The Comeback of Physical Culture

I was chatting up Gray Cook the other day and made a particularly interesting point amidst many other interesting points:

We used to have something called physical culture: a perspective on training that acknowledged exercise as something that would enhance your life, in the way that reading or math would enhance your life. It was an avenue of exploration, not just a way of preventing sickness or building six pack abs. That sense of a physical culture is now gone.

Hard to argue with Cook's point here. He was alluding, in part, to the old pictures of gymnasiums that featured free weights, kettlebells, Indian clubs and the like alongside gymnastic equipment, climbing ropes and the like. "Classes" featured groups of people moving with great precision in complete unity--much like the photos you see of massive crowds of Asian men and women doing tai chi together. So, over time, you would get good at movement, you would master skills, develop coordination, balance, grace as well as strength, flexibility, and power.

My paternal grandmother was a gym teacher in that era: she used Indian clubs and taught people full-body movements that developed these qualities. She herself had impressive carriage well into her 90's, played a killer game of golf (she was her club's female champion several times over a long career), and died in 2002, just three months' shy of turning 102.

On the subject, it's hard not to mention another fitness buff--Jack LaLanne, who died on Sunday at the age of 96. LaLanne was over the top in many ways, but he inspired not just a generation but probably three generations with his feats of strength and ever-energetic, optimistic take on the benefits of being fit. Nick Tumminello has a very fitting tribute here that is well worth checking out.

Thanks, Jack.