Is fitness superficial?

[Evicious]

That's my opinion. I think the people in those bodybuilding competitions use unhealthy practices to look the way they want (getting down to unsustainable, unhealthy body fat percentages, dehydrating themselves dangerously before competitions, some of them I'm sure use steroids and testosterone) for a result that is frankly pretty disgusting looking. I think it's really gross to be able to see the striations in someone's muscles through their skin. I'm all for weightlifting and getting strong, I just think those bodybuilding competitions aren't really any different than beauty pageants.

 

I agree with your comparison of body building to beauty pageants. Then again, I also think professional sports such a football, soccer, basketball, tennis, swimming, running, cycling, dancing, rock climbing (yes, it's professional sport), surfing, skating, equestrian events, martial arts, and pretty much any kind of renowned competitive activity is equally as useless as body building and beauty pageants - participants aren't exactly curing cancer or solving the world hunger problem, now are they? And I find it pretty disgusting that those "elites" get so much money just for doing what they love, too: seriously, why do we pay these people?!

 

I mean, I'm all for developing oneself to one's fullest potential however they choose, I just personally look down on them for doing it in a way I find offensive.

[Silo]

Bodybuilding is about appearance. Powerlifting is about the big three: Bench, Deadlift, Squat. Olympic weightlifting is all about the snatch and clean and jerk. If I had to compare powerlifting and olympic lifting I'd say that powerlifting is about grinding out a slow rep and olympic lifting is a quicklift.

 

Thank you for this explanation.

[Hit]

i think evicious was being sarcastic...

[clrknight]

This is not really a response to OP's specific situation, but rather my own thoughts on the motivations for fitness.

 

I think the interesting thing about the superficiality of fitness is that even IF someone is doing it for superficial reasons, they are still getting fit in the process. They are still becoming healthier as a result.

 

I'm sure we all have at least a small motivation to look better than we do now, or to impress/attract the gender(s) that we wish to attract. And even if someone were to come up to me and say that their only reason for exercising, dieting, etc. is for those reasons above, I would say go for it. They are still becoming healthier, and although I may not agree with their reasons, it will still benefit them in the end.

[Evicious]

Thanks, hitlionsoul; you are correct. :-)

[Hit]

got your back kid o/

[Salty]

Fitness is not superficial but some peoples motivation to get fit is all about aesthetics. Personally i love to be strong but when I started getting fit i was in it for one reason: to be jacked and as much as I love feeling fit and strong i still like having abs and veins. Just my opinion.

[StillWaters]

I think the issue is that people see this as wrong and think that anyone who does something for the sole purpose of aesthetics is horrible and shallow. In reality, there is nothing wrong with working out for purely aesthetics reasons. What makes the person a douchebag is when aesthetics becomes more important than everything else, like health, self worth, and personal releationships.

[ErikDawnbringer]

I constantly feel like a bloated sweaty potato with my weight issues.  I want to not feel like a bloated sweaty potato.  I mean sure, I do want to look better, but that is just a secondary goal.

[Tanuki]

To be honest a lot of my motivation is an aesthetic one. I don't really feel convinced by all the health arguments - sure being strong is nice and I enjoy the feeling, but whether or not it will make me live longer, meh. Half the time the studies or arguments look like guessing (is there an actual study of women who strength-trained for X years and women who didn't, and then they compared muscle-loss or osteoporosis rates?) and I don't feel remotely confident that tossing a weight or two around is going to magically stop me getting cancer. I don't even know if I want to live to 100. Or 90. Or whatever age it is we're all supposed to be shooting for. I'm not going to modify my life, diet and activities in the hope I avoid cancer when only 'one third of cancers' are preventable (so two thirds aren't) and I'm already seeing women my age - 30ish - whom I went to school with, had babies alongside and worked with, succumb to breast cancer. Being slim, hitting the gym and running 5Ks didn't help them. I figure cancer's going to get me, or not, and there's not much I can really do about it. An apple a day won't keep it away.

 

For me it's an aesthetic goal - wanna look good, call me shallow but whatever. I'll always have a broken nose and eye bags, but no one will notice them over the sight of my abs - and the fun and playfulness of doing 'cool' moves that are considered difficult. There's something I find quite amusing about a bored housewife who wakes up one day and decides to teach herself pistol squats and one-arm pushups.

 

The health benefits are secondary. If they exist at all. Maybe I'm just burned out from 1000 headlines about foods-that-prevent-cancer this and everyones-going-to-get-diabetes that. I throw up my hands and say let the fates decide. I'll just build some abs and a butt while I'm waiting.

[Kaylya]

The health benefits are secondary. If they exist at all. Maybe I'm just burned out from 1000 headlines about foods-that-prevent-cancer this and everyones-going-to-get-diabetes that. I throw up my hands and say let the fates decide. I'll just build some abs and a butt while I'm waiting.

 

That there sums up the problem with most science journalism. You wind up with some focused, narrow, study that found some small relationship being blown out of proportion by the time it goes from the researchers, to the university press office who want to get attention with the press release, to the journalist who picks up the press release and adds a few things to turn it into a story, to the headline writer. One individual study doesn't prove anything, but you don't get a ton of reporting on what you might call the sum total of our current knowledge, or separating what we know pretty solidly from what there's some evidence for but not nearly so solid, to what's really a mish-mash of competing evidence.

 

It's pretty well established that exercise is fantastic for you. So is eating your vegetables. There's lots of questions about the details - which vegetables are better? How does HIIT compare to slower, steady state cardio? Is strength training alone enough to provide the same benefits as moderate cardio? At what point, if any, do you really get diminishing (or even negative) returns for more exercise?

[JPrev]

I'd gladly donate some of my butt.  It's bigger than it has any right to be.

[Hit]

 

 

I'm already seeing women my age - 30ish - whom I went to school with, had babies alongside and worked with, succumb to breast cancer. Being slim, hitting the gym and running 5Ks didn't help them. I figure cancer's going to get me, or not, and there's not much I can really do about it. An apple a day won't keep it away.

 

on a long enough timeline, everyones survival rate reduces to zero. or something like that, been a while since i watched fight club. which incidentally was a movie that both mocked and spawned a serious trend towards excessive male aesthetics. weird film.

 

but you're very much correct, being super fit wont save you from bad things happening to you. in some ways it can greatly increase them (not many people who arent boxers get punched in the face repeatedly, nor do many people who dont cycle get hit by cars while on their bikes). 

 

at the end of the day i dont think it matters why you work out, just that you enjoy it and it makes your life tangibly better in whatever way. personally, ive never found exercise to improve my aesthetics to a point where i was ok with the way my body looks. but knowing i can jump that gap? climb that wall? lift that heavy thing? yeh, that makes me feel pretty good about my body.

[Disil]

To be honest a lot of my motivation is an aesthetic one. I don't really feel convinced by all the health arguments - sure being strong is nice and I enjoy the feeling, but whether or not it will make me live longer, meh. Half the time the studies or arguments look like guessing (is there an actual study of women who strength-trained for X years and women who didn't, and then they compared muscle-loss or osteoporosis rates?) and I don't feel remotely confident that tossing a weight or two around is going to magically stop me getting cancer. I don't even know if I want to live to 100. Or 90. Or whatever age it is we're all supposed to be shooting for. I'm not going to modify my life, diet and activities in the hope I avoid cancer when only 'one third of cancers' are preventable (so two thirds aren't) and I'm already seeing women my age - 30ish - whom I went to school with, had babies alongside and worked with, succumb to breast cancer. Being slim, hitting the gym and running 5Ks didn't help them. I figure cancer's going to get me, or not, and there's not much I can really do about it. An apple a day won't keep it away.

 

For me it's an aesthetic goal - wanna look good, call me shallow but whatever. I'll always have a broken nose and eye bags, but no one will notice them over the sight of my abs - and the fun and playfulness of doing 'cool' moves that are considered difficult. There's something I find quite amusing about a bored housewife who wakes up one day and decides to teach herself pistol squats and one-arm pushups.

 

The health benefits are secondary. If they exist at all. Maybe I'm just burned out from 1000 headlines about foods-that-prevent-cancer this and everyones-going-to-get-diabetes that. I throw up my hands and say let the fates decide. I'll just build some abs and a butt while I'm waiting.

Think about it this way: Exercising and keeping fit and strong will make those later years, your 50s, 60s and 70s a whole lot easier/better. Feeling strong, having energy, power..that's health and has shit to do with cancer. It's not about living to be a 100, but having the last third (no matter when it's going to end) not be a total clusterfuck of sickness and weakness. My grandpa died obese and diabetic in his early 60s, both my parents are in their 50s, chainsmoke since they were teenagers and I'm afraid I'll lose them every day. I want to give myself the best chances to not be them. Sure, you can't become immune to cancer, or a lightning bolt or a semitruck on the boardwalk, but that's not what this is about. Also, the decrease in risk of heart attacks and general heart disease alone should be enough to get anyone to work out, at least a little.

[sylph]

Think about it this way: Exercising and keeping fit and strong will make those later years, your 50s, 60s and 70s a whole lot easier/better. Feeling strong, having energy, power..that's health and has shit to do with cancer. It's not about living to be a 100, but having the last third (no matter when it's going to end) not be a total clusterfuck of sickness and weakness. My grandpa died obese and diabetic in his early 60s, both my parents are in their 50s, chainsmoke since they were teenagers and I'm afraid I'll lose them every day. I want to give myself the best chances to not be them. Sure, you can't become immune to cancer, or a lightning bolt or a semitruck on the boardwalk, but that's not what this is about. Also, the decrease in risk of heart attacks and general heart disease alone should be enough to get anyone to work out, at least a little.

This is a huge motivation for me to work out.

 

My husband and I call it "preventing rot."

[Tanuki]

I do try and keep that in mind. My parents are very unhealthy, obese drinks but it doesn't seem to really be impacting them. If anything it's their mental attitude that holds them back - being very resistant to new knowledge, new viewpoints, new debates, trying new things - so I hope to avoid that too, and keep mentally sharp at least. But physically too, I guess - I don't want to be 40 and suddenly throwing up my hands and saying "I can't, I'm old" to everything.

 

One thing that brought me here with a fitness goal was how awfully unfit I felt for the first time in my life - like even climbing the stairs was a challenge! I never want to feel that weak again.

[TMedina]

Not really.  You can certainly be vain, and exercise for vanity, but there are plenty of good reasons to exercise that go well beyond appearance:

 

1. Muscle.  We lose, what, 2% per year after 35?  Muscle training helps offset that loss, keeping you healthy and active well into later years.

 

2. Bone density - of particular interest to women, but really for anyone.  Resistance training forces bones to become thicker, in essence "stockpiling" density, helping to offset the inevitable decline as we age.

 

3. Brain functioning - more research is showing links between an active lifestyle and improved brain function.  Again, helping you live better, longer.  

 

4. General health - this is something of a catch-all, but our bodies are not meant to be sedentary.  Research is pointing out the health impact of sitting for hours at a stretch.  Couple that with modern techniques for food production, and it's a recipe for a health nightmare, specifically the obesity epidemic.

 

I certainly don't plan to live forever, but in the same breath, I'd prefer to be as functional as possible for as long as possible.  

[Machete]

 

What I fear about old age is losing physical independence. I imagine other people would prefer to be able to lift themselves up to standing from the toilet seat after taking a dump too. As a trainer, my goal when training older people isn't necessarily to increase their lifespan, but more on the grounds of increasing the quality of life that they already have, no matter how long it is to be. It's not trying to outrun death, it's becoming stronger so that you're not just passively waiting for death. It's having the strength to go down swinging when death does come for you.

 

Hercules wrestles Death.

 

On being superficial though, it's an indicator that fitness and training is still highly associated with bodybuilding. Some people, bodybuilders and physique competitors in particular, train for a specific goal, that being the achievement of a certain physique, not necessarily "fitness". "Fitness" comes as a side-effect. A person dedicated entirely to bodybuilding wouldn't lift more weight than he has to. "Fitness" is subjective.

[Waldo]

Not really.  You can certainly be vain, and exercise for vanity, but there are plenty of good reasons to exercise that go well beyond appearance:

 

1. Muscle.  We lose, what, 2% per year after 35?  Muscle training helps offset that loss, keeping you healthy and active well into later years.

 

2. Bone density - of particular interest to women, but really for anyone.  Resistance training forces bones to become thicker, in essence "stockpiling" density, helping to offset the inevitable decline as we age.

 

3. Brain functioning - more research is showing links between an active lifestyle and improved brain function.  Again, helping you live better, longer.  

 

4. General health - this is something of a catch-all, but our bodies are not meant to be sedentary.  Research is pointing out the health impact of sitting for hours at a stretch.  Couple that with modern techniques for food production, and it's a recipe for a health nightmare, specifically the obesity epidemic.

 

I certainly don't plan to live forever, but in the same breath, I'd prefer to be as functional as possible for as long as possible.

Yep.

Once you reach that over the hill point, exercise plays an increasingly dramatic role in the quality of life. Instead of seeing exercise as a way to cheat death, a better way to look at it is a way to cheat oldness.

The effect of fitness will likewise always be a more powerful preventative tool than repair tool. Its not going to dramatically make you young again when age creeps up on you, but a lifetime of fitness will seriously slow the onset of aging. When you see 60 somethings that look and act like 30 somethings, yeah that's not genetics, its decades of consistent effort.

[Papa Raf C]

My father would tell me stories about how my grandfather was called "Hercules" amongst his peers back in his youth. He was an avid cyclist and also did a fair amount of lifting in his prime. In his 90's, he still had it in him to take a ride on his bike around the neighborhood, do some dumbbell training every morning without fail, and still had a sharp mind that he could beat us hard at checkers, even cracking a few protips our way.

 

He outlived my grandmother who was 6 years younger than him. I'm pretty sure he fell into depression afterwards because his health suddenly took a slump. He stopped riding his bike and pretty much spent most of his time inside the house. He started to forget the names of his children and grandchildren, slowly slipping to senility and frailty. Two years later after my grandma's death, my grandpa died at the ripe old age of 94 years old.

 

My grandpa was still relatively strong and his mind yet to dull. Had he not stopped his training, I believe he could've lived well off into late 90's. I'm sure he knew that, but I guess he just didn't want to anymore. I've always seen his case as a prime example of how fitness and training affects us both physically and mentally.

 

If to be superficial is to want to live a quality life with very little illness and disability up into old age, then yes, fitness IS superficial.