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Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

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Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#191

Post by Broken_Hippo »

ilovecaching wrote: post #45
JimDabell wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's crazy how people will deprioritze their health. > Also, if you're struggling with getting fit, GET A PERSONAL TRAINER AND NUTRITIONIST. There are tonnes of people out there who are just scraping by, who have to work two exhausting jobs, who have to spend all of their free time looking after kids, etc., who can't afford the gym, let alone a personal trainer and nutritionist. If you have the time and money to do…

There are a lot of people who use not enough time, money, etc as an excuse. If your doctor told you the only way for you to see another year was to get in shape and eat right, how would you prioritize then? Would you still go to the movies? Go out for drinks and food? For the people who absolutely can't afford it, there's a lot of good information for free online. My point is that for many of us, we treat professiona…

"For the people who absolutely can't afford it, there's a lot of good information for free online. My point is that for many of us, we treat professional help as a luxury or explain it away rather than embrace it as a necessity."

Only that the good information is often vague and mixed in with horrific information. Or is grand information for someone in decent shape but horrible advice for you in your health condition.

I'll add that there is more to it than simply getting the right advice. There is basic equipment. I'm not talking about anything fancy: For example, I wear an odd bra size. I'm thin and have large breasts. I have not had surgery to enlarge them. I have to buy at specialty stores here (Norway), and could not find my size in stores in the states (indiana). A regular bra is expensive.

I've never had a sports bra that fits. I often can't find them large enough and the ones that come close and actually offer some support are expensive - plus I have to order them. These are, in general, $60-$100 each. I have a similar issue with bathing suits, so even if I had free access to a pool, I couldn't actually use it.

Shoes have been an issue in the past as well. Buying the cheapest shoes possible, I was wearing through shoes withing 2-3 months and trying to keep them for 4-6 months. This is without exercise putting additional stress on the shoes.

The other issue I found with such things while being poor was hunger. Even if I walked, had an active job, and/or wasn't too strenuous with motion, increased hunger was an issue. $25/week for food doesn't go far. Especially not in a house with bad heat (60 degrees if it wasn't too cold out). More activity meant that I was miserable more simply due to hunger.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#192

Post by anovikov »

Tharkun wrote: post #179
anovikov wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thing about exercise is that it effectively, doesn't take any time at all because one of the results is that you need to sleep less. In my experience, it at least makes up for the time you spend exercising.

Source? Exercise certainly makes me sleep more .

Maybe i am simply not overdoing it, about 30 mins per day 6 days a week, quite light. Did help me to lose 8 kilos in 9 months, still, which was about everything i needed to lose, so i am happy.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#193

Post by Broken_Hippo »

js2 wrote: post #2

There's a gentleman who spends an hour or so every night walking around the neighborhood. He's usually watching something on his phone as he walks, and he always smokes a cigar at some point. I've always wondered if he'd be better off not exercising and not smoking that cigar. I guess now I know.

Probably not. If that combination means that although he's doing one thing unhealthy, yet getting two healthy things in return (exercise and stress relief), he's just getting more risk for a few other things.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#194

Post by jules »

gmjoe wrote: post #101
jules wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The primary function of a personal trainer / nutritionist is not the advice they give, but that they force you to show up at the gym and keep track of what you're eating. It's 90% outsourcing of willpower and 10% knowledge.

If you're treating that as their primary function, you're just throwing away money, tons of money. If you decide you want to work out and eat right, take responsibility for it and truly make the personal choice. Or buy a couple of self-help books to learn some techniques. E.g. The Power of Habit. It'll be orders of magnitude cheaper.

This argument is a bit self defeating. You can easily replace the information a personal trainer gives with a standard training program and YouTube videos that show proper exercise form. You cannot easily replace its willpower function with a book.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#195

Post by ip26 »

ericmcer wrote: post #156
toasterlovin wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think we can just stop doing studies about how exercise is good I heartily disagree. People have limited time. We need to figure out what form of excercise gives the most benefit for unit of time spent. There is serious disagreement about this (the two camps being cardio vs strength training, basically).

Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. The second you start talking about benefit for unit of time spent it becomes a tedious chore. I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run. I have introduced tons of friends to the gym and my first piece of advice is always just show up and have fun, don’t worry about ideal routines or maximizing o…

I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run.

FWIW this was me two years ago. Then I came to grips with the fact that running is the best training for mountain climbing.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#196

Post by camillomiller »

kozikow wrote: post #172
ericmcer wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. The second you start talking about benefit for unit of time spent it becomes a tedious chore. I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run. I have introduced tons of friends to the gym and my first piece of advice is always just show up and have fun, don’t worry about ideal routines or maximizing o…

> Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. This is what finally worked for me. I died of boredom jogging or lifting weights. You have to find a sport that you enjoy. I have friends that were unfit and finally climbing did it for them. It was BJJ and MMA for me. I enjoyed tennis/squash, but it's sometimes hard to find an equal partner - same with other "group" sports.

I’ve been doing Ashtabga Yoga for years then recently I discovered how fun calisthenics can be if you “gamify” it with a friend, thinking of advanced progressions as videogame-like achievements. Really into it now.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#197

Post by scns »

sorenjan wrote: post #162
toasterlovin wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something like 50% of runners get injured in a given year. It’s insane. Do something that’s easier on your body. If you want cardio, hike or bike. I like weight lifting, personally. If you want to try weight lifting, check out Starting Strength.

> Something like 50% of runners get injured in a given year. That's because most people use bad technique and would probably benefit from strength training as well. Sitting all day and then expecting your body to run for 30-60 minutes and then sitting again will lead to high risk of injury. I see a lot of people run like they're walking with longer strides, or hunched over, or any number of bad habits. The feet shoul…

that is because most runners use padded shoes, which enable you to run in a totally unnatural way.

>this kind of collision leads to a rapid, high impact transient about 1.5 to as much as 3 times your body weight (depending on your speed) within 50 milliseconds of striking the ground (see graph a below).

>This is equivalent to someone hitting you on the heel with a hammer using 1.5 to as much as 3 times your body weight. These impacts add up, since you strike the ground almost 1000 times per mile!

taken from:

http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/4BiomechanicsofFootSt...

It is impossible to run this way with undamped shoes or barefoot.

I recommend this book (not affiliated):

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Hidden-Superathletes-Greates...

is really fun to read, it is about a indigenous tribe in mexico which run in sandals cut from old tires, for 24 or 48 hours straight. In there is a reference to another study where they found a correlation between cost of the shoe and the rate of injuries: more expensive shoes with better damping had higher rates of injuries, they weren't expecting this.

Our legs evolved to store the energy in our tendons and release it to propel us forward. A QUARTER of the bones in our body is in our feet! Humans evolved to be the best endurance runners on the planet, being "naked" (without fur) is actually an advantage for running, enabling us to cool down our bodies by sweating. There are still tribes hunting their prey by running after it for prolonged periods till it collapses from overheating. There are races for horses, humans started to compete in. Initially the runners where ridiculed but someday a human won the race.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#198

Post by scns »

pnathan wrote: post #168
Gatsky wrote: post #92

If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good. It is good if you do a bit or a lot, if you are young, old, male, female, trans, pregnant, trying to get pregnant, single, married, divorced, depressed, a smoker, have cancer, have heart disease, have dementia, an astronaut, a pure mathematician, a plumber, tall, short, liberal, conservative etc etc. There isn't anyone that doesn't benefit…

My physical advice runs as follows, with commentary below. > Eat (non-processed) food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (Pollan)[0] > Invest in strength and cardio training. Couple hours per week[1]. > Listen to qualified medical professionals, critically[2]. [0] tl;dr - make your own meals, high frequency of salads, don't overeat, and don't fuss too much. [1] I recommend serious kettlebell work to achieve this; takes ve…

I recommend the work of John Berardy PhD. His research is focused primarily on exercise nutrition.

https://www.precisionnutrition.com/about/john-berardi

not affiliated

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#199

Post by ip26 »

brandonmenc wrote: post #78
ddebernardy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not pedantic at all. I'm ~40 and don't exercise at all, yet I'm still perfectly fit. I presume it's due to doing groceries by foot several times per week, having a standup desk, and carrying the kid around. Perhaps genes help too. But the point I'd like to get across is: going to the gym isn't the sine qua non of making you fit. You can get enough "exercise" by simply living without a car, standing, and walking.

> I'm ~40 and don't exercise at all, yet I'm still perfectly fit. You should really get a CPX test to verify this.

I'm with you, I've learned that "I'm perfectly fit" is one of those lies we convince ourselves is true to feel better about ourselves.

We might have even mostly convinced ourselves that "fit" means "not obese, and doesn't get winded on two flights of stairs"

Some kind of at-home standard benchmark would be handy.

Re: Not exercising worse than smoking, diabetes and heart disease study finds

#200

Post by loftyal »

Waterluvian wrote: post #97
Gatsky wrote: post #92

If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good. It is good if you do a bit or a lot, if you are young, old, male, female, trans, pregnant, trying to get pregnant, single, married, divorced, depressed, a smoker, have cancer, have heart disease, have dementia, an astronaut, a pure mathematician, a plumber, tall, short, liberal, conservative etc etc. There isn't anyone that doesn't benefit…

I worry about my health and often I have a really good try and making a habit. But crap is it hard. It's not the money or the time. There's something else about willpower and boredom. I wish I could get on an exercise bike, stare at a brainwashing device, and "wake up" an hour later having remembered none of it.

Audible, Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube, Netflix etc. there's a lot of things to keep you entertained while you're on the bike.
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