Choosing Someone’s Form of Exercise Isn’t the Slam Dunk You Think It Is.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is posting CrossFit videos again . This time she seems to be doing it to continue the quarrel that started in the House chamber . In the past, she has used similar videos to pander to Christians , support Donald Trump and, most famously, insinuate during the height of the pandemic that exercise was a good substitute for COVID vaccines . Before you ask me , isn’t her form in these exercises terrible? (and I will answer that question!) I would like to suggest that you ask yourself something first.
The question is: why is she posting these exercise videos? There are many right answers, but in my opinion she is using exercise as a symbol – as a way of moralizing. Consider this example in which she claims to be showing strength in the face of persecution (persecution consists of calling extremists extremists, and she is one of them). Or take yesterday’s clip – the one that was posted after another congresswoman referred to an unnamed person as a “white blonde with a bad butcher’s body.” The caption for the clip describes Green as “built and strong.” The implication here is that fitness level makes one better.
But this is all nonsense. You are not a better or worse person—a stronger person in a moral sense—because of what you can or cannot do in the gym. Think about this for a moment. Now ask me to criticize its form again. You really want to hear that she’s doing the exercises wrong because it will give you a nice feeling of superiority: You may not be able to perform the perfect power lift, but you’d love to hear that MTG tried and failed. Will this make her worse? ( Could she be a worse person?)
Let’s stop moralizing about “form”
What does it say about a person if he has terrible “form” when he does an exercise? As immersed as I am in the world of fitness, I’ve heard it all. People with poor technique, that is, people who do the exercise incorrectly, are too stupid to understand how to do the exercises correctly or have too big an ego to follow directions. They ignore the sacred rules (checks notes) of playing with heavy toys, thinking they know better than the rest of us. They will be hurt and it will be their fault and they will deserve it!
Together these feelings present the high drama of controlling the minute actions of other people’s bodies. If someone squats but does not lower their hips below their knees, who is they harming? If a teenager picks up a weight that is too heavy for a strict curl and uses momentum to get it into position… so what? These people may not be training in the most efficient way (and maybe they are, but that’s a story for another day), but there’s no reason to feel insulted just because it’s happening next to you at the gym.
(Now I’ll pause while everyone scrolls down to the comments to tell me why I’m actually wrong and the form police need to save people like this from themselves. Not to mention there’s no evidence that ” “wrong” exercise or form increases the risk of injury . Dire warnings of danger are based almost entirely on wishful thinking and the desire to get wet.)
Sometimes the person using poor technique is the person who is still learning the exercises. Other times, they’re performing an exercise that you personally don’t understand—for example, someone doing kip-ups isn’t serving the same purpose as someone doing strict pull-ups, and both exercises are valid for different reasons. I can do 10 strict pull-ups. I can’t do more than three or four pull-ups. These are more gymnastic skills than strength work, and both are legitimate forms of athleticism. Even an “ego boost” isn’t so bad —you can test your limits at the gym! It’s okay to have fun! Fuck off!
But her shape is terrible , right?
Look, the only thing you need to know about MTG is that she is a right-wing political extremist and a professional troll who has no business having any role in government due to her toxic views and attempts to cause real harm to American society. . This is true regardless of whether she is good at CrossFit.
And here I have to tell you the worst news you’ll read today: she’s actually good at CrossFit. Or at least no worse than the average person at the local functional gym. As I told Jezebel when Greene posted this anti-vaccination video , her sit-ups and even butterfly pull-ups are good too.
The latest video shows her performing strength exercises, an exercise adapted from Olympic weightlifting , which is a workhorse not only for weightlifting and CrossFit training, but also for sports team gyms around the world. For comparison, here’s a video of me doing the same exercise:
Since I’m a certified USA Weightlifting Level 2 coach (yes, I’m rated here), I can look at her strength lifts and note a few areas for improvement. For example, she could use her legs a little more when initially pushing off the floor; CrossFitters are known for their forward jump bar trajectory, which would not be considered ideal in the world of weightlifting. I think my power moves are better, but to be honest there are things I could improve too. We both do strength training worse than world-class weightlifters, but better than the average high school football player.
Will this knowledge change the way you think about MTG? Do you now agree with her view that the 2020 election was stolen or that we should urgently deny health care to pregnant and transgender people? Of course not, because none of this had anything to do with whether she was doing the force cleanse correctly.