Re: counter culture aversion to exercise. I suspect this may come from the horrors of PE at school, combined of course with the aggressive testosterone fest that is sport in general. I was scared off sports at about the age of 13 and coevally became interested in things like Warhammer and Rawkus records instead.
I read a good book about this subject. Part of a series curated by Alain "De Bloody" Botton, but don't let that put you off. Also the book on running by Murukami is very interesting. I think I read these books and then ran and it wasnt as refined as I'd imagined, more sweaty and sickening.
And then there is the short-lived Carl Lewis pop career.
2 miles - well to be exact 1.91 miles (according to mapometer.com) is my top distance so far. i don't have a particular aim - but i'd like to get to tate modern and back next year - that's 3 miles - should be nice running over the thames. got some proper trainers.
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such a thing was dismantled a long time ago - but i guess it still exists in ghost form - the counter-culture. it's always had an antipathy to exercise and healthiness. the strain that comes from baudelaire and huysmans is all about sickliness isn't it? sickliness is a major thread throughout the avant-garde of pop: from people getting "red eye" in the studio making drum and bass, blunted listening to hip-hop - i always think about PIL in their squat on the kings road... even the strands of this culture which promise some faint healthiness - disco and dance music - they frequently end up with people suffering dehydration, overdoing it on chemicals - lol.
there is an interesting thing in that flawed bob marley documentary though - marley's big thing was "lively up yourself" - which meant that they played masses of football and would take long runs to the local waterfalls and THEN get stoned - and then to fight off the inertia induced by the weed - they'd go out and "lively up" again - more football, more running, more swimming. anyway it struck me as an interesting possible future for avant/pop culture. perhaps without the dope... though of course they say it was the exercise that did him in (the football injury) but i'm inclined to lay the blame for that elsewhere.
and why shouldn't being fit and healthy be anti-establishment? i'm inclined to believe, what with the internet sucking people out of their bodies - reclaiming them is the most radical thing one can do
I think one of the most fascinating registers of modern life is exercise. For example, offices (in particular industries geared towards young people) are generally awash with fitness. There are exercisers or dieters or body builders*. But what all these aspects point to, for me, is that the body is the last frontier of control and agency. You can't reclaim your attention or focus. You can't reclaim your social life. You can't reclaim your personality - because these have always got to be, consecutively 1-always on, 2-your work, 3-positive team yadadada. BUT you can at least attempt to claim you body.
whilst there doesn't appear to be much in the way of basis for fears about osteoporosis - injuries are clearly an issue - has slightly blunted my enthusiasm :slanted:
seems like:
1) the further one runs the more liable one is to injure oneself
2) there's a consensus on stretches/yoga ones
i wonder if one keeps a really low mileage that helps?
Lots of great points, but people who are trying to be healthy make great consumers. Hempseed trail mix bars, electrolyte tablets, kewl techy running clothes etc.
People posting the runs they've just done on facebook seems to have been a new horror for my timeline this year; I can't quite pretend it's as bad as the clickbait, positivity fascism quotes etc etc, but still.
I guess it very much depends where you run. I fail to see how running your lungs wide open in an urban, smog laden environment is beneficial in any way. I never understood those who do, really.