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.

Excel.eration.

If you've ever written a physics exam, you'd know that strange aftermath, during which you can't so much as pour a glass of water without theorizing all of the forces, work and gravitational factors involved. Philosophy- and specifically metaphysics- is much the same. This semester has brought me to a new level of inspiration. It may be a snore for most people, but I just feel a stronge urge to share the names and thoughts of brilliant minds that have enabled me to transcend an intellectual frontier in the most delightful way..

I feel as though the more I learn, the more I realize how tiny a piece of the puzzle I have in my hand. There's something that is at once fulfilling and frustrating about knowing that there is no end to discourse, to dialoge and to the deliberative way of being.

In the spirit of reflection and In no particular order, please allow me to present...
5 Hottest theorists and ideas from this semester:

1) Aristole's The Politics.
This is my fourth go at this text, and yet never have Artistotle and I bonded as we have this time around. His overarching metaphor of nature/biology lends this incredibly natural element to institutions as controvercial as slavery and even drive me to questioning the basis of our morality in believing that we have risen above this practice. I believe this to be a horrible act of injustice, but I am awed by my ability to step outside of my own vaccum, if only for a few moments, and consider Artistotle's ideas about how organic and natural slavery is to the household, as the most fundamental pre-political unit. Most notably, his Doctrine of Causality has been a source of endless interest on many bus rides and long walks to and from school. The 4 causes are:
1) Matter (or material)
2) Form (the formal cause)
3) Agency
4) Final/Purpose (or telos)

The interplay between these ideas goes something like this: The telos is the beginning and end product of this process. It informs the agent of the right material and form that the final product must take. The telos is not inevitable, but depends upon the ability of the agent to select the appropriate material with which to generate the form required to fulfill the purpose. This is all still very underdeveloped, but even this skeletal understanding left me breathless for more. My love affair with the Politics has left me with passion and curiousity anew. Who knows, maybe I'll even read Nicomachean Ethics...for fun!

2) Ibn Khaldun's al-Muqaddimah(the Introduction)
When I began to read and learn about this historian and sociologist, I felt as though I was meeting an old friend. He espouses a view on social change that calls in to action a phenomenon he calls "assabiyya". This term has been translated as "kinship", "tribalism" or "social cohesion". Khaldun explores how assabiyya draws people together and likening it to a symphony orchestra, my professor explained that within his framework of a stratified society, all players in the symphony, along with the conductor (Caliph) could play with glory and skill when pursuing the instrument to which they were best suited. Like me (and I'm sure at least one or two others out there) Khaldun was heavily influenced by the works of Aristotle, brought to the Dynastic Muslim world by the great philosopher, Alfarabi. As such, Khaldun engaged with the metaphor of nature as well, in his explanation of the cyclical nature of social change and cohesion:

"One should then take a look at the world of creation. It started out from the minerals and progressed, in an ingenious, gradual manner, to plants and animals. The last stage of minerals is connected with the first stage of plants, such as herbs and seedless plants. The last stage of plants, such as palms and vines, is connected with the first stage of animals, such as snails and shellfish which have only the power of touch. The word 'connection' with regard to these created things means that the last stage of each group is fully prepared to become the fist stage of the newest group."

3)Stuart Hall "Encoding, Decoding".
Stu and I didn't get along very well at first. He was old and british, I am young and still haven't reconciled with my ideas about post-colonialism. But hey, I'm a charitable girl and found that there was some room in my heart for a man with a brilliant theory on the encoding/decoding process that defines cultural production and practices. Hall formed the backbone of my cultural analysis on Gatorade (paper) this semester, as I shyly interacted with his methodolical approach to "semiotic analysis in a social framework". All that really means is looking at a commercial, campaign, ad or product and situating it; historically, economically, and politically. Once you've got that part down, look at it, look through and it render visible the social relations within its imagery and wordplay. For example, I looked at Gatorade and the cultural conditions in which it is marketed, I look at its strategic use of certain ethnic athletes, I deconstructed the meaning of that creepy coloured sweat in its ads and even look at how the shape and colours of the bottles themselves contained hidden symbols that reinforced gender and social hierarchies that exist in its cultural-historical context.

This man is wickedly intelligent. Wickedly!

The final two theorists will have to come in a later installment, as I have been assaulted by a scholastic hangover and am taking the balance of today to recover from a week of extremely late nights, lack of exercise and generally woeful deficiency of fun. Whoa is me!

I will conclude here by introducing the above photo of some really delicious cookies I made last week. I seem to have misplaced the random phone message on the back of which I cryptically scribbled out exoskeleton of this recipe. I will post it one day, I promise! I don't know how they could possibly taste the way they do, given their amazingly healthy constituent elements (that's you, yes you) but who am I to question the inner workings of al cosmos.

InhaleInspiration, ExhaleExcellence.

Sometimes when I step outside of my comfort zone, amazing things happen. Often times it has meant working beyond my perceived limits, sometimes it has even been as simple as just shifting the paradigm a few millimetres one way or another, but tunlocking even the smallest parts of your mind can mean opening up entire worlds of opportunity.

I've been thinking to myself that if I can just acknowledge my fears and anxieties, forgive them and then move toward "my power", then it's just a matter of chosing the outcome of my try out and then making it happen. This has been the first year that I've taken a tapering week, really REALLY eaten for perfomance, so I've been really outside of my comfort zone, as someone who has always lived on the brink of constant overkill! I had some anxiety yesterday morning, but I know this will be worth it. 1 week of hockey and fitness? How can I even pretend not to be excited (and a bit nervous). This morning marks the first day of a 1 week training camp and try outs for the Carleton University team, so I may be a bit scarce this week...

This has been a gift; coming home, going back to school, making new friends and playing hockey. Looking back in my journal, now I can see that everything I had wished for is starting to come true.

Could it be, at last, that I am finally ready to be who I am?

I may not post this week just to avoid overthinking things (out loud) but know that I am beyond greatful for all of the amazing support, kindness and belief that you've sent my way. I feel pretty blessed this morning and I'm just going to go with that.

I'm somehow not finding the words I need, so I'm just going to post a few of my favourite pictures (at random) that never fail to make me feel warm.