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The Zen of Weight Lifting

nytimes.com

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Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#81

Post by david38 »

m0zg wrote: post #78
strict9 wrote: post #29

An under-reported benefit of weight lifting: near-total elimination of RSI, at least in my experience. At some point a few years ago I decided to join a gym for the first time. While I improved my posture and BMI a good bit, I might be happiest with the elimination of RSI in my wrists and hands. It started out as something annoying in my 20s, and got very painful in my late 30s. Gyroscopes, powerballs, and other reco…

I can confirm. At least in my case weightlifting (basically low bar squats and deadlifts - bench press is overrated) helped me fix both my RSI and lower back pain. I post this on every RSI thread here in hopes it'd help someone else. Yet NO doctor will suggest that something like this might help. Therein lies the danger of uncritically "listening to the doctors" - most of them are simply not trained to do anything wi…

This is not true. I know several doctors who prescribe exactly this. The issue is patients. Patients throw a hissy fit when told to lose weight, exercise, improve diet, etc.

90% of the time they want something that can be done while sitting on their ass, like an injection or a brace.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#82

Post by m0zg »

david38 wrote: post #81
m0zg wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can confirm. At least in my case weightlifting (basically low bar squats and deadlifts - bench press is overrated) helped me fix both my RSI and lower back pain. I post this on every RSI thread here in hopes it'd help someone else. Yet NO doctor will suggest that something like this might help. Therein lies the danger of uncritically "listening to the doctors" - most of them are simply not trained to do anything wi…

This is not true. I know several doctors who prescribe exactly this. The issue is patients. Patients throw a hissy fit when told to lose weight, exercise, improve diet, etc. 90% of the time they want something that can be done while sitting on their ass, like an injection or a brace.

No doctor ever told me to lift weights, and I've been to many before I gave up on them. They'll tell you to lose weight, exercise, improve diet and whatever, sure, but very specifically, they will never tell you to lift weights. And not a single doctor I encountered knows what to do with men who train, besides advising them not to train.

They are, presumably, afraid that you might get "injured". To me the easiest way to get injured is to let one's back musculature to atrophy, and there are likely tens of millions people in the US alone with back problems because of this.

Unless you're about to die, or have a profitable chronic illness of some sort (such as, say, diabetes), US "healthcare" is borderline useless.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#83

Post by tromac »

Brendinooo wrote: post #70
silicon2401 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely subjective. I'm neutral about running outside, but I enjoy running on a treadmill because I can get into a kind of zen mode or watch something. Similarly, I love weight lifting because the experience of hard muscular exertion is intensely satisfying for me, and the overall lifting session gets me in a similarly zen mode. > When you run, you get outside, you go somewhere, you see and feel different thing…

I started a huge reply to rebut some stuff and/or clarify but...that's not the point here! Not here to argue. Thanks for your input. It's pretty clear that different people want different things out of exercise, and will have different individual risk factors based on what they're doing. Thinking about it more, I know that weight (fat) loss is often a goal for my exercise, and I think it's hard to do that while lifti…

Fat loss is really as simple as: calories in It’s contrary to popular belief, but the truth is in the numbers. The calories burned in the most intense cardio session are negligible compared to your next meal, and with calorie trackers it’s something everyone can see now for themselves. Running is good for cardiovascular health and some people enjoy it for various reasons, but it’s not the tool for managing weight.

Interestingly, lifting weights over time does positively affects fat loss. Maintaining every additional pound of muscle takes more energy than maintaining a pound of body fat, and so having more muscle means you burn more calories by just breathing and existing. You don’t need to become a body building hulk for this effect to have a noticeable impact, either. Muscle is denser than fat. But, as with cardio, don’t bother measuring your calories burned for a weightlifting session. The benefit happens outside the gym.

If you get hungry between meals, drink more water (most people don’t drink enough, anyway) and have a lot of popcorn on hand to snack on. Popcorn is so voluminous yet has basically no calories, helping manage appetite.

The other big trick with weight is to develop consistent diet habits that you’ll follow consistently forever. Slow and steady wins the race. If you go hard and fast you might temporarily reach you goal but you won’t be able to maintain it. You need to develop habits that you’ll follow for life, because without it the fat will just come back later as your calories in go above your calories out.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#84

Post by f311a »

m0zg wrote: post #82
david38 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. I know several doctors who prescribe exactly this. The issue is patients. Patients throw a hissy fit when told to lose weight, exercise, improve diet, etc. 90% of the time they want something that can be done while sitting on their ass, like an injection or a brace.

No doctor ever told me to lift weights, and I've been to many before I gave up on them. They'll tell you to lose weight, exercise, improve diet and whatever, sure, but very specifically, they will never tell you to lift weights. And not a single doctor I encountered knows what to do with men who train, besides advising them not to train. They are, presumably, afraid that you might get "injured". To me the easiest way…

You just need to visit physiotherapist instead of a regular therapist.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#85

Post by tommiegannert »

f311a wrote: post #84
m0zg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doctor ever told me to lift weights, and I've been to many before I gave up on them. They'll tell you to lose weight, exercise, improve diet and whatever, sure, but very specifically, they will never tell you to lift weights. And not a single doctor I encountered knows what to do with men who train, besides advising them not to train. They are, presumably, afraid that you might get "injured". To me the easiest way…

You just need to visit physiotherapist instead of a regular therapist.

I think this is part of the problem GP is highlighting: you have to know which type of doctor you want advice from. They specialize so hard that there's barely any overlap. Which ends up meaning you have to see a boatload of doctors to find something you can use to finally draw your own conclusions.

I hate visiting doctors for some reason. Probably because we're supposed to just default-respect them, and I just see no reason to do that with how they're not able to help me.

Edit: able to help rather than helping.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#86

Post by sn9 »

Brendinooo wrote: post #70
silicon2401 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's entirely subjective. I'm neutral about running outside, but I enjoy running on a treadmill because I can get into a kind of zen mode or watch something. Similarly, I love weight lifting because the experience of hard muscular exertion is intensely satisfying for me, and the overall lifting session gets me in a similarly zen mode. > When you run, you get outside, you go somewhere, you see and feel different thing…

I started a huge reply to rebut some stuff and/or clarify but...that's not the point here! Not here to argue. Thanks for your input. It's pretty clear that different people want different things out of exercise, and will have different individual risk factors based on what they're doing. Thinking about it more, I know that weight (fat) loss is often a goal for my exercise, and I think it's hard to do that while lifti…

For people interested in fat loss, the relevant benefit of strength training is that it provides a signal to your body to hold on to as much muscle as possible. (Usually in conjunction with eating sufficient amounts of protein during your fat loss phase.)

Without strength training, you're as likely to lose muscle as you are to lose fat. (E.g., lose a pound per week on the scale and 50% may be fat tissue and 50% may be muscle tissue.)

With strength training, the ratio skews towards losing mostly or even entirely fat without losing muscle while having the same rate of weight loss all things being equal. (E.g., lose a pound per week on the scale and 90% may be fat tissue and 10% may be muscle, or 100% fat and 0% muscle.)

For people sufficiently new to strength training or for people who are sufficiently overfat, it's even possible to build new muscle tissue while losing fat, though this gets less and less likely the more advanced you get and the leaner you get. (E.g., lose a pound per week on the scale and 1.25 lbs of fat might be lost while 0.25 pounds of muscle might be gained.)

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#87

Post by pnutjam »

m0zg wrote: post #82
david38 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true. I know several doctors who prescribe exactly this. The issue is patients. Patients throw a hissy fit when told to lose weight, exercise, improve diet, etc. 90% of the time they want something that can be done while sitting on their ass, like an injection or a brace.

No doctor ever told me to lift weights, and I've been to many before I gave up on them. They'll tell you to lose weight, exercise, improve diet and whatever, sure, but very specifically, they will never tell you to lift weights. And not a single doctor I encountered knows what to do with men who train, besides advising them not to train. They are, presumably, afraid that you might get "injured". To me the easiest way…

I've lifted my entire life and never had a doctor tell me to stop. I go to the doctor regularly and I've changed doctors afew times.

I also wish my wife and daughters would experiment with weight training, but they seem very resistant to it with some sort of fear of "bulking" up.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#88

Post by pnutjam »

Brendinooo wrote: post #25

I've tried a few times to get into weightlifting. I can never stick with it, though. It's not necessarily a self-discipline thing, because I've run thousands of miles over the past decade. When you run, you get outside, you go somewhere, you see and feel different things. There's a race ecosystem that encourages you to get in when you can barely run a mile without stopping and allows you to push yourself as much as y…

If you're into a "race ecosystem", I'm surprised you haven't picked up on the weight training competitive nature. I constantly have to remind myself I'm not trying to impress anyone. It's also something I try to teach other new lifters, there is a huge tendency to "compete" with the people around you.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#89

Post by pnutjam »

johnNumen wrote: post #26
Brendinooo wrote: post #25

I've tried a few times to get into weightlifting. I can never stick with it, though. It's not necessarily a self-discipline thing, because I've run thousands of miles over the past decade. When you run, you get outside, you go somewhere, you see and feel different things. There's a race ecosystem that encourages you to get in when you can barely run a mile without stopping and allows you to push yourself as much as y…

I'm not sure what you were doing in the gym, but for me lifting heavy and pushing the boundaries of what I can do every single time I'm in the gym makes it fun.

It also helps if you setup regular routines to make comparison easy, for example: day 1 - bench, curl (barbell), lat pull, tricep extension (dumbell)

This example hits alternating muscle groups so you can minimize rest in between. If I do something like this I can usually get my heart rate up as well.

Re: The Zen of Weight Lifting

#90

Post by shane_b »

MengerSponge wrote: post #63
shane_b wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a completely reasonable concern. I’ve been stuck with 185lb on my chest (modest difficulty at the time). I couldn’t lift it due to fatigue. That particular time, I was able to get it onto my lap. My solution after a few uncomfortable situations was to buy a squat rack with 1 inch safety increments. Rouge fitness sells one. Most racks have 2” safety holes but that’s not enough granularity for full range and sa…

You can also set up the bar without collars and do the roll of shame. Safety rails are 100% the way to go though.

Haha I’ve been there too but it’s scary
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