a blog by lucas, human person

Americans don’t exercise because exercise sucks. Disagree? You don’t, don’t lie.

Even if you exercise regularly, I would be fairly confident in saying that you probably don’t enjoy it as much as you say you do. You do it. But, you don’t love it. 

Some of you do, sure. But, I think you’ll realize shortly that that fact does not contradict my thesis here. In fact, I think it supports it rather well. Some people, even if just a small number, will enjoy every category of exercise. We have to assume that at population scales, everything falls on a standard normal distribution, even exercise preference. It is a rule that you will always have some outliers. These don’t contradict the overarching reality.

Anyway, here is the thesis, if I must.

American exercise and fitness culture is militaristic. Looking at you, CrossFit. That’s not even an insult, y’all openly celebrate it.

But, what is the purpose of a militaristic approach to anything? Preparation for performance in the military. Militaristic approaches don’t have to be good or safe or morally upstanding. Hence, militaristic exercise doesn’t have to be good for you. It doesn’t have to be enjoyable. It doesn’t have to be safe. It has to be successful at accomplishing its singular goal: to prepare you to serve, to fight your enemy, and to do so with modern military tactics. 

Exercise in 21st century America currently, and probably (do not quote me on this) since WW2, has been based on practicing the skills needed for modern combat, increasingly dominated by US Counterinsurgent warfare in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. And then Iraq again. These activities get weighted and repeated in intense settings. Eventually, muscular strength was increasingly prioritized and weight lifting became common. That is the foundation of our national approach to exercise and fitness. 

It isn’t inherently good for you because it really isn’t supposed to be good for you. That is not its function and that has never been its goal. Why would it ever be something that you want to do? (unless of course you’re trying to validate your identity and self worth if it’s intricately tied to historic nationalistic beliefs about masculinity and glory or if you’re one of those genetic freaks who do find intense joy and pleasure from those experiences, no shame on the second group here, much shame on the first and much shame on the culture that perpetuates that because it ensures young men will be ready to die for the country if a collection of corporations and politicians decide that it’s important for American business interests and party politics) 

But I digress.