RupertC
Total Posts: 1479
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SpiderLegs
Total Posts: 369
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04-29-22 07:23 AM - Post#919245
Very good and for the Atlantic a succinct article. Makes a lot of sense.
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Dan John
Total Posts: 12292
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04-29-22 09:57 AM - Post#919247
I can't open it yet (I used up April's free reads) but everyone is sending this to me.
Any other gems?
Daniel John
Just handing down what I was handed down...
Make a Difference.
Live. Love. Laugh.
Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude)
Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk.
Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth.
Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights.
Reread great books. Say thank you |
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iPood
Total Posts: 2360
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04-30-22 03:30 AM - Post#919261
I can't open it yet (I used up April's free reads) but everyone is sending this to me.
Any other gems?
The whole thing has a huge Dan John vibe.
"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness
and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums.
It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable.
Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow.
Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't."
Dan Martin |
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rudd777
Total Posts: 304
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04-30-22 03:43 AM - Post#919262
This for me "Research consistently suggests that movement—not elaborate boot-camp routines or long-distance running, just movement by itself—is a boon to both physical and mental health."
My wife's clients are generally middle aged or older, either highly sedentary or previously active with a life time of injuries. Some of them never progress beyond very basic movement, but all progress and feel better for it. I think that is why her average client stay with her for three to five years and almost always remains a friend afterwards. Kindness and little increments seem to work.
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RupertC
Total Posts: 1479
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I can't open it yet (I used up April's free reads) but everyone is sending this to me.
Any other gems?
The article talks about social media fitness stars like Hampton Liu who have built an audience with regressions (the author misuses the word progressions).
"For someone who has never exercised at all, a push-up might start as—or might just be—lying on your back and 'bench-pressing the air' in order to expand your range of motion. There are several more types of push-up that Liu tells viewers to master before they assume the hands-and-toes position that’s long been taught to American kids as the One True Push-Up."
The article also discusses the profile of a beginner. "What the fitness industry calls a 'beginner' is usually someone relatively young and capable who wants to become more conventionally attractive, get swole, or learn a trendy workout such as high-intensity interval training or barre."
However, some people (pre-beginners?) can't walk in and lift an empty barbell with perfect form. More than 3/4 of Americans don't do minimum amounts of exercise.
The article argues that the problems stem from gym class at school, which separates kids into athletes and non-athletes instead of triggering their curiousity about movement.
"As it turns out, you can’t just teach millions of children that exercise is painful, humiliating, or a punishment for their failures and expect them to swan into adulthood with healthy, moderate beliefs about their bodies. Instead, they follow the lessons they’ve learned about themselves, and about exercise: Some people avoid ever entering a gym again and shy away from activities that might draw attention to their physical capabilities, such as hiking or dancing. Others emerge confident that they were born with the keys to the kingdom of athleticism."
There is also a discussion about thinness and exercise. Does exercise "work" if it doesn't make everyone thin? The article also tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Richard Simmons and Planet Fitness, neither of which have much credibility with hardcore exercisers. Both developed a very inclusive, welcoming and non-judgemental attitude towards non-exercisers.
| Check out my critical-thinking blog at sharpenyouraxe.substack.com |
Edited by RupertC on 04-30-22 05:12 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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PulledPork
Total Posts: 80
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Another great point at the bottom of the article talks about the “privatization of the good life”. It makes reference to the closing of community pools, parks, gyms, and underfunding of sidewalks as examples. So instead of the barrier to exercise being a pair of shoes and going outside for a walk or to the pool for a swim, people have to buy a peloton bike and a membership to get a workout in (examples, but the point still stands).
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Brian Hassler
Total Posts: 616
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04-30-22 10:01 AM - Post#919268
"The limitations of traditional American PE can be evoked pretty tidily with a single phrase: the Presidential Fitness Test. If you’re not familiar with the test or have repressed those memories, it was a biannual quasi-military exercise developed in the 1960s that required children as young as 6 to, among other things, run a mile as quickly as possible, do as many pull-ups as their little arms could handle, and get weighed, usually while all of their peers looked on. The criteria for passage varied over the years, and, in between tests, schools weren’t required to teach kids anything in particular that would help them improve their scores on the skill components. Instead, the test reflected the priorities of the system that created it: For example, kids deemed “overweight” couldn’t fully pass the test, even if they outperformed their classmates. The whole system was a big missed opportunity: Instead of engendering curiosity about physical activity and giving kids skills to build their capability, PE separated them into the physical haves and have-nots. Public-health officials admitted as much when they discontinued the test in 2013."
Kind of the antithesis of the Sierra High model. Standards can be a great motivator, but can also have life long detrimental impact if the culture is not in place to support those who have barriers to progress or just don't take to it easily.
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Jordan D
Total Posts: 771
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04-30-22 11:40 AM - Post#919269
Solid article. Though I'm not sure that friendlier, gentler coaches are the answer. Nor am I certain that PE is the problem.
When I lived in China, one thing I loved was how in every ginormous city, you were never more than a 10-minute walk away from a park or public space with these wonderful "adult playgrounds." Here's an article about them with great images: https://www.chinosity.com/2020/12/18/get-swole- with-chinese-exercise-equ ipment-the-mystery-behind -th...
I have fond memories of walking through the park in the morning, listening to the earliest Dan John podcasts, and passing a swarm of hundreds of old folks using those simple exercise machines and ballroom dancing to gawdy outdoor speakers.
Again, I'm not sure what the problem is, but I'm pretty sure that's a damn good answer.
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DanMartin
Total Posts: 20705
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04-30-22 01:40 PM - Post#919270
When it comes to training, in my opinion, it's never too late to start all over again.
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SpiderLegs
Total Posts: 369
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Another great point at the bottom of the article talks about the “privatization of the good life”. It makes reference to the closing of community pools, parks, gyms, and underfunding of sidewalks as examples. So instead of the barrier to exercise being a pair of shoes and going outside for a walk or to the pool for a swim, people have to buy a peloton bike and a membership to get a workout in (examples, but the point still stands).
Purchasing a home in a neighborhood with sidewalks was on top of our list. Wanted to be able to walk with our dogs before or after work safely if it was still dark outside. It was actually tough to find a subdivision with sidewalks. We lucked out, not only do we have sidewalks, but hiking trails with exercise stations to do pull ups and push ups on.
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Cearball
Total Posts: 273
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Another great point at the bottom of the article talks about the “privatization of the good life”. It makes reference to the closing of community pools, parks, gyms, and underfunding of sidewalks as examples. So instead of the barrier to exercise being a pair of shoes and going outside for a walk or to the pool for a swim, people have to buy a peloton bike and a membership to get a workout in (examples, but the point still stands).
Purchasing a home in a neighborhood with sidewalks was on top of our list. Wanted to be able to walk with our dogs before or after work safely if it was still dark outside. It was actually tough to find a subdivision with sidewalks. We lucked out, not only do we have sidewalks, but hiking trails with exercise stations to do pull ups and push ups on.
Out of curiosity where do you live where it's uncommon to have sidewalks?
I guess I just take it for granted.
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SpiderLegs
Total Posts: 369
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Another great point at the bottom of the article talks about the “privatization of the good life”. It makes reference to the closing of community pools, parks, gyms, and underfunding of sidewalks as examples. So instead of the barrier to exercise being a pair of shoes and going outside for a walk or to the pool for a swim, people have to buy a peloton bike and a membership to get a workout in (examples, but the point still stands).
Purchasing a home in a neighborhood with sidewalks was on top of our list. Wanted to be able to walk with our dogs before or after work safely if it was still dark outside. It was actually tough to find a subdivision with sidewalks. We lucked out, not only do we have sidewalks, but hiking trails with exercise stations to do pull ups and push ups on.
Out of curiosity where do you live where it's uncommon to have sidewalks?
I guess I just take it for granted.
In an upscale suburb north of Tucson. But we have plenty of paths for golf carts.
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Dan John
Total Posts: 12292
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05-10-22 04:14 PM - Post#919432
I literally take my life in my hands one half a mile East of my house. Crossing 900 East to get to Wheeler Farm is deadly.
Daniel John
Just handing down what I was handed down...
Make a Difference.
Live. Love. Laugh.
Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude)
Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk.
Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth.
Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights.
Reread great books. Say thank you |
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Justin Jordan
Total Posts: 854
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Out of curiosity where do you live where it's uncommon to have sidewalks?
I guess I just take it for granted.
I mean, while most of the population lives in cities and suburbs, the vast majority of places with roads don't have sidewalks.
I'd have to go four miles to get to a sidewalk.
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BChase
Total Posts: 854
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This article has a victim vibe to it. The physical fitness test from the 1960's...
It's going to get much worse. Video games, phones, social media, streaming. Growing up, kids played. I live in a large development, not a lot of kids out playing over the age of 12. I don't see street hockey games, tennis ball baseball, hoop games, nothing. And these are kids, wait until they're adults and busy.
My buddy is a basketball ref, I said how is the quality of play? Terrible. Why, the towns in Massachusetts took the rims down during the pandemic! Parks, baseball fields are empty. Unless it's organized pickup games of anything are gone.
For all the criticism Planet Fitness gets, it's really good at getting people engaged. $10-$20 a month, I see all shapes and sizes. And a lot of senior citizens.
There is a lack of equity in some places where it's not safe to walk, or no sidewalks. However for a lot of people, it's about habit change. Choose to do it or not.
I have a sibling, 10 years younger, lives in FL, she is single, no kids, is very successful with a demanding job 300 people reporting to her, and a dog. A pond with a mile sidewalk around it OUTSIDE HER DOOR back door. She is borderline obese and always sick. She chooses not to walk every day. She works from home. Our father died of chronic disease at 79 and had bypass at 54. My brother and I are in our early 50's and get at it every day. I don't understand it. You see what Dad went through and still don't do anything about it.
Edited by BChase on 05-11-22 07:27 AM. Reason for edit: No reason given.
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