Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality • Hacker News Board

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#281

Post by pjerem » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:34 AM UTC

eimrine wrote: post #142

kanbara wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

more like because it’s safe and there are penalties for injuring pedestrians and cyclists, and because the infrastructure is great. not riding a bike because a helmet is ??uncomfortable?? is ridiculous and probably self-selecting

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Helmets aren’t uncomfortable if you try them before buying them. There are different shapes, materials, sizes and settings.

About finding my helmet, I always attach it together with the bike with the U lock. Unless I’m parked in a secure place where I let it hang on the handlebars.

I’m not especially advocating for mandatory helmets and I’m the first to say absence of helmet shouldn’t prevent you to ride, but if you are a regular cyclist, having one at hand is not a ridiculous idea.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#282

Post by nilsherzig » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:35 AM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #251

whateveracct wrote: post #97

I've been walking every day and lifting weights 2x a week. I feel good so far but the hard part is doing it for years and through seasons (both literal and figurative).

About lifting weights: The trick for me is to keep a diary of my current exercises and weight levels. (It's very simple -- just 5 mins or less to maintain each workout.) This will be very motivating if you can increase weight, reps, or number of sets ("total volume").

I use FitNotes (android, no ads) to take these notes. It can show me a breakdown of the workout volume per body part and some trends like estimated one rep max. It can also automatically start a timer after you've entered the data of your last set.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#283

Post by imtringued » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:35 AM UTC

dangmumwhore wrote: post #256

com2kid wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Me and my bicyclist friends have never injured a head while falling down from bike Back when I did bike, I'd fall off and hit my (helmeted) head once a year or so. I was always thankful for having a helmet. Granted it was typically doing something stupid (jumping a curb or such), but still, I was thankful for having a helmet!

[flagged]

Your username isn't?

I once jumped a curb and scraped off half the skin on my palms.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#284

Post by 01100011 » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:35 AM UTC

keybored wrote: post #266

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

Are you carrying excess weight? I've been overweight most of my life. For a while in my 40s I hiked a lot and my BMI dropped into the normal range. When that happened, I became a runner. It felt amazing. I would run 5+ miles and felt like I could keep going forever. Once I put the weight back on(new relationship with someone who liked to eat), I couldn't run. It hurt and didn't feel good.

I don't know what the current research says, but I believe jogging is pretty hard on your joints vs running. I'd recommend hiking and fast walking as an alternative if you're looking to transition into running.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#285

Post by oldpersonintx » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:36 AM UTC

EcommerceFlow wrote: post #109

If anyone wants a shortcut to an extremely good workout, look into rowing (MAKE SURE you learn proper form!). I focus on "maxing out" sets of 500m since it correlates well to basketball cardio, and I have infinite cardio even in my mid 30's.

[dead]

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#286

Post by imtringued » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:36 AM UTC

vasco wrote: post #263

goda90 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better alternative law would be to provide free helmets. People can choose not to use them out of preference but at least they'll have one to make that choice with.

Nothing is free, you're just making other people pay for helmets that likely wouldn't be used.

Except roads for car drivers and then people wonder about this mysterious infinite latent demand for free roads that they call "induced demand". The demand for things that cost nothing is infinite.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#287

Post by cameldrv » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:36 AM UTC

keybored wrote: post #266

Some of my peers are deep into running. I don’t get it. Running is sometimes fun for me but most often painful. Then I overheard one of them (the fittest) say to a budding runner that he [should] do mostly easy sessions. Okay what’s easy to him? He said that so slow that it can feel awkward and unnatural. What? Then I searched around and found out about Zone 2 and how you should do most of your work in that zone when…

I had a very similar experience years ago, I tried to start running and I hated it. I went and got a heart rate monitor and found that after I was going for a while where I started to hate it, my heart was up at 180 or so. I started doing alternating run/walks so that I was averaging more like 145, and it was actually enjoyable and I'd get in the zone sometimes. After a while I managed to get up to half marathon distance. I'm a little skeptical about the zone 2 craze that's hit recently, but definitely, if you're just starting out, it's very easy to try to run like the other people you see on the trail and exhaust yourself. A heart rate monitor is very useful to help keep yourself in a reasonable range that's actually enjoyable and sustainable.

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#288

Post by portaouflop » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:37 AM UTC

Fricken wrote: post #243

cycomanic wrote: post #168

Weird that people seem to assert that causality is not established? There are hundreds to thousands of studies that show that pretty much all markers for mortality and morbidity go down with excercise, i.e. put someone regulalrly on a treadmill for a couple of month and pretty much all health markers improve. People implying that the study shows only correlation really don't seem to understand how we establish causal…

Exercise is a four letter word for many on HN. Content posted here touting the various benefits of exercise is always met with mental gymnastics from commenters who would rather do anything but go out and break a sweat.

I used to be like that- for some reason I started exercising this year and it completely changed my life. I feel better than ever and it’s not like I’m training a lot, a couple of times per week.

If you’re on the fence and reading this definitely give it another shot

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#289

Post by Aperocky » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:37 AM UTC

milch wrote: post #247

rhplus wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really doesn’t matter for most amateurs trying to improve their health whether the metric is accurate or not. The huge benefit of fitness trackers is that a metric is a metric is a metric. Eat less, exercise more, sleep soundly - you can’t go wrong, and if the metric is steps, or HR, or pace, or calories burned, or (in this case) estimated VO2max and seeing improvements in those metrics relative to a baseline is a…

The problem with the VO2max metric is that there is no measurement of it outside of a few lab methods, certainly not in a fitness tracker, so they're estimating. It makes more sense to look at the other metrics that it CAN easily measure, like heart rate recovery to get a quantifiable and repeatable measurement. I agree for amateurs accuracy is not necessary, but repeatability is. If I weigh myself today and the scal…

I think you just want to track both over the long term - that is compare your watch with your watch and your garmin with your garmin.

But that is a huge gap, I think in general running creates more realistic VO2max data than cycling since there are too many factors at play (e.g. if you're in a group or not or using the drop vs. not).

Re: Cardio fitness is a strong, consistent predictor of morbidity and mortality

#290

Post by vasco » Fri, May 03, 2024, 6:38 AM UTC

safety1st wrote: post #141

s1artibartfast wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

indeed, a lot has changed from when we lived on rural farms doing manual labor. People aren't going back to the farms, so we need to adopt new behaviors and norms around self control. There is simply no viable alternative.

To frame the discussion as one of either/or alternatives is self-defeating, a more productive framing is what are the various strategies we can employ to reduce obesity? There are plenty which are unrelated to self-control or personal discipline. One is a sugar tax (not a huge fan personally but it exists). One I do like is to regulate the advertising and labeling of food. Frankly I'd like to know how many calories I…

> Those cheesecakes are only for special occasions now and it's because C.F. is required to disclose calories, I'd be fatter if not for this simple government intervention. Nothing to do with self control

How is eating a cake from a store "nothing to do with self control". It's not like you were buying vegetables and turns out big sugar made the vegetables be worse for you. You not knowing if the cake was 800 calories or 1.6k calories makes it no less about self control. Even to avoid eating it at 1.6k, it's still all just self control.