Most that know me probably already heard about this … but I thought I’d re-post for posterity in case anyone was interested.

Check out the missed connection for the story.

There was an article in Best Life Magazine entitled Is Your Workout Wasting Your Time? that caught my eye:

On a recent afternoon, it [the health club] thrummed with activity: Men and women logged obedient noiseless reps on a range of machines; runners banged out the miles on treadmills; and one gal raced away on an elliptical machine, legs neither running nor swinging, but doing something inexplicable in a feverish Road Runner–like blur. It’s a vision of exercise utopia that is mirrored in gyms across the country. Except that a growing chorus of critics find fault with it: The man jackknifed into the leg-extension machine could be risking knee injury; the exercisers slaving away on other stationary machines are building individual muscles in place of whole-body strength; the people slogging away on the treadmills with their eyes glued to TV screens seem like automatons.

I go to the gym everyday and get everything done in about 30 minutes: just pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups.  Done.  No fancy-electric-cardio machines, no complex weight machines with instructions.  I had been doing some bench-press and leg-press recently, but I’m cutting it out and adding squats and dumb-bell exercises. (p.s. Cardio is either outdoor runs or team-sports.)

The Best Life article warning against fitness club machines confirms what I’ve been experiencing recently: I get a better workout doing thoughtful, simple things.

I am a little frustrated that I pay $24/mo for the gym membership (the cheapest I could find) and don’t use any of the fancy equipment … but it’s still cheaper than trying to buy even a few weights, bars, and benches. 

The article does mentions that some gyms are getting rid of the fancy equipment and charging less:

…exercisers are looking for salvation outside the proverbial box. To build Revolution Defense and Fitness, a small commercial gym tucked away in a light industry business park in suburban Minneapolis, Damian Hirtz spent about as much on gear as the typical health club spends on its pec deck. Hirtz’s low-tech fitness center is an affiliate of CrossFit and has a climbing rope, kettlebells, medicine balls, jump ropes, a set of heavy bags, a set of big plates, and a chin-up station made from galvanized pipe he admits he bought in the plumbing aisle at Home Depot. That’s about it. No machines, no mirrors, no benches.

Although such a simple gym can’t charge as much on memberships, it would also require less capital (no fancy stuff to buy) and more personal trainers (to explain different free-weight exercises) with nice personal training margins.  Could be nicely profitable (in addition to more effective for the customer).

This post reminded me of a gym in my hometown called ‘The Next Big Thing’ based completely around using kettleballs (unevenly-weighted-dumb-bells):

Shaped like a cannon ball with a handle, Kettlebells at first seem more cumbersome than dumbbells. The weight of dumbbells is evenly distributed and doesn’t force grip strength, but the bottom-heavy Kettlebells are designed to hang down and move ‘ballistically,’ requiring the use of more stabilizing muscles, the way the body was meant to move.

Prediction: the no-machines-necessary mentality will be catching and no-machine gyms will indeed be the next big thing. Whichever chain figures out the best model of teaching will win.

I downloaded Radiohead’s In Rainbows the day it came out.  I didn’t pay anything for it then, instead deciding that I’d listen to it first and pay what I felt it was worth later.  After the initial listen, I was thoroughly underwhelmed and happy that I hadn’t paid anything.

Now that I’ve given it a second/third/fourth shot (my roommate’s recommendation and the WSJ’s glowing review convinced me to try again), the album’s growing on me.  It’s pretty good music to work to.

I haven’t quite decided how much to pay … but I was thinking that it’d be cool if I could buy a t-shirt from Radiohead that said (in a plain font) “I didn’t pay for In Rainbows but I bought this tshirt to support Radiohead”.  I’d pay $20 for that.

I could elaborate about why I’d rather pay for a physical good/service (tshirt, concert) rather than a near-zero-cost-to-reproduce digital good … and I could talk more about why paying for digital goods is obviously necessary … and why in some cases I don’t mind and in some I do … and how such a tshirt might not fit with Radiohead’s true aim … and why some fans might not like it … but whatever.  I think the shirt would be fun.