A Take on the Herstory of Fitness and why I (heart) old people

Why not do away with retrospect and engage in a sort of non-temporal instrospect? I've been thinking about unilinear time and why it is that we always find our "reasons" and learning through hindsight. Reflecting on my lastest notes, I wonder how much of the modern fitness mentality takes root in the "Protestant work ethic" (try Weber) and in the notion of history as being unilinear as per biblical faiths as opposed to cyclical as it was for the Greeks/classical pagan tradition. I'm suggesting two very loaded concepts here, so allow me to shake it up and break it down for you kind and patient folks.

Looking most specifically at highly competitive athletes (which includes recreational, physique and endurance contingents) I can't help but ask myself if modern western consciousness, and specifically in this context, has derived the "no pain, no gain" paragidm from Weberian seeds. For myself, I know that in my peak of overreaching, I was battling against a narrative of my own making; the narrative of "If I am not fast/lean/strong/skilled enough, then...".
Chances are that most of us have developed a narrative as such with a densely ambitious "if" and a nebulously defined "then". For computer programmers, if/them statements are used in a causal manner to determine outputs. For us in the gym (let's reduce the training environment to just the gym for the sake of simplicity) there are consequences for not achieving, but aside from a common fear of mediocrity, that consequence remains largely unexplored for most of us. I would wager my weekly tea allowance that most women's "then" involves physique implications, but the underlying belief, whether the "then" concerns matters of strength, perfomance or aesthetics is a prolific valuing of a borderline ascetic work ethic.

If perfectionism and burn out are modern epidemics, then I would journey into Weber's ideas and pinpoint the transition from the Catholic Work Ethic to the "Protestant work ethic" as being a monumental moment for the shaping of the typical mind and modernity. In the case of fitness especially, I see women venturing toward figure and bb competitions and I sense that the high degre of self-abuse (masked as "discipline" by most industry media) and relentless efforts carry with them a sort of purity that embodies the spirit of this work ethic. So, then let's ask ourselves, why oh why (oh why oh why OH WHY) have we come to value leanness and the overuse of discpline a being a source of salvation from at least 2/7 of those darn sins? (I was thinking greed and/or sloth.) And what is so psychologically addictive about the "clean" feeling of a training output that is 1kj short of loss of consciousness. If humans were once hunter gatherers, did we actually stimulae endorphin synthesis from exhaustion or famine? My instinct tells me no, but I would be very interested to learn more about that.

I suppose the only logical trajectory this thinking can take is toward the second prong of my initial thinking: unilinear temporal consciousness. Now, I don't have enough brain cells to count on the number of times I or others have made a claim for getting "back" into shape. Allow me to wander aimlessly for a moment before completing that thought:
Why not consider the "reason" for an experience at the front end? Would this not cause injury or unexpected events in life to feel more valuable at the onset? Why do most of us insist on reflecting in the aftermath, rather than in the moment?
Now that I've created an incomplete foray, I return to my initial discussion which is somehow (though I can't find the definitive link) connected. The Greeks would tell us that we can know patters and change through cosmological metaphors; that history occurs in cycles congruent to those in nature. The biblical tradition veers toward a sense of history through revelation. For Pagans, it was the employment of reason toward understanding cycles, whereas for the Hebrews and Christians (and maybe Muslims, though I wouldn't presume to have the knowledge to include Islam in this generalization), there was a stronger emphasis on the promise of the future as a justification for the past and present. Both view of history offer increadible scope for discussion, but for our purposes, it is the more enduring of the two (the biblical notion of history) on which I am focused. If we are to look at the means through which to acquire a fitness end (that is, a goal) then we can justify some struggle for the promise of our narrative. In this case, the if/then goes something like this:
IF I lift weights and eat right every day THEN I will surely become healthier/more attractive/less prone to sinful behaviour. Hmm, wait a minute? Did you read that right? Yes, you did. I am making a (hopefully) provocative claim for the use of fitness as a religion alternative for overcoming, as I said, at least 2/7 sins. Whether or not we consciously view fitness as such, taken to an extreme, most sufferers of ED's or perfectionism-related behaviour will admit to having (perhaps unknowingly) pursued a path as deviant from "deviant" behaviour as possible. And what about the self-proclaimed non-believer? Where does he/she fit in? Well, if a certain theoretical viewpoint holds true, then non-belief does not exempt one from partaking in the consciousness of (most) western societies that has come to be influenced by these sources. What I'm saying is that religious or not, the ascetic values have permeated society and nowhere is this more apparent to me (at the moment) then from a glimpse of a photo of an underfed, overtrained fitess/figure/bbuilding competitor. This type of thing is vastly present in sports as well, but manifests itself in sometimes less visible forms.

On to the other matter at hand: old people. I have really come to value the presence of older community memners at the gym. In fact, of late, it is the older folks, more than the most attractive or strongest folks that I have come to admire. If longevity and quality in that is the name of the game, then it is truly in senior citizens that I find my hope for a healthy and happy life. Always cheerful, always grateful to be there, old people represent a true commitment to living well and living well into their vintage years. Because the ability to exercise in your later years is only possible through self-care and balance in the years prior, I am starting to think that old people have got this game pretty darn figured out.

As for me, my workouts are consistant and a joy. I think it may be a while before my brain can sustain any "bumpy" cardio like running, but weighted stairclimbing and walking is challenge enough! I'm playing hockey and coaching again, though both at a modified pace. I couldn't be happier to be back in the gym and after a few "false starts", I've reached a comforting conclusion:

I'm not getting back into shape; I'm getting back into me.


I wish you all healthy days, tasty meals and a full receptacle of winsdhield washer fluid.