The Audacity of Bodybuilding and Healthy Living in Modern Times
I've decided that, because I hardly ever post on this thing about my life, I'll write up opinion "essays" on what happens to be on my mind at that particular moment. Hopefully I can keep it a fairly regular, on going series, posting every few weeks or so. No subject is safe, no matter how large or small.
By now, most of you who know me know that I take physical and personal fitness fairly seriously, though of course I take part in the occasional deviation rather frequently. While I have my own personal reasons to make these habits a part of my life, and at some points to an almost fanatical level, there are many reasons that people at least attempt to turn to healthy living and exercise, be it to excel and become or remain competitive in sport, feel better, recuperate from an injury or event that may have functioned as a wake up call, or just to look good naked.
Looking good naked.
Building the appearance of health, strength and vitality that is now so "in," and has been for the past quarter of the century, in part ever since action stars like Arnold and Stallone began kicking ass on movie screens around the world. It's hard to avoid when walking through the mall or city streets, or even flipping open a magazine, and seeing advertisements showing young models with taut, hard bodies pushing the latest fashions from Abercrombie and Fitch and Victoria's Secret.
Then you look down from the building side posters or up from your rag and see the pasty, plump products of modern living in an age of convenience. Imagine that, an age when an ideal is based upon foregoing those things that were put in place to make life so much easier, skipping the bounty of drive thrus and instant microwave meals, and exercising, doing that in your leisure time which, not even a century ago, was a part of everyday life? And bodybuilding; pushing, pulling, lifting, moving heavy objects, and then practicing a form of "controlled gluttony," overeating to gain weight, but only in the form of muscle. God forbid should any extra calories be stored away and saved for later as fat.
It does make sense that nowadays, remaining healthy and physically fit takes work, what with all the aforementioned conveniences. You don't need to walk anymore; just jump in the car or bus or subway. Not even in the grocery store, as you can just stop at Mickey D's on the way to where you're going, or, if you like to cook, order your groceries online. Gone are the days when a man had to grab his spear or his rifle and trudge into the woods or out back onto the farm and kill the family dinner, then drag the bloody carcass back to the house to be cleaned and cooked. You don't even have to pluck your fruit from the tree. Only time you have deal with anything heavy is when you don't like where your dresser is, whether you'd rather it on the right or left side of the room or in a new apartment across town.
Yep, we've got it pretty easy.
This is not to say that progress thus far has been all bad. We now live longer, look better (usually), and smell better because we now know which habits to adopt to make for healthier, hygenic living. The toothbrush wasn't even mass produced in the United States until 1885. And modern toothpaste? Soap? Blech!
With all the good of progress comes the trade off, the price of convenience. Office work is now more prevalent than ever, so now more people are sedentary for longer periods of the day AND they only exposure to the sun they get is walking through the parking lot going in and coming out. Be careful of that sun, by the way, them UV rays will give you cancer! You know, from all those carbon emissions tearing holes in the ozone layer, all from automobiles, power plants and factories running to keep down the hardship. And you've got to trade your time for dollars to afford these things.
So with the predominantly sedentary lifestyles and so many hours invested in working, leaving scarcely any time for much else, including sleep, who really has the time to exercise? I think that's why health and physical fitness, especially the appearance of such, has become an ideal. When someone does finally decide to exercise, they almost always have to start from a disadvantaged position: most people have to lose weight, gain strength and mobility, and overcome physical disfunctionality induced by spending years sitting sitting around and eating crap food to even get to what most people looked like 50 years ago, which was not too fat, but not necessarily skinny, just sort of "average."
Then there's the diet. Does anyone really know how to eat properly? If you say to follow the food pyramid, you are very wrong. That government produced guide to eating is tainted by lobbying groups and subsidized farming, mostly grains and corn. Speaking of corn, despite it being commonly referred to as a vegetable, it is a grain, and it is in everything, from soda, to cookies to even your beef. With that said, even knowing what you should eat is not enough, as food quality has greatly diminished over the past decades. Crops and livestock are now grown faster, helped along with chemical fertilizers and hormones, and in the case of crops, in crappier soil, so that they are deficient in vitamins and minerals when compared to their organic counterparts. Our meat eats the same stuff we eat, so that can't be good.
Eating right and exercising, the cornerstones of building an appealing physique, just doesn't seem to fit in to the picture these days with so many short cuts available to us to make life more comfortable and convenient, and how hard we need to work to afford it.
With everything needed to look good naked flying in the face of modern lifestyles, and how much that look can be pushed down our throats in the media, is it just a passing fad? I can't buy a pair of undies with out seeing some half naked jacked dude smiling at me, though maybe I just need to change where I shop. But looking at classical art, however, shows the trim athletic look we admire now has always been the ideal. What could it be that makes defined musculature and clear lines and shapes on the human body so appealing? Maybe it's that sort of instinctual recognition that this is the body of a creature that is fit to survive, strong and powerful enough to overcome the obstacles of nature and provide for the sexy, sexy offspring that they will create. I don't think our animal programming is that complex, but you get the point.
I feel there are some other things I meant to say, but I'm going to eat something instead. Need to get big.
By now, most of you who know me know that I take physical and personal fitness fairly seriously, though of course I take part in the occasional deviation rather frequently. While I have my own personal reasons to make these habits a part of my life, and at some points to an almost fanatical level, there are many reasons that people at least attempt to turn to healthy living and exercise, be it to excel and become or remain competitive in sport, feel better, recuperate from an injury or event that may have functioned as a wake up call, or just to look good naked.
Looking good naked.
Building the appearance of health, strength and vitality that is now so "in," and has been for the past quarter of the century, in part ever since action stars like Arnold and Stallone began kicking ass on movie screens around the world. It's hard to avoid when walking through the mall or city streets, or even flipping open a magazine, and seeing advertisements showing young models with taut, hard bodies pushing the latest fashions from Abercrombie and Fitch and Victoria's Secret.
Then you look down from the building side posters or up from your rag and see the pasty, plump products of modern living in an age of convenience. Imagine that, an age when an ideal is based upon foregoing those things that were put in place to make life so much easier, skipping the bounty of drive thrus and instant microwave meals, and exercising, doing that in your leisure time which, not even a century ago, was a part of everyday life? And bodybuilding; pushing, pulling, lifting, moving heavy objects, and then practicing a form of "controlled gluttony," overeating to gain weight, but only in the form of muscle. God forbid should any extra calories be stored away and saved for later as fat.
It does make sense that nowadays, remaining healthy and physically fit takes work, what with all the aforementioned conveniences. You don't need to walk anymore; just jump in the car or bus or subway. Not even in the grocery store, as you can just stop at Mickey D's on the way to where you're going, or, if you like to cook, order your groceries online. Gone are the days when a man had to grab his spear or his rifle and trudge into the woods or out back onto the farm and kill the family dinner, then drag the bloody carcass back to the house to be cleaned and cooked. You don't even have to pluck your fruit from the tree. Only time you have deal with anything heavy is when you don't like where your dresser is, whether you'd rather it on the right or left side of the room or in a new apartment across town.
Yep, we've got it pretty easy.
This is not to say that progress thus far has been all bad. We now live longer, look better (usually), and smell better because we now know which habits to adopt to make for healthier, hygenic living. The toothbrush wasn't even mass produced in the United States until 1885. And modern toothpaste? Soap? Blech!
With all the good of progress comes the trade off, the price of convenience. Office work is now more prevalent than ever, so now more people are sedentary for longer periods of the day AND they only exposure to the sun they get is walking through the parking lot going in and coming out. Be careful of that sun, by the way, them UV rays will give you cancer! You know, from all those carbon emissions tearing holes in the ozone layer, all from automobiles, power plants and factories running to keep down the hardship. And you've got to trade your time for dollars to afford these things.
So with the predominantly sedentary lifestyles and so many hours invested in working, leaving scarcely any time for much else, including sleep, who really has the time to exercise? I think that's why health and physical fitness, especially the appearance of such, has become an ideal. When someone does finally decide to exercise, they almost always have to start from a disadvantaged position: most people have to lose weight, gain strength and mobility, and overcome physical disfunctionality induced by spending years sitting sitting around and eating crap food to even get to what most people looked like 50 years ago, which was not too fat, but not necessarily skinny, just sort of "average."
Then there's the diet. Does anyone really know how to eat properly? If you say to follow the food pyramid, you are very wrong. That government produced guide to eating is tainted by lobbying groups and subsidized farming, mostly grains and corn. Speaking of corn, despite it being commonly referred to as a vegetable, it is a grain, and it is in everything, from soda, to cookies to even your beef. With that said, even knowing what you should eat is not enough, as food quality has greatly diminished over the past decades. Crops and livestock are now grown faster, helped along with chemical fertilizers and hormones, and in the case of crops, in crappier soil, so that they are deficient in vitamins and minerals when compared to their organic counterparts. Our meat eats the same stuff we eat, so that can't be good.
Eating right and exercising, the cornerstones of building an appealing physique, just doesn't seem to fit in to the picture these days with so many short cuts available to us to make life more comfortable and convenient, and how hard we need to work to afford it.
With everything needed to look good naked flying in the face of modern lifestyles, and how much that look can be pushed down our throats in the media, is it just a passing fad? I can't buy a pair of undies with out seeing some half naked jacked dude smiling at me, though maybe I just need to change where I shop. But looking at classical art, however, shows the trim athletic look we admire now has always been the ideal. What could it be that makes defined musculature and clear lines and shapes on the human body so appealing? Maybe it's that sort of instinctual recognition that this is the body of a creature that is fit to survive, strong and powerful enough to overcome the obstacles of nature and provide for the sexy, sexy offspring that they will create. I don't think our animal programming is that complex, but you get the point.
I feel there are some other things I meant to say, but I'm going to eat something instead. Need to get big.