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Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

derekthompson.org

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Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#81

Post by Aurornis »

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?

Most non-freelance software development I’ve done has been a group effort.

I’ve met a lot of my gym partners, biking friends, and climbing friends through software work.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#82

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

chickenzzzzu wrote: post #4

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

I'd rather be outside exercising / having fun and get the occasional twisted ankle or whatever, then staying home sitting on the couch and feeling like crap.

Personally the only, very minor, sports injury I have had is jamming my thumb pretty badly when my skis came off (poor bindings). Was better in a couple of weeks - no big deal. I'm 64 and started skiing 6-7 years ago, now happily going down blacks.

I did partially tear my shoulder muscle off the bone (rotator cuff tear), but that wasn't due to sports - was due to carrying my daughter around for too long (as she got bigger/heavier) with one arm and the constant bouncing. Painful at the time, but not a big deal - got better in the end just by using it and building up the joint strength again. You could also twist an ankle at home tripping over the dog - stuff happens.

Due to age/genetics I don't have the best knees, but still run, just on a rubber running track rather than on the road/sidewalk which is too jolting. You adapt.

Hmm, what else ... I have an occasional inner ear balance issue (age again?) that gets brought on by too rapid head movement or jolts, so I just avoid that. I swim outdoors in the summer all the time, and just avoid the crawl since side breathing is the kind of thing that may cause it. Again, not even caused by sports, and swimming has to be about as safe a type of exercise as you can get.

Get out there and enjoy yourself, and get some exercise!

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#83

Post by AtlasBarfed »

kstrauser wrote: post #54
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 wife's a podiatrist. I can conjure what I've heard her tell a thousand people over the years: invest in arch supports. Shoot for the ones that run about $50 and are rigid. Don't start with the $500 custom ones, and skip the $10 soft ones you see at the pharmacy. Go to REI or a running shop or a sporting goods store and get those instead. My knees freaking killed me when I was running. I started using the supports…

AND YOU DON'T NEED TO RUN to start with.

And if you are overweight and sedentary DON'T RUN TO GET INTO SHAPE.

Walking, hiking, swimming, biking, and weight training. Mix all of it so you get cross training effects and distribute stress across many domains.

Running is, by the standards of the statistical hole America is in terms of obesity, an "advanced" activity. We're talking about something that involves a stress increase of 2.5x to 4.x over walking.

Now consider that an obese person with an extra 50 lbs of fat is on their body. Running will be an extra 200 lbs of stress on your feet, and none of that fat tissue is absorbing impact or stabilizing that impact. And on top of it, the fat will disrupt the neuro-biomechanical flow of your neuromuscular system, making you less coordinated and therefore also harder to absorb the impact.

As I said elsewhere: use GLP-1 to get the fat down and simultaneously employ a gentle ROUTINE activity program that morphs into more and more exercise and exercise variety.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#84

Post by only-one1701 »

bad_username wrote: post #76

> That I was born in the capital of the world’s richest country is one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life—a pure accident of timing and gametes. There is no way to pay back this good fortune, and wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing, either. Why in the world does the author have to feel so bad about beibg lucky in some way? How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt? This has to be as unhealthy as exer…

When you see how much suffering is allotted to those less lucky than yourself it’s natural to feel a little bad or guilty. It shows that you care about the wellbeing of others. Not helpful to beat yourself up but to shrug your shoulders and go “sucks to suck” is bad.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#85

Post by dehrmann »

Xenoamorphous wrote: post #38
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…

How much of that is due to only using two limbs? Which also makes us slower I guess.

It's a tradeoff. Having two general purpose limbs is useful for all sorts of things, but not escaping scary things, so endurance can somewhat make up for that.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#86

Post by _Algernon_ »

derektank wrote: post #74
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of that is due to only using two limbs? Which also makes us slower I guess.

There is actually some evidence that, in a sprint, humans might be able to run faster on all 4 limbs than on 2 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27446911/

>some evidence

https://xkcd.com/605/

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#87

Post by SoftTalker »

janderson215 wrote: post #37
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’ve read in a few places that the flat feet comes from wearing shoes that don’t allow your toes to splay, which causes the muscles that create the arch to atrophy. Not a scientist and have never had flat feet, so can’t confirm, but I recently started wearing zero drop shoes and definitely feel a healthy soreness as my feet get stronger.

Also when you run don't land flat-footed or heel-first. Land on the front part ("ball") of your foot, this lets your calf muscle absorb the shock, rather than sending the shock straight up your tibia into your knee.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#88

Post by layer8 »

bad_username wrote: post #76

> That I was born in the capital of the world’s richest country is one of the greatest strokes of luck in my life—a pure accident of timing and gametes. There is no way to pay back this good fortune, and wallowing in guilt over it would do nothing, either. Why in the world does the author have to feel so bad about beibg lucky in some way? How does luck deserve the feeling of guilt? This has to be as unhealthy as exer…

The author doesn’t say they feel bad about being lucky. Quite to the contrary, they are implying that one shouldn’t feel bad about it. One might feel a certain responsibility from particularly good fortune, however.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#89

Post by bob1029 »

jcynix wrote: post #61

>Like someone already said: what if you get an injury going to hard at it? There's no need to go hard, even steady walking for 20 minutes a day is healthy. And recent studies show that you don't need to jog or run, walking is almost as efficient and less stressful for your joints. One of the best ways to exercise as long as you aren't a brain in a jar is to use an indoor rowing machine. Rowing will engage about 80% o…

> use an indoor rowing machine

Humans evolved to run but rowing is much better in many ways.

I'm up to 1.3 million meters this year so far (C2 Model D / PM4). I've missed zero days since the first of the year. The only way this is possible is because the impact is whatever you want it to be. You can scale all the way to ~zero if you are having a really shit day and just need the mental checkmark. You can throw the MacBook on a chair next to the rower and watch some dopamine slop to keep you distracted for the 30 minutes. Whatever it takes. Achieving 500 calories/hr is not difficult even if you've never looked at one of the machines before.

Going outside in any capacity has a lot higher physical/mental barrier. Other erg machines like treadmills and stationary bikes are something that my particular monkey brain doesn't like as much for whatever reason.

Re: Why Exercise Is a Miracle Drug

#90

Post by LunaSea »

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.

I was going to say, I don't believe that sitting on a chair for 40 hours a week is great but I've also never seen so many wounded and disabled people than with people heavily into sports.
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