Health is not being Athletic

Health is not athleticism

January 12, 1993

I am 7 years old. I've just watched my favorite team win back-to-back Stanley Cups for the first time in franchise history. The next season begins, and the team looks stronger than ever. Out of seemingly nowhere, everyone around the hockey world was shocked to learn that the best player on the league's best team had just been diagnosed with cancer at 28 years old.

In less than two months, Lemieux would shock the world again on March 2 as he would receive his last chemo treatment, and in the same day fly across the state to Philadelphia and record 2 points with a goal and an assist. Seeing this as a young kid, I only had the sense of what this man had just done was miraculous. As I've reflected on it now as an adult, something is very apparent to me. Being healthy, and being athletic are not the same thing.

This would happen again just a few years later to another world class athlete in Lance Armstrong. My question is, how can these two men be in the best in the world at their respective sports, in the prime of their careers, and simultaneously be suffering from life threatening illness?

Health Defined

health /hĕlth/ noun

1. The overall condition of an organism at a given time.

   2. Soundness, especially of body or mind; freedom from disease or abnormality.

It seems so contradictory to be the best athlete in the world and to not technically be healthy. That's when I realized that being healthy, and being alive in general, is very much a spectrum and not something that is absolute.

There is a very easy trap to fall into when it comes to training, and that is coming in hot! When people first make the decision to get in shape, if their motivation is high they typically want to start by pushing themselves really hard so that they can feel like they are doing something to create change. They may not realize yet the importance of considering that exercise itself is a form of stress on their bodies, and our bodies can only handle so much stress. It's important to be clear about what other large stressors that person has going on in their life, anything from finances to lack of sleep can cause tremendous stress burdens on a person's system.

Theories

Glycogen depletion - increase in cortisol

Decreased nervous system function

Glutamine deficiency - amino acid

Systemic Inflammation - cytokine storm / fatigue loop