get moving
Over-muscled conmen are as old as the fitness industry itself. They "succeed" because we think about how the body looks, not how it moves.
The recent exposure of popular fitness influencer and supplement salesman "Liver King" (real name Brian Johnson) as a steroid-using fraud underscored yet again how incredibly counter-productive and dangerous so much of the messaging coming out of the fitness industry can be for the average consumer. His subsequent "apology" - an unintentionally hilarious six-minute pitch for his supplement company and lifestyle brand masquerading as accountability - contained an admission that many overlooked but is critical to understanding why the concept of fitness, as a whole, continues to fail the general public. Near the end of the video, Liver states that he does "12-15...workouts every week" that make him feel like he "wants to die" just to "feel okay." This is from someone claiming to be extraordinarily healthy. Does that sound healthy? Asked another way - do YOU want to die twice a day just to feel "ok?"
This is extreme body dysmorphia. This is the opposite of healthy.
And that's the problem in a nutshell. The message people like Live King send, which mirrors the fitness industry writ large, is "You can never be good enough." Instead of promoting health, fitness promotes vanity, excess, and a competitive mindset that twists exercise into an arms race with no winners. This is why those of us in the coaching space (as opposed to the supplement-huckster space) have to do a better job of communicating the true purpose of fitness - which is improving the quality of life as a byproduct of having a genuinely healthy body.
Bodybuilding-focused aesthetic pursuits are at best a distraction to this mission for the public-at-large. At worst, they fuel an industry of charlatans preying on insecurity to sell useless products and promote harmful behaviors that diminish quality of life.
The ability to move properly and capably without pain is all that should matter to anyone genuinely interested in improving their own or others' health and fitness. When you focus on how the body LOOKS rather than the WAY IT MOVES, you set yourself up to be taken in by conmen. Much like not trusting a skinny chef, question the motives of anyone in the fitness space trying to sell you on looking a certain way, especially if that way is a cartoonishly-overblown version of a healthy physique. Now consider what this person actually goes through to achieve such a look.
Even without PEDs, the diet and training style required to carry so much unnecessary muscle at such a low bodyfat percentage is, at best, a miserable experience to live out day-to-day, and leaves the individual with little energy (and often much joint pain) to enjoy using their strength for other activities. Is that what you really want?
At MonkeyDo, we have this crazy idea that the act of moving itself is what should bring a person joy and happiness through fitness, not enduring misery to impress others which, crazily enough, doesn't actually work. If you're ready to embrace a movement-first mindset, sign up for a FREE CLASS OR SESSION at www.monkeydo.fit/book and experience the true purpose of exercise. No supplements required.
