At the base of Health’s Hierarchy of Development, you have sleep, eat, manage, and move habits. Yesterday I gave you dozens of examples for each of these categories in an effort to help you develop a habit in a weak area.

After addressing the SEMM habits yesterday, today I want to focus on the level just above it: “Bodyweight.”

Your muscle to fat ratio is important, but so is your ability to move your body through space. We call this “gymnastics” at RxFIT and it is where we prioritize flexibility and relative strength in our coaching and workout sessions.

Body Fat Percentage

Eat to support exercise, not body fat. If you can do that, you won’t need to worry about taking accurate measurements of your body’s composition.

In general, you want to be between 8%-14% body fat if you’re a male and 14%-20% if you’re a female.

For more resources, read The Secret to Getting Abs or Body Fat Percentage vs. BMI.

Flexibility

Flexibility comes from consistency. And consistency needs to be built on a foundation of small, daily tasks.

This is why I recommend reaching for your toes once a day. The benefit to this habit is that it’s easy. It literally will take you three seconds.

In general, your flexibility should allow you to perform three things:

• Perform 10 single-arm DB or KB overhead squats.
• Sit criss-cross on the floor with your right ankle on top of your left ankle (and then also the opposite direction) for one minute.
• Sit in the bottom of a deep squat for two minutes.

These three tests are great measurements of your shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle flexibility — the four major joints. They also tell me that you have a healthy spine.

For additional resources, read How Do I Become More Flexible? and Yogis vs. Gymnasts: Who’s More Flexible?

Relative Strength

Three tests a healthy individual should be able to complete are:

• 8 strict pull-ups.
• 8 strict ring dips.
• Hold a handstand against the wall for 1:00.

As you can see, relative strength is different than absolute strength. Relative strength is your ability to move loads relative to your own bodyweight. Absolute strength is your ability to move maximum loads.

I’m sure you can think of people in your life that are strong in one of these domains, but not the other.

At RxFIT, we want you to be strong, both relatively and absolutely (more on absolute strength tomorrow).

Daily Directive

I coach athletes on how to lose body fat, become more flexible, and gain relative strength every day in the RxFIT Gymnastics program. You will learn to muscle-up, handstand walk, and more if you do this at least four times a week.

As part of RxFIT Gymnastics, you receive daily workouts along with remote and in-person coaching at least once a week.

The best part about it is that it only costs $40/mo.

Here’s a sample week of workouts. To learn more, send me an email (tyler@rxfit.health).

Tyler

Other Articles in this Series:
EATING THE ELEPHANT: HOW TO DO IT ALL
EATING THE ELEPHANT: SEMM
EATING THE ELEPHANT: STRENGTH
EATING THE ELEPHANT: SPORT