Measurable Fitness...

I rolled out of bed a 4:45 this morning and wandered into the office to watch online TV until the kids woke up.  As I scrolled through the list of shows my wife had queued up on Hulu I clicked The Biggest Loser.  Relatively quickly I was feeling like I was up watching a late night infomercial that I couldn't stop watching no matter how bad it got ("Set it and Forget it" came to mind).

As the contestants weighed in for their weekly dose of shame or fame I couldn't help muttering to myself, "What the fuck are they measuring?".  These people have spent months now training their bodies into healthier versions and becoming more fit.  However, the metric by which they choose to measure success and ultimately a quarter of a million dollars is a scale.  Okay, now you are going to say, "It's called the Biggest Loser dumbass, that's what they are gonna measure".   But as I watched I see strongman logs in the background, dragging sleds, tires flipped, people running up hills and doing what appear to be burpees.  I have also seen kettlebells, box squats. plyo boxes and yet they still haven't figured out how to put these movements and implements into workout that is measurable and repeatable.  I love to see that functional movements are being put in to use during this show as of the last few seasons and will be even more excited when next season they start putting Crossfit workouts into their repetoire (mark my words).  Last week Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels were on 'The Doctor's' show to demonstrate a workout which seemed to kick Jillian's ass in no time.
The 2 minute workout on the Doctor's

My suggestion to ABC:
In the first few week of next season's show have the contestants complete a variety of workouts (e.g. Run a mile for time, sandbag carries up a hill, as many as possible in 10 min)
Post a little reward for top female and top male so no one games the workouts (money or weigh in advantage)
After a few weeks in have the contestants redo the workouts and this time a bigger reward on the line.  Everyone will see a measurable increase in fitness, not a number on a scale that measures your mass.

Baby steps in changing the way we view fitness...