# Is there a theoretical, maybe mathematical, PEAK of human condition and fitness?



## TheIsrafil (May 19, 2014)

This question has intrigued me for some time now. If you look at the ancient Greek Olympians, they were trained from early childhood to be very fit. The ones that went to the olympics could very easily wipe a modern champion football player to the dust.

So, I was wondering, "Given that even the new Fittest Man in the World hasn't seemed to 'max-out' on the level of possible fitness, what *is* the absolute peak of human strength, speed, agility, dexterity, endurance, reflexes, and maybe even technique in their profession?" Now, the place where we may get confused here is the inevitability that some people may simply have genetic or unchangeable traits that enable them to do better at their theoretical "peak" than others. So this is where some sort of equation would have to come into play (assuming the current bodily traits of the subject are given consideration as variables, such as body type or height).

It also might be more or less a balance, and it's currently unknown as to whether or not somebody can max out on most, if not all fitness components. The man who trains to "peak" in speed might be almost incapable of doing so in strength as well--at least, compared to the man of the same body type training to peak strength, who is incapable of doing so in speed now.

I hope my ignorance in this field is not a burden on the quality of my post, and if I have a glaring mistake in any part of this thread, then please let me know. Thanks.


----------



## telepariah (Jun 20, 2011)

I think it's a romantic notion that the ancient Olympians were superior to todays athletes. But it can't be true. Modern athletes have far surpassed whatever the ancients would have been. The modern athlete is, of course, trained as well from childhood. The farther they advance, the more sophisticated their coaching and training on both conditioning and technique becomes. The improvements they make are based on science and measurements that the ancients did not have. 

And then there are the performance enhancing drugs that modern athletes use. Time after time, we see an astounding performance in the Olympics or elsewhere that takes an athlete to a level none have ever been to before. And so often, we find the explanation in PEDs. Not every time, but there is always some explanation. Bob Beamon's long jump record is totally explained by the altitude of Mexico City, the maximum allowable tail wind, and his absolute perfection of technique on that one particular jump. Bob Beamon's jump was clean. But performances like those of Ben Johnson, Florence Griffiths Joyner, Marion Jones, and of course, Lance Armstrong, have since been revealed to have been the result of drug use. Is Usain Bolt simply a superior athlete or is he another in that line of enhanced humans? We don't know yet. I always want to believe the performances we see are clean, but most of the time, they are not.

Could Lance Armstrong have dominated seven consecutive Tours de France without the drugs? Impossible. Could Florence Griffith Joyner have demolished every record in women's sprinting without drugs? Before she took them, she was a middling competitor, rarely even on the podium. Then suddenly she was a different person... so much stronger and more muscular than any of her competition. Ben Johnson? Same story. 

So, I think the natural limit is not far from what we are seeing today. I say this because we see just how much better people become when they add a regimen of performance enhancing drugs to the modern training techniques. Sure, there will continue to be incremental improvements in training, technique, nutrition, and lifestyle that will nudge the records along, usually in small bits. But here comes Usain Bolt and now everybody is chasing a significantly faster standard and we'll see how long it takes the rest to catch up to him. Or we'll find out that he cheated.

Bob Beamon's long jump record of 8.90m (29' 2 1/2"), which broke the existing world record at the time by nearly two feet, stood for 23 years. Mike Powell's subsequent record of 8.95m -- less than two inches longer than Beamon's jump -- has stood for 23 years. Nobody is even jumping more than 28 feet these days. I think we know about where the limit of human long jump lies.

And I don't think you can reduce athletic performance to single variables like height. Usain Bolt is far taller than the best sprinters of years past. Ben Johnson was not tall but he ran almost as fast as Bolt thirty years ago (drug assisted) in the same events. In ski racing, the biggest racers tend to specialize in speed events and the more technical events are dominated by smaller athletes. But Alberto Tomba, one of the most dominant ever in technical events, was huge. Most Tour de France champions are small but Miguel Indurain one it five times and he is a tall and big man by any standard. Height is an advantage in some sports and events. But it comes at a cost. You see very few tall climbers. No tall gymnasts. No tall divers or figure skaters. To do something approaching the peak of human performance requires lifelong dedication, good genes, nutrition, and the ability to get the most out of your body given what the sport requires and all the complex mechanics of your individual body. But when athletes of different sizes come together to compete, we see that the differences are so minute as to be statistically insignificant.


----------



## Diogenes (Jun 30, 2011)

TheIsrafil said:


> The ones that went to the olympics could very easily wipe a modern champion football player to the dust.


No way.
We eat better, train better, have better equipment and better drugs.


----------

