Training, Health, Performance, and Body Image: Look the Part

OK... I live on the Westside of Los Angeles. We're known for good looking people, many of whom are... "enhanced", "sculpted", "augmented", or whatever else you care to call it.

Now while the only blades that have so far made contact with my skin are those that have malicious or combative intent behind them, cosmetic surgery is not a big deal to me. I can understand that sometimes our bodies need a little jump start to get to where we'd like them to be.

However, that's a totally different issue than
a) a lack of discipline or unwillingness to consistently modify one's lifestyle & behaviors to achieve fitness and overcome weakness, obesity, etc., and/or
b) a surgically sculpted physique that has only cosmetic appeal yet no functionality of athletic movement behind it.

Following the 2009 Camp Pendleton RKC, Team Leader Mark Toomey & I had a discussion that centered around one of the comments received from the Marines who took the course. The Marine commented something to the effect that it was somewhat surprising to have a couple of PT instructors on the field who looked like they'd be totally useless after trying to jog a mile, do a snatch test, or bang out a few pullups.

The comment was not without merit.

The RKC is not only a school of strength, but also a lifestyle of true physical fitness. Now that the RKC is essentially married to Gray Cook's FMS system, there's even less excuse for anything less than optimal human performance and health. Plenty of people use all sorts of excuses to weasel their way around getting in shape. They argue for everything from injuries, to strong vs. skinny, to metabolic disorders, to all kinds of $h!#.

It's rubbish. It's cowardly. It's over.

As adherents of the Hard Style RKC School of Strength and students of Functional Movement Systems, the KBLA-RKC crew has a missive. We, as RKCs, represent the elite among the elite within the fitness and human performance world. If all we have are unique looking training tools and 3 extra letters behind our names, but still look and move like sauntering livestock, that's wholly unacceptable. We have to LOOK THE PART! Our bodies not only have to perform like athletes, but also look like athletes as well.

Our job is to INSPIRE others with every facet of our being - from how we act, to how we perform, to how we look. We CANNOT be part of the institutionalized hypocracy that plagues the fitness world and allow ourselves to be just another fat trainer with an embroidered polo shirt, telling others to do what we don't or can't.

Some folks are reading this and thinking, "Oh, my God... I've gotta get to the gym and hop on the treadmill and do a hundred crunches a day."

More rubbish.

Just stop shovelling the ice cream into your mouth and bang out a couple of 2-3 minute swing sessions, do some pull-ups, and start your day off with some Janda situps!

Yes... it IS that simple.

The people who clamor up & down that it's not that simple to get in shape are the ones who usually lie to themselves (and thus to others) about what they eat, what they drink, and how little they train. While there are certainly those RARE few who have endocrine disorders and the like, more often than not, there are those who use such labels as excuses to let themselves look like Jack Black.

If you think injuries are an excuse, then you obviously haven't seen Master RKC Mark Reifkind. The man is no spring chicken, has sustained more serious orthopedic injuries than many professional athletes, and still looks good with his shirt off.

Tyson Penrod, a newly minted RKC from the San Diego certification weekend, completed not only his snatch test, but the entire weekend of training with a fractured wrist.. discovered after he returned to Reno & had an X-ray.

Excuses are endless for poor performance or failures. However, successes, especially multi-faceted successes, are the result of sacrifice, of diligence, of focus, of integrity of purpose, and of inspiration.

Choose your side, choose your weapon, and jump in the fray!