Aerobics R.I.P.? Say It Ain't So, Hanoi Jane!
April 5th 2007 12:46
In February the New York times published a story on the current status of aerobics:"Whatever Happened to Jane Fonda in Tights." This was an interesting moment for me. I have no liking for the New York "Omniscient" Times or Hanoi Jane. There were some gratuitous references to tights and bad music. There was the feminist spin paragraph where some middle aged female made the claim that women appearing in public to dance about together in fitness apparel had somehow been a major societal moment of enlightenment (Anthropology was apparently not her major.). There were some decades old pictures of period hairstyles and Flash Dance wannabes. The gist of the article was predictable: aerobics ain't what it used to be.
The Times trotted out the statistics. Participation in aerobics classes has gone from declining to plummeting in the past few years. The claim was made that a surviving adherent was finding it harder and harder to get a class at a convenient time and that what was aerobics in the 80s has morphed into a variety of activities whose relationship to their parent is more and more tangential. That's true where I live. (There are weights in the aerobics room!)
The reasons given for the decline is where the tragedy jounalism kind of took over. Some one-time instructors were presented who wistfully admitted to binging on classes 20 years ago. These same folks then admitted that they could not hop, bop, jump,or much of anything else anymore without pain. One poor man admitted that he now conducted classes in which he didn't participate, just managed the class like a baseball manager from the dugout. The point? Aerobics resulted in chronic pain its once strident advocates.
My analysis of the article is that it neglected the most obvious factor in the demise of aerobics. All the 80s types who paraded to the classes are now 45ish and that says it all. Aging has that effect, doesn't it? I look around the weight floor and I do see old timers, but their companions of 25 years ago are gone and they are not coming back.
Lets face it. Hopping, strutting, grinding and other atavistic demonstrations of tribal mentality go best for the young. The 45 aerobics class is unheard of and for good reason. The mature don't do that stuff. Its sort of how nature has programmed humans and the fall off of aerobics is that simply explained. The current 20s generation could take up the slack? The news is not good on that front. Todays group ethos runs more toward the Internet Cafe and group text messaging.
What can be drawn from this article is important. If you are in your 20s and you want to undertake a fitness activity which will yield it benefits in the improved life quaility later,your 50s and older, you are on the wrong track in aerobics(probably running too for that matter. The damage to joints is real, although the Times method was like picking Skid Row denizens to discuss social drinking: the more casually you do aerobics the less you have to worry about. Of course, the less will be the benefits too.
Take this to heart, youngsters. If you choose the wrong activities in youth, pain and debilitation will visit you. They will wait decades, but they will arrive nonetheless. If you shock your joints over and over they will not forget. That is why the long terms benefits of many fitness activities are distorted. Whatever good occurred years ago is not much consolation when you are barely able to move later.
There is a fitness activity that is not about pounding the joints or slamming the back with jolt after jolt. It is the no myth fitness activity . Pick up those weights and get busy(and preserve youthfulness into old age).Leave the leg warmer at home though.You'll look silly. Your servant, as always.
Choose your Fitness activites well.
The Times trotted out the statistics. Participation in aerobics classes has gone from declining to plummeting in the past few years. The claim was made that a surviving adherent was finding it harder and harder to get a class at a convenient time and that what was aerobics in the 80s has morphed into a variety of activities whose relationship to their parent is more and more tangential. That's true where I live. (There are weights in the aerobics room!)
The reasons given for the decline is where the tragedy jounalism kind of took over. Some one-time instructors were presented who wistfully admitted to binging on classes 20 years ago. These same folks then admitted that they could not hop, bop, jump,or much of anything else anymore without pain. One poor man admitted that he now conducted classes in which he didn't participate, just managed the class like a baseball manager from the dugout. The point? Aerobics resulted in chronic pain its once strident advocates.
My analysis of the article is that it neglected the most obvious factor in the demise of aerobics. All the 80s types who paraded to the classes are now 45ish and that says it all. Aging has that effect, doesn't it? I look around the weight floor and I do see old timers, but their companions of 25 years ago are gone and they are not coming back.
Lets face it. Hopping, strutting, grinding and other atavistic demonstrations of tribal mentality go best for the young. The 45 aerobics class is unheard of and for good reason. The mature don't do that stuff. Its sort of how nature has programmed humans and the fall off of aerobics is that simply explained. The current 20s generation could take up the slack? The news is not good on that front. Todays group ethos runs more toward the Internet Cafe and group text messaging.
What can be drawn from this article is important. If you are in your 20s and you want to undertake a fitness activity which will yield it benefits in the improved life quaility later,your 50s and older, you are on the wrong track in aerobics(probably running too for that matter. The damage to joints is real, although the Times method was like picking Skid Row denizens to discuss social drinking: the more casually you do aerobics the less you have to worry about. Of course, the less will be the benefits too.
Take this to heart, youngsters. If you choose the wrong activities in youth, pain and debilitation will visit you. They will wait decades, but they will arrive nonetheless. If you shock your joints over and over they will not forget. That is why the long terms benefits of many fitness activities are distorted. Whatever good occurred years ago is not much consolation when you are barely able to move later.
There is a fitness activity that is not about pounding the joints or slamming the back with jolt after jolt. It is the no myth fitness activity . Pick up those weights and get busy(and preserve youthfulness into old age).Leave the leg warmer at home though.You'll look silly. Your servant, as always.
| 38 |
| Vote |
