Are we doing Mao vibes? We’re doing Mao vibes.

As marxists, we’re materialists. Materialism is the belief that our material conditions shape our ideas. It is opposed to idealism, the idea that our ideas shape our material conditions.

But both outlooks, which form the fundamental question of philosophy from which everything else results, go deeper than this simple observation. Idealists believe first and foremost that reality is dependent on our ideas: bench pressing 70 kilograms will be impossible to some people, and easy to others. Therefore weight, it seems, is a result of subjective interpretations and experience.

Yet 70 kilos are 70 kilos. This fact is objectively measurable. A barbell has a certain length, an exercise has a certain form, these are all objectively measurable with science.

Ultimately, idealists boil everything down to God (or the universe if they’re atheists). If we want to answer the bigger question: “how come we are conscious?”, then idealists will have no choice but to admit some higher power capable of consciousness created our consciousness. God is non-falsifiable, non-provable, and has always existed. God requires no proof of existence and is omniscient (or again you can substitute the universe if you’re atheist, or a god of your pantheon if you’re polytheist). Today, we know consciousness comes from some interaction in the brain that we still don’t entirely understand. But the brain exists in the material world. If consciousness came from God, then this explains the existence of the soul (a concept that has not been materially proven to exist, but the idea of which exists in many cultures and religions).

This is why materialism is based on science and idealism is based on belief. Believing the weights to be too heavy for you to lift does not actually change their weight. That you cannot lift them is the result of matter interactions.

How does all of this help us with physical education?

There is today a whole industry that survives on selling you shit you don’t need, claiming that you will never reach results if you don’t do what they say. Science helps us understand how these compounds actually work on the human body. The same goes for your training regimen; it’s important to know how the body reacts to physical stimulus and how that can be used to be productive.

There is also a whole net of ignorance cultivated by this same industry and influencers. If you could achieve results without their program or products, you wouldn’t need them. The truth is everyone can get fit (no matter what fit means to you specifically) and enjoy exercise. It’s not as difficult as we make it seem.

HIIT training for example was found in studies to be as effective as speed and endurance training in about half the time, bringing the benefits of both. I often resort to that website to answer my questions because the articles are written by doctors and they cite the actual study that proves their point.

Conversely, BCAAs are often claimed to be a miracle muscle growth compound (they’re three of the nine essential amino acids), but studies show that they account for about a third of all muscle AA (I wonder what the remaining 60% are), and help boost muscle protein synthesis by about 22%; you’re better off taking all 9 essential amino acids (such as in whey or eggs).

In other aspects, it helps us simplify our routine. The metabolic window (the moment after a workout your muscles synthesize protein the most) so many people try to exploit is actually so small that nobody is really in it. You can consume protein whenever you want during the day and your body will allocate it efficiently.

However, it’s also important to understand what these studies are not saying. With the last example, we are talking about the moment you should take protein to effectively synthesize muscle growth; not if it’s going to help your workout or how much you need to consume for optimal muscle growth (probably not more than 1g per kg of body weight by the way).

But as the dominant ideas in society are the ideas of the ruling class, there is a lot of corruption in the scientific world and many academic papers are coming up short in some way – either they’re not reproducible, or the results were bought by business interests. Sometimes you can just publish whatever you want as long as it looks presentable.

Personally, since I can’t actually read dozens of studies on every little question that I have (“do I need to take this pill?”, “should I do HIIT or endurance?”, etc.), I tend to trust meta studies (studies that aggregate dozens of other studies on the topic). I also tend to trust volume: if several different studies (independent from each other) found the same results, they’re probably right.

Let’s conclude here. Why is it important to know science behind physical education? Because it is the union of theory and practice, it is the resolution of contradictions in your daily life. Because there is a dialectic everywhere, there is a dialectic in physical education as well.

Having a materialist outlook when it comes to physical education helps you understand what you are doing with your body and why, and it helps you achieve your goals more efficiently.

  • lemmygrabber
    link
    23 years ago

    Yeah I agree with this. Health in general has many metric tons of misinformation and pseudoscience disseminated via the internet even though it is pretty easy to search for clarifications from qualified people and it’s something a lot of educated people fall for too because of the anti- and pseudo-science idealism that permeates capitalist culture.