Yes, You Need a Gym

It's almost New Year's Day and it's time for the resolutionists to crowd my second home, 12th Street Gym. But if you were to read social media - particularly the bowels of Tumblr - you'd wonder if anyone under the age of 25 has ever stepped on a treadmill, let alone used a squat rack. 

While others might look on these resolutionists with disdain, I say the more the merrier. For one, they keep my yearly membership prices low because 90% of them will be buried in a box of chocolates by February 14th and never return. But to the 10% that stay, those courageously sweating through their XL sweatpants on January 1st, I say "Bravo, and Welcome!"

There is no question that our current culture of political correctness is merely a hypocritical backdoor to express prejudice under the guise of sympathetic acceptance. Whether our social justice warriors are commending Caitlyn Jenner for her bravery or chastising a public school for an athletics program that "shames" overweight children, PC culture simply seeks to relegate those in the minority to the corners of their consciousness with frustrating strategy. 

It's easy to say PC culture comes from a "good place," but that's unfortunately untrue. PC culture is a product of those in the whitewashed majority narcissistically making social causes about themselves. It's a sneaky - and perhaps subconscious - way to profess progressiveness and liberalism while still standing at the top of the pyramid. 

It's incredibly condescending, and perhaps nowhere more than in the arena of "Fat Shaming." 

While LGBT individuals, ethnic and religious minorities, can brush off the condescension of "Liberal Guilt" as straight, white people being straight, white people, the social justice warriors who've charged themselves in the fight against "Fat Shaming" are neglecting a demographic that truly needs intervention and change. Obese people shouldn't be shamed - obviously - but their condition also shouldn't be ignored.

Unlike sexual orientation, gender identity, race, or religion, obesity isn't always a predisposition or choice, and when it is, it isn't a good one and one to be dealt with. We're not talking about someone's freedom to be who they are or safety practice a faith, we're talking about an epidemic disease, and one beginning at an increasingly young age. To end the discussion with the notion that "Fat Shaming" is bad - as it all too often does in the school gym class - is akin to saying cancer is something to be accepted, not addressed. 

The dumbbell is your friend.

Schools began by banning dodgeball, the one sport scrawny nerds like me actually enjoyed. Then the bully-buzzword spread to the whole notion of gym as a class. Many schools now offer alternatives to gym class, if they offer gym at all. Many kids already threatened by obesity are now being forced into a life with no other option, all under the guise of their own safety. 

But the plague has even spread into to fitness industry. While the fitness industry has always been a welcome mat for pop culture diets and quick fix fads, the gym has always been the place for those truly dedicated to their own health and fitness. But with gyms like Planet Fitness and local carbon copies, corporate brainiacs have capitalized on the "Fat Shaming" buzz to delude those in need into thinking the road to health costs $10 a month and comes with free pizza. 

The deplorable tactics by these so-called "fitness communities" should be nothing new to those in need of the utmost motivation, because they're akin to physicians who over-prescribe drugs and tackle diabetes solely through medication. It's truly unfortunate that Certified Personal Trainers are scoffed at as fly-by-night spin class instructors and not the gruelingly educated professionals that we are, because we seem to be the only ones who care. 

Places like Planet Fitness are perpetuating the false ideal that the fit are the bullies, the "Fat Shamers," by installing "Lunk Alarms" and removing squat racks, all to quell the insecurity of those desperately wanting the security of a healthy physique. 

I've got news for you, we aren't the enemy. 

Joining a gym is easy, but going for the first time is intimidating. It took me a long time to realize that the vast majority of meatheads at 12th Street Gym started exactly where I did, and that they were never judging me for fumbling my way through the beginning of my journey. If anything, I was only judged when I quit, slacked off, or assumed I was being judged. 

The gym - a real gym - is very much a community, and one you want to be a part of. Seeing someone struggle through their repetitions or on the stairclimber is inspirational, even to the fittest amongst us, even when the person struggling weighs 300lbs. It reminds us that we didn't join this gym - this community - because of a short lived resolution, but because it simply needed to be part of our lives, like paying rent or eating. The gym is a necessity of a healthy life, one that keeps you alive and off the operating table. 

Obesity is not something to be shamed, but the dialogue shouldn't end there. Obesity is something to be addressed, like anything else that sends you to the doctor's office. And the best way to address it is by signing up, swallowing your pride, and finding support in those who truly care about your wellbeing. And I assure you, those people are not social justice warriors who spout phrases like "Fat Shaming," they are those who will tell you what you are truly capable of and show you how to be the best man (or woman) you can be.