Unleash the Monkey Army

Sports supplements, sport-star endorsed products, cosmetics and sponsorship, it is all aimed at making us feel in a particular fashion. On one level it is the association. The brand or the product triggers a feeling of belonging because "our people" wear it/eat it/drink it/use it. It is the reason why businesses spend millions on product placement. We are, for all of the enlightenment, our nation states, our supra-national bodies, still tribal. We sort the world into "like us" and "not like us". Although binary, it is not simple, we apply layer after layer as we build our picture of ourselves and the world around us. We love people for their similarities and we hate them for their differences. If we can make it past the superficial people can transition past these initial pigeon-holes into deeper associations. But that takes time and effort! Back to the sales job. The advertising and the endorsements build a picture for us. They prey on our logic cha...

One of the lads I train with asked me recently how I got into this training lark. And, as is customary, this got me to thinking... now just in my mid-30s, I've been involved in rugby (both codes) for 20 years. How on earth did that happen! Time is a slippery bugger, if you don't keep an eye on it, it will slip it's leash and make a dash for it! Now, it's not like I started with minis rugby either, it's almost all of my legally responsible life haas been spent in rugby in some way, shape or form.// No wonder my mum used to get frustrated that I never put the same commitment into my studies! At the end of my first season (or part season in truth) I started to consider the merits of getting bigger and stronger and took myself into town and signed up to the gym. I was working in a pub, so I had strange timings but some cash in my skyrocket and this seemed like the way to go. Tucked around the corner from the town centre was a spit and sawdust type place with some gnarle...

I've steadfastly tried to avoiding learning. What with all of the observing, having a go and helping others, there simply aren't enough hours in the day to get bogged down by this learning malarkey. And everybody will tell you that the smart people don't need to learn and life is easier if we just keep doing te same things. As a consequence, there are a great many things that I "know", things that are "right" or "true" which often get hidden or swamped by the habitual acts or "because we always have" approaches. One of the things that has slipped through the net and that I have learned (and the world keeps finding opportunities to reinforce it) seems to cross over from all walks of my life. Whether it is being punched in the face or having a difficult conversation with somebody, or going to work on your habits, or leading up the defensive line - it is almost inevitably better to take it on the front foot. That sporting analogy not wo...

"A pair of hot pants that will help you lose two dress sizes in just two weeks" "Tone your muscles just by walking around" "Thermonitrox detonator juice - blow your fat away with the pills of the stars" OK, so I made the name up on the last one but walk into any "health" shop and you'll find 101 pills and potions promising you an easy solution to your difficult problem. Happiness through advanced chemistry... Hang on, didn't we learn that was wrong at school? I'm not going to bash the nutroceutical companies (too much) in this post, that's a discussion for another day - suffice it to say that as a multiple-billion dollar global industry, their interests lie very much in sustaining a story and selling you a lot of stuff. To be honest, I can't criticise it too much, every organism seeks to survive. Businesses are no different. We have seen the aggressive, in a negative sense, face of capitalism in recent years but frankly, it is...