Friday, February 06, 2009

Grab Your Doritos and Get to the Couch - Jockeys Premieres

Tonight is the first installment of the much-ballyhooed reality TV series, Jockeys.

The first time I saw a promo for Jockeys was a couple of days ago, on FitTV while I was working out with Gilad, the fitness guru who conducts his workouts on the beautiful beaches of Hawaii with his ensemble of beautiful individuals who look so ridiculously happy when he's guiding them through a regimen of inner thigh and abdominal exercises that it makes me wish I could quit all this stupid fitness stuff and sit down with a bag of Doritos and watch All My Children because Greenlee and Erica having a cat-fight would be a lot more appealing than listening to Gilad bellow, "Feel your muscles burn! You can do it! You want it!".

Anyway, I found the placement of the Jockeys promo interesting because, quite frankly, there is little resemblance between Gilad and jockeys.


And furthermore, when I think of "fit", jockeys don't exactly come to mind. Granted, there is an element of athleticism required to be a 100-pound jockey, but making weight can present a big challenge.

The severe weight restrictions placed on jockeys often necessitates the use of extreme measures to achieve the necessary weight to compete. Current methods of rapid weight loss reported to be used by jockeys include restricted calorie and fluid intake; starvation; saunas; exercising while wearing sweat suits; purging; and the occasional use of diuretics and laxatives. [Irish Times]

Not exactly fit.

Additionally, according to Jockeys' website,

The Jockeys' Guild receives 2,500 injury notifications in a year. The average jockey gets sidelined by injuries about three times a year.

Perhaps a promo on FitTV's Rebuilt: The Human Body Shop would be more applicable.

Regardless, I look forward to watching the television series. So, Tune-in or TiVo. And remember: Work for it! You want it! You can do it!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, they are very fit. You don't know of what you speak

suebroux said...

Anon, you are quite right - I certainly didn't mean to imply that jockeys are neither fit or athletic. Of course they are! My apologies for coming across as flippant and shallow. However, there are some whose "weight loss strategies" would not be deemed as healthy.

Anonymous said...

Greetings from MN. I tend to agree jockeys are fit as well. Please google "drunken jockey assault". You'll find the word "sexual" hits well too. What I think this means is that if Gilad and his mother ever get involved in a bar fight with a jockey, the odds are clearly against them. If there are TWO jockeys...