Question: What’s the biggest health problem in the country today? Answer: It’s not what you think. It’s not obesity, diabetes, heart disease, low back pain or cancer. If you’re thinking depression, you’re getting warm, but that’s still not quite on the mark. My claim will surprise you, because it’s not biomedical in the conventional sense. [...]
OK, I’m the first to admit it: I make up a lot of stuff. Over the last few years I’ve made up stories about talking bears, time travel, fitness shamans and canine fitness consultants. But this time, I’m not making it up. I swear it.
You see, the hottest thing in the fitness world at the moment is “Convict Conditioning.” I read about it–I’m not making this up either–in a national magazine called–inexplicably–“Health.” The brain-child of one or more ex-cons, this training program reportedly offers the ultimate in punishment, abuse and according to its promoters, results.
This, of course, is a subject just begging for satire:
“Train the way the cons do!”
“If you’re doing 15-to-life in the big house, you’ve got to be tough. Let us show you the secrets of the cell block.”
“Sculpt your abs in lockup! You’ll have plenty of free time to train!”
I guess that boot camps just aren’t macho enough anymore. If you really want to get in shape, don’t bother with the big-box gyms, the DVDs or those sissy personal trainers. Just go out and commit a class-1 felony with a firearm and you’ll be in lockup in no time. And be sure to bust some really serious laws, otherwise you’ll just be doing time in a Martha Stewart county club facility– and you’ll never get into shape that way.
Of course, some people might say that convict conditioning is precisely what we need at this moment in history. After all, many observers have compared the modern city to an over-sized penitentiary with its severe restrictions on physical and psychological freedom. If you live in the city, you know the predicament: locked in one cage or another for weeks, months or years at a time. Walls, barriers, fences, cars, cubicles and layer upon layer of rules, laws, codes and guidelines: we are effectively incarcerated as it is. So, maybe “convict conditioning” is in fact what we need. When in the pen, do as the inmates do. Maybe the ex-cons really are the experts on surviving the modern world.
But seriously, the real problem here is the growing appeal of this sort of draconian, authoritarian fitness style. In this sense, convict conditioning is no different than fitness boot camps. Both are driven by the widespread belief that the only way to get the body into shape is to beat it into submission. We’ve tried exercise and diet– and failed miserably at both–and now we’ve come to the conclusion that our impulses towards sloth, overeating and physical apathy are completely uncontrollable. Our only recourse is to be dominated by a screaming boot camp drill sergeant or locked up in a dark cell with a huge, sweaty con named “Bubba.”
isn’t there a better way?
How did we get to this state? Why are we so ready to give up on ourselves and hand our lives over to external, controlling agents?
There’s plenty of blame to go around, of course. We can point our fingers at our modern infrastructure and its body-hostile qualities. We can point to marketing and media and the constant messaging to consume more of everything. We can blame modern technology for sucking our attention away from one another and the natural world. And of course, we can blame our Cartesian, mind-centric culture that devalues the body and the natural world.
So, there’s a thousand reasons why we might feel powerless. The modern world is hostile in many ways and evolution has given us powerful impulses towards sloth and gluttony. In this sort of context, it really comes as no surprise that people resort to desperate measures to get their lives and their bodies back.
But I submit that there is a better way, one that doesn’t involve a stint in the military or a long-term relationship with the criminal justice system. That better way is built around physical creativity, positive social experience and contact with the natural world. The better way involves getting away from the boredom-intensive environments and programs that we have constructed for ourselves: big gyms, exercise machines, drills, routines and spreadsheets. The better way involves moving towards creative physical challenge, personal expression, outdoor experience and responsibility for one’s body.
We are capable! We can create beautiful, exciting and sustainable habits of eating, moving and living. We can find our own ways to sweat and lift, ways that fit the natural world with a spirit of play, joy and transformation. Authoritarian fitness environments are not only unnecessary, they ultimately reinforce our sense of powerlessness. Instead, it’s time to start taking responsibility for our own experience, effectiveness and enjoyment. Get out of the pen and start living life as a free and healthy animal.
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What does it mean when a supple, young creature gets up in front of a group of people and shows them how to move their bodies? Does it have any significance? Does it offer any motivating power or inspiration?
I suggest that it doesn’t really tell us a great deal. Of course the youngster can move. Of course he or she can jump, stretch and lift. Of course he or she is slender and beautiful. That’s the nature of young bodies. When you’re twenty or thirty years old, you look great and you can do almost anything. And thus, your exceptional performance doesn’t really carry much weight. We may be impressed or jealous, but we’re not truly inspired.
I have long believed that health and fitness credibility lies with those who’ve figured out ways to sustain their performance over the course of decades. These are the people who have the formula.These are the people that we should be listening to.
Paul Chek once suggested – tongue in cheek, I’m sure – that doctors should practice naked or nearly so, in order that patients could see how they managed their own health. If your physician is in terrible condition after all, it really takes a bite out of his credibility.
In a similar way, I’ve come to the conclusion that there should be a minimum age for health and fitness instructors. Let’s say 40. Or better yet, 50. If you can stand up in front of a group and demonstrate your long-term results in the flesh, then you’re qualified. No exams or certifications necessary.
Over the years, many of us have been struck by the powerful imagery of “Getting Old is Not for Sissies.” This cover photo stands as an enduring icon for what’s possible. At the time this photo was taken, John Turner was 67 years old. As a practicing psychiatrist, he spoke a refreshing philosophy: “I think physicians have a responsibility to sell health at least as much as they sell pills.” (He made this statement in the early 1980′s, before the medical industry dove headlong into techno-pharmaceutical fixes for every human affliction.) Who wouldn’t want this man as a teacher, fitness instructor or physician?
In this same spirit, I’ve recently discovered a powerful new book called Fifty Athletes Over Fifty. Author Don McGrath has interviewed a series of rare individuals, athletes who are still in the game, still living a highly physical life well into what some people call “old age.” The individual stories are fascinating, but it’s the core idea that really carries the quest. For McGrath and his lifetime athletes, it’s all about developing the right relationship with the body, the process and the sport. In short, it’s about falling in love with movement.
McGrath sums up his findings in a simple paradigm: Love it – dream it – live it – powered by feelings of joy, fun, sensation and accomplishment. It’s a powerful formula, one that has been obvious to young, independent athletes for a long time. Surfers, skateboarders, rockclimbers and free runners have built entire lifestyles, sub-cultures and movement disciplines around quality life experience. For them, no extrinsic motivation is required. It’s the experience and the dream that pulls them into active, committed participation.
Sadly, this auto-telic approach has been largely eclipsed by linear thinkers who seek to reduce human health to spreadsheet-ready numbers and formulas, as if emotion and spirit had nothing to do with physical engagement. On the contrary, emotion, spirit and aesthetics exert a powerful pull that lasts a lifetime. If you fall in love with your practice, your art or your discipline, the technicalities are just a sideshow.
Listen to Don’s interview with Frank Forencich.
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