Inactivity, a bigger risk than smoking?

Remove all ads!

I go biking pretty much anywhere, which means that I get at about half an hour's worth of exercise each day, biking to and from work. And when I say exercise, I mean that most people would get 40 minutes of exercise a day were they to bike the same distance. I usually go walking during the lunchbreak, too.

The real exercise, though, is swimming two times a week and biking for about two hours at least once a week. Now that the light last longer each night and the weather is finally getting better, I plan to start biking 2-4 times a week. Twice in the weekend for longer distances, and perhaps once or twice a week after work for only an hour or so. I should start running again too, but I've got spin-shins and can only run decently off-road.

As for weight, I suppose I could lose 3 to 4 kilos of fat, but I could probably gain another 2 kilos of muscles if I start biking more, too. I don't care too much for weight, though. The little exercise I'm getting in the winter months is sufficient for me not to grow fat and once I pick up the pace again and start training 5-6 times a week, my metabolism will go from normal/laid back mode into overdrive and it's generally all I can do to eat enough to keep up.

 

ATM I'm a workaholic and not eating junk. Not that much anyhow. So I'm expecting to lose some of the little weight I actually have. I'm loving freeweights and I do dance quite a bit with them at home. When summer comes I'll take a 8km jogging trips once a week perhaps. But in the meanwhile I'll keep doing those pushups and crazyarse dancing, wushu and boxing moves with those freeweights. The weights aren't that heavy only 5kg, so I'll get an extra 10kg resistance to the moves. Gives a good whole body aerobic workout and boy have my arm muscles gotten more tone and definition.

I'm not too worried about getting more muscle mass, aerobic and fat burning's the way I want to go, with an extra of muscle control. You should see my fast hands though, I'm a regular librarycowboyninja temp, one of the fastest shelvers in the west...

 

I find it surprising that people from the anglo-saxon (mostly America) world are so into daily work-out routines and gym stuff etc. while these countries at the same time struggle with the population being too overweight. Maybe you guys aren't really representative, though.

 

I usually get enough excercise but winters really take my physical shape down and I allways need to work it up in spring and summer. It would be better if I found some good form of excercise to do during winters but recent winters have been way too unreliable for nordic skiing, running when the roads are icy is horrible and I hate gym enviorment.

 

The overweight ones are the Console fan-boys, FPS junkies and CS nuts. Not us respectable RPG community. Also, the average age here is generally higher than the average age for all the obese kids.

 

I train for badminton and trampolining a few times each week and tend to go to the gym on days that I'm not already doing another activity. Other than that, I do some swimming and rock-climbing, although not with any real degree of regularity.

So very true.

 

Also, the people who would be likely to comment in such a thread are those who are fairly fit. Not many people are willing to come out in front of a bunch of strangers and say "I'm a lazy bum". And of course then you've got exaggeration to take into account.

I bet if you were to survey every active BoMer, you'd find a much higher proportion of non-fitness fanatics than in this thread alone.

 

Swimming is not a viable option for me at this time. I don't have much access to a pool during the summer, and being late march in Canada, there are even fewer pools open...

 

I agree. It seems like Americans work out more than any other group of people, and yet we're the fattest people on the planet. Of course, the only reason people need to work out in the first place is we eat too much to begin with. I'm as guilty as anyone with this. I work out every day, and I'd still like to weigh about 10-15 pounds less than I currently do.

The problem I have is doing cardiovascular exercise. I find walking/running on a treadmill or using an elliptical machine boring as hell. So my exercise involves weight training. You can change your routines and types of exercises on a day to day basis, so you don't get bored. I do take my son on walks, but that doesn't really get the heart rate up.

 

America is a land of extremes. It's either super buff athletes and size zero Hollywood wannabes starving themselves into anorexia, or it's morbidly obese people using mobility carts because they are too flippin' fat to walk. I just came back off an amusement park tour (went from Texas up through Arkansas, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota) and the south definitely has a weight problem. There were a LOT of fat - I don't mean overweight, I mean HUGE people who were practically disabled by their weight - folks.

UK is heading that way but we tend not to drive everywhere. I live in London - I walk a lot and take public transport. I can drive but I don't have a car. I don't need one.
In the US, it drives me crazy that if you stay somewhere out of town, you have to literally dice with death to cross the road because there are no pedestrian facilities. If the only place to eat is a diner over the freeway, then you have to make like Frogger to get there. Seriously, this is bad.

Walking is a good start. My job isn't near a tube/train station (20 mins walk to the train or 35 to the tube - I always take the tube in the morning because the train is way more stressful and I arrive in a foul mood) and I'll go for a walk, or sometimes a run, at lunchtime.

I also hit the weights hard. I don't lift weights too often (2-3 times a week) or for long, but I'll lift heavy with the goal of getting stronger. A lot of women are afraid to do this because they think it'll make them look manly. More fool them. Frankly, I've been lifting weights over 20 years and can deadlift 250lbs and bench my bodyweight, and I still have 12 inch arms. I'll have less risk of osteoporosis and, of course, the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn at rest. Plus it looks good.

I do admit, though, sometimes when it's a choice between the gym and a computer game, the computer quite often wins.

 

Inactivity is a contributing factor to my current back woes. Combining a sedentary hobby (between the hockey on TV and the games on my computer), with the bending, lifting and twisting in my job, I earned a pinched nerve in my back. Now I'm working on a process of eating healthier and trying to walk more in an effort to get back under 300 lbs at first. I could go beloe 25o for the first time in about 12 years if this works...

 

I agree with Cal Jones, women can get strong & firm without losing any femininity. Nothing nicer than a lass with taut calves & firm shoulders to give her an even more perfect X shape.