A Secular Age (of Fitness)
In Charles Taylor’s landmark work, A Secular Age, he posits that as western society has progressed over the ages it has shed much of its foundational myths and memes. Releasing from the past ways and now clinging largely to what can be measured, seen and touched. According to Taylor, it is in these things that can be measured, seen and touched where we create value and meaning.
A term advanced by Taylor is The Immanent Frame. It is how we now all participate in a shared social experience. This experience has shifted over the ages. Taylor suggests that the way we interpret this shared framing is possible, however, through both a naturalistic lens as well as a transcendent lens. That said, the naturalistic lens is now the default option.
A common understanding of the term “secular” means having no religious or spiritual basis. When we think of Fitness, we could say that it means we should look at fitness, and only consider the things that can be measured, seen and touched. We should believe Fitness and its expression is entirely based on a naturalistic lens, not a transcendent one.
Within the fitness community, it appears we inhabit the Immanent Frame as if only the naturalistic option is viable. We believe that what can be measured, seen and touched is what matters most and what cannot be readily measured, seen or touched matters little to none.
We have default views. Our judgment reflexes are honed for Hardware, less so for Software. It means we see insufficient work capacity as a development problem, rarely a navigation problem. We see slowing down as a nutritional problem, rarely a motivational one. When we need to see both sides of the positions as equally possible and relevant.
To me, this is a limiting frame, especially for a Coach as well as an athlete. It means we overvalue the front squat, and undervalue its purpose. We overvalue the pull-up and undervalue it’s beauty. We overvalue muscle and undervalue meaning. We measure strength, not self esteem. We measure body fat, not happiness. We demote human experience and elevate abstractions. We worship the Map. We ignore the Territory.
This can lead both Coach and Athlete to believing in a Managed Experience. Successfully organizing and managing all the important variables with regard to athletic performance. This is only possible because our belief, our hope, is that we are indeed currently able to measure, see and touch everything that matters. This belief is entirely imagined. We possess no such ability as it pertains to Fitness Coaching.
I am not saying we should abandon the naturalistic lens. I am saying we need to make room for the other one.
Science won’t give us everything we want it to, it never will. It requires groups and group averages, less so individuals and their own peculiarities. It will help guide us, but it won’t give you a how to manual for the athlete right in front of you. That process has to be experienced and negotiated.
When facing a novel terrain, you will never pick the right path ahead of time, but you can tell a story about how it all happened afterwards. To me, that story is what matters. That story is where true knowledge can be found.
–Michael
