Same goes with the weight scale or BMI. The scale only tells you what you weigh, not what your performance potential is, or even how good you look. Paris Hilton is light on the scale, but looks like a skeletal 12 year old boy, not so attractive. The greatest philosopher of our generation said it best "So Cosmo says you're fat, Well ' ain't down with that! 'Cause your waist is small and your curves are kickin' And I'm thinkin' bout stickin'"

I like paris hilton. :) For some people there is a positive correlation between how much you weigh and how much you deadlift. I can lift a lot more when I am 165lbs than when I am 155lbs.

I wrote down a body fat goal at the gym back in January and hadn't thought of it again in months. I use to care about weight and body fat, but now all I care about is doing my first pull-up. (Note to self: erase that BF goal this week.)

My serious suggestion to parents of high schoolers - get your kids started in Cross Fit. You'll start them off with the best image of their bodies that you can give them - it's more important to be functional and healthy. The images they see in magazines are NOT HEALTHY. Too many girls (and increasingly, boys) think their bodies need to conform to a Photoshopped image, when what they should be focused on is eating healthy and pushing themselves physically. The work they do in the gym absolutely carries over into their everyday lives.

Great advice as always guys.
We all know how much Patrick and Shannon love being at Crossfit eastside. Just imagine 8-10 years down the road when they're doing the workouts alongside.....

BF percentage is equally arbitrary as the 10 components of fitness when left unapplied to something that has value to the practitioner. While chasing the Crossfit ideals, which are great, don't get me wrong, due to a lack of specialization I have slipped in athletic performance when it counts.
A climbing friend pointed out after a good hard Crossfit workout, that I can kick his ass in the gym but he can out climb me any day. Sadly he is correct despite being too tight to do a real squat and the ability to do 1/4 the number of pullups I can do, he can out climb me.
I value my climbing performance but lost sight of that during the fun of training in Crossfit. 3 on 1 off make a good Crossfitter but not a good climber.
Value whatever you do, but don't lose sight of your goals. A goal set in the gym only applies if your goals are contained in the gym. Train for whatever you value, don't train for the gym unless that is what you value for itself (which is fine, even great and is lots of fun). BF percentage is arbitrary as a Fran or FGB score or a 5.12 crack. No better or worse if that is your goal/ what you value

Justin,

You hit the nail on the head when you attributed the slip in your climbing performance to “a lack of specialization.” Serious specialization in any one thing by definition produces a lack of breadth. And the converse holds as well: for a specialist, broadening your overall fitness and capacities—your general physical preparedness—can diminish your specialized performance if you don’t also train for that.

The ideal, in our opinion, is to be able to do perform lots of different physical challenges at 80%, rather than just one at closer to 100%. The latter—serious specialization—almost always means serious deficiencies in other areas, as in your example of the climbing fiend friend who can’t squat. He may not value the ability to squat in itself or right now, but I’d venture that it represents other, more important limitations that do (or should, in my obviously not-so-humble opinion) in fact matter.

Done as a supplement, however, it’s hard to see how “gym” training for functional capacity (the 10 components) wouldn’t support, and even improve, most athletic endeavor, especially for the recreational athlete. We’ve seen time and again how increased ability at seemingly unrelated physical tasks (in the gym) translates into improved performance at one’s activity of choice (in the field). (Perhaps your friend outclimbs you because he’s just plain a better climber, or has better rock sense, or a smaller, or a better strength-to-weight ratio—which would be a more interesting number than BF%, imo, if you need something to put in a spreadsheet.)

As for your final comment—yes, if a certain BF percentage is really your goal, then have at it. However, I think that goal represents some other value(s) for most people, and that’s what we wanted to provoke thought about. Folks can get caught up in chasing a largely arbitrary and inexact number and forget about what it really means to them and what might be better ways to measure that. Ultimately, I think, our post and your comments share the same spirit—namely, don’t lose sight of what you value, and make sure your goals, your methods, and your measuring sticks, align with those values.