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Squats can boost brain activity [video]

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Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ll give you my 2 cents about Starting Strength. And please remember this is a sample size of n = 1. Other people (including yourself) will obviously have very different outcomes. TL;DR - starting strength got me to the strongest I’ve ever been. It got me stronger than I’ve ever been in my life. I’m 45 now and started when I was 32. I went from 180ish pounds to 230ish pounds in 19 months. I went from squatting the b…

I've read the book, and I'm still not sure wear the "gain killing" ideas come from. The not doing the program sub-chapter seems to focus on hitting calorie targets and bar weight targets. Presumably "cardio" means you burn even more energy, but as long as you eat enough, I think it's within scope. Your advice is solid though. Rippetoe focuses on increasing strength, so any other goals or constraints are up to the tra…

I don’t believe it is in the books. I’d have to dig out the blue book and verify. But I think most of it comes from Rippetoe himself - forums, seminars, YouTube, etc.

For example, I went to one of his seminars in 2008 (I think. It’s been a minute). And someone asked about slow running in Maffetone zones, and he said paraphrased - “Look. You do what you want. But don’t come whining to me that your squat keeps stalling. I’m just going to tell you to stop running and eat more food”.

Depending on what you do for cardio, it will have an impact on the muscles. It’s not just calories. If you run/jog, the impact on your joints will accumulate with the lifting impact on your joints. And I think this is because beginners gravitate to Starting Strength. They try to do everything. They don’t know how to do things in moderation. So (IMO) it’s easier for the Starting Strength world to just say “No. Don’t do cardio”. Just some of the coaches are very, very draconian and less than flexible about it.

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#182
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does not make cultural appropriation ethical.

I thought the whole idea of cultural appropriation is that it was disrespectful of the culture that is being appropriated and is something done against the wishes of memebers of said culture. Is there something else that makes it unethical ?

> Is there something else that makes it unethical?

Yes.

The main problems are around taking elements of a culture without providing proper attribution or butchering them.

Translated to FOSS, it's the equivalent of reusing somebody's software without attributing authorship (even if the license requires it).

Or a large company making a backdoored fork of Firefox called "FireFox" and misleading users into blaming Mozilla for it.

It gets worse when the copycat overshadows the original.

Besides, I met plenty of people, both from India and not, complaining about the butchering of Yoga.

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#183
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d always ask “How much are you eating?”

I've maxed squats while also losing 10% body weight (~8% BF) + low carb. Granted, I had maxed the same in HS football (~420LBS).

That’s awesome. I wish I could cut at the same time. But alas my old man body has 3 modes - cut, maintain, or build. And never will the 3 overlap.

But I’m past the point of worrying about it. I’ll never get rid of that last 3 or 4% body fat. But as long as my cardiologist is happy, I’m happy.

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All culture is cultural appropriation. It doesn't manifest in a bubble. The staple foods you consume and assume to be Western are all historically the result of appropriation. It doesn't really matter whether people want to call it yoga or not; we fundamentally have the right to practice whatever exercise we want, no matter our ethnicity or culture of origin.

The main problems are around taking elements of a culture without providing proper attribution or butchering them. Reading the very first 3 paragraphs of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation is enough to disprove your claims.

Attribution is irrelevant, notwithstanding that it's explicitly traced to India already in this case.

> butchering them

Not sure what this is supposed to mean considering that culture is not static, and all cultural elements as they are appropriated help create something different from their source of inspiration, by definition.

> Reading the very first 3 paragraphs

Read the first sentence.

I wouldn't put much stake in a wikipedia edit-war that sources op-eds from media as citations, but don't see anything explicitly contradicting what I said - it doesn't make sense to liken India as a "minority" culture. In the first place for being on the global sphere, not local, and in the second their population stands at 1.2 billion. There's nothing minor about it. And it's been independent since 1947. Add to the fact, most people in their respective countries are part of the "dominant" culture.

Calling something colonialism doesn't make it so. Colonialism has a very real meaning: power or control over another group through colonies. You can't just wantonly use it as a modifier. Likening yoga to an act of colonialism is disgraceful.

Proponents can just come out and be candid about the fact that this is really a pissing contest over have-not cultures, i.e. the Indigenous. The insult in a hypothetical appropriation stems not from appropriation itself, but because their sociological group still gets the shaft today in the West, which is being attributed to colonialism. Just about anything would provoke a reaction because of widespread discontent, it's just a power they can exercise, and who can blame them? No one can "own" the likeness of wearing a feather in their hair, and they know this - it's not about the feather.

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#185
post #6

Funny how people become obsessed with specific movements, specific exercise styles, etc. I’ve done it all including becoming obsessed with Mark Rippetoe and the derivatives, cardio like running and mountain biking, swimming 2km a day (80 lengths) etc. The one thing that has absolutely transformed my life is yoga. No more back pain, insane strength I never had, no more injuries from eg lifting a 100 lbs propane tank a…

I think each has its benefit and you need all three

Cardio - Keep your heart health up and for endurance

Weights - Strength training

Yoga - A neurologist I was talking to mentioned yoga, because it builds balance, something that as you get older gets worse, especially in older people where most injuries are because of falls. Besides that I just like doing yoga after weights to stretch.

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have really different outcomes though. There's absolutely no way you can stress the nervous system and build muscle and bone density as efficiently as with lifting weights. Calisthenics, which is what Yoga is, body weight exercises, can never achieve the same results. You can come close in a lot of ways, one legged squats etc, but ultimately, you cannot work your back and your core as effectively as with a 1.5x…

Unless we're talking about the calisthenics we did in school gym class, circles with your arms, you can get pretty big and shredded with it. Calisthenics is basically gymnastics and gymnasts are much bigger than yogis. Note on bias: I do calisthenics...and weightlifting ( https://www.instagram.com/p/CScdKCjr_0c/ )

Really nice handstands! I was also going to say you definitely can get very, very strong just doing calisthenics. Mike Tyson famously was doing pretty much all calisthenics until the 90s. Here's him fighting a 30-0 Spinks -- who reportedly didn't even want to leave his locker room for the fight he was so intimidated by Tyson -- training mainly calisthenics up until this point. I'd say Tyson was pretty strong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuaFIRD7_5Y

No knock on weight lifting though, it's great. But for most people getting on a yoga mat and doing some calisthenics is a lot more approachable than learning how to use a gym properly for their bodies.

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#187
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the whole idea of cultural appropriation is that it was disrespectful of the culture that is being appropriated and is something done against the wishes of memebers of said culture. Is there something else that makes it unethical ?

> Is there something else that makes it unethical? Yes. The main problems are around taking elements of a culture without providing proper attribution or butchering them. Translated to FOSS, it's the equivalent of reusing somebody's software without attributing authorship (even if the license requires it). Or a large company making a backdoored fork of Firefox called "FireFox" and misleading users into blaming Mozill…

> culture without providing proper attribution

What would be the appropriate means of providing attribution in case of Yoga? Would a rendition of Sare Jahan Se Achcha before each Yoga session suffice?

> Translated to FOSS

Applying copyright and trademark law to a practice that is a part of humanity's intangible cultural heritage is beyond farcical.

> Besides, I met plenty of people, both from India and not, complaining about the butchering of Yoga.

I've probably met a few orders of magnitude more Indians than you have, considering how I live in India. I have only heard of appreciation when foreigners adopt even superficial aspects of Indian culture. I don't see why Bharat Tyagis[0] get to be gatekeepers.

My Chinese colleagues were horrified by what is called Chinese food in India.[1] But the world would be a poorer place if we gave up this wonderful cuisine because of some misguided notions of appropriation. You can pry my manchurian[2] from my cold dead hands. Wait, did I just appropriate American culture and disrespect an impassioned defence of a cherished constitutional right?

If you still have a problem with cultural appropriation, please start with giving up the concept of zero and the positional notational system. Afterall, it's been butchered and misattributed to the Arabs for centuries.

0: https://devdutt.com/articles/hiss-of-the-pio-bharat-tyagi/

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Chinese_cuisine

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchurian_(dish)

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#188
post #41

I disagree with doing a crossword puzzle (or other mentally stimulating activity) mid-squat if you're working with any interesting amount of weight. Once you're at a weight that's challenging, things get potentially dangerous, and the last thing you want to be thinking about is what's a four letter word for a small quantity of whiskey.

damn.. I mean dram...

Today I have learned. thank you :)

Re: Squats can boost brain activity [video]

#190
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've maxed squats while also losing 10% body weight (~8% BF) + low carb. Granted, I had maxed the same in HS football (~420LBS).

That’s awesome. I wish I could cut at the same time. But alas my old man body has 3 modes - cut, maintain, or build. And never will the 3 overlap. But I’m past the point of worrying about it. I’ll never get rid of that last 3 or 4% body fat. But as long as my cardiologist is happy, I’m happy.

Getting to 8% body fat didnt seem sustainable. Unless I threw everything away and worked in a gym the rest of my life. I havent tried to max squats since, 2y. Now, I just do my 5x5 every 2-4 days using the same weight.
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