Dead on or Total Jerk?
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More jerk than dead on. And likely wrong enough to send women who say they don't want to lift because they'll look like the Incredible Hulk staight to the treadmill.0
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Yep, mine included. But I am glad I didn't stop there.That may not be how they lost to whole 100 lbs, but it wouldn't surprise me if a good number of the success stories started that way...0 -
I both agree and disagree. To the extent that I think logging house cleaning and gardening and whatever day to day chore as calories burned or whatever...I totally agree that is bogus...to that extent, those things aren't workouts. That said, this article seems to be a rather extreme POV. Basically what I'm getting out of it is that if you're not working out like an athlete and you are just generally active, then you're probably a big fat slob and lazy. It does not take into account that people have different fitness goals.
Personally, I'm one that likes to workout pretty hard...lift heavy until I almost fail and my muscles are screaming for me to just stop...I like to do HIIT until my lungs burn and I feel like my heart is going to explode right out of my chest. I like doing this things because I like doing them, I was an athlete once upon a time, and I have a specific fitness and strength goals in mind.
Meanwhile, I have a number of friends who have never set foot in a gym...never lift anymore weight than their own bodies...rarely if ever set foot on a treadmill or elliptical trainer. But you know what...they're generally active people, and they also happen to be relatively fit and all at healthy weights. They take their dogs for walks in the evening...they go for hikes on the weekend...they ride their bikes and swim in the pool in the summers...they ski in the winters and enjoy some time on the golf course. They're just generally active and not a single one of them has a weight problem. Can they run a marathon? No...but they don't want to either. Can they bench press their own body weight + ? No...nor do they have any interest in such things. But they can pick up heavy things around the house when they need to because they are generally active and generally fit...they can hike for miles on end through the mountains because they are generally active and generally fit...
Really, this article is so black and white and completely ignores the gray and individual goals. Not everyone needs to, nor do they want to train like an athlete.0 -
I disagree with the notion that a good workout must cause pain or make you so tired you can barely walk when you're done. That just isn't true. Actual pain is not a good thing. And if you feel debilitating fatigue after a workout, you have gone too far. There is a difference between pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone and pushing yourself to the point of CNS shutdown.
But yes, I agree that there is an abundance of people out there who seem to think they can get ultra lean by going for a 20-minute walk after dinner or cleaning more vigorously than normal. And I am always happy to see someone blowing a hole through that garbage. The problem is that we are now a society that sees virtue in being average. In fact, people are often punished for working harder and accomplishing more than everyone else. That's why we see so many threads with people getting irate that they are being encouraged to try harder. For some reason, they don't want to be awesome. They just want to suck less than they did before. Then they label their attitude as "having a different goal" when the reality is just that they're lazy.0 -
Dead on AND a bit of a jerk. Working out requires you to push yourself in order to gain benefit. There are a ton of people who think just being just baseline will get them fitter, and you can see them leisurely texting on the recumbent bike for 10 minutes or doing 2lb bicep curls, right before they treat themselves to a pizza buffet dinner. They don't increase their heart rate, and they could lift those weights forever without hitting failure. That's not working out because that's not challenging your body.
Whatever your definition of fitness is, the science tells us that you need to challenge your body to get it to improve, whether it's getting your heart rate up or lifting heavy. If your body isn't challenged, it will not change.
That being said, for morbidly obese people (or skinnyfat people who are really underconditioned), a walk around the block with your dog CAN be a challenge. A 5 minute jog could leave you on the floor dying. Chasing your toddler around might really make you sweat and keel over and want to die. Even the 2lb dumbbell exists for people who need rehab and for whom 2lbs is really frickin' heavy.
The article is written from the perspective that there are no people for whom a walk around the office every half hour could actually be physically demanding. But that's not true. There are lots of people who are so deconditioned that this kind of exercise is equivalent to a fitter person ripping their fingernails out (or whatever). No need to make those guys feel like *kitten* because what is really challenging to them isn't challenging to the author of this post.0 -
Oh B.S. I think I'll log reading that as a workout; it was that damn painful.0
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The author was kind of a jerk, and while I agree that a lot of the things he talked about aren't a "workout", that doesn't mean they can't be exercise.
I do kind of roll my eyes a little bit on the "light cleaning" and "preparing food" entries that I see on MFP (my apologies to anybody on my FL who's offended), but there are a lot of things that are exercise, though not a workout.
I just got back from walking 2.2 miles on my lunch break. Was it a "workout"? No, of course not. However, it WAS exercise that isn't "normal daily activity". The 265 calories burned by walking that distance have just as much of a positive impact as the negative impact of going over my TDEE with a beer.0 -
This guy would be branded and meanie and a bully if he posted on MFP.
That's how you know he's on to something...0 -
This guy would be branded and meanie and a bully if he posted on MFP.
That's how you know he's on to something...
lol. it's funny because it's true.
the article reminded me of the one about f*ckarounditis on leangains.com0 -
I think there is merit to what he's saying even though he's coming across as a douche.
If a person is just starting out and trying to get healthy then maybe a good walk is all they can do but once that isn't causing them the physical demand it did they need to amp it up.
I did start with walking myself for my initial weight loss but now that I have lost weight I'm having to push hard for results. I think it's good to push the body but there is NOTHING wrong with a casual walk. The body is made for movement at all levels.0 -
I liked it, and I think he’s dead on. Yes, he was abrasive, but I think abrasive can be used effectively. I think the main point of the article was that it’s great to do things like gardening, taking the stairs, walking the dog, etc. if you want to have a healthy, active lifestyle. But that’s different than “working out.” His point seems to be that people are blurring the difference between being active and working out. Neither of these are wrong, but they’re different. And he seems to be tired of people calling an active lifestyle “working out.” I totally get it and agree.0
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*snort*
Caustic, but he has a point. But ultimately it boils down to what you want to achieve, and how much effort you are prepared to put in.
I want to be muscular, athletic-looking, and fit as fock. I'm not going to get that by walking an extra stop on the bus, so I have to work hard for it. But that's not to say that my metaphorical friend, who wants to move a little bit more in her day-to-day life, is wrong for getting off a stop early.
ETA: Quoted for truth, but it's times like this that being a Brit brings a whooooole different meaning to certain Americanisms...
"If the heaviest thing you carry is a fanny pack on your mall-walking expeditions to the Latte Shoppe, well, then, guess what, that's all that your body will grow: a fanny. A big soft fanny. Is that what you want? A big soft fanny?"
i loled at that part....
and i totally agree with the rest of what you say. you have to put the effort in to get REAL changes.
x3
Including the fanny part. Being from the States and living in London I quickly learned that "fanny" has a whole new meaning.0 -
Thanks for explaining it to me. So let me get this straight.... my finger nails have to bleed and I have to lay on the floor in pain for it to be a workout? Oh wait i missed one. If I don't follow the same routine as an olympic athlete than I'm not working out either. I don't do anything of those things but I do workout. What a tool.
Yea, apparently if we are not super hardcore lifting cement blocks for hours on end, we're just losers. Tools. Nothing but a bump on a log. *sad face*0 -
I do agree with the article that a workout should be something other than your daily activities and it should be strenuous. However, some people may need to do the activities mentioned in order to build up to more strenuous activities. I don't think it's right to judge others workouts, especially not knowing their physical condition/limitations. Live and let live.
but there shold be progression right? Like if you start off walking around the block...then you should run a quarter of it and walk, and then run half of it and walk, then run the whole thing, then sprint hte whole thing. IF you keep just walking around the block and don;t lose weight/git fit and keep asking yousself why it is not working...well the answer is right there in front of your face..
same with weights...nothing wrong with starting with ten pound dumbbells but three months later you should be handling 30 pound dumbbells...
Three months ago I could only squat 160 now I am up to 215..deadlift was 150 now i and do i rep max at 300....
Training progression should be inear in that you are steadily incressing weights and/or reps....not saying that on day one of training you will be in beast mode but three months down the road you should be seeing progress towards that...
oh, and I agree with the article...although, it could of been written in a more non-*kitten* manner...lol0 -
I'm just curious if sitting on his high horse, on his pedestal is classed as High Altitude Training?
only if it causes PAIN.0 -
This guy would be branded and meanie and a bully if he posted on MFP.
That's how you know he's on to something...
Pretty much. I have never seen so many damned people ask for help, then lash out when they get told stuff they don't want to hear, as I have on this site. It goes to show that many of Jamie Lewis' theories on the majority of fat people are true. Their attitudes have manifested themselves upon their physical beings over the course of the years. I could explain further, but I doubt it would make much difference.0 -
Oh B.S. I think I'll log reading that as a workout; it was that damn painful.
i LOL'd at this!
there you go. 647 calories burned! but you can only log it if it made your eyeballs bleed...0 -
Read the article above, thanksso much for posting this for us:
"Light physical activity, which often is
grouped with sedentary behavior but is in fact a distinct
activity construct, involves energy expenditure at the level of
1.6Y2.9 METs. It includes activities such as slow walking,
sitting and writing, cooking food, and washing dishes."
*****so we can count light housework, intimate behaviors, etc but we just have to understand those activites won't lead to a high calorie burn or help people get to true "fitness". I like to do a moderate intensity level of exercise and get my heart rate up 3 or 4 times a week.0 -
This guy would be branded and meanie and a bully if he posted on MFP.
That's how you know he's on to something...
lol. it's funny because it's true.
the article reminded me of the one about f*ckarounditis on leangains.com
F*ckarounditis article is fantastic!0 -
but there shold be progression right? Like if you start off walking around the block...then you should run a quarter of it and walk, and then run half of it and walk, then run the whole thing, then sprint hte whole thing. IF you keep just walking around the block and don;t lose weight/git fit and keep asking yousself why it is not working...well the answer is right there in front of your face..
^^^^
This. Two years ago I started C25K and our neighbour started walking her rat on a string dog up to the corner and back. I met her a few weeks ago on my way in from a run and she mentioned how lucky I was to have lost weight and be running because no matter what she does nothing works. DUH! I'm now running up to 10K at a time and you're still walking the rat on a string to the corner and back! I'd put money on her diet not being any better either but I guess luck was just on my side.0 -
Sometimes small changes do make a big difference. I knew a girl who went from obese to a very healthy weight simply by no longer drinking colas and no longer eating anything fried. That was it. It worked for her, because those were what caused her to gain weight. She drank lots of sodas and everything she ate was fried.
Also,some of us gained weight simply due to a lifestyle change: working a job where you stand all day, then being the one at the desk for 8 hours. Standing those 8 hours can help you to burn an extra 300, more or less calories a day.
I think the itch that this guys article gives is that not everyone who says, "I'm going to tighten my stomach muscles for two minutes every hour" is really thinking that he'll lose 50 lbs from that. Not everyone that says "I'm going to start taking a walk each night" is really thinking of it as a "workout."
Who has EVER said "I'm going to start working out," but meant "I'm going to park my car at the furthest parking lot from the Wal-Mart entrance."?
I don't think anyone really considers these small changes to be "fitness routines" or "workouts," which is why the article kind of seems like bunk. It's not relevant to what people really think about fitness and working out. There really is no point to the article, because people really don't believe they're "working out" like Olympic athletes because they take the stairs to their second level office rather than taking the elevator.
The point that seems missed is that for people who really want and need to get into better shape, they need to make big changes. Perhaps the people squeezing their butt muscles when their digital watch beeps every hour do need to workout, but I doubt that the butt squeezers really believe they're "working out" by doing that.
He's saying, "That's NOT a WORKOUT," but nobody ever said it was.0 -
DEAD ON - not how I would present it, but dead on just the same.0
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ugh,so much negativity and mocking others on here whether i agree with the OP's or not. It's pretty disgusting to see so many overly opinionated people judging and saying 'it's my way or the highway'. Shame on everyone having a laugh at other peoples efforts.0
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Yawn. I'm so tired of the "edgy" faux-journalism on the Gawker network. We get it, Journalist -- you read a lot of Chuck Palahniuk growing up. Congrats.0
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No pain, no gain ^^0
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Yawn. I'm so tired of the "edgy" faux-journalism on the Gawker network. We get it, Journalist -- you read a lot of Chuck Palahniuk growing up. Congrats.
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:0 -
HAH! I love that someone called him a character from a Nicholas Sparks novel. :P0
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ugh,so much negativity and mocking others on here whether i agree with the OP's or not. It's pretty disgusting to see so many overly opinionated people judging and saying 'it's my way or the highway'. Shame on everyone having a laugh at other peoples efforts.
Yeah, sorry, I feel bad now...oh, wait, no I don't. People either need to get the lead (fat?) out of their *kitten* and move, and stop stuffing their faces full of ****, or stop complaining about their lack of progress.
If what someone is doing isn't working, common sense and logic dictate: do something harder. Oops...there's that naughty word again that most soft *kitten* people hate: hard.0 -
i think the whole connotation of this article is terrible, because it's great to go on walks and do little things throughout the day to remain active. sure, it might not be a full-blown shredding pain-bowl workout followed up by a monster protein shake, but there's nothing wrong with going on walks that fit your schedule. i hate the way the author makes that seem like a bad thing.
maybe i'd agree with it more if it weren't written from such a ridiculously pretentious viewpoint, but i'm biased against *kitten*.0 -
Absolutely true.0
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