Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
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Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#2Maybe it's time constraints, as everyone works more hours they don't have time for steady low-intensity exercise so they must pack it into shorter more intense sessions.
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#3 > It looks exhausting.
> It also looks fruitless. Why not join a roofing
> crew for a few hours instead?
People do high weight, low rep workouts because they take little time and provide high value. (Also for a segment of people the body releases endorphines in response to strenous activity.)
The author also manages to completely fail to build a logical connection between two things they wrote themselves:
> more than a little dangerous. (What if a sledgehammer slips
> paying .... watchful eye of a demanding authority figure
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If the author wasn't so earnestly clueless i'd think this is a troll article meant to engender annoyance in anyone with a little clue.
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That said, Crossfit could stand to lose some of its cult trappings.
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#4I believe this is the first time I've seen an article complaining about Americans doing too MUCH exercise.
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#5The author is a dink. He doesn't even answer the "why" question. I'll tell ya why: because it works. Your stupid aerobics class does barely anything for your health. Strength and conditioning work out on the other hand, does what your body is meant to do. Yes it's tiring, but that's the point.
Said that, there are some people that take it to extremes, but that is just like in any other industry/sport.
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#6> It looks exhausting. It's meant to be exhausting. What does the author think working out is about? > It also looks fruitless. Why not join a roofing > crew for a few hours instead? The author is fairly disconnected from reality, and has also failed to do the very basic research to answer her own title. People do high weight, low rep workouts because they take little time and provide high value. (Also for a segment…
I'm also disappointed by this article. High intensity workouts are actually the golden way toward strength building.
Of course like any sport you need a certain degree of supervision to prevent injuries.
Where's the author getting at?
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#7I believe this is the first time I've seen an article complaining about Americans doing too MUCH exercise.
Like lot of things 5% do do much and 95% do too little. The problem is the middle - sorry I couldn’t help myself with that pun :)
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#8The author is a dink. He doesn't even answer the "why" question. I'll tell ya why: because it works. Your stupid aerobics class does barely anything for your health. Strength and conditioning work out on the other hand, does what your body is meant to do. Yes it's tiring, but that's the point. Said that, there are some people that take it to extremes, but that is just like in any other industry/sport.
While it is possible that the author “Heather" is male, it would be the first male “Heather” I have ever heard of.
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#9When a man sees an ideal male, he aspires to be that man, like James Bond
When a woman sees an ideal woman, she makes a tumblr about how that ideal is not real, or not what men want, or a crazy obsessed person who hates themselves, etc.
Men climb the mountain to reach the top.
Women complain that there is a mountain top, and declare wherever they are to be the new mountain top
Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?
#10Earlier comments are already critiquing the author for suggesting that exercise is a bad thing or that particular exercises don't work, but that perspective misses the point. The author isn't criticizing exercise itself, but she is instead observing the almost religious focus on suffering that happens to be embodied by approaches such as Crossfit. I admit to being puzzled as well.
I am perplexed by the degree of what I might call fitness elitism that exists in a nation as fundamentally unfit as the US (I'm American, BTW). I'm seeing a lot of comments about how simple exercise isn't effective and HIT is a necessity, etc. HIT is great, but it's a pretense to suggest that running, biking, or aerobics that raise your heart rate without being tortuous are not also effective exercises that can drastically improve one's health. I feel that there is an unnecessary focus on very intense exercise programs when simple cardiovascular conditioning that nearly anyone can do has the potential to drastically improve the health of so many.