Click Here for The Wellness GOAT!

How many times have you heard or read "Consult your physician before starting an exercise program"? The truth is that you see it all the time for something like walking, or Tai Chi, or doing some senior center workout with the pastel 2lb dumbbells, but you really don't hear it when you watch YouTube videos of some variation of the non-age specific bad-assery display that dominates that medium. The bottom line is that weights don't come with directions. Running shoes don't come with directions. Neither do kettle bells, sandbags, tractor tires, or any other implement that is regularly used to demonstrate physical dominance on video. The fact that the instructions don't exist means that anybody can watch a video and just go to work, regardless of their physical status. Why does that sound like a disaster waiting to happen? Because it is.

Before you get to your ultimate fitness or body composition goal, you should first determine what your starting point is. A complete physical examination is a great starting point.  In fact, a complete physical is the best possible investment you can make in your wellness portfolio.  And the best part is that as an actual financial investment standpoint, it may be one of the cheapest. Most health plans cover an annual physical at 100%.  Some corporate wellness programs, like mine, actually pay ME for submitting my biometric date every year. 

An annual physical actually is three investments in one, which makes it the GOAT: Greatest of All Time among wellness investments.    It makes a separate investment in all three of the portfolio segments: health, nutrition, and fitness.

Physical Health: It can be an early indicator of chronic disease. Let's be honest, you don't know if you have prostate cancer without both a PSA test and a "digital exam". So you can continue to hide from it or you can face it. Both my father and grandfather had prostate cancer. If I'm at a 70%+ likelihood of having it, too, why should I hide from it?  Vince Lombardi died from colon cancer because he refused to have a colonoscopy. Really?  That dude was a badass, and he died because of the lack of a simple medical test. 

Nutrition: This is the one really hidden advantage of doing the annual physical. You will likely provide bodily fluids (blood and urine) for the exam, and this can be used to level set your nutritional goals for the following year. And this goes beyond cholesterol and triglycerides.  At my physical this week my blood test results showed a high level of creatine, which can affect kidney function. Well, I take a creatine supplement, and supplemental protein. Why? Well, the badasses on the internet all say to do it. BUT THEY AREN'T 55 YEARS OLD!  As a sports nutritionist I actually had to answer a question about supplemental creatine and older athletes.  I got the answer correct on paper, but failed in practice. Supplements are part of the nutritional investment, but they only have a positive ROI if utilized correctly, and the annual physical gives you a clear view of how supplementation affects your personal health.

Fitness:  It may not seem like it's connected, but it is. My personal physician does multiple levels of "executive" physicals, including one with a full stress test, which will give a very accurate assessment of your cardiovascular fitness level. He also now has body mass index (BMI) measurement available. Once again, this allows you to establish a baseline. "Weight loss" without a well thought out plan to modify body composition is just as dangerous and blindly following a "program" from YouTube without first establishing a baseline fitness level.

The bottom line is that the annual physical is - and will remain - the GOAT of wellness investments. Schedule yours today and let's go to work. 

Just a reminder to follow me on Twitter @3Sigmawellness and on Instagram at 3Sigmawellness.