26 Replies to “Corrupted By Jogging”

  1. Didn’t read the article…but from your teaser….Perhaps, people who exercise become “right-wing” because they realize that one has to work to achieve something for which they can be proud (the road to “getting there” is long…but the trip is worthwhile), which then spills into the other facets of their life…like work, etc. And, seeing ne’er do wells, who have nothing physically wrong with them, going on welfare for no reason….is to them much like the fatties who complain while sitting on their couch that fast food, or junk food made them fat versus “I made myself fat but I can make myself fit by hitting the gym and controlling my urge to eat all the time.”

  2. Actually, if you decide to take responsibility for any aspect of your life or well being you are far to the right of your average Guardian (5th) columnist.

  3. Hope readers do not flame me for this dissent from the article. And I haven’t kept up with the discussions on the politics of good health.

    But during the 1950s and early 1960s, the right wingers dominated the leadership of exercise regimens. There was, as is, the Marine boot camp. What about the militaristic gym teacher back then? In my junior high class in the early 1960s, my gym teacher had us stand at attention and do drills. What about the RCAF fitness program? Major conservative writers (Ayn Rand, William Buckley) back then were lean and fit.

    Somewhere along the line, the lefties (e.g. Jane Fonda) took over physical fitness training. As a slightly-overweight university professor in the 1990s, I wheezed through along a “nice and easy” aerobics class, led by a six-foot tall amazon, who, in the next class, led our men’s championship hockey team through a grueling one-hour fitness regimen (and she voted NDP).

    These days, it is the left media who promote good health. I like reading the Financial Post opinion section, but Terrence Corcoran is all for sugary donuts and and fatty foods. I was there too, but as a hopeful cancer survivor (three years in remission), I am into healthy eating and moderate exercise. Retired, I still research for conservative think tanks– David Murrell, Economics, UNB at Fredericton

    1. I would respectfully disagree. Sure, Hanoi Jane worked out and Nobody had a problem with that and I know some lefties who work out, but I would say the whining Tub O’ Shyte is mostly correct. But no statement is all encompassing. The Spartans were pretty right wing but they were vile pederasts. Lots of vegan yoga chicks I’m sure are super left and super hot. Generally: The lefty neo-Marxists aspire to control others, the right conservative libertarian aspires to control themselves.

      1. True enough. Another example is that the left proposes a “fat tax”, akin to tobacco and alcohol taxes, on sugary foods. Conservatives oppose this.

          1. Years ago, when I edited and published a newsletter, I referred to Michael Moore as a “slob film maker”.

  4. Any act of personal responsibility is problematic.
    The guy who has a few beers in the bar and then takes a taxi instead of driving home drunk is oppressing the drunk who slams his car into a school bus full of children.
    And why wouldn’t he drink?
    Look at how oppressed he is!

    1. Victims can never take personal responsibility, it’s a contradiction in terms. Winners don’t need advocates to “level the playing field.” Without political hobgoblins to be afraid of, we wouldn’t need these statist doofuses. So they bleat on that, without their sage wisdom and misspending of our money, “thousands will die.” The only thing that needs to die is their so-called careers.

      Government is bad at picking winners, but losers are good at picking government. Statists are like drug addicts, the least they need is the most they can get. As Reagan said: “if it moves, tax it, if it keeps moving, regulate it, if it stops moving, subsidize it.”

      With lots of perks and phony baloney jobs for the apparatchiks of course. Cue up the fascist overlords!

  5. I rise to quibble with Mr. Thompson’s expertise. I do a share of walking and have observed many human and canine walking teams. In the vast majority of the cases, it the dog and not the human which sets the pace, and the pace is a sniffing pace. It takes a lot training to get his nose out the ground and to engage his legs. It can be done, but it is not the norm.

  7. I got seriously committed to fitness in my early thirties – just about the time I started going toward the right. Coincidence? Probably, but exercise isn’t for people who want to be victims: it’s for people who want to be in charge of their lives, whether it’s hardcore or just “personal best”.
    Just for the record, I’ve been off weights for about a month because I’m waiting for a specialist appointment regarding a torn tendon in the shoulder. What the hell, I’m in my sixties.

  8. It should be pointed out that David Thompson turned to the Guardian’s Zoe Williams only “for want of anything better to do”. In other words, he has set the bar very low.

    David also points out that Zoe claims to have been writing about fitness for over a year and has learned very little about what it does for your body. He then mentions that this claim [the fitness writer knows nothing about fitness] “appears, incidentally, inches above a reminder of the importance of supporting the paper’s relentless professionalism”.

    Which is why I will fling some funds to David and not the Guardian.

    1. …the fitness writer knows nothing about fitness…

      You got it Steve. And she just doesn’t like exercise. That’s the most notable feature of this one.

      Although it is appropriate for the Guardian.

  9. As with most things “social” and “cultural” whether it be a predilection to addiction, abnormal sexual preferences, feeling of depression or helplessness, victim card playing or tendency to commit crime, the underlying cause is biochemical. Environmental/social issues can affect but if the biology isn’t there to set it off it aint happening. If someone wants to dispute that they can eff off at this point in my posting.

    Exercise, and I mean vigourous exercise like serious running, swimming, hard biking and weight training, builds muscle mass (including heart muscle) and along with this elevates testosterone. High T “makes you conservative” or “right wing” as others above have already explained. Grandma style biking, shuffling walks and “going through the motions” type exercise doesn’t count. It has to be real, bust your ass, work through/past the discomfort type exercise to get a result. If my “toxic masculinity” is pissing you off now, then you too can eff off here at this point in my posting.

    I have always been conservative but 10 years ago I dropped 110 lbs, packed on 30 lbs of muscle and now in my 60’s I run marathons and half Iron’s. I got rid of all my effing cholesterol and bp pills. Got my so called “fibromyalgia” bs “pains” 95% under control. I basically told big pharma and much of the medical community to eff themselves. So when some little beta snowflake starts yapping at me, male or female, the best thing is to physically and verbally intimidate and ridicule them. That requires testosterone. Something that every one needs and that you can produce yourself for free and be a better person for it.

    For any of you that are fat, slow, on pills or feel bad about yourself, get your lazy effing ass up and get to the gym NOW. Go! Lots of other people like you there. Lots of hot chicks too.

    2. You sound like my Doctor in AZ .. He told me that you must walk at a pace that you can’t hold a conversation… I walk by myself… My wife walks with her 5 Female friends chatting all the way….(News of the day).. She is skinny & I am overweight. Go figure

    1. Yeah. Don’t eat that garbage if you can avoid it. There is definitely something wrong with much of our food. But if you are already lean and having a 5000 calorie burn day you are going to metabolize all that crap into CO2 and H2O. Trouble is, most people can barely burn 1500 to 2000 a day. 5000 – 1500 = 3500 calories. 3500 calories = 1 lb of body fat. Couple pounds of fat on a lean fit frame is the difference between having abs or not. I once had abs for about 20 minutes. Very very hard to achieve as you get older.

      People are aware about how much fuel their truck burns or how much power their house consumes. But most do not have one clueless effing clue about how much their own body burns and are in utter blind ignorance about their own selection of fuel and quantity to power themselves.

  11. Consider that “fat activists,” whose laziness and overindulgence in food are made possible by free enterprise, are invariably advocates of socialism.

    In real socialist societies, of course, there is at most only one fat person—the great leader, who is invariably the only one who gets to eat his fill.

    I agree with Kate. What the world needs is a good old-fashioned famine. It will be worth it just to be rid of lazy fat socialist swine.

  12. “Unavoidably, over time, this makes you more rightwing, as you descend into an aerobics-powered moral universe where only the weak need each other, and all the strong need is a waterpouch in their backpack that pipes straight into their mouths.”

    ————–

    Well, there you go. The author has a chicken/egg problem. She assumes that “rightwing” results from exercise. I submit that it’s the other way around. No one is going to do something for you. The State is not going to substantively make more healthy. You have to do that yourself. You have to make an internal decision to follow that path. That decision is a first step towards self-sufficiency made consciously by the individual. But, here’s the rub. Whether the individual sticks with it and sees actual results is, again, up to the individual. You can’t force someone to do it. They have to make that internal decision to better themselves (improve themselves). The author clearly doesn’t understand this as she denigrates “the strong” suggesting that all they require for this process are inanimate, manufactured items (water pouch). She leaves out the mental attitude altogether which motivates the act.

    Additionally, she’s dabbling in a form of exercise which is on the fringe of what exercise really stems from….that being athletics. I’m a former professional tennis player. Exercise and conditioning is merely a single facet of success in athletics. Sports, in general, are far more contingent on mentality, and decision making. Add to that self-motivation, creativity, and achievement of goals. When you are on the court in a singles match it is you against them. No one comes out onto the court and hits the cross court backhand for you. No one hits your serve down the middle. It’s you. It’s your fate in your hands. The author doesn’t understand that and likely never will. She’s more interested in certificates of participation, or exercising to look better so that Madge at the supermarket asks if she lost weight. But, every professional/amateur athlete who is worth their salt understands perfectly the concept of “red meat” and perseverance. They understand that if you want to run with the big dogs you can’t piss like a puppy.

    What this author truly dislikes is that her whole universe is built on identity politics and victimization. Someone taking control of their own destiny scares the ever living hell out of her because it ignores identity and discards victim-hood.

  14. I find it impossible to believe that a “conservative” Tweets a photo of himself doing a particularly difficult Yoga pose at 6:30a. No. That would be a leftist screwel … don’t be silly.

  15. Sorry, I don’t see fitness as a political indicator at all. There are fit and unfit people across the political spectrum from right to left. Go figure.

    Oh, and Zoe Williams is a loon.

  16. When Issy went to visit her Bubbie she immediately began, just seconds after arriving, to massage her Bubbie’s shoulders. It was as if she knew that that would commence the usual complaints that her aging Bubbie had. She loved her Bubbie. This was their routine everytime they got together. This was what got Bubbie talking … about anything or anyone. Since she was a child, Issy listened. She always listened to her Bubbie.

    Then one day Bubbie started complaining during the massage, “oye, oye, oye da pain, it’s EVERYWHERE, oye, it’s in the knees, da kneees now. Da knees hurt sooo much, oye, oye, da…. p a i n!”

    The next day Bubbie could be seen clipping along swiftly through the streets of Brooklyn, like she was a young lady again!

    P.S. Anyone out there know the name of the movie this scene is from?

    Moral of the story, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it.

  17. whatever whatever ya c**t.
    whilst on the topic allow moi to offer some suggestions.
    first, Im 67 and have set a goal of 4 digit (pounds) on the leg press.
    my personal bet on the bench press is 350.
    we ALL have some differences in our physiology, metabolism, etc.
    my routine differs immensely to what I see in the weight room, namely, at times I will reduce the weight but increase the reps to absurd numbers, do 30 curls? ok, cut the weight until you can do 200 of them.
    rinse and repeat, increasing the weight slightly along the way. do this for 3 or 4 months or more. and increase the resp as well.
    ok, NOW pack it on. you will blow past all previous performance. the weight will be as ponderous as a grocery bag full of styrofoam.

    etc etc.
    Ive never heard of this approach, but have used it myself for > 20 years.
    Im 67. Ive been using weight training since my early 20s. it also improves one’s immune system somehow, but typically that is disputed.
    also, ‘protein supplements’ with a pic of the michelin man are a ripoff.

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