'The Illusion'

   Before Arnold Schwarzenegger we had Steve Reeves with the classical physique of an ancient Greek god, who became a movie hero and star of the sword and sandal epic and through these movies and his physique he gave the world the illusion of strength that in return inspired the young 'Arnold' to mould his physique, and with this came a meeting with the Weider brothers and the creation of the'Illusion of strength & fitness' was spawned. And due to this meeting came the systematic poisoning of functional real world fitness training which is still perpetrating the fitness industry and sport, even at the highest levels forty years on!

The illusion I am talking about is 'Bodybuilding', am I a bodybuilding hater? No, not at all, my respect for bodybuilding athletes is without question, the bodybuilder must have commitment, dedication, drive and all the other traits of any other sportsman/woman if they are to succeed. But here in lies the truth of bodybuilding, it is a 'sport' in its own right and nothing more than this, it is the sport of image and illusion and not performance. And even though performance gains from bodybuilding routines are minimal to say the least, the routines and doctrine of bodybuilding have been adopted by the fitness industry and sports coaches wholeheartedly as the best way to incorporate weight training into a performance based routine. To go along with this we also have generations of males who believe the answer to their insecurities is to bloat up on copious amounts of protien (an ill informed notion that is promulgated by the mainstream to increase supplement sales) to add 'body armour' in the mistaken belief that this illusion of strength will give them some sort of protection in this world. If it was possible for them to look objectively at themselves they would see nothing more than a 'fat bloke'.

Why? Well the answer I believe is a relatively simple one? Image has taken over from performance; the goal it seems is to attain an illusion of fitness rather than fitness itself.

Again why? Again the answer is a simple one, the attainment of real performance based fitness is fucking hard work, and hard work is in general not accepted in the mainstream illusionists' lair. Sweat-chalk-Olympic lifts-old sweats-dropping a bar: You would be forcibly removed. Yet these establishments think that it is OK to offer sunbeds-spray tans and botox along with £50 personal training sessions with an individual who is as knowledgeable about real fitness as I am in quantum physics! And this is through no fault of their own; the industry standard awards teach bodybuilding routines as part of the industry standard. How do I know this? I have taught these awards for many years! And disagreed with them for all of those years, so I am fully aware of the vomit that is spewed out in the name of 'fitness'.

But bodybuilding more than any other methodology has been accepted by the masses and become so ingrained that trying to change people's perceptions about developing performance based fitness routines over image based routines is like swimming against the tide, but for me the choice is a no brainer!!

Until we change the views of the mass fitness media it will remain as is, when they say "eat burgers and get thin" / "6 minutes to perfect abs" etc, we are on to a loser with a society that want it now! This attitude and the poor delivery of fitness in the mainstream are setting the masses up for failure in that of which they wish to succeed. And until we break this hold the machine based mono-structural isolationist protagonists have over the general public, and the quick fix solutions are no longer accepted, the mainstream gym going human being is doomed!

If you want to be a bodybuilder then bodybuilding is the way without a doubt, but if you want performance? Then take another path. Ultimately you must understand and always remember that real fitness no matter which methodology you choose is EARNED and not given, and the pursuit of it hurts no matter what the mainstream fuckwits say! If it was easy then everyone would have it, and I and the athletes that train at 'The Box' are not like everyone!

Mark

Coach: 'The Box'