On Monday, I wrote about why we consider our coaching staff Fitness Doctors. I also answered the question of why we test benchmark workouts every quarter.

Some received that message well — you left motivated to sleep, eat, train, think, and connect in healthier ways in order to improve your scores in these key workouts.

Others felt I was ignorant in my assertions and especially too aggressive in my target numbers. I thought that I would receive some feedback like this. That is why I wrote this at the end of the article:

This table can be viewed as aggressive, but that is on purpose… My pet peeve when reading academic studies is the unnecessary attempt to make the unhealthy feel good about themselves. I’m not going to do that. My goal is to make you healthy — and then by being healthy, you will feel good about yourself.

My intention is to never alienate; rather, to speak the truth on the world’s most vexing problem. It’s time we all, especially those within the health and fitness industry, unapologetically wage war on the Grim Reaper which is chronic disease.

The Problem

Roughly 40% of americans are obese. Another 30% are overweight. That’s at least 70% of every adult in the United States.

But that’s just fat. 88% of all healthcare spend is attributed to preventable illnesses. I say preventable here because these chronic diseases are related to our lifestyle behavior (nutrition and exercise).

But those are just percentages on a page…  Perhaps writing a dollar amount will wake you up a bit more.

In 2017, our country’s healthcare spend was $3.5 trillion. Of that $3.5 trillion, $3.1 trillion were treating things like hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease (insert wide-eye emoji).

Because we deem fast-food restaurants “necessary businesses” that need to deliver dinner to our families during COVID,  we willingly amputate our arms and legs like we’re Mr. Potato Head… C’mon people!

Our country is diseased.

So like I said on Monday, academic or health assertions that seek to make the average (“sick”) american feel good about their health are deceiving. The “average” american is doomed for decades of dialysis before dying a premature death.

I don’t know of another way to be more clear on this problem.

Insurance

Disease is fought by insurance. And the best insurance is fitness.

This graphic hopefully will shed some additional light on Monday’s post. On the continuum, you have numbers ranging from 0-30 in increments of five. Sickness is 0-10, Wellness is 11-20, and Fitness is 21-30.

The target numbers for sick, well, and fit in our benchmark table represent the numbers 10, 20, and 30 (respectively) on the continuum.

In other words, if you find yourself above the white (but not yet at the blue) for all of your benchmark scores, you are actually in the “wellness” demographic. The same goes for blue — if you are above the blue for your benchmark scores (but not yet at the black), you fall under the “fitness” demographic. In summary, you want to find yourself on the right side of the curve.

The black score represents a perfect 30/30 — it is a maximum score. It does not represent that you are finally “fit.” The demographic ranges from 21-30, so if I’m above the blue but below the black, I’m somewhere in that fitness range.

And as a final note, if you do happen to be in the black for something like the back squat, recognize that you are as strong as an ox and need to start training other time and modal domains (i.e. pull-ups or rowing). We are in search of broad fitness; we must be good at weight-lifting, gymnastics, and cardio. We don’t want to be fit in one domain at the exclusion of others.

To Entrepreneurs and Executives

I want to make a plea to entrepreneurs and executives.

RxFIT sits in unique possession of an optimal solution to this problem. We don’t just prevent chronic disease, but we also reverse it.

By making people fit, we insure them against sickness.

For example, if most of our athletes got the coronavirus and were in bed for the next 6-weeks, I wouldn’t worry about their long-term health. Because of the hedge they have built through fitness, they first must pass through “wellness” before ever getting to “sickness.”

So why a plea to entrepreneurs and executives?

Because you have dozens, hundreds even, of employees who you care about. You don’t just feel responsible for their financial well-being, but also their physical well-being.

My Plea

Last year we began sending our coaches into tech companies in Lehi. We perform seminars during lunch and put employees through workouts before and after the work day. We test and retest benchmark workouts to give you an indication on the health of your workforce.

When I used to cold call and sit down with people like you, my sale’s pitch was that fitter employees will increase productivity, decrease absenteeism, and reduce costs in insurance premiums.

But a year later, I realize that you care about something more nobel than this. You want to see the impact that healthier and happier employees have on their families. You want this to trickle into our community. You want to hear of moms and dads leaving their offices at work with the energy to perform even more important work inside the home and outside in the world.

Gone are the days of paying for a blanket corporate VASA membership. There is no education, accountability, and incentive to sitting down on that dang elliptical. The result of this body-building fitness yields little to no results.

It’s time to upgrade to professional coaching. It’s time we start getting results.

Hire RxFIT. We send our fitness doctors into your building and coach your employees through the sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindset, and connection habits that lead to the results you want; for your organization, their families, and our community.

Tyler