Got A Fitness Regime?

Pastorbottle · Oct 1, 2024

Charlemagne1333
The UK has anything, but calm roads.

That’s like saying one wouldn’t fly, as the plane might crash…

The way Boeing has been going, that possibility seems to increase on a daily basis

Pastorbottle · Oct 1, 2024

Dsloan
I think this is the obvious answer for all us old people who want to feel young again:

Competitive tag gives you fun, cardio, glycolytic work, phosphate system work, mobility work, plyometrics, and the opportunity for all kinds of injuries.

That's a sport for watching not doing!
Bugger that! Don't chase him.... just shoot the bastard if you wanna stop him!

Archer · Oct 2, 2024

Charlemagne1333
The UK has anything, but calm roads.

I was just going by your post. But having read this reply I did a little digging about cycling deaths per distance travelled. The UK (and Europe) is far safer to cycle in than in North America. Depending on what specific study you look at, the rate of deaths for cycling is 4-5 times that of the UK for the US and the parts of Canada that I was able to find data for. Also, the trend is going down in many countries, but up in the US.

Same for pedestrians. I think it's in part because the vehicles here are just larger with the prevalence of pick-up trucks and SUV's on the road. When you do get hit, the damage done is much greater, as the vehicles are heavier and taller.

Charlemagne1333
That’s like saying one wouldn’t fly, as the plane might crash…

Not at all. It's pretty widely recognized that commercial air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation, so the risk analysis is not even close - orders of magnitude different.

Archer · Oct 2, 2024

blufinz52
From the study you linked:
"While different sports produced strikingly different gains in life span, the observational design of the study wasn’t sufficient to prove a causal relationship."

So much for tennis. 😎

Of course it's observational. You cannot control for people's diet, genetics, etc. over a 25 year period like this study looked at. It's quite possible that tennis players are just healthier people overall, so I'd still consider that a win. 😉

blufinz52 · Oct 2, 2024

Archer
Of course it's observational. You cannot control for people's diet, genetics, etc. over a 25 year period like this study looked at. It's quite possible that tennis players are just healthier people overall, so I'd still consider that a win. 😉

Confirmation bias? 😁

Archer · Oct 2, 2024

blufinz52
Confirmation bias? 😁

If you believe that, so be it.

I'll just point out that there's more than one study that confirms the benefits of playing tennis.

https://www.health.com/health-benef...xt=Tennis is a popular sport that offers many

What many of them cite as a key is the building of social capital. Personally, I would rather spend time having fun on the tennis courts with a bunch of people than doing this...

Bob's photo from earlier in the thread - not much social capital being developed there.

blufinz52 · Oct 2, 2024

Archer
If you believe that, so be it.

I'll just point out that there's more than one study that confirms the benefits of playing tennis. What many of them cite as a key is the building of social capital. Personally, I would rather spend time having fun on the tennis courts with a bunch of people than doing this...

Bob's photo from earlier in the thread - not much social capital being developed there.

Yea, no argument on which activity is preferred between those two examples. I'd take tennis all day over being in a stuffy gym. But there are many sports/activities that confer both physical well being and social capital. I was a runner for quite a few years and was a member of a large running club...made great friends and had a resting heart rate of 48BPM. More than one way to skin a cat 👍

Dsloan · Oct 2, 2024

Archer
If you believe that, so be it.

I'll just point out that there's more than one study that confirms the benefits of playing tennis.

https://www.health.com/health-benefits-of-tennis-8681864#:~:text=Tennis is a popular sport that offers many

What many of them cite as a key is the building of social capital. Personally, I would rather spend time having fun on the tennis courts with a bunch of people than doing this...

Bob's photo from earlier in the thread - not much social capital being developed there.

The social part of the equation is real. There's a local nonprofit in my city that teaches kids squash. It's been surprisingly successful - they get physical activity, build friendships, connect with mentors, and they also do a lot of homework help. And, then the nonprofit gets to rope all these super successful rich people to network with and support the young peoplel (i.e. the people who historically still play squash).

On the other hand, I used to train in a black iron powerlifting gym, and it was very social - everyone was engaging with each other, spotting each other, chatting about training, talking about life, etc, and it even led to some freelance work for me. So, there's nothing that says weightlifting can't be a great social experience. But, I agree that it usually isn't when people aren't training for anything specific - e.g. if you're just popping in to get some reps before work.

Pastorbottle · Oct 2, 2024

I used to do contracting for Philip Morris tobacco, in Melbourne, they had a largish site with the offices at one end that had it's own car park
and the production was in the middle with the workshop at the other end, production and maintenance shared a car park beside the workshop.
They had a fully kitted out gym in the basement under the workshop.
It always made me laugh when the office johnnies would drive their car from the office car park all of 200 meters to the workshop car park to go and use the gym....if they were serious about getting fit they'd walk....dumb-arse pricks!

Why is it that the companies that make the most morally dubious products are the best to work for and the one's that do the healthy shit and constantly bleat how ethical and responsible they are...........are the biggest bastards to work for?

Archer · Oct 2, 2024

Dsloan
The social part of the equation is real. There's a local nonprofit in my city that teaches kids squash. It's been surprisingly successful - they get physical activity, build friendships, connect with mentors, and they also do a lot of homework help. And, then the nonprofit gets to rope all these super successful rich people to network with and support the young peoplel (i.e. the people who historically still play squash).

On the other hand, I used to train in a black iron powerlifting gym, and it was very social - everyone was engaging with each other, spotting each other, chatting about training, talking about life, etc, and it even led to some freelance work for me. So, there's nothing that says weightlifting can't be a great social experience. But, I agree that it usually isn't when people aren't training for anything specific - e.g. if you're just popping in to get some reps before work.

There's a group that organizes tennis lessons/outings for some mentally challenged people in the city, and one of the coaches that I have worked with teaches them sometimes. He said they all greatly benefit from the activity and the interactions they have on court.

One of our regular players on league nights is a young man that is developmentally challenged, and since his whole family plays, he's just a great player - very effortless. When on court he's got a big smile on his face, and so does everyone playing with him. He's not overly verbal, but will say a few words. When he hits a good shot past you he likes to say "Merry Christmas" with a big smile. His attention span isn't great, except when he's playing tennis - then he's good.

I think any racquet sport is good in terms of the physical and mental benefits - I used to play squash many years ago. Tennis is basically interval training, along with agility, hand eye coordination, and fine tuning your attention while developing strategy. It has pretty much everything.

I've spent lots of time in a weight rooms and gyms - no comparison really to the fun on a court.

Charlemagne1333 · Oct 2, 2024

Archer
…the risk analysis is not even close - orders of magnitude different.

I didn’t reference statistical analysis, merely pointing out that choosing not to do a physical activity, as there may be an increase in risk to one’s personal safety, is counterproductive.

Hence, the fear of flying analogy…

Archer · Oct 2, 2024

Charlemagne1333
I didn’t reference statistical analysis, merely pointing out that choosing not to do a physical activity, as there may be an increase in risk to one’s personal safety, is counterproductive.

Hence, the fear of flying analogy…

Counterproductive to what exactly?

Irrational fear of basically the safest mode of travel is not a good analogy to choosing a sport that comes with less risk, over one that comes with more risk.

Charlemagne1333 · Oct 2, 2024

Archer
Counterproductive to what exactly?

Increasing one’s level of cardiovascular fitness…

Victor2012 · Oct 2, 2024

Back when I was a teen I lifted. In my 20s I led a normally active lifestyle including sailing, but mostly coasted on my healthy young body. In my 30s I had kids and burned all my energy chasing them for the next decade or so. At that time I was also skint (kids will do that to you) so I did a lot of physical activities like cutting and splitting a cord or two of firewood each year to keep the house heated, and basically doing anything that needed doing so I wouldn't have to pay someone to do it for me. After the kids left I started paying a lot more attention to my dogs, hiking daily in the forest.

Most recently one of my kids invited me to take jiu jitsu classes with her. Now I get my ass handed to me four or five days a week by college kids and adults half my age and sometimes substantially bigger than me. But it's a fair price to pay as I've added a nice bit of muscle and dropped a few pounds and generally toned up. Sometimes I even beat the bastards when I remember to use my brains instead of trying to do it with brawn.

Archer · Oct 2, 2024

Charlemagne1333
Increasing one’s level of cardiovascular fitness…

Such an odd exchange...

I think getting hit by a vehicle while on your bike is pretty counterproductive to cardiovascular fitness too. 😉

Not sure how this got twisted into being a choice between nothing and cycling as it seems you are doing, but there are differing levels of risk associated with different exercises. Although I don't have the stats at hand, I'm pretty sure the number of people killed cycling is going to be higher than the number killed on the tennis courts.

We can all choose the sports that we feel best fit our lifestyles - the important thing is to do something, rather than nothing.

twizit · Oct 3, 2024

Archer
If you believe that, so be it.

I'll just point out that there's more than one study that confirms the benefits of playing tennis.

https://www.health.com/health-benefits-of-tennis-8681864#:~:text=Tennis is a popular sport that offers many

What many of them cite as a key is the building of social capital. Personally, I would rather spend time having fun on the tennis courts with a bunch of people than doing this...

Bob's photo from earlier in the thread - not much social capital being developed there.

Amen to the social capital bit. Part of the reason for cycling so much is doing it with a bunch of mates and being able to talk absolute b*******s to each other for a few hours. Since Covid and the big rise in working from home, I've still be known to commute half way into London with those still heading into the office, just so we can stop for coffee and pastries and put the world to rights, before cycling back home to start working.

In terms of safety... I think you have to accept some degree of risk in everything you do and just get on with it. Funny though, since I've been properly tracking it, I've done about 85,000 miles in the last 12-13 years or so. Probably 40% of that has been commuting 18 miles each way into central London. I've only ever been run into a couple of times and both of those were other cyclists not paying attention and running into the back of me! I'd also say that the commute is actually more pleasant than some of the local country roads - those tend to me used by nutters who think they have a good given right to drive at 60mph everywhere - definitely have to pick your route well.

Oh and am sure there have been studies done that concluded the health benefit of the exercise far outweighed any potential increased pollution from cycling into the city.

Archer · Oct 3, 2024

twizit
In terms of safety... I think you have to accept some degree of risk in everything you do and just get on with it.

Of course, but all activities are not equal when it comes to risk, and that the same activity won't have the same risk level everywhere. As I said previously, where I live there's no way I would ride on the roads. I live in an area where I would either be cycling around the block, or be out on a highway with the nut jobs - no such thing as bike lanes where I am. There's no real easy middle ground place to ride, but that is particular to where I am, in a small rural community that is just off a commuter roadway.

With a shift change at the Amazon facility just down the road, you are taking your life in your hands driving near it in car, let alone on a bike. When driving past there yesterday someone cut me off across 2 lanes getting to the turn lane to go in and it wasn't even shift change - had to slam on my brakes to avoid getting hit. So your commute might be just fine, but it isn't the same as it would be here.

My wife was in the Netherlands a few years ago for work for a couple of weeks, and they rode bikes everywhere there, and she loved it. It was set-up for bikes even more than cars, but that's not reality here. In fact our provincial government is considering banning all new bike lanes if they take away space for cars...this is not a bike friendly place generally. The government we have is ideologically dead set against accommodating them...

Pastorbottle · Oct 3, 2024

Archer
Of course, but all activities are not equal when it comes to risk, and that the same activity won't have the same risk level everywhere. As I said previously, where I live there's no way I would ride on the roads. I live in an area where I would either be cycling around the block, or be out on a highway with the nut jobs - no such thing as bike lanes where I am. There's no real easy middle ground place to ride, but that is particular to where I am, in a small rural community that is just off a commuter roadway.

With a shift change at the Amazon facility just down the road, you are taking your life in your hands driving near it in car, let alone on a bike. When driving past there yesterday someone cut me off across 2 lanes getting to the turn lane to go in and it wasn't even shift change - had to slam on my brakes to avoid getting hit. So your commute might be just fine, but it isn't the same as it would be here.

My wife was in the Netherlands a few years ago for work for a couple of weeks, and they rode bikes everywhere there, and she loved it. It was set-up for bikes even more than cars, but that's not reality here. In fact our provincial government is considering banning all new bike lanes if they take away space for cars...this is not a bike friendly place generally. The government we have is ideologically dead set against accommodating them...

A correctly thinking government......I'm impressed 😀

twizit · Oct 3, 2024

Archer
Of course, but all activities are not equal when it comes to risk, and that the same activity won't have the same risk level everywhere. As I said previously, where I live there's no way I would ride on the roads. I live in an area where I would either be cycling around the block, or be out on a highway with the nut jobs - no such thing as bike lanes where I am. There's no real easy middle ground place to ride, but that is particular to where I am, in a small rural community that is just off a commuter roadway.

With a shift change at the Amazon facility just down the road, you are taking your life in your hands driving near it in car, let alone on a bike. When driving past there yesterday someone cut me off across 2 lanes getting to the turn lane to go in and it wasn't even shift change - had to slam on my brakes to avoid getting hit. So your commute might be just fine, but it isn't the same as it would be here.

My wife was in the Netherlands a few years ago for work for a couple of weeks, and they rode bikes everywhere there, and she loved it. It was set-up for bikes even more than cars, but that's not reality here. In fact our provincial government is considering banning all new bike lanes if they take away space for cars...this is not a bike friendly place generally. The government we have is ideologically dead set against accommodating them...

Totally get it, and know whilst the UK is not the Netherlands, we’re not too badly off for cycling

Archer · Nov 19, 2024

I was thinking combining sports would be good...pickleball and say, kickboxing...