Why are you all so biased towards the gym?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Why are you all so biased towards the gym?

“Hey guys, great site. I think it has a lot of potential. I’m just wondering why you all are so biased towards gyms? Seems to me like you should be able to get in a great workout from home. Also I did about 3 hours of mowing the lawn yesterday and DEFINITELY think it counts as exercise. Is there some way I can score that?”

^ That = every other email I receive. Look, we’re all for giving people incentive to start exercising. Changes do not happen overnight and small steps need to happen before real changes occur. We’re very happy to reward points for walking your dog or taking the stairs instead of the elevator, and people just getting into fitness should feel proud for leveling up from these activities.

That being said, do you know why we reward going to the gym so heavily? Because it works. If you’re overweight, out of shape, and want to make a serious impact on your fitness — nothing yields higher returns than squatting, deadlifting, and bench pressing. People are too coddled.

You’re not healthy at every size.*
Cardio alone rarely leads to weight loss.
Feeling sorry for yourself rarely works.

Fitocracy only makes as much difference in your life as you let it make. If you treat fitness like a trivial thing, then Fitocracy won’t do you any good. Look, it’s not that we’re part of an iron cult whose mission is to burn elliptical bunnies. We have this attitude, because we know this domain and have been in it for the last decade. We’ve helped countless people with their fitness, seen why they fail or why they succeed, and know what it takes to make a change in your life. Look at stories from ThePerry, Uziel, or Vainglory. Sure, they started with small steps, but they didn’t make those changes by mowing their lawn a bit more every day.

*Not saying that you need to be ripped, or even lean, by any means, but being fat is not healthy.