I'm having a thought here Barbossa.

Records are for glory. Lifting is for life. Live a little.

Kat Ricker

I've been struggling a bit with the good old questions of why, and what, in order to answer how.  I've increasingly been unhappy with the "Sport of Fitness".  Some of my disenchantment comes from the notion that the right way to execute a movement is based on its most comparable configuration.  Some of it arises from the transference of one kind of fundamentalism to another, the cult like quality of certain training systems in other words.

I'm interested in two aspects of form, first, avoiding doing the wrong way, and two playing with the possibilities of movement.  Both are for physiological reasons, and the second, is for mental health, too.  Injury, particularly the older we get is bad, or wrong, and hence to be avoided.  Sudden injury, and chronic overuse, both inhibit our training and hence use up time we don't have to waste.  And to my mind that is the morality of that.  I struggle with the abstraction, the artificiality that defining a movement for the sake of competition is the standard of that movement.  CrossFit is notorious for this in my opinion.  

Barbell Burpee
The movement begins in a standing position with the hips fully extended. The chest must hit the ground. You must return to an upright position with the hips fully extended and execute a sideways jump from both feet with a clap behind the head while the feet are off the ground. Some portion of the ear must be visible in front of the arm when viewed from the side by the judge. If the jump/clap was inadequate, and you successfully completed the chest to ground portion, you do not need to go back to the ground but can repeat only the jump/clap.

So this makes our movements comparable in order for competition to be fair, but, what does that do to our thinking and our souls? Lets compare this to the following video and meditate on the proliferation of possibilities that it brings to our thinking, and our fitness. Now in fairness to Bill, and Central Maine Crossfit, that they accommodate a sideways jump, is unusual it calls into question the single right "burpee", yet that seems so invisible in this overwrought definition of "Barbell Burpee".



I suspect this is the difference, in part that Kat is making in her statement that heads this meditation.  Records rise and fall, fade and are forgotten.  But, living the disciplined life, pitting oneself against gravity on a daily basis -- well that is life.  There is a 20-something kid in our gym, he weighs 165# and pulls my max dead lift for reps.  I will never again weigh 165# and my max dead lift, might increase a bit, but, in truth I've probably gone about as far as I can with that movement in that direction.  So, for me to salvage the movement I have to play with it re-invent it or walk away from it.  Now I know that same 20-something kid admires the bunch of us geezers because we've made a lifestyle of exercise and he hopes to see us in the gym when he is 40 and we are 60.  And so we see the truth of both sides of Kat's statement.  I'm proud of my "records" because they mark my progress, but, in terms of the planet, well, I'm just a slightly above average middle age guy.

I think fitness is a big tent.  Folks who enjoy the sport of fitness should pursue it but, they need to, realize the limits that sets on their movements and thinking and that they choose to accept those limits is fine, but, outside of the competition, realize that movements are just movements -- except if they are done dangerously.  Too, I don't think it is wise for every workout to be a competition a race against others or the clock.  Variety is the spice of life, so sometimes, yes, but not always, I worry that warps ones thinking and in turn ones life.  Increasingly, I'm thinking that variety in duration, in intensity, and frequency, as well as in types of movement is an important element of healthfulness and of gpp.

Likewise the cult of gyms and the cult of trainers need to be shown for what they are.  I am coming to detest gyms as sacred sites, exclusive sites for exercise. Increasingly, I want to take the toys outside and play.  I have yet to figure out how to get the O-bar on my silly Corolla but when I do... I'm gone.  In the mean time the rocks, and benches, the swing sets, and picnic tables and railings all are gyms that beckon the imaginative.



We are woefully ignorant of our bodies and so experts have their roles, but, very few are experts and most copy from each other -- and with that liberating knowledge we can become our own experts about our own bodies.  And as such we are liberated from one more system designed to separate us from our money while keeping us blissfully mediocre.  Use a personal trainer hard and put them up wet and get on with your life if you must. A thoughtful person needs none of it. I'm sick to death of the cult of personality and personal trainers, internet exercise celebrities, to hell with the bunch. Experts, wankberts, shit... Elliptical-rowing-stair-master-mill skull numbing drudgefuckery machines. Up to my ears fed up with gyms, and membership fees. And along with all of that the Medical-Insurance-Government corporate clusterfuck telling us the minimum is sufficient -- self serving liars. Wankers all.

Trust yourself.
Get some friends together.
Play hard and challenge each other.

But, what does it mean to trust yourself? Who are your friends? How do you meet like minded people? If you challenge each other do you risk taking the "play" out of it and turning it back into work or worse competition? I don't know for sure but I've got to keep trying.