There’s a subset of the population that’s bought in to the idea of fitness, but not the process. They want to be fit and have all of the superlatives and metrics involved therein (“I want 12% bodyfat” - “I want to complete a marathon in under 4 hours” - “I want to be stronger, faster, and have better endurance” - “I want to feel better and have more energy”), but have missed the fact that, practically speaking, fitness is a process. These same folks tend to regularly find their way into gyms and fitness programs, but never with consistency. It’s the constant search for the easy fix, the quick results, and it’s the repeated and perpetual disappointment when the “fitness” doesn’t just happen. Practically speaking, fitness is not a 4-week bootcamp. It is not a crash diet. It is not a fad or a quick bout of work and then it’s something that you suddenly possess. It is repeated daily struggle.
Our modern world is uniquely blessed and cursed with having the choice when it comes to struggle. Daily life can be carried out in comfort and ease for most anyone who’s likely to be reading this blog; and while that certainly does make things nice and pleasant for us, some would argue that it’s also at the heart of why we, as a society, are rather unhealthy and unhappy. Struggle is itself something of value, and the embrace of daily struggle is very much a part of what makes the “process of fitness” so deeply satisfying and rewarding. It’s not that a pleasant or comfortable life is bad, it’s that a life without any physical struggle is very much against our DNA. Humans have developed as a race living out their fitness as a necessary piece of survival, and now, in the last couple hundred years, industrialized society has allowed this physical struggle to be largely avoidable and unnecessary to survival.
The pursuit of fitness (through physical struggle) is our chance to feed our nature. Technically speaking, we can look at fitness in reference to definitive biomarkers and performance; but practically speaking, it’s something you do every day -- it’s voluntary struggle -- and that’s where the real value lies.
- PS
24 min EMOM
Min 1: 20s max cal row
Min 2: 6 strict toes to bar
Min 3: 4 keg clean and press (AHAP)
Posted on 06/28/2017 at 12:00 AM