Great idea for making your own DIY Bench Press Bench
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Saturday, February 1, 2014
Pushup vs Bench Press Redux
Pete Townsend was obviously prone to his prima-donna moments. After getting a boxed set of the biggest hits of The Who, I read the little booklet from cover-to-cover (several times) and apparently, he was kind of pissed that, "I can see for Miles" one of his favorite songs that the Who ever did wasn't the smash hit he expected. When it barely broke the top 10, he said that he, "spat at the British Audience."
Kind of a douchebag statement, but what do you expect from a guy who got busted for looking up kitty porn on the internet?
I can sort of relate to his sentiments about his writing. It's not that I get pissed when something that I think is my best writing doesn't attract the most accolades but I'm curious as to why certain things that I write become so, damn popular than others. One such instance is my, by the BW-Files standards, iconic post: The Pushup vs. The Bench Press I still don't quite get why it's always my most popular all-time post.
According to BWF's CentCom, and after the title of my blog itself, a lot of my traffic comes from the following Search keywords:
Yeah, I admit, the pectoral major's are important muscles. Put your arms above your head, move them down, and then move them to the front of your body. Your pec-maj's are doing a lot of that. So, we need to work on those. That deserves a lot of attention.
Still, THIS much attention? While chest exercises will always land on pretty much everyone's top exercises, we'll all sheepishly admit that none of them are really the best exercises out there.
So, why all of the fuss?
It must be the mirrors. I still think that regardless of how much a lot of people talk about being geniunely strong, balanced, functional, real world, athletic or any other catch phrase designed to not seem obsessed about the way that they look, they're full of shit. It's far closer to a lot of people's minds than they let on. I've seen this several times when I'm working out in public, usually in a hotel parking lot. I could be doing some sort of single leg squat work, some nasty plyos, or working some sandbag cossak squats and it doesn't attract nearly as much attention if I was doing ring dips, one-arm push-ups, etc.
The upper body still rules in people's minds. The bench press rules upper body exercises.
Yeah, I do more blog entries on upper body work than the lower body. There's a lot more room for varation up top than down below since the arms move in more directions than the legs. That doesn't mean that it dominates my training and I certainly don't think it should dominate yours. In my perfect world (and mabye this is my prima-donna moment) I'd simply get rid of all of this fixation on the pecs.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think the bench press sucks. Said before, and will say again: I don't think that it strengthens the shoulder muscles equally enough to warrant it's run-away popularity. I could care less if I ever do one ever again. The push-up movement has got it all over the bench. You could probably do push-ups with no other assistance exercise and keep your shoulders intact. Even hardcore powerlifters will admit that you can't do that with the bench press. Besides, I try to keep my back and my ass off padding as much as possible during a workout. I think that there's a lot of logic to this.
The problem is that most disagree because most don't bother to take the push-up beyond a high rep or a warm-up exercise. Weighted push-ups are a nice middle ground if you seek max strength and huge chest alike. I've been doing lots of these with sandbags on my upper back.
I like the sandbag because I can place it on my back when I'm alone and put the weight of the bag over my shoulders, neck and head. If you're going to way down a push-up, this is key.
For a bodyweight purist, exericse minimalist, or budget-minded basement gorilla, you just can't go wrong with some sort of suspension training gear. This doesn't have to be expensive. I made one out of scrap rope, PVC pipe, and some knotting know-how. Push-ups on such a rig take on a whole different character.
Were these variations tried more often, I don't think that many would miss the challenge of a heavy bench press.
Kind of a douchebag statement, but what do you expect from a guy who got busted for looking up kitty porn on the internet? I can sort of relate to his sentiments about his writing. It's not that I get pissed when something that I think is my best writing doesn't attract the most accolades but I'm curious as to why certain things that I write become so, damn popular than others. One such instance is my, by the BW-Files standards, iconic post: The Pushup vs. The Bench Press I still don't quite get why it's always my most popular all-time post.
According to BWF's CentCom, and after the title of my blog itself, a lot of my traffic comes from the following Search keywords:
push ups vs bench press
body weight bench press
Yeah, I admit, the pectoral major's are important muscles. Put your arms above your head, move them down, and then move them to the front of your body. Your pec-maj's are doing a lot of that. So, we need to work on those. That deserves a lot of attention.
Still, THIS much attention? While chest exercises will always land on pretty much everyone's top exercises, we'll all sheepishly admit that none of them are really the best exercises out there.
What's the best exercise in the world? Give me $20 and I'll tell you. THE SQUAT! No, you can't have your $20 back.
So, why all of the fuss?
It must be the mirrors. I still think that regardless of how much a lot of people talk about being geniunely strong, balanced, functional, real world, athletic or any other catch phrase designed to not seem obsessed about the way that they look, they're full of shit. It's far closer to a lot of people's minds than they let on. I've seen this several times when I'm working out in public, usually in a hotel parking lot. I could be doing some sort of single leg squat work, some nasty plyos, or working some sandbag cossak squats and it doesn't attract nearly as much attention if I was doing ring dips, one-arm push-ups, etc.
The upper body still rules in people's minds. The bench press rules upper body exercises.
Yeah, I do more blog entries on upper body work than the lower body. There's a lot more room for varation up top than down below since the arms move in more directions than the legs. That doesn't mean that it dominates my training and I certainly don't think it should dominate yours. In my perfect world (and mabye this is my prima-donna moment) I'd simply get rid of all of this fixation on the pecs.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I think the bench press sucks. Said before, and will say again: I don't think that it strengthens the shoulder muscles equally enough to warrant it's run-away popularity. I could care less if I ever do one ever again. The push-up movement has got it all over the bench. You could probably do push-ups with no other assistance exercise and keep your shoulders intact. Even hardcore powerlifters will admit that you can't do that with the bench press. Besides, I try to keep my back and my ass off padding as much as possible during a workout. I think that there's a lot of logic to this.
The problem is that most disagree because most don't bother to take the push-up beyond a high rep or a warm-up exercise. Weighted push-ups are a nice middle ground if you seek max strength and huge chest alike. I've been doing lots of these with sandbags on my upper back.
I like the sandbag because I can place it on my back when I'm alone and put the weight of the bag over my shoulders, neck and head. If you're going to way down a push-up, this is key.
For a bodyweight purist, exericse minimalist, or budget-minded basement gorilla, you just can't go wrong with some sort of suspension training gear. This doesn't have to be expensive. I made one out of scrap rope, PVC pipe, and some knotting know-how. Push-ups on such a rig take on a whole different character.
Were these variations tried more often, I don't think that many would miss the challenge of a heavy bench press.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Do More Handstand Push-ups!
193 Reps of Handstand Push-ups in 30 minutes was how I saw fit to bring in the New Years. I re-accepted this challenge and really surprised myself by blowing past my previous-best 30 min HSPU's of 175 reps two years ago despite being really limited for the past 8 months about doing them since I couldn't get myself into a handstand with my bad knee. Prior to that I was a machine, super-setting well over 100 reps with an equal number of pull-ups. So, this was a nice kick-off to 2014.
Push-ups are as important to any BW strength-apes as pushing stuff overhead should be for weight trainers. Pressing overhead is a fundamental movement for the human body and handstand push-ups are the BW answer to getting this important work in.
There's a good reason why I included pictures of the HSPU's so often in the last few entries here. I consider it that important of a movement and, the ACL rehab months notwithstanding, there is rarely a week I let pass by without doing some sort of HSPU. If you're going to choose BW as a primary method of strength training, you're going to need some overhead work. Unless you use weights (no quarrel there from me, just to clarify), this is the movement you need to be doing. It might even be a movement that you should do even if you do move weights.
While I generally refuse to use any term that Joe Weider used, I think there is something to the logic that keeping a muscle under tension as long as possible that builds strength. I'm not referring to any tricks with messing with rep range or time per rep here. What I do appreciate is a movement where there is very little, if any, opportunity to somewhat rest. You can make an overhead press easy on the shoulders and upper back by resting the bar on the upper body before you press it again. With a HSPU, the bottom is the hardest part of the movement, akin to stopping in the hole of a squat. The top is a handstand. Both are still work on the targeted muscles. Unless you rest on your head (which I've always found very uncomfortable), there really is no rest and you just have to keep moving and finish the set. Maybe that's why guys as far flung as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Anderson did them.
Falling firmly in the "people who are smarter than me" category of information I've picked up over he years tells me that the HSPU is a good movement for shoulder strengthening and injury prevention. Has anyone ever heard about how weighted presses with the elbows in (neutral grip) are easier on the shoulder? Well, the HSPU puts the arms in the same position as the neutral grip on dumbbells and logs. I don't recall the exact science behind this but using my own body as the test subject, I'd say that there is logic to that idea. My shoulders aren't Atlas Stone-like huge but are easily the most bullet-resistant joint on my body. I never have problems with shoulder pain and by doing them regularly, I'm talking about twice a week, for a half-decade.
As previous-stated in a past entry, you can wring a lot of strength training benefits from this movement without a whole lot of monetary investment. You can progressively increase difficulty on this one by moving your hands in closer, putting more emphasis on the arms than the shoulders. Then, there is always the option of going deeper by pushing up with your hands elevated. Inches count with this approach and don't be ashamed to increase the height by just three inches. What I'm getting at is start on your fists. Then you can progress to those push-up handles, parallettes, cinder blocks, boxes, etc. I've even done these on Perfect Push-up handles.
Naturally, be prepared to have your reps cut way down... as you go down. Just remember the same cues that you use with your overhead press work: glutes, abs and quads tight. It gets easier to get loose as it gets harder to get down. If you feel like your back is going to fold in half then you're pushing things too fast.
If you can't do a handstand pushup, there's no reason to offer yourself as a sacrifice to the Norse Gods just to make yourself useful to humankind. You could always start with pike push-ups, elevating your feet as you get easier. After that, try these with your back against the wall until you get good enough to rest your feet only...or do them free-standing. Granted I haven't gotten to that point yet for no other reason than I haven't tried to get to that point. At this point in time, I just want to get strong and I'll worry about balance another day.
In case you're worried about headaches, I can assure you that you'll get used to being upside down in time. You won't be in that position long enough to cause any harm either.
Handstand push-ups suffer from a combination of relative obscurity and the same intimidation factor as it's fraternal-twin movement, the pull-up. That could likely be due to the fact that it's done in a handstand position, something that lots of people struggle with. Still, work things out and find some way to do some of these. If 350 lbs Paul Anderson, who could press a 300 lbs dumbbell, found it in his body to do handstand push-ups, then so should you.
Push-ups are as important to any BW strength-apes as pushing stuff overhead should be for weight trainers. Pressing overhead is a fundamental movement for the human body and handstand push-ups are the BW answer to getting this important work in.
There's a good reason why I included pictures of the HSPU's so often in the last few entries here. I consider it that important of a movement and, the ACL rehab months notwithstanding, there is rarely a week I let pass by without doing some sort of HSPU. If you're going to choose BW as a primary method of strength training, you're going to need some overhead work. Unless you use weights (no quarrel there from me, just to clarify), this is the movement you need to be doing. It might even be a movement that you should do even if you do move weights.
 |
| ...and I have no tan whatsoever? |
 |
| How is it possible that I've been in Florida a year... |
While I generally refuse to use any term that Joe Weider used, I think there is something to the logic that keeping a muscle under tension as long as possible that builds strength. I'm not referring to any tricks with messing with rep range or time per rep here. What I do appreciate is a movement where there is very little, if any, opportunity to somewhat rest. You can make an overhead press easy on the shoulders and upper back by resting the bar on the upper body before you press it again. With a HSPU, the bottom is the hardest part of the movement, akin to stopping in the hole of a squat. The top is a handstand. Both are still work on the targeted muscles. Unless you rest on your head (which I've always found very uncomfortable), there really is no rest and you just have to keep moving and finish the set. Maybe that's why guys as far flung as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Paul Anderson did them.
Falling firmly in the "people who are smarter than me" category of information I've picked up over he years tells me that the HSPU is a good movement for shoulder strengthening and injury prevention. Has anyone ever heard about how weighted presses with the elbows in (neutral grip) are easier on the shoulder? Well, the HSPU puts the arms in the same position as the neutral grip on dumbbells and logs. I don't recall the exact science behind this but using my own body as the test subject, I'd say that there is logic to that idea. My shoulders aren't Atlas Stone-like huge but are easily the most bullet-resistant joint on my body. I never have problems with shoulder pain and by doing them regularly, I'm talking about twice a week, for a half-decade.
Yeah, it's popular to shit on trying to be healthy when strength training but let's face facts:
You can only get away with being strong but not healthy for so long.
Eventually, you won't be either.
As previous-stated in a past entry, you can wring a lot of strength training benefits from this movement without a whole lot of monetary investment. You can progressively increase difficulty on this one by moving your hands in closer, putting more emphasis on the arms than the shoulders. Then, there is always the option of going deeper by pushing up with your hands elevated. Inches count with this approach and don't be ashamed to increase the height by just three inches. What I'm getting at is start on your fists. Then you can progress to those push-up handles, parallettes, cinder blocks, boxes, etc. I've even done these on Perfect Push-up handles.
 |
| Three years ago in Sacramento... |
If you can't do a handstand pushup, there's no reason to offer yourself as a sacrifice to the Norse Gods just to make yourself useful to humankind. You could always start with pike push-ups, elevating your feet as you get easier. After that, try these with your back against the wall until you get good enough to rest your feet only...or do them free-standing. Granted I haven't gotten to that point yet for no other reason than I haven't tried to get to that point. At this point in time, I just want to get strong and I'll worry about balance another day.
In case you're worried about headaches, I can assure you that you'll get used to being upside down in time. You won't be in that position long enough to cause any harm either.
Handstand push-ups suffer from a combination of relative obscurity and the same intimidation factor as it's fraternal-twin movement, the pull-up. That could likely be due to the fact that it's done in a handstand position, something that lots of people struggle with. Still, work things out and find some way to do some of these. If 350 lbs Paul Anderson, who could press a 300 lbs dumbbell, found it in his body to do handstand push-ups, then so should you.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Homemade Grip Strength Training Equipment
Grip training DIY Style from Ramblin Around
Love the thick bar and blocks idea, there's no excuse that you don't have any equipment!!
Love the thick bar and blocks idea, there's no excuse that you don't have any equipment!!
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
DIY Concrete Weights
An interesting way to build your own weights set, save some cash and training unconventionally
Get your no cost Unconventional Conditioning Ebook here
Take Your Fitness To Another Level with the Gymboss Interval Timer
Get your no cost Unconventional Conditioning Ebook here
Take Your Fitness To Another Level with the Gymboss Interval Timer
Sunday, December 8, 2013
When Your Fat Is My Business
The effects of second hand cigarette smoke, unpleasant to be around no doubt (cigar and pipe smoke smell far better) are horribly exaggerated urban myths, accepted as fact, and have become the standard method of showing respect to your fellow American. I can't recall a time in the past 10 years where someone didn't apologize for errant cigarette smoke getting in my face.
Second, unless you live in the city, nobody runs down skateboarders anymore. Seriously, you city-dwellers, and just plain people who live in Florida, are seriously rude fuckers! So, since you live in the city, you're not loading chicken feed into a car so I don't have to help with that imaginary scenario.
Third, covering my mouth to prevent the spread of germs? Don't you mean: please appease my chronic OCD and germphobia?
What am I talking about?
Oh.
This...http://meloukhia.net/2013/10/do_you_care_about_my_health_or_just_think_im_gross_be_honest/
Written by her...
He has mentioned in the past that he doesn't have health insurance of any kind. In fact, he's commented before that he's so fabulously wealthy that if he needs medical care, he simply pays out of pocket. So, as far as I'm concerned, I have no real issue that he's fat either. He pays for his food and his fatness alike. It's of no impact on my life.
Once again, except Rush's. Rush pays for his lard, kitchen table to hospital visits to trips to the pharmacy (at least he paid for his Oxys instead of stealing them). If people like S.E Smith can't afford to do that then they better accept the fact that we're going to fat-judge. After all, your medical bills are making an impact in my life. Furthermore, as the government gets more involved, this will only accelerate. Just sayin'.
So, yes, you do have a right to be fat, much like you have a right to live your life as you see fit. There might be a good reason why right and responsibility alliterate: they're connected. If you're going to live fat, then you need to take full financial responsibility for being fat. If you can't pay like Rush pays, then maybe there's a lesson there. After all, your rights end where others begin and if you can't afford to pay for your medical bills, in full, then I guess you shouldn't be fat.
Second, unless you live in the city, nobody runs down skateboarders anymore. Seriously, you city-dwellers, and just plain people who live in Florida, are seriously rude fuckers! So, since you live in the city, you're not loading chicken feed into a car so I don't have to help with that imaginary scenario.
Third, covering my mouth to prevent the spread of germs? Don't you mean: please appease my chronic OCD and germphobia?
What am I talking about?
Oh.
This...http://meloukhia.net/2013/10/do_you_care_about_my_health_or_just_think_im_gross_be_honest/
Written by her...
I'm usually enthralled by a well-written article that I almost totally disagree with some original thought put to it. It is a legitimate question if others fat is anyone else's business than the person carrying it. It's an interesting point that we tend to treat other fat people as though they have some sort of obligation to not be fat.
So, do I care about your health or do I just think you're gross? Good questions that I'll get to, eventually. What I really love about this extremely well-written article is the assertion that her, or anyone else's fatness is nobody's business except the people whose limbs rub together excessively from normal, daily movement.
Theoretically, that should be true too. After all, I don't live in S.E Smith's body. I'm not married to her or interact with her in any capacity beyond reading her material on the internet. So, since she has no physical footprint in my life, I should have nothing to say about whether or not she's fat, healthy, or simply disgusting to look or not. After all, I don't have to buy her food, have sex with her, or pay her medial bills if her obesity costs her more money than my fit-oriented lifestyle.
Wait, I sense a problem...
There is another person who I genuinely don't care at all whether they're fat or not too.
So, do I care about you health? Kind of. I mean, I don't wish strangers who don't do evil any ill. If You're fat and causing yourself harm, then I wish you'd get to a point where you're not damaging yourself Do I think fat is gross? It can be, but even that depends. I've never complained about a woman carrying an extra 20-30 lbs in her boobs and butt, that's for sure (I'll refrain from the too-easy excuse to post T&A. For now). From your photos and your description, I don't find your fat composition particularly attractive, that's for sure.
I doubt Smith is as fabulously wealthy as Rush but I'm guessing that she's not. Since she's not, I doubt that she pays all of her medical expenses out of pocket. In other words, she may have health insurance for that. That's the problem I have with her notion that her fat isn't anyone's business. If she has insurance, and she needs more medical attention for her obesity, then guess what? HER WEIGHT IS OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS. Simply put, insurance is like a lottery: everyone pays in, a few draw out. If more people draw, more people have to pay. So, if bipedals of her ilk need more medical attention because they're fat then we all end up paying for that. The notion that fat and health do have relevance. We know that fat people are more unhealthy. The simple fact is they are usually more of a burden. So, we do have grounds to be pissed because fat people cost society money.
Once again, except Rush's. Rush pays for his lard, kitchen table to hospital visits to trips to the pharmacy (at least he paid for his Oxys instead of stealing them). If people like S.E Smith can't afford to do that then they better accept the fact that we're going to fat-judge. After all, your medical bills are making an impact in my life. Furthermore, as the government gets more involved, this will only accelerate. Just sayin'.
So, yes, you do have a right to be fat, much like you have a right to live your life as you see fit. There might be a good reason why right and responsibility alliterate: they're connected. If you're going to live fat, then you need to take full financial responsibility for being fat. If you can't pay like Rush pays, then maybe there's a lesson there. After all, your rights end where others begin and if you can't afford to pay for your medical bills, in full, then I guess you shouldn't be fat.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Concluding, "The Fitness Industry is Dead"
While I've not really directly addressed many key points in this article and opted to say what I think are the reasons why the industry itself is dead in the sense its ineffective, I think that the article itself is great because it's a much needed sense of introspection for anyone involved in this subculture. There are no shortage of rants out there about why the McFitness industry sucks but not a whole lot of the root problems. This author had his thoughts well-laid out why things don't work. I don't agree and I have mine.
In the past two entries, I've identified my two, large problems: lack of good information and far-less than ideal people disseminating it. There is a third and final problem that I see with the industry and I've pondered this problem for quite some time how to word it properly: the people that the fitness industry is selling to. I wonder how this industry will continue to exist in the larger culture it's part of.
Oddly enough, my two favorite blogs to read about strength training are intensely different from one-another. The first is Chaos and Pain. The Second is Body Tribe. The latter does about a good of a job reaching out to the 85% discussed in the last entry as anyone in the subculture. The former generally could care less if they come along or fall off a cliff...their choice.
I can see the logic of both points of view and how neither will particularly work well to get people moving properly. While the inspiration of this article delves into the psychological aspects of how to get people physically right, I generally disregard such a direction. Yes, people have emotional issues that hold them back from being better movers. Still, people long ago had these issues and they didn't become diseased, eating-disordered sloths because they weren't happy. Clearly something has changed and that change is that people become this way because they can. I said it in the first entry and it probably explains most of why the fitness industry doesn't work: the larger culture sabotages it. Our societies give people the option to remain weak, lazy, dumb to the facts, and they don't have to listen to what us 15% say about getting moving. If you're reading this then chances are that you are the aforementioned 15% and you're here because you want to be here.
Let's face the grim reality: like I mentioned before, we've figured out how to live long and unhealthy. We've mastered drugs and surgery to the point were we can keep a body that should die from lack of proper function alive with our health care system. If you HAD no other choice but to lose the unhealthy weight and move in a manner that keeps your body strong and healthy then you'd do so. If the 20th century had a list of bad notions, near the top of that piece of paper would be the idea that if we moved less, we'd be happier. In theory, it sounded like a good idea if you consider that humankind spent most of the previous 10,000 years abusively laboring ourselves to death. Sitting down most of the time must have seemed like a pretty good idea circa 1900. It clearly wasn't.
What's also happened to people that makes getting them to accept fitness is another larger issue that we may have all noticed but not really been able to put into words. With things like this, we have to be open-minded to all sources of information so that we can find the right way to put this into words. I happened to find it while researching knife fighting on Youtube. Even if you have no interest in the subject, just scroll ahead to 12.10 and pay attention...
In the past two entries, I've identified my two, large problems: lack of good information and far-less than ideal people disseminating it. There is a third and final problem that I see with the industry and I've pondered this problem for quite some time how to word it properly: the people that the fitness industry is selling to. I wonder how this industry will continue to exist in the larger culture it's part of.
Oddly enough, my two favorite blogs to read about strength training are intensely different from one-another. The first is Chaos and Pain. The Second is Body Tribe. The latter does about a good of a job reaching out to the 85% discussed in the last entry as anyone in the subculture. The former generally could care less if they come along or fall off a cliff...their choice.
I can see the logic of both points of view and how neither will particularly work well to get people moving properly. While the inspiration of this article delves into the psychological aspects of how to get people physically right, I generally disregard such a direction. Yes, people have emotional issues that hold them back from being better movers. Still, people long ago had these issues and they didn't become diseased, eating-disordered sloths because they weren't happy. Clearly something has changed and that change is that people become this way because they can. I said it in the first entry and it probably explains most of why the fitness industry doesn't work: the larger culture sabotages it. Our societies give people the option to remain weak, lazy, dumb to the facts, and they don't have to listen to what us 15% say about getting moving. If you're reading this then chances are that you are the aforementioned 15% and you're here because you want to be here.
 |
| Am I the only one who despise that these were even thought up? |
 |
| Yeah, I bet they would have opted for a desk job too! |
What's also happened to people that makes getting them to accept fitness is another larger issue that we may have all noticed but not really been able to put into words. With things like this, we have to be open-minded to all sources of information so that we can find the right way to put this into words. I happened to find it while researching knife fighting on Youtube. Even if you have no interest in the subject, just scroll ahead to 12.10 and pay attention...
Linking that sort of pervasive, cultural restlessness explains a lot of things wrong. So, our world largely relies on distraction from the problem at hand. That's probably why too many need some sort of constant feed of entertainment to get through the day. Relative to the discussion I've articulated, it explains why gyms these days just don't get things done.
Look at most modern gyms and you'll see a massive collection of machines and they all tell you how to move. You don't really have to think about the moves you want to do, how to set up your body posture properly, how to execute. All you have to do is sit a chair, adjust some padding, and let hinges dictate your movement pattern. While you're moving, they give you televisions and music to move to. The fitness industry has just continued to extrapolate on the lack of imagination and continues to feed the restlessness.
 |
| I may have identified a cause for that... |
I'd be willing to bet big money that promoting a break from that would net more results. Good work in a gym is time spent in our own world, deep in introspection, and often times being creative with what we're doing. If the fitness clubs as we know them are nothing more than another conformist distraction, then like every other chunk of bullshit entertainment, people won't stick by it for very long.
You could say that's the fault of the fitness industry itself. The industry as we know it in the USA had the misfortune of coming of age in the same time period where we really took getting fat and restless into double-overdrive. So, were they simply catering to a demand?
Personally, I just have a hard time buying it. I'm going to venture into the usually murky waters of personal experience. That can be troublesome since personal experience is too often devoid of objective introspection. People aren't known for looking at personal experience and saying, "I did that wrong", nearly as much as they should.
In my case, I tried the gym world when I was a teenager. I used Cybex machines and running stuff. I didn't stick with any of it. I wanted strength but I wasn't getting answers that I wanted. So, I went out and I looked for it. I didn't stop until I found it either. If people demanded the truth out of the fitness industry, someone would provide it. They wouldn't accept being stuck.
Of course, I don't expect the fitness industry to actually go the way of the buggy-making business just yet. I just don't expect it to suddenly become truly effective any time soon. These past three entries represent my reasoning as to why don't think it will. Ultimately, the first two won't get solved until the bigger problems with the society that the gym rat world inhabits gets repaired and demands better out of the business.
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