faetal on 3/7/2012 at 16:22
Quote Posted by Stitch
Fitness demystified:
Quote:
To lose weight, reign in what you eat. Seriously, it's that simple...
Fitness != weight loss. Reining in what you eat does not train strength or improve cardio-vascular fitness, nor does it confer the relief from stress and depression that exercise provides. Neither diet or exercise can supplant each other in terms of fitness and health, they are complimentary endeavours.
Stitch on 3/7/2012 at 19:39
Also a good activity to engage in: reading.
Quote Posted by Stitch
That being said, exercise benefits your body in countless ways, so it's always a good idea (especially as there is obviously more to fitness than weight management). Engage in a cardio activity at least several times a week. At least some weight training is good, too, and if you don't have the gear you can always do pull ups and push ups and the like. In fact, you should do these regardless as they're good for you.
Beleg Cúthalion on 3/7/2012 at 19:56
Quote Posted by faetal
Did they have a control group?
If not, it doesn't really qualify as an experiment.
At least not for a food-related experiment, but that's not what they did. The martial arts instructor was a bit upset that they didn't even weigh the guys during the training. The food was only introduced to make it a bit more authentic, but honestly I've forgotten what this whole thing was about in the first place. What's important is that the young men shifted notably towards the athletic ideal and that the archaeology park earned a lot thanks to the "gladiator show" they did in the afternoon (originally it was the ordinary training but they adapted to the audience). They earned so much in fact that they're likely to finance this a second time. Seems attractive when you think that people would even pay for being worked like that.
faetal on 3/7/2012 at 20:10
Quote Posted by Stitch
Also a good activity to engage in: reading.
Whoops, sorry.
Stitch on 3/7/2012 at 20:18
No worries.
The importance of exercise can't be understated--especially in a thread titled "what are you doing to not get a heart attack?"--but I listed weight loss advice first because it is the one areas of fitness that seems to contain the most public misconceptions.
SubJeff on 3/7/2012 at 20:23
you're naturally that weight/size stitch dont lie
Fafhrd on 3/7/2012 at 23:35
Quote Posted by Vivian
Proper ossified endoskeletons are pretty much a terrestrial thing, though, and they work really well.
Well, yeah, that's where the 'low enough failure rate to keep from going extinct' bit comes in. Ossification is an evolutionary retro-fit of structures meant for a water habitat. And while bone self-repairs pretty well, there are still plenty of land-based animals where a broken bone is essentially a death sentence. Skeletons work well
enough, but they're not super great.
Yakoob on 4/7/2012 at 00:02
Quote Posted by faetal
That I can vouch for :)
Also, bizarrely, after being in a lab all day running experiments, my preferred method of relaxing when I get home is to cook, despite it being more or less identical to running experiments.
Quote:
I'd liken my cooking to a clinical trial. I even make the participants sign a waiver.
Hahaha, I still have my TheGreatBakingExperiment.xls file somewhere, basically a complete experiment where I filled a cupcake sheet with different ingredients and ratios just to see how they impacted the final effect. You know "water+flour+baking powder" in one, "milk+flour+baking powder" in the second, then "milk+flour+egg+baking powder" etc. etc. etc.
Perhaps a bit OCD but it made me learn what that extra butter, egg, milk and sugar REALLY do to your moffins!
Quote Posted by Bakerman
Oh. Well, that makes sense. So... start from chart 1 at level D, then 1C, etc.? I might have a look for those modern versions you speak of.
Yup, Pretty much. I'm on Chart 4, just got to Bs. Everything is pretty easy except those damn pushups, still need to take breaks and exceed one minute. Curse you, arms!
Quote:
look for railings, bike racks, or even walls that you can hang off. Not to mention trees with low-hanging boughs! Or playgrounds. Swings and monkey bars are particularly useful.
Haha I actually did look out for that, but I always thought it annoying when I need to break my workout and bike 10 minutes to the nearest park. I dont do running as part of the 5bx cause I absolutely loathe it :P I do bike in place of the last thing sometimes.
heywood on 4/7/2012 at 02:51
Quote Posted by Yakoob
Aye, I can see your dilemma. Do you like biking? You can always get a cheapo bike and extend your reachable distance, if there's better alternatives - this way you get both food AND exercise on your lunch break :D Alternatively, if you have time and resources (not so much when traveling) you can make your own lunches / sandwiches. Even doing it only 1/3 or half the time might be beneficial to your health.
Oh and switch to brown rice, and you dont need to worry about having too much of it, afaik its an excellent source of carbs, which you do need in your diet.
And after living in North Ireland and traveling around, I can fully understand the extra difficulty. The United Kingdom really does not have a very good cuisine (sorry chaps!), and does not have a concept of healthy food. It basically boils down to "lets take x, y and z and FRY IT!" :P
I love biking (used to road race) but I only ride occasionally on weekends when I have the time to get out of the city. With my location, commute, and work schedule it's hard to get on my bike during the week unless I set up the trainer and piss off my wife. When I lived in New Hampshire, the good riding roads started at the end of my driveway so it was easy to do a quick 20 miler after work without slogging through traffic and stop lights. I miss that, but living in the city has its perks too.
Quote Posted by Muzman
It's interesting there's a lot of exercises in these intense routines that were cut from official and education programs (here) years ago because people regularly fuck up their backs doing them (burpees, clapping pushups etc)
I wonder if they've had a bit of a rethink.
If they are intense/hardcore routines designed by an expert, a certain level of fitness and exercise competence is assumed. But I think stuff like the prison workout is just one guy's routine and he hasn't put much thought into caveats to be followed by people who are just getting started exercising.
I personally have no issues with burpees, but I try to be deliberate and controlled in my motions. If you kick your feet straight back, land them on your toes, and use your back like a leaf spring to catch your weight, then you could hurt your back. Especially if you're carrying a beer belly. The exercise I have to be careful with re: my back is the straight leg lift. And the one exercise in the prison workout that I won't do is the lunge jump; too much stress on one knee.
Quote Posted by Eshaktaar
If you're out of options, put a bath towel on top of a door (to avoid splinters & to prevent it from closing) and use that for pull-ups. Works surprisingly well, just test the stability of your doors beforehand
There's one luxury hotel I occasionally stay at where I've done some pull-ups like that on the bathroom door while it's open. But it's a heavy door with monster hinges. Usually, I don't dare hang on to the top of an open door for fear of damage. When they're closed, at least the frame can provide some support.
LarryG on 6/7/2012 at 10:18
I like the benefits from sex, and it's on the internet so it must be true:
1. Sex Relieves Stress
2. Sex Boosts Immunity
3. Sex Burns Calories
4. Sex Improves Heart Health
5. Sex Boosts Self-Esteem
6. Sex Improves Intimacy
7. Sex Reduces Pain
8. Sex Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk
9. Sex Strengthens Pelvic Floor Muscles
10. Sex Helps You Sleep Better
from: (
http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/features/10-surprising-health-benefits-of-sex)
And if you want to calorie count your own intimate experiences (to know if you earned that dish of ice cream for "afters"): (
http://www.c4vct.com/kym/humor/csex.htm)
wiki.answers.com has this gem of a summation:
Quote:
You can lose weight having sex because 30 minutes of sex burns more than 200 calories and having sex five days a week is equivilent [sic.] to two and a half hours in the gym. It has also been shown that those who have sex 3 times a week have a 50 per cent lower risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.
On the nay-sayer's side of things, CalorieLab says this:
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According to CalorieLab’s Calories Burned database, derived from authoritative sources, a 150-pound person will only burn 10 calories per half hour during moderate sexual activity and 17 calories per half hour during vigorous sexual activity. No calories are burned during light sexual activity such as hugging and kissing. Running at an 8-1/2 minute-per-mile pace will burn 357 calories per half hour. All these figures are for calories burned in excess of normal resting metabolism, which are the calories you burn anyway just sitting around watching television.
Using the CalorieLab figures, a 150-pound person who has 30 minutes of sex seven days per week, comprising ten minutes each of light, moderate, and vigorous sexual activity, will burn 9 calories per day. Over a year this level of activity will allow you to lose almost a pound.
But perhaps CalorieLab's testers were just not adventurous enough . . . (
http://quickiechick.com/2011/10/10-sex-positions-that-burn-serious-calories/) 10 Sex Positions that Burn Serious Calories
Who said that the internet was not full of interesting information and controversies? I just wonder how to volunteer for some of these studies! :laff:
