Not like the movies...

Last weekend I went to the movies.  I saw Creed II.  It was very much fun.

I have to stop for a moment here and say that I do not like boxing, despite the fact that my son does it for fun.  I think that the world, in general, would be better if none of us spent time figuring out how best to hit other people.  I’ve done boxing workouts with my kid before and they are awesome for testing the limits of the body, so I like a lot about them, except for the aforementioned hitting people, which I did not even have the opportunity to do because I was a first timer.

The movie, of course, was not really about boxing.  Boxing is a metaphor for life.  It is how we learn to deal with obstacles, train for them, dig deep, lose, and then, maybe, win, but not how we expected and not what we expected.  (I am not spoiling the plot of the film.  It is a Rocky movie.  We all know how it ends.)

I loved watching the actors do the workout montages.  Battle rope burpees!  Giant tires!  Weights suspended from leather straps around heads!  Underwater dumbbells!  The thing is, that is workout porn.  Real workouts are not and should not be like that.

I don’t believe in puking.

Most of us are not professional athletes.  We do not need to do all those things to be at our best.  If we get to the point where those things are the next step for us, then we should by all means do them.  Otherwise, we work with what is appropriate for us.

It’s great to go look at impressive muscles and crazy stunt workouts.  Enjoy away.  Then come home and do the real work.  Which probably won’t include battle rope burpees, but I won’t promise.