In a previous podcast I dove into what I like to call the fitness marketing dichotomy.
To recap, a lot of ideas within our fitness culture are painted with a doom & gloom image (sugar, marathon running, body building) by the haters. Other ideas are given a very utopian image (Crossfit, various diets, certain foods) by the lovers.
Both love and hate are two sides of the same coin. They are both hype, but going in 2 different directions.
The thing with hype is that it’s well…….hype. It’s like one of those funny cartoon caricatures you can get done at the fair. While they are an image of a real thing, they are exaggerated and distorted.
I’m just as guilty as anyone else for generating hype. The good news is that because I create it, I understand how it comes to be.
I love calisthenics because of how much good it’s done for my life. I can honestly say it’s one of the best things I have ever take on.
On the flip side, I have a deep true hatred for good-food bad-food style diets. Again this is largely due to the dark cloud various eating styles cast of my life for many years.
And so both calisthenics and diets have an exaggerated view through my eyes which I share through my videos and posts.
The reality of hype is that it’s directed in the wrong direction. calisthenics alone don’t deserve the praise I give them. At the same time trying out a diet idea isn’t as bad as I made it out to be. There can be a middle ground.
The truth about hype is that it’s all about you. All of the great and fantastic things that come from something are actually coming from you. It’s your choices and actions that deserve the credit. Pull ups are good, but by digging down deep and cranking out one more rep for a personal record is where the greatness really is.
Consequently, all of the negativity is due to our own actions as well. Cutting back on sugar isn’t a bad thing, but because I took it to an extreme that compromised my quality of life I personally caused the downfall. Not the books I read that declared sugar to be the root of all evil.
The lesson here is that nothing deserves the praise and damnation we give it in our fitness culture. Almost all things are pretty neutral, but it’s the extreme we personally take them through our own actions that cause them to become either terrific or terrible.
You are the power. You are the destruction. You can are the creation.
You are the hype.
Certain things might be the tool or reason why we discover the hype we have within, but in either case the blame or credit doesn’t deserve to fall anywhere but our own shoulders.
