I wrote this after I re-watched the documentary American Hardcore and thought (as I often do) about the correlation of underground music and physical sub-culture. Enjoy (or don't).

 

  Time is oppressively cyclical. The mistakes of our forebearers inevitabley become ours. They may take on a different face, but the same strife, the same confusion, misdirection and ignorance are all but unavoidable. The same voices seem to shout from the ages, shrieking ideas and messages that we once took for our own brand new creations, but they continue to go unheard by the vast majority of people. How can we break the cycle?

 

  In the same way that American was in a musical/moral/fashionable state of facism in the late 1970s and early 80s, we are again caught in the vortex of white man’s rule, corporate vacuousness and manufactured cool. Except now music and fashion have become benign, and youthful rebellion has be relegated to a tool of clothing manufacturers, cell phone companies and social networking websites. Our counterculture image has been co-opted by pornographic websites and our self-expression through hair, clothes and nihilistic attitude are rendered similarly ineffectual by the marketing juggernaut.

 

 Fitness is no better: just as we were promised success, happiness and the American Dream in the 80s, we are now promised ripped abs, endless life and physical perfection if we buy into the newest scam. It’s not school, work or polo shirts now, but instead crunches, diet drinks and Under Armor. Just as disco and area rock recycled, exploited and twisted valid culture, fitness now promises new results from old ideas re-packaged.

 

  We are at an impasse and rebellion is the only escape. Fitness has commodified revolution, removed its teeth and erased its own history. We need to jump down the rabbit hole, take the red pill, step through the looking glass. It is time to turn away from the self-destructive funhouse mirror of mainstream fitness, escape the mundanity of the manufactured life and embrace the truth that’s been there all along.

 

*Photo credit goes to Bodytribe, as I just straight up stole it from their website. I'm in it, so it must make it OK on some level.

The deadlift. One of the central "slow lifts" and a mainstay in powerlifting and strongman competitions. You're probably already familiar with this movement, but we're going to break it down in a little more detail, pointing out some common mistakes, and get you pulling more than you ever imagined.

The deadlift varies from most other movements in that it begins concentrically - that is, you pull the weight "dead" from the ground, without creating a stretch reflex by passing through the eccentric (or negative) portion of the movement, thus it's popularity as a brute strength movement.

It is one of the most taxing lifts, recruiting multiple muscle groups and putting a high level of stress on the central nervous system. Due to its difficulty and impact on the body, the deadlift is an essential part of everyone's program - regardless of goals. You can't get big without getting strong, and the deadlift will make you very, very strong. It has a number of uses, variations and modifications, but we will begin today with the basic barbell deadlift.

From Eugen Sandow's Strength and How to Obtain It (1897):

"'And what is physical culture?' is naturally the question which arises to the lips of those to whom the subject is still unfamiliar...it is to the body what culture, in the accepted sense of the word, is to the mind. To constantly and persistently cultivate the whole of the body so that at last it shall be capable of anything that sound organs and perfectly developed muscles can accomplish - that is physical culture...

To undo the evil for which civilization, and all the drawbacks it has brought in its train, have been responsible in making man regard his body lightly - that is the aim of physical culture."

Although Sandow was concerned with the aesthetics of the "perfectly formed" body, his intentions were true - to cultivate the body, to develop fitness, health and ability. Sandow is adamant that strength of the mind comes first, then the body, then the external. One quote I often use is "appearance is a consequence of fitness." If you are fit, your body will reflect that. If you are not of sound mind and body, it will manifest itself aesthetically.

Physical Culture is the pursuit of mastery of the self - not a vain quest to fulfill an external perception. Conquer yourself, master your mind, and seek out those physical activities that bring you joy, enlightenment and success and you've found Physical Culture.