I want to talk about something that we don’t talk about.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we don’t do weekly weigh ins, 12-week transformations, or spray-tan photoshoots. The topics of aesthetics, melting body fat, getting shredded, and other fitness industry parlance don’t come up at Bua.
We are a gym that isn’t focused on looking good, but instead on functioning athletically. But if we’re honest, this isn’t the full truth either.
I am not naive to realities, and I want to be very explicit about this. I know everyone cares deeply about how they look, and it’s likely the main reason many people train at Bua. And what’s more, I am 100% on board with that goal. I am someone who appreciates aesthetic beauty, whether that be in nature, art, architecture and design, or in people.
So yes, I’m on board.
I also program every week with that goal in mind. I know that there is an amount of exertion required to achieve this goal. Accounted for in the programming each week is a volume of muscular time-under-tension, work in different HR zones and an overall intensity that is required to see changes in body composition. We hit all of the muscle groups, and we have cardio for days.
It’s been factored in, it’s being taking care of.
It’s just not explicit.
I choose to stay quiet in this topic for a few reasons.
First, how we look is just not as important as how we function, or our health. It just isn’t. Both function and health are far more consequential for our life. They take precedent in every way at Bua.
Second, I spent many years in the aesthetic game and I deeply disliked the process. I found it to be a very difficult goal to manage for people. It gets counterproductive, even toxic, for so many. Goals focused around what we can do rather than how we look sustains us so much better.
Third, whatever becomes the stated goal gets dialled up. Its opens the door to vanity being normalised, and vanity run-amok is hard to bear. I just don’t want to be around it. The topic at best becomes dull, and at worst, becomes exhausting.
So, while its important to people, I am happy for it to take a back seat. For it to be a secondary effect. For it to be a happy consequence of building a body that is an absolute fuckin weapon. A body so capable, it looks exactly how it should look. Like an athlete.
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