"Since more money can be made from trying to sell the quest for aesthetic perfection and exploiting exercise as the snake oil for ‘beauty,’ a very limited view of exercise and training has emerged. The obligatory path to a better appearance. Marketing and promoting of exercise as the tool for simple appearance helped usher in decades of self image woes and issues that have created entire industries to both feed and cure low self esteem (and give therapists job security for centuries). The formula was easy, and is still used today (look at any ‘health and fitness’ magazine cover). Here’s the equation that has proven an effective money maker for many years:
You are ugly. We can help.
This marketing formula sure works better in our society then trying to sell the Physical Culture concept of movement; that physical strength and performance increases other qualities of life as well. As Bernarr MacFadden used as a slogan for his Physical Culture magazine that he started in 1899, “Weakness is a Crime – Don’t be a Criminal.”
Movement should be that integral to our existence, but not through the obligation of aesthetics. Over time the performance and ability of the body, which has a direct and strong impact on the spirit and mind, took a minor role in training. Today, the ‘fitness’ industry is a sham, selling gadgets, supplements and imagery, not actual exercise or ability. Curves, 24-Hour Fitness, and their kin, promote and perpetuate aesthetic stereotypes while providing very little in REAL exercise science or training. The mere fact that there are such things as ‘ab’ machines just proves how silly the industry has become. But the Physical Culture movement has always been around. It just may be hard to find these days. It has become a subculture, a movement forcing the mainstream to evaluate what trainining really is."
I came across this piece on www./physicalsubculture.com ...sounds familiar:)
