I am tired of the six pack-ab being the picture of health. As much as I like being fit, and even working out, you really can't tell much about a person's health by their physique. The only thing that visible ab muscles is indicative of, is low body fat. There is significant research out there to suggest that it is, in fact, indicative of too low body fat for most individuals who's metabolisms don't naturally gravitate towards lower levels of body fat. The rest of us are meant to be just a little more lush, with enough protective padding to sustain us when we're ill, fatigued, or under stress.
The inspiration for this rant was a locker room conversation I overheard yesterday through the vents in the sauna. Eavesdropping at the gym is admittedly bad form, but sometimes people talk loud enough that you can't NOT hear them. And anyway, it's not like I'm naming names. The two guys in question are approximately 25ish, cut, ripped, torn, whatever vernacular you want to use, and they were talking about nutrition. Naturally I was intrigued.
What they were really talking about was lean chicken and turkey breast, protein shakes, pre and post workout supplements, creatine boosters, herbal anabolic boosters, and energy drinks. It's difficult to sound like a dude when your diet resembles that of a starving supermodel. Seeing as I've also witnessed both of them standing outside the door of the gym smoking, it isn't a stretch of the imagination to conclude that what these two live on is a diet of supplements, stimulants, and nicotine with a few bits of food thrown in on "cheat days" so that their digestive tracts don't atrophy completely.
Does that sound like a health to you?
Yet, year after year, the exercise and diet industry makes billions, if not trillions, of dollars on selling products to us, and to these two young muscle-heads, to achieve or maintain a body that most of us just, shouldn't, have. And, I will add, wouldn't expect to have if it weren't for the multi-billion dollar nutraceutical industries. This is not better living through chemistry, it's hooking up a mainline between the factory and our bloodstream.
Yes, I am angry - even outraged - but not for the reasons one might initially suspect. Yes, I'm a forty five year old macro, but that doesn't mean I am jealous of their youth or physique. I am a reasonable person, and I know that some people just naturally retain less body fat than others, and when those people exercise they have a difficult time gaining muscle. There are also those of us who could workout to exhaustion every single day of our lives and never have a waist measurement lower than thirty six inches. My anger stems from the fact that there are millions of people spending billions of dollars in the hopes of achieving unrealistic results, that may only be achievable for a very short period of time by tricking your body with a long list of chemicals. And, when the trick stops working, your left with the choice of either raising the stakes or finding a new trick. You are exactly where the makers of those chemicals want you, dependent on them.
The only way to achieve life long health, fitness, flexibility and balance, is to listen to, and work with your body. It is not the enemy, it is you! Chemicals that produce immediate results, will not produce long lasting results. And, finally, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
This isn't rocket science.
No comments:
Post a Comment