Fitness is Not a Matter of Preference

If this was about preferences, I’d be more understanding. It isn’t. Your capacity to move, bend, throw, push, pull, and jump is exactly that.. it’s your capacity to navigate the world.

We aren’t talking about preferences. Some people like the color blue, while others enjoy reddish things more. Liking or disliking fitness is neither here nor there. In my opinion, how you spend your time acquiring it isn’t a matter of opinion, either.

Do you really, really, really like your at home DVD set entitled Susan Summer’s Toning System Workout Video? Great! You can put in the mix, along with the Titanic, The Unusual Suspects, and Caddy Shack as a list of your favorite movies. Are you obsessed with how much you sweat in your local Tai Chi Partner Yoga MashUp class? Awesome! You can put it on the list with windsurfing, cooking, and Sudoku as your favorite pastimes.

If your preferred fitness practice doesn’t make you a formidable contender for life, fine, but don’t stop there. You still have to address that whole fitness thing. None of this replaces, addresses, or is remotely related to the requisite responsibility we have to navigate our world effectively and independently. You’re either engaged in improving capacity for load, range of motion, and work, or you’re not.

Sure, sometimes we get lucky and we find something that we like and covers the bases of health and wellness, but I see a real problem with holding onto say cycling as an end all be all training discipline because you prefer it, when we need to recognize that we cannot trade personal preference in for glaring failures in basic capacity to squat, jump, or maintain basic posture under load, for (a hypothetical) example.There’s not a enough of fake fitness videos or cheese-ball fitness classes on the planet to replace the answers to very basic questions. Can you move? Are you strong? Do you have capacity to excel at what life presents you?

Still can’t find an avenue to capture real fitness? Take an honest look at the practices you’re considering. Are practitioners of any particular movement style becoming capable humans? Skinny isn’t necessarily capable, either. Furthermore, if one wanted to become remarkable (i.e. the best version of themselves), would this particular practice afford them that opportunity? (SEE: DVD Toning System Fail)

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach