A Rant by Jon Hinds:
In real life, we move our whole bodies almost 100% of the time. In sports, in martial arts, when climbing stairs or picking up kids or shoveling snow – we use our arms, our legs, our backs, our stomach muscles all together. Then why do 99% of all people who exercise, train their muscles in isolation instead of using functional fitness?
What good is it to be able to bench 300 pounds with your back supported and your legs unengaged? Who cares if you can leg press the rack? These activities only train you to do… these activities! In the real world, you have to use your full body to get things done. If you only train isolated muscles on machines, you’re setting yourself up for imbalances and injuries.
Just look at all the power lifters at the gym who can’t pick up a comb without a weight belt on.
I think “the Matrix” is true for life and the fitness industry, otherwise why would so many do what is obviously so un-natural?
98% of all people who workout train purely for aesthetics and not for function. Here’s why: they’re getting their advice from professional bodybuilders, not functioning athletes.
Now, bodybuilding is a sport, and the goal is to look better than your opponents. Okay, I got that. Bodybuilders win by sculpting each individual muscle, and isolated training works for that purpose. but if you are not a bodybuilder, what the hell?
Why do you train the same way they do if you are NOT competing as a bodybuilder! Why not train for true health instead of the illusion of health?
Most bodybuilders are FAR from healthy.
They take drugs (big red flag), they are completely obsessed with their own appearance (another red flag), getting bigger is the goal of all in the sport. NOT performance, but appearance!
They eat massive amounts of animal protein. The China Study, the most comprehensive nutritional study ever done, proves that diets with over 10% animal protein leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many more problems with long term health.
Bodybuilders consume diets of at least 40% animal protein for year after year (BIG RED FLAG). This lifestyle, which is sadly followed by most Westerners, also breeds very un-healthy animal factories whose sole purpose is the confinement, enslavement and slaughter of animals.
Now I understand eating meat is a way of life and changing it would be hard for many, but the benefits are incredible. I know we can do it!!
Ted Nugent has a TV show that puts average Americans in his world for a short time. They must kill live animals to survive and eat, as well as stay on the show. People do not respect the lives they take; they do not think about it when they see it cleanly wrapped up in the grocery store. When they see and feel the life leave the animal they killed with their own two hands and respect the animal for providing, that is different.
My ancestors lived that way for thousands of years here in North America. Respect is long gone now, in all but a few. We can stop the slaughter and tourturous conditions for animals all over the world (check out www.peta.com.) A lot of red flags, makes you think why? It is insane to me, why do so many follow a system that is so unhealthy in reality.
So how about changing the mindset and madness of the fitness industry! How about exercising for performance, training the whole body and mind, and learning to use your body – NOT a machine! How about not static stretching anymore. Man, what a waste of time!! Humans are the only animals on the planet that engage in static stretching! Why is that? Do we know some secret about mobility and flexibility that Mother Nature doesn’t?
All animals active stretch, it’s normal and healthy.
I proclaim a fitness revolution:
- Let’s stop looking in the mirrors after every set
- Let’s work out purely for performance, so we can feel healthy inside and out.
- Let’s eat plant based diet that is good for us and the planet! No more buying of the cheap junk foods and dead factory-farmed animals that make us and our planet sick.
- Let’s STOP SUPPORTING THE ANIMAL FACTORIES!!!! How about eating organic!
We can do better. We can train for health and function, not just for fashion. We can eat for health, not just for cheap protein. Can we exercise, eat and live naturally OR are we really that shallow and exercise purely for looks? Eat for comfort and affordability and screw what is right or healthy for us and the planet.
How about being conscious, truly living healthy, exercising the whole body and re-learning how it really works and eating a diet that is less destructive to the planet and us, one that is over 90% plant based.
Believe me, if you think you will get all weak, you won’t! You can still get enough protein 100% from plants and gain muscle too! Many have done it in the past and many do it now, including my good friend Mike Mahler and myself. Mike has been a vegan for about 15 years and is one of the strongest persons i’ve ever met. Hell, just look at the animal kingdom…the silverback gorilla: basically vegan!!
I’m done, getting off my box for now!
Jon
P.S. I’ll be back!
Be sure to check out Jon’s site and all of his incredible products by clicking HERE.
