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Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

cnn.com

221–230 of 233 posts

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#221
post #5

The article's title is somewhat misleading. The study emphasises the level of fitness rather than the regularity of exercise. [0] > Question: What is the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and long-term mortality? > Findings: In this cohort study of 122 007 consecutive patients undergoing exercise treadmill testing, cardiorespiratory fitness was inversely associated with all-cause mortality without an obse…

That's a little pedantic, even for HN, don't you think? "Oh, it's not the exercise that's important, it's the stuff that happens BECAUSE you exercise."

Here’s another reason it isn’t pedantic. Without being precise, you get headlines like not exercising is worse for you than smoking: https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/guid/12511EDC-D4E7-11E...

“Smoking is bad, but sitting around doing nothing is even more deadly, study shows”

That study didn’t show anything like that!

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

reminder that getting a professional trainer and a nutritionist is a luxury, you can easily learn how to diet and exercise off the internet the way that people learn programming

How many articles on programming techniques have you seen that were written by non-programmers, by people who are just writing about coding in order to try to sell you hardware, or by kept spouses, programming to justifying their existence, and to have a 'job' to tell people about at cocktail parties? Fitness and nutrition information is drowning online in a sea of woo.

It's so funny but it's so true. I do feel it takes a similar degree of ad hoc research though, if you have the ability to learn how to program an app with certain degree of complexity then I believe you have the capacity to search, find and judge information pertinent to fitness and diet. Of course, it's not as easy as googling "how to be fit" and clicking on the first 5 articles.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#223
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like 50% of runners get injured in a given year. It’s insane. Do something that’s easier on your body. If you want cardio, hike or bike. I like weight lifting, personally. If you want to try weight lifting, check out Starting Strength.

No way. That's not true. I've been running for 10 years now. Never have I been injured. Also my friends did not suffer injuries neither. If you like lifting, that's fine. But that does not mean running is worse that lifting or that you could even compare them. It just means that you are used to lifting and you are rationalising your choice.

The 50% may or may not be true, but your personal experience says very little about that overall statistic.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#224
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like 50% of runners get injured in a given year. It’s insane. Do something that’s easier on your body. If you want cardio, hike or bike. I like weight lifting, personally. If you want to try weight lifting, check out Starting Strength.

No way. That's not true. I've been running for 10 years now. Never have I been injured. Also my friends did not suffer injuries neither. If you like lifting, that's fine. But that does not mean running is worse that lifting or that you could even compare them. It just means that you are used to lifting and you are rationalising your choice.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1439399/

37-56%. Literally the top result when I googled for “running injury rates”.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#225
post #80
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very shortsighted statement, but I can see where you're coming from. I thought the same way when I was in my late teens/early twenties. Was a way for me to justify unhealthy food, smoking and alcohol. Now I'm 30 and slowly realized it's not true. Living healthy when you're young doesn't have short-term reward. But I'm pretty sure when you're 50+ you'll be happy that you ate healthy, exercised and had a way t…

> "If you're mentally and physically fit, you can do as much with 65 as you do with 20 today." Can you, though? You're definitely long past your peak physically and in terms of testosterone. I don't know if intellectual decline is a factor at that age. You can definitely still do a lot, but I don't think you can come close to your abilities at age 20.

Yeah, I mean it'll be harder to become a professional athlete or something, but you can surely do 99% of what people normally do in their lives.

There are definitely 65-year-olds who are fitter than some of the 20-year-olds you see :-)

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#226
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our bodies evolved to be a lot more active than the average person today. I would be surprised if it's the only thing that exercise helps and as such I would be skeptical about how beneficial a pill would be.

Well, too bad, we need to find ways to change those settings.

Exercise can be pretty enjoyable if you find a way that suits you. Personally I can't stand the monotony of the gym, but I love mountain biking or white water kayaking. The later has benefited me in my life so much - it has taken me to amazing countries that I doubt I would have visited otherwise and I have made some amazing people through the sport. There is no way that a pill could compete with that.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#229
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

”If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good” I don’t see the need to mention biology. I think every reasonable definition of “exercise” automatically implies that exercise is good. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise says: ”Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness”

Which part of that is not biology?

The self-fulfilling prophecy part. If you define exercise as enhancing fitness and health, overtraining isn’t exercise anymore, and exercise by definition becomes good for you.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#230
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No way. That's not true. I've been running for 10 years now. Never have I been injured. Also my friends did not suffer injuries neither. If you like lifting, that's fine. But that does not mean running is worse that lifting or that you could even compare them. It just means that you are used to lifting and you are rationalising your choice.

The 50% may or may not be true, but your personal experience says very little about that overall statistic.

Right, so it does.
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