4 ms·

A Neuroscientist Explains the Brain-Boosting Benefits of Swim, Bike, and Run (2021)

25 points by wslh 2y ago

contrarian1234 2y ago
Conflict of interest: https://www.dayagrant.com/about https://www.dayagrant.com/about She is a consultant that .. promotes triathlons? It's also literally on "triathelete.com" .. She has a PhD in Neuroscience so knows how to cherry pick studies to support her thesis... but I wouldn't put too much weight in this.
- Aperocky 2y ago
  Same can be said of climate scientist warning about climate change.
  - contrarian1234 2y ago
    I think the nature of the problem is a bit different. Anthropogenic climate change is sort of generally accepted, though the specifics on how the climate will change are not well understood If the scientist is somehow vested in climate change being as horrendous as possible - then I would imagine a person like that would become myopic to information that ran counter to their "interests". I wouldn't see them as impartial. (For instance if they made regular paid appearances on TV to expound on the dangers of climate change) But in the same vein, Dawkins will be myopic to arguments counter to evolution - which I think is fine - b/c that's not contested ground Triathalons aren't some constrained thing like evolution - where triatheletes all live to 100 unlike the rest of the plebs. So it's more like the effects of climate change. I'm sure it's having some effect.. but your career depends on it being "good" things All researchers have biases and some results are sexier and one gravitates to them - but here the researcher is really out on the fringe with her conflicts of interest
  - kid64 2y ago
    No it can't, unless you think a single assertion is equivalent to unanimous consensus among the scientific community, which is clearly asinine.
    - iambateman 2y ago
      In this case, I think both climate change and the positive mental effects of exercise have pretty strong consensus.
- safety1st 2y ago
  This is such a Hacker News comment and I don't mean that in a positive way. The link between exercise and health, including brain health, is so well established that calling out this "conflict of interest" is more a well-dressed ad hominem, not a meaningful critique. Attack the argument not the person. Oh wait you can't because she's right.
  - contrarian1234 2y ago
    The Hackernews reply would be to start arguing with the science by cherry picking some papers and quoting some popscience articles. I think you need to acknowledge when you don't know enough. I'm not a neuroscientist or doctor. I have no ability to engage with the science - and I'm not going to start pulling papers out of my ass to support some counter argument. I have no idea if she's right or wrong. I just know that at a cursory glance of her profile she seems to have an agenda. That's all I rely on the expertise of dedicated professionals to do the "arguing" and investigating the science. All I can do is vet them and see if they're impartial
- thefz 2y ago
  Article does not mention triathlon at all, it's more a breakdown of each single activity.
barbarr 2y ago
"Exercise is good for you" - exercise.com
- schneems 2y ago
  Big exercise at it again.
  - Jtsummers 2y ago
    Yeah, look at those bastards. Trying to bring down Big Pharma and the insulin lobby. Their whole purpose is to feed the Big Ortho and Big PT groups anyways.
nytesky 2y ago
On a parenting blog I follow they talk about Triathlete widows and have a dim view of triathletes as spouses. I would be interested in a study if that is true? It’s a particularly time consuming sport, as it’s essentially training for 3 races at once. But many people play a lot of golf or tennis or softball and don’t seem to get the same shade.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  "Golf widow" and similar terms have been around for decades. Tennis and softball don't take up nearly as much time for the casual participants as golf does. Softball also lets spouses and family attend (we used to go to my dad's squadron softball games) and participate (as much as any spectator participates) in a much different way than with golf.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  In my experience, the related joke is triathletes should only date other triathletes. The difference compared to golf/tennis/softball is that I know tons of people that play those sports recreationally (only on the weekends or a couple times a week), while everyone I know that is into triathlons trains for multiple hours a day. Triathlons tend to attract people who have an "all in" mindset - after all, if you just wanted to do it as easy recreation, you'd probably just take up one of the sports and then, say, run a 10k every now and then. So yeah, training for triathlons is time consuming, and people who want to find a better balance between their relationships and their hobbies probably takes up another sport.
  - wslh 2y ago
    Not a joke though.
janalsncm 2y ago
Even without improvements to memory or cognition, biking is a massive stress reliever in my experience. After a 40 mile trip I have found it basically impossible to worry and not be in a generally good mood. Unfortunately the Bay Area has few great options compared with other regions I’ve lived if you are looking for long, dedicated routes (no sharing with cars) without cross traffic.
- Aperocky 2y ago
  THe bay area is the best for cycling in the US. Unfortunately I have left but it really is the best. Category 2 climb a few miles away and bike lane on most roads is hard to beat by US standards.
  - e40 2y ago
    Sharing or not sharing with cars?
smartbit 2y ago
Rule nr 1 Exercise boosts brain power in https://brainrules.net/the-rules/ https://brainrules.net/the-rules/ The accompanying video explains it in 3min.
Aperocky 2y ago
After I started to seriously engage in endurance exercise (specifically swim, bike, run.. no coincidence), I've made the surprise discovery at how massive the improvement has been over the assumed cost of having these changes. People, judging from the advertisement airing by the day, would have paid 1000s for medications that would only cover a portion of benefits and had side effect in others. I've became generally happier, more energized, lost 30 lbs, and generally able to do so much more with my body then I previously could, along with alleviating a few vices (e.g. doom scrolling) from my life due to necessity. And the entire time I was running or cycling or swimming I was quite happy. If this is a product that are gated behind a purchasing decision, I would have a hard time trying to assign it value seeing how much change it introduced. But it's not. I feel like we as a society are not emphasizing the benefit of exercise, specifically endurance exercise enough. There's a lot of money to be made selling Ozempic but Nike make more money selling Jordans than trainers. There's a small group of people that unlocked this secret but the gospel is hard to get out. I wonder if over time we will see more people getting involved in these sports - I do think the society will benefit a lot in general if even 20% were to try running a half marathon or a triathlon.
- pintxo 2y ago
  I'd say the benefits are told about everywhere. It's the execution where we fail on an individual level.
  - wslh 2y ago
    It is the attitude. The execution is not so complex if you don't have health issues.
    - pintxo 2y ago
      I'd have subsumed the attitude under execution, but yes, it's about attitude, and also about establishing habits/process.
  - Aperocky 2y ago
    Before I started this I would say "exercise is good", but only now do I truly know how good it is. I think there's a gap between the perceived benefits and the actual ones and that gap would explains a lot of the hesitance.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

25 points by wslh 2y ago

Conflict of interest: https://www.dayagrant.com/about https://www.dayagrant.com/about She is a consultant that .. promotes triathlons? It's also literally on "triathelete.com" .. She has a PhD in Neuroscience so knows how to cherry pick studies to support her thesis... but I wouldn't put too much weight in this.

Aperocky 2y ago
Same can be said of climate scientist warning about climate change.
- contrarian1234 2y ago
  I think the nature of the problem is a bit different. Anthropogenic climate change is sort of generally accepted, though the specifics on how the climate will change are not well understood If the scientist is somehow vested in climate change being as horrendous as possible - then I would imagine a person like that would become myopic to information that ran counter to their "interests". I wouldn't see them as impartial. (For instance if they made regular paid appearances on TV to expound on the dangers of climate change) But in the same vein, Dawkins will be myopic to arguments counter to evolution - which I think is fine - b/c that's not contested ground Triathalons aren't some constrained thing like evolution - where triatheletes all live to 100 unlike the rest of the plebs. So it's more like the effects of climate change. I'm sure it's having some effect.. but your career depends on it being "good" things All researchers have biases and some results are sexier and one gravitates to them - but here the researcher is really out on the fringe with her conflicts of interest
- kid64 2y ago
  No it can't, unless you think a single assertion is equivalent to unanimous consensus among the scientific community, which is clearly asinine.
  - iambateman 2y ago
    In this case, I think both climate change and the positive mental effects of exercise have pretty strong consensus.
safety1st 2y ago
This is such a Hacker News comment and I don't mean that in a positive way. The link between exercise and health, including brain health, is so well established that calling out this "conflict of interest" is more a well-dressed ad hominem, not a meaningful critique. Attack the argument not the person. Oh wait you can't because she's right.
- contrarian1234 2y ago
  The Hackernews reply would be to start arguing with the science by cherry picking some papers and quoting some popscience articles. I think you need to acknowledge when you don't know enough. I'm not a neuroscientist or doctor. I have no ability to engage with the science - and I'm not going to start pulling papers out of my ass to support some counter argument. I have no idea if she's right or wrong. I just know that at a cursory glance of her profile she seems to have an agenda. That's all I rely on the expertise of dedicated professionals to do the "arguing" and investigating the science. All I can do is vet them and see if they're impartial
thefz 2y ago
Article does not mention triathlon at all, it's more a breakdown of each single activity.

barbarr 2y ago

"Exercise is good for you" - exercise.com

schneems 2y ago
Big exercise at it again.
- Jtsummers 2y ago
  Yeah, look at those bastards. Trying to bring down Big Pharma and the insulin lobby. Their whole purpose is to feed the Big Ortho and Big PT groups anyways.

nytesky 2y ago

On a parenting blog I follow they talk about Triathlete widows and have a dim view of triathletes as spouses. I would be interested in a study if that is true? It’s a particularly time consuming sport, as it’s essentially training for 3 races at once. But many people play a lot of golf or tennis or softball and don’t seem to get the same shade.

Jtsummers 2y ago
"Golf widow" and similar terms have been around for decades. Tennis and softball don't take up nearly as much time for the casual participants as golf does. Softball also lets spouses and family attend (we used to go to my dad's squadron softball games) and participate (as much as any spectator participates) in a much different way than with golf.
hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
In my experience, the related joke is triathletes should only date other triathletes. The difference compared to golf/tennis/softball is that I know tons of people that play those sports recreationally (only on the weekends or a couple times a week), while everyone I know that is into triathlons trains for multiple hours a day. Triathlons tend to attract people who have an "all in" mindset - after all, if you just wanted to do it as easy recreation, you'd probably just take up one of the sports and then, say, run a 10k every now and then. So yeah, training for triathlons is time consuming, and people who want to find a better balance between their relationships and their hobbies probably takes up another sport.
- wslh 2y ago
  Not a joke though.

janalsncm 2y ago

Even without improvements to memory or cognition, biking is a massive stress reliever in my experience. After a 40 mile trip I have found it basically impossible to worry and not be in a generally good mood. Unfortunately the Bay Area has few great options compared with other regions I’ve lived if you are looking for long, dedicated routes (no sharing with cars) without cross traffic.

Aperocky 2y ago
THe bay area is the best for cycling in the US. Unfortunately I have left but it really is the best. Category 2 climb a few miles away and bike lane on most roads is hard to beat by US standards.
- e40 2y ago
  Sharing or not sharing with cars?

smartbit 2y ago

Rule nr 1 Exercise boosts brain power in https://brainrules.net/the-rules/ https://brainrules.net/the-rules/ The accompanying video explains it in 3min.

Aperocky 2y ago

After I started to seriously engage in endurance exercise (specifically swim, bike, run.. no coincidence), I've made the surprise discovery at how massive the improvement has been over the assumed cost of having these changes. People, judging from the advertisement airing by the day, would have paid 1000s for medications that would only cover a portion of benefits and had side effect in others. I've became generally happier, more energized, lost 30 lbs, and generally able to do so much more with my body then I previously could, along with alleviating a few vices (e.g. doom scrolling) from my life due to necessity. And the entire time I was running or cycling or swimming I was quite happy. If this is a product that are gated behind a purchasing decision, I would have a hard time trying to assign it value seeing how much change it introduced. But it's not. I feel like we as a society are not emphasizing the benefit of exercise, specifically endurance exercise enough. There's a lot of money to be made selling Ozempic but Nike make more money selling Jordans than trainers. There's a small group of people that unlocked this secret but the gospel is hard to get out. I wonder if over time we will see more people getting involved in these sports - I do think the society will benefit a lot in general if even 20% were to try running a half marathon or a triathlon.

pintxo 2y ago
I'd say the benefits are told about everywhere. It's the execution where we fail on an individual level.
- wslh 2y ago
  It is the attitude. The execution is not so complex if you don't have health issues.
  - pintxo 2y ago
    I'd have subsumed the attitude under execution, but yes, it's about attitude, and also about establishing habits/process.
- Aperocky 2y ago
  Before I started this I would say "exercise is good", but only now do I truly know how good it is. I think there's a gap between the perceived benefits and the actual ones and that gap would explains a lot of the hesitance.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]