8 ms·

If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good. It is good if you do a bit or a lot, if you are young, old, male, female, trans,

by Gatsky 8y ago

If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good. It is good if you do a bit or a lot, if you are young, old, male, female, trans, pregnant, trying to get pregnant, single, married, divorced, depressed, a smoker, have cancer, have heart disease, have dementia, an astronaut, a pure mathematician, a plumber, tall, short, liberal, conservative etc etc. There isn't anyone that doesn't benefit basically. It's almost like breathing. The message is important, but I think we can just stop doing studies about how exercise is good. Researchers must love these kinds of studies because they are ALWAYS POSITIVE. And the media loves promoting them, I guess because they get a lot of clicks. Getting people to do more exercise - that is the hard part. More randomised studies of interventions to do that on a society level are needed. There is going to be an extraordinary number of people transitioning from (admittedly unpleasant and impoverished) more active lifestyles to sedentary work in the next 50 years. Reducing the burden of disease in this group is essential.

Someone1234 8y ago
I personally think the research done on HIIT/HIIE-style[0] exercise has been pretty revolutionary. Sure the status quo remains: exercise=good, non-exercise=bad, but reality is more nuanced than that and something like HIIT helps people who feel they lack the time for "full" exercise to justify a minimal time commitment with proven and significant health benefits. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_traini...
- Gatsky 8y ago
  Yes! I agree the HIIT research is great and very interesting and impactful - they designed and implemented an intervention with a control group and measured other correlative variables including muscle biopsies. And as you say the results are actually useful for getting some people that don't have the time or inclination to run marathons. I would certainly distinguish this kind of research from the many redundant retrospective observational studies (often with self-reported exercise activity levels) of the kind linked in the original post.
Waterluvian 8y ago
I worry about my health and often I have a really good try and making a habit. But crap is it hard. It's not the money or the time. There's something else about willpower and boredom. I wish I could get on an exercise bike, stare at a brainwashing device, and "wake up" an hour later having remembered none of it.
- emiliobumachar 8y ago
  I do nearly exactly that on my phone playing Predynastic Egypt, but on the elliptical instead of on a bike. Sometimes my legs start to hurt after 90 minutes, but I want to play just... one... more... turn.
  - koboll 8y ago
    Yeah finding something you enjoy is key. I hate running. I hate cycling. I hate cardio-class-type motions. But damn do I love me some Dance Dance Revolution. And let me tell you, once you get good at it and start doing the hardest songs on the hardest setting, it will kick the living shit out of you. The first time I passed Max 300 on heavy I thought I was dying. But it was so worth it.
    - Gatsky 8y ago
      This is the best comment I have seen on HN all year.
    - fitzroy 8y ago
      I’ve honestly thought about getting a VR setup just to play Beat Saber.
      - Waterluvian 8y ago
        Beat Saber looks just so snappy and catchy.
      - seanp2k2 8y ago
        Honestly GORN is a great workout as well, but you run into issues with the Oculus getting too hot on your sweaty face. I picked up a "VR Cover" and it helps a bit, but it still gets soaked through with sweat. It is at least easier to wash.
Someone 8y ago
”If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good” I don’t see the need to mention biology. I think every reasonable definition of “exercise” automatically implies that exercise is good. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise says: ”Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness”
- andai 8y ago
  Which part of that is not biology?
  - Someone 8y ago
    The self-fulfilling prophecy part. If you define exercise as enhancing fitness and health, overtraining isn’t exercise anymore, and exercise by definition becomes good for you.
kaitai 8y ago
"More randomised studies of interventions to do that on a society level are needed." This gets at the heart of things. We used to have societies in which exercise needs were often met through activities of daily living. Many places in the world still require walking, biking, hauling water, carrying children, transporting food on your back, etc. Many places in the world people still dance at community events, for fun, no matter what their age. But the US -- we've been working as hard as we can for 90 years to eliminate exercise from daily life. And now we are doing another classic US-ian thing and shifting this formerly natural and communal thing to an individual responsibility, preferably an individual responsibility that can be monetized. What so many instances have shown in the US is that when you take an activity that used to be built into daily life and 'gentrify' it -- make it something that costs money and time because it's denied to some groups by the very structures of the buildings and streets they live around -- we end up with huge public health costs and unforeseen consequences. But taking a conscious approach in the design of our cities, public housing, public transport systems, private transport systems, zoning laws, energy policy, food policy, medical care delivery, public school requirements, and private school requirements is considered to be some sort of socialist brainwashing that kills the seed of freedom in one's heart, or something. Only if you are forced to commute on the highway rather than being able to bike safely to work are you truly living the American dream. Only if you must drive thirty minutes to get to the nearest place with chicken that tastes like something other than styrofoam, rather than being able to walk to the neighborhood store for it, are you satisfying the extractive demands of our apparently-preferred economy.
- seanp2k2 8y ago
  Yeah, one thing that world travel has really shown me is how dumb US cities and infrastructure are. In the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, etc, you can take trains wherever you want to go and walk on both ends to make up the last 1/4 mile. All of those 1/4 miles add up to a decent workout, and it's great to not have to buy + maintain + drive + park a vehicle. I'm still mad at everyone who had a hand in preventing BART from running down the peninsula. https://io9.gizmodo.com/5866928/a-map-of-san-franciscos-subway-system-that-almost-was https://io9.gizmodo.com/5866928/a-map-of-san-franciscos-subw... has the original map if you haven't seen it. It would have ran from Jennings (north of Santa Rosa in the far north bay) all the way down to Los Gatos (in the Santa Cruz foothills), crossed the South Bay at 3 points (Oakland, Foster City, and East Palo Alto), and featured MANY more routes inside of San Francisco proper to places like Presidio, North Beach, Masonic, Van Ness, Castro, Oyster Point, Taravel, and Potrero Hill. I know that a couple of those routes are now served by MUNI trains, but this was a plan in 1956, would have been a single system, and still had way better coverage than we have today or planned in the next 20 years.
davidjnelson 8y ago
I find that if the exercise is in nature, it is much more pleasurable which creates a positive feedback loop. Take a look at google maps, there are probably wilderness trails 20 minutes from most places people live.
toasterlovin 8y ago
> I think we can just stop doing studies about how exercise is good I heartily disagree. People have limited time. We need to figure out what form of excercise gives the most benefit for unit of time spent. There is serious disagreement about this (the two camps being cardio vs strength training, basically).
- ericmcer 8y ago
  Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. The second you start talking about benefit for unit of time spent it becomes a tedious chore. I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run. I have introduced tons of friends to the gym and my first piece of advice is always just show up and have fun, don’t worry about ideal routines or maximizing output. Just figure out how to make exercise part of your life.
  - kozikow 8y ago
    > Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. This is what finally worked for me. I died of boredom jogging or lifting weights. You have to find a sport that you enjoy. I have friends that were unfit and finally climbing did it for them. It was BJJ and MMA for me. I enjoyed tennis/squash, but it's sometimes hard to find an equal partner - same with other "group" sports.
    - camillomiller 8y ago
      I’ve been doing Ashtabga Yoga for years then recently I discovered how fun calisthenics can be if you “gamify” it with a friend, thinking of advanced progressions as videogame-like achievements. Really into it now.
  - ip26 8y ago
    I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run. FWIW this was me two years ago. Then I came to grips with the fact that running is the best training for mountain climbing.
sp527 8y ago
My mistaken belief that exercise is good no matter what lead me to destroy my health over the past several years. It is in fact quite possible for exercise to be dangerous to your health, if you suffer from certain conditions (like CFS).
Shivetya 8y ago
don't overlook genetics, there are family lines that just live longer regardless of many what people consider bad habits. exercise rightly cannot be dismissed but all the exercise in the world won't fix what is in your DNA. still on the exercise front there needs to be more work in find easy routines that even the least inclined can participate in
- andai 8y ago
  Exercise improves your DNA.
pnathan 8y ago
My physical advice runs as follows, with commentary below. > Eat (non-processed) food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (Pollan)[0] > Invest in strength and cardio training. Couple hours per week[1]. > Listen to qualified medical professionals, critically[2]. [0] tl;dr - make your own meals, high frequency of salads, don't overeat, and don't fuss too much. [1] I recommend serious kettlebell work to achieve this; takes very little equipment and very little space. [2] They aren't always right, and you always have to self-advocate.
- scns 8y ago
  I recommend the work of John Berardy PhD. His research is focused primarily on exercise nutrition. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/about/john-berardi https://www.precisionnutrition.com/about/john-berardi not affiliated
Izkata 8y ago
> More randomised studies of interventions to do that on a society level are needed. There is going to be an extraordinary number of people transitioning from (admittedly unpleasant and impoverished) more active lifestyles to sedentary work in the next 50 years. I think Pokemon GO may have successfully pushed the problems off a bit.
adetrest 8y ago
School made me hate any kind of sports. The teachers were awful, bullies loved it because it allowed some of their behavior to pass as "camaraderie", and I'm not even going to ask what are they thinking when deciding to put a bunch of 14/15 yo teens in a swimming pool for a whole trimester at the age when they're starting to grow hair and breasts and are mostly very uncomfortable with their bodies. Most people I talk to feel the same, school as a teen put them off sports for a looong time, if not for ever. I tried going to fancy gyms, running around the block, at home body weight exercises... Nothing stuck and I quit in short order. The only thing I kept up was cycling everywhere because it's cheaper and faster than any other means available in my city. It took me 20 years, a personal trainer, a private gym in my building, a lot of courage, and a lot of free time from getting laid off to finally start exercising regularly. It was absolutely worth it and I could feel the benefits after a couple of months only. I wasn't obese, didn't have heart problems, didn't smoke etc, and thought of myself as healthy as the average person my age. It made a huge difference in my life, my body doesn't hurt as much anymore overall, I stand straighter and taller, I can lift more and more weight, I can do more reps, hold things for longer, and feel better about myself... It was a pain and a drag to go for the first few weeks and the. It becomes a habit if you stick to it. So thank you to that dysfunctional employer and their shitty politics games, you made me a huge favor by laying me off!

by Gatsky 8y ago

Someone1234 8y ago

I personally think the research done on HIIT/HIIE-style[0] exercise has been pretty revolutionary. Sure the status quo remains: exercise=good, non-exercise=bad, but reality is more nuanced than that and something like HIIT helps people who feel they lack the time for "full" exercise to justify a minimal time commitment with proven and significant health benefits. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_training https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-intensity_interval_traini...

Gatsky 8y ago
Yes! I agree the HIIT research is great and very interesting and impactful - they designed and implemented an intervention with a control group and measured other correlative variables including muscle biopsies. And as you say the results are actually useful for getting some people that don't have the time or inclination to run marathons. I would certainly distinguish this kind of research from the many redundant retrospective observational studies (often with self-reported exercise activity levels) of the kind linked in the original post.

Waterluvian 8y ago

I worry about my health and often I have a really good try and making a habit. But crap is it hard. It's not the money or the time. There's something else about willpower and boredom. I wish I could get on an exercise bike, stare at a brainwashing device, and "wake up" an hour later having remembered none of it.

emiliobumachar 8y ago
I do nearly exactly that on my phone playing Predynastic Egypt, but on the elliptical instead of on a bike. Sometimes my legs start to hurt after 90 minutes, but I want to play just... one... more... turn.
- koboll 8y ago
  Yeah finding something you enjoy is key. I hate running. I hate cycling. I hate cardio-class-type motions. But damn do I love me some Dance Dance Revolution. And let me tell you, once you get good at it and start doing the hardest songs on the hardest setting, it will kick the living shit out of you. The first time I passed Max 300 on heavy I thought I was dying. But it was so worth it.
  - Gatsky 8y ago
    This is the best comment I have seen on HN all year.
  - fitzroy 8y ago
    I’ve honestly thought about getting a VR setup just to play Beat Saber.
    - Waterluvian 8y ago
      Beat Saber looks just so snappy and catchy.
    - seanp2k2 8y ago
      Honestly GORN is a great workout as well, but you run into issues with the Oculus getting too hot on your sweaty face. I picked up a "VR Cover" and it helps a bit, but it still gets soaked through with sweat. It is at least easier to wash.

Someone 8y ago

”If there is one universal truth of human biology, it is that exercise is good” I don’t see the need to mention biology. I think every reasonable definition of “exercise” automatically implies that exercise is good. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exercise says: ”Exercise is any bodily activity that enhances or maintains physical fitness and overall health and wellness”

andai 8y ago
Which part of that is not biology?
- Someone 8y ago
  The self-fulfilling prophecy part. If you define exercise as enhancing fitness and health, overtraining isn’t exercise anymore, and exercise by definition becomes good for you.

kaitai 8y ago

"More randomised studies of interventions to do that on a society level are needed." This gets at the heart of things. We used to have societies in which exercise needs were often met through activities of daily living. Many places in the world still require walking, biking, hauling water, carrying children, transporting food on your back, etc. Many places in the world people still dance at community events, for fun, no matter what their age. But the US -- we've been working as hard as we can for 90 years to eliminate exercise from daily life. And now we are doing another classic US-ian thing and shifting this formerly natural and communal thing to an individual responsibility, preferably an individual responsibility that can be monetized. What so many instances have shown in the US is that when you take an activity that used to be built into daily life and 'gentrify' it -- make it something that costs money and time because it's denied to some groups by the very structures of the buildings and streets they live around -- we end up with huge public health costs and unforeseen consequences. But taking a conscious approach in the design of our cities, public housing, public transport systems, private transport systems, zoning laws, energy policy, food policy, medical care delivery, public school requirements, and private school requirements is considered to be some sort of socialist brainwashing that kills the seed of freedom in one's heart, or something. Only if you are forced to commute on the highway rather than being able to bike safely to work are you truly living the American dream. Only if you must drive thirty minutes to get to the nearest place with chicken that tastes like something other than styrofoam, rather than being able to walk to the neighborhood store for it, are you satisfying the extractive demands of our apparently-preferred economy.

seanp2k2 8y ago
Yeah, one thing that world travel has really shown me is how dumb US cities and infrastructure are. In the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, etc, you can take trains wherever you want to go and walk on both ends to make up the last 1/4 mile. All of those 1/4 miles add up to a decent workout, and it's great to not have to buy + maintain + drive + park a vehicle. I'm still mad at everyone who had a hand in preventing BART from running down the peninsula. https://io9.gizmodo.com/5866928/a-map-of-san-franciscos-subway-system-that-almost-was https://io9.gizmodo.com/5866928/a-map-of-san-franciscos-subw... has the original map if you haven't seen it. It would have ran from Jennings (north of Santa Rosa in the far north bay) all the way down to Los Gatos (in the Santa Cruz foothills), crossed the South Bay at 3 points (Oakland, Foster City, and East Palo Alto), and featured MANY more routes inside of San Francisco proper to places like Presidio, North Beach, Masonic, Van Ness, Castro, Oyster Point, Taravel, and Potrero Hill. I know that a couple of those routes are now served by MUNI trains, but this was a plan in 1956, would have been a single system, and still had way better coverage than we have today or planned in the next 20 years.

davidjnelson 8y ago

I find that if the exercise is in nature, it is much more pleasurable which creates a positive feedback loop. Take a look at google maps, there are probably wilderness trails 20 minutes from most places people live.

toasterlovin 8y ago

> I think we can just stop doing studies about how exercise is good I heartily disagree. People have limited time. We need to figure out what form of excercise gives the most benefit for unit of time spent. There is serious disagreement about this (the two camps being cardio vs strength training, basically).

ericmcer 8y ago
Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. The second you start talking about benefit for unit of time spent it becomes a tedious chore. I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run. I have introduced tons of friends to the gym and my first piece of advice is always just show up and have fun, don’t worry about ideal routines or maximizing output. Just figure out how to make exercise part of your life.
- kozikow 8y ago
  > Exercise should be enjoyable or people will not do it. This is what finally worked for me. I died of boredom jogging or lifting weights. You have to find a sport that you enjoy. I have friends that were unfit and finally climbing did it for them. It was BJJ and MMA for me. I enjoyed tennis/squash, but it's sometimes hard to find an equal partner - same with other "group" sports.
  - camillomiller 8y ago
    I’ve been doing Ashtabga Yoga for years then recently I discovered how fun calisthenics can be if you “gamify” it with a friend, thinking of advanced progressions as videogame-like achievements. Really into it now.
- ip26 8y ago
  I love rock climbing, I hate running, no statistic about running being more beneficial is going to make me run. FWIW this was me two years ago. Then I came to grips with the fact that running is the best training for mountain climbing.

sp527 8y ago

My mistaken belief that exercise is good no matter what lead me to destroy my health over the past several years. It is in fact quite possible for exercise to be dangerous to your health, if you suffer from certain conditions (like CFS).

Shivetya 8y ago

don't overlook genetics, there are family lines that just live longer regardless of many what people consider bad habits. exercise rightly cannot be dismissed but all the exercise in the world won't fix what is in your DNA. still on the exercise front there needs to be more work in find easy routines that even the least inclined can participate in

andai 8y ago
Exercise improves your DNA.

pnathan 8y ago

My physical advice runs as follows, with commentary below. > Eat (non-processed) food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (Pollan)[0] > Invest in strength and cardio training. Couple hours per week[1]. > Listen to qualified medical professionals, critically[2]. [0] tl;dr - make your own meals, high frequency of salads, don't overeat, and don't fuss too much. [1] I recommend serious kettlebell work to achieve this; takes very little equipment and very little space. [2] They aren't always right, and you always have to self-advocate.

scns 8y ago
I recommend the work of John Berardy PhD. His research is focused primarily on exercise nutrition. https://www.precisionnutrition.com/about/john-berardi https://www.precisionnutrition.com/about/john-berardi not affiliated

Izkata 8y ago

> More randomised studies of interventions to do that on a society level are needed. There is going to be an extraordinary number of people transitioning from (admittedly unpleasant and impoverished) more active lifestyles to sedentary work in the next 50 years. I think Pokemon GO may have successfully pushed the problems off a bit.

adetrest 8y ago

School made me hate any kind of sports. The teachers were awful, bullies loved it because it allowed some of their behavior to pass as "camaraderie", and I'm not even going to ask what are they thinking when deciding to put a bunch of 14/15 yo teens in a swimming pool for a whole trimester at the age when they're starting to grow hair and breasts and are mostly very uncomfortable with their bodies. Most people I talk to feel the same, school as a teen put them off sports for a looong time, if not for ever. I tried going to fancy gyms, running around the block, at home body weight exercises... Nothing stuck and I quit in short order. The only thing I kept up was cycling everywhere because it's cheaper and faster than any other means available in my city. It took me 20 years, a personal trainer, a private gym in my building, a lot of courage, and a lot of free time from getting laid off to finally start exercising regularly. It was absolutely worth it and I could feel the benefits after a couple of months only. I wasn't obese, didn't have heart problems, didn't smoke etc, and thought of myself as healthy as the average person my age. It made a huge difference in my life, my body doesn't hurt as much anymore overall, I stand straighter and taller, I can lift more and more weight, I can do more reps, hold things for longer, and feel better about myself... It was a pain and a drag to go for the first few weeks and the. It becomes a habit if you stick to it. So thank you to that dysfunctional employer and their shitty politics games, you made me a huge favor by laying me off!