FITNESS BLOGGERS IN PORTLAND EMBRACE THE GRIND?

Fitness bloggers lay it out there in exact terms: “Do this, not that. And if you’re doing that, stop now.”

Portland fitness bloggers join in, but since it’s Portland Oregon, it must have a twist? If the motto is Keep Portland Weird, there must be a twist.

There’s always a twist with fitness, especially writing or blogging about it. That’s weird enough.

If you look at blogs, you know how this goes. From a promising intro to dead links or re-directs.

Portland Fitness Bloggers Headline #1

 

Just a regular girl, trying to stay fit in a world filled with temptations 

Along with a dead link.

What happened? No blog maintenance is a big fail, and we all know where a fitness fail leads.

“trying to stay fit” does not embrace the grind of fitness.

How to explain what the fitness grind is: it’s a habit, a practice, a lifestyle. It’s fitting in the time to grind every day.

Just.

One.

More.

Set.

Headline #2

A runner’s journey in moving forward in health

If I had to guess, (since I bailed when the link went into re-direct), this opening is about running, moving, and health.

The journey part always throws me off. Life is a journey, now there’s a journey along with the journey? And it’s a running journey, like I have to catch up?

I support the heck out of fitness without tagging myself as one of the fitness bloggers. Leading by example is key, good example or bad.

“moving forward in health” confirms the evidence: If you’re not moving, you won’t be healthy.

And yes, I’ve heard about the same people you’ve heard of, the old man or old lady celebrating their 100th birthday with a shot of rotgut whiskey and a home-rolled smoke.

They are most unique because of their standing; everyone else like them died years ago from smoking and drinking the same things.

That would be us if we don’t keep the fitness grind. There is no substitute for effort.

Buy good shoes if you’re a runner, or you’ll be a former runner sooner than later. Be like Sheila who runs up mountains.

Headline #3

One of those weight loss/life in general blog thingies.

Whatever you do, don’t include loss and life together with a notion of fitness.

Especially when the link indicates the ‘blog thingie’ has been removed.

What happened here? Did weight loss turn into weight gain and they gave up? Or worse?

A blog doesn’t have be anyone’s ‘Life Work’ but I’ve never called it a ‘thingie.’

The free blogging platforms create a certain category of dilettante writer who decides to throw their ink stained sports bra into the ring. At least that’s what ‘blog thingie’ reminds me of.

“What the hell, only a blog, no problem. But it takes time and work? That’s a problem.”

This dilettante writer started on free and moved up to the big leagues with a self hosted site, Genesis framework, and a mobile theme. Add bluehost and WordPress for the whole package.

In other words, I pay for the privilege of putting stuff in front of you.

Call It Skin In The Fitness Bloggers Game

Why do fitness bloggers call it quits? Did they quit fitness training, quit writing about their ‘journey?’ Or just take a seat and rock it out?

Things change, but that doesn’t mean start over, or quit. Starting over is better than quitting.

About now, the astute reader asks for proof that a writer knows what they’re talking about. I hear the challenge, and here’s my proof:

I went in for a check up with a doctor and came away with neck cancer, of all things. At the time I was a gym focused health nut seeking personal records, PR’s, in most everything I lifted.

From failure to injury to re-hab, I gladly entered the cycle of pain and recovery. I’d been at it for years, then saw the doctor.

From one thing to the next, I got the cancer cure with radiation and chemo, which also robbed all of my gains.

I was not in the ‘300 Club’ but did make the ‘280 X 2 Club.’ I was also in the ‘225 X 10 Club.’

I left the gym for a lockdown lifestyle before lockdown was popular. By the time I came back I was a shell, and knew it. So did the gym crew.

So weak that I could flex my arm and still squeeze it to the bone, my fitness goal was to make a big comeback and show the sort of grit and grind that fitness bloggers embrace.

And Here We Are

The other night I asked my wife if I looked like I had man boobs, The Moobs.

“No, you used to have moobs, but now you’ve got pecs instead.”

It’s not an accident. See, during cancer treatment I had a port installed in my upper chest so the fire of chemo wouldn’t burn my arm off. Instead, it hit the port, which was connected to larger blood vessels for faster transport.

And the fucker left a dent where it had been, which annoys me. To remedy this, I’ve focused on working the dent out in the body shop with incline benchpress, the one where you sit under the bar at an angle.

Guess where I’m going and what I’m doing after I post like fitness bloggers?

After lifting comes the flexing. All ready?