The tire stood nearly vertical, and I grunted underneath it, straining to give it one last push. But I had little energy left, and within a split second, the 250-pound object toppled onto me, crushing me on the ground. My ankle twisted under the weight. Fortunately, a fellow gym member had been watching and swiftly lifted the tire. But the damage had already been done.

Shame, worry, and disappointment overwhelmed me as I lay on the ground clutching my ankle. But the most important question already swirling in my mind was, “How soon will my ankle heal?” I sensed the answer would not please me at all.

Bad Becomes Worse

The doctor and my parents predicted I would be up and running again within eight weeks at the most. Encouraged by the forecast, I listened only half-heartedly to their advice to avoid the gym. I continued to lift, first with the upper body but soon adding in lower body, thinking I was doing no harm.

But I was wrong. Eight weeks of recovery expanded into twelve weeks and, ignoring my protests, continued to grow. An MRI revealed tenosynovitis, a chronic ligament sprain, and bone bruising, none of which had been suspected at the initial diagnosis.

“An injury can illuminate your own character with a light that other situations cannot.”

The news deflated me like a hole in a balloon. I had been hobbling around for weeks on crutches, frustrated by pain and immobility. But after the MRI, it was clear I needed physical therapy. My busy schedule would be further compounded by the search for a good practitioner, frequent appointments, and long rehab routines to perform at home.

No one wants to have his or her performance hindered by something that could have been avoided, but I am now appreciative of the experience. An injury can illuminate your own character with a light that other situations cannot. How do you think of yourself? What are your priorities? Can you adapt your usual approach to fit your new status?

3 Steps to Make Lemonade From Lemons

These are three lessons that my ankle sprain have taught me, three aspects of reality that I would have had to face sooner or later. But if you can internalize these, you will be way ahead of the game if you ever do hurt yourself (hopefully you won’t!).

1. Don’t Fight Yourself

There is only one person in this world whose behavior you are in complete control of: yourself. Realize this power and take advantage of it to facilitate your recovery. Don’t let ego, impatience, or another irrational compulsion impede your own ability to help yourself. If you’re injured, your number one priority is to recover fully.

For the first two or three weeks after my injury, I (reluctantly) avoided full body workouts and focused on upper body. But the monotony irked me. I felt I was not working hard enough. This inner battle between discretion and emotion had poor results. Almost as soon as I could get off crutches and walk mostly without pain, I added squats, lunges, and a few other exercises back into my routine. “I’m not doing these with heavy weight,” I thought. “So they should be okay.” I was wrong. My ankle started swelling again, chastising me for being too bold and too hasty.

There’s no room for internal conflict when you are rehabbing. Make decisions that will provide tangible benefit to your body, rather than a temporary balm to your mind.

2. No, You’re Not Ready

Injuries, especially more serious ones, are fickle things. As long as you have plenty of rest, you will make good progress in the beginning. But this phenomenon is like that of a beginner’s gains: the first few weeks please you, but a dismal plateau soon sets in.

Be in tune with your body. When you feel you’re ready to return to your usual training (like I did), chances are you’re actually not. You need to regain coordination, stability, structural integrity, proprioception, and a host of other capabilities that have atrophied since you’ve lessened the load on the injured body part. The recovery of extremities, especially, seems to slow down maddeningly once they are about 80% healed.

“You need balance between intensity and ease, hope and realism, training and life.”

Do you think you could keep up with a posse of energetic four-year olds in a game of tag? You’d be running, leaping, swerving, reaching, ducking, grabbing, and tussling. When you can confidently answer “yes” to that question – and not before – return judiciously to your regularly scheduled programming.

3. Find Balance

People often give this advice for free, but obstacles actually impress it upon you. You need balance between intensity and ease, hope and realism, training and life. Lack of balance was what caused me to get injured in the first place. I pushed myself to finish a set under accumulated fatigue when it would have been wiser to back off and devote my competitive spirit to a less risky exercise.

There must be balance between different aspects of your training program, as well as between exercise and the rest of your life. The former safeguards you against injury by developing all of your physical qualities. The latter is necessary so you don’t develop unhealthy behaviors or commitments to one aspect above all else. Balance is a crucial contributor to keeping you healthy and expediting your return to health after illness or injury. Cultivate it, prioritize it, and embrace it.

Sacrifices and Gains

Over the course of seemingly countless weeks, my outlook and attitude have morphed. I‘ve been forced to confront my own thoughts and fears – some of which I knew had been lurking, some of which had been undermining me, but all of which I had not previously acknowledged.

At times, I felt like my prospects were bleak. The work of bouncing back from injury is harrowing and time-consuming enough, and on top of that we still have to deal with life. It also wasn’t easy to have to skip a Spartan Race and a kettlebell workshop, both of which I had been looking forward to. Even though these events were weeks after the injury, I didn’t have full function of my ankle, and exerting myself at either would only have set me back even further.

Coping becomes much easier, though, when you laugh and use challenges as opportunities for growth rather than buckle in the face of despair. Come to peace with your injury. Make it your teacher and guide, and you will emerge a stronger person.

More on injury and recovery:

• 7 Reasons Your Injury Is Not Getting Any Better
• You Don’t Need More Training, You Need More Recovery
• How Much Recovery Do You Need? 7 Factors to Add Up
• New On Breaking Muscle Today

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post 3 Lessons From Injury: Making Lemonade From Lemons appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I don’t offer a treatment program or a diagnosis, but I offer something of arguably equal value: the knowledge to objectively decide the best course of action for you. If you have been grappling with pain – chronic or acute, localized or widespread – read on to learn the true nature of that which ails you.

Learning About the “Enemy”

Pain is so intrinsic to the human condition that we often don’t stop to consider its characteristics. The simplest explanation is that pain is when something hurts. Something is bothering you, motivating you to stop what you are doing, change your position, or otherwise avoid what you believe to be causing the discomfort.

Most people associate pain with bodily injury. Although there is often a correlation, there are more complex cases such as chronic pain and phantom pain where no physical damage is evident. In fact, pain is largely a neurological phenomenon. It is a sensation modulated by the brain, based on inputs that are not only sensory but also social, emotional, and psychological. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines it as “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage.”¹

“Most people are used to physiological explanations for their ailments, so they don’t realize that with pain there can be a vicious cycle at work.”

Notice that emotions are mentioned in the definition. Being plagued by pain is stressful and disheartening. But most people are used to physiological explanations for their ailments, so they don’t realize that with pain there can be a vicious cycle at work. Persistent pain exacerbates stress, which in turn can lock the body even deeper into the pain pattern. There is much research documenting this link between the tangible and the intangible when it comes to pain.^2,3

How Does It Work?

Older models of pain put forth that an injured site shoots pain signals to the brain – in other words, that pain originates at the tissue level. But we now know this is not entirely accurate. There are certain cells called nociceptors that detect noxious stimuli and relay this information to the brain. But from there, it’s up to the head honcho to create the sensation of pain. It does not actually come from the local site.

The relationship between brain and body

By no means am I saying that pain is caused by the mind, or that it’s all made up in your head. Rather, think of the brain as a factory foreman who uses past experience, machinery inspections, worker reports, and other markers to regulate operations. Nociception is important in producing pain, but so are other, less tangible things. Subconscious factors are among the resources your brain weighs when determining how much pain to create. In this process, your brain also looks to past experiences, social context, beliefs, and a wide variety of other variables.

In light of this, researchers such as Ronald Melzack, Patrick Wall, Lorimer Moseley, and David Butler developed and furthered something called the neuromatrix model of pain.⁴ It takes note of the nuances discussed above, and so the recommendations for treatment are more holistic. Foremost among the interventions is education about the science. After all, beliefs that are limiting or misleading can contribute to chronic pain. The first step in alleviating unnecessary burden is to learn about and understand it.⁵

The cycle of pain and outcome

My Back Is Bad, My Pain Is Bad – or Are They?

One common idea is that biomechanics, posture, tissue quality, and other structural issues are root causes of pain. This is an incomplete and even harmful idea if it convinces people that, for example, their body proportions are “horrible” or they have permanent scar tissue. These are self-defeating ideas that further develop fear and avoidance – not a place from which you can tackle your pain.

If body structure were absolutely key in producing pain, how could you explain the majority of study subjects with “bone and soft tissue abnormalities” in their knees or those with “abnormal findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans” who feel no pain? ^6,7

No one likes pain, obviously. But it is necessary to survive. It is a strong incentive to avoid actions and behaviors that might harm you. Some people are born without sensitivity to pain, a condition called congenital analgesia.⁸ While you may think them lucky, they are at far greater risk for deadly injury because they do not realize when they have hurt themselves.

The bottom line is that pain is an alarm system, an output of the brain meant to defend against perceived threats by encouraging you to avoid them. These perceived threats usually involve tissue damage – a bruise or a broken bone. In these cases, addressing the physical problem will alleviate the “threat” and therefore the pain. But when keeping your body healthy and active is not enough, it’s time to do more sleuthing to determine and confront the source of your pain.

When you’re ready to make a change, start off small. Give your body the pampering it deserves so it can muster its recovery resources and feed a positive stimulus, rather than a negative one. Mindfulness is one tool you can use. It relieves stress, which can positively impact how you feel physically, plus it empowers your mind to remain calm, focused, and in control.

“The bottom line is that pain is an alarm system, an output of the brain meant to defend against perceived threats by encouraging you to avoid them.”

If certain positions or movements cause discomfort, find ways you can regress – use less range of motion or move more slowly – so there is no pain. Explore movements that are agreeable. This teaches your nervous system that not everything is dangerous. As more positions become pain-free, you will find you are less scared and are building momentum to liberate yourself from pain.

Perhaps the most important course of action, though, is reasserting your own worth and goals. Pain is a nuisance, but don’t let it get the better of you.

Being a Student

All of this fascinates me because I, like any other athlete, suffer pain. Sometimes it can be difficult to tell why it happens or whether your active lifestyle and workouts contribute to it in some way. I am not a researcher, and I do not make a living by treating other people’s pain. I am just seeking to be informed and to be an active participant in my own experience with pain.

I have found quite a few pioneering resources to be helpful:

• Pain Science is run by a former massage therapist who takes great care to scour the research and critically examine conventional wisdom.
• Better Movement targets not only the topic of pain but also the nervous system in general, movement skills, and how these all relate to physical performance.
• Lorimer Moseley updates along with his team over at Body in Mind, presenting new perspectives and recommendations based on the latest research for pain patients.
• SomaSimple is a forum of not only physical and manual therapists, but also all others who are committed to intellectual rigor, thorough review, and mature discussion.

If traditional methods of treatment don’t seem to work for you, there is still hope. You can take responsibility for learning the latest pain science and applying it to your own story. You can investigate your lifestyle, emotions, and relationships to your body and pain. You can choose to be mindful and take control of your own struggles.

Just remember: if it hurts, it means your brain cares about you.

More on pain and recovery:

• Understanding the Brain is the Key to Being Pain Free
• Facing the Pain: Let It Be Your Guide
• 5 Steps to Safely Train Around Lower Back Pain
• New On Breaking Muscle Today

References:

1. “IASP Taxonomy.” International Association for the Study of Pain. Accessed June 13, 2015.

2. Nils Georg Niederstrasser, P. Maxwell Slepian, Tsipora Mankovsky-Arnold, Christian Larivière, Johan W. Vlaeyen, and Michael J.L. Sullivan, “An experimental approach to examining psychological contributions to multisite musculoskeletal pain,” The Journal of Pain 15 (2014): 1156-65.

3. Tim V. Salomons, Tom Johnstone, Misha-Miroslav Backonja, Alexander J. Shackman, and Richard J. Davidson, “Individual Differences in the Effects of Perceived Controllability on Pain Perception: Critical Role of the Prefrontal Cortex,” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19 (2007): 993-1003.

4. Ronald Melzack, “Pain and the neuromatrix in the brain,” Journal of Dental Education 65 (2001): 1378-82.

5. Adriaan Louw, Ina Diener, David S. Butler, and Emilio J. Puentedura, “The effect of neuroscience education on pain, disability, anxiety, and stress in chronic musculoskeletal pain,” Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 92 (2011): 2041-56.

6. K.A. Beattie, P. Boulos, M. Pui, J. O’Neill, D. Inglis, C.E. Webber, and J.D. Adachi, “Abnormalities identified in the knees of asymptomatic volunteers using peripheral magnetic resonance imaging,” Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 13 (2005): 181-6.

7. Maureen C. Jensen, Michael N. Brant-Zawadzki, Nancy Obuchowski, Michael T. Modic, Dennis Malkasian, and Jeffrey S. Ross, “Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine in people without back pain,” The New England Journal of Medicine 331 (1994): 69-73.

8. “Congenital Insensitivity to Pain.” Genetics Home Reference. March 30, 2015. Accessed April 6, 2015.

9. Hiroaki Nakashima, Yasutsugu Yukawa, Kota Suda, Masatsune Yamagata, Takayoshi Ueta, and Fumihiko Kato, “Abnormal Findings on Magnetic Resonance Images of the Cervical Spines in 1211 Asymptomatic Subjects,” Spine 40 (2015): 392-8.

10. Ulrike Bingel and Irene Tracey, “Imaging CNS Modulation of Pain in Humans,” Physiology 23 (2008): 371-380.

11. Steven J. Linton and William S. Shaw, “Impact of Psychological Factors in the Experience of Pain,” Physical Therapy 91 (2011): 700-11.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of The American Physiological Society.

Photo 3 courtesy of The American Physical Therapy Association.

Photo 4 courtesy of Adam Meakins.

The post Dealing With Pain: Educate Yourself Toward a Better Future appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Although those people were far from educated about health and physiology, they didn’t need to be. Their lifestyles toughened them by necessity, and if they could escape lethal threats to their lives – including famine – they were generally free of chronic disease.

RELATED: Running Is the Killer App of the Human Body

Because modern civilization has strayed far from that simple state, so too has the business of keeping yourself healthy. Most people don’t move enough unless they purposely resolve to do so. Most people don’t sleep enough or spend enough time outdoors regulating their circadian rhythms and soaking up sunshine.

This is where knowledge about staying healthy and a community of like-minded people are crucial. You need external stimuli and support to keep you on the healthy path to awesome.

And although the practice of health is not quite mainstream, there are plenty of passionate coaches, gyms, and organizations out there spreading the word – making a difference. We’re changing the world, slowly but surely.

Spontaneous Tradition: Natural Trial and Error

It is a travesty there is such widespread ignorance about health and fitness, but pioneers are pushing back the tide. Not just because of the statistics about public health, but because humans as a species, as living things, should be more in tune with their bodies. Like Erwan Le Corre of MovNat said – we are zoo humans, trapped by ingrained sedentarism and a lack of individual exploration.

RELATED: Free the Zoo Humans: Workouts and Wisdom From Erwan Le Corre 

In my high school history class, the teacher mentioned a phenomenon called spontaneous tradition. As opposed to deliberate tradition, where leaders explicitly devise and experiment with practices to bring the best results, spontaneous tradition arises from communities undergoing natural trial and error over time, remembering which habits served them best.

“Like Erwan Le Corre of MovNat said – we are zoo humans, trapped by ingrained sedentarism and a lack of individual exploration.”

We need more of a deliberate tradition regarding health and movement. This day and age is marked by unprecedented physical illiteracy. Innumerable women – including my own mom – think lifting heavy stuff will make females bulky and therefore unattractive and more masculine. People sit for hours, and then have trouble performing a basic bodyweight squat.

Yes, there are sports, health clubs, and even movement retreats the truly dedicated can partake in. All of these are examples of deliberate tradition, and they are good. But am I dreaming for too much when I hope that spontaneous tradition in physical culture may one day make a comeback? People, not even those with express goals of improving their health, using free time to move and explore rather than surfing YouTube? This would be ideal, but it doesn’t happen because the masses today are disconnected from their bodies.

“[A]m I dreaming for too much when I hope that spontaneous tradition in physical culture may one day make a comeback?”

The Hard Work of Movement Communities

I believe we can transition from deliberate tradition to spontaneous tradition in time. Most of the change will be achieved through the hard workers out there: coaches, physical therapists, gym owners, researchers, and athletes. Each organization that works with human health may have different specific goals, but their efforts have an overarching synergy.

Whether it’s Onnit and its message of “Total Human Optimization,” Gold Medal Bodies and their simple calisthenics philosophy, or Breaking Muscle, an amalgam of everything for the serious athlete and the average family, the curtain is being pushed back. The consummation of their work will be when we can look around and see spontaneous and joyful movement from everyone.

RELATED: 3 Basic Drills to Improve Your Strength and Movement 

This is why I look at strength and conditioning communities, as well as health communities, with respect and gratitude. They relentlessly practice their movement craft, slicing through troves of misinformation like a hot knife through butter. There are countless groups and people out there: MobilityWOD, Dragon Door, Mark Sisson, to name just a few. All together, they disseminate enough high-quality information for you to avoid injury and disease for a lifetime.

A Modern War Against Unhealthiness

Modern life has made being healthy a challenge, and we have public administrations in charge of health that are nonetheless presiding over decidedly unhealthy populations. They are doing the best they can, grappling with special interests and politics, but they need help. Sometimes, as with thehttps://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/, health officials come out with information that does not help everyone. Most of the time, there are those who don’t listen to their declarations: they come from far-away health officials who don’t know an individual’s history and seem to be backtracking almost constantly.

“Dedicated strength and conditioning professionals – who not only help athletes but also are excellent at aiding the general population – are the soldiers on the ground everywhere.” 

This is a war against unhealthiness that is profoundly hands-on. Dedicated strength and conditioning professionals – who not only help athletes but also are excellent at aiding the general population – are the soldiers on the ground everywhere. They are fighting not against a tangible enemy, but a debilitating, pervasive way of life. They are here to help and here to stay.

Photo 1 courtesy of Shutterstock.

Photo 2 courtesy of CrossFit Empirical 

The post What Happened to Movement for Health? appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

The State of Modern Schools

My typical high-school day is seven hours long, so that means seven hours each day on my bum. It’s no wonder kids get lethargic or jittery as the day drags on, especially given early school starts. It’s also no wonder most young people have low muscle mass, below-par balance and coordination, and other issues that come with being sedentary.

“America’s current generation of young people may be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.”

Schools as far apart as New York and Australia have banned cartwheels in the name of “safety.” School lunches in America are known for their dismal resemblance to fast-food meals, and when Michelle Obama tried to convince gridlocked lawmakers to pass healthier nutrition standards, students turned around and ridiculed her, pining for their Friday pizzas and French fry snack stands.

READ MORE: 4 Ways You Can Fight Back Against the War on Physical Education

What the Future Holds for Our Kids

What saddens me is that the issue of health and fitness in kids is trivial in most people’s eyes. Most people know of the morbidly growing rate of childhood obesity and the dire predictions that America’s current generation of young people may be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.

All children should experience wellness-centered lifestyles and teachings as early as possible – and school is the perfect setting for that. If administrators and legislators continue to pile on stressful academic tests while ignoring health, they’re just sowing unhealthy futures for all of us.

GET INVOLVED: Fight for the Right to Recess – 3 Reasons Kids Need Break Time

A Failed Attempt at Improvement

This is important and sensitive, especially to me as a high-schooler, because school eats up huge portions of a child’s formative years. Five days a week, virtually year-round, for the first eighteen years (or more) of life, the student is forced to sit down for long, practically uninterrupted hours. There are many ways to tackle this sedentary institution, but some are more effective than others.

Exhibit A is the quick fix: a simple replacement of inactivity with the chance to move more. That’s what one North Carolina school has implemented with their Read and Ride program, giving students a chance to pedal on exercise bikes while they flip through books.

“Schools as far apart as New York and Australia have banned cartwheels in the name of ‘safety.'”

This approach reflects some concern over physical activity throughout the day, but how is it any better than climbing on a treadmill at the globo gym with the latest tabloid in hand and strolling along slowly for 45 minutes? This is very much the lazy man’s approach, trying to meld together work and movement to the detriment of both.

Also, this approach does nothing to encourage healthy habits outside of school. There is no education here on how to care for the body, just another task mandated by the unseen powers that be.

RELATED: Better Cardio Linked to Better Reading Score for Kids

When CrossFit Gets in the Picture

A better remedy would be to reform physical education classes. I feel that “gym class” is a joke, but on the rare occasions the teachers decide to up the ante a bit – with a Beep Test, for instance – my peers freak out. Maybe this is because most days consist of the teachers temporizing the start of the exercise by giving us too much time to “change”, then lazily guiding us through static stretches. It shouldn’t be this way.

RELATED: 3 Reasons Your Kids Should Try CrossFit

Thus, it’s gratifying to learn about more progressive schools going the extra mile by incorporating CrossFit workouts and instruction, as in the case of Rancho High School in Nevada. Because the change is more vigorous and thorough, the results are inspiring. Kids are taking their grades more seriously and even their parents have been motivated to tag along and lose weight. There is even a waiting list for entry into the CrossFit classes, which exemplifies the desire people have to turn their lives around when given the opportunity.

“[I]t’s gratifying to learn about more progressive schools going the extra mile by incorporating CrossFit workouts and instruction.”

A Change of Olympic Proportions

While not all schools are blessed to have this kind of opportunity, the Claremont schools in California took advantage of the Olympic champion who happened to be in the area. Partnering with Oakmont Outdoor School to reach out to grade-schoolers in the district, 2008 Olympic decathlon gold-medalist Bryan Clay launched Project Champion to inspire kids to get moving.

The incentives are superb, with the opportunity to meet the star athlete himself and get his autograph, but the essence is also in the right place. Each month, administrators introduced character traits and highlighted how planning to log miles demonstrated those virtues and would help students eventually attain the prize of their choice. The program demonstrates an intertwining of academic excellence with a foundation for lifelong health.

DOES YOUR CHILD HATE SPORTS? READ: 6 Sports for Kids Who Aren’t “Sporty”

Health and Fitness Is Our Birthright

I’m moved by a particular chapter that Mark Sisson includes in his book The Primal Blueprint. He juxtaposes a Primal family – Grok, with his wife and kids – against modern day Ken and Kelly Korg (Grok spelled backwards, a metaphor for the state of modern society). Even the kids in the Grok family are inured to physical hardship and highly proficient in movement, perhaps at the level of serious (adult) CrossFitters and other physical culturists in this day and age.

“I’m not advocating for high-level gymnastics classes in schools but for more awareness of and respect for our physical gifts.”

For example, Sisson describes a close encounter caveman Grok and his son have with a bear after an exhausting hunt. Because of his fitness and movement skill, the young boy can sprint away with his father while navigating natural obstacles like fallen logs and rivers. He has mental toughness, along with gymnastics skills and the ability to move his body efficiently.

Kids are capable of such movement mastery and health. It should be their birthright. I’m not advocating for high-level gymnastics classes in schools (yet) but for more awareness of and respect for our physical gifts. Change starts at the roots. And if you’re going to keep gym class in school, you might as well step up your game.

References:

1. TeachTought, LLC. “What I Learned By Doing What I Ask Students To Do.” Accessed November 4, 2014.

2. Fast Company. “This School Has Bikes Instead Of Desks — And It Turns Out That’s A Better Way To Learn.” Accessed November 4, 2014.

3. Education Action Group Foundation. “School bans ‘unsupervised cartwheels’ on playground.” Accessed November 4, 2014.

4. Ryot Corporation. “New York School Bans Balls, Tag, Cartwheels and Childhood In General.” Accessed November 4, 2014.

5. CrossFit, Inc. “Class-Action CrossFit.” Accessed November 4, 2014.

6. Claremont Courier. “‘Project Champion’ has students running for gold.” Accessed November 4, 2014.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

The post School Isn’t Just for the Mind – It’s Also for the Body appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I also do my best to keep an open mind about everything I read (unless it promotes the Smith machine). Most others at my age – high school teenagers who are terrified by the prospect of college applications – are preoccupied with social drama or celebrity news. I am proud to say I’m not one of them. My obsession with fitness is a bit more practical.

Reevaluating Your Beliefs

People do have dogmatic judgments about athletics and sport, though, and listening to their gripes makes you reevaluate your beliefs and your reasons behind them. Like the time last year when I was hanging around during gym class and overheard one guy, a junior varsity basketball player, say to another classmate, “Track is only for people who don’t have a sport.”

Excuse me? It was obvious that his exposure to track and field, otherwise known as the ancient sport of athletics, was limited to the half-hearted attempts at making us jog on the track that seemed to be the best our gym teachers could come up with on “fitness days.” I’m pretty sure that any 100m sprinter could have caught this guy in a foot chase and made him regret what he’d just said.

But because I don’t have an army of ripped track-and-field athletes at the ready to hunt down their detractors, I’ll just have to make do with my own rebuttal against this guy’s unique brand of asininity. Dude, if you’re out there reading this: here’s why track and field is a real sport, and one that you should respect.

Naked Runners and the History of Sport

Modern people agree that the Olympic Games are the pinnacle of sports proficiency, and within these competitions you will encounter the most agile, swift, strong, explosive, and coordinated physical specimens on the planet.

We can thank the ancient Greeks for the entire concept of the Olympics. They devised the festival for no other reason than to please the gods and thank them for the freedom to develop their physical prowess. The first sports in the Olympics were feats like wrestling, boxing, pankration (an intense hybrid of the former two) – and athletics.

That’s right. The oldest humans, on whose example we founded our own civilizations, didn’t care about foul shots scored or goals saved or the player with the newest Air Jordans. They cared about being able to defend yourself (either skedaddle or stand and throw a really big rock), to sustain yourself (go build your own shelter and kill your own game), and (because they all worked out like this) to look good naked.

Basis of Sport: Character and Athleticism

Humans had to hunt before they could plant, harvest before they could feast, and build stable cities before they could worry about arbitrary physical recreation using crude balls made of animal hide. The very basis of our existence, therefore, lies in the humble skill of running really fast.

All sports require this function. Even if they don’t require it directly, you’d be a sorry athlete if you couldn’t at least sprint 400m to save your skin. Having the ability to do so only improves your sport performance, no matter what.

You can call other activities – like football, baseball, and basketball – sports because they are also quests of self-betterment and pit competitive individuals against each other. That is the legitimate rationale behind “sport.” It applies just as well, even more fundamentally so, to track and field. What is running fast or far, if not a metaphor for the internal struggle against the body’s inherent laziness?

But don’t take the stance of the basketball jock. Don’t say that soccer, for example, is a sport because it “makes sense.” By which he means it has a defined time frame for the attention-deprived mainstream and commercial investment. This is just that one guy’s superficial criteria for what is a sport. You’re much better off seeing what kind of character traits a sport instills in its athletes, and in this area track and field is one of the best.

Why Track and Field Deserves Respect

There is a steep learning curve to every event in track and field, from obviously alien pole-vaulting to hurdling to even sprinting a good 200m. People can run, but it takes years of practice to run with efficient technique and optimal power production. A verity the kid in my gym class was no doubt unaware of. Such difficult skill acquisition should make track and field a little more recognizable to he of the hard-earned slam-dunk.

Also, to be more blunt: track and field is hard. Damn hard. In terms of physiology, track and field blows up the metabolic furnace. Sprinting and striding, leaping and jumping, throwing, and striving for raw athletic improvement seem simple to a lot of people – until they’ve tried it, day in and day out.

Track and field also requires strategy, fierce competitive drive, and familiarity with the rules and regulations that govern athletic contests. It’s not for the slow, physically or mentally. There are entire research papers published that cover the complex logistics of training.

Basis of Sport: Philosophy and History

When I joined track, I quickly became engrossed in the philosophy and history of the sport. It has no ball flying around a court, diverting your attention from what you are doing with your body. There are no techniques whose practice ingrains only one non-transferable pattern of movement.

Sport distills the aliveness and delight that Homo sapiens evolved millennia ago in response to strenuous exertion, to cope with the burden of living. It is humanity’s way of laying down a spear after an unsuccessful hunt, saying, “Screw it,” and channeling all the most ferocious emotions within us into something more productive and fun.

The most fundamental method of this is through dashing and leaping and flight: making the human body fly or making rocks and spears and Paleolithic Frisbees (otherwise known as discuses) fly. I guess some contrived game with a ball works too, but there’s a lack of magic and primal-ness about that.

All of this is why it disappoints me that the perspective of track and field pervading the minds of the young is that of the basketball jock. I see the alternate profundity, the quality that makes track and field a sport despite a lack of a ball or clear time boundaries.

There is but one recourse to counter the shortsightedness of these young folks against track and field, and I hope you know what I’m thinking by now. We’ll plan world domination through a resurgence of athletes in track and field, the most basic and true form of sport there is, and rock at it until even Mr. Sporty Pants sees how badass we are.

Photos courtesy of Shutterstock.

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