Defining Elite Athlete
In The Rundown, Mike Pompeo's weight loss story has its doubters, Apple launches new products on its exercise platform, and "elite athlete" gets a definition.
Not So Fast, Mike. Former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, made headlines for losing 90 pounds in six months. Pompeo says that he read a lot and had his own “theories about eating less and exercising more” so that’s what he did—for about 30 minutes, on his home elliptical machine, five to six times a week, while mostly cutting out carbs. After Pompeo revealed his regimen, the Kansas City Star ran an article quoting fitness professionals who suggested that the former diplomat was not being honest and his weight loss was only attainable through extreme measures. Twitter clapped back, with journalists from Politico, the Washington Post and New York Magazine tweeting criticisms of the paper’s negative tone.
More From Fitness Plus. Staying in step with its exercise streaming competitors, Apple launches new features for Fitness+ this week. Time to Run is a guided audio experience with coaching tips, music and scenes from London, Brooklyn and Miami Beach, while Collections is a grouping of specific workouts and meditations aimed at helping you reach a goal, including better sleep.
Defining Elite in Sport. What is an elite athlete, exactly? A new study (read it here) in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance proposed a classification system to answer the question because “the term ‘elite subjects’ might be one of the more overused and ill-defined terms in the exercise science literature.” The definition matters because when researchers interpret the results of an exercise study, it’s important that they understand and clearly classify their subjects. To that end, a team of sports scientists, led by Alannah McKay of Australian Catholic University, created a framework that puts people into six categories based on exercise metrics across various sports. It is grounded in population statistics and elite status is based on how a person compares relative to everyone else. Comparison to your peers also means that the competitive depth of your sport is important. (There are more competitive runners than ski jumpers, for example).
Tier 0 is Sedentary and it is 46 percent of the global population. In this category, you’re not doing the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended minimum level of physical activity, which is 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, plus a few muscle-strengthening activities. In Tier 1, you’re classified as Recreationally Active, which means meeting the WHO guidelines, and maybe participating in some sports but you’re not focused on training or specific competition.
For Tier 2, you’re classified as Trained/Developmental and your part of 12-19 percent of the global population. Here, you identify with a specific sport and are most likely training three or more times per week in order to compete on a local club or rec league level. If you make Tier 3, you’re categorized as Highly Trained/National Level and competition is at the state and national level. If your sport is measured in time or distance, you’re within about 20 percent of the top performance in the world.
Tier 4 is Elite/International Level and this is where you’ll find NCAA Division I athletes or members of national teams. You’re most likely ranked between fourth and 300th in the world in your event. If you hit Tier 5/World Class, you are the “creme of the crop” and probably have an Olympic medal or made the finals, or you’re the MVP in a professional team sport.