Stamina v. Fitness

[joedoe]

Is there a difference? The reason I ask is that a friend of mine seems to think there is a distinction.

So can you have stamina without fitness? Or fitness without stamina?

[norther practitioner]

I would put stamina in a subset of fitness...

ie

fitness would include stamina, strength, endurance, etc....

[rubthebuddha]

i agree with np.

[Vash]

Indeed.

[joedoe]

The situation is that my friend reckons I have good stamina, but poor fitness. I was having trouble getting my head around that one. I guess this came from the fact that I can spar for long periods of time, but I cannot run for long periods of time. So would this suggest that I have good stamina but poor endurance?

[Serpent]

The general description of fitness is well developed levels of:

Aerobic capacity
Muscular Strength
Muscular Endurance
Flexibility

So fitness is a fairly broad term where stamina would seem to be more specific - i.e. mostly aerobic capacity.

Of course, you then have to consider types of aerobic capacity - aerobic, anaerobic, phosphagen.

joe - if you can spar for long periods, but have low fitness, then I would consider that he meant you have a good ability to do repeated short bursts (anaerobic), but a low capacity for long distance, ongoing endurance (aerobic). If that's the case then his terminology is a bit off the mark.

[Ford Prefect]

Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about. Stanima/endurance are very acctivity specific. As long your sparring sessions push your VO2 Max and increase your heart rate for long durations then you'll be as cardio-vascularly "fit" as a runner.

[red5angel]

I agree with everyone else. When I was in high school I ran cross country. I was what you could call "fit" but mostly I could run along time. I couldn't do many pullups or pushups, but I could run foreeeeeveeeeerrrr.

[norther practitioner]

You just got good at that because you were used to getting chased all the time as a kid.. huh red.

[Becca]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Your friend doesn't know what he's talking about. Stanima/endurance are very acctivity specific. As long your sparring sessions push your VO2 Max and increase your heart rate for long durations then you'll be as cardio-vascularly "fit" as a runner.

And vise/verses. A good long distance runner may suck at sprints, but they are still extremely "fit". I can't run for squat, but I can hike/climb/ bike all day and feel great the next day. I'm not great at pushups, but I can dead jump over logs waste high for half an hour and be no more winded than someone who'd only jumped the log 2-3 times.

My pesonal favorite way to tell how fit I am is the nasty look my doc gives me when I go in for my yearly physical. She's usually disgusted that my blood pressure and colesterol are on the lower end of healthy despite having one hell of a sweat tooth and occasionally still smoking.

[joedoe]

Thanks for that guys. Don't get me wrong, my friend wasn't talking as if he was an expert on the subject. He just mentioned that he thought my stamina was good regardless of the fact that I cannot run long distance, so it got me wondering as to whether there was any difference between stamina and fitness.

[red5angel]

You just got good at that because you were used to getting chased all the time as a kid.. huh red.

hey man, I cna't help it the chicks wouldn't leave me alone but I had to run!!! They got downright psychotic trying to fight to get my pants off!!