Why the Pain, What's the Gain? (eBook)

Running, jumping, lifting, pushing, stretching our bodies are naturally built to move and work, strengthen and adapt. Yet the gym is a 20th century phenomenon and working outa concept that has produced one of the worlds biggest industries: fitness. An industry whose changing ideals reflect societys cultural shifts on what it means to be fit, and how to have the perfect physique.Why the Pain? Whats the Gain?takes you on a guided tour of humankinds 3000-year wayward search for the perfect workout; from the dirt courtyards of the ancient Greek gymnasium to the birth of the modern gym in 19th-century Paris; to the weekend, beachside Olympic-caliber gymnasts of Santa Monica and Sydney. Daniel Kunitz seeks the answer to a simple yet profound question: Why do we work out?We will listen in on the innovators and charlatans who lifted the multibillion-dollar business of gym-fitness into being. We will learn how the womens movement sparked an enormous exercise boom and tell the story not only of how we arrived at the big-box gym era but also of the last decades acceleration into a new fitness frontier.Daniel Kunitz puts himself through the grit and pain of the cross fit, parkour and tough mudder regimes, searching not just for new-found physique, but on a quest to understand the pain and more precisely the gain of working out.