Exercising in the "Digital Age"

Is everything today electronic? Even our fitness? When I worked out at EFC in England I was turned onto a system called FitLinxx. It is actually pretty cool - not only does it serve as your personal exercise and training log book, but it helps you through exercise range of motion (when calibrated correctly). Additionally, before it broke at EFC they would give prizes for reaching new 'levels.' So, I won a water bottle, a free PT session, and a massage. It was fucking brilliant (see image).  

However, today I somehow stumbled upon a link for a digital jump rope - are you freaking kidding me? This whole thing got me thinking: what ever happened to good old fashioned hard nosed fitness training. The days when you would run up and down stairs, and may actually do it outside, for cardio training. When you would pump iron or do calisthetics or punch a bag for resistance training? And to add, you might record your progress in a written fitness journal, or god forbid, actually remember how damn strong and / or fast you were!

Rather in today's "digital age" we are force fed digital media in our exercise routines. Rather than going to the local stadium and running stairs, we use the stairmaster, stepper, or elliptical. Rather than actually running on solid ground, we run on treadmills (and the former, real ground is way harder, I dont care who you talk too, there is no comparison). And rather then do 3 sets of 50 pushups and squat thrusts, we deconstruct our workouts into muscle group defined isolated machine work - so for example, I used to do Chest on the same day I did my Triceps. And I had a set of luxurious machines - and I mean nautilus style and free weight devices, thinks smith machine, cables, etc - to meet that end. 

This apparently really frustrates me, especially now because I feel like I am seeing real results with my new total body, body weight training regime: my so-called functional workouts, which actually serve no function accept to give me the opportunity that something I do in a day is "functional." It really started to irk me lately, combined with the odd ganders I attract at the good ol' gym, I have been talking to several colleagues about the state of individuals in our society, particularly young folks - the 9-22 year old group. Many of these kids are currently prescribed medicines for AD/HD or other "behavioral developmental disorders." No I use quotes, half jokingly, not to mock those with real physical disease, but rather to poke fun and mock the medical industry for creating drugs to calm down little boys. I mean for fuck's sake - being rambunctious and annoying and aggressive is what being a little boy is all about. I wish I could still be like that!!!!  At any rate, these kids are raised on electronic devices - the Wii (not fit version), PS2, PSP, Nintendo, Game Cube, Television, etc. When I was a kid my mom forced me to go outside - no I mean literally threw me out and gave me the "I will call you for dinner, and I should not see you until then. Now go have fun, Steve." I had no abandonment issues. I felt no shame, or dislike for her. In fact, I was pleased as pie I was thrown out of the house to go "play" otherwise I had to watch one of the 4 Tele channels available when I was a kid. OK, 5, we did have PRISM, but come on! 

This and we ask ourselves why our society is fat? Not me. I think I;ve got the answer, and it's not original - by any stretch - we made our selves fat. The issue for me is that making ourselves fat, we have actually created a number of new medical disorders (e.g. Type II diabetes). 

Right, so this is supposed to be a blog about fitness, not a political blog, sorry. So, do this for me, a little experiment if you will. Next time you are in the gym observe the members. Take note of how many are using the digital machines and how many are using the non-digital, what I will call here "old school approach", which may include, but is not limited to: gymnastics moves, body weight exercises, kettle balls, non-digital jump rope, etc. Is there a difference in the fitness level perceived by you between these two groups. I did this today and noticed two things: 1) I was one of 3 people at the gym doing "old school" moves (although at 7am I can't be picky about numbers) and 2) that the people doing the "old school" moves seemed to have more muscular definition, more mobility and flexibility, a generally happier demeanor and pleasantness about them, and in males a better V-shaped torso. 

I would like to hear others opinions... 

No turn off your electronic device and go move! LOL ;-)