Image Credit: SI.com

In a sport known for its trash talk, boastfulness, and elaborately arcane jargon, Marshawn Lynch’s mouth is the exception. Whether wearing a distinctive mask or remaining taciturn in interviews, one of the world’s greatest rushers has made a name for himself precisely be keeping his mouth closed. This reticence—as well as his resultant struggles with the NFL powers-that-be—that makes him a fascinating icon of our current trust in fitness as a source of security in a very economically uncertain time. 

Image Credit: Abbey Gallagher

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This is not an ad.

It is, however, a shameless account of my fixation on the Jawbone UP24 fitness app. I'll admit, I love data, especially highly specific digital data. Admittedly, some of my organizational tendencies are old-school. Every day, I make a note card filled with every single thing I'll do in the next twenty-four hours, including "drink 3/4 gallon of water" and "exercise." I'm not sure why I like the note cards in spite of my plethora of technology--all of which is capable of organizing and replicating my to-do lists. I think maybe I fetishize the documentation of it. I really like running a nice line through each of my tasks. The actual exercise from the list, though, I need to be as techy as possible. I want records of my heart rate, my sleep cycles, my weight training routines. And I want them to be pretty.

So a little over a year ago, while recovering from spinal surgery, I bought an UP24. For anyone who isn't familiar with fitness wearables, I give you the UP:

Image Credit: Jawbone 

Image Credit: Females in Action Read more about New Year, New You: Exploitative Timing and Misdirection in Weight Loss Ads

Before starting up for the spring semester, we would like to take a moment to remember Jim Wiedner. Those of us on the viz. team had the privilege of working with Jim both on the blog and in the Digital Writing and Research Lab. In every writer’s meeting, Jim was always incredibly kind and thoughtful to each of us. We'll miss viz.'s “Resident Dude”—as both a colleague and a friend. We hope the posts below give you a sense of the Jim we knew: a funny, sharp, and well-dressed guy a heart of gold. Read more about Remembering Jim Wiedner

Note: the following blog was slated to be published last week, but due to technical difficulties got pushed back a week. While I considered going with more topical material this week, I decided ultimately that it would be tragic if the Viz blog ignored the wonders of Left Shark, not to mention Marshawn Lynch's ironic relation to the culture of extreme fitness.

  Read more about The Super Bowl, Visual Rhetoric, and Marshawn's Mask