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Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

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Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#361

Post by dasil003 »

jongraehl wrote: post #347
dasil003 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not. Running on the ground you push yourself forward. On a treadmill the amount of work you are doing can vary quite a bit by technique (ie. how much contact you are making with the treadmill) because you are not actually propelling yourself.

Crazy. Mark a dot on the treadmill track. How is the person moving relative to that dot? How is the air in the room moving relative to that dot? That's basically all that can distinguish between running at constant speed on a treadmill vs. on level (non-treadmill) ground. If you're running 8mph on a treadmill, it's like running 8mph on level ground, with an 8mph tailwind. How do you fail so badly at physics?

The fact that you are upvoted more than me shows me that too many people spend too much theorizing and not enough time actually trying it out. Go spend some time on a treadmill and some time running outside. It very well could be that if you had a perfect tailwind (which doesn't happen) then it would be similar, but I wouldn't bet on it (the surfaces are different for starters). My point was that running on a treadmill is not the same, and that's irrefutable.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#362

Post by mattgreenrocks »

maayank wrote: post #351
mattgreenrocks wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now if you want that thats perfectly alright, but I at least only want to spend as little time as possible caring about my body and as little time as possible with normal people since both things are utterly boring. You do have a point. Conformity is not the way. But, at the same time, I'm sad you feel those things are boring. Allow me to explain. I used to be in your shoes, at least in the fitness aspect. I was a…

What resources/books do you recommend for learning about proper diet?

I'm not sure I'm really qualified here :). I've beentrying to limit intake of processed substances as much as possible. For most of my life, they were the norm, and I'm slowly phasing them out. This took the form of not going out for lunch, trying to snack on fruit, drinking water in lieu of soda/coffee/juice as much as possible, and eating more veggies.

I'm still happy to eat out with friends, mind you.So I suppose you could say I became more aware of what I was eating, rather than remaining apathetic about it.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#363

Post by gexla »

xiaoma wrote: post #279
gexla wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should quote the entire paragraph. "Cardio machines are innocent enough, as they won’t actually make you any less fit, but maintaining cardiovascular fitness doesn’t really take much more than breathing uncomfortably hard for about 20 minutes, three times a week. And we all know that swimming, hoops, bike riding, and even Ultimate Frisbee can get the job done, and that treadmills or elliptical trainers are a pale…

"You should quote the entire paragraph." I didn't quote the entire paragraph because I figured everyone read it and I just wanted to point out the most objectionable part. However, looking back at the paragraph you quoted, I realized I don't just disagree with the incorrect claim that 20 minutes gets the job done. The claim about bike riding "getting the job done" and treadmills being a poor substitute is also object…

So, maybe we should zoom even further out from that paragraph and look at the point of the article as a whole. I agree there are lots of problems in the article, but I agree with the basic point. That is, for muscle strength, muscle mass and muscle endurance, free weight training needs to be part of your core training program and there is no substitute.

You are referring to cardiovascular training which is barely mentioned in the article. He probably shouldn't have mentioned cardio at all except he wanted to make a point that cardio machines shouldn't even be in the gym. You mention routines of running which should be anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours, would you do that sort of routine on a treadmill in a gym?

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#364

Post by scotty79 »

xiaoma wrote: post #305
scotty79 wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you feel fit because you can effortlessly deal with few flights of stairs and 20 minute walk daily? How old are you? I go out of my house about once a week and I can do that. I don't think running 5km is necessary to achieve it since maximum distance I ran in my life was 1km and after that I was spitting my lungs for longer time than I actually ran.

Quite the opposite. I'm only in my 30's, but I no longer feel fit as I once was back when I could run a 33 minute 10k. Even long after leaving serious training behind and getting a bit heavier, I continued to go for a 3-4 hour run in the mountains every other week or so and did shorter runs at least a couple of times a week. As recently as two years ago, I had a resting pulse of 48 BPM. I lived at the top of a 6 floo…

From your description I guess that you've been working out for mass not for strength. I can believe you feel unfit after that. Especially since you were lighter some time ago.

I can totally relate to how air quality influences all outdoor sports.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#365

Post by jquery »

georgieporgie wrote: post #303
jquery wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Keeping your posture when sitting helps a lot too, but I understand it is hard when you're deep in thought.

How about with a stand-up desk? Do you find yourself slacking off with regards to posture? Of course, it may not be a problem for you regardless, if your issues were more related to, say, lower back pain. Incidentally, my sister, who is obese, wants to take your plan one step further by going to the treadmill desk. I'm told that there is no problem interacting with stationary desk items after a period of adjustment.

Sometimes I slack off, but overall it's been a lot better for my back than my habits when sitting.

I find the idea of a treadmill desk very interesting. I bet that would really help lose weight and keep one in shape.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#368

Post by nickg »

My thoughts on "diet" vs. "exercise": they're two pieces of the same puzzle, and I prefer to manage the "exercise" side of the equation more proactively. Reason is because eating in (esp. in America) today is HARD. There's a lot of crap out there, portion sizes are whack, fat, sodium and empty carbs are everywhere. And you must eat multiple times every day, so that means you make many DECISIONS about eating every single day (hundreds?). Fighting against the grain (pun intended) of what food is readily available and easily accessible is an uphill battle, filled with guilty, uncertain, and constrained decision making.

Don't get me wrong, I still try to eat healthy (and I'm lucky to live in San Francisco where there are more healthful options). But, the nice thing about exercise is that you only have to make ONE DECISION every day. And that is to do it. Once it's done, it's done. And it's not too hard to find a fitness activity you really enjoy doing, plus the endorphin rush you get from a good workout is amazing. When you build exercise into your lifestyle as a healthy habit, it's not even a decision anymore, it's automatic.

I'd much rather live a healthy lifestyle with a daily (or almost daily) fitness routine than to painstakingly count calories or awkwardly ask the waiter to 'hold the bun, please, and remove the excess butters, sugars, fats, and salts..' every time I go out to eat. That just makes it awkward for you and everybody else.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#369

Post by nickg »

TimothyBurgess wrote: post #135

I strongly disagree about the "stretching is bad for you" part... but I guess he did say "without your body warmed up"... you always want to stretch before working out but get your body warmed up first by jogging in place or doing jumping jacks or something for a few minutes. You want ballistic stretching and static stretching. It has without a doubt helped with my overall fitness while reducing soreness.

Stretching is best done after a strength workout to dissipate blood pooling and lactic acid build up in the muscles. Doing so will reduce muscle soreness and facilitate the muscle recovery process.

Of course, stretching in and of itself can (and should) be done as an excellent standalone workout!

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#370

Post by nickg »

dkarl wrote: post #213
jerf wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every time there's an article on exercise or diet, there's a pileon of people promoting their own beliefs, with no apparent sign that they read the original link. How do you address the fact that your point is actively contradicted by the article? Did you even know your point is actively contradicted by the article? I'm not even saying that proves you're wrong; what bothers me is that you just ran off to post your ow…

To prove your point, I will offer my own belief. Actually, I am not posting it here because it supports your observation but vice-versa, because your observation supports my point. You're right: there are always people crawling out of the woodwork suggesting one approach or the other. Whenever someone gets evangelical about something, it proves that it's working for them, for the moment at least. How else could they…

Agree that you must find what works best for you in terms of preferences, enjoyment, and practicality.

It's also important to keep in mind timing and the training cycle (break down, recover, supercompensation) as the author points out. If you really want to "optimize" your training, or at least take steps in that direction, doing the same thing over long periods of time will result in a longtime plateau. I think the way most people manage their fitness - do the same lifts at the gym or the same 45 minute routine on the treadmill, for years in a row - results in many people treading in plateau zones and generally underwhelmed by their fitness despite putting in the time.

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