Fitness Industry Letdown

Who is going to take responsibility for the failure of the fitness industry to keep Americans fit?  Do we face too grand a foe, is that the excuse?  Is the power of food engineering, television, video games, and the internet too strong a force to be counterbalanced?  Something is completely wrong because the fitness industry is scoring less than 40% for keeping anyone in just basic shape, never mind healthy.  Things have needed to change for a long time but we just keep repeating the mistakes of the past, allowing “insanity” to replace good judgment.

Why do fitness professionals follow industry trends so that they fit the celebrity trainer mold, swallow dogma, and regurgitate failing approaches?  Why are people’s personal relationships to exercise and their bodies hijacked and supplanted with the latest images, tips, tricks and ridiculous high intensity “kick your ass” programs from the fitness media empire?  Because the voices of those who buck the system threaten its profits even as it fails to deliver the goods.  Thus, originators are silenced under the flood of propaganda from the powerful and wealthy fitness establishment.

Think about it…the more we are kept in the dark about what it really means to have a knowledgeable positive relationship with exercise; the riper we are for the picking.  The myth of “spot fat reduction” alone is responsible for billions of dollars of fitness sales.  The promise of athleticism as the key to your personal fitness rakes in even more!  Who can deny that the current fad of linking personal fitness with Cross Fit games and MMA fighting is just the another attempt to cash in on ego driven competition and lack of knowledge about our bodies?

Certainly some of these models produce results, but look at the numbers, is less than 40% acceptable?  I would argue that many more people are turned off, alienated, and feel weak and worthless when they cannot “just do it”, wind up injured, or get funny looking results.  With over 60% of Americans over-weight or obese the numbers support my argument.  Yet, the fitness industry continues to make an enormous fortune, even as it loses the war.

I would like to think I have at least some part of the solution.  The INLINE Art of Exercise steers people away from unbridled consumerism, teaching them that due to our absolute individuality in bodily structure, emotional balance, and motor coordination, each of us must define our own unique and sustainable relationship with exercise.  Before you begin or advance a fitness program, think about these things:

Body Structure: We all have singular shaped bodies that react differently to the same exercises.  What works for one person may not work for another.

Emotional Balance: Our emotions allow words, images, and people to motivate or de-motivate us.  They create desire for change and our internal discipline or lack thereof.  We all have a different emotional balance.

Motor Coordination: Some people are born jugglers and tight rope walkers, others are not.  Some also have excellent form, balance, and muscular tension that allows them to get better results and guard themselves from injury.

Sustainability: It is difficult to work out or maintain motivation when you are injured. Training through deep joint and connective tissue pain creates negative results. Pounding your body needlessly shortens your exercise life-span.  Because of our unique body structure some people are more prone to injury and have shorter exercise life-spans.

Most importantly, it is the health of your joints and surrounding tissues that brings to balance all the disparate notions of fitness and working out.  As soon as it is compromised your body machine begins to weaken, ache, and become susceptible to more damage. The entire point of “lifetime fitness” is to strengthen your machine and keep it running optimally for all the days of your life. Burning out your engine early with unbalanced approaches will defeat this purpose.

Taking the time to educate yourself and form a personal relationship with exercise will keep you healthy, balanced, and free of subliminal fitness industry control.  Otherwise your attempts at fitness will only last as long as the fad does, until you get injured, lose the big game, or get your butt kicked by someone better than you.  Then you will be searching for a new relationship to exercise, only to find yourself sucked into the next fad instead.