About fitness

I did mention that I am going to be less abstract.  Unfortunately, that may result in posts that are a little less harmless.  For now, I'm going to visit the trite.

I have been going to a gym off and on for most of my life.  In the last few months, I have once again become highly motivated.  Others have mentioned an "addictive" quality to weightlifting.  I would not describe it that way, but I would say that there is an endorphin rush.  Noting an increase in the weight being used or the number of repetitions or a change in a body measurement is as thrilling when it is positive as it can be disheartening when it is negative.  Positive and negative being subjective.  I initially wrote an analogy comparing it to a role-playing game, but as I've said, I'm going to try and limit the use of analogies going forward.

Throughout the last few months, I have become reacquainted with the fitness industry.  There are a few things that have become more apparent.  These range from the thought-provoking to the mundane.

The fitness industry has managed to give many people the wrong impression.  20 to 30 minutes of cardio, 3 times a week, is certainly better than a completely sedentary lifestyle.  However, at best, that is a maintenance routine and will not lead to notable changes.  You cannot "target weight loss" or "target fat".  You can burn calories and you can increase muscle mass.  You can target muscle groups.  Resistance training will lead to muscle growth which will in turn increase your basal metabolic rate.  Raising your heart rate burns calories.  Any other "new information" that may have come out is, simply put, either intentionally or unintentionally deceptive.

The Recommended Daily Allowances are brought to us by the Department of Agriculture not the Department of Health.  The accuracy of the data is regulated by the FDA, but they are based on the values recommended by the Department of Agriculture.  The truth is that your caloric expenditure is individual and does vary day-to-day.   Your basal metabolic rate is a good place to start and calculations are everywhere.  If you work in an office and do not have any physical hobbies, you are sedentary.  Your daily calorie expenditure will be close to your basal metabolic rate.

Bodybuilding and weightlifting are not primarily focused on health.  Fitness and health are intertwined with resistance training but bodybuilding and weightlifting do have their dark side.  There is no reason to deny this.  At the competition level, there are practices that should not be condoned and are downright unhealthy.

Steroid users and relatively easy to spot.

It is not possible to compliment someone's glutes without sexual overtones.  It just isn't.  Don't try.  If sexual overtones were your goal, then by all means go ahead.  However, if that is not the desired result, pick another body part.

If you are intimidated by another person's presence, that is not their fault.  If you are intimidated by another person's exercise routine, that is generally not their fault.  The average bodybuilder doesn't care if you are looking.  They are checking themselves in the mirror.  They are not grunting to draw attention to themselves.  They are grunting in an attempt to dig deeper; to use their exhale as well as their adrenaline to push themselves.  Now obviously, humans being humans their will be people that are attempting to show off.  However, after a while these individuals are easy to spot.  They are simply horrible people and you happened to encounter them at the gym.  Those of us that are there to work hard are there to work hard.  If your teeth are clenched, you are sweating, veins and tendons are clearly visible, the focus is on the next rep.

Weights are heavy, when dropped the result is often loud.  There will be times when dropping weights is necessary.  It should be avoided, but one need only watch one powerlifting competition to know that even if desired, letting that weight down slowly would cause injury.  My fellow weightlifters should recall though that even dumbbells and plates can break and that no one gets extra points for noise.

Write down your progress or you will not progress.  Bodybuilding is a time-consuming process.  Visible changes take time.  Comparing sets from week to week, however, will make it clear that you are improving.

The exercise is not done until the weights are back on the rack.  Most often, it will not be a staff member that moves the weight next.  The 45 pound and 100 pound plates left on the machine or bar will cause a problem for many other gym members.

If someone is in the gym, they should not be criticized, period.  You can attempt to educate others or aid them.  The community as a whole builds each other up.  We are all trying to improve ourselves.  Otherwise, we wouldn't be there.

If you are in the gym, you have already taken the most important step.  Don't let anyone take that away from you.  The next step is to push yourself.  To find your limits and then change them.

I'm sorry

I have lived in my own head for most of my life.  After all that time, you would expect either insanity or insight.  Neither has occurred.  I have discovered nothing.  My grasp of reality has remained intact.

What I have found not by introspection but by interaction is that I am a coward.  I shy away from this truth.  Having little care for personal safety blinded me to this.  People associate cowardice with threat of physical injury.  Injuries happen.  Death happens.  Being afraid of these things has lead us to valuing a heartbeat rather than life.

No, my cowardice is much more sinister.  You just read an example of it.  When real emotion rises to the surface, when actual conversation may take place, I add a layer of abstraction.  It is not conscious.  It is not intended.  I cannot ever really say how the defense mechanism developed.  I have my theories, but I honestly don't know and I will not blame some event or non-event from the last century for my current behavior.

I cut myself off.  This was not something done to me.  I find myself unable to be angry.  I can't even make comments about "letting my guard down" as I don't know how many layers there are.  I don't trust my own feelings.  I have spent years wondering if my feelings are genuine.

I am broken.  That phrase may not sit well with everyone.  It is mine.  I guess it implies a finality to people.  But broken things can be repaired.  They aren't the same when repaired, but that's why I choose broken rather than bent.  I don't want to return to some earlier state.  I don't know where the cracks are.  That is as far as I'm going to take that analogy.

I may very well write less going forward.  One of the beauties of abstracts is that they don't require sharing.  Reading these blog posts will tell you very little about me and the people I care about.  As I have said often, there are stories that aren't mine to tell or at least not mine alone.  I have no right to share the lives of others with the world and sharing my own life without including them would be a very poor narrative indeed.

Now if you'll excuse me, I will dive into music.  It is the one opening I've always left myself.  It often brings tears.  It can bring joy.  It is something I let wash over me.  If I allow that level of abstraction to come between it and me, its beauty is lost.  It will not forgive the intrusion.  The beat is lost... you can't force the dance.  The lyrics touch nothing.  But close your eyes and just let it be and it will change you.

The words that stay...

I sometimes forget the power of the written word.  The power it has on me.  Human interaction is amazing but there are many people we simply cannot interact with.  The written word allows us to transcend time and space.

I cannot say that other forms of art don't have a similar effect, yet I find the lyrics and the screenplay move evocative then the melody or performance.  As with all art, appreciation and interpretation is personal.  However, the written word has a clarity I do not find in other media.  Its creator can limit the interpretation.  The writer uses one of humanities most powerful tools and so can often deliver their thoughts more directly.  Yet the nuance of language, its fluidity, allows great depth to be captured.

The words that stay have had several forms from the engraved, to the penned, to the inked, to the alignment of bits.  But I do believe that the form is of no consequence.

The experiences of a work's original readers may vary greatly from the experience of its latest.  However, the written word binds its readers.  It allows experience and context to be explained.  The author to describe as much or as little of their circumstances as they choose.  It may not translate in all cases, but that simply limits its audience and in some cases encourages further inquiry.

But the written word has a power greater than all other forms of art.  It expands upon the power of its older sibling the spoken word.  It can relate fact as well as fancy.  Obviously a collection of dates and statistics lacks artistry, but facts need not be so dry.  Accounts of the lives of our predecessors can both educate and inspire.  Thoreau's most recognized works were not fiction.  As with other art, investigation can yield other data.  We learn of techniques, processes, and can gain historical insight from frescoes as well as novels.

The written word also has some of the immediacy of its older sibling.  Inspiring oratory has had a dramatic effect on our civilization as have inspiring essays.  In some cases, the two are distinguished only by audience as evidenced by the great speeches.  Some of their evocative power cannot be captured in ink, but much of it can.

Mass communication now allows the spoken word to be experienced by billions but it remains ephemeral.  This is changing and so the spoken word may soon be on equal footing with the written word.  I believe the written word will still remain the most powerful tool we have for expression.

But then again, I'm hardly objective.