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Reflections from the gym

Like a lot of folk who spend much of their time working in an office in Central London, I try to grab what exercise I can by going to a gym. I have been visiting one of these places in London for about eight years, and, gratifyingly, my once pencil-thin physique has acquired a bit more muscle. (I have a long way to go, mind, not that I remotely want to look like the Governor of California). I have also acquired other benefits, such as being able to sleep much better, better chance of avoiding injuries in everyday life, and a better pallor… The benefits have not gone unremarked by my girlfriend, either.

Gymnasiums are now a major business. Their success in the West speaks of an ever-expanding desire on our part to live the healthy life and do something direct about it. I find it amusing that at a time when we are constantly told by our masters that we need new laws, taxes and the like to avoid obesity and other problems, that more folk than ever before are getting off their backsides and working out. Screw the nanny state, put on some gym shoes! It is a rather encouraging sign that the spirit of self-help, at least when it comes to developing a flat stomach or a nice torso, is well alive.

The gym culture also I think shows just how secular British society has become. If you lack faith in an afterlife, and want to squeeze the most out of life on this Earth, then get fit! Also, if you do not believe that pride is a sin, as I do not, then there is nothing wrong in doing one’s best to look good and feel physically on top of the world, and enjoy that fact.

31 comments to Reflections from the gym

  • I’ve been exercising for five years, since I was 13! I feel so on top of things! 🙂

  • I hate exercise. I had too much of it in the army and before that I didn’t much care for it.

    However I just did 5.2 miles on the treadmill and worked out with weights and the ab cruncher.

    Its like Joyce Carol Oates said about being an author

    “I hate to write, I love having written.”

  • I can confirm that fitness can reduce risk of injury. I used to have a lot of lower back trouble when I worked as a factory laborer. A simple 15 minute morning workout, just stretching, twisting, and a few pushups and crunches, was enough to prevent my labor from throwing my back out of line.

    My older brother lifted weights when in college. Running up a flight of marble stairs, he slipped and fell forward, catching himself on his fingertips just before his forehead hit the sharp edge of a step. According to the doctor who treated his sprained wrists and bandaged his forehead, a little less arm strength and he’d have split his head open.

  • Funny how insurance companies could save a ton of money by giving people initially free gym memberships, and only charging them if they didn’t go often enough.

    That would be great: direct monetary incentive to exercise, in addition to the peripheral health benefits and subsequent monetary savings. I suppose the main reason people don’t exercise is “the time”, as if it is better spent having entertainment occupy 100% of your leisure time.

    http://while-true.blogspot.com/

  • Bah… a pox on exercise.

    An hour a day spent in the gym is better spent in reading Shakespeare.

    Now THERE’S an exercise routine I can follow.

  • Picking up ones spent cartridges should be enough excercise for anyone eh Kim?

  • felixrayman

    Gymnasiums are now a major business. Their success in the West speaks of an ever-expanding desire on our part to live the healthy life and do something direct about it. I find it amusing that at a time when we are constantly told by our masters that we need new laws, taxes and the like to avoid obesity and other problems, that more folk than ever before are getting off their backsides and working out.

    Well, let’s see what “success in the West” looks like:

    In the UK, nearly two-thirds of men and over half of all women are now overweight – and 1 in 5 are obese (at least 2-3 stone overweight). The level of obesity has tripled in the past 20 years, and is still rising. At this rate, by 2010 at least 1 in 4 adults will be obese. Overweight and obesity is rising amongst children too.

    If you would like to argue that people eating themselves to death is no problem of the state, feel free to make that argument. But don’t ignore the facts here. People are fat, and despite what gym membership numbers say, they’re getting fatter.

    Many of the reasons for obesity in countries like the US can be linked to command economy decisions. For example, government construction of interstate highways led to the development of suburbs where people rarely walk anywhere. And government subsidies for farmers led to both below market price food and the development of food additives that many people suspect are a cause of the obesity epidemic.

    So your argument might be better summed up as “We don’t want government to try to solve problems, that would take too many resources away from the task of causing them”.

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Felix, you will get full agreement from me in dissing State subsidies for agriculure, which are bad for a host of reasons. As for the issue of roads and suburbs, I dunno. Surburbs seem to get a lot of heat from a certain quarter, but for many folk they represent a nice compromise between access to the city and a measure of tranquility.

    But my main point is that looking after one’s health is your job. Blaming the state for roads/farms/whatever is easy. Luckily, millions are not taking the easy option and just blaming the govt.

    rgds

    JP

  • I agree with the subsidies causing problems for farming.

    Suburbs, however, are in the best interest of the community for faster emergency response times. After having called 9-1-1 before from a rural area, I can say the ambulance takes about 10 min. to arrive and another 5-10 min. to get the victim in the vehicle and go to the hospital, which is another 10 min. back.. There goes half the time you have before brain damage sets in. As a sufferer of asthma, emergency service is a major concern. Also, it is good in this modern society to prevent isolation, and providing closer access to public facilities.

  • A_t

    Alex, why not just live in the inner city rather than suburbs then? Everything on your doorstep; shops, hospitals etc.

  • I see your point — the inner city where I live has been killed off by the suburbs, which attracted the bulk of the business.

  • Exercise is a pain and a bloody nuisance. What I could never stand was excercising with no reason (other than to get fit). I am happy to walk a long way as long as there is something to get to on the other end.

    Eating less is a good start to lose weight.

  • Johnathan

    Alex, it may of course be that folk have fled to the suburbs because of crime, exhorbitant housing costs, etc. Also, as folk have children and tire of living in rabbit hutch-size places, they want to move out. Cars have made that a lot easier to do.

    I will grant that governments have encouraged road building, particularly in the immediate post-WW2 years, but a lot of suburban sprawl was a reflection of consumer desire for more spread out housing.

    For some reason suburbs seem to trigger all kinds of angry ranges in certain folk. Never quite understood the feeling myself.

  • Euan Gray

    Funny how people will pay money to drive to a gym, then pay money to use a walking machine in the gym, then pay money to drive home. It strikes me that there is a more financially efficient and aethetically pleasing solution – go for a walk. You get all the exercise benefits, and it’s free.

    Admittedly, many cities are unpleasant places in which to walk (Edinburgh, where I live, isn’t, however). And of course you can get mugged, etc. Still, I’d imagine for most people congenial surroundings aren’t that far away.

    In the UK and US, (some) people may exercise more, but they are becoming obese because they in general take less exercise than they should and they do this at the same time as eating more than they need to. I suppose getting your breakfast burger(s) from the drive thru on your way to your sedentary office job probably doesn’t help in all of this.

    EG

  • WJ Phillips

    It’s always amusing to see how torturously infidels reason to pretend that Britain is becoming “more secular”. Since when did fear of God involve letting oneself go to seed? That is the privilege of the numbskull materialist who lives from one sensual indulgence to the next without hope of immortality, wallowing in his complacent “individualism”. Ever heard of muscular Christianity?

  • Johnathan

    WJ Phillips, yes, I have heard of muscular Christians, (who seemed to run the British Empire) and of course there are plenty of folk of all denominations who take their health seriously. I was making a point more generally though about how there seems to be a link, from what I can see, between the decline in belief in the afterlife in Britain, and concern about our present health. Various polls point to a decline in mainstream Christianity in the UK. Anyway, I don’t want this thread to sink into a pissing match about the truths or otherwise of religion.

    Spare us jibes about “infidels”, by the way. The arrogance tied up in that word is one of the reasons I abandoned religion some time ago.

  • Guy Herbert

    I don’t know. “Infidel” sums my position up nicely: you ain’t gotta have faith. Especially not in Castro.

  • Guy Herbert

    However, as corroboration for the sentiments of the original post, Exhibit A:

    The current slogan of Holmes Place Health Clubs is,

    One life. Live it well.

    In members circulars this is extended to the fabulously patronising:

    “You only have one life. We want you to live it well.”

    No marks for aeschatological sensitivity there. Their conception of life ends at this body, and they assume so does their members’. How this ethos is to be reconciled with the New Agey conceptions also rife in gyms is interesting to contemplate.

  • Mark Ellott

    I recently returned to cycling after a break of 25 years. As mentioned by Andrew, exercise for the sake of exercise just doesn’t cut it for me – cycling has the benefit of getting me somewhere and the West Country has loads of traffic free cycleways to boot.

    I noticed two things:

    1) There are lots of others doing it.

    2) I’ve put on weight. I am now in the position of having to buy new clothes because I’ve put on nearly a stone and a couple of inches on my waist (not to mention thighs). I suppose at 10 stone, I’m now at the right weight for my height…

  • Quoth Kim du Toit:

    An hour a day spent in the gym is better spent in reading Shakespeare.

    Or spend the hour on an exercise bike or similar instrument of pain while reading Shakespeare.

  • dg

    I don’t see why exercise need be a “waste” of otherwise useful time. I usually mull over certain programming problems I will face later in the day while taking my morning jog. And when I get home from work at night I try to put in at least an hour doing situps, pushups, working a bit with weights, etc… but I do this while also working on my schoolwork. I’ve always had trouble concentrating for long stretches, so I found myself taking constant little breaks anyhow. I’ve now just started to fill those break times with little exercises. Seems like the best of both worlds to me.

  • rob

    Here’s a thought. Make gym membership 100% tax deductable. Result, more fit people living longer healthier more productive lives, more people employed in gymnasia, more people building, equiping and servicing gyms all paying taxes. Do you think it may catch on. Not a chance – lets employ more NHS statisticians, administrators etc. so the government can show it’s real commitment to the health of the nation.

  • The Wobbly Guy

    I exercise in order to stay relatively fit(though not exactly at combat-level fitness). My fitness test in the reservists is coming up. Damn.

    2.4 klicks in 12 minutes is the worst. It’s even more demoralising a few years back when a major twice my age lapped me on the track…

    It’s rather interesting how the Singapore government did, in practice, force us(well, the guys anyway) to ‘stay healthy’ by use of the reservist fitness system. Fail the test, go for remedial training twice a week. Suffice to say, better to avoid such a waste of time.

    One reason why paid fitness gyms aren’t exactly popular here with us men: “Wah, got army training already lah! And it’s free!”

    Strangely enough, I can’t seem to gain weight no matter how much I eat. I’ve been losing weight slowly since I finished my compulsory service term. I need to exercise hard and eat a lot to gain weight. And I have to say, it does feel good to feel fit and strong.

  • rob,

    You point out exactly why there is such bureaucracy in governments these days. Every time they want improvement, they need to create another agency to oversee it. I would not mind an official who is not afraid to make his own decisions if they make sense and have the public’s approval.

  • I agree with Johnathan. Like him, (and we are about the same age) I have taken up gym going with a vengeance in recent years and I now spend about 12 hours a week in one training quite hard. It actually does become very enjoyable once you work through the initial pain and misery and time spent in the gym is time spent away from the pub – which is where I used to spend most of my leisure hours.

    Johnathan is also quite right about motivation, don’t reflect on the pleasures you are giving up but think of the pleasures that fitness, strength and having a hard body can bring.

  • Richard Cook

    I don’t have alot of metaphysics about going to the gym. Work out, feel good, good report on physical from doc, do my Physical Requirements Training for the Navy with relative ease. Life pretty darn good.

  • Richard Cook

    I don’t have alot of metaphysics about going to the gym. Work out, feel good, good report on physical from doc, do my Physical Requirements Training for the Navy with relative ease. Life is pretty darn good.

  • Just a thought: couldn’t you read Shakespeare while on an exercise bike? That would solve both problems.

  • WJ Phillips

    Johnathan: Which faith did you give up? You can’t divorce the secular infidel’s illogical hunger for mortification of the flesh in gymnasia from his unsated spiritual hunger, perverted into a vain and fatuous quest for “health” or “beauty”.

    AMDG

  • nargo

    damn, no sooner does samizdata cull a bunch of wacked out ‘race realists’ fascist jackasses from the comments than another weirdo called wjphillips wafts in to take their place, using terms like secular infidel’s illogical hunger for mortification of the flesh in gymnasia from his unsated spiritual hunger, perverted into a vain and fatuous quest for “health” or “beauty”.

    how is wanting physical health or beauty perverted? is being an ugly lard arse somehow more uplifting? i guess most people now have purely secular beliefs because talking to some invisible imaginary friend called ‘god’ is just too silly for most folks to spend much time thinking about

  • Johnathan Pearce

    Nargo, you make a number of excellent points. It seems perfectly logical for a person to want to achieve full health, and if you are an atheist or agnostic, certainly you will want to get the most out of the mortal life.

    WJ Phillips is presumably a religious person. I thought one aspect of religion was humility. He/she does not seem to have a lot of it, or basic good manners. This person would do well to acquaint him/herself with the request for such manners at the bottom of this comment bar.

    For your information, WJ Phillips, I ceased to be a practising Christian (Anglican) about 15 years ago. Call me a “born again rationalist”.

    rgds