ColinJ
Puzzle game procrastinator!
- Location
- Todmorden - Yorks/Lancs border
I found it an interesting programme. I would have been tempted to edit out that unfortunate muscle-tearing scene though because it would obviously tend to put people off exercise - I'm not sure that your average couch potato would watch that and think 'Ah yes, exercise is good, but I must warm up properly first'!
I thought the thing about super-responders and non-responders to exercise was very interesting and confirmed what I have observed over the past 20 years or so.
I know people who exercise a lot, but who somehow never seem to get particularly fit. There are others, such as CycleChat member Bokonon, who shocked me on a forum ride last year when he told me that his great cycling fitness is largely based on a 3 mile each way fixed wheel commute with the odd longer weekend ride thrown in!
I'm fairly sure that I am a super-responder too. These days, I hardly give myself a proper chance to get fit, but in the past I have made amazing advances in only 2 weeks. I used to go to Spain at the start of March having not ridden my bike at all over the winter, a lay-off of up to 12 weeks. I'd thrash myself for the first week of my holiday, doing about 400 quick and lumpy miles - basically do nothing but ride, eat and sleep for that whole week. Then I'd have a recovery day where I'd ride about 40-50 slow miles. In the final 5 days, I'd ride another 300 miles or so as fast as I could. I'd come back to the UK and often be ill for a week from overdoing it, recover from the illness and then I'd basically be pretty fit!
Another interesting point was that very minor lifestyle changes - using stairs instead of lifts, standing more, taking short walks etc. - could burn an extra 500 Calories a day. Work it out - that's a pound of fat burned a week, 52 pounds or 3 st 10 lbs in a year. Or turn that round - going from a healthy, balanced lifestyle to one where you start using the lift, sit in front of a computer or TV all day (me!) and drive everywhere - you could easily put on nearly 4 stone in a year! It happened to me after I graduated. At university, I power-walked everywhere - about 30-40 miles a week. When I got my job, I was getting a lift to and from work and sat down all day long. I went from 10 st 10 lbs to 16 st 5 lbs in less than 2 years!
The real message for me was that the human body is an amazing machine and if you only give it a fighting chance, it will usually sort itself out!
I thought the thing about super-responders and non-responders to exercise was very interesting and confirmed what I have observed over the past 20 years or so.
I know people who exercise a lot, but who somehow never seem to get particularly fit. There are others, such as CycleChat member Bokonon, who shocked me on a forum ride last year when he told me that his great cycling fitness is largely based on a 3 mile each way fixed wheel commute with the odd longer weekend ride thrown in!
I'm fairly sure that I am a super-responder too. These days, I hardly give myself a proper chance to get fit, but in the past I have made amazing advances in only 2 weeks. I used to go to Spain at the start of March having not ridden my bike at all over the winter, a lay-off of up to 12 weeks. I'd thrash myself for the first week of my holiday, doing about 400 quick and lumpy miles - basically do nothing but ride, eat and sleep for that whole week. Then I'd have a recovery day where I'd ride about 40-50 slow miles. In the final 5 days, I'd ride another 300 miles or so as fast as I could. I'd come back to the UK and often be ill for a week from overdoing it, recover from the illness and then I'd basically be pretty fit!
Another interesting point was that very minor lifestyle changes - using stairs instead of lifts, standing more, taking short walks etc. - could burn an extra 500 Calories a day. Work it out - that's a pound of fat burned a week, 52 pounds or 3 st 10 lbs in a year. Or turn that round - going from a healthy, balanced lifestyle to one where you start using the lift, sit in front of a computer or TV all day (me!) and drive everywhere - you could easily put on nearly 4 stone in a year! It happened to me after I graduated. At university, I power-walked everywhere - about 30-40 miles a week. When I got my job, I was getting a lift to and from work and sat down all day long. I went from 10 st 10 lbs to 16 st 5 lbs in less than 2 years!
The real message for me was that the human body is an amazing machine and if you only give it a fighting chance, it will usually sort itself out!
