Movies That Inspire Fitness

Whenever I watch a movie that inspires a certain subject I like to look at from a fitness stand point and see what kind of dtermination and mind/body/spirit that represents it.

1. Vision Quest- The story of a high school wrestler who wants to drop an extreme amount of weight in a dangerous short period of time just to take on the top guy in the division. He puts himself through diets that can probably kill the average human being, runs a great deal on a daily basis and with all this going on, he falls inlove with an older woman. It never ceases to amaze me that a young man at that age goes from a confused hormonial boy to a determained and strong man.

2. Pumping Iron- This movie takes place a few months before the 1975 Mr. Olympia Contest where the top dog Arnold Schwarzenegger takes on the best of the best plus a newcomer in Lou Ferrigno. The focus of this film was to see how grueling the training is to be a top bodybuilder and to see how the mind works against the competition. Arnold in Venice Beach, CA is putting up hard workouts and using phsycology on his gymmates to make them either work harder or go home even though these people put on the same thinking caps, Arnold was running the ship. In New York, young Louie at 6'5 nearly 300 pounds was the largest bodybuilder at that time and pretty much doing things on his own under the guidence of his estranged father. You don't have to be an expert to understand how hard he fought not just for himself but to beat his idol Arnold.

3. The Longest Yard (2005)- A washed up football player is sent to prison and gets blackmailed into coaching and playing with his fellow cons against the sadistic guards. Not knowing how he's gonna pull it off he recruits some of the meanest people you can find and puts them through a typical NFL type training program but yet they don't have the heart and mind to play as a team. When you have 40 cons assembling as a team and some of the strongest and basddest people on the planet I don't believe a top 3 college or NFL team can stop them.


All in all, no matter how you put it fitness always plays a role in film whether its through the mind or through physical activity and i'm not talking about pansywaist machines or pink dumbbells or even a few toe touches no i'm talking hardcore, in your face do or die will power and don't give up. There are many movies that represent this so you can pick out what you want but give these 3 a try and see how you feel about them.