NONPROPHET ‘ENDURANCE’ PROGRAM. REVIEW
NICE PICTURES AND ILLUSTRATION ONLY BECOME ‘ART’ WHEN THEY EXCEED THE MEDIUM IT USES, AND NONPROPHETS ENDURANCE PROGRAM ZINE FINDS THAT FRACTAL EDGE OF THE TIRED AND OVER-SATURATED TRAINING INDUSTRY. PART MANUAL, PART POLEMIC, PART MANIFESTO, PART GRAPHIC PROJECT AND PART COFFEE TABLE PORN FOR THE ALTERNATIVE GYM CROWD, WHILST THE GRAPHIC CONTENT SETS A NICE AMBIENCE, IT IS THE INFORMATION WHERE THE ART IS FOUND.
NONPROPHETS ENDURANCE PROGRAM IS A WORK OF CHAOS – IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY – RETOOLING HOW THIS SORT OF STUFF IS PRESENTED IN A FORMAT CLOSER TO A MUSIC MAGAZINE THAN TO THAT OF A TRAINING MANUAL. ANY TRAINING BOOK THAT IS CONCISE AND CONVENIENT DESERVES SUSPICION, AND ENDURANCE DELIVERS ON BEING A POST MODERN ASSEMBLAGE SEEMINGLY UNINTERESTED IN BEING SHELVED ALONGSIDE THE MILLIONS OF OTHER BOOKS FLOGGING THE DEAD HORSES OF FITNESS. THIS BOOK TAKES EFFORT TO ABSORB, ASKS MUCH OF THE READER AND EXPECTS A PREREQUISIT OF KNOWLEDGE, WHICH ALTHOUGH NOT FINNEGANS WAKE, IS NOT ’10 STEPS TO YOUR FIRST MARATHON’ EITHER.
AT ONCE WALKING THE OVERLAP WHERE SERIOUS ATHLETICS, SERIOUS COMMERCIALISM, SERIOUS NAVEL GAZING AND SERIOUS RESEACRH INTERMIX, NONPROPHET HAS THE STRANGE POSITION OF BEING BOTH DISTANT OUTLIER AND TREND SETTER IN A FITNESS INDUSTRY THAT IN THEIR WORDS IS ‘FUCKED’. WHATEVER MARK TWIGHT HAS PUT OUT OVER HIS DECADES IN PUBLIC – ACROSS VARIOUS PLATFORMS AND WITH VARIOUS PARTNERSHIPS – HAS BEEN NOTORIOUSLY RADICAL AT FIRST, ONLY TO BECOME THE NEXT, NEXT, NEXT THING IN THE MAINSTREAM IN SOME WATERED DOWN VERSION AT THE GYMS.
ENDURANCE FITS THIS NICELY, AS A SORT OF ANTI-PROGRAM THAT IS LIGHT ON INSTRUCTIONS BUT HEAVY ON REASONING, AND THAT PUTS PRAGMATISM SO FAR IN THE FRONT SEAT IT UNDERMINES AN ENTIRE SECTOR THAT TRADES ON TELLING PEOPLE WHAT TO DO. ENDURANCE IS A SUBJECT THAT WARRANTS THE CHAOTIC AND MULTIFEROUS APPROACH, AS IT SITS SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HARD SPORTS SCIENCE, JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTING ON PRIMATES, AND WHERE NO FORMAT EXISTS FOR SUCH THINGS NONPROPHET HAS GONE AHEAD AND INVENTED ONE.
WHETHER IT WORKS OR NOT IS INDIVIDUAL – THERE IS A LOT OF MAPLETHORPESQUE PHOTOGRAPHY, FONT STYLES, MESSING WITH FORMATS AND ‘ART’ – SIDE BY SIDE WITH RAW AND HARD-EARNED INFORMATION THAT COEXISTS WITH, RATHER THAN IS COMPLIMENTED BY, THE PUNKISH GRAPHIC CONCEPT (SOMETHING NOT LOST ON OUR COMPANY THAT DOES SIMILAR…).
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PRETENTIONS AND AESTHETICS ASIDE, THE CONTENT HERE IS LUCID, INTELLIGENT, INTIMATE AND AUTHENTIC, AND SINCERELY WANTS PEOPLE TO GET THEIR ENDURANCE SHIT TOGETHER. NONPROPHET DEFINE ‘ENDURANCE’ WELL – FROM A DISTANCE, ACROSS A SPECTRUM AND BY INDICATION, LIKE PHOTOGRAPHING AN ATOM – AND SAVE US ALL THE SILLINESS OF CONDENSING EVERYTHING INTO CUTE AND CONVENIENT LITTLE TROPES. EGO IS NOT EXPRESSED NOR PANDERED TO WHEN IT COMES TO PRESENTING CONCEPTS TO WORK WITH, A SIGN THEY ARE THE ADULTS IN THE ROOM WHO DON’T NEED TO HIDE BEHIND BLUSTER AND BIG WORDS.
WHAT EXACTLY IS INSIDE THE COVERS IS NOT REALLY FOR US TO SAY, BEING A PRINTED REPRESENTATION OF ACTUAL PRACTICES THAT ARE ALIVE AND KICKING AND ACCESSIBLE, AND OF COURSE NONPROPHETS HARD EARNED CONCLUSIONS TO OWN. WITHOUT GIVING AWAY INFORMATION THAT SHOULD BE GOT FROM THE OWNERS, THE CONTENT IS A MENAGE OF A BEGUILINGLY STRAIGHTFORWARD PROGRAM THAT IS THE TOP OF A LARGE ICEBERG OF EXPLANATION, DISSECTION, ENQUIRY, EXPERIENCE AND CONCLUSIONS, PRESENTED IN VARIOUS WAYS RANGING FROM MANGA TO SIMPLE GRAPHS, MAGAZINE STYLE CHAPTERS AND JOURNAL ENTRIES.
THERE ARE NO DIAGRAMS OR EXOTIC EXERCISES OR ‘MUST DO’ SECRETS OR PROPRIETRY METHODS, BUT THEN NOR IS THERE JUST SOME OLD SCHOOL SYSTEM WE ALREADY KNOW REPACKAGED WITH PRETTIER PEOPLE AND HIPPER TEMINOLOGY FOR THOSE WHO MISSED IT LAST TIME. WHAT THERE IS, IS NEW REASONS AND NEW CONCLUSIONS AND HELL OF A LOT OF DISCARDING OF MYTHS, MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND OUTRIGHT BULLSHIT OF THE PAST, THAT FOR ALL THE WORDAGE AND NUANCE IS ACTUALLY BRUTALLY BASIC AND ROBUST.
THIS IS THE STUFF OF MAKING A HUMAN ANIMAL GO LONGER BY RECOMPOSING THE ORGANISM, AND FINDS NO PLACE FOR ‘HACKS’, EASY SOLUTIONS OR SPECIAL NUMBERS OF REPS, KCALS OR SUPPLEMENTS. ENDURANCE DOESN’T REDUCE TO A MEME OR MANTRA, STYLE OR IMAGE, BUT TO A REARRANGING OF THE CONTINUUM THAT LOOPS THE BRAIN, MIND AND FLESH.
THE FIXATIONS AROUND HYDRATION AND FOOD SPECIFICS FOUND IN TWIGHTS EARLY BOOKS ARE GONE, NO LONGER HAVING TO PREACH TO A SOCIETY THAT IS NEW TO POWER BARS, ELECTROLYTES AND FAT. THAT ELEMENT IS VASTLY SIMPLIFIED, WITHOUT ANY LOSS OF FIDELITY, TO THE DEGREE OF ICONOCLASM THAT WILL UPSET THE FANATICS, AND WORKS WELL TO DISMISS ANY NOTION THAT ENDURANCE CAN BE ‘HACKED’ OR WORKED AROUND BY BUYING THE RIGHT BRAND OF POWDERS.
THINGS ARE STILL VERY ‘ZONE HEAVY’, THOUGH AGAIN NOT HAVING TO EDUCATE WHAT IS NOW ESTABLISHED PLATFORM OF ATHLETIC TRAINING. HOWEVER NUANCED THAT STUFF MAY ACTUALLY BE NONPROPHET LEVERAGES THE BROAD PARADIGM FUNCTIONALLY, RECASTING THINGS SLIGHTLY FROM THE DECADE-OLD TRAINING FOR THE NEW ALPINISM WHICH WAS PERHAPS TOO HASTY IN PICKING A TITLE. ZONES STILL GET DEFINED BY THINGS LIKE METABOLICS AND RESPIRATORY STRESS, BUT AWAY FROM THE SPECIFICITY OF ALPINISM (WHERE WE INTERSECT WITH ALL THIS) FOLLOW A MUCH EASIER CURVE WITHOUT THE CAVEAT OF ALTITUDE.
HAVE WE DONE WHAT IT PRESCRIBES? YES, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN DOING A COURSE, IT MEANS ADAPTING AN ALCHEMY OF THINGS TO BECOME A BETTER ENDURING ORGANISM. ‘HAVING DONE THE PROGRAM’ IN THIS CONTEXT IS NOT LIKE HAVING DONE EVEN ITS CLOSEST COUSIN PROGRAMS SUCH AS THE MOUNTAINEERING, IMAGE AESTHETIC, COMPETITION AND MILITARY PROGRAMS NONPROPHET EVOLVED FROM, BUT SOMETHING CLOSER TO HOW MARTIAL ARTISTS INTEGRATE STYLES TO SUPPLEMENT, COMPLEMENT AND ENHANCE WHAT THEY DO.
THE ONE THING WE WILL SAY IS THAT THE TRAINING OUTLINED HITS HARD, AND DOESN’T MINCE WORDS WHEN IT COMES TO WHAT ENDURANCE MEANS. THIS IS THE STUFF YOU WOULD WISH YOU HAD DONE ALL THOSE TIMES WHEN FACED WITH YOUR LIMITS, AND CONCERNS THE TEARING OF REALITY OUT BEYOND WHERE MOST – MAYBE ALL – OTHER DEFINITIONS OF ENDURANCE END.
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NONE OF THIS IS ANYTHING THAT IS EASILY DESCRIBED, AND NONPROPHET ATTEMPT TO RELAY THE SUBJECT BY BREAKING THE STANDARD INDUSTRY MOLD. CLEARLY AS MUCH A PUBLISHING PROJECT AS A TRAINING ONE, THIS IS NOT A MANUAL PER SE, PRESENTING INFORMATION AND IDEAS RATHER THAN A FITNESS-BY-NUMBERS PRODUCT. THE READER NEEDS TO THINK AND THINK AGAIN AND RETHINK AND REAPPRAISE, AND IS PRESENTED WITH THE QUESTIONS TO ASK THEMSELVES RATHER THAN ANSWERS TO CONFORM TO.
IF YOU DON’T LIKE THINKING THIS PUBLICATION IS NOT FOR YOU, IN FACT IF YOU DON’T LIKE READING YOU WON’T GET FAR AS THE ELEMENT THAT IS LITERATURE IS A GATEWAY TO MUCH OF THE INFORMATION. NONPROPHET IN GENERAL SEEMS TO DEMAND A CERTAIN LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE AS ENTRY, PLUS A FACILITY WITH IRONY, SARCASM AND ABILITY TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES.
WHAT WE MAY HAVE HERE IS A FLEETING MOMENT IN THE EVOLUTION OF FITNESS TRAINING, WITH AN EARLY PROTOTYPE OF AN ALTERNATIVE WAY OF ‘DOING FITNESS’ THAT DOWN THE LINE WILL BE REDISCOVERED. IT IS UNLIKELY THE FITNESS INDUSTRY AT LARGE WILL DO ANYTHING OTHER THAN BECOME MORE CHEESY, MORE CONTRIVED, MORE EGO DRIVEN AND MORE SUPERFICIAL, MAKING REPOSITORIES OF INFORMATION LIKE THIS RELICS FOR THE FUTURE ALMOST LIKE STRANGE OCCULT BOOKS.
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ALREADY A FEW YEARS OLD, ALREADY BEING SUPERCEDED AND ALREADY OUT OF PRINT, WE HESITATED TO REVIEW THIS UNTIL WE OWNED A PHYSICAL COPY AFTER READING A BOOTLEG PDF A YEAR OR TWO AGO.
IF ANYTHING WE THINK THE BOOK IS A LITTLE TOO KIND, MORE ACCOMMODATING TO TODAYS FITNESS CONSUMER THAN IT HAS TO BE AND TOO WILLING TO PULL PUNCHES COMPARED TO TWIGHTS EARLIER RELEASES, BUT WE ALSO UNDERSTAND HE IS NOT THE SOLE AUTHOR AND THAT IT IS NOT 1998 AND THAT THIS WORK ISN’T EXPLICITLY ABOUT CLIMBING. BUT, FOR A GENERATION RAISED ON INTENSITY IT FEELS LIKE ANOTHER STEP BACK FROM THE EDGE, LIKE WHEN IGGY POP STARTED WEARING A SHIRT. WE LIKE IT, WE HAVE TO, BECAUSE WE VALUE THE CHANGE AND RESPECT THE PRODUCERS, AND IT FITS WITH OUR OWN ETHICS ABOUT REJECTING BEING MISTAKEN FOR BEING PART OF A CERTAIN INDUSTRY.
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*NONPROPHET WAS CONTACTED FOR COMMENT BUT AT THE TIME OF PRESENTATION HAD NOT RESPONDED