Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie • Hacker News Board

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#331

Post by eru » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:52 AM UTC

TimothyBurgess wrote: post #135

I strongly disagree about the "stretching is bad for you" part... but I guess he did say "without your body warmed up"... you always want to stretch before working out but get your body warmed up first by jogging in place or doing jumping jacks or something for a few minutes. You want ballistic stretching and static stretching. It has without a doubt helped with my overall fitness while reducing soreness.

Have you looked at the relevant studies? Stretching can even cause soreness. (Wikipedia is a good starting point. See e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_onset_muscle_soreness#P... and just chase the citations.)

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#332

Post by sliverstorm » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 2:02 AM UTC

NickPollard wrote: post #70

ilovecomputers wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan spells it out very well, but I'll just give you my simple definition: Eating healthy is as close to eating dirt without actually eating dirt. Produce, grain, cheese, 1/2 pound to a pound of meat a week[1], and whatever else Marion Nestle recommends[1.5]. Just imagine what primitive man would eat.…

I'm not going to argue that what you describe isn't good, but 'nature intended us to' isn't a particularly solid argument. You could argue that nature intended us to die from Malaria by the age of 30, I'm very glad that for most of the world that's no longer the case.

Only time I'm satisfied with the 'nature intended us to' argument is some combination of walking/running. The way a good, smooth runner's body flows when they hit a fast jog screams to me "my skeletal and muscular structure was built for this!" Otherwise, yeah, as best I can tell adaptability is our only real designed-in-feature.

We're not as fast as most animals out there, but I don't think that means we didn't run a lot in prehistory.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#333

Post by joe_the_user » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 2:39 AM UTC

jerf wrote: post #165

jasonkester wrote: post #42

If you really want to get fit, there's one easy thing you can do that actually works: Take up a sport that gets you fit as a side effect. I have two obsessions in life: Rock Climbing and Surfing. I'm pretty good at the first, and borderline hopeless at the other, but I'm committed to the point where I've arranged my life so that I can travel for months at a time to pursue one or the other each year. When I'm working…

Every time there's an article on exercise or diet, there's a pileon of people promoting their own beliefs, with no apparent sign that they read the original link. How do you address the fact that your point is actively contradicted by the article? Did you even know your point is actively contradicted by the article? I'm not even saying that proves you're wrong; what bothers me is that you just ran off to post your ow…

Yes,

And problem is???

Usually these folks' discussions are more interesting than the original article.

I value hn because it has a variety of quite interesting individuals. Somehow some percentage have interesting take on physical fitness and physical culture - I have talk movement classes professionally in between hacker gigs and find the hn's folks' idea interesting and challenging.

Fitness is a very individual thing. If talking about individual experience with it is evil, give me more evil, please.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#334

Post by weaksauce » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 2:42 AM UTC

js2 wrote: post #186

jasonkester wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author talks about his experience or getting fit by going to a gym and lifting free weights. I countered with my approach, which revolves around setting your life up so that fitness is merely a side effect. I'm not contradicting anything that he says. I used to lift weights in much the manner that he describes, and it'd be difficult to deny that it works. The thing that he misses is motivation. Most people simply…

In my experience, climbing rocks and surfing, while possibly suboptimal as workouts, will absolutely get you into great shape. And they have the added benefit of providing their own motivation. Eh, I don't find rock climbing at all enjoyable. But I love running marathons. I've even been known to put in 22 miles _on a treadmill_. Different strokes for different folks.

He said to take up a sport that you love. Rock climbing is my passion as well but most certainly not for everyone. I am in much better shape now that I am a rock climber than before because of two reasons I do it a lot, and any outside trip is a hike with heavy gear. I honestly cannot stop thinking about my next climb and that is the kind of thing that will bring you fitness as a side effect.

If you love (insert sport/fit activity that you cannot stop thinking about) then do that and be super fit because you love it. That was the op's point.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#335

Post by mkr-hn » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 2:47 AM UTC

mixmastamyk wrote: post #286

bane wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A couple years ago I worked on a market research contract for a food grower that tried to answer the opposite, "what does all natural mean" (or some set of synonyms)? Turns out it's virtually impossible to define it. Here was one of the exercises we went through: 1) Take an orange, grown in the wild without being touched in any way by the hand of man. 2) If you eat that orange, are you eating something that's "all na…

Uranium is all-natural. ;)

Also natural: A furious ball of gas floating in space, waiting for the right imbalance to terminate our brief existence.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#336

Post by argv_empty » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 2:56 AM UTC

nitrogen wrote: post #313

argv_empty wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to USDA, the recommended (carb, fat, protein) calorie distribution is (53%, 29%, 18%). Looking at McDonald's nutrition facts, the hamburger follows this distribution pretty closely; the other sandwiches appear to skew towards fat. Even fries still only get half their calories from carbs (and almost half from fat, well above the recommended 29%). When eating out, fat is cheap. Again, good meat and produce (r…

Where do you buy your affordable meat and produce? Every time I buy raw ingredients for a meal I end up spending like $25 (plus $100 worth of my time) for one or two servings that I could've got for $15 from Applebee's.

Where do you buy your affordable meat and produce?

The grocery store (and I don't mean some specialty place like Whole Foods -- if we're talking about eating on a tight budget, something like Wal-Mart will be much more helpful).

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#337

Post by kareemm » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 3:48 AM UTC

msy wrote: post #34

Given he calls Crossfit sadistic it's ironic he's basically describing it. Free weights, core strength, a focus on overall fitness and all aspects thereof over abstract weight numbers. It's not complicated and plenty of people know it. Hyperbolic headlines are intensely irritating.

Agreed. Over the years Crossfit has embraced the teachings and methods of coaches the author praises, including Mark Ripptoe and the Westside Barbell guys.

> Hyperbolic headlines are intensely irritating.

Jason Fried said yesterday: "Something I didn't know when I started writing for Inc: The authors don't write the headlines. The editors write the headlines and subheads."

(from http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2271625)

Perhaps it's the same at Mens Journal.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#338

Post by cma » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 4:17 AM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #199

yummyfajitas wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If obesity is a disease of poverty, then how come truly poor people (e.g., the poor in India or China) are skinny? Lack of money for food is not a cause of obesity. If your goal is to obtain 2500 calories (assuming that is what you need to maintain a healthy weight) for a little money as possible, you will consume 2500 calories of carbs. You will not become obese. If you instead consume 3500 calories and become obese…

If obesity is a disease of poverty, then how come truly poor people (e.g., the poor in India or China) are skinny? Corn subsidy in the U.S.. Not much else to say.

Corn subsidies in the US since more than a decade are mostly for fuel; the net effect is to make corn use for food more expensive, not less.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#339

Post by code_duck » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 4:17 AM UTC

jasonkester wrote: post #42

If you really want to get fit, there's one easy thing you can do that actually works: Take up a sport that gets you fit as a side effect. I have two obsessions in life: Rock Climbing and Surfing. I'm pretty good at the first, and borderline hopeless at the other, but I'm committed to the point where I've arranged my life so that I can travel for months at a time to pursue one or the other each year. When I'm working…

Even better, take up a daily activity as a matter of routine that gets you fit as a side effect.

I locked up my care for a summer and biked to the coffee shop and grocery store every day.Before long I was taking 5 mile bike rides on the spur of the moment. I lost about 35 pounds that summer. Unfortunately, I live somewhere that has a winter which makes biking impossible. I should have switched to cross country skiing or something I guess... if only they groomed ski paths on the side of the street.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#340

Post by dasil003 » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 4:25 AM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #298

dasil003 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not. Running on the ground you push yourself forward. On a treadmill the amount of work you are doing can vary quite a bit by technique (ie. how much contact you are making with the treadmill) because you are not actually propelling yourself.

A treadmill makes me run at a pace that is faster than I would run outside though.

Sure, your benefit is still proportional to your effort, but if you look at the odometer and think that you've ran 10 miles just because 10 miles of belt passed underneath you, then you really need to run outside once in a while.