The merchants make money by selling us stuff. That's cool - we all have to eat. The question is, are the merchants selling you freedom or dependence?
Will that Weight Loss 3-meal a day delivery plan give you freedom from disease, or just dependence on an unhealthy regimen that makes it slightly easier to reduce your caloric intake?
Will that huge hunk of gym equipment in your basement allow you to exercise anywhere and anytime, or will it tie you to a lonely, dull regimented workout that leaves your body imbalanced and fundamentally unequipped to deal with real life?
Do you habitually gear down through recreational drugs, or TV; or do you know how to breathe and think to find inner balance under whatever circumstances life throws at you?
Once you take a single step toward freedom, you start seeing additional steps in every direction.
Here's a video that blew my mind a little bit. I'm no water-skier, so I see it as a metaphor for finding freedom by letting go of external crutches. See what you think. Oh, the guy in the video is a new friend, Lane "Dawg" Bowers, and he swears he can teach this to anyone. I haven't taken him up on his offer yet, but if you'd like to give his method a free test-drive, click here.
Enjoy!
Two months ago, I chronicled my daughter Yael's first encounter with a unicycle. Yesterday, in balmy NC December sunshine, we took some more video. You'll notice in this 10-second clip that the posture is improved and the balance much more fluid. I predict a breaththrough within the next 4 hours of attentive practice.
Today's New York Times features an article about a branch of homeschooling known as "unschooling." More or less, it's the kind we practice in our home, first with our daughter and now with our son. The thing that struck me about this otherwise fine piece of reporting was a two-word phrase in a caption of a photograph in the multimedia slide show that accompanies the article. Keep Reading…
Hey, I like video games as much as the next guy… if the next guy is Mahatma Gandhi. Reuters (reported in The Age out of Australia) shared research on the cardiovascular effects of the video game "Dance Dance Revolution" on overweight kids. They found that while playing the game increased heart rate and burned more calories (than, for example, sitting on their butts watching other people dance on MTV), essentially, it made no difference to their weight or fitness. Keep Reading…
I always have to slow down when a target seems this big and this easy. I mean, cancelling a Planet Fitness patron's membership because he grunted with a quarter ton of steel on his back? I grunt every time my son sneaks up behind me and jumps on my back. And he weighs less than 50 pounds. Keep Reading…
Just learned about this new workout that should be sweeping the world: the Urban Rollerblading Bottle-Playing Alpine Sprint. If you can't skate, maybe you could be one of the Chief Bottle Fillers…
Check it out:
Thanks to Mark Hurst for pointing this one out!
On Tuesday morning, I brought home my old (and I mean old) Schwinn unicycle, thinking, maybe someday I'll learn how to ride the darn thing. It has spent the last several years in a basement in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.
No sooner was it in the house than Yael became interested. On went her helmet, and chaos ensued… Keep Reading…
The FitFam concept of playing out as a family, rather than working out as individuals strapped to machines in a windowless hall of mirrors, owes a great deal to my teacher and trainer, Jon Hinds. Jon is the founder of the Monkey Bar Gym, a revolutionary training facility in Madison, Wisconsin, where I've studied to become a CNT (Certified Natural Trainer).
Jon was the strength coach for the LA Clippers basketball team, a head instructor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and personal trainer to Hollywood stars like Woody Harrelson and Demi Moore. He played college basketball and worked as a street break dancer. He studied High Energy Yoga with reclusive guru Roger Eischens, and trains everyone from grannies to top athletes at the Monkey Bar Gym.
Monkey Bar Gym members rave about the results they get, but even more they talk about how much fun and camaraderie they experience at every workout. No judgment, no machines, no TVs, no mirrors, and no obsessing about appearance.
Recently I had the opportunity to interview Jon about his experiences, his training philosophy, and his take on the modern fitness industry.
Ordinarily I would make an interview of this quality available only to FitFam Members in the FitFam Radio section of the Members Study Center, but this stuff is so important I can't bring myself to be selfish. If you like the interview and want to hear many more like it, consider joining FitFam.
Without further ado, here's Jonny…
Howie interview with Jon Hinds
An article in yesterday's New York Times points on the variables that can determine how much fat you can lose through exercise. If I read it and didn't realize that the point of exercise has nothing to do with fat loss, I'd be kind of depressed.
When I was still stuck in the Fitness Matrix, I used to go to the gym in the smelly basement of the community center where my daughter was in nursery school. I'd drop her off with a quick kiss, because I had to beat all the mommies to the two working treadmills. If I was the first one in the gym, sometimes I could even sabotage the stereo so I wouldn't have to jog to 80-beats-per-minute Top 40.
Keep Reading…
Found this in my online journal from about a year ago. I include it here as an example of what "family fitness" can look like:
Today, after a short bike ride on the American Tobacco Trail in Durham, NC (the exciting part was that we found it at all, thanks in part to Google Earth and some dumb luck), my kids and I and family friends hung out at the park. We played frisbee, spotted the kids on the monkey bars, and sat around and talked.
Keep Reading…
