What type of althete/sportsperson is the "fittest"?

I may be wrong but I think it’s about 3:45/km pace, which equates to approx. 37-38m 10K. It’s a good time, but not up there with true runners. I managed a 40 minute 10K without trying too hard.

Its not massively quick compared to a dedicated runner BUT you’re talking about guys that can powerlift, run, cycle, row, climb, move, etc.
Arm only rope climbs, squats, clean and jerk, the Pig – it goes on and on and they are beasted.
And not just one move at a time – watch the film and see if you fancy the idea of Murph.
JUST Murph….
Then consider if you want to do all the other sets they did on the same day.
Along with the 2 days before that and the day after that.

-I did a variation on Murph the other day (without the pullups as I didn’t have a bar to use where I was). It was quite taxing and I was wrecked the next day!

I’ve seen a lot of really fit Beach Volleyball players.
Nothing to do with the question, I just thought I’d mention it.

Crossfitters have the best all round fitness I believe. Look at the top level athletes, yes in individual events they may not be world class, but in simple terms they will be stronger than a runner and faster than a lifter. And the whole point of the sport was to define fitness and to compete to crown the fittest on earth.
The games starts in a week or so, worth a watch!

Seeing as all he does is dash up mountains in thick snow and then ride back down them with incredible style, I think it has to be Jeremy Jones

Sceptical of that – there’s horses, and there’s horses. We only know about racehorses, the horse equivalent of a 1500m runner. There are some big stories about long distance horses in the Wild West.

I believe in the world of Endurance Riding the Arab is king…
the issue is of course Animal Welfare.

Top fell runners are incredible, Billy Blands BG time is unbelievable. And the top racers in the Snowdon race are doing sub 3min/miles running down the mountain, which is insane. Worth looking for the One show feature with Ewan Thomas doing a small local fell race and it nearly killed him, he finished with the children at the back.
Also those who win the Tour Divide and the like have got to get a mention, not just fitness but mental strength beyond measure.
As you can tell, I’m most interested in endurance sports 😛

bothybiker – Member
Crossfitters have the best all round fitness I believe. Look at the top level athletes, yes in individual events they may not be world class, but in simple terms they will be stronger than a runner and faster than a lifter. And the whole point of the sport was to define fitness

Exactly. People get better at what they train for.

A separate question might be,
“What sort of people have the most useful range of fitness/skills/abilities for life activities and hazards”,

but that would also be quite specific as a firefighter possibly has a very different life to an accountant or a high court judge.

I was going to suggest Crossfit, especially as they bill the games winner as “The Fittest of Earth”. That could be shameless promotion, but the number of varied movements makes it possible.

I did Murph last year. Took me an hour and four minutes and leaving for the second mile was a huge struggle. I think it was the slowest mile I have ever done. My arms were also shot to bits from the pull ups and press ups.

I might be able to do it quicker now, but not by much.

willard – Member
I did Murph last year. Took me an hour and four minutes and leaving for the second mile was a huge struggle. I think it was the slowest mile I have ever done. My arms were also shot to bits from the pull ups and press ups.

Good effort!

My lunchtime Murph-Lite (no pullups) attempt didn’t seem too bad, and I biked home. I felt more and more tired the following day, though, and felt absolutely wrecked on the club MTB ride, although I had done a TT10 the day before the Murph-lite 😉

I will have a go at doing it properly at some point. Apparently you are also supposed to wear a weighted pack!

Yup, 20lb weighted vest to simulate body armour. That’s the worst part. Pull ups are terrible with the extra weight. The competitors at last year’s Games got 5.11 vests specifically for Murph and I believe it’s the first workout they announced this year.

Also those who win the Tour Divide and the like have got to get a mention, not just fitness but mental strength beyond measure.

I’d imagine RAAM is harder.

I was told my a friend about his mates doing deca (that’s 10x) iron mans. He said that every other year they do all the swims together, then bike rides, then runs. So swimming 24 miles, riding 1,120 miles then running 260 miles. Equivalent to starting in Calais, swimming the channel, riding to John o’Groats via St Davids, then running back to Edinburgh.

All done in a 25m pool and on a 2km track. Biscuit well and truly taken. Anyone got a more insane event than that?

EDIT having googled, I cannot find confirmation of people doing it that way – but I did find out about the triple deca ironman.

“6 minute mile pace on the distance stuff”

Putting aside the argument about what fitness is (see above) and talking absolute performance, that doesn’t sound particularly fast?
Two and half hour marathon isn’t particularly fast? Hmmm, ok then.

I’m not entirely convinced cross fitters have the best levels of overall fitness. They’re certainly strong, but I don’t see how much of what they do promotes real aerobic efficiency over endurance events that last hours and hours. At an amateur/mere mortal level, I’m sure I could join some of my cross fit friends for one of their sessions but I’m not sure they’d come join me for a 50km run.

My twopence would go on Ultra Trail Runners – As Superficial said, Kilian Jornet’s achievements are just bonkers – what him and the likes of Ueli Steck have done just beggars belief.

I’ve seen Kilian training in Chamonix … I’d swear he’s faster up the hills than some of the chairlifts!

I think the point is that people with a high level of different aspects of fitness are able to do quite well across a range of activities.

A cyclist or distance runner isn’t necessarily good at other activities.

Which is why people are suggesting fighters, soldiers, criss fit enthusiasts etc.

Which is why people are suggesting fighters, soldiers, criss fit enthusiasts etc

Which is why I suggested the likes of Kilian as he is a Ski Mountaineer (SkiMo) and Trail Runner: Combining both of the disciplines to break records up and down mountains.

Im amazed nobody has said tennis players? All round athlete they cover all bases, explosive power with the endurance to last 5 sets. I could see a tennis player make a good go at other sports

Tennis is a good shout. Even though a player may be on court over 5hrs they have to continue to have amazing technique and timing.

However seeing Ueli Steck climb the north face of the Eigar in 2hrs 22mins must require phenomenal strength endurance. The speed mountaineers are very impressive.

So reading this thread, the “fittest” athletes are crossfitters, tennis players, ultra trail runners, RAAM riders, etc, etc.

I think the multiplicity of answers proves that there is no meaningful way of making relative comparisons between different sports. I bet if you dropped any elite crossfitter into a pro road bunch they wouldn’t have the specialised physical performance to survive for long, or the tactical skills (which is an equally important measure of fitness for road racing). That doesn’t prove that pro road riders are fitter than crossfitters; it just means that different sports have different demands which you can’t compare directly against each other.

I’d go back to my original proposal that fitness is a measurement that only makes sense for an individual pursuing a specific goal. Let’s say I stopped working, optimised my nutrition, spent all my time training or recovering and managed to achieve 98% of my theoretical maximum performance in a 40km time trial. I would argue that by that measure I would be extremely fit. Meanwhile, Chris Froome stops training, spends the winter on beer, fags and watching telly, and his TT performance plummets to 75% of his Tour winning best. He could still put 10 plus minutes into me in that 40km TT despite the fact I’m much, much fitter…

I’m curious how many of you have done the sports you’re suggesting? I’ve done a few of them, but of all the sports I’ve done XC skiing was by far the hardest in terms of what it took out of you – and I was doing that when I was close to my peak fitness and had decent enough technique that I wasn’t making a total fool of myself.

Anyway the winner of this nutty event was a biathlete

Two and half hour marathon isn’t particularly fast? Hmmm, ok then.

while one ‘can’ extrapolate a 6 min/mile to give you a marathon time, there’s a whole world of difference between saying it and doing it.

I think you’d need to separate the athletes into Aerobic and Strength, as has been discussed the Bi-athletes and cyclists have enormous aerobic engines the MMA and cross-fitters and so -on are obviously stronger and the power and weight lifters are stronger again.. I know, we could stage a series of events, say every 4 years or so, and offer prizes for each competition..?

Just a thought, like. 😆

I remember reading a while ago that Gaelic football players had crazy vo2 max readings

I bet if you dropped any elite crossfitter into a pro road bunch they wouldn’t have the specialised physical performance to survive for long

I’m not 100% sure exactly what constitutes a ‘Crossfitter’, but quite a large number of High Mountain Guides not only climb, trail run and Ski Mountaineer etc, but also ride road bikes in the summer at a pretty high standard …

Tennis is an interesting one for sure. I was lucky to see the Nadal and Federer Wimbledon final in 2008 when it went to 5 sets … I was exhausted just watching it!

So what would be a good test? A massively long assault course?

I’ve done a few of the sports.

Wrestling is hard work.

I have not done Xc skiing, but have trudged/raced up snowy, rocky Alpine glaciers and mountains with poles and kit. It is quite arduous at 4000+m.

I have started watching the Fittest in the World on Netflix. There are certainly some dedicated -and very, very fit- people on there.

ctk – Member
So what would be a good test? A massively long assault course?

A bit like the “Fittest in the World” competition you mean?

Anyone mentioned crossfitters? If it counts as a sport. Some videos just appeared on my FB, they’re bonkers fit / strong but i still dunno how they’d match up on a biathlon event.

These guys. Cross fit

Shit #enduro racers like me.

hammyuk – Member
ctk – Member
So what would be a good test? A massively long assault course?
A bit like the “Fittest in the World” competition you mean?

No a massively long assault course not a series of events.

plecostomus – Member

These guys. Cross fit

Thinking about it, no doubt they are well up there as a measure of overall fitness but you’d have to put elite mma fighters above them. Most if not all of those crossfit movements, drills and routines are standard fare as strength and conditioning routines for fighters.

Most professional mma fighters would already be at a high level of “crossfit” and could probably compete at those games if they specialised at it and took all the steroids they could, crossfit alone would be utterly useless for fighting though.

What’s more the mental energy required to deal with a live opponent has a massive effect on cardio and ability to perform. When you’re wrestling a gorilla you don’t stop when you’re tired. You stop when the gorilla gets tired.

MotoGP riders.

They wrestle motorbikes at 200mph.

jimjam – Member
Thinking about it, no doubt they are well up there as a measure of overall fitness but you’d have to put elite mma fighters above them. Most if not all of those crossfit movements, drills and routines are standard fare as strength and conditioning routines for fighters.

Those people at the Crossfit games are very impressive, but I suspect that the original idea of Crossfit is to get ‘ordinary’ people up to a reasonable level of many aspects of fitness for other/all activities.

For the people in the film, Crossfit has become an end in itself.

It is interesting that the 2015 winner Ben Smith is a man who is fit & lean, but not heavily muscular, unlike many of the other competitors (some of them looked surprisingly heavy for the tasks they needed to do).

A couple of people have mentioned (independently) that people they know who are keen Crossfitters have become absorbed into it to an almost ‘cult’ degree.

Biathlon requires being good at rifle shooting, whilst gasping, which is quite specific.

Someone mentioned a long assault course, we have one of the greatest athletes for this sport: http://www.jonathanalbon.com/

I have no idea but I watched a documentary on the cross fit world championships (had no idea there was such a thing beforehand) and they seem rather fit!

Until you watch them do any kind of aerobic sport, and you realise how slow they are. As with any sport their fitness is optimised for that sport.[/quote]

A few years back, they had a 3 mile run in the games and some of the men walked it, including Rich Froning who went on to win the games….

Watch from 36:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLOznVuXN28

So the 2014 “The Fittest Man on Earth” couldn’t manage a 3 mile run….

A few years back, they had a 3 mile run in the games and some of the men walked it, including Rich Froning who went on to win the games….

Watch from 36:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLOznVuXN28

So the 2014 “The Fittest Man on Earth” couldn’t manage a 3 mile run….

-But what were the conditions like and what had been doing beforehand?

I assume that running is a relatively small part of the “Crossfit games” fitness?

As I said earlier, many of the competitors appear larger than I would have expected them to be.

To me, all-round fitness would probably look something like this, WW2 army stuff

Emil Zatopek

what about special forces – still athletes. Wont get many sports people as well rounded physically.

As I said earlier, many of the competitors appear larger than I would have expected them to be.

For a sport based around weight lifting and PEDs they look about what you’d expect….