There is a technique in comedy called “punching up”.
This refers to a person or a group making fun of a person or group who is currently or historically more advantaged than they are.
Women making fun of men. Black people making fun of white people. Poor people making fun of rich people.
This works because the “victim” in these jokes isn’t someone who is typically victimized. They usually have the power. So it is easy for us to empathize with the less powerful and to have a laugh at the more powerful person’s expense.
It’s actually quite easy for these jokes to work because the crowd is already on your side. No one is going to argue with someone making fun of Elon Musk or Hitler or, as often is the case in this very blog, Justin Bieber.
You may not agree with the joke, but you aren’t going to think someone is an insensitive asshole for making it.
Now, if Beebs was suddenly struggling with a debilitating disease (God forbid!, as my Jewish relatives would say) and I made fun of that, well, then I would be a prick. So maybe this whole thing is more complicated than it seems.
In very rare instances, the opposite can work as well. Where you can poke fun at a typically disenfranchised group and still get laughs. But this is not easy. It takes a ton of skill. The joke has to be so undeniably funny that you can’t suppress a laugh rather than react in horror.
Only the very best comedians can pull this off. Dave Chappelle is probably the best example of someone who has the chops to make fun of people and groups who are typically on the “hands off, do not tread” list - and even he experiences backlash for it from time to time.
But as hilarious as I am, this blog really isn’t about comedy.
Because while I don’t have the comedic or even the writing chops to get away with a Chris Rock-level monologue on just about anything, I am quite good at making a tenuous-at-best connection between my opening rants and fitness content.
I’m like Sully landing the plane on the Hudson. Except the Hudson is an email. And Sully is a meathead.
OK, before I get myself in more trouble by comparing myself to national heroes who have actually participated in a courageous act, let me get to my point.
Strength training is at the top of the food chain when it comes to delivering the fitness outcomes that most people are looking for.
Is it all encompassing and perfect? No.
Things like cardiovascular capability, for example, are better achieved by specific activities such as running or rowing.
But, these types of exceptions aside, when it comes to delivering the outcomes that, dare I say, most people are looking for when it comes to their fitness, strength training really delivers.
Things like increasing strength and developing muscle mass are, for sure, readily accepted by most as being key benefits of strength training.
Body composition markers like body fat percentage, bone density and even gut health are less widely accepted but are unquestionably benefitted from meaningful strength training.
And even things like mobility (sorry, yoga) and core strength (sorry, pilates) are actually best achieved through strength training.
Before you tie me up with your Lululemon spandex and strangle me with your megaformer springs, please keep in mind this isn’t just my opinion. Research shows that range of motion is better achieved through loaded stretching than static stretching alone. Resulting core strength and function is higher from heavily loaded squats and deadlifts than it is from flexion and extension movements in pilates.
Now, don’t get it twisted. There is nothing wrong with those modalities. Yoga is a beautiful practice that has its benefits. Participants love the shaky, quaky feelings that result from an intense pilates program. And these modalities, along with barre and cycling and other popular group fitness modalities do have benefits.
However, for people who have two to three hours per week to train and are looking to {insert any of the above outcomes mentioned} would more reliably achieve those goals through traditional resistance training.
And it is perhaps because this is true that I’m not really supposed to say anything about it. Because calling it out is the fitness version of punching down.
Perhaps rightfully so, people will be upset and interpret this as my harshly judging things that people enjoy and act as an entry point into fitness for many.
And that is a fair criticism.
But I will spin this back around and ask you, how are strength enthusiasts typically portrayed? As intelligent people who have discovered the most efficient and effective ways to experience the outcomes of fitness that most people desire? As Socrates-level thinkers who understand that there is a beautiful connection that exists between the mind, body and breath that should be trained and valued?
No.
Rather they are portrayed as unthinking (while perhaps loveable) meatheads. As vain idiots in tank tops who set off lunk alarms and aren’t welcome in a certain nation-wide chain of gyms.
But I take this as a good sign. Because if strength training weren’t a dominating force in the hierarchy of effective fitness, we wouldn’t so freely be allowed to make fun of it and its participants.
Because to do so would be punching down.
And there’s nothing funny about punching down.