Three Flawed Fitness Worldviews Holding America Back

Coming in just behind religion and politics, fitness (and nutrition) is a polarizing topic as any. The reason? Almost no one is content with their ability to manage their health and fitness. Furthermore, there is little distance between your physical body and what feels like your unavoidable, obvious identity. Therefore, fitness is the ultimate mirror.  

Fitness is high heat introspection. The polarization ensues from this deep well of emotion.  

Since almost no one is doing it well, the polarizing worldviews and subsequent arguments about methods and dogmas are supported by the nearly ubiquitous lack of results. After all, if we’re all failing similarly, we can offer up opinions and never be rigorously held to their validity. Here are three common flawed fitness worldviews that gets lots of airtime and have a strong ground swell of true believers:

1.) Some Training (like Pilates) Lengthens Muscles.

Not only does Pilates not lengthen muscles, nothing can. Pilates “lengthens” muscles in the same way that running does. A body with less muscle development will potentially look “longer” because of the very straightforward negative space between the body and the field of view behind it. It you want long muscles, be tall.

2.) Sweating is an Indicator of a Good Workout.

Sweating is the body’s response to stress, most often and specifically heat. While you can sweat because you’re nervous, I think the sweat we’re talking about here is the kind of sweat you feel pride for after a grueling conditioning effort. The indicator of a good training session is rooted in how well the session drove the adaptation you desired. Most people’s aesthetic and performance goals I come into contact with would ironically benefit from using greater loads with less volume and more rest than would maximize how much you sweat. 

3.) Weight Training is at Odds with Flexibility.

If you interviewed a hundred people on the street, I assume that the vast majority of them share a worldview that generally views strength training and flexibility as opposite ends of the same dial. “Turn up the strength and you naturally decrease flexibility.” The flexibility we all truly care about (whether you realize it or not) is actually mobility. This is a joint’s ability to move through a range of motion with stability. The more mobility we have the more range of motion in which we can do work. Most of the folks peddling this worldview are neither flexible nor strong. Ironically, they use the positive connotation of flexibility as a justification for being weak and avoiding responsibility for the often negatively connotation of weight training. Meanwhile, they’ll never passively be able to stretch themselves to either capacity in a functional way. The entire the fact that the entire US Olympic Weightlifting team can squat their butt to their heels with their feet together and their arms locked out with a barbell overhead with their hands together feels at odds with this logic coming from people who can barely touch their toes and can’t relate to a double bodyweight front squat. 

My advice?

Let’s only accept results in fitness to the same tolerance that we do in restaurants. If it doesn’t work we don’t give them our energy. The only way we’ll get to this place is if we (the consumer) take responsibility for our own fitness (or lack thereof). 

Keep going!