Exercise seems to be full of very-confidently-given advice not grounded in evidence. I am keen to have more energy for doing stuff and would love to know how to figure out what advice to follow.
Similar for music and other arts. Despite the lack of science, the successful teachers tend to produce the best students (or they wouldn’t be successful). Yes, this forces each new teacher to start from scratch, but old, good teachers should be fairly trustworthy after years of internalized, natural experiments.
Recent data data is showing you can do as little as 3 minutes of exercise a week, and get as good insulin response benefits and VO2max benefits as if you’d jogged for hours. (Though, you don’t get the calorie or muscle mass benefits.)
My layman’s understanding is that you’re triggering your body’s “oh #@$! bears live here” function, so it makes sure you can run from bears in the future, even if you don’t encounter them all that often.
That link describes an exercise regime that takes 30 minutes a week, and then later one that takes ~10 minutes a week. (Of which only about 1⁄3 is “high intensity”, but the rest is part of it too.)
Those are still impressively low numbers, but let’s not exaggerate.
My original exposure to Gibala was a later study that’s not listed in the above link, where they were trying to see if the effects would still remain even if the gentle pedaling was removed. They did, but I can’t find a link to it.
Edit: Though the longer ones are more effective. IIRC the most effective one is 50 mins and not 30, even though the above article claims 30.
While by no means a replacement for such a post, here’s some easily-followed advice for reducing the motivation threshold to initiating exercise.
Exercise makes you warmer—if keen, don’t go out of your way to prevent yourself from becoming cold.
Purchase a removable doorway pull-up bar. Place it outside and next to the door to your most frequently used loo.
Warm yourself up (pull-ups〔anywhere〕, push-ups using the bar〔or any surface whatsoever〕, high knees, running from parked car to destination, etcetera〕. Pep yourself up (when in a negative mood). If not already present, hacking in some vanity, then exercising and looking at yourself might also help with motivation. Try to have fun with it (id est try not to reluctantly force yourself to exercise or guilt yourself for abstaining).
What evidence do you require? That exercise warms you and peps you up, or that placing a pull-up bar by the loo will decrease exercise initiation motivation threshold?
The latter is a low-cost test one might as well try; do you expect studying factors that influence others’ motivation will benefit you more than giving it a go yourself?
The latter is a low-cost test one might as well try; do you expect studying factors that influence others’ motivation will benefit you more than giving it a go yourself?
Agreed. You don’t need to see studies verifying that something works for everybody if you can just directly verify that it works for you. A hypothesis affords testing.
I used to use a desktop background of a well-muscled guy; just the image made me want to work out.
I suspect subscriptions to workout magazines featuring the same might also work for those for whom the first work, and is probably more socially acceptable if that is something you concern yourself with.
Exercise seems to be full of very-confidently-given advice not grounded in evidence. I am keen to have more energy for doing stuff and would love to know how to figure out what advice to follow.
The state of exercise science is absolutely deplorable. You’re stuck with what coaches who train athletes say after having trained lots of people.
Similar for music and other arts. Despite the lack of science, the successful teachers tend to produce the best students (or they wouldn’t be successful). Yes, this forces each new teacher to start from scratch, but old, good teachers should be fairly trustworthy after years of internalized, natural experiments.
Here are two previous posts on exercise:
Minimum viable workout routine
Weight training
But I agree that this is an area that deserves more study from LW members.
Minimum viable is an interesting phrase.
Recent data data is showing you can do as little as 3 minutes of exercise a week, and get as good insulin response benefits and VO2max benefits as if you’d jogged for hours. (Though, you don’t get the calorie or muscle mass benefits.)
My layman’s understanding is that you’re triggering your body’s “oh #@$! bears live here” function, so it makes sure you can run from bears in the future, even if you don’t encounter them all that often.
That link describes an exercise regime that takes 30 minutes a week, and then later one that takes ~10 minutes a week. (Of which only about 1⁄3 is “high intensity”, but the rest is part of it too.)
Those are still impressively low numbers, but let’s not exaggerate.
My original exposure to Gibala was a later study that’s not listed in the above link, where they were trying to see if the effects would still remain even if the gentle pedaling was removed. They did, but I can’t find a link to it.
Edit: Though the longer ones are more effective. IIRC the most effective one is 50 mins and not 30, even though the above article claims 30.
Reddit’s r/fitness is a good source of mostly fact based information (or at least they have a culture of aggressively attacking “broscience”).
The FAQ is a good place to start. Examine.com is a very good website made by one of the mods, which focuses mainly on the science of nutrition.
While by no means a replacement for such a post, here’s some easily-followed advice for reducing the motivation threshold to initiating exercise.
Exercise makes you warmer—if keen, don’t go out of your way to prevent yourself from becoming cold.
Purchase a removable doorway pull-up bar. Place it outside and next to the door to your most frequently used loo.
Warm yourself up (pull-ups〔anywhere〕, push-ups using the bar〔or any surface whatsoever〕, high knees, running from parked car to destination, etcetera〕. Pep yourself up (when in a negative mood). If not already present, hacking in some vanity, then exercising and looking at yourself might also help with motivation. Try to have fun with it (id est try not to reluctantly force yourself to exercise or guilt yourself for abstaining).
This is an example of what I mean by “very-confidently-given advice not grounded in evidence”. [citation needed].
What evidence do you require? That exercise warms you and peps you up, or that placing a pull-up bar by the loo will decrease exercise initiation motivation threshold?
The latter is a low-cost test one might as well try; do you expect studying factors that influence others’ motivation will benefit you more than giving it a go yourself?
On exercise warming the body.
A good review on endorphins and: exercise; depression; anxiety.
Agreed. You don’t need to see studies verifying that something works for everybody if you can just directly verify that it works for you. A hypothesis affords testing.
I used to use a desktop background of a well-muscled guy; just the image made me want to work out.
I suspect subscriptions to workout magazines featuring the same might also work for those for whom the first work, and is probably more socially acceptable if that is something you concern yourself with.
Among my friends, a big picture of a well-muscled guy would be much more socially acceptable than a workout mag :)