Disturbing trend in the nf forums?

[Kristian]

When you're in good enough shape to achieve your goal (walk, lift, run, jump, play, etc.), you're probably also going to look alright, and you'll definitely feel good about yourself.

[Denny]

Sorry to take this a little off topic, but I see another trend that is a little disturbing. I've not been here very long, maybe a couple of months, but I've really enjoyed the sense of community here. The board is growing and new people join every day. This is a special place because it is the intersection or crossroad of so many lives. So many here are generous with their time, experience and advice. It is inevitable that this place will grow to a proportion where it will be difficult to keep track of things, and folks just interact with a smaller group because time doesn't allow keeping up with what everyone else is doing. I think it becomes impersonal at that point. I am in no sort of way advocating a cull or restrictions on growth. This place is special because of openness and inclusiveness, but I wonder if after a certain point the village will lose its small town charm.

I see no problems with people splitting up in groups, squads or guilds. Nerd Fitness is transforming from a village to a city and I think it's just natural that we don't get acquainted with every visitor dropping by. I have decided to not try to greet every new user or enter every thread to help share a good mood because it's realistically not possible anymore. I try to keep a good relationship with a smaller group instead and I see nothing bad with others doing the same, as long as new users isn't treated as outsiders.

[NekoLuvr85]

Ok, I guess I'm guilty... I don't workout just to be fit and healthy. I do it so I can look better naked. Lol ;P

[ETFnerd]

I see no problems with people splitting up in groups, squads or guilds. Nerd Fitness is transforming from a village to a city and I think it's just natural that we don't get acquainted with every visitor dropping by. I have decided to not try to greet every new user or enter every thread to help share a good mood because it's realistically not possible anymore. I try to keep a good relationship with a smaller group instead and I see nothing bad with others doing the same, as long as new users isn't treated as outsiders.

Sounds very reasonable.

[smurray]

I think the atmosphere here at NF is healthy and supportive in the overall goal of encouraging members to strive toward a long and healthy life. During that journey, you should be able to develop a healthy physique and achieve many personal goals you have set before you. By us taking the encouragement of fellow members and seeing the successes in the achievements we make along the way, we can take the confidence we build and put it toward other aspects of our lives.

I do continue to check out the introduction forum and if there is someone I see that I have something in common with, I will say a quick hello and try to point them in the right direction to help them in discovering where the best nook or cranny would be for them. I have noticed the natural cycle of new people greeting other new people and those connections being made. A good percentage of the people I keep a close eye on signed in at the same time I did and we have share many of the same experiences with this forum and can relate with each other.

This is a very positive forum and from what I can tell everyone here wants to see everyone strive to be their very best, but what do we do when we see someone here who is possibly showing signs of have some sort of a disorder? I don't want to encourage someone to head down the wrong path, but I do want to be a supportive community for everyone.

[Denny]

It's hard to say how a person who is showing signs of a disorder should be approached considering there are people working full-time helping people like this. I think the best we can do is continue like we are now; positive, encouraging and straight to the point. We're not a community with commercial agendas like magazines and other spokesmen which strive on pushing certain role models onto others, I don't think a person will develop a disorder due to the community here but rather from other factors, most likely from things in real life.

Something I've had a problem putting my finger on with the community growing as of late, which I think I'm starting to understand now, is the problem of over complicating things. Early on when I started reading Steve's articles on the front page the overall theme has always appeared as a Keep It Simple Stupid approach, most things have been in simple layman terms and never traverses into unnecessary details. As the community has continued to grow I've noticed that many users has slipped away from an early mindset of just doing things... Exercise in whatever fun way you prefer, eat less mass-produced food which necessarily doesn't have to be paleo, just strive to level up your life one step at a time. A mindset which I think most users find appealing. Lately I've noticed in parts of the forum that the mindset is slipping over to the same, nauseous, approach of optimization... The debate whether your protein intake should be 1g or 2g, if a certain lift is better than the other, if GOMAD is yay or nay, if barefoot running is just a fad or actually good for you. The list goes on. Instead of just doing things that are fun and gives the result you want people are starting to obsess which path is the best or quickest. (same thing magazines strive on to sell extra copies...)

I think it's awesome that we have users that want to help others achieve their goals, showing others how to do things right not to injure themselves, how to eat well and what they should avoid. When everything is turning from helpfulness to pure debate over smaller things that lands in the territory of optimization I think we're starting to approach the same mentality that has plagued the fitness community for so long.

Those are my additional 2 cents, I don't expect you to agree, I just think we're more helpful with Keeping It Simple Stupid rather than going into unnecessary details. To get back to smurray, who knows, isn't it obsession over optimization and the appearance of how hard it is to achieve a goal that gives people low self esteem and at worst the development of disorders?

[ETFnerd]

I think that finding better ways to do things is something that I do naturally. I often recommend a book called "optimal sports nutrition", but that book does not purport to have an optimal method for exercise or nutrition. It just gives another way of thinking that the author believes is a better way to realize athletic potential. I always try to look for robust methods that differ from my linear thinking tendencies. It is a way to think about approaching an optimal state, but an optimal state is probably unknowable.

What I take issue with is with people who seem to "know" what is better for everyone else. They take their beliefs as gospel and apply them wholesale without thought of differences in all individuals, their respective circumstances nor that they may be wrong. Instead of "try this, it worked for me, it may work for you", it's "I know what is best for you and you are silly for disagreeing with me".