How about “Shut up and live!”

Kevin (BLS) Rodriguez

Today, on the 7th anniversary of Pierini Fitness, we have a guest blogger. 

Kevin (BLS) Rodriguez is a 40-something middle-aged man wannabe who lives in Westfield, MA, a small city about 90 miles west of Boston.  Born in Florida, he's a Marine veteran (semper fit) of the Operation Desert Storm vintage.

Kevin works in the medical supplies manufacturing industry and in his free time enjoys playing the guitar, reading, writing, cooking and being the proud father to his 17-year old daughter who's on her high school's honor roll.  And like every other guest blogger at Pierini Fitness, he chases physical fitness and maintains his manly size and strength by lifting weights following various time-tested protocols that work for him.

Sit back for a great read and enjoy Kevin (BLS) Rodriguez's guest blogflection for today.

When the chief executive blogger of Pierini Fitness graciously invited me to be a guest blogger here, a few thoughts went through my head.

“What the heck is he thinking?” I thought and “What the heck am I going to write about?”

I still don’t know what he was thinking and honestly, I still don’t know if what I’m going to write will add much value in the grand scheme of things.

Anyhow, without further ado, here goes.

I’ve perused more than my share of fitness sites over the years and participated at more than a couple. I’ve found some great ones, some bad ones and some downright yawn-inducing ones.

Truthfully, the boring ones are the absolute worst of the lot. Nothing but post after post about set and rep recommendations or links to 10 page “studies” proving the effectiveness of whatever the flavor of the day might be. Or worst of all – the guys or gals (No discrimination here, ladies) that talk about absolutely nothing other than their training or their success on the Pine Cones and Dirt Diet©.

At least the bad ones are entertaining in some fashion.  Either the advice is so mind-numbingly stupid you can’t help but laugh or the threads veer off the rails into something truly amusing.

Yeah, I know…So what?  What do internet fitness sites have to do with training, life or anything else?

To put it bluntly, cut me some slack. I’m drawing a parallel here.

In my simple mind these sites are nothing more than a virtual mirror of your typical workout enthusiast.

Brilliant deduction, I know.  So what’s the point?

Well, I am getting to that, grasshopper.

The point is, in my travels around the internet I’ve met a good number of fitness buffs. The majority are good, helpful folks. But I’ve also met an alarming number that seem to have ZERO interest in anything but working out. Even if you see them in a non-fitness related topic, they somehow manage to shoehorn a comment about their workout or diet into said topic.

“I saw the new Avengers movie last night after my workout at Big Bad Bodies. It was okay. Thor looked good but imagine how much more ripped he’d be if he had followed the Pine Cones and Dirt Diet©? I’ve been on it a month and I feel great!”

Is this an exaggeration?  Maybe it is; but not by much.

Look, I get it. I’ve been there too. But truthfully, when you shake that mindset off you realize you were nothing but a horse with blinders on and you missed out on a lot of good stuff.

If it’s somehow your bread and butter, cool. I can understand the obsession to a degree. But let’s face it; most of us aren’t competing for gold medals, cash prizes or huge endorsements.

If, however, you’re making vegan birthday cake with carob frosting for your kids or friends because Dr. Dandelion says a slice of the good stuff is poison and brings instant death, you might need to reassess your priorities.

“Shut up and train?”

How about “Shut up and live!”

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum