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Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

derekthompson.org

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Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#21

Post by tomalaci »

voat wrote: post #2

Maybe not a drug. But if the improvements in health come from bio chemical signals, it should be possible to activate those signals without engaging in exercise. Eventually?

Steroids. You will be growing muscle while sitting on a couch, even better than someone that naturally trains. However, you very likely will develop asymetries or other weird complications because you didnt properly work out.

My point is that, even though we might find even more ways to improve/modify our bodies, they will come with slew of risks that are just not worth it if you can achieve it naturally.

On another note, I feel like there is severe muscle inflation in media which would distort how fit a person should be. You really do not need to kill yourself in the gym or hop on a some reddit-approved juices to get very fit. Just gotta experiment and find a comfortable full body workout that you can do consistently, like you brush your teeth every day.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#23

Post by siva7 »

LeftHandPath wrote: post #10

The best way to make a happy, healthy person into an unhappy, unhealthy person is to keep them lonely and keep them still. It should come as no surprise that the inverse also tends to hold true. On a tangent, I think that's part of why volunteering can be so rewarding.

> The best way to make a happy, healthy person into an unhappy, unhealthy person is to keep them lonely and keep them still.

So becoming a software developer?

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#24

Post by endoblast »

I go for a decent walk most days and it doesn't require effort or get boring. It goes well with listening to headphones and relaxing the eyes on the horizon plus seeing a bit of nature and humanity in action.

This does me a lot of good however the only upper body exercise I get is playing the piano! I can't see myself joining a gym or doing press-ups reliably in the long-term. I need to find a suitable hobby which has upper body + other benefits while being fun/interesting and low-risk. Carrying logs has helped but we have enough firewood now.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#25

Post by Fire-Dragon-DoL »

tomalaci wrote: post #21
voat wrote: post #2

Maybe not a drug. But if the improvements in health come from bio chemical signals, it should be possible to activate those signals without engaging in exercise. Eventually?

Steroids. You will be growing muscle while sitting on a couch, even better than someone that naturally trains. However, you very likely will develop asymetries or other weird complications because you didnt properly work out. My point is that, even though we might find even more ways to improve/modify our bodies, they will come with slew of risks that are just not worth it if you can achieve it naturally. On another…

You get plenty of asymmetries working out too, it's natural. Don't think just weight lifting, think of: tennis, boxing, baseball

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#27

Post by toomuchtodo »

gonzo41 wrote: post #13
voat wrote: post #2

Maybe not a drug. But if the improvements in health come from bio chemical signals, it should be possible to activate those signals without engaging in exercise. Eventually?

This is so bleak. Go for a walk.

Time is short, I’ll take the walk and lift the weights but if I can get the results faster using biological engineering, I’m willing to spend and accept greater risk to make it happen (both for metabolic profile management a la GLP-1RAs and muscle growth). There is no extra credit for making life harder than it has to be, and we’re all dead eventually.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#28

Post by mythrwy »

voat wrote: post #2

Maybe not a drug. But if the improvements in health come from bio chemical signals, it should be possible to activate those signals without engaging in exercise. Eventually?

Yes we could also in potentially in the future manage to block pain signals when we stick our hand on hot stoves and that should be super!

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#29

Post by darth_avocado »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #4

Until you injure something particularly nasty, like a joint, tendon, muscle tear, etc...

I injured my knees by running more than my knees could handle. Instead of never exercising again, after a 2 month long break I started incorporating other forms of exercise in my run schedule. Now I run longer and have other parts of my body feel better.

There’s a hundred reasons to not exercise but you only need to focus on the one reason why you need to keep doing it.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#30

Post by pmarreck »

bob1029 wrote: post #19

> The author Daniel Lieberman has put it well: Exercise is healthy and rewarding even though it’s something we never evolved to do. We have ostensibly spent much of our evolutionary budget on the ability to run ~indefinitely no matter what. Compared to virtually any other animal, we can vastly outperform them in the most arduous environments. Our bodies are mechanically optimized for running at every level. We have c…

> Our bodies are mechanically optimized for running at every level

My flat feet (and those of my mom, and those of one of her parents, ad infinitum) would beg to differ lol

Also, most of the energy our bodies burn to run just turns into heat, it's all very inefficient... even if sweating itself works pretty well, and even if our heat tolerance is high assuming we have a source of fresh water

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