Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I found this in an advertisement for Aleve.

I thought it was a great motivational photo to paste in a collage with all my pictures of how I want my body to look when I get to goal, so I tore it out of the magazine.

The underlying message of the advertisement is take Aleve and you’ll be able to keep exercising through the pain. THAT message isn’t quite as positive as the initial euphoria of “Never Stop Moving.” Aleve is a non-steriodal anti-inflammatory drug called naproxen sodium. It’s like aspirin or ibuprofen, but totally different than acetaminophen.

For a long time, Advil ran advertising calling their product “Vitamin I.” I’ve even heard runners refer to ibuprofen as Vitamin I. The idea of just popping a pill instead of giving your body the rest it deserves after hard exercise isn’t the healthiest mindset to subscribe to. It looks like Aleve is jumping on that bandwagon.

There are risks to every medication. I’ve written an article here about the problems with over the counter pain relief:

• Starling Fitness » Drugstore Pain Relief

I love the idea of Never Stop Moving. I love the idea of working out every day, no matter what. I HATE the idea of choosing to take an Aleve rather than giving my muscles a rest. In the end, I choose to take the image as inspirational and forget all about what they were trying to advertise.