As a matter of fact.. The alpha male of the jocks, in the High School locker room (tempe, az), gave me his "nod of approval" (wasnt that but thats what it boils down to) in front of all the 300lbs fitness clowns. To their disapproval but they never really questioned it except for one idiot with poor impulse control. And I was, as far as they were concerned, an egghead. French to boot.
And it's in the US that I consciously, explicitely learned that brass tacks are the bottom line. That no amount of theory weighs as much as even the crappiest actual practical effort. That if something stupid works, it's not stupid.