Going to quit the Gym

[ElectricEgregore]

I'm really glad I managed to stick to the gym,
or lets just say commit to a movement routine.

Now around 2 months later I suddenly have a strong gut feeling of quitting this bs.
What are we? Some plebs artificially slaving us away in a box?
Full of the toxins people sweat out, polluted gear everywhere, especially since the global plague?

If I want to torture myself I might as well see the world while doing it (cycling, hiking)
or learn a skill like climbing or martial arts?

Also yoga or swimming... all of these are more rewarding that being locked up with some
narcissist/low self esteem body dysmorphia hybrids that compensate their 9 to 5s?

Why do you think it is that the truly powerful people in this world are never jacked,
just the semi ultra wealthy new around the block ones like Bezos or Hormozi do this
self torturing thing...

I must say the cheap option of using the sauna and my knowledge about the connection of
mitochondrial energy production in correlation to muscle mass made me go there again.

And I was kind of proud to stick to it, see my muscles grow pretty fast,
even some surface level girls looked twice.

But who are we? Some bred and abused horses?
Some catalog stickers?

I might as well just do 50 burpees every few days and have the same effects.
I will go for cycling and more natural things while saving time and money.

What do you think?

Do you also think it might be not you but the gym that's the issue of not sticking to it?

 

[HoldAll]

When trying to get fit, most people will think of gyms as the go-to solution, and I think that's short-sighted. I've only ever had a gym membership for supplementary training or for days when I couldn't make it to the dojo on time. Sometimes I'd sit among all those weights and think, "This is ridiculous. We've invented all sorts of machines to do the heavy lifting for us, and now we're doing it ourselves all over again? It would be ok if I were stacking sacks of wheat or something useful but raising a barbell over my head only to bring it down again? It's like performing pointless physical labour, only without being paid!"

I think it's more rewarding to learn and hone a specific skill like in the martial arts you already mentioned (I've written how to get started in my Forum Journal) or play some team sports where you can chase a ball around. There's a sport for every mentality. Some like steady uniform movements and prefer running and cycling while others would just get bored and prefer disciplines instead where it's short high-intensity bursts that matter, as in soccer. I never could be one of those iron pumpers; I'm less interested how my body looks and more in what it can do, like maintaining my balance during complex maneuvers - nice pecs, bro, but can you turn a cartwheel?

Like I wrote in my post: there has to be some emotional investment in every human endeavour, otherwise it will just peter out over time. Peer pressure is another major factor that's more or less absent in the gym where strangers may secretly compete with one another but never directly as in races, sparring, or (amateur-level) contests.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

When trying to get fit, most people will think of gyms as the go-to solution, and I think that's short-sighted.

Gym employee: Sorry sir, but to cancel your membership you have to come in & fill out paperwork.
Me: sigh FINE. Where are you located?

 

[ElectricEgregore]

I never could be one of those iron pumpers; I'm less interested how my body looks and more in what it can do, like maintaining my balance during complex maneuvers - nice pecs, bro, but can you turn a cartwheel?

That is exactly it. Functional strenght vs gym strenght.

I mean one can use the gym as a supplement so to speak - for me it was a mental thing and I used the gym sometimes to get into a new routine pattern. Also our gym here is the cheapest option to use a sauna regularly, for 30€ you can basically go everyday compared to 30€ for using it once anywhere else lol.

I also was training JuJutsu for 8 years until my late teens, I always had the self sabotaging belief of "having to become fit enough to go for martial arts again". And I guess it's still not overwritten with something productive yet. I guess that is due to the hefty polarities of swinging between full on degeneration (i had my smoking drinking etc phases) and being a sporty machine. Bit of a polarity that my parents also embody, I'm pretty much both in one. The pendulim does not swing as hard as before and I managed to not consume stuff often, not drinking since years, and my only real interest in substances are nootropics, psychedelics and biohacking/antiaging and health related things now.

For me it was a good start to use the gym for some months very regulary, I will use the sauna 2 more times and maybe even the gym a few times before my contract runs out in 2 weeks. Maybe I missed some day and I'll have to use it another month.

But I'm very much looking foreward to checking out the climbing/bouldering halls, the martial arts available in my area - which would be krav maga in my town, the city next to here has shaolin kung fu and what I find very interesting the Kali/Silat Gayong (indonesian kung fu, Kali has more to do with weapons - but make sure to check out Silat Gayong - very unexpected attacks and counters no ordinary attacker will be able to deal with).
I think HoldAll is in the picture, weren't you the originator of the divine martial arts thread?

I always admired shaolin kung fu, due to its integration if qi gong and martial qi exercises.

Post automatically merged: 47 minutes ago

I had this conversation with this funny short bulky buy with typical fighter ears that always makes half the gym laugh walking by.
By having a chat for more than 5 minutes the last time I was there something was triggered inside me - he basically was having this weird mockery humour towards me that was just a little too much (like estimating because I was thinner and taller that i would not make it through the boxing training of his) - I always found boxing borderline entertainment wrestling by the way, who does not use his legs lol)

And then what made it extra weird was the part where the other gym employees were talking free church and mosque type stuff & I asked just because we had walpurgis/beltane if he knew about the older tradition or the events in the area with a big bonfire - he got a lil borderline monotard and said something in the lines of "aS lOnG aS iT's NoT sOmE pAgAn StUfF" later on in the conversation. funnily enough that was the last day I went there, it gave my feeling of "too many simps leaving spike traces with their sweat everywhere" a little too much fuel.
Yeah the mono-missionary thing got really strong again...

Post automatically merged: 44 minutes ago

I guess I was too secluded for a while to remember that you can't ever talk things that are even just a little out of the ordinary with most people...