Bodyweight Exercises

This post will be a little different, because it doesn't deal directly with bodyweight exercises.  It deals with choices.  It deals with morals and character and sportsmanship and all those things that my grandfather talked about.  All those things that don't seem to be around much today.  And that were lost a little more, with Marion Jones's announcement that she took steroids before the Olympics, despite her years of vehement denials.

When I was in high school, the question first came up.  It was probably in English class, since my school didn't have anything like philosophy: What if you could take a drug that would make you excel at sports but would kill you?  And the question wasn't about sports or steroids - it was about character.  It was about taking short cuts.  It was about respecting yourself and your profession enough to approach it and your competitors fairly.

This question has come up in various forms in both of my professional careers.   When I was a programmer, we had to deal with the consultants whom we suspected of intentionally placing bugs in their programs, so they would have to be called back to "fix" problems.  We would either rewrite their programs or hire consultants we could trust.  So the buggy consultants made some money, but lost long-term cash flow and job security.

In my present profession of attorney, the question comes up all the time.  Clients who ask me to cross the boundaries of ethics.  Opposing counsel who lie to the Court, fail to produce evidence, or deliberately misinterpret the law.  Judges who enter orders without the necessary facts or findings.  All to get to an end cheaply, quickly, and sometimes despite the law and the evidence.  As a lawyer, there is actually additional pressure to maintain a ethical standard: since the profession has such a hard reputation in the eyes of the public, the attorneys and judges who do practice ethically (and it is, in fact, the overwhelming majority) really go out of their way to maintain high ethical standards.

So this is why Marion Jones is so disappointing. She spoke so eloquently against steroid use.  While she knew she had used them.  She is going to be stripped of her gold medals.  She'll be banned from competition, if she evens still competes.  She may do a few months in jail.  But is she going to apologize to each one of the hundreds of thousand and millions of little girls and boys who looked up to her, who now think that cheating is okay?  Is she going to appear at the next Olympics and apologize to each one of the athletes who win there, when fans say, "Oh, she's probably juiced, just like Marion Jones"?  Is she going to pay for her own medical care, when she gets osteoporosis, cancer, or any of the other diseases associated with steroid use?

So how does this relate to bodyweight exercises?  Because bodyweight exercises work best when you do NOT take shortcuts.  Pushups are pushups, and about the only enhancement that works is having someone sit on your back.  But even adding bands just adds a temporary increase in strength or endurance.  I can't imagine taking a short cut to a temporary goal that is actually a short cut to the end of my life.  I have several relatives that are almost 100 years old, who are still physically and mentally sharp as a tack.  The love and vitality they add to my life, and the effect they have on my kids, is unbelievable.  And I don't want to miss THAT by taking a shortcut now.

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