In what way is parenting an extracurricular activity?

I’ve been relying on Poe’s Law for so long I never thought it could happen to me.

Frame it differently - it’s two hours of your day spent moving around at a walking pace.

As for cleaning, repairing things, parenting, shopping - those are all things which can readily incorporate walking and physical activity.

I don't think most people are going out and just walking for an hour and a half every day. A couple I know like to go for a walk with their morning coffees, for example. They've added walking into something they'd be doing anyway. Other people own a dog, or take their kid to the park each day, or do some other regular activity which integrates walking.

[0] 3000 each way, which is 2km and takes me about 20 minutes at a moderate-to-fast walking pace.

I do 45 minutes of Anki per day on the walking pad, and then if walking around the city hasn't gotten the other 1.25 hours, I can fill the rest with watching TV on the walking pad.

For example my knees are too old for shuttle runs or whatever the intended HIIT might otherwise be, but I can happily go do 500W hill efforts on the bike.

I'd honestly walk as much as you can.

Rust never sleeps.

This is, of course, most easily done in a proper walkable city. Elsewhere biking around could work, probably.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1vTgpKtseKCA3r4fKbrTUi?si=5...

I don't know how to replicate this in a car centric environment.

Otherwise, I think once-a-week HIIT and once-a-week strength training sounds very reasonable and easy to maintain for just about anyone.

The other stuff, yeah no problem.

When I did my masters, we were in a Chemistry wet lab 8 hours a day and during the first month I would come home completely exhausted. I realised later that this was because I wasn't used to being on my feet all day walking around even though it didn't feel like I was being active shuffling from machine to machine, fume hood to sink etc

Maybe I should thank my parents for raising me the way they did because there's zero effort on my end other than the desire to take breaks outdoors, keep things clean indoors, and eat well. On that last point I try to cook most of my meals with fresh ingredients and enjoy shopping in person instead of delivery or pick up.

Due to an illness I currently have digestive problems, so I walk (stroll, rather) after eating as it provides relief.

I allow an hour after breakfast and also after the evening meal to do somewhere between 3K and 5K steps. This is at home. It’s not tedious as I listen to podcasts, audiobooks, talk radio, or music. As someone else mentioned, if you do it on a walking pad you could watch video. The rest of the steps stack up naturally as you go about your daily business.

For those living in suburbs, I hear dogs can be a good excuse to walk more. :)

Who is asking you to be sure in the first place? Why do you need this certainty? Farm animals need the comfort and stability of the farm to survive. They "flourish" within the parameters some one else sets.

In the Elephant-Rider model of how the mind works, people are talking to rider And the elephant.

The elephant just needs some feel good stuff, to momentarily focus shift away from all the unpredictability in the universe, it has no control over - in this case it is being fed - well the story teller who is not sure about anything is atleast "diligent".

When you let go of the story, and realize the elephant is not under your control and can never be, the ride is much smoother. And that's the only story, no SEO game needed to promote the Truth. And truth is - you are just along for the ride. Don't act like a farm animal thinking you are healthy based on how many eggs you have been told to lay. You are a chimp. All animal domestication protocols break down sooner or later when dealing with chimps. Cuz the chimp mind has an elephant in it. Taking it for a wild ride.

For those curious, those (weekly) recommendations are: twice weekly resistance training, and 150-300min moderate intensity aerobic activity, or 75-150min vigorous aerobic activity.

If you want a program to just give you a starting point, I highly recommend Barbell Medicine's (free) "Beginner Prescription"

You're friend is a bit behind the times on this one.

Recent study out of Japan shows 3 minutes of 70% top speed walking, then 3 minutes of normal speed walking, in 5 sets for a total of 30 minutes of walking has better health results than 10k steps.

Also, I've found that suggesting 30 minutes of walking vs ??? minutes of walking to get 10k steps is easier for most people to fold into their schedule.

That said, walk as much as you can. If you live in a city, walk to wherever you need to be.

https://www.health.com/what-is-japanese-walking-11755825

And 10K steps is a good bit more walking than 30 minutes. IMO the 10K number might be halfway useful as a high level metric for people who are just judging their own activity throughout a day. As you've pointed out, if you are going for a brisk walk, you don't need 10K steps to get value from it.

Same thing goes for a 20-minute max effort or even an hour etc.

Atm I am somewhat unfit (relative to my past/potential) so when I do a round on the pads in muay thai/boxing which could be 2-4 minutes, my heart rate sits around 180-185 for the duration of the round. Often, sparring is actually more relaxed than pads because the coaches like to work us hard.

I have noticed that if my training meaningfully reaches 173+ I will usually feel like a vegetable for several hours after, usually the whole day. I get endorphins and heightened awareness around the 150-172 region.

"Max effort" is kind of meaningless because it means different things to different people - when I was 16 my swimming coach pushed me with sprints until I puked, not THAT uncommon amongst competitive athletes and I was a little out of shape that one time. I rarely see people push themselves that hard during HIIT classes, myself included...

It’s just that some people have a max that is lower than others, or at some points in your life your effort is lower than at others, as dictated by physical, mental, or psychological capacity for that person at that moment.

For example a normally sedentary person might find it mentally and psychologically uncomfortable to exercise strenuously. That doesn’t mean they’re not putting forth max effort.

Max effort means max effort.

Just saying, once you’re willing to lift weights once a week with all the upfront cost (gym membership, leaving your comfort zone, learning the ropes, etc) it’s a really good bang for your buck adding one or two more.

I usually do 2/week strength training + 1/week bouldering, but have dropped to 1/week strength training + 1/week bouldering while I worked to incorporate the 12k steps into my routine. I'm also currently doing a cut so am less motivated to lift. After I hit 10% body fat I plan to start bulking and go back to 2/week + bouldering or maybe even 3/week + bouldering.

Regarding diminishing returns, at least for longevity,

> Training once or twice a week for less than an hour can reduce the chance of death from any cause by 35%. But, if the time is increased to over an hour in a week or more than three sessions, then the longevity benefit disappears to zero compared with people who never put their hands on a weight.

from https://www.unaging.com/exercise/weight-lifting-for-life/ which cites https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7385554/ . Pretty interesting.

I'd say long lifespan without long healthspan is not very useful, so I'd prioritize strength in common movement patterns over just extending temporal existence as much as possible. So longevity shouldn't be treated as separate from either cardiovascular or muscoskeletal fitness.

It’s perhaps good to see if there’s a lower chance of an early stroke/heart attack, but they don’t get in the range where the loss of muscle function and bone density can truly affect you, which is where anaerobic training shines (the usual “grandma broke her hip and never recovered”).

I have lifted weights for 35 years now and just reached the point that I can not lift, recover and cut calories. I can only recover from a very light full body once a week workout. Otherwise, I need a caloric surplus so I can't cut weight.

To me, it is why there is so much bad information in this space because training is so highly variable based on genetics, hormone levels and age. When I was 20, I had no problem recovering from lifting 6 days a week, running 30 minutes a day and cutting. Now I can barely lift and more than 30 minutes a day of walking is not so easy to recover from. I would suspect this is the state that not taking testosterone becomes increasingly unhealthy. So I have basically quit lifting, cutting to 10% bodyfat and then will rebuild with lifting once on testosterone. I have never read a single reference though that lifting can be bad from the recovery demands if trying to cut at some level of hormones. We are basically in the dark ages with all this stuff so you have to figure it out for yourself.

A better resource: Body By Science a book containing recommendations based on research and data. The overall goal is proper volume of effective effort of cardio and strength exercise that doesn't take too long and reduces risks of wear/tear and injury.

Tell people you spend 12 hours a day starring at a screen and they won't bat an eye, tell them you walk 10k step a day and they'll try to convince your it's unpractical, unhealthy, "10k is a made up number anyways", "I don't have time", "isn't it too hard?"

i want to spend my free time with my kids, not walking somewhere in the woods/city.

i walk 2 hours once a week after their bed time. but i certainly can't do that every day or i would die of exhaustion.

plus as a kid, i absolutely hated exercise-walking with my parents. it made me despise walking for ~20 years.

A good summary: https://bannister.coach/mitochondria-and-exercise-how-differ...

Quoting the conclusion:

> In this systematic review and meta-regression covering ~ 50 years of research data, we demonstrate that the magnitude of change in mitochondrial content, capillarization, and VO2 max to exercise training is largely determined by the initial fitness level. The ability to adapt to exercise training is maintained throughout life irrespective of sex and presence of disease. Larger training volumes (higher training frequency per week and larger number of training weeks) and higher training intensities (per hour of training, SIT > HIT > ET) are associated with greater increases in mitochondrial content and VO2 max. Therefore, training load (volume x intensity) is a robust predictor of changes in mitochondrial content and VO2 max. Increases in capillarization occur primarily in the early stages of exercise training (< 4 weeks) with ET, HIT, and SIT equally enhancing capillaries per fiber, while ET is more effective in increasing capillary density (capillaries per mm²) due to less pronounced muscle fiber hypertrophy.

Children try to follow it, but it's being made hard for them, and by the time you're an adult most have learned to forget the natural instincts for movement and how much fun you can have doing physical exercise.

i do it but it's just pure pain. i guess people are wired differently.

Anyway it's completely possible you just didn't find the right physical activity yet. It took me some years to realize that I have to exercise alone and outdoors.

Rather do 6 km slow running 2 or 3 times a week (of course if you are not severely overweight). You can do that in one hour and one running session is enough for 2-3 days. It also strenghtens your core and every other muscle in your body. You will also eat less. If you can mix it with strength training that includes your 4 headed leg muscles you will feel yourself like a champ.

Lot of literature is absolute hogwash in this space because most of them is theoretical and they regurgitate the same old bs. Like idiots saying running half an hour is 400 kcal :D.

Your body is a system, and not a robot or an engine that needs x amount of gas and oil to go for y kilometers.

I think it’s doable if you live in a very walkable city. I routinely hit about 11k steps most days of the week. Some days less of course…like if i’m sore from a workout or just feeling sedentary.