you have to ride 3,000 miles across the country or do a 200-mile event or ride all night. They're not into that movie-star, personal-trainer, pampering crap. This is meant to be difficult, to build strength, to push your endurance to the limits and to discover what you are made of internally. Anyone who is motivated and wants to be challenged can do this. But if you can't stick with it mentally, you don't belong here.

Whether buying or selling a vehicle; first check KBB (Kelley Blue Book), Black Book, Red Book, or the NADA Used Vehicle Guide.

For more on your total health, turn from Extreme Fitness to the home page.

Subscribe to your FREE Heart Diet Journal for more about Extreme Fitness.