Comments on: Functional fitness in a transitional world

By: Fabulous Muscles

Fabulous Muscles — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:56:36 +0000

[...] exercise, strength training and other muscular sports barely warrant a mention, particularly in government recommendations for exercise. There could be a number of reasons for this, not least material factors like the [...]

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 16:21:47 +0000

Great points Richard and I’m glad you like the site. Of course I wasn’t describing all running as fruitless (!) – I like running myself and used to do a lot of it, entering races regularly and so on.
However what I believe is fruitless is people doing it even though they don’t like it because they believe that is what they have to do to lose weight, prevent heart disease etc. This is not true and causes a lot damage where people are only running and not doing anything else to support all round fitness.

By: Richard Bartlett

Richard Bartlett — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:15:27 +0000

Great site you’ve got here. Thought provoking post too although I don’t fully understand your description of running etc as fruitless. I’m more of a power athlete myself and agree that training functional movements makes one far “fitter” for life’s challenges than simply doing cardio.
However, many people focus on aerobic fitness because they wish to lose weight, find it the most accessible form of exercise, the least intimidating or simply a worthwhile goal. The human race surely benefits more from this diverse range of fitnesses than if we were all to be strength or power athletes, don’t you think?

Btw Your post on too many goals was very helpful, I’ve halved my short term goals and look forward to seeing more focused improvement.

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:10:38 +0000

If you are in the UK, try searching the forums on http://www.sugdenbarbell.co.uk/

By: Strongman Wannabe

Strongman Wannabe — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:25:25 +0000

Cheers for the info,

Any idea how I can find the nearest strongman training facility to me? Tried google, couldn’t find nowt.

By: roo roo

roo roo — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:54:18 +0000

Splendid, I’ll be there x

By: gubernatrix

gubernatrix — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:49:34 +0000

Hey, wondered where you’d got to?! I’ll check that book out (I do like Michael Pollan but hadn’t got around to that one).
Do come along to the Women’s Strength Symposium if you are around on 8th March. It’s at gubernatrix.co.uk/forum.

By: roo roo

roo roo — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 23:23:35 +0000

I really enjoyed this post. I’ve been off the blog ‘scene’ for a while as I was travelling, but if you haven’t read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’d recommend it.

By: nickyhusky

nickyhusky — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:03:01 +0000

If there’s going to be an apocalypse, I think I’d rather just die, actually. Does that mean I should stop training?!

I try to buy sustainable, fairly traded products, organic food etc and I recycle and all that (in a ‘doing my bit’ rather than a ‘fully paid up member of the Green Party’ sort of way, but I can’t say I’ve ever related any of that to training. I’m not sure I’m going to now, either. I’m not sure there is any more connection between functional fitness and a sustainable lifestyle than there is between, say, coffee and chocolate – i.e. both taste good, but you can have one without the other. Or do I just not care enough about issues generally?

By: Lieke

Lieke — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:01:20 +0000

I think the connection and importance between strengt/a well functioning body and a well functioning mind cannot be stressed enough. Although the ancient Greeks and Romans favoured a holistic view (a healthy mind in a healthy body) of all bodily functions including the functioning of the mind, this view has fallen from grace since the middle ages: The body was considered a vessel for the mind towards the next life more than a inseparable part of it. Only in the past 50 years or so have we begun to examine and understand the link between the two again. I think the current emphasis on fitness is still the one of the desirability of a set example of beautiful exterior only ( = desirability for reproduction to you, monkeys! We’re essentally animals still, and personally I’m proud to be a rational animal and to realise this). As more and more people will get sick because of all the factors that contribute to an unhealthy body (lifestyle, inertia, food choices etc) the emphasis and focus of beauty of the body will hopefully gradually shift from “image” to functionality.

I am not “beautiful”, I am strong and powerful and that is what I feel makes me beautiful. And incidentally, more streamlined than I was before, nice. But, to me, not essential any more.

Eat good stuff
Read good books
Lug stuff around for fun
Care about what kind of person you are and about what kind of world you live in
Not be smug about it

Gubes is right: hopefully these will be the focussing points for next generations, and we should go on promoting them.