Redefining the Future of Fitness

There are dozens of blogs written about fitness that you should probably read instead of the following drool. I'm basing this first post on absolutely nothing but observation, inference, logic and pieces of things I picked up through textbooks, websites, conversation, and of course, my own personal experience. Seeing as how I'm leading this off with brutal honesty, I may as well state that I am a huge nerd. I am not a sports athlete. I got a degree in Kinesiology because I had no idea what other degree to waste $30,000 on. If I could have majored in video games, I would have. But I love the human body as much as I love the World of Warcraft. I geek out on biomechanics man. And Orcs. Hence, this blog is really just for me to have a geek-outlet, to entertain you, and maybe a distant third would be education, but let's not expect too much of that. If what I say makes sense to you, great, grand, wonderful. If not, you probably weren't ready to hear it. Keep calm, the world's gonna keep turning; I promise.

First there was survival. We ran, jumped, threw, heaved, pulled, rolled, flipped, twisted, pounced and bolted in the pursuit of sustenance and to avoid danger. Our bodies were supple, manipulative and aligned tools for survival. Then there was battle. We charged, jumped, punched, kicked, swung objects, threw objects, heaved and cleaved foes, tackled, shoved, and screamed to overcome death. Brutal, but true. We manipulated objects in our limbs to make more effective the sundering of foes that marched against us. Then food came to us. We didn't have to chase it or out-think it. And when the gun became the prominent battlefield weapon, replacing swords, battlefield fitness changed entirely. Hmmm.... I don't know about you, but somehow sitting on an elliptical or selectorized weight machine and stalely performing repetitions while my mind wanders about laundry, tv shows and what I'd like to say and do to that driver who honked at me 3 hours ago doesn't quite capture the essence of how fitness was born and evolved. At least not deep down in my soul. My being yearns for a greater truth to something that I feel is deeply encoded in my human programming, and missing in my surrounding world. I didn't know what it looked like until I found it. So how the hell did fitness turn into blank-minded cardio sessions and weight machines, and mirror-staring ego-feeding feasts? And how do we get back to the essence of what fitness is without resorting to chasing after food again or storming into Kroger and cleaving limbs off employees in the name of king and country??

If we go far enough back to the beginning of fitness amongst the mother of all invention, necessity, we can see a blueprint emerge. The fastest runner/sprinter, the farthest thrower, the strongest heaver/cleaver found food and kept those around them safe and happy. But brutish strength and speed hollowed by a lack of intelligence wasn't the answer either. Our ancestors had to be clever and intelligent; full of wit and instantaneous empathetic conceptual thinking in order to adapt and survive within the ever changing moment of a hunt or battle. And what exercises did the hunt and battle have them do? Sprinting, long distance running, lifting heavy objects, carrying heavy objects, pulling themselves up onto tree branches or rocks, jumping, leaping, flipping, throwing, pushing, wrestling, dropping, rolling, swinging and flying through the air. Fitness was represented in an ever changing dynamic environment based on the task and the surroundings, where one lost odds against the world when their mind wandered to needless thought processes at the expense of the moment. Adaptation to the unknown and staying in the moment was an important characteristic of early fitness. Being prepared for anything, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and spiritually was a staple of a truly fit individual that not only survived, but thrived.

Go and tell THAT homeboy.

You just don't get that droning away on an elliptical man…

We have to understand that modern fitness machines and "cardio" as we know them are relatively new creations among mankind. We've adopted them in response to the overwhelming impact bodybuilding and the "aerobics" fad has had on media and the fitness industry. But it wasn't always like this. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jane Fonda didn't rule the roost. If we travel farther back towards the turn of the century, fitness in the west had weightlifting and gymnastics (combined, these two things are essentially a training guide on how to use your human form to move and manipulate the environment around you safely, efficiently and effectively, which makes them very valuable in the pursuit of true fitness) at one point, and they were taught outside the role of sports. Sadly these were mostly lost somewhere in the mid 20th century, becoming relatively unknown outside of elite athletic and sports training until the turn of the millennium. Instead the industry has favored the popularization of machines. Ahh, robot fitness..huh? Selectorized strength equipment, treadmills, and ellipticals are all constructs of the last 40 years of western culture, and they are not rooted in athletic fitness; i.e. the type of fitness we think of when we close our eyes and see the ideal human being. These machines are meant to bring fitness to the non-exercising public. Weight machines as we know them today are a commercially viable remedy to scientific data that shows the inverse relationship to obesity and exercise. They burn calories, build muscle and elevate your heart rate. They are not, however, cultivators of proper biomechanics and form.

Yet, machines and ellipticals populate almost every mainstream fitness facility in existence. In the western fitness world the norm has become long bouts of extended cardio mixed with limited muscle isolation strength training sessions. Ellipticals and incredibly expensive selectorized weight machines have taken the place of the barbell and some open ground. We've lost the ability to take responsibility for our body's posture, breathing, focus, balance, alignment, mobility, mentality and emotional connection to our own existence, because the machines we've been using do not make us accountable for these things. Instead they section off parts of the body from kinetic chains of movement, but more importantly the body from the mind. This is starkly against the model for survival as described earlier; a model that is encoded inside all of us somewhere, waiting eagerly to be found.

 

We're not meant to fit into machines. WE are the machine, and we're meant to discover how to use ourselves. Our bodies are self regenerating organic machines, housing a conscious energy that drives and regulates it. Everything we think, do, feel and believe impacts us from our highest consciousness down to our most basic physicality, and vice versa. The future of fitness will inevitably become more inclusive as human consciousness grows, involving more and more aspects of our physiology in search of unifying the whole of our being. Perhaps one day we'll literally be consumed in a sea of ethereal light in which the answers to all humanities from all times flow into our consciousness and we exercise by traveling through time and across Universes. Take a quick jog across a few dimensions. Or maybe deadlifting will be the norm in gyms again. Either scenario is equally farfetched.

Until then, it is vitally important that we begin to expand ourselves inside the gym. Begin looking at fitness along the terms described above. Stop using it to feed your ego and step into a vast world of freedom, responsibility, power and growth! There is something much larger at stake here than your bicep size, your abdominal tone, your best Rx Murph time, and how awesome you feel when you look in the mirror. The real mirror is inside, and it doesn't give a shit about feeding your ego.

Your first bit of homework this week is to find a couple hours to play outside. That's right; go play outside. I don't care if you're 66 years old and sedentary, or if you're 22 years old and you're a professional athlete. I want you to go play outside and have FUN while you do it! Whatever you pick, tag, hide and seek, walk the dog, climb a tree, soccer, whatever! Go play outside, and have fun. To all my fellow nerds, no, video games don't count, even if they make you move your entire body to play them. Get outside and get that pasty skin some vitamin D!

The purpose of this homework is to help you realize that playing outside IS fitness. When you're having fun playing, you are engaging and syncing all the right parts of your mind with your body. To those of you who fear this homework because you feel inept, uncoordinated, tight, sluggish, heavy, or tired.... good! To those of you who are too cool to play outside for fitness...I say to you, "are you REALLY too cool to go climb a tree!?" To those of you who consider yourselves fit enough and workout already...I say to you, "when was the last time you truly enjoyed the moment while being out of breath!?" To all of us, playing is a reminder of the ability to enjoy the use of our body in fitness. It keeps us in the moment, makes us think creatively, forces the use of wit, cunning and intelligence in movement. This is the just the first building block to a much greater world of fitness, a building block that we might have stopped using to create our fitness since grade school. Now get outside have some fun!