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I’m happy for you, but this is kind of phrased a little overly smugly to me. As someone who lifts weights, it sounds like “I don’t go to the grocery, I just eat

I’m happy for you, but this is kind of phrased a little overly smugly to me. As someone who lifts weights, it sounds like “I don’t go to the grocery, I just eat potatoes and eggs from my backyard farm”. It’s certainly something you can do and get good results, but it’s also a limitation. If you want to build muscle or strength past a certain point it will be very inefficient not to use free weights. Maybe you don’t want to do that, and that’s ok. But it’s kind of weird to be smug about it

kibwen 3y ago
Smugness aside, it's still good advice because calisthenics is all that the average person needs to maintain a healthy level of personal fitness. For people to think that they need to have access to specialized equipment (and pay handsomely for the privilege) creates an artificial barrier that turns people off from exercising entirely and prevents them from meeting their basic fitness needs. For those out there, if you don't have time or inclination to go to the gym, I guarantee you will feel better in your skin if you go from doing zero physical activity to doing any at all, even a little bit. A few minutes of stretching when you wake up in the morning followed by single-digit numbers of squats, pushups, and situps is a great start.
nomilk 3y ago
It's more relief than smugness. Gyms always seemed to let me down: onerous contracts, complex or buggy booking platforms/procedures, unhygienic, stuffy, rigid class start times and open hours. Gaining self-sufficiency made me incredibly happy/relieved. The final straw was when I wanted to pause the membership the gym required "supporting documentation" (i.e. flight or hotel itinerary). I cringed so hard. When I cancelled they charged 2 weeks because that's just normal. Stripe and apple subscriptions let you finish your currently billing period when you cancel, but certainly don't charge you for the next 2 billing periods. I found it so backward. Charging people for what they're clearly not using is kinda sleazy IMO (I know the article sheds light on why gyms do that - that's how they make most their money!) Also, at least half of the utility of exercise for me is mental (as opposed to physical). So clicking on poorly made apps and dealing with contracts was the opposite effect I was hoping to experience, meanwhile breathing fresh air in nature while working out is very mentally relaxing and pleasant. Tl;dr I got bitten a bunch of times by super lame or unnecessarily onerous gym processes, hence why becoming self sufficient made me so happy.
- Dr_Birdbrain 3y ago
  I also discovered outdoor calisthenics over the pandemic. Massive upgrade in every way :)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- namaria 3y ago
  > onerous contracts, complex or buggy booking platforms/procedures, unhygienic, stuffy, rigid class start times and open hours. Damn. You pretty much just described civilization right there.
- prodent 3y ago
  > rigid class start times This one doesn't count. Can't have a class without a fixed start time.
  - nomilk 3y ago
    Consider comparing to gyms that only offer classes. The gym might offer 10-20 time slots per day. Whereas self sufficiency enables infinitely many start times. Very useful under certain circumstances. Examples: finish work very late (when no classes are scheduled), intend to train but shortly before class recognise a need for more of a warm up (I've heard this happens with experienced gym goers, not just newbie folks like myself). With a class you can't always turn up late and you almost certainly can't delay its start time. But with self sufficient training, you can start late if your body requires more warming up; it can start any time you want it to.
- creer 3y ago
  No need to go half way: It IS sleazy. The gym utility should be mental: encouraging you to go. But it's the incentive again: the gym owner feels they must squeeze money from any patron they get - and that includes not encouraging them to come. Making the gym more like home and a welcoming place means fewer memberships can be sold. Bad incentives all around. And so for me the answer has been to work out at home. Finding a routine that requires little equipment and doing THAT right.
Erratic6576 3y ago
Yeah. I am looking forward to going back to the gym but I don’t stop reminding my parents that there’s nothing like iron because it’s hard to find anything as heavy and compact. It’s not the gym what I miss, but the iron barbell

kibwen 3y ago

Smugness aside, it's still good advice because calisthenics is all that the average person needs to maintain a healthy level of personal fitness. For people to think that they need to have access to specialized equipment (and pay handsomely for the privilege) creates an artificial barrier that turns people off from exercising entirely and prevents them from meeting their basic fitness needs. For those out there, if you don't have time or inclination to go to the gym, I guarantee you will feel better in your skin if you go from doing zero physical activity to doing any at all, even a little bit. A few minutes of stretching when you wake up in the morning followed by single-digit numbers of squats, pushups, and situps is a great start.

nomilk 3y ago

It's more relief than smugness. Gyms always seemed to let me down: onerous contracts, complex or buggy booking platforms/procedures, unhygienic, stuffy, rigid class start times and open hours. Gaining self-sufficiency made me incredibly happy/relieved. The final straw was when I wanted to pause the membership the gym required "supporting documentation" (i.e. flight or hotel itinerary). I cringed so hard. When I cancelled they charged 2 weeks because that's just normal. Stripe and apple subscriptions let you finish your currently billing period when you cancel, but certainly don't charge you for the next 2 billing periods. I found it so backward. Charging people for what they're clearly not using is kinda sleazy IMO (I know the article sheds light on why gyms do that - that's how they make most their money!) Also, at least half of the utility of exercise for me is mental (as opposed to physical). So clicking on poorly made apps and dealing with contracts was the opposite effect I was hoping to experience, meanwhile breathing fresh air in nature while working out is very mentally relaxing and pleasant. Tl;dr I got bitten a bunch of times by super lame or unnecessarily onerous gym processes, hence why becoming self sufficient made me so happy.

Dr_Birdbrain 3y ago
I also discovered outdoor calisthenics over the pandemic. Massive upgrade in every way :)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
namaria 3y ago
> onerous contracts, complex or buggy booking platforms/procedures, unhygienic, stuffy, rigid class start times and open hours. Damn. You pretty much just described civilization right there.
prodent 3y ago
> rigid class start times This one doesn't count. Can't have a class without a fixed start time.
- nomilk 3y ago
  Consider comparing to gyms that only offer classes. The gym might offer 10-20 time slots per day. Whereas self sufficiency enables infinitely many start times. Very useful under certain circumstances. Examples: finish work very late (when no classes are scheduled), intend to train but shortly before class recognise a need for more of a warm up (I've heard this happens with experienced gym goers, not just newbie folks like myself). With a class you can't always turn up late and you almost certainly can't delay its start time. But with self sufficient training, you can start late if your body requires more warming up; it can start any time you want it to.
creer 3y ago
No need to go half way: It IS sleazy. The gym utility should be mental: encouraging you to go. But it's the incentive again: the gym owner feels they must squeeze money from any patron they get - and that includes not encouraging them to come. Making the gym more like home and a welcoming place means fewer memberships can be sold. Bad incentives all around. And so for me the answer has been to work out at home. Finding a routine that requires little equipment and doing THAT right.

Erratic6576 3y ago

Yeah. I am looking forward to going back to the gym but I don’t stop reminding my parents that there’s nothing like iron because it’s hard to find anything as heavy and compact. It’s not the gym what I miss, but the iron barbell