Where has the bicep curl gone? There was a time when every gym had the image of a man lifting a dumbbell and curling the bicep—a muscle that signified strength and health. You don’t see this as much today because it has been downgraded to a show muscle, though that is a bit harsh, as it has uses beyond aesthetics. In any case, even at the peak of its defamation, the bicep curl was never unhealthy. Unlike some of the new symbols of health, such as the Ironman triathlon.
The Ironman contest requires swimming about four kilometres, then immediately cycling about 180 kilometres, and finally running a full marathon of over 42 kilometres. To lure ordinary people, there is now the half-Ironman, which is a very odd name. But even this is unhealthy.
There’s a difference between fitness and health. Fitness is not a guarantee of health, it is the immediate ability of a body to perform certain tasks. But some of those tasks can be unhealthy. Even meaningful training for a half-Ironman can be simply too much for most bodies, and frequent attempts in a year—even at less gruelling sports such as the full marathon—can irreparably damage the body. Extreme endurance sports are an abuse of fitness.
Every time there is an article like this that attempts to diminish a symbol of health, a lot of lazy people get excited about finding one more reason not to move. To ruin their excitement, I must point out that these extreme activities are far less dangerous than sloth. Also, there is one healthy aspect to them: they can inspire people to begin their fitness journey, even if only to tell everyone they are doing the Ironman.
Extreme sports are also the most beautiful way of being unhealthy—they are among the things that make living worth it. True health, though, is not as photogenic or brag-worthy as fitness. It comes from dull moderation. For example, one of the best exercises in my view is jogging a bit, walking fast, and jogging again until one is tired but not exhausted. Then slowly increasing the distance over time. Also, health is mostly about diet, and a good one consists of dull food like steamed stuff.
Some of the most annoying people in a marathon are those who claim to ‘participate’ in it but walk all the way, blocking the path for actual runners, all for a photograph at the finish line. But these annoying people might be doing something healthier than those who run all through.
Many symbols of health are the exact opposite of health. Such as professional body-building. Those people lead very unhealthy lives because they not only have to eat a lot, and eat an excess of proteins, they also have to frequently dehydrate themselves. It is through dehydration that the beautiful cuts of the muscles are best visible, even in those with low body fat. Contestants may take medication to dehydrate and some of them have died in the process. Not just professional body-builders—even models who need to show their ‘abs’ often achieve that largely through dehydration.
Once, I was working out in a gym in Juhu, when a man in his twenties who was lifting weights began to scream. His leg had got a cramp, and he was wailing like a child. I soon realized that he was a model. He had a shoot the next day and had not had water all day for that reason. Yet, he was working out to puff up his muscles.
Hugh Jackman has said that for Logan’s shirtless scenes, he would cut off drinking water entirely about 36 hours before filming. As a result, “You lose like 10 pounds of water weight,” which helps his muscles look more shredded. He also said, “Don’t do this at home.” Yet, a lot of healthy people feel they are not healthy enough because they cannot match the visual glory of some unhealthy extreme sports.
A few weeks ago, The New York Times carried an alarming story that pointed to a correlation between extreme distance running and colon cancer. Nobody understands why.
An odd thing about many amateur long-distance runners—especially those who talk a lot about their running—is that they are often a bit overweight. From hearing them talk about their runs, you wouldn’t guess their shape. This is because they perform a nonsensical ritual called ‘carb-loading,’ the act of eating a lot of carbs, usually pasta, before a long run. This is not required for anything less than a full marathon, yet it is overvalued because it involves eating tasty food before the race. They also overdo ‘electrolyte’ drinks that are filled with sugar. And they don’t realize that running great distances cannot negate the effects of overeating every day.
In Burn: The Misunderstood Science of Metabolism, anthropologist Herman Pontzer argues that there is a limit to how many calories a body can burn in a day, even if you run a daily marathon for a hundred days—and there are people who do that. The more you exert yourself, the more your body conserves itself by turning off other ways in which it spends energy, to match the predestined cap on the number of calories your body will burn in a day.
Also, the myth of endurance sports as evidence of health makes people participate in races without preparation. I remember an old woman who lost her life, in my view, because of the Mumbai press. There was an image of her in a sari jogging, preparing for a half-marathon. The media made a big deal of it. She participated and died trying to complete a race she was not ready to run.
The author is a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. His latest book is ‘Why the Poor Don’t Kill Us.’