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Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

nytimes.com

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Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#41

Post by wanderingstan »

mtrimpe wrote: post #36
spodek wrote: post #20

To answer why people would push to get so fit, you have to explain the emotion and motivation behind it. Simply saying it's healthy or makes you strong only extends the question. Partly they do it because of the emotional reward from exhaustion, progressing overcoming challenges, feeling stronger or more capable, approaching an ideal appearance, comparing themselves to others, and maybe a couple others. I believe all…

FWIW When I, as a European, went to a US high school almost 20 years ago one of the big differences that struck me was that people tended to be either overweight at best or morbidly obese at worst or super skinny and super healthy.

This was my impression too, as an American studying in Europe. I was amazed that everyone seemed to be in "okay" shape, but few people focussed on exercise as in America. They went for walks after meals out of habit, biked places out of convenience, and ate moderately sized meals as normal.

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#42

Post by Anderkent »

JanezStupar wrote: post #33
Anderkent wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where's the author getting at? > High intensity workouts are actually the golden way toward strength building. Well, this. Why is strength building considered worthwhile?

Why do we build foundations for the structures that we build?

We do that when it's necessary for stability of the structure, not as a goal to itself. What is strength useful for?

(and yes, this is a rephrase of the previous question because of your non-answer)

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#43

Post by shasta »

omegaham wrote: post #29
pnt12 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing about cross fit is that it usually pushes for the "if it's hurting, it's good" mentality, which is not true at all. I find conventional weightlifting gets it much better - lift heavy, watch your form, don't break your back.

This. I have no problem with people who do reps to failure, but I do have a problem with reps for time. As you get tired, your form gets worse and worse. This is fine for calisthenics, (hard to tear something while doing push-ups) but it's bad for heavier weight, and it's ridiculously dangerous for technical lifts like clean and snatch. I do enjoy joking about WODs, though. "Okay - I'm gonna do AMRAP snatch on a bosu…

Why is it that 'this' has appeared as a one word response in 3 of the 6 sibling responses to this question? Is it related to the subject matter? Should I start reading 'This.' in a meat-head voice?

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#44

Post by Imerso »

omegaham wrote: post #38

High intensity work is nothing new. Anyone who played sports in high school will tell you that practices are all about doing as much volume as you can in the limited time you have after school. If it works for high school athletes, it works for people who are ten years older, too. Personally, I look at results. If you can be motivated by Richard Simmons, go for it - the guy is 15 years older than my dad and is still…

Yeah it's basically just conditioning work rebranded. Nothing new that boxers, rugby players, an so on, didn't do before. It's a little bit a "response" to the strength and size centered lifting, or simple endurance cardio.

I think the problem and criticism is that many of those programs aren't programs at all, and they aren't based on anything, not even personal experience. If you look at any elite crossfitter his training is more likely to look like traditional strength training with proper form lifting, plus maybe WOD for the conditioning part, than pure crossfit WOD centered training. Centering the training in whatever weaknesses he may have, and so on. And of course whatever exercise they are planning to compete on.

Of course if your trainer is a good trainer you are going to get that, in a normal gym or in a crossfit gym. The problem is that as a program the base crossfit program doesn't offer much to a novice, except for the community and the encouragement that comes with it to pursue high intensity training. But outside of that the program itself won't offer any proper guiding unless you have a trainer that provides that guiding outside the program.

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#45

Post by IkmoIkmo »

Thriptic wrote: post #39

As a powerlifter, I still don't really understand the allure of crossfit. You don't develop strength nearly as efficiently as when following powerlifting or olympic lifting routines, you expend exceedingly more effort than traditional routines, and the strength gained isn't nearly as translational (there are few situations where such a blend of strength and endurance would actually be necessary). Instead of doing cro…

I think the allure is in the barriers to entry.

I see a lot of heavy lifters who start out solo, or lift in groups of 2 or maybe 3. They use their time efficiently and get a lot done, they don't spend the whole day in the gym and besides the casual chat with other people in the gym, they don't form a huge group. The heavy lifters do routines that seem impossible to start with. Nobody looks at a powerlifter and says 'sure, I'll do that'. You have to start small, and then good form is really important. Frankly it may even be a bit scary to step into the weight room and start with light weights, unsure of your form.

Then there's cross-fit. It's mostly done in huge groups by people of various levels of fitness. It's very vocal, it's very collective/team based. While exercises are done individually, they're done within a group, often with some form of coaching. Anyone can start, form isn't a priority and from what I've seen, form is adjusted to finish the exercise, meaning you can take shortcuts and use bigger weights and do more reps easier, without actually training as hard as when you'd have used 'proper' form.

It's inviting with low-barriers to entry.

The thing that surprises me is this, once you're doing cross-fit for a few months, get into it, do your reading on diet, resting and exercises, how the hell you can continue doing cross-fit is beyond me.

That having been said, a guy above this post said 'do whatever works for you'. And I really agree with that. Somehow some people really dig cross-fit and it's the only thing that gets them excited about exercise. If that's true, then great. I applaud cross fit for that reason alone. As long as they don't lift really heavy with bad form like I've seen some do, cause that can give you injuries you'll feel every day for the next 20 years. It's that bad.

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#46

Post by natejenkins »

Thriptic wrote: post #39

As a powerlifter, I still don't really understand the allure of crossfit. You don't develop strength nearly as efficiently as when following powerlifting or olympic lifting routines, you expend exceedingly more effort than traditional routines, and the strength gained isn't nearly as translational (there are few situations where such a blend of strength and endurance would actually be necessary). Instead of doing cro…

When I pass a crossfit gym I think, "Hey, that looks like fun." I've never thought that about any standard gym. Olympic lifts are interesting and technical, but I wouldn't call them fun.

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#47

Post by TeMPOraL »

adwf wrote: post #34

I think it's a lot simpler than the author is trying to make out: Traditional gym exercises are boring and hard. Cardio is boring. 60 minutes on a treadmill, 5 times a week is really boring after a while. All that racking up weights and unracking is tedious. Bicep curls? Tedious. Situps? Tedious. The reason why people are constantly thinking up new ways to exercise is simply to add a bit of variety and encourage peop…

> Traditional gym exercises are boring and hard.

I think it's not just about boredom, it's about the time it takes. If you can trade 60 minutes on a treadmill 5 times a week for 20 minutes of HIT 3 times a week, that's over three productive hours a week saved already (and more likely 5-10, if you count going to and from gym, additional showering and the fact that it fragments your day if you're not smart about your daily routine).

I'm planning to start HIT for this very reason. I don't like exercising, I have many more interesting things to do, but I need to improve my health. Therefore I seek to maximize effect while minimizing time wasted.

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#48

Post by Jtsummers »

Keats wrote: post #35
anthony_d wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the mindset the author has an issue with. You said "you will get some (benefits) initially but will quickly stall" like it's a bad thing. Fitness doesn't improve forever with any program, you're still going to die. If you view fitness as a means to an end (health/long life) then you've got to realize there are diminishing returns. There have been many studies showing the diminishing returns kick in ver…

That depends on your goals. If the only reason you exercise is to be healthy in a long term, then a short workout a few times a week is enough. If you want to be stronger/better at sports X/run marathons etc then no, aerobic classes are not enough. It's not even aiming for 'elite athlete', just aiming to be fit (you won't be fit in my definition if you only do 3x40min of aerobic classes a week).

So what is your minimum definition of fit?

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#49

Post by ssharp »

omegaham wrote: post #38

High intensity work is nothing new. Anyone who played sports in high school will tell you that practices are all about doing as much volume as you can in the limited time you have after school. If it works for high school athletes, it works for people who are ten years older, too. Personally, I look at results. If you can be motivated by Richard Simmons, go for it - the guy is 15 years older than my dad and is still…

I think that a lot of people play sports in high school, were in reasonable shape then, and then find themselves in their 20's/30's/etc. in worse shape and uninspired by the routes they can take to get fit.

I remember hating running suicides on the basketball court, but I got into better shape running those than I do running on the treadmill, which I find largely tedious and am constantly finding ways to keep my mind entertained/distracted.

There is also the team aspect. When we did conditioning, we had coaches sharing the same experience. I don't get that running, lifting by myself, doing P90x, or other solitary workouts.

I've never done Crossfit, largely because I find their power lifting routines dangerous, but I can certainly understand why more extreme group exercise is really increasing in popularity. I think a lot of people grew up exercising in similar conditions, know that it worked for them then, and want to find something similar later in life.

Re: Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?

#50

Post by TeMPOraL »

jchrisa wrote: post #19
parag_c_mehta wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not a proponent of Extreme fitness but HIIT is several times more effective then plain running or biking or other activities when you compare it with the time you give. 20 Mins of HIIT = 60 minutes of Jogging. It's all about maximizing results...

Maybe the root cause (of interest in HIIT) is the standard American hurry. If we all slowed down we'd probably be more healthy as a people. Also, there's a difference (and some overlap) between being healthy, and looking ripped. Eg you can be one without the other. One of the reasons I enjoy visiting countries that don't view a rushed and punishing car-commute as normal, is that everyone looks so happy and healthy.

> Maybe the root cause (of interest in HIIT) is the standard American hurry.

I agree, I think that's the root cause. There are more things we'd like to do than time available, so people optimize.

> If we all slowed down we'd probably be more healthy as a people.

Probably true, but unfortunately we don't have much choice. We slave away most of our lives to keep the economy going, so it's hard to slow down. The problem isn't people having too much time for their hobbies.

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