What G.I. Joe Can Teach Us About Fitness

I finally got to watch G.I. Joe last night. I loved it. It was just the right mix of action, comedy, caricature and reality. The effects were stelar. And any tacky moments were just transparent enough to make them cool instead of distracting.

But my favorite parts of the movie were the stunts and fight scenes. There was some truly beautiful movement on display at times — and just the right mix of cinematic effects to highlight the grace and poise of the action.

In the movie, the characters have fancy suits to help them with some of their more impressive feats of strength and speed. But in reality, the stuntmen and actors had no such help.

And that’s where the lesson about exercise comes in. True fitness is about being ready for the demands of your life, sport, job and whatever else you do. You are FIT FOR something.

And you don’t get fit FOR anything with biceps curls and leg extensions. Those things can certainly sneak in to round out a judiciously planned program. But the platform of any program has to be based on full body movement.

Notice I said movement, not exercises. That’s because the best fitness approach focuses on MOVEMENT, not on muscle. If you move, and move well, the muscle will follow.

Basing your program around movement will actually give you a more natural looking physique as well. It builds what I’ve coined before as the Functional Physique — a body that takes shape according to the demands of real-life action.

And besides, playing with fun and challenging movements is just a lot more interesting than doing biceps curls! Do you remember what it was like to spend hours practicing a new skill or perfecting a new technique?

Those days don’t have to be relegated to high school hockey, football or cheerleading practice. Just because you’re a “grown-up” now doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with movement.

Take a look at the video clip at the top right of this page. You’ll see Scott Sonnon playing with movements from Prasara Body-Flow. Granted, you might not be able to run out today and start doing what he’s doing in the clip. But there are tons of lead up exercises that’ll get you there long before you’d expect.

Would you like to move like that? Let me know in the comments. If we get enough interest, I’ll film one of my favorite Body-Flow exercises. I like it so much because it looks seriously cool, but I can get even the most “out of shape” clients doing it very quickly. This impresses the heck out of them and makes me look good… 

In the meantime, you can get started with some more gentle movements from Prasara Yoga. Try out this follow along yoga routine. Enjoy the movement. The physique will follow.

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