How Education has Killed Fitness
How Education has Killed Fitness

This post is on How Education has Killed Fitness.

How Education has Killed Fitness

This website is primarily read by people in first world English speaking nations, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, and primarily deals with those countries. How in the world has this country and any first world nation become so overweight? When I lived in Japan for 10 years, there wasn’t even 1/3 of the amount of resources that this country has. Back in the early 90’s when I was in the United States Navy and visited countries like the Philippine Islands, or Thailand, or Hong Kong, there wasn’t even 20% of the amount of people who are overweight in those countries compared to ours. If you look at developing countries such as China, who produce at least 50% of all the manufacturing of anything on earth…why don’t I see fat asses out there? Lack of money? Nope, they are the 2nd largest economy on the planet, only second to the United States. Lack of education? Nope, Adult Literacy is 81% v. 99% of the United States. So what the heck is it?

The Biggest Loser Mentality

Yep, education. It seems the “smarter” this country becomes, the stupider it actually gets. Only 30 years ago, long before the internet became popular, Facebook would be considered a phonebook, and the idea of being able to have a full-fledged “computer” in your pocket (i.e.: smartphone) was considered outside the realm of possibility. There were a lot a lot less people considered overweight or clinically obese, there were no retarded shows such as “The Biggest Loser” where people start crying about being overweight, when they are the ones who got themselves there in the first place. The absurdity of this mentality is like burning down your house, and then crying about you now have no place to live…WTF??? Then bitching about how it’s somebody else’s fault, like Mc Donald’s, or some other fast food joint and how THEY are the ones making us fat. I am old enough to remember that there WAS McDonalds around 30 years ago, but somehow we kept the weight off. Now that we live such indulgent must have it now, bigger, better, faster, and cheaper lives, we ultimately screwed ourselves, but then blame other people. Better yet, we will sue somebody or some company about our COFFEE being TOO HOT. Really? Really? Coffee is hot? Amazing. I think the Biggest Loser is one of the worst shows on TV. It glorifies The Mosaic Generation type of indulgent lifestyle, and the stupidity of updating your Facebook page every 2 minutes with B.S. that nobody really cares about, or arguing over some forum about the latest four-core processor that will be in the next generation iPhone and how it “lol, new iphone is epic n gon 2b be the sex!!!1OMG”

Our Education System

If you have gone to any public school in the last 25 years, you have probably been told the following three things:

  • You go to school, get good, grades, work for XYZ company, be happy, retire.
  • If you do not go to school, you will not be happy, profitable, and will make “On average $1,000,000 less” than those who did go to college.
  • Those of you who didn’t follow rule A and B will work in a profession that requires “Hands On” (real physical labor) experience. They did not go to college, because they screwed off. They didn’t score high on their SAT’s, and therefore will be losers the rest of their lives.

How Education has Killed Fitness

This is the world that we live in, a world where you can sit on your ass all day, do nothing, because you are “smart”, you did what you were supposed to do, and any type of physical labor is for the stupid, lazy, and lower class citizens. This is our education system. This is what is being taught in our schools. Here in California, physical education classes are being cut out of the school system due to budget cuts. And why, you ask, are there budget cuts? Because California doesn’t manufacture s#!t anymore. Why manufacture stuff when manual labor is for stupi… I mean less than smart people. This is the heart of the problem; this is How Education has Killed Fitness – Smart people don’t believe in manual labor.

The United States Navy

Back in the early 90’s I was in the United States Navy. In the Navy, my job was a Radioman (RM) (which converted to Information Technology Specialist (IT) in 1998). I was what was and still is considered an “island” worker.  I was stationed on the U.S.S. Belleau Wood (LHA-3). If you look at the picture below the “island” is the area above the flight deck, and the flight deck is where our helicopters and airplanes landed. This ship is just a scaled down version of an aircraft carrier.

As an “island” worker, I was also considered amongst the “smart” crowd, since all work done on the island was not considered manual labor. On the island we had people such as myself, the Captain, all the Intel guys, the data processing center; basically any type of communications with the world around us was held on the island. I was part of this crowd and was considered “smart” mainly because my job didn’t require manual labor, only mental labor. I stayed clean all day and our space was air conditioned due to all the computers and transmitters. Island work was considered a “skate” job. I can also tell you first hand that the some of the older people (30 years old is considered older in the Navy) that worked on the island, just sat in front of the computers all day and ate. Since our jobs did not require manual labor, we basically sat at our computers and carried on the day’s work. When you have a bunch of people who use their brains most of the day, you get into the mentality that stuff can be solved without manual labor; stuff like pills to “block fat”, alcohol to deaden the pain, and paperwork to occupy the mind. Ya, it’s just stuff we need to solve problems. Sound familiar?

In the Navy every six months we had what was called a PRT, or Physical Readiness Test. The PRT required every sailor, according to their age bracket, to do a certain number of push-ups, sit-ups, and run a mile and half in a certain amount of time. If they did not pass the test, they were put on Mando PT (Mandatory Physical Training). If they didn’t pass the test the next time around, they were kicked out of the military. So what do you think happened to that smart bunch of guys who sat around all day in front of computers and ate and did no physical activity every six months…YEP FAIL! Or barely pass, it’s pretty bad when you have 19 and 20 year old guys who cannot run a mile and a half in under 14 minutes. It happened every six months, just like clockwork – young guys who should have no problem doing a measly 50 sit-ups in two minutes failed the test. Because they were too smart for their own good and have been lied to about what it takes to live in this world.

If you want to stay fit, do not think for one second that your education, your doctor, or some pill that will “active neuro fat blockers” is going to help you. To stay fit, it REQUIRES hard physical manual labor. There is NO WAY AROUND IT. Now stop sitting in front of your computer or phone and go work out!

This concludes my post on How Education has Killed Fitness.


Charles Lloyd
Charles Lloyd

Self processed fitness missionary and author of most of the ridiculous fitness articles written on Charles Lloyd Fitness.com. I am not really a writer, but a workout fiend who happens to have a blog. The single mission of this website is very simple: Get You In Shape. I have been blessed with the gift of good health and want to share it with you. Join Me.

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