This came up in conversation recently.
Each person had a slightly different take on it.

I'm not after how it's measured, just the definition, as you see it – and yes I know what Webster's Dictionary et al says on the subject.

Anyone care to venture a sentence?

Fitness is being able to see your own knob when you look down.

the ability to maintain and quickly recover from a high level of physical exertion.

Being able to make other people hurt whilst you stay in your comfort zone :p

It's some combination of strength, power, speed, endurance and coordination. Depending on your sport(s) of choice you'll weight the importance of these differently.

the bloke training me last night defined fitness. royal marine, personal trainer, built like a brick outhouse. incredible fitness.

Makoto Nagano is fitness.

Or in a longer sentence: Fitness is a combination of strength and stamina, both in terms of muscle and cardiovascular system.

Fitness is being able to see your own knob when you look down.

Ron Jeremy being the exception.

If you are physically fit, you are free from illness, and able to function efficiently and effectively, to enjoy leisure, and to cope with emergencies.

I had it down as the ability & time it takes for the heart to return to its Rest HR after exercise.

definitely NOT the bloke who just carried our weekly Tesco delivery up three flights of stairs..

It requires energy from the muscles, and it makes your lungs work hard.

One word will do…
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…elusive

fitness is totally subjective though isn't it?

Are you 'fit'? well you're fitter than the bloke in the pub, but not as fit as an olympic athlete. its such a hard thing to define, and measure IMHO

its being able to beat your mates up the hill.

Fitness is the side effect of having fun.

Big tits and a peachy arse 😛

The opposite of me.

S'funny – I have barely ridden in the last 9 months or so due to illness – but I went to Llandegla yesterday with a friend who has only been biking a couple of times. He found the first climb absolutely murdered him, I was ok.

He's not overweight and plays a bit of sports etc so not particularly unfit by most peoples' standards. I think you tend to forget how much fitness is required for regular mountain biking.

its such a hard thing to define, and measure IMHO

This is not what I'm asking.
To measure fitness there are various accepted methods giving a V02 rating.

Thus, it should be worked back from what the V02 rating actually shows? Although the peachy ar£e post sounds better!

this is what Wikki says:

VO2 max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or aerobic capacity) is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and utilize oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual. The name is derived from V – volume per time, O2 – oxygen, max – maximum.

VO2 max is expressed either as an absolute rate in litres of oxygen per minute (l/min) or as a relative rate in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram of bodyweight per minute (ml/kg/min), the latter expression is often used to compare the performance of endurance sports athletes. A less size-biased measure is to divide by \sqrt[3]{mass^2} rather than mass.

That's why I was wanting a one line sentence!

[Big tits, peachy pert arse, sassy attitude and sat astride a single speed 8)

soma_rich has got the closest to what I'd consider fitness.

My slant on it would be….
'Fitness is to be able to enjoy an exerting activity.'

I'd say it's when body fat is within or slightly below average and where heart and lung capacity and muscle strength and endurance are above or significantly above average.

Fitness for a specific sport or activity is a different thing. Which is why Armstrong is a very bad name for a TdF cyclist.

Samuri I like that. What I was thinking but more eloquently put.

on a bike – souplesse

That feeling of being able to ride all day, smoothly without hardly trying.

I seem to remember being like that but it's been many years!

Harvard Step test

This gets close to a roundabout definition.

When I studied P.E. the definitions were

Health: the general well-being of the body systems and good overall functioning of the various body systems and vital organs

Physical Fitness: the ability of the body to meet the demands of a given situation, as relevant to the individual

Specific fitness: the ability of the body to meet the demands of a particular sport and its fitness components

General fitness: the overall basic fitness of an individual who can meet the demands of everyday life

Motor fitness: the ability of the central nervous system to work with the body to produce quick, precise and accurate movements

And just "fitness" was defined as all of those put together. For example, a mate of mine is an ex-sprinter, specializing in 100m. He can still run it in about 10.3 seconds, but his stamina is awful. And he has bad knees (why the ex part). So he has specific fitness, but not general fitness or health.

There is also a big social and mental side to fitness. For example, you can be as physically fit as you want, but if you're suffering from depression and have no friends, you probably wont perform too well.

There is also a big social and mental side to fitness. For example, you can be as physically fit as you want, but if you're suffering from depression and have no friends, you probably wont perform too well.

Nah, I just keep muddling along. I do OK, probably a lot stronger mentally than most for those very reasons.

a sentence, I can do it in one word!!!!
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KYLIE

"To be able to sit at the top of a hill and enjoy a cigarette and a can of guiness immediately after getting off the bike."

🙂

Getting it done. Then doing it again.

The ability to keep going when others can't

Some of the stuff above, but you need to define the activity. I can swim 2 miles in an hour and can ride centuries on the road at a good average or mountain bike up hills. Can't run down the street without it hurting though as I just don't do it regularly.

In one word: able.

Perhaps the ability to run/cycle/swim as long as you want until you're bored with it.

the ability to maintain and quickly recover from a high level of physical exertion.

+1

additionally, bonus points for concise nature and pleasingly unambigous grammatical contruction!

has anyone said Cheryl Cole yet?

bakes – Member

has anyone said Cheryl Cole yet?

There was a Mr Terry in earlier who said just that.

The ability to get and maintain a decent gap on the people your riding with without showing them how much its hurting?

VO2max of course.