Week 5 of Diet
Have you gone to war with the gym lately? Did you win the battle? Or are you tipping your head back at the hilarity, and the repetition, of these phrases comparing getting your sweat on to actually fighting with your life against an enemy. Sure, fat, atrophy, and heart disease can be considered "enemies" with the gym as the battle ground to fight off these foes, but do these advertisements really get ANYBODY going? Pick up most male fitness magazines, and they are all filled with montrous men jacked up on steroids and GOD knows what else, with "onion-thin skin," snarling, and with captions like the first two sentences of this post. Frankly, it all just makes me laugh, and it paints a HORRIBLE picture for the average, or even above-average person presently or wanting to get more fit. Want a little example of what I’m talking about? Here goes:
I’m 5′8", I weigh 145 pounds, own my own personal training gym, and work out intensely 5-6 times a week. I lift weights, I do cardio, sports specific training, plymetrics, just started using kettle bells, there is really and ENDLESS list of things I do in the gym. It’s called muscle confusion. That’s what works. That’s what keeps our bodies progressing toward goal after goal after goal. Besides that indoor preparation and sculpting stuff, I hike, mountain bike, snowboard like crazy, wakeboard, wakesurf, and try anything new that can possibly take place outside. My possibilities are endless indoors and outdoors. Because of all this, I have been given the nickname "MAndrea." It does not offend me; in fact, I actually kind of like it. But these silly magazine advertisements make outsiders looking in believe that this image is the goal I am striving for. Which is evident with the name I was given. No, not all girls that work out end up looking like men, not all want to. Yes, some do, but I am quite happy with my gender and do not plan on tampering with that. I will; however, continue keeping myself young by being active. I LOVE WORKING OUT, AND I LOVE DIETING FOR IT.
I love my body. I love to use it. I love that I am in control of what kind of conditioning it has and how it looks. No, I am not at war with the gym, nor do I plan on beginning or participating in any battles with it using some synthetic powder as my weapon. Especially one that doesn’t even work. I am 24, and forever will I be very traditional in my training. Whey protein and creatine is all the supplements I need, and really, what I believe all anybody needs. The media has produced this ideal of what a fit person looks like. The professionals are all over the magazines, and yes, I do respect a FEW of them. But the images and the books that got my fire going were not in Flex magazine or any others like it. It was in college during my Exercise and Sport Science degree, in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Bodybuildling (that contains all the old school aestheticly beautiful bodybuilders, not the apes of our time), and also in Oxygen Magazine.
A few of the people I highly respect are Jamie Eason, Monica Brant Peckham, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. They don’t look like gender-confused women, or like species-confused gorillas. Yes, Arnold is Massive, but hey, he’s the pinnacle of bodybuilding. Look at his waist, no distended-belly going on there. His body is beautifully porportional. His front double bicep pose a creates lovely-looking heart from his pecs, to his delts, and back down to his pecs. He didn’t pump himself so full of substances to see just how far he could take his body without giving himself a heart attack. He put in a blood, he put in passion, he put in sweat. And yes, those women, and many others, are more lean and muscular than my wildest dreams, but still maintain their femininity. They keep me pushing myself each and every day I am feeling less motivated. If they can do it, maybe so can I. However, they do not make me want to cheat, yes, CHEEEEEEAAAAT, to get to a certain level. We are all so different genetically. We all have our very own personal best. The only thing we can do is constantly do our research, continually train our easily adaptive bodies, and get ourselves to the best that WE can be; get ourselves feeling the best WE can feel. Lay off thinking these magazines that hold images of what they try to make us think we could and should look like. Remember, these pages really only a tertiary resource of information. Order a journal, buy and read the information in a reliable text. You’re already on this site, use it. I come on this site ALL the time of exercise and diet advice.
With information constanly flowing into my brain from scientifically backed resources, with swapping tactics amongst others on this site and in person, and with my newly recharged endeavor to get myself healthily to the next level, I guess I have created my armour. This is my shield from the magazine advertisements that make working out and proper nutrition seem masculine and brainless. And also from the people who really really wish when hearing you’re on a strict diet and training regimen, that they too could have the heart and the motivation to do it. Unfortunately, these ads make them think they will sustain undesired side-effects, and give them great ammo when coming up with arguements against doing it.
February 4, 2009 at 2:00 pm
great post. most ads, not just the ones in flex or M&D, give people unrealistic aspirations. the models in those ads look like that for a MINUTE, and they took 6 months to get that look that will last a whole photo shoot. from beer commericals to supplement ads, they all paint a picture that is impossible to live up to on an everyday basis, even for the models themselves.
February 5, 2009 at 7:43 am
Nice post. I started back about a year ago and the first thing I did was pick up some magazines. Let me tell you they are crazy. I really like your summary above. Keep up the hard work.
Chris