The magazine racks are stocked with page after glossy page of primped and pumped fitness models, amazingly grotesque body builders and action-movie stars, pushing their next release with the “pop” of their trainer-built biceps. These Body Artists make fitness, or at least the appearance of fitness, their business. We, here at Zoomersmagazine.com, would like to present the concept of Personal Fitness with more mundane, but no less extraordinary, circumstances. We would also like to pay special attention to the emotional and psychological aspects of fitness and sport. Unfortunately, there exist many misconceptions about these aspects of health. The majority of these misconceptions and fallacies exist within our Ethos and dictate our actions. One of Stephen H. Nii’s missions, in his column “Winning Ways,” is to expose these fraudulent and often, damaging concepts. He seeks to refine and, hopefully, re-define the lexicon of traditional Fitness techniques by integrating the emotional, psychological and physical processes in alternative methods. His goal is to truly merge the pursuit of Personal Fitness with Personal Development.

Kyra run, bikes, climbs, swims hours a week, encased in the same, small cardio room. She persists until the equipment becomes an expensive walker, supporting her exhausted weight.

On her way home, she ignores the pain of shin splints and the brutal squeeze to cramping muscle as she drives home.

Glen heaves the weights around. The clanking of massive plates applauds his red-faced efforts. He gamely pushes past his pain threshold every time; but the threshold is closer and closer every time.

The compression wraps constrict tighter and doses of analgesics increase with each session; his fitness level does not.

A recent TV advertisement showcased the scars, the bruises, the lost body parts and the satisfied smiles of sports heroes. “Damn the pain. Winning is the ultimate anesthetic,” the ad woos. Those pretty shoes are the means and the end to it all.

No Pain, No Gain. “Just Do It.”

Now, while I understand that bumps, bruises, strains and sprains, even surgeries and other tragedies are a part of every amateur and profession athlete’s eventuality, to sustain “No Pain, No Gain” as a mantra for the exercising community in unfathomable to me.

It’s almost unconscionable.

Let me state that my greatest concern is for the beginner. The ominous connection of suffering and reward is daunting even the most motivated first-timer. Even the most devoted Buddhist monk would hold strong reservations in tackling this formidable causality. The catch phrase reads like the skull and cross bones of a pirate’s booty-full of fatal curses amidst the doubloons.

It seems that only the most stubborn, ambitious, greedy or foolhardy would ignore such discouragement. Those that move past it are further barraged with the phrase by “experts” who “motivate” with its threat. Physical trainers, clubhouse pros, coaches and workout partners have all bellowed this in our ears.

My sympathies swell for the inexperienced. They must sort out the conundrum of a healthy, yet apparently pain-wracked body. We must struggle to develop with “No Pain, No Gain” weighting their every repetition, every exertion.

Yet we persist, oftentimes more fearful of the wrath we incur for transgressing the cult of thin, dense, fat-free perfection.

What odd developments are forced from such abuse?

Definitely, the centering on pain and the extra pressure to perform and achieve quickly have made people lose focus on the process. People’s sensitivities are trained on “pain”-an immediate physical response.

Or, we are tuned in on the “gain”-usually a material one. Very little awareness is opened towards the process by which pain or gain is truly achieved.

Because of this myopia, the process is distorted and the net result is usually a hypertrophied aberration. Unfortunately, these aberrations of process lead to both mental distortion and physical damage.

For example, how many times have we seen in the gym, people who are in the midst of strange flailings with unmanageably heavy weights?

You seen them, these people who jack hammer at machines with no regard for their grinding joints.

You’ve heard them; their screams of exertion have broken your concentration before.

You’ve smelled the pong of liniments and rubs slathered under wraps and braces.

Perhaps you’ve even witnessed, as I have, people self-medicating with syringes and steroids, tranquilizers, “vitamins” and other modern elixirs. One tennis coach I knew calmed his spasming back and torn rotator cuffs with six packs.

Have you seen sporting events where the sidelines resemble emergency rooms? Where the locker rooms have triage centers and narcotic pharmacies? Players who gamely press on with stress fractures, frail tendons and brutal concussions?

We read in the paper about competitors who’s eyes are dull with burnout from nine month seasons, year around schedules and off season camps. Behind these scores, statistics and prize money lists, athletes crash in injured heaps after the finish lines.

These are our heroes.

Do they not deserve more dignity than to suffer for out applause?

Don’t we deserve more than to put ourselves through similar regimens?

I must mention the greatest irony in this strange relation we’ve developed. Athletes work hard to make complex skills look relatively easy. It’s the basic model for gaining competency, honing skills, advancing from beginner to expert.

However, following the “No Pain, No Gain” edict, we work hard only to look pained. We end up putting in effort to damage and make more dangerous work for ourselves. Crazy, huh?

As we all race along desperately to catch our fleeting goals, we must caution ourselves again such simplistic reductions. Keep in mind, please, that slogans promote products, they do not directly benefit us. Their sole purpose is to encourage our consumption.

They only benefit Corporations eager to tantalize us with toys that distract us. They reward Industries that produce the snake oils that soothe the hurts we inflict on ourselves.

Yes, we CHOOSE to hurt ourselves. We still have that potent choice. We must exercise our free wills the same way we exercise our bodies--with Sensitivity, with Mindfulness.