Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
Mind Muscle with Simon de Veer
The Ten Gym Commandments
Ever found yourself shaking your head at the oddities unfolding in your local gym? As I, Simon Devere, navigate through the maze of discarded towels and smartphone zombies, I've come to realize it's not just about the weights we're lifting; it's the weight of our social interactions that's truly getting heavier. In the latest episode of the Mind Muscle Podcast, we strip down the layers of gym culture, examining the decline of gym etiquette and reflecting on whether it's a symptom of larger societal issues, or simply a matter of perspective as we grow older.
Gym-goers and social observers alike, join me as we dissect the age-old narrative of moral decline. We'll scrutinize historical data against the backdrop of modern society's behavior, questioning whether the perceived decay in human interaction is reality or myth. As we wade through statistics and studies, we discover a hopeful outlook that might just challenge your views on the state of our world. And before you think we're all talk and no action, we roll up our sleeves and lay out the blueprint for a utopian gym experience, complete with a cheeky nod to the 'gym commandments' that could revolutionize how we sweat and socialize.
Wrapping up with a call to arms, or rather, a call to manners, this session isn't just about what's going wrong—it's about what we can do right. From the respectful 'working in' culture to the unwritten laws of clean attire and equipment etiquette, we leave no dumbbell unturned in our quest for a more considerate workout space. So, whether you're a fitness newbie or a seasoned gym rat, tune in for a conversation that's as much about perfecting your squat form as it is about elevating our collective conscience. Let's not just build muscle—we're here to strengthen the fabric of gym society, one rep at a time.
Producer: Thor Benander
Editor: Luke Morey
Intro Theme: Ajax Benander
Intro: Timothy Durant
For more, visit Simon at The Antagonist
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast. He is your host, simon Devere, and welcome back to Mind Muscle, the place we study the history, science and philosophy Behind everything in health and fitness. Today, I am, of course, simon Devere. There is nothing new except all that has been forgotten. So if you guys have seen the news lately, good chance. You have seen that in California and, well, frankly, the entire Western seaboard more accurately, we've got an atmospheric river overhead, a lot of rain.
Speaker 1:All that to say, I have been doing most of my workouts in the gym lately, and I have been peppering in some stories here and there, but today I actually want to take a deep dive into the present moment in gym culture, and yeah, I actually am. I am going to make a decadence argument. I believe that gym etiquette is on the decline, based on some things that I have seen. That being said, though, there's a long history of these type of decadence arguments, so that's the historical end where we're going to take a deep dive into these historical decadence arguments, and then I'm going to make my argument about the decline of gym etiquette, hopefully minus many of the common errors of these arguments in general, because I do think that I am actually witnessing something in the gym that is not just Simon getting old and complaining about things more, but that actually is an open possibility that I will consider in all of this. But yeah, just to kind of open up the, just to paint the picture of what it is that I am seeing when I go into the gym. But just in the last week there was a let's see, I was just doing some dumbbell benching and then there was a guy who had a motorcycle helmet and a barbell that kept rolling into my feet when he was doing his pushups he would do like a regular pushup. He took it at an angle off the bench and then was doing these little slide things that he probably saw on Instagram. But just absolutely no concept of personal space, absolutely no concept of a walkway, fire escape, anything like that. Yeah, like I said, motorcycle helmet, barbell, everything just left all over the place. No concept that there was any other people, not just me. Equally disrespectful to every other person not named me oh God, this one was killing me.
Speaker 1:I had a day in the gym and fortunately I wasn't working legs, or really would have driven me crazy but I watched a guy go lay down on a leg press machine and then do some bench pressing with dumbbells. These are the types of things that you really don't think you have to tell people that dumbbell bench pressing in a leg press machine is not only stupid, but you're monopolizing equipment somebody else might use to train legs while you're training your chest Again, stuff that you would literally think you would not need to tell somebody to not do ever. Oh, another one. I saw this guy. He went over to a lap pull down machine. He put more weight on than his body weight and then hung from it and did hanging knee raises. There are many places in the gym that you can do hanging knee raises. The only place you can do lap pull downs would be on the lap pull down cables. Anyway, just that use of a lap pull down for not its purpose training abs stupid. The guy probably thought he looked cool because he's using a pulley system to set up his little hanging knee raise. But yeah, it not only looks stupid, you're monopolizing equipment that other people who might be training back which is what that machine is for might need it. There's only two in this particular gym, so it is a particularly douchey and stupid move to do. Anyway, if you guys have been online, I'm sure you have seen videos like this, just collections of people doing ridiculous things in the gym.
Speaker 1:We will return to the gym, but I do think bear with me I think that what we are witnessing in the gym just might be the canary in the coal mine, if you will, and that we actually are seeing perhaps an erosion of pro-social behaviors, if I can put it that way. But, as I just briefly mentioned up top, there's a long history of really bad moral decline arguments. So when we try to come up with an explanation for why this is happening in the gym, I do think that we need to do a little bit better than what I would consider replacement theory that the good people died off and they've been replaced by bad people, and so, anyway, there's just a long, long history of that, and so I don't want my voice to become one of those. And first off, just to be really honest, I am approaching 40. Many of my personal friends, those I grew up with, are now getting old enough to start saying kids these days, and so I am noticing, particularly of the people I grew up with. This might simply be coinciding with their memory degrading, because I knew them when they were kids, and the idea that kids today are worse than my friends were is really laughable. And one little test is think about if you were just sitting around with your buddies and you guys are now telling the fun stories about how awesome your childhood was. Think about what those stories sound like versus the stories you tell when you're trying to make it seem like your generation was better than the generation of kids today. You'll notice there's a huge gap in the stories people like to share. In those moments I've been around this when people are sharing their high school stories and they're basically sharing all these stories of nearly blacking out and almost dying all over the place. And then, if you just switch the topic a little later to kids these days, it's funny because those people, literally 10 minutes later, will start making up these stories about how awesome they were when they were kids, right after telling you about how much fun they had. So anyway, I am at that age where my friends are starting to say this.
Speaker 1:One little tip that I do like to give people who make kids these days arguments is I do recommend you go read Plato. Just from the standpoint of you might solidify your argument. There's nothing new in what you're saying, but if you go read something like Plato, you might see a few points that you missed we're making back then. And actually, to be fair, I don't know if this is Plato, if this was Socrates, but Plato says that Socrates said the children now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority, they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their household. They no longer rise when the elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs and tyrannize their teachers. So again, keep in mind who these children? So let's say that this really is Socrates. So literally, one of those children would be Aristotle, somebody who future generations would go on to worship and raise up to this high level.
Speaker 1:So again, it's actually humbling just to see that when Aristotle was a child, people spoke about his generation the exact same way they speak to about millennials today. It has literally not changed at all and actually even in Plato's time you could have made the same argument I'm saying and just been like man people been saying this forever, because Plato was nowhere near the first one to get there, we can go back to Hesiod. I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint Like this literally comes from the BCE era and that sounds exactly like what old people say to young people today. And that was actually preceded by about 6,000 years of this inscription in an Egyptian tomb. We live in a decaying age. Young people no longer respect their parents. They are rude and impatient. They frequently inhabit taverns and have no self-control. So when I say that people have been saying this kids these days for as long as there is recorded history, that's not an exaggeration. That's quite literally one of the first things people etched into stones, and there really haven't been any additions to the argument since.
Speaker 1:I actually came to grips with my age and mortality I think at a younger age than many, but it's again. It is just funny, not only being a parent going through the stuff that I'm going through with that, but I'm also at that age now where I'm getting to watch my beloved celebrities just get old right in front of my eyes. I watched a big fan of both, but Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais basically ridiculously influential stand-ups. Whether someone likes them or not, these are obviously the stand-up gods of my generation. They've got some stand-up specials on Netflix right now and I'm not recommending or detracting from it, but just for me it's hard, because I've literally watched my celebrities get old and become the people that complain about things, and part of me wants to go with them and complain about things. But the other part realizes that wait a minute, you're just getting old, aren't you? That's why you gripe about things. Or your favorite celebrities just have come into griping about everything. But yeah, that does to me kind of remind me of the fact that, yes, me and my generation are not kids anymore. There was a time when this was really transgressive, pushing the bounds, and then, when you turn on your old favorites, you kind of realize that, oh, we've become the old people now.
Speaker 1:But that being said, this again, I have a different reaction to aging than many. I think the common reaction is to decry some folly in the world and again claim moral decline. But I actually came across a scientific study. It was in Nature, one of the top publications these days, and it was titled the Illusion of Moral Decline and this study actually brought together. It looked at the history of polls on just that topic of. Basically, how have people related to this idea in different generations?
Speaker 1:So the first thing that does come out of this study is the analysis of polls to the question of is morality in decline, the answer is actually incredibly stable over time. As many people say that today, right now, as they did 50 years ago, we have 70 years of really good data on that question. Specifically, and in the 70 years that we have data on this, the deviation from the highest to the lowest is roughly 4%. So the lowest answer we have ever gotten to that question is 74% of people believing that we are in decline, and the highest answer we have ever gotten is 78%. So again, over the last 70 years it really has been incredibly stable. It doesn't matter what's going on in the world. It doesn't matter who's alive at any given point. The amount of people saying that the world is in moral decline stays roughly fixed in every generation.
Speaker 1:And one obvious thing you might be playing semantics just for the sake of this discussion. You really can just substitute morality for kindness, honesty, respect. These are a lot of what people are actually meaning when they're lamenting the state of the modern world, if you will, and obviously some things are moral to different sets, but this is essentially what we are talking about. When you start to break into the data even more, there are some really interesting observations that start to pop and then also even starts to at least cast some doubt on some really plausible explanations. So the first one I wanted to share with you guys was that, with you, if you break this question up a little differently and you ask people instead to rate the morality of the world 20 years before they were born, when they were born and then 20 years later, you again find something very, very stable. And it doesn't matter when you were born, it doesn't matter any of those factors. It seems that most people believe 20 years before they were born the morality or ethics were much higher and that when you again look at all these opinion polls, most people kind of hinge that point of when did morality start to decline Suspiciously. It tends to pop up around the year they were born and then gets worse throughout their own lifetime. So again, this observation is very stable.
Speaker 1:Most people believe morality started declining shortly after their lives began. This is very, very similar to. We don't have as good a history on it, but if you ever heard people say rock is dead, this is one that you can kind of predict based on how many years out of college they are. By the time you say rock is dead, you are X number of years out of college, and that's why you're saying rock and roll is dead. Everybody says that when they get X number of years out of college. Believe it or not, music does keep going on. You just stopped listening to it or caring about it and projecting that into an entire music industry and other people, I think is why people believe rock dies few years after they leave college.
Speaker 1:But one thing I actually wanted to point out to is that this already I kind of offered this as a plausible solution, but let's go ahead and knock it down right out of the gate. Just saying that there is moral decline going on is not something that only old people say. Young people say it just as well. What changes is the rate? So the older you are, the more likely you are to say that the rate is greater than a younger person, but those younger people will catch up to you in age, as the data indicates. Once they get older they also will believe the rate of decline has been much, much larger. So I think some people may see as a plausible solution here, but, believe it or not, this does not correlate politically either. Might make intuitive sense to suggest that conservatives, valuing tradition and other things like that, may be more receptive to this. This again is actually a little bit like age, where, yes, conservatives in general state the decline has been larger. But again, this is like those differences in age. The liberals say that morality is in decline in just as many numbers as conservatives do, so this doesn't whether you are going to say that morality is in decline doesn't look to be an age thing, doesn't look to be a political thing. It again just seems to be something that people do increasingly with time, but that doesn't mean that they don't do it when they're young too.
Speaker 1:Most of us believe that since we arrived here, the world has been getting worse, and the older we get, our responses simply get worse with age. That's kind of all that's going on. But all right, got to be honest, though. Let's actually play devil's advocate for one second here, because, again, as we pointed out, so many people are saying this. They have been saying this, they've been saying it forever. Doesn't matter your age, doesn't matter your politics, people say this. So what if they're right, simon? What if they're right? So, yeah, we can at least look at a few different things to assess how likely they are.
Speaker 1:One really inconvenient truth for all of these people, though, is that if you look at pretty much any awful thing you can think of, like war, murder, slavery, child abuse people objectively have been doing less of that now specifically, and kind of trending on that arc very consistently now for quite a while. So if morality has been in free fall, as everybody has been advocating, since roughly 6000 BC until the present era, it's odd right that there's less slavery, less murder, less war, when we have just been so decadent and falling from grace for thousands of years, if we're to believe the people who and again way more people saying that than not. But so, anyway, that's odd way less violent, way less slavery, way less child abuse. So again, I hear you we've been decaying for 6000 plus years. That's interesting, though, and you might have to deal with that if that's a big party argument that we're just getting worse as human beings. But, to be fair, I also I don't think that's what people mean when they're saying morality has declined. I don't think they mean that, like you know, murder is up or people do less terrorism. I think what they're actually getting at is something like people just don't treat each other with respect anymore, people don't have time for each other, etc. And so, again, if we kind of hone in on that though again we don't really have good data to support that that's actually happening For decades, survey companies have asked people a slightly different variation of the question, but it's were you treated with respect all day yesterday?
Speaker 1:Another variation could be are people generally helpful or are they looking out for themselves? Or, in the past month, have you helped a stranger who needed help? And so, again, we actually have like roughly 107 surveys that released, examined by this, this nature study, administered to over 4.4 million people between the years 1965 and 2020. And there is no meaningful change in people's responses to those questions. So, again, if you hone in on how are people treating you, what we find is actually there. There is not an observed decline in human behavior. This should actually make us feel good.
Speaker 1:But next time somebody does one of these, you know, woe is modernity, modern decadence lines. Show them some stats about how not awful people are today and watch how mad they get at you. It's weird. But if you tell them the world is not as bad as they want it to be, they're going to be really upset with you, brace yourself. So anyway, I got to be honest. It's really really unlikely that the people saying this for over 6,000 years are right. It's highly unlikely that people are changing. It's more likely that people are actually roughly the same as they've always been.
Speaker 1:I do want to offer some plausible answers to some of the stuff that we have observed in this. I think that's the best way to get that done and I got to be honest. This I would give the highest level of credence. Why do so many people believe that morality is in decline in all times and all places? I think it's quite simply that people are nicer to you when you're a kid and that they just become less nice as you age until you get old, when they really have no time for you. So part of this, I think, actually is just on that level, an apparent truth that this is how the world treats you.
Speaker 1:I also think that there's another component that plays into this as well is that many people have heard stories about how great the past was. If they watch any television shows, obviously that's going to present a version of the past that looks a little bit nicer and cleaner than it was in reality. So again, maybe particularly like, if you're my age, what do you actually know of the 1950s besides what people have told you or what you saw on? Leave it to Beaver, like what do you know? Not, what do you believe? What have you been told? Those are entirely different. And again, if you're my age, your ability to know what it was like in the 1950s. You're relying on people telling you the truth, and they probably can't, even if they wanted to. And then you have all these television shows and other things to watch that you should know are not representative of the reality. So, anyway, I think that one people just have a false perception of the past based on movies, television, books, stories. They are subsumed to the narrative fallacy.
Speaker 1:And last one that I will offer up as a plausible explanation is that we also know this to be just a truth of our minds, but that I do believe that a big reason why people today denigrate the youth of any moment, or people will denigrate the youth of any particular moment because they have positively biased memories of their own younger selves. They worked harder, they did less drugs, they partied less, you name it, but no, it's like you get to a certain age and you realize like actually nobody was walking uphill to school both ways in the snow. You triangulate and you start to realize like everything else in life there was a lot of exaggerations, mismemories, things like that. So I do think as all of us age, we kind of start to alter our memories a little bit and our past selves get a little better than they actually were. So this can lead people to thinking that today's youth are so much worse than they were when I was young. But yeah, all that to be said.
Speaker 1:So here I am making a decadence argument that Jim Etiquette is on decline, but then I spend all that time shredding the basis of most decadent arguments. Why? Well, so obviously I think it's unlikely that people are changing and I wanted to make that really, really clear that I don't believe that suddenly people are bad and there's all these good people that have died off. That to me, is what a lot of the decadence narratives hinge on, and I find that really hard to believe. I don't find any stats to support that and I want to make sure that my argument sits in a different realm, so I don't become one of these moralizing, complaining dudes with a podcast because I am almost 40. So that would be on brand for me to just start whining and crying about things on my podcast. Arguably maybe I am, who knows? But whatever, I told you I'm almost 40.
Speaker 1:But yeah, no, my opinion is that, like the intellect and the moral qualities of modern man are not that superior to ancient man, I don't think our IQs or our moral capacities are that much different than people in the past. Take Indians or medieval men. I really do think their internal lives were just as complex. I think their internal monologues were just as interesting as modern people. Quite frankly, I don't really think the thoughts and internal motivations of human beings have actually changed all that much. However, there are a few things that I do believe have changed, and now this is where I kind of want to focus in on why it perhaps seems like we are seeing a diminishing of some of our pro-social tendencies, if you will. It's not just in the gym, but we'll focus it there because that's the only realm I have any expertise in. Quite frankly, all right, first section, though I almost didn't include this because it's actually frankly it's going to require me to say some uncomfortable assumptions that we normally don't say out loud, but I also don't know if I could convincingly make the argument I want to make while skipping it.
Speaker 1:So, first step economics. The economics orientation has shifted a little bit, and so one of the aspects that I have to be brutally honest and again I don't know if this is good for my business to say out loud, but it is what it is and I can't unsee it. So here we go, and many people today, particularly the type that are going to come into a gym there's a great chance they only have transactional relationships in their life. There's one I'm not decrying living in a market society, but there are certain changes that living in a market society does to your consciousness. So the market orientation it actually has some positive aspects which are worth looking at. First, this tends to make people practical, economical, careful, reserved, cautious, tenacious, orderly, methodical. But there's flipside to that sword and people also tend to be unimaginative, stingy, suspicious, cold, anxious, stubborn, alienated, shall we say. But this is one aspect that, just simply, our economic relations, most of our well, again, let's be honest, most of the people, when you live in a market society that are in your industry, they are competition. Your job is to beat them. The other people who are not in your industry, they are potential markets. We don't really orient and relate to one another as human beings. We orient and relate to one another first and foremost as the transactional nature of the relationship, and this is dirty to say out loud and most people won't even admit to it, but that is the way. It is.
Speaker 1:One kind of ugly moment that I had in real life but during the pandemic. I'm waiting in line for a pizza and the woman in front of me also sees the waitress being treated horribly by a customer and then, rather than saying anything to the customer, she turned around, made sure to whisper so no one else in the restaurant would hear about me, and she told me that's why I went to college and obviously to take a look at me. She probably feels that safe because I look like a guy who went to college and she wasn't wrong in reading me as such. The part she missed, though, in just looking at my face and then saying her weird little line was that perhaps I believe the waitress not based on her choice to go to college, and that deserves basic human respect. And the fact that a paying customer was treating her like shit didn't make that customer right or within his rights. And yeah, I didn't even call this woman out. She was older than I was, she was using a walker, and again, it's just, I only paint that because this is a person whose entire life is dependent on getting the sympathy and care from other human beings. But then, when she has one little private moment with the only other person she spoke to in there, she kind of revealed how she really feels about the people who work for her. And again, I know this one's uncomfortable and people don't want to admit it, but people talk really differently when the help is in the room and when they're not, and you know it's true, people whisper certain things. When people are around, there really is a very obvious state that many people, particularly if somebody is in labor, believe that that person works for them. You know one more point to just hammer this home if I haven't convinced you yet.
Speaker 1:But the shopping cart test is a big one for me. I didn't invent this, but it's sometimes called the self governance test. It's obviously not illegal to take your shopping cart back. It just presents a test of are you capable of doing what is right when there is no threat of punishment? You can just go look at any grocery store parking lot and see roughly what percent of us are capable of self-government.
Speaker 1:And again, he might even be listening, but told this to one of my buddies and then, right after you get done with that, he went right into rationalizing why he doesn't take his cart back. Part of it was he used to work that job. He feels that he's actually giving people a job. But again, I lived with this guy. He was a slob when I lived with him. This is somebody just rationalizing, being messy, being sloppy, not giving a shit. And because that person returning the carts gets a wage, it allows him to view that person as beneath him and he owes nothing to them. Also, this isn't the big problem in the world, don't get me wrong, but I just view this as a litmus test. Believe me, if you don't take your shopping carts back, I know how much I just pissed you off and, yeah, spare me your anger. Just stop lecturing people about social theories and we'll be all good, because you know good and well your behavior doesn't scale well. It is people like you that we are frankly trying to control for with social policy. But yeah, so I have to be honest, and this is just the blessing and curse of living in the most powerful, wealthiest country.
Speaker 1:I do feel that many of us feel no bond to our fellow citizens beyond the transaction. That is enforceable. There's nothing else enforceable between us. You don't have to be nice, you don't have to be a decent person, because it doesn't actually impact you in any way on the market. And again, people are not bad for doing this. They are simply responding to incentives. You make no money taking your shopping cart back. I get that. You could save 10 seconds and those 10 seconds are important to you, so you're going to take your 10 seconds. I get it. You're not a bad person. You're just responding to incentives.
Speaker 1:But this is the issue is that when a critical mass of people start behaving and adopting that behavior, it does become problematic. That is when your commons or your shared spaces start to really look like crap, because nobody owes anybody anything other than whatever rate they pay to occupy the space. And yeah, it is what it is. I'm sorry, I know that's going to be probably the least popular part of my argument, but many people today feel they are entitled to something if they can pay for it and there is nothing left to talk about. I would argue that maybe there are other things beyond just being able to pay for something and that maybe we don't have a good way to monetize particularly pro-social behaviors. I don't believe that makes them inconsequential. I just believe that, because we are all subjects of a market society which isn't a bad thing I just think we have a tendency and propensity to start collecting transactional relationships and I think that impacts how we behave in the public space in a very negative way and a component that I do think is playing a big part in why Jim etiquette particularly looks so bad right now, but maybe it's the entire commons technology.
Speaker 1:A couple angles that I want to come at this. So, first off, I would say just the ideas being disseminated on these platforms. A lot of the poor years, particularly of gym space, is coming from people copying stupid workout ideas that they're seeing online for one and so, anyway, with the people hanging from lap bars and just doing the general dumb things people do that again is probably copying stuff that was seen on social media, so that's giving people terrible ideas when they step into the gym. One, two, rampant use of it does alter behavior Not against us using our cell phones, but we know that these things can be great tools or you can become the tool, and more often than not we are seeing more and more people become the tools of their tools than they are actually using it for anything of their own endeavor.
Speaker 1:So obviously, some of the basic stuff here is that I've literally seen people watching shows and with no earbuds, things like that, genuinely not knowing that that might be a problem for other people. Just absolutely no concept of that. There, obviously, everybody has earbuds. Headphones existed forever, though, so let's not, like you know, get over the top with that one. But I do think it's a little different these days, just because, if someone has earbuds on and you happen to ask them a basic question, it does seem to be a bigger deal than it was because, again, headphones have existed my whole life. It's not like in the 80s there wasn't someone with a walkman that you might have to ask to work in, but they just didn't have like, like their face didn't get as fucked up when they pulled their headphone out to talk to you for two seconds. I don't know, maybe it's the modern earbuds like, when you pull them out, like you're at your face just can torts and just gets really ugly.
Speaker 1:I don't know, but I do think that just the social context of the gym has, as frankly, just changed a lot. People are looking at their phones, people are listening, they are in their own world, which again, on some level, I'm used to. We've had our own music for a long time. But again, I just am really not receptive to this idea that, like all the good people left to the gym like sometime around 95 and then they've been replaced with all these bad people. I feel like the people are roughly the same. They just have one, a lot of transactional relationships in their life, so they don't really respect the other people in the gym. And two, they have rampant use of their technology and so talking, engaging with other people is a big negative and they would really prefer to stay in their little bubble, this self-curated one, and just not deal with anybody else in the environment, and yeah, so I don't know. Like I said, I don't think that people are suddenly worse and that our morals are getting worse. I do think that the social context that we live in, namely the economic environment and the technology, makes us all jerks to each other in the gym these days and arguably in other places. But I'm going to save that for your imaginations and, frankly, more qualified people.
Speaker 1:No-transcript. Yeah, I again so much of this. I just can't buy into the idea of like replacement theory, if you will. Generations I really do think, just as a subject almost as rigorous and scientific as astrology not quite, but it's. It really doesn't look that great. Young people push norms, old people complain. I think life stages are a lot better indicator than generations. And yeah, like or you know case in point like it's not like trading stocks didn't suddenly become cool in you know, the 2020s.
Speaker 1:I got old. Like clubbing isn't uncool now I just got old and I don't go to clubs anymore and so, like that knee jerk thing would be just to erect that all of the things that I am in at any given life stage are cool and everybody else isn't with it, but it's far more likely that I'm just getting older and the things I think are cool are not what people want to market to anymore. And actually that's one other thing, real quick, just because the world isn't marketing specifically to your demographic anymore, that isn't oppression. You're not oppressed Like if you walk into the grocery store and you don't hear your favorite jam anymore. That just lets you know that your demographic is no longer the one that people are targeting to spend money, and it's probably because, like me, you're getting closer to death and people don't care as much about your money anymore. If you were younger they would, because that's it. They just they want your money and attention.
Speaker 1:But yeah, anyway, I really don't believe that people are getting any worse. I feel that we are basically the same as we have always been. Some technology has maybe changed our economic relations to one another. You know, maybe kind of indicate how we act and behave towards one another, but I don't really believe that it is that we are suddenly getting worse, and I also don't believe that this isn't something that we can't change. So anyway, with that, now we finally get to the positive portion. I've been just tearing a whole bunch of stuff down. Let's build something up.
Speaker 1:And anyway, elrond Hubbard did say if you want to make a lot of money, you should start a religion. So it is in that context that that I have got for you now my 10 Jim commandments. Fuck, I totally forgot to put in. The tithing, though, this is going to be an awful religion, because there's actually no way for me to make money. I don't know, I should almost cut the episode now and come back when I have monetized my religion, but whatever, we'll just run through the moral part. I'm really bad at starting religion, quite frankly, because I'm never going to get paid for this.
Speaker 1:Anyway, though, full disclosure, guys, I didn't write this. I took my notes of things that I thought we needed in the gym, and then I fed this to chat. Gpt ask it to write me 10 commandments. So anyway, I just put that out there, just in case you don't like the commandments. I didn't write them, I was just playing with GPT guys. So, anyway, commandment number one, and then one more point of order. I based these on Exodus slightly, so you know, if you know your 10 commandments from Exodus, the order does matter, at least in how I selected them. So, anyway, no more.
Speaker 1:Commandment number one thou shall not forsake the sacred cleanliness. Ye shall wipe thine own sweat from machines and benches, for cleanliness is the keeper of health and harmony within the gym, so obviously this would be normally where no other gods before me would go. This one's a big one. This is an important one. I hate that it's 2024. I was about to say 2023. It's 2024. And I'm still having to explain that you need to wipe down your equipment. This is not negotiable. Like, if you don't do this, you're disgusting. I don't know why you think anybody else wants to come in behind and either clean or work out on your mess. This doesn't need explaining, but it's number one because it does, sadly. So, yes, please wipe down your sweat from the equipment you use. That's not anybody else's job. You're disgusting. Anyway, that doesn't take long.
Speaker 1:Number two honor thy fellow disciples' space and time. Just as thou seeketh thy own path to strength. Allow others the same courtesy. Interrupt not their rituals with thine presence or demands, but seek to share the sacred space in brotherhood and sisterhood. So put this one where we normally talk about idolatry, because I do want to tie it to this. Don't make yourself an idol.
Speaker 1:I saw this one come up in, actually an influencer that I like his content evidence-based, but he was talking about filming in the gym. As somebody who lives in Los Angeles, trains a lot of people in entertainment and stuff, I get it that today everyone wants to be an influencer and go on camera, but I do want to remind you guys, there actually is an existing legal framework about how you use other people's images, how you shoot in public, stuff like that. So, again, this almost shouldn't even be in the commandments, because this is like the existing laws, but you do not have the right to shoot strangers. Fyi, this will take care of itself eventually, because you're going to monetize a video that somebody didn't want to be in and sue you. So that'll be funny when it does happen to an influencer.
Speaker 1:But I saw people debating this whether or not you should shoot in the gym, and it does seem that particularly younger people feel like this one is okay. Again, I didn't know this stuff till I moved to Los Angeles either. So if you feel that way, I would familiarize yourself with uses of image stuff like that. There's an entire legal world there that you probably don't know about. If you think it's okay, and so just because everybody has cameras now and we're going into gyms. We just feel like you know, no, it's not. You should actually respect people's space.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, I kind of do wish you guys would stop filming in gyms. I know for some of you that's your livelihood. Well then, do it the right way. I have my own gyms. Sorry to be a dick, but invest a little bit of time in it. It's not your right to go and shoot people who haven't signed waivers or, like you, didn't get a permit to shoot there. That's, that is how it's done, my friends. But anyway, many great gyms in Los Angeles have been banning photography for years because obviously paparazzi would chase celebrities down. So most of the best gyms in my city don't allow photography. This is a big change that really bothers me when I get into gyms that aren't policing that or it's just weird I don't know Some people and that could just be me being old Again. Existing legal framework. Most good gyms do not allow photography. Sorry, if you like shooting your workouts, I think it's pretty obnoxious.
Speaker 1:So it's, you know, similar one that I'm going to tie into this, just respecting time and space, excessive circuit training. So circuits are great, really valid, but if it's a crowded gym time and you're locking down like five pieces of gym equipment. Come up with a different plan. And let's be honest too if you're circuit training, you could have probably done that same damn circuit with dumbbells. You don't need a whole bunch of machines. This is again, trust me. I'm probably better at circuits and complexes than you are if you're using five different pieces of machinery, because a better way would be to grab one that you can use for multiple. So for a lot of reasons, you don't need to dominate a whole bunch of space with excessive circuits.
Speaker 1:You look like a douchebag. You look like you don't know what you're doing. You might think you're laying down something that everybody's impressed with. Nope, everybody around is just waiting until you are gone. They just want to know when you'll leave. That's it.
Speaker 1:I would almost tie this one to the excessive circuiting, but winging it have no idea, just kind of coming in blowing around with the wind. On the one hand, you want to leave space for people to explore, play and learn. So that's not what I mean. There's a lot of other people that are actually are watching you and trying to figure out where you're going to be so they can figure out their workout. So to me, this would be like if you got into your car, you got on the freeway and you just started swerving across all the lanes. You do have as much right to be there, like your car in traffic as everybody else, but you do not actually have the right to swerve wildly around the road.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, just before you go in, just have a basic plan. Obviously it's going to change and it can move and be flexible, but you should know before you start training, roughly how many sets are you going to do? How long are you going to be resting? What exercises are you trying to achieve in this session? If you don't know those things when you start working out, there's a great chance that you're just going to be in a lot of people's way. But again, I do want to slightly codify this one, just from the standpoint of I still want the gym to be an open place that people can explore and try out new stuff. So, again, don't feel like you're stuck to your list. But again, just be conscious of the fact that, like trust me, other people are just trying to figure out where you are so they can stay the hell out of your way and get done what they are trying to do. That's what most people are actually thinking about in the gym if they're looking at you, believe it or not.
Speaker 1:Number three thou shalt return equipment to its rightful place. So, for every weight lifted, every kettlebell swung, return them to their sanctuary. Let not laziness lead others into temptation and frustration. So, truthfully, this one again reminds me of the shopping carts. It's objectively right to put your dumbbells back. It takes a few seconds.
Speaker 1:If you don't, you are not signaling to the other gym goers how important and busy you are during the rest of your day. You are signaling to them that you are either weak you got so fatigued in that set you can't take them back, you are lazy and asshole, a douchebag. Fill in the blank. It's not signaling what you think it is. If it's like, yeah, I'm a hard charger, nope, people just think you're a loser. This one, for me, goes back to like my first days in the gym. But I really do maintain if you can't rewack them, you're frankly too weak for that pair of dumbbells. You should go find a lighter pair that you could, you know, still rewack after your little set there. So, yeah, if you get so gassed that they just get left there on the floor, you haven't earned those dumbbells yet. And then to my friend sorry, but I'm gonna put you on blast again.
Speaker 1:It's not the staff's job to pick up after you. Particularly like, let's say, you're just in one of those gyms where you're paying like a monthly fee even if it's equinox, I'm sorry, you don't pay enough to have a personal assistant come clean up after you. There are rates for that. And again, if all you're paying is your monthly gym membership, you are nowhere near paying for that service. My friend, that is not somebody's job to come pick up after you. If every member was like that, the gym would be out of business in a few weeks. So again, if you're gonna actually do that, if you just wanna roll around and like leave a mess behind you, you're gonna need enough skin in the game. Ie pay for it and chances are you are not paying that much. And, yeah, bad use of your money anyway.
Speaker 1:The other thing I wanna say on this is that this really is kinda like the controversial law enforcement theory, but the broken windows theory, at least if you believe. The idea of it is that when you see a couple broken windows, there's just more likelihood to get more of them. It only takes one or two people not re-racking for the entire gym to turn into shit, quite frankly. So this one is really important. Just because it really only takes one or two bad apples. You can have 100 members doing it well. One or two people can really screw it up for everybody else. So, yeah, I do think yeah, stealing Bratton's word people who don't re-rack their dumbbells. They're like potholes or broken windows. They need to be fixed immediately so that other people don't see that and think that it's okay in the gym.
Speaker 1:Number four remember the day of rest. So obviously we are honoring our Sabbath here with number four. But as moving is, we have to keep in mind that a big, big part of the whole process of adaptation is recovery. We don't have that. We are not making gains. So in here at number four, I just wanted to remind everybody that we do need our rest day. It's actually going to increase our gains and progress over the long run. So, yeah, don't skip out on rest days. Number five keep the holy silence of concentration. Let the temple be a place of focus and determination. Reserve the conversations for the sanctity outside the walls, all right.
Speaker 1:So when I wrote this one, what I was really thinking about was back in my group fitness days. A lot of my classes did become social hours and I just want to remind people that, like, first off, we love that, we love when friends come to classes, but you can totally socialize before or after class. That tends to be a better time for you to get your talking points out. Anyway, it's incredibly disrespectful to talk over an instructor. Obviously, this has happened to me, but I've watched this happen to countless other people. When you're talking, this is going to sound so basic we're back in elementary school but you're not hearing everything, you're not doing the class. This used to drive me crazy. There was actually a group of competitive housewives who had come to this class that I taught and they were always really paying attention to what other people were doing and running and lifting and stuff like that and the workout was very competitive but they literally didn't hear what I said so many times. It would drive me crazy when they would get done with the workout and say, oh God, that was easy today and I was never blunt, but it was like, wow, yeah, had you actually done the workout, maybe it would have been challenging, I don't know. But yeah, these three women talked over every single class they ever came to, and I don't know why they actually liked the class, but they never fucking did it one time, and yeah, it just drove me crazy. And now, all right if you were in a class with them and they were talking too much. This is why I hit you with burpees and mountain climbers for like five minutes. So, anyway, you may notice that if you go to any classes and all of a sudden, your instructor is just beating the crap out of everybody for no reason Look around, there's probably a couple chatty cathes in there, and this is kind of the best way to just get control of the room. This is something that I actually get to talk with my daughter's kindergarten teacher about, because we both have experience of having to kind of run people's energy out so that you can actually instruct them. A lot of similarities between kindergarten and group fitness, but same thing, though, is that headphones are a must. I don't want to hear the television show you're interested in Another one that I just feel like so many people lose presence being on their phone.
Speaker 1:I get it adjusting your music, recording your workout, dealing with some basic things. That's fine, but a lot of times people get like stuck in a spin cycle. In between sets you get locked into the phone and that one minute rest period becomes a seven minute rest period or whatever it is. So, yeah, I don't want to be like the Luddite and throw the phones away, but keep it to a minimum. Get your audio, get your workout log. I don't know what else you need from your phone in a workout. Quite frankly, number six, thou shalt share the iron with grace. In times of crowding, offer to share the sacred instruments of strength training. In doing so, affirm the virtues of patience and community.
Speaker 1:This is one that I am just feeling old, but it drives me crazy how few people are working in these days. It's actually making the gym just not very efficient and it just seems to me that there really is just a broad culture of individual space. The charitable thing I think about this is obviously we are dealing post-pandemic, so I do think that there's just a cultural shift where people just want to have their own space. I get that, but just to my eye, working in seems almost completely dead. This is one of those things where it's like I very specifically have to find somebody like roughly my age, roughly my fitness level and oh, that guy will let me work in. But if I go ask a lot of different populations that you really get looked at like you're a sociopath or something that that's like just the weirdest thing to suggest ever. So again, if somebody is concerned about germs, at least I am sympathetic to you having a right to feel that way. So I don't care. Finish up, that's fine, but it is just weird.
Speaker 1:Part of why I say it's weird is I actually learned so much from the more advanced lifters in my gym that part of why I think so many people are lifting poorly in the big gyms is you don't really have this crossover of experience levels anymore. Everybody's sitting on their earbuds doing their own thing. It really was a lot more common when I was coming up in the gym, like if I wanted to bench, so did everybody else. I could either wait 90 minutes for the bench to free up or I could ask somebody to work. In 90% of the time, that person was more experienced than I was and I usually learned from those few sets. So anyway, not just because I wanna get to the gym faster. I think there is a lot being lost if this is indeed something that's happening less and less. Trust me, nobody actually wants to talk to you, by the way, they just want the machine you're on. So I have to get over myself too when people wanna work in, but that even as an introvert who really doesn't like conversation when I'm in the gym if you ever asked me to work in the answer is always yes. This is an easy one to me.
Speaker 1:Number seven thou shalt dress for the quest at hand, all right. So this one, I don't really wanna get into enforcing dress code. Some people have opinions about like style stuff like that really don't care from that standpoint, but your clothes should be appropriate for lifting. I have a lot of opinions about clothes for even specific lifts. So again, this is why you know what I mean. If you like short shorts, if you like tank tops, I don't have an opinion on that, I get all of that. But yeah, your clothes, quite frankly, should at least be suited to the activity. And if you think at all, I'm meaning like you need labels or designer. That's not what I'm saying. If you go, look at like the meatheads, they're wearing Chuck Taylor's sweat pants, t-shirts. It doesn't need to be fancy. It should, though, like you know, not smell of your last workout. Just and frankly, just be conducive to the activity. Obviously, if you're wiping down, I'm not gonna care if you're wearing your stringer top and sweating all over again, just so long as you are wiping down. But just again, basic consideration for the fact there's other people in the gym when you get dressed and and walk in there. Um, yeah, I'm not the the dress code police by any stretch, and I'm not really offended by outfits, but keep in mind there's other people that aren't me in the gym. So, yeah, show up looking decent.
Speaker 1:Honor the temple's guardians number eight. Show respect to those who maintain the temple the staff, the trainers, custodians. Their service provides the sanctity and safety of our communal place of worship Number one, and I want to keep hammering in this they don't work for you, they work for the gym and you're a member of the gym. Your rate doesn't put shit on their plate. Just don't get into that like entitled I'm your boss attitude that that a lot of people get when they start paying for a service. You are not, you're just one freaking person, and they actually keep the gym up to the standards of the way you want it. So be respectful. Um, you know, said this earlier, but a monthly membership really does not cover one being like a bane and a freeloader on the club. So, again, you also have a responsibility to respect the rules practices of all of the the gym staff.
Speaker 1:Actually, I probably should mention this one back in the class section, but I don't. This this works here like if you go to it, you know gym class. That's not open gym time. Like you don't go to. Like one gym I used to talk about, we had, like you know, a few different class descriptions, and so one class was like an upper-body focused class. Don't come into my upper-body class and start squatting. You're distracting other people are looking at you, unfortunately and also Like you could have come to the lower body class. This wasn't that time and, as dumb as that sounds, believe me, this happens all the time people coming into a class that isn't suited for them, making Substitutions complaining or just using it as open gym time. Don't be that person.
Speaker 1:Number nine, thou shalt not bear false witness to thy gains. Speak truthfully of thine achievements and struggles, for honesty strengthens the community's bond and inspires other in their journey. I wrote this one specifically for me, but I do think it's very important that we also be honest and transparent with our experiences. You guys know I am not striving to be the next deliver king, taken like $11,000 of steroids and selling you guys proprietary supplements that can't deliver those results. I do think, for anybody who finds themselves in the space I am in training, training, communicating these ideas to other people the imperative that you be honest about how you have achieved what you have done, honest about your mistakes I think that is imperative. It really does just strengthen the entire community. I really do believe that you guys are going to take my Experience and then just speed up your learning curve and then all you owe me in return for that is go do the same for somebody else. This is how we all get stronger Is simply by just being transparent, open and honest and sharing how we are getting the results that we are. We're all different, so this is why I think it really is important that we all be clean and honest, so that we have a lot of different experiences to draw on and so we can just, frankly, get to a little bit closer to to truth. I don't know if we ever reach there, but that's the goal every day get a little bit closer best way to get there.
Speaker 1:Speak honestly about what you're doing in the gym. Last one, and then I'm running up on time. So we got to wrap this stuff up. But thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's routine. Focus on thine own journey towards strength and enlightenment. Seek inspiration, but avoid envy, for each disciples path is their own road. So, just in general, don't don't compare your weights, your sets to other people.
Speaker 1:One basic thing, and I'm not just giving you guys some like bullshit motivation. Like, let's say, I'm in the gym and I am a guy that that people copy in the gym. But if you don't come up and ask me hey, what's your program, what week are you in? Why would you copy what I'm doing? What if? What if I'm in a d-load week? What? What if I'm week six on a leg program and you're trying to build your arms? Um, just because I'm a big, strong guy, that's not a good reason to copy what I'm doing in the gym. We're on a different journey. The only reason you would copy what I'm doing is if you had the same goals and the same journey. Chances not good, um.
Speaker 1:Another one that I'll throw at you, though comparison kills joy in general, doesn't matter how good, your accomplishment is in the weight room. Somebody's done it better. So if you want to play that game, I can make you feel like shit every single day you step in the gym. Because the truth is, even for me, um, I'm not that good. I've dedicated my whole life to practicing this stuff, quite frankly, and I am still in the world solidly shitty, um. So we all kind of got to humble ourselves a little bit every now and again. And if you want to make any progress, you need to stop comparing yourself to other people. Um, I do have a lot of knowledge I put it that way just to be bluntly honest but even me, putting all this time into it, I'm not world class at any one of these lifts there. There are people far better than me, um, so, anyway, comparing your efforts is a great way to kill joy. Um, remember that you are on your own journey. Just don't don't feel that that you need to go and covet thy neighbor's routine. If you will, generally stupid, counterproductive for your own goals, quite frankly and it really will it'll just make the entire process Not fun and and you'll never enjoy it. Um.
Speaker 1:Anyway, guys, I I had, you know, in typical me fashion, ran a little longer than I intended. So now let's circle back some up, um so like, with the the 10 commandments. Um, there actually were two that were a little more important than than all the rest, at least. Um jesus was asked that and um, come on, don't play with me, my name is simon peter. Um, and so jesus responded that, actually that, uh, so Love your neighbor and love your god. All else hangs upon that. Um. Similarly, I, I do think too, jump out as kind of like the most important. If you just follow these two, I think everything else will take care of itself.
Speaker 1:Quite frankly, um Honor thy fellow disciples, space and time, and thou shall not forsake the sacred cleanliness. Um One respecting our fellow disciples, space and time, this commandment is paramount. It encapsulates the essence of mutual respect and consideration within the gym. Um earlier, when I was saying that we haven't really figured out how to monetize pro-social relationships, that's what I mean. You're not going to get paid, you should do it anyway. Um. By honoring each other, space and time, our disciples ensure a harmonious environment, will focus, dedication. Personal growth can flourish without undue interruption or conflict. This respect is what forms the foundation of a positive gym culture. Um, without it, I honestly don't think that we we have a great environment. I I understand why a lot of people are intimidated and turned off by gym culture, and this right here Kind of explains a lot of that to me.
Speaker 1:Um, you know cleanliness also this commandment, is crucial for maintaining health and safety. Quite frankly, when you've worked in a gym like I have, in that context, training people, um, stupid little things like like stuff being wet is how people actually fall and get hurt. You sound like somebody's parent, but I am now so I don't care. Um seem stupid. This is how people actually get hurt in the gym. Um, cleanliness to transcends more than like physical cleanliness. It represents to me a commitment to the collective welfare of the space and the community in the space. By simply wiping down your equipment, you're you're actually demonstrating respect for the temple and the fellow gym goers.
Speaker 1:When you skip out on it, no matter what you say, I don't believe you. Your actions indicate you don't care about these other people. And there's no hallmark card, no, no paragraph you can write that's ever going to convince somebody like me who looks at actions not words. Um, so anyway, I do believe, as we've said, that I honestly am not likened the direction of what I am seeing for gym culture these days, but I do hope, after all this, that my my decadence diatribe is a little bit different than Countless that have preceded it. I don't think people are bad, um, I don't think the good people have all died off. I do think our you know 10 commandments. You know sorry if I offended anybody, but uh, no mocking there. They're genuine inspiration from the, the source document.
Speaker 1:Just on, honestly, how I think we can improve the, the gym environment. I don't think that we are, um, you know, beyond reproach, but, yeah, we really can make it a better place. And and I don't think that it's gotten here because we are Bad, quote unquote I think we need to take a little bit more time and I do think that we need to care a little bit more about our fellow people. Then, then, our culture will at least lead us to um, or Rather in in force and demand upon us. It's not something that will be asked of us very often, and I think it is something that we should hold ourselves to nonetheless.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, sorry to be a little bit preachy with you guys, but it really is bugging me going to the gym and seeing people doing this every day. So, yeah, just just been thinking about this over many you know less than optimal workouts lately. But, with that being said, I I'm not out here just complaining the you know, last world cup, I saw that I think it was the japanese fans were cleaning up the stadiums after they left, so that just inspired me to be a little bit better, particularly around the parks I take my daughter to and, of course, the gyms that I work out in. Um, so, yeah, I view myself very much as as a work in progress. I'm not the guy at the mountaintop yelling down to everybody. Um, yet again, I am very much, uh trying to make sure that that I am also backing up this, this stuff that I am saying and it's not lost on me that I'm complaining a lot. So, whenever you do that, make sure you're actually putting some stuff into action, make sure you're spending a little bit of time in the mirror figuring out ways that you can demonstrate those changes you're you're talking about Um.
Speaker 1:I don't know if, if I'm that great at it, but but it's at least something that I am striving to. Uh, keep in mind is is to at least be the change in the world you want to see. That was a sticker I threw on my binder in high school and and something I'm still trying to live up to, quite frankly. Um, anyway, guys, thank you again for sticking with me. Uh, old man yelling at clouds today, and but remember, mind and muscle are inseparably intertwined. There are no gains without brains. Keep lifting and learning and learning, and pick up your goddamn weights. No, just kidding. Anyway, guys, till we do it again, stay safe, you know I'll keep trying.
