HAVE NO FEAR, THE FITFLUENCERS ARE HEREHAVE NO FEAR, THE FITFLUENCERS ARE HERE

...and not exactly the opening to this article I suspected when I clicked on it:

I teach medieval literature, and so when I decided to get into better shape by lifting weights in early midlife, my references were not terribly contemporary. Medieval writers are always reminding us to keep our eyes on cultivating the soul. “Here is no home, here is but wilderness,” Chaucer once wrote. If we’re just pilgrims passing through this world, what need is there to focus on the body? But, my mind now countered, what if becoming bodily healthy would make me happier and lead to better work?

"I went to the gym, initially after a friend’s sudden death, to be strong enough to do the other things that mattered to me in life, from family commitments to professional creativity.""I went to the gym, initially after a friend’s sudden death, to be strong enough to do the other things that mattered to me in life, from family commitments to professional creativity."

So, wanting some inspiration competition, dude went "ah, fitness podcasts!"

After a few weeks of listening, I had covered the basics: protein intake, intermittent fasting, sleep protocol, weights versus cardio ratios, gym frequency, supplements. But I found myself dancing around a certain void: Why did it all feel so empty? [...] A handful of influencers has come to define what it means to be — and live healthily as — a man. A lot of it felt pretty unhealthy.

I dunno, man, you and your credentialed academic class did a fine job for a generation or two obscuring masculinity and blaming it for absolutely every ill imaginable. A little much for you to now complain about the only place where it, thankfully, seeped through your blockade. These podcaster-fitfluencer friends just, like, wanna sell you things... because AAADDS! (don't ask about the pharma ads on MSNBC or the grants to your university)

Also: no, fuckface -- red meat is not a carcinogen in any meaningful definition... you and your class are duped and, frankly, quite disgusting. (Alas, it's the New York Times... price you pay for opinion admission.)

"They didn’t talk about steak because it’s healthy, but because men eat steak.""They didn’t talk about steak because it’s healthy, but because men eat steak."

Same thing. Real men do healthy things. Voilà, fixed it for you.

All-meat diets? Harmful, with insufficient vitamin and fiber intake and increased risk of chronic illnesses, including cancer and heart disease. The ubiquity of intermittent fasting and hyper-restrictive diets can also lend themselves to disordered eating behaviors — a need to push “clean” eating to its extreme.

@grok, please fact-check this; I'm too bored to formulate the answer.

Instead, Mr. Langdell turned to...novelists and fiction authors. Because, of course: if you're a credentialed twat at a university looking for similarly deluded allies, you turn to fiction. (Dude's a professor in English, it turns out: I. Am. Shocked.) No offence, Bitcoiner friends who like that shit, but it's the truth; that's where all the weaklings dwell.

We quickly replace the protein shakes and sleep maxing with anxiety and depression. Ouwh, my feelings. And yes: I, uh, had that exact same experience at Oxford:

Health, for these artists, was the cornerstone of a creative life, the ingredient that made everything else possible. I didn’t need to go back to my days sitting in a smoky Oxford room, holding a shriveling contact lens in one hand as I pored over medieval literature, acknowledging (I thought) a perfect metaphor for the vision of the soul against the failure of the body. I could find a path in which physical health fueled intellectual health.

Man, was this unimpressive. Imma listen to Huberman Labs on my sweat-drenched, push-up heavy exercise today.

P.S., the funniest part about this story is that fit is the core of the Swedish word for "cunt", fitta*. FITFLUENCER! YOU GET IT?! omg*

https://archive.md/jb82q