We Don't Need No Education.

4/23/2013

Being strong, fit, benching heavy, going to the gym – working for health in a bubble, in a closed environment – it’s like being an A-Grade student and then expecting everyone else in class to be the same. If I can do it, anyone can – all that statement reveals is an ignorant mind-set, and a low sense of self-esteem. It’s like training for a test at school and expecting that to make you better at life. Training doesn’t make you better in the same way grades don’t make you better. It’s privilege. The same old prejudice. Some people are better at some things, others are not, and who are we to judge? Training and fitness make some things easier, but that doesn’t mean you get to be a prejudiced dick about it. Exercise doesn’t make you better than someone else. Being a ‘better version’ of yourself is a moral judgment, and last I checked, being sick or disabled doesn’t make you less worthy, or less moral, than someone who possesses full function of their limbs. Having sporting abilities doesn’t make you worth more – whether you measure that in ultimate or relative terms – to society, to your loved ones. A ‘better version’ is moral. A more sportier version is simply a more sportier version.

We’ve swapped one prejudice for another. We go to the gym, practice obedience and call it rebelliousness. We practice conformity and call it individuality. We lift and train, we think that improved fitness equals improved worth and we think it changes who we are – we think it makes us better than we were before. But it doesn’t. The fact that you do or do not exercise has nothing to do with your worth. We all work at stuff, because we all want our lives to be better. The secret is, of course, that you are already worthy. And as your training cannot and does not make you more worthy, there’s nothing that makes you less worthy either.

Training. Education. How is this high-school stuff going to help me in the real world? How is Calculus going to help me provide for my family, and how is the number of chin-ups I can do going to protect me from heart disease? Don’t confuse the testing measures with the process of development. Don’t be afraid to fail the tests that are merely designed to keep us chained to the wheel.

Being a high-school drop-out doesn’t doom you to failure and misery any more than going to college and accumulating debt ensures a life of success and freedom. So what about training? We train to be healthy, people use phrases like “bullet-proof yourself against blah-blah”, as if the term bullet-proof is literal. But training doesn’t ensure health, in the same way that good grades don’t ensure success. It’s merely the confidence of ignorance, obedience and self-delusion. The fantasy of control and the blind denial of chaos. Somebody did a study once, therefore I’m not at risk of cancer. I used to believe that. Knowledge versus prophecy.

I’m doing what I’m told, therefore nothing bad is going to happen to me.

Where’s the wisdom in that?

So why train? Because it’s fun. If it’s not fun – if it’s not giving you something right now – some promised future benefit isn’t enough, I’m sorry – don’t do it. Don’t buy the lie that nobody will find you attractive. That you won’t be able to protect your mate/future/investment. That biology dictates women like big muscles. If you have big muscles, and you attract a mate, what happens if you get sick, you can’t train, and you attracted a person who values big muscles? What happens then? Who looks after you, so that you can look after them? So why train?

Do it on your terms, or not at all.

All systems of propaganda promise some vague future benefit. How many deliver?

Can you make your training more pertinent to your goals? Your education more pertinent to your life? Sure you can. It’s your path. You’re an adult - you get to choose what you like. But you wouldn’t seek out an education and expect success without paying attention, so don’t hop on the treadmill and watch TV while expecting miracles. It’s got to be worthwhile.

Health is health. Do what you can, when you can, without judgement, and you’ve got your best chance of progress.

5 Comments

Michellers

4/26/2013 01:15:53 am

I heard somewhere that scientists have discovered genetic links to exercise behavior so I looked it up. I guess some study in 2010 discovered that different people respond differently to exercise, to fatigue, to how rewarding exercise feels. To which I reply: No shit! My (least) favorite part of the articles I read on the subject was the inevitable conclusion that people should not use their genetic predisposition for sloth as an excuse. Lovely.

I do think that it's interesting to notice how my really athletic friends really crave exercise, while I only exercise because I know that I will feel good after it's done. I don't exercise because it's fun--because the process is absolutely not fun to me--but feeling strong and competent in my body is fun, so I exercise.

Chris Serong

4/26/2013 09:56:12 pm

So, if you have a genetic predisposition to not enjoy exercise, you should just try harder, then? Try harder at not being determined by genes?

Craving exercise, and enjoying exercise are weird, weird topics. Most people I know who enjoy training hard find a masochistic type of pleasure in it. I know I did. What's really hard is identifying that, realising it's not simply a good thing and might actually be unhealthy on some level, and investigating other ways to motivate and enjoy training.

I like to talk about training being satisfying - because sometimes it'll be boring, sometimes it'll be fun, sometimes it'll be frustrating - but over all, there has to be a reason to keep coming back to it. And this is training in a formalised sense, of course - some activities are more fun than others, depending on you. Simply trying harder at liking something you don't like never really works though.

Exercise can make you feel many things - accomplished, anxious, desperate, vulnerable, strong, embarrassed, fulfilled - it's a long list. A lot has to do with the environment, which you might have very little control over. Many people feel intimidated in and by gyms - for these people, gyms are probably not a good place to go to - not yet. It must be a safe space, and a safe space isn't necessarily ensured by having everyone simply call it safe and put on their yoga-smiles.

Also, of course, we teach people to hate their bodies, and then expect them to enjoy being reminded that they have a body that requires care and attention. Exercise reminds you of that in a big way.

And then, people like to say shit like "I enjoy exercise - I can't believe some people think they don't enjoy it - they just haven't done it right" - to say this is pretty much the same as saying "I can't believe someone would have an experience that's different from the experience I have. Everyone who experiences this thing should experience it the same". It's pretty naive.

But I'm rambling. This is why I say it must be on your terms. Maybe it'll be fun, maybe satisfying, maybe not. If you can't find a way in, maybe you shouldn't be exercising. If you have no motivation, maybe it's your central nervous system telling you you're too depleted to train - even if you believe you 'should' be fresh and recovered and vital - maybe you're actually not.

What's easy is taking yourself off to a personal trainer or class and biting the bullet and doing what you're told. What's not easy is walking your own path and finding your own way through to the life you want to be living - whether formalised training is a part of it or not. It's easy to pander to exploitative demands, but it'll always suck and you'll wonder why you're miserable when you're doing all the right things. Sigh!

4/26/2013 10:06:02 pm

Maybe I should write more about masochism. Boxers - people think of boxers as people who like to hit. But I challenge you to find a boxer who doesn't also enjoy getting hit. And when you believe that you need to wail on your pecs, you see people hitting it far too hard in the gym, enjoying the pain, because the pain ratifies their own sense of worthlessness. Oh, such a mixed bag. Do you train because you value and respect yourself, or do you train because you have no sense of self-respect and worth? Sometimes it's not so easy to tell from the outside.

4/29/2013 01:00:04 am

Funny enough I just rewatched the movie "Snatch" and was repelled and fascinated yet again by the graphic boxing scenes. I really dislike boxing IRL but there is something terribly beautiful about that masochism in a film like that.

I had never connected it before to exercise in general, but I understand what you mean. I know that being sore after a workout sometimes feels like validation to me, instead of an indication that I overtrained or did something improperly. My pain, my gain!

4/29/2013 01:36:14 pm

Soreness after a workout is a funny one. It can feel like a measure of progress, but of course when you 'feel the burn' while training - that's not fat burning, that's the muscles working, and in the days after exercise, that soreness may indicate an elevated metabolism, but a more kind of real measure of progress would be - are your skills improving? Are you stronger, has your capacity for endurance improved? And what's the sweet spot? Excessive soreness will just interfere with your ability to recover. And if you are sore - is it that the training is working, or are you not eating or sleeping enough.... But we get used to a kind of sweet masochism - I'm hurting, therefore I must be progressing. And we start to think - that pain/gain thing again - that if we're not hurting, we must not be progressing. So we associate progress with trauma and recovery, which may be true to a point, but it's a really limited view.

Of course, that's just to speak of the Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness - not to speak about joint fatigue or injury. That's something else - but again the no pain, no gain mantra would have us simply ignore and work through joint pain - and that essentially amounts to a disaster waiting to happen. It can be really hard, sometimes, telling the difference between different kinds of pain or different sensations during and following exercise. Anxiety, excitement, vulnerability, resilience.... All kinds of physiological and psychological things come up.

We Don't Need No Education.

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