Exercise with control

“THE temperate man holds a mean position with regard to pleasures ...

Such pleasures as conduce to health and bodily fitness he will try to secure in moderation and in the right way; and also all other pleasures that are not incompatible with these, or dishonourable, or beyond his means.

For the man who disregards these limitations sets too high a value on such pleasures; but the temperate man is not like that: he appreciates them as the right principle directs.”

You would expect that the only people prone to taking their exercise too far some three centuries before the birth of Christ were the slaves at the beck and call of their Greek masters.

But the fact the great philosopher Aristotle was ruminating on such things in his Ethics suggests the ancient Greeks were prone to taking things a bit too far at the gymnasium at times.

An article at the age.com.au last week led me to reflect on how far is too far when exercising, which stressed (but not strained) the importance of breaking up your fitness routine.

“People tend to do the same thing over and over again, without varying it, without taking adequate rest, without building slowly, and they end up with an overuse injury,” said Geralyn Coopersmith, national manager for the Equinox Fitness Training Institute.

But there is big resistance to change. “People get terrified. They'll say, ‘the treadmill made me lose weight.’ Well, exercise made you lose weight,” she said.

“The treadmill was the modality. That doesn't mean it’s the only way or the best way.”

As Healthy Place, a US mental health website puts it:

“In our society, exercise is increasingly being sought, less for the pursuit of fitness or pleasure and more for the means to a thinner body or sense of control and accomplishment.”

This can lead to “activity disorders”, by people who are controlling their bodies, altering their moods, and defining themselves through their over-involvement in exercise activity, to the point where instead of choosing to participate in their activity, they have become “addicted” to it, continuing to engage in it despite adverse consequences.”

I would suggest many of us have borderline activity disorders.

We are placing an inordinate emphasis on rigorous exercise and a certain aesthetic look associated with it, that appears to have only limited relation to the general health presumably prized by Aristotle’s “temperate man”.

I’m sure my own desire to control, accomplish, compete often overtakes the more general demands of fitness.

But Aristotle was on to something: the temperate man does not “enjoy any pleasure violently”.

With the right attitude you can be a long time out on the track, cycle path or sporting field but when your body packs it in, you can be a seemingly interminable time away from the game.

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Tuesday 22 May 2012

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