Gymflesh® Frequently Asked Questions

What is Gymflesh®?
          Gymflesh Corporation (St Diesel Mountain, Continental Village, NY) is an interdisciplinary proactive, holistic health organization, incorporated under the New York State Education Dept, State University of NY, providing a wide range of services and products relating to exercise and complete wellbeing. Gymflesh® offers these educational benefits to the public through its four divisions: Gymflesh® School, Gymflesh® Press, Gymflesh® Gear, and Gymflesh® Gym.
          We have a staff of health education and medical exercise professionals that are experts in areas ranging from philosophy and wisdom traditions, medical practice and physics, exercise and fitness protocols, sports and athletics, military procedures and martial arts, kinesiology and physiatry, prevention and rehabilitation, psychological and behavioral sciences, physical and occupational therapies, wellness and nutritional guidelines, and more. Gymflesh® presents custom-designed programs and inclusive services for your complete health and exercise needs that makes us unrivaled and distinctive.

Why the name Gymflesh®? It’s odd, isn’t it?
          This is a serious play on words, a semantic discordance, used to emphasize our holistic health philosophy.
          Everyone has flesh. But everyone also has a mind and a heart. Gymflesh® strives to educate and advance the health of the whole person.
          To access the mind and the heart, the tangible, universal equipment we all own is flesh. Gymflesh® trains the flesh but also exercises the mind and the heart toward providing complete health prescriptions. When you hear the word Gymflesh®, it should remind you that our services and products start with exercising your flesh, but we do not stop there. We proceed to advance your intelligence and your essence as we better your flesh.
          Gymflesh® requires full activation of the mind and the heart along with the flesh. Health of the flesh is equal with health of the mind and the heart. It all starts with Gymflesh®.

Does Gymflesh® have a code of ethics?
          Gymflesh® adheres strictly to the Hippocratic Oath and to the universal medical precept: "First, do no harm" — "Primum non nocere" — somewhat based on Hippocrates' "I will do no harm or injustice to them" («επι δηλησει δε και αδικιηι ειρξειν»). We also subscribe to United Nations' instruments and documents, and to UNESCO's "Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights."
          N.B.: The Rod of Asklepios (at right) encircled by an abridged version of the wisdom of Hippocrates: "Life, short. Art [of medicine], long. Time, ephemeral. Judgments, critical. Physicians must be prepared not only to do what is right themselves, but also to make the patient, assistants, and externals cooperate" («Ὁ βίος βραχύς, ἡ δὲ τέχνη μακρή, ὁ δὲ καιρὸς ὀξὺς, ἡ δὲ πεῖρα σφαλερὴ, ἡ δὲ κρίσις χαλεπή»).

How does Gymflesh® define “health”?
          Gymflesh Corporation adheres to the universal definition provided by the World Health Organization: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
          We believe that authentic health is more than being without illness or a physiological challenge. Health must also include intellectual fitness and interpersonal wellness. As a result, the mind and the heart must be enhanced simultaneously with the flesh.

What is “proactive healthcare”?
          Most people start exercise regimens when they have to, when they are forced by external demands. These include anything from wanting to look physically attractive to medical requirements for times like post-surgery recovery or rehabilitation necessities. Usually these people start exercising, then they stop once they’ve reached their quick goals or they lose motivation and quit. This is what Gymflesh® calls reactive healthcare. A person reacts to a serious demand.
          Healthcare in America is reactive; people only go to a doctor or to a hospital when something bad happens to their health. Otherwise, they give no thought to preventive exercise, what Gymflesh® calls proactive healthcare. Proactive healthcare is living a lifestyle of health and exercise as a prevention for the flesh and its 12 systems.
          Rather than waiting until an injury happens, or trauma, or illness and disease, or weakness, or respiratory problems, or weight-gain, or sexual dysfunction, or neuromusculoskeletal pathologies, or aging, or any thing that goes wrong with the flesh, Gymflesh® urges everyone to participate in proactive healthcare strategies and exercise, not just to reactive emergency situations.

What are the Gymflesh® MEST® Techniques?
          MEST® is an acronym for Medical Exercise and Structural Training Techniques that only Gymflesh® offers.
          The Gymflesh® MEST® Techniques require education about one’s own flesh and its 12 systems in order to better the overall human structure. If your structure is sound and whole, then your functioning follows in a healthy, all-present way. When your structure is impeded or damaged, your functioning will be, also. Gymflesh® provides the foundation for structural betterment. After that, any function is possible and doable.
          Common, non-medical exercise styles give attention only to the external physical flesh and some of its functions, like what it can do, how it can act. These methods define the flesh by its outer performance, not by its inner structure. Generic exercise plans present routines without consideration for the internal designs of the human flesh, so their designs usually impede function and damage structure. Many unschooled, non-degreed "personal trainers" pawn off functional-outer exercises to their clients as physical fitness. Gymflesh® is just as concerned about external physiology but does so with medical structural-internal prescriptions for a continuum of total health.
          Remember: A house may be quite pretty and colorful on the outside, but if it’s built poorly inside, if its structure isn’t solid or lasting, its functioning will always fail when faced with any act of nature like high winds, torrential rains, earthquakes, trauma. And we all know, the human flesh is always susceptible to attack from outside forces working against our complete health and well-being of mind-flesh-heart.
          The Gymflesh® MEST® Techniques will protect your inner person in the most necessary and pleasant ways. Regardless of your age or present physical abilities, Gymflesh® provides proactive healthcare strategies to last a lifetime.

Why do I need health education? I just want to be fit and workout.
          Human flesh is a complex being. As an owner of this physical form, each of us should know a lot about our own physical structure and functions. This allows us to make educated informed consent decisions about our health and the healthcare we receive.
          Too often we allow others (physicians, nurses, and other health allies) to make our decisions, trusting in their opinions. Each of us needs to learn about our own flesh and its 12 systems so we can determine our own plans of action for health and exercise.
          A Gymflesh® education about the flesh not only prepares you to know about yourself, but also how to take ownership of your own health and exercise wants and needs. If you are seeking a lifestyle of health and fitness, not just a quick fix program, then Gymflesh® speaks to you.  
 

What makes Gymflesh® different from all other styles of training?
          Gymflesh® defines the human as a body of three coexisting parts: flesh, mind, and heart. To attain complete health, one needs to intensify all three aspects concurrently.
          When people enter a gymnasium, they do not leave their minds and hearts outside of the arena. The whole person is called into play. If the flesh is healthy, but the mind or the heart remains diseased, that person lacks complete health.
          Gymflesh® encourages total participation of the mind-flesh-heart human so that one has complete health, as WHO states: "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."
          Gymflesh® is the only health education and medical exercise organization providing comprehensive academic studies along with physical work and heart-centered enrichment.

Is Gymflesh® right for me?
          We hope Gymflesh® is. But then, we might not be. All participants have to ask themselves if they want to start a lifelong commitment to optimal health physically, mentally, and spiritually. Some people only want to exercise their flesh for personal reasons: physical attraction, sports activities, rehabilitation, and the like. Often these people have no desire to become educated about the structure of their own flesh.
          Gymflesh® takes the time to know each participant, makes every moment with you centered on you as a whole person, mind-flesh-heart. You must decide for yourself if you want a comprehensive, whole-person health and exercise program or something less, unfulfilling, and incomplete. You decide; we provide. All Gymflesh® educational programs are custom designed and unique to advancing each participant's mental, physical, and social health. Many desire Gymflesh®, yet few are qualified. A lot are common; most are not elite. The majority simply do generic exercises and throw weights or blast out aerobics; the chosen do gymnasium as art, do complete health as a lifestyle.

Where do I start with Gymflesh®?
          Browse through our website and visit each Gymflesh® division and get to know our vision for your health. There is much to read and learn, even more to challenge you and fulfill you. We’re sure you’ll find many things here that speak to you and that you’d like to know more about. If you don’t see something particular that you’d like us to provide for you, or if you want a custom-designed program to meet your special needs, let us know and we’ll be glad to work with you. Please email us or phone us with any inquiry you have. We will review your inquiry and inform you whether or not Gymflesh® is able to provide you with appropriate goods and services.

Who can participate with Gymflesh®?
          Whether you are a beginner, a thrill or curiosity seeker, an advanced athlete, military servicemember, a law enforcement officer, a firefighter, or an elite emergency services worker, Gymflesh® has everything you need to advance your health and exercise lifestyle, and to be your personal guide through all stages of your progress. We are sure you’ll appreciate our longstanding experience and professional expertise as the leading authority on health education and medical exercise. Join Gymflesh® now and participate as we are Making the Everyday Hero Athlete™. We look forward to having you with us.

How do I participate with Gymflesh?
          Each participant in any Gymflesh® program must submit a completed and signed Consent to Education and Exercise Form. Download the form here.  Please complete the form, sign it, and mail the original to: Gymflesh® Gym, POB 475, Tappan, NY 10983-0475. Phone Gymflesh® Gym at 212-714-8000, ext 7, with your specific questions. Some participants may be asked to submit a requisite supplemental Confidential Health Status Form. Failure to accept the terms and conditions of any of these Participant Informed Consent Forms will not allow you to participate in any manner in any Gymflesh® program. For additional information, please read our Legal Notices.

What are the fees to participate in Gymflesh®?
          All services and goods are custom designed to meet individual and group needs. Group programs start at USD $4,500. Individual services, including consultation, start at USD $700 per 90-minute session (15 hours minimum). Terms, conditions, and fees depend upon your specific requests. Write us for our exclusive prices and a list of your prerequisites for Gymflesh® membership. All correspondence is strictly confidential. Gymflesh® never shares or sells its membership or mailing lists. Your privacy is just as valuable to us as are your physical health successes. Terms, conditions, and fees depend upon your specific, exclusive requests. See Sample Programs and Terms of Service.

Does Gymflesh® make special accommodations for or provide special discounts to victims and survivors of human rights violations to help their complete health?

          Yes, we do. We provide significant reductions in fees, not in services, for qualifying Protected Classes victims and survivors of discrimination, harassment, hate crimes, and other human rights violations. All communications are restricted and confidential. Please phone or email the Medical Director.

 

If Gymflesh® issues Master Athletic Educator (Personal Trainer) certifications, why are they free?
          We only offer nationally-recognized "Master Personal Trainer and Athletic Instructor" certifications. Gymflesh® Master Personal Trainers and Athletic Instructors are schooled under strict academic guidelines and must meet the comparable standards of higher education. Gymflesh® does not sell certifications (nor do ours have expiration dates), unlike most physical exercise training companies and pay-as-you-go fitness businesses who mass produce trainers while marketing short-term, renewable certificates. A matriculated Gymflesh® School student in good standing, once invited, earns the privilege to be Gymflesh® Master Personal Trainer and Athletic Instructor and receives the certificate only upon academic and peer review and top-tier graduation. For more information, visit Gymflesh® School.

 

Does Gymflesh® address social problems that affect health and impact exercise?
          Yes. In fact, upon request, our programs talk directly to many pressing social issues, Gymflesh® knows many social problems remain unaddressed and unspoken and unhealed. Where most people either deny or avoid the real-time social problems impacting complete health, Gymflesh® dares open the dialogue and have long-overdue conversations about these public crises. Some of the urgent topics needing immediate and long-term interventions, that only Gymflesh® speaks boldly to, are:
 

Depression, stress, and trauma, PTSD. — Rage and aggression. — Misogyny, misandry, bullying, and domestic violence. — Racism, sexism, ageism and discrimination. — Political divisions and nationalism. — Economic and class structures. — Religious and belief discrimination, fanaticism, and bigotry. — Self-injury and suicide. — Redacted statistics and unrecorded data. — Played-out habits and timeworn practices. — Nepotism, favoritism, and unearned advantage. — Cultural and ethnic exclusivity and arrogance. — Unsafe, impersonal, and degrading sexual practices. — Being single, divorced, separated, or widowed. — Alcohol use, abuse, and alcoholism. — Illegal and illicit substance abuse. — Pharmaceutical and various addictions. — Tobacco, chew, spit, and snuff. — Homophobia, heterosexism, and unlawful hate crimes. — Additional idiosyncratic topics as requested.

Gyms Without Borders™
In 2007 Gymflesh® founded Gyms Without Borders™ (Gymnases Sans Frontières™, GSF; Γυμναστήρια Χωρίς Σύνορα™, ΓΧΣ) as a nonprofit, international humanitarian aid agency for people in health crises. This developing project works with teams of global experts in local communities helping save lives, defending quality of life, preserving complete health (mental, physical, social), and advocating human rights protocols. Its mission is to develop and sustain preventive health education and medical exercise preparedness for an immediate and significant reduction in incidences of mortality, morbidity, disability, injury, and stress disorders. For more information and ways to help, write Info@GymsWithoutBorders.org.