Fitness is Stupid

by Liz Neporent (Subscribe to Liz Neporent's posts)
Feb 20th 2009 8:00AM

Categories: Fitness

Liz Neporent is a diet and fitness expert and author of 12 fitness bestsellers. She regularly appears on national TV programs and is the president of Wellness 360, a New-York based wellness provider.

I was at the gym the other day and watched as a trainer placed his client in front of a large ball and then had her balance one foot on top of the ball while holding a bar up over her head and dipping down into a lunge. As she struggled mightily to prevent a chain reaction of the ball rolling away, falling flat on her face and becoming the object of ridicule by all who watched, the trainer was oblivious. He was blah-blahing away about how this exercise was so "functional" and how important it is for movement to be functional and how functional is so much better than non-functional and functional, functional, functional ...

Just then it hit me why so many people are turned off by exercise.

The fitness industry -- everyone from the trainers to the gym operators to the equipment designers -- have made exercise too damn hard! At a time when Americans are desperately searching for simple solutions to the tight pants epidemic, we "experts" have made getting into shape so complicated and impossible to understand, most people have given up. Exercise has evolved from "feel the burn" to "just do it" to what it is now: functional, computerized, periodized and jargonized. We used to lift, run and stretch. Now we use articulating arms, independent resistance and metabolically-adjusted pacing.

Honestly, all most people want is a firmer tushy and a flatter tummy -- not an eccentrically-trained gluteus maximus or a kinesthetically-ideal rectus abdominus. You should be able to sit on a machine and figure it out just by looking at it and get what a movement is all about from one basic, straightforward sentence. (I once overheard a trainer tell her client "elevate up onto your phalanges" which is a $1,200 way of saying "get on your tippy toes." Oh man, shut up, right?)

Good exercise practices are absolutely based on sound science. Just not pseudo gym science. In the end, if you can understand it, you'll be more likely to stick with it and achieve your goals. This is why Richard Simmons is a genius. It's why gyms like Curves are packed. And, quite frankly, it's why the Fitness and Weight Training for Dummies books I wrote with my co-author Suzanne Schlossberg have sold millions of copies. All of these honor the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) principle, whereas most of the rest of what's offered today in the fitness world just gets more and more complicated.

What say you fellow fitness bloggers?

In gym science terms, the word functional means something that translates into real life skills like better balance, or ab muscles that stay strong when you bend down to pick up a book.

And anyway -- what is so "functional" about the ball lunges that trainer had his client doing? Maybe if she were preparing to run a marathon during an earthquake or she happens to live on a tilt-a-whirl ... otherwise, that exercise is about as functional as the torn knee ligaments likely to result from doing movements like this. I don't dispute that a certain amount of functional exercise can be useful. I'm simply saying that exercises which are often labeled as such have become so, um, recklessly creative that they are no longer sane.

Comments (8)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Maggie Vink 2-20-2009 @ 8:50AM

Good points, Liz. I'm a huge fan of the Leslie Sansone DVDs. (So much so, that I have the 4 mile completely memorized.) They're low-impact, which helps with my wonky knee and they're simple, simple, simple.

Kicky 2-20-2009 @ 9:54AM

Yes! I just realized this when I asked my kickboxing class participants to do a spinning back-fist onto the punching bag...well, I was taking all the fun out of an activity they love (punching stuff! kicking stuff!) by making it too fancy. They got dizzy and frustrated. I will try to "keep it green" as they say, meaning: remember how it feels to be the beginner.

njbeachbetty 2-20-2009 @ 1:01PM

The underlying problem to complicated exercises is the trainer who wants to sound smart and innovative. It has little to do with the effectiveness of the move. The most basic moves are often the most effective. It's the same with the wording; why use jargon when you can use a word everyone is sure to understand immediately? I agree, simplicity is best!

Lynda Lippin 2-20-2009 @ 1:49PM

Yes, simple is best! Get people to focus on what they're working and how they are working. To feel connections in their bodies and to connect their exercising to real world needs.

http://www.fitnessdiva.com

u262f 2-20-2009 @ 3:46PM

Good points! I avoid gyms, and I wonder why everybody else seems to think a monthly fee will result in fitness. Humans used to walk, swim, jump, run, dance, and play. It was fun, and the fun kept us fit. Humans weighed less and were more fit before fitness gyms were invented.

Lindsay 2-20-2009 @ 4:00PM

Haha, thank you for this article. I thought I was alone on this.

Simon 3-11-2009 @ 5:31PM

Liz,
I really laughed at this, in a good way; your insight is perfect.

I always laugh when I see people drive 50 miles to a trendy gym when they have great countryside near them to cycle or run in, or when people pay for a gardener to give them more time at the gym at the weekends.

Simon
http://expatlist.be

Belinda 3-12-2009 @ 12:44PM

Yep, simple is better. I for one don't go for complicated, demanding exercises. I do my own thing without buying any equipment, going to gyms, etc. I have a exercise video that I bought some years ago, 'Sweatin' to the Oldies', I go walking when weather permits, I found a small child's step stool that I use (up, down, up, down), plus I have the steps off my back porch that I go up and down once or twice a week. I don't need to buy all that expensive stuff to do my daily exercises. I'm doing just fine the way I'm doing it. The only gym (per say) I'm thinking about going to is the local YMCA to learn how to swim...lol.