Working Class Fitness

don't get fooled by the name, it's just a marketing gimic for this guy to sell his products.

Much better site:

http://www.trainforstrength.com/

And of course message boards much like enrager where you would get support and tips for free, like:

http://www.veganfitness.net/index.php

Funny thing is that this guy sells his product programme and training aids by saying he doesn't have time to train 2 hours a day - well who the fuck does! And training that much would be overtraining anyway, so the whole idea is a bit weird.

I don't know about the quality of his stuff though, might be ok, but don't get fooled by the name, that's my point.

Given the state of much of the Anarchist movement, perhaps this site is more appropriate:

http://www.sumo.org.uk/index.htm

Fitness has become an industry like any other, and a lot of gyms take so much money off gullible middle class fools, who happily pay up front for huge subscriptions, only to find that work/family commitments (or simple idleness) mean they are unused.

Far better to find somewhere with a pay as you go rate, or a flat monthly fee.

Though most of the anarchist scene seem to be skinny as rakes, this is even more true among green anarchist... Not that there is anything wrong with being skinny - it's certainly much healthier than being overweight, but it starts getting worrying when there is a typical bodytype for someone with certain political beliefs

I get the same for being a vegan, usually people don't believe me when i say i'm vegan and say but you are big and vegans are supposed to be really skinny - i'm like, yeah you mean like rhinos and gorillas?

very true, used to be owned and run by people into the stuff - now it is ran purely as a business, big multinational chains have taken smaller gyms over and the industry is centralising, pay and conditions have dropped to minimum, no unionisation among the workers and all the rest of it. It is a weird section among minimum wage industries.

Keeping healthy and fit doesn't have anything to do with gyms though, and thats what the gym chains marketers don't want people to know.

Funny though, as a related comment, looking at the obesity rates and the class correlation it is more likely that the ruling class has a healthy body mass, eats well, exercises and so on, whereas it is the working class people who are getting fatter and more unhealthy, eating more and more processed, cheap crap food and so on. Just look at what's going on in US.

But still our comic stips portray the "capitalist" as a fat bastard wearing a hat which went out of fashion in 30's

Also, another angle on diet and health, if average american eats about 30% above their daily calorie needs, imagine the drop in profits of the food industry if people would actually cut that out? That is said to be one of the reasons why the fitness industry focuses on gyms as a way to reduce weight, and then of course the miracle products focuses on chemical wonders - very few voices get through to actually talk about getting the calorie intake to a sustainable level.

I could rant about these issues for too long

I don't know what it says about Class War's position in the Anarchist movement that we seem to have more than our share of the movement's "fuller figures".......

well at least the samurai haircut would be an improvement on the mohawk.

my cousin does this: http://www.krav-maga.org.uk/, and as he seems to have continued with it for a while now rather than shoot up to black belt and get bored like he does with other martial arts, it must be pretty good. don't know what they mean by "krav maga training is fun" though, last time i saw him he had a black eye and a swollen elbow...

leonard, my wife didn't go into kraw maga for that very reason...

Luckily we have a local martial arts expert here who teaches AR/eco/anarcho etc types for free. He really knows is stuff and the classes are geared towards practical street confrontation situations.

The trouble with martial arts is that they have rules and traditions. Now if you are in a tight spot, there are no rules or traditions. People who are really good martial artists in their chosen lineage are sometimes hopeless against a fighter who is not practising the same martial art.

I'd recommend good boxing/kicking based MA like thai boxing coupled with any kind of grapling and ground fighting style, from wrestling to ji-jutsu. Mixing styles is the best way to avoid the "style trap".

But i guess this rant is geared more towards those who have some experience already. I'd be happy to see people doing any MA or even things l)ke thai chi, yoga or ballet, as long as they were doing something to keep themselves fit!

I do boxing and Thai boxing, but I would not discourage anyone from doing anything that would keep that fit and get them actually thinking about self-defence.

I would also encourage people to do anything that would give them a basic knowledge of throws and locks, such as wrestling or Judo, although finding a decent wrestling coach in the UK is not that easy.

Lets face facts here,a lot of WC people are to busy surviving to think about going to the gym,you ask someone who are for 8 hours are walking up and down a ladder carrying bricks,shoveling cement all day to go down the gym at night when all you want to do is have a three Ss (shit shower and shave).

Maybe if you sit behind a desk all day tapping on a computer or re-arranging paper clips or yapping shit into a telephone you will have the energy to go down the gym.

As for the unemployed you wont be able to afford to join a Fitness Centre as the prices are to high,and the community ones have been closed by Labour.

I agree we need to be fitter to keep up with our enemies....and lets face another fact here that when it comes to the fight it doesnt really matter how much you go to the gym its the aggression within that comes out,all that bottled up aggresion will overwhelm someone who knows how to say shitsu and bloke a punch.....

andy, why would someone who has a very physical job need to go to the gym in the first place?

Gyms are primarly for people in physically inactive jobs, and lets face it, majority of working class is in this kind of jobs nowadays - only in the class war anarchists wet dreams they are all still in the factory moulding steel plates

Fitness centres are expensive, but many of my unemloyed friends can afford them. It's still only a price of few pints after all, so it's a matter of prioritising.

But in the end, gym or fitness centre is not needed at all, no matter how much they'd like you to believe they are the only thing standing between you and healthy lifestyle. Just more physical activity and better diet will do.

only in the class war anarchists wet dreams they are all still in the factory moulding steel plates

I work on a site,i also live in london where prices are expensive and the places where its cheap have nothing in them or i reapet are closed.

Yeh i can just imagine saying "oi im workingclass rite"

"what do you do for a living"

"ow i work in PR"

The only time you get someone WClass in an office is either when it needs painting or cleaning.

yeah i didn't mean that. But think about call centres, data entry, admin staff. I hope you don't mean that everyone who is not doing manual job is not working class?

Or relatively inactive jobs with manual element even in factories and stuff where the risk is that you only do repetetive motions and would also then benefit from having some other kind of physical activity.

I'm nowdays a white collar worker! Took me a while, but here i am now, and i piled on loads of fat when i moved from physical jobs like in printing, metal factory, construction to sitting on my arse all day.

and class war complain that people caricature them

Do they thats a first for me,anyone else heard that one!!!!

Andys right, but they do the plumbing and electricity when called in too;)

Well I'm not a working class fundamentalist - by that I mean the working class only work for 40 hours/week in a factory...

Anyway, I think the Art of War and other strategies of the fighting arts are very under utilised by our movement (unfortunately we get Western tai CHi in britain and other Buddhist shit, which is NOT AT ALL like the combat Tai Chi, also popular in China...) While I don't think we should all become Ninjas, certainly knowledge of their methods and practice is useful, and some of it could be used today...

Fair enough, but you will find it was ONE member (who specialises in shooting himself in the foot) who wanted to argue with Aufheben - no one else gave a toss.

Would take your advice re the TA, but I'm too old now - the fuckers would'nt have me!

The only time you get someone WClass in an office is either when it needs painting or cleaning.Of course i wasnt serious,they put the air conditioning in too,and are the security.....

Nah i just thought the CWar boards were getting a bit drull so i thought i would annoy some people,it did seem to work tho....i agree joining the likes of the TA and army would keep u super fit,free gyms,food boarding etc...i mean u get to shoot people to.

Hey Gangster Ninja is a pigment of your imagination,i have seen KILL BILL too and dont really believe people can Levitate and jump up buildings etc...unless your on LSD of course.

As for this Auforben buisness what happened?why was people arguing or shall i not go down that road?

Cival Servants are going on strike and from my point of view i think more work will be done when they are on strike.