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Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

derekthompson.org

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Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#41

Post by maccard »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #4

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

The vast vast majority of injuries are recoverable from and you will be able to return to what you did before. There are some bad ones, but even people with hip replacements, ACL tears and all sorts of nasty “career ending” injuries will be able to run/bike/play tennis/golf/weightlift.

It’s pretty well understood that stopping moving is incredibly bad for your body, and modern recoveries focus on pain management, pain avoidance and getting you moving again as quickly as possible.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#42

Post by LeftHandPath »

siva7 wrote: post #23
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?

Or taking up any white collar job! There's a reason I spend a lot of my free time swimming and hiking.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#43

Post by federiconafria »

tristanMatthias wrote: post #35
pmarreck wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

My friend has fixed his flat feet by focusing on yoga poses that engage the “knife edge” of his feet (ie: the outside). It took some time but he reckons it’s very noticeable. Maybe worth a try?

It worked for me, it's not even about specific poses, you need to consciously keep your ankle from collapsing and yoga helps with that.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#45

Post by stavros »

otterpro wrote: post #39

Exercise "simulate the arduous tasks that were once necessary to make it through a life" makes sense, as most of our ancestors were blue-collar workers and farmers. I try to integrate more physical activity in my life, which seemed like labor before, but now feels like life-saving activity. For example, I am intentionally trying to fix/diy things with my house like painting my garage, mowing my lawn instead of hiring…

Ah yes, the evolutionary pressure of being a blue-collar worker.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#46

Post by semicolon_storm »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #4

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

A proper training plan makes you more injury resistant and makes it easier to bounce back from injuries if you do happen to get hurt.

For example, just look at the data for sarcopenia: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9654071

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#47

Post by derektank »

jb1991 wrote: post #40
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…

Ask anyone in the army how all those years of running drills have affected them as they got older. It’s not so rosy. Lots of knee problems in that group. Above average practice of running throughout life also increases likelihood of requiring pacemakers later in life.

People in the army are also regularly carrying an extra 50 pound ruck, 25 pounds of body armor, and enough other various and sundry items to add up to about 100+ lbs of total kit. That's probably what's destroying people's knees more than the running by itself

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#48

Post by fmbb »

jb1991 wrote: post #40
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…

Ask anyone in the army how all those years of running drills have affected them as they got older. It’s not so rosy. Lots of knee problems in that group. Above average practice of running throughout life also increases likelihood of requiring pacemakers later in life.

Army personnel in general is unnaturally beefy and I'm sure these running drills often are done carrying load, no?

Humans are evolved to run, but not to have heavy frames and not carrying material for fighting wars.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#49

Post by polio »

jb1991 wrote: post #40
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…

Ask anyone in the army how all those years of running drills have affected them as they got older. It’s not so rosy. Lots of knee problems in that group. Above average practice of running throughout life also increases likelihood of requiring pacemakers later in life.

It's more that the military's goal isn't to produce adults that are indefinitely healthy, but rather a robust geopolitical deterrent that only requires its employees to be physical capable for about twenty years, after which their service life is over. Running is not the issue. Even a car designed for driving can be driven irresponsibly.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#50

Post by pmarreck »

Invictus0 wrote: post #33
pmarreck wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

I mean, would you prefer we add in some evolutionary pressure? Note also that there are numerous champion runners with flat feet.

One contributing factor to human weight gain when given a non-limited supply of food is apparently the knocking-out of the gene that produces uricase, which pretty much every other animal has (and they usually don't get fat, even when given unlimited food supply). Not a single human has a working uricase gene. It has been hypothesized that famines throughout human history (there's your "evolutionary pressure") have contributed to this.

My point is that selection pressures do not always lead to optimal outcomes...

https://chatgpt.com/share/688e4822-4e44-8004-9625-21a254fa02...

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