One thing I’ve really learned about myself during these last six months is the depth to which I hate gimmicks. I hate them. Gimmicks almost always promise an easy answer to a difficult problem and they almost always fall apart with even the most cursory bit of critical thinking. Think:
This is an actual product carried at CVS.
Why have I been thinking about this? Two words:
Conspiracy Theories
Of all the disappointing things we’ve seen during this pandemic the most disappointing to me is the prevalence of conspiracy theories.
Donald Trump is saving us from a worldwide cabal of elitist pedophile cannibals.
Anthony Fauci funded the creation of Covid19.
Bill Gates is putting tracking chips in the Covid vaccines.
5g towers are spreading the virus.
Emails between Bill Gates and the CDC proving they are complicit in the spread of the virus were hacked and will be put online for all to see anytime now. (I saw this one five months ago. Not suprisingly no emails yet.)
Every one of those is an actual conspiracy that people really believe and spread. I didn’t make any one of those up, I swear.
Very sad.
One of the awesome things about believing in a conspiracy theory is that you never have to admit you’re wrong. You just move on to the next one. When someone questions you about any conflicting beliefs or the nonsensical nature of it all you can just smile, nod and say, “You’ll see.”
How awesome is that!
Anyway, today I thought I’d talk about two of the fitness industry’s favorite conspiracy theories. Why do I consider them conspiracy theories? Mainly because they don’t make much sense when you really think about them yet they keep hanging around!
Well, let’s get started.
1 – You need to lose weight.
What They Tell You: Losing weight is the only goal that really matters for your health and for your value to the world. Smaller is better. Especially if you are a woman.
The Conspiracy: The weight loss industry is a $72,000,000,000 industry that makes its money by making you feel bad about yourself. Here’s the process:
Tell you you’re unhealthy and have little value due to your body
Sell you something to lose weight that doesn’t work or is unsustainable
Blame you for it’s failure
Sell you something else
The Truth: Losing weight itself generally has little to no impact on our health. As a matter of fact, with some methods you’d be less healthy than before you started.
If you’ve been told, or you think, you “need” to lose weight, just ask why and go from there. I guarantee you whatever the answer is to that question, reacting and basing your actions on that and not the scale will give you much better results.
2 – You Shouldn’t Strength Train After 50.
What They Tell You: When you reach 50 you turn old and fragile and are a debiliating injury waiting to happen.
The Conspiracy: This is just based on an overall lack of knowledge about the body and how it works. I can’t put it any other way.
The Truth: Strength training actually becomes more important as we get older.
You want to know what protects your body when you fall?
Strength.
You want to know how you’re going to get up?
Strength.
You want to know how to protect your bones from osteoporosis?
Strength.
I could keep going but you get the point.
If you aren’t working on your strength as you get older you are missing a huge piece of the puzzle.
There are plenty more of these fitness conspiracy theories out there (detoxes, anyone?) but I think you get the point. You know what really makes sense. If you’re not sure, just ask.
Take care and stay safe!
Mitch Rothbardt 510-755-9191 mitch@CastroValleyFitness.com
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