Reagan Rock and The Cold War.

[padraig (u.s.)]

also, you're misunderstanding - or I've failed to explain - "functional strength"

it does mean functional in the sense of day-to-day life, but it's more a term defined in contrast to traditional strength training

it's not like, a diametric opposition, but functional strength would be about more than just being strong (which is cool by itself, tbc)

so like, mobility and range of motion, stability, movements that incorporate more of the body vs isolating individual muscles/muscle groups

the idea of functionality as an end unto itself, essentially

it's kind of hard to explain to someone with (no offense) like no fitness background, in a message board post, without physical demonstration

the idea of Crossfit, or similar things, is a total/holistic approach to fitness, generalization rather than specialization

but that fitness is an end unto itself, to be functionally strong/able to move will (mobility is really the cutting edge of fitness), etc

 

[luka]

No, I understand you. But my point still stands.

 

[version]

It seems more proportional now.

 

[luka]

I'm not having a go at you personally for going to the gym or saying it is bad or stupid to go to the gym or to want to have muscles.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I was using to compare now vs in the 80s in this sense

80s muscularity is a fully cartoon fantasy

even bodybuilders don't walk around looking like that most of the year - they make cuts (via dehydration etc) for competition season, which is brief

now muscularity requires a great deal of hard work but is attainable - the physique of the guys in 300, for example

look at Kumail Nanjiani's recent physique transition for example; that is not a dude you think of getting jacked

the muscularity of now is foci for fantasy, sure, but it's a different fantasy. it's a fantasy of the real, the self.

Arnold/Sly etc are a symbol for Cold War pugnacity etc but you don't imagine literally being them

the muscularity of now is something you can attain - you'll never be a Navy SEAL, but you can have the same physique

 

[luka]

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

so you're right that there is a fantasy, but you're wrong about what the fantasy is

fitness culture is pretty heavily shot through (tho not unanimously, for sure) with pro-military, cop, etc stuff

 

[luka]

so you're right that there is a fantasy, but you're wrong about what the fantasy is

fitness culture is pretty heavily shot through (tho not unanimously, for sure) with pro-military, cop, etc stuff

I don't accept this. I think you are picking up on one aspect of the contemporary health industry and ignoring other aspects. Such as the modern rhetoric around 'Alpha' males.

Or Mark Rippetoe's interventions into the cultur war (see above). And all the other stuff I have been talking about.

In fact cross-fit itself is a meme in the culture war, mocked by bodybuilders and strength athletes (for being Insufficiently macho, basically).

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I'm not having a go at you personally for going to the gym or saying it is bad or stupid to go to the gym or to want to have muscles.

even if you were it wouldn't bother me. I do it for myself, not anyone else, which is the only reason to do it.

ultimately, as George Mallory said about mountains, the reason to lift the weight for me is, because it's there.

 

[luka]

I made a thread about Zyzz and the 'aesthetic' physique 5 years ago.

https://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=13523&highlight=Zyzz

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I think you are picking up on one aspect of the contemporary health industry and ignoring other aspects

of course there are Alpha male fantasies

they're shot through fitness, martial arts, etc

always have been and always will be

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

I was comparing one specific element of fantasy - military might and defense rhetoric - which you started the thread with

 

[luka]

Ok don't worry. We're not communicating properly. Getting bogged down.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Mark Rippetoe, btw, is a deservedly legendary figure in strength training

but as with any grumpy old dude, it's perhaps not the best idea to listen to everything he expounds on

he also has a very ong-running habit of picking fights with pretty much anyone and everyone

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

there's a million fantasies in the fitness industry, which is one of the most bullshit-ridden on the face of the earth

I just don't think most of them are particularly Reaganite

 

[luka]

yeah, we're failing to communicate. It's not a thread about the fitness industry per se. I'm just interested in how the image of the male body has played into the culture war and in a comparison between trump and reagans America.

Strength capacity for violence endurance of pain "protecting my family" push it to the limit pain is weakness leaving the body

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

or rather, they're Reaganite but updated for now, which is the point I am making, that the fantasy of now is different

 

[version]

fitness culture is pretty heavily shot through (tho not unanimously, for sure) with pro-military, cop, etc stuff

The Punisher skull.

 

[luka]

or rather, they're Reaganite but updated for now, which is the point I am making, that the fantasy of now is different

Ok sure. That I can live with. I accept that we are not in an actual rerun of an '80s tv show. There's differences in emphasis certainly

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

it's not just emphasis that is different, tho some of the emphases are different

I'm saying, there's reasons that you can't make 80s-type action films today except as winking metareference to 80s action films

the main underpinning concerns/fears of 80s action are nuclear war and violent urban crime, the protagonists cold warriors or vigilante/cops

Arnold/Sly function as literal representations of American power, i.e. Rambo II + III, or the beginning of Predator (rescuing a general from left-wing guerrillas)

everything is outlandishly unrealistic. the good guys are 100% good, the bad guys cartoonishly evil. it's basically agitprop.