81–90 of 179 posts
I’m going to blithely ignore the article, as it’s from Forbes, and just segue into something I’m curious about: how are gyms reopening, or not, where you live? Here in Ontario, it seems like the many† gyms have gone to appointments, to deal with capacity limits, and to do extra cleaning. (Notably, the dominant chain gym. https://www.goodlifefitness.com/goodlife-standard ) What about where you’re at? I ask because I a…
If you have an old bike that you want to sell, the premiums are almost 20-50% more. Some people are selling 3 year old bikes for MSRP. It's crazy right now.
One of the craziest thing I have noticed is bikes have been sold out everywhere. You can't find a $1500 entry level road bike. My friends are telling me the cheapest they are seeing are starting to be $2-3k. If you have an old bike that you want to sell, the premiums are almost 20-50% more. Some people are selling 3 year old bikes for MSRP. It's crazy right now.
I've been meaning to DIY a squat rack in the garage but I need a bar, and I haven't even bothered to check that. I assume they're hard to find and selling for over-normal-price used, same as everything else.
The only people I know who seem to feel really good about their COVID fitness levels are those who prioritized it before the pandemic and are so committed that they were willing and able to figure out alternatives. People who didn't prioritize it or struggled to get into sustainable schedules are doing poorly. Even some of my friends who had really good routines fell into pretty serious depressions at the start of it…
One of the craziest thing I have noticed is bikes have been sold out everywhere. You can't find a $1500 entry level road bike. My friends are telling me the cheapest they are seeing are starting to be $2-3k. If you have an old bike that you want to sell, the premiums are almost 20-50% more. Some people are selling 3 year old bikes for MSRP. It's crazy right now.
It's not a new golden age of fitness. There may be a short-term boon, but people's motivation will eventually nose dive without social interaction. "Previously, 50% of gym-goers quit after 6 months." Why would you not expect the same thing to happen with people's quarantine workout motivations? We're still within the first 6 months of quarantine.
The best hope is (a) social pressure to attend class, with (b) class costs plummeting due to logistics and competition. However, the glut of supply may make it hard for people to cluster together into classes
I think this is unlikely at least until social distancing goes away. The average class size has decreased significantly in order to make social distancing possible.
Pre-covid, classes at our gym were sometimes so packed that you couldn't comfortably do a forward lunge without stepping on the person in front of you.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to use isometrics pretty heavily. That style pretty much means you do not use much equipment at all. For me it was an old sturdy chair and a heavy couch to pin my feet under. Diet for weight, exercise for strength. I used good portions of the Charles Atlas program. I skipped his diet as I was not looking for body building. Just kept myself under my 1100 caloric number (varies on height and age). Just wanted so…
I'm not a nutritionist but 1100 calories a day is very, very low for most adults. As a comparison, the Minnesota starvation study fed participants a little over 1500 calories a day.
This is better known as the Protein-Sparing Modified Fast (PSMF). Still an intense diet — after all it's an intelligent way to crash diet.
Long-term... not such a good idea unless you are obese.
Based on my social circle, no. A few people I know used the lockdown as an opportunity to improve their diet, find ways to exercise that don't require access to a gym, etc. but the majority have just gained weight, gotten more online, and generally become less healthy.
One definite benefit I've noticed is the lack of eating out. When I was commuting to Boston every day, most of my eating was based on convenience or opportunity; I was out of the house for twelve to thirteen hours a day, and taking the time to make a meal just wasn't realistic. Now that I'm home all day, prepared-at-home meals are not just more realistic, they're (for the most part) the only option. And this doesn't…
Now that restaurants have opened back up, I've gone out a few times, and half the meals haven't been that satisfying, considering how strong the food game has gotten at home.
BTW, we're pretty lucky in Boston to have so many Trader Joe's around. I can literally eat like a king on $50 to $60/week (I still eat meat and salmon). (Not counting alcohol.)
I'm lacking in the weight lifting department, would be nice to get a bench/olympic bar, but I'm having a lot of fun cycling.
The only people I know who seem to feel really good about their COVID fitness levels are those who prioritized it before the pandemic and are so committed that they were willing and able to figure out alternatives. People who didn't prioritize it or struggled to get into sustainable schedules are doing poorly. Even some of my friends who had really good routines fell into pretty serious depressions at the start of it…
One tip that helped me a ton – if you're WFH, turn your former commute (or some % of your former commute), and force yourself to work out during this time. I started that at the beginning of COVID and without exaggeration it's been life-changing. I put 0 pressure on myself to hit goals, I just run / do pushups / walk briskly, but I make sure to use the commute time on that rather than working more or browsing the int…