Keeping fit cannot be good for you

dod

A few months ago I was at a conference in Athlone. At lunch I was seated beside an extremely good looking and very proper (in the polite sense) girl. I should mention that she had recently become married, and recommended the institution highly. She asked for only a small portion of salmon and for the whiff of the vegetable servings to pass across her plate. In contrast I exhorted the serveuse to continue to pile on more meat, more potatoes, more vegetables. And if there were any extras to ship them in without further ado. I explained away my gluttony to Ann Marie by my having been led astray the night before, finally finishing an almighty nights overindulgence only a short hour or two before the conference had started. The extra food portions were to help me to reconstitute and to get me through the rest of the day.

"That sort of carry on can't be good for business," she mockingly referred to the prior nights antics.

"Ah but it's good for the soul," I smiled in reply. I suppose I was trying to explain away my weak-minded behaviour from the night before in a "we all do it, isn't it expected of us" way.

Reading in some of the posts here, it seems we can all overdo the drinking when the occasion demands. We each have our little viginettes about lost weekends, stag parties that went on for days, the hoards that we drank with before helping them into taxis as they one-by-one fell by the wayside, then calling in the reinforcements for another few hours drinking. And then after a quick burger, the session started in earnest! Recovery the next day? Sure whats to recover from?

So I enjoy a few drinks the same as the next guy. In recent years, I have become a little more aware of the consequences of living this sort of dissolute lifestyle. As a male I would like, if at all possible, to forfend the bloated stomach, the rosying cheeks and the bulbous red nose. It's not vanity on my part (at least I hope it's not), it's just that if the five-months-pregnant look in a man is avoidable, then I believe it should be avoided.

When I was younger I played a lot of squash and I swam almost daily. I had happened into a regime, rather than deliberately setting out to keep fit. My regime was gradually trimmed away, I could justify it as my work schedule became more demanding. Through various social and professional demands, the swimming became less regular, the squash nearly non existent. It came to the point that a run around the beach with a ball once or twice a year with the lads became the extent of what I did to run off the pounds. Even then, we retired after the beach football to the local hostelry and really overdid it.

Last year I stayed in the University of Limerick for a week during the summer. Whilst there, we had full access to all their magnificent facilities. I boasted of my swimming prowess and exhorted all of my companions to join me in the fifty metre pool where I would race them for various trivial wagers, like who had to wash the dishes after dinner. I swam two lengths. I wouldn't have completed the second length but for the fact that had I not, I would have sunk to the bottom. I was in shreds, I couldn't believe I had allowed myself to become so unfit. By the end of the week, I shook off some of the cobwebs, but the experience had really shaken me into realising how out of shape I was. So on my return to Dublin I got back into the swimming, took up some five-a-side football, and started running a little.

Now here's the crux of the problem. Disregarding for a moment George Bests unfortunate trouble, drink can only hurt you so much. Overdoing it for a night might result in a mornings discomfort - constant refills of coffee, a few bottles of Lucozade, maybe a bottle or two of Ballygowan. But this damn fitness thing- it's a real killer. I'm beginning to rethink the pregnant-looking man problem: is the cure is worse than the ailment? I am just back from a run. Right now, I feel like how a girl-giving-birth-on-TV looks. If the bad guy from the Hallowe'en movies turned up, I could run no further. I am gasping for air, perspiring and gulping copious amounts of water. If I sat down on the side of the road outside the house right now, some caring passer-by would call me an ambulance. It feels like (and looks like, I should think) how I would imagine having all your internal organs fail simultaneously feels (and looks!).

Perhaps this is natures way of telling me that I can fight a battle against a broadening waistline, but I cannot win the war. Resistance is futile, you will become an overweight Irishman. I guess I'll blame the genes, or the Guinness, or the combination of the genes and the Guinness. Maybe I should just capitulate, stock the fridge full of cream cheese, burgers, and Ice Cream. These hot evenings are probably part of a strategy to induce you into believing that a cold beer is a necessity, not a luxury. Why go through the discomfort of keeping fit? Yield to the dark side and become a fat nation. If it was good enough for America, it should be good enough for us!

If all my internal organs ever fail simultaneoulsy, I will endeavour to anticipate it and shoot a photograph just to posthumously prove that I was right. In the meantime, I could murder a few pints...

Lump

Hmmmm Very interesting post....... Good Read in a way I agree with you. When I was playing rugby in Transition year fifth and leaving cert, I used swim five nights a week and stay in the gym doing running.... rowing, weights and cross country for an hour about three times a week. Ok fair enough I was fitter but the flab was still there and I was still over weight muscle or otherwise. I dont know is it all worth it.

Is all of it just a futile attempt to be someone we're not..... can't people just be happy with who they are?



John

lordsippa

I agree a little. I mean I'm young enough but I was never much for exercise, though I ran around a bit... but the last week I've had to run for buses (a full on race of a couple of hundred meters) etc a fair bit. And it's a killer! But I've noticed the cobwebs going too. I think it's a case of balance between being able to run without collapsing after and being as lazy as feck.

And what's wrong with a fat nation? There're still beauty queens out there and the fatter the nation, the less competition.

:ninja:

AngelofFire

aye keeping fit isnt good for you we should all eat breakfast rolls in the morning. burger and chips for lunch and Mcdonalds for dinner followed by a couple of cans of full fat lager.and then we should install ourselves on front of the idiot box accompanied by a large bag of crisps a plate of curry chips and a couple of swiss roles. my arse. keeping fit is ok as long as you know how to manage your diet and your drinking habits during times of rest. the reason why george best became an alcoholic was not because he did a lot of excercise. it was because of the huge drink culture surrounding football at the time.

lordsippa

He never said Besty's problems came from exercise. There are people who are addicts in life be it to alcohol or cigarettes or heroin. Ignore them for the purposes of this argument. This is talking bout how a life of some excess can be better than the regimes of "keeping fit".

But yeah. Get out there and play some fun sports. I'm promising myself that I'll get out on the road to play footy with a mate or two soon just to stop myself becoming a complete cripple but I ain't gonna be taking up jogging anytime soon. Hell anytime.

Amz

Gah!

From reading some of these posts it's obvious to me that when people talk about getting/keeping fit they seem to be going about it the wrong way...

For example Lump, you said you played rugby and were doing from the sounds of things lots of cardio work i.e. running and rowing... this type of training is pretty pointless in the game of rugby as what exactly is the furthest you will have to run? probably a maximum of between 30 and 40 metres, therefore to be training for cardiovascular endurance will not actually stand to you in this sport! You should have been training your speed and agility and focusing much much less time on the running, swimming and rowing as these are not related to the sport of rugby. People training for a specific sport should train using programmes that include specificity. That's what people lack I'm not picking on Lump it's just his post struck me as a perfect example of a bad training programme.

I would advise people to discuss training programmes with a professional as the reason they seem to be doing more harm than good or whatever is because the programme must be individualised. Everyone is different, so just because your mate says you should run fifty laps a night for three months and you'll have toned abs and be able to compete at the highest level in the Boston marathon because it worked for him, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you. People are all too eager to go into a gym and start bashing away at the weights or running for hours on a tread mill. They're not willing to take half an hour to discuss what they need from their training. Talk to a professional and get an individualised programme which will ensure that you get the most out of your training, get the best value for your hours/months/years of work. It's important of course to enjoy training so if you're sloggin away at weights when what you want to be doing is running a marathon then you're only kidding yourself you wont enjoy it and you sure as hell wont be winning a marathon.

This is something that really pisses me off people moaning about how they don't think there's a point to keeping fit, because they've spent hours in the gym on rowing machines lifting weights etc and it hasn't benefitted them. It's pure laziness at the first step that's the problem.

I go out drinking I don't have a proper diet, my training is sporadic and therefore I'm not complaining about not being fit. I know though that my training programme is specific to me and that if and when I decide to get my act together I'll be back to full fitness and that if that doesn't happen it'll be down to me.

Also people confuse exercise with physical activity, I mean people don't walk enough they are so ****ing lazy it's unbelievable! people I know drive to the shop which is a five minute walk away to buy their cigarettes and beer it's unreal. These same people then spend thousands of Euros on a gym membership go three or four times and then quit because it's too much ****ing effort!

Obesity is such a problem these days and people aren't prepared to recognise it. In Ireland the number of men with MIs in their mid twenties has increased so much in the past five years alone.

I have no sympathy for lazy people who complain about weight or ill health because at the end of the day my taxes pay for their hospital treatment and the quicker the keel over and die the better off we'll all be.

Wolf

^ im sorry Amz

I must totally agree tho. At the end of the day if you walk to work, to clubs, to the offie, play the odd bit of ball and try to even stay on your feet a touch more you will find that you will keep in trim much better.

dod

Wow! Yeah sorry Amz, when I said it cannot be good for you, I meant it tongue in cheek. I keep relatively fit in a passive sense, from the point of view of walking here & there when possible.

I guess I was just trying to make the point that going for a run, getting out for a game of football, to make an active effort to go out and do something in a structured sense of keeping actively fit takes a lot of effort and mental fortitude, it's not just a physical commitment. The points you make are very well made though, fair enough.

The Sweeper

Keeping fit is about being healthy, not being skinny.

Lump, what you say about being fit but "the flab was still there or whatever and I was still over weight muscle or otherwise".

You don't judge your level of fitness by your weight. Arnold Schwarzenegger was 6 ft 2" and 235 pounds at the height of his bodybuilding success. That weight, for that height, on someone not muscle-bound, would be considered unhealthy with a risk of developing weight-related health problems. (Anyone who chimes in with 'yeah well Arnie wasn't fit with all them steroids was he' is going to get a thump.)

Most of the skinny people we see in various media are not fit. Crash dieting, bingeing and starvation, dramatic weight loss followed by dramatic weight gain - all of these things put great strain on internal organs, especially the heart.

Indeed, to take the instance Dod used, "a small portion of salmon and a whiff of the vegetable servings" doesn't sound like the diet of a fit person. It sounds like the diet of a starvation fad fan.

Lump

Hang on a minute...... Who ever said I went to the gym to play to train for rugby? I did 4 hours of rugby training a week, with a match every other week. The fours hours a week were my rugby training plus an hour warm up before a game..... GOing to the gym was "Other" excercise....... and the swimming I just did to relax.

I did get a proper training schedule.... from both my rugby coach and from a trainer in the gym. OK?




John

Lump

Oh and another thing AMZ...... I have private Health care.... SO SHOVE YOUR FÚCKING TAXES UP YOUR ARSÉ FOR ALL I CARE.......





John

Amz

I do apologise I seem to have misinterpreted this...

Originally posted by Lump
When I was playing rugby in Transition year fifth and leaving cert, I used swim five nights a week and stay in the gym doing running.... rowing, weights and cross country for an hour about three times a week.

Lump

Lovin ya always........



Apoligies, I appear to have lost it a bit......... had a crappy day, sorry for taking it out on you.




John


P.S. I didnt really express myself very well.

Amz

Heh,

No harm done, wasn't picking on you specifically I just noticed one or two things in your post and used them as an example. I apologise if you took offence to that.

Lump

No offence taken...



John

Catch_22

Originally posted by Amz
Gah!

From reading some of these posts it's obvious to me that when people talk about getting/keeping fit they seem to be going about it the wrong way...

For example Lump, you said you played rugby and were doing from the sounds of things lots of cardio work i.e. running and rowing... this type of training is pretty pointless in the game of rugby as what exactly is the furthest you will have to run? probably a maximum of between 30 and 40 metres, therefore to be training for cardiovascular endurance will not actually stand to you in this sport! You should have been training your speed and agility and focusing much much less time on the running, swimming and rowing as these are not related to the sport of rugby. People training for a specific sport should train using programmes that include specificity. That's what people lack I'm not picking on Lump it's just his post struck me as a perfect example of a bad training programme.

Ok cant let this on slide , Im not a rugby player being more on the GAA soccer side but I think the same basics apply. To play rugby at any sort of competitive level you will very much have to work on your cardio, its not that you will ahve to run only 40 yards, you will have to run the 40 yards back again and up. You might have the fastest 40 yard dash on the planet but if you cant last 35 minutes running i.e. cardio you wont be playing. For rugby i know there are more issues regarding weights that you would have to consider but for soccer /GAA cardio is probably the most important area to be up to speed in ( bar your skill of course )

Amz

OK so my lecturers must have lied to me for the past year in college?

Lump

Yes

Trojan

If you are a full-back or winger, you may spend 70 minutes of the 80 standing miles out from the action, and jogging lightly to keep up with the lines. You may then spend the other 10 mins at a full-out sprint either chasing, or being chased.

If you are a forward (I was a prop), then you are part of what is known as "The Pack". The pack chases the ball, wherever it is on the pitch. So you spend 60 minutes of every game chasing after the ball at a fast run (or a slow jog in the last 20 mins ). You spend the other time either pushing against a 140 stone opposition scrum, or throwing a lanky fella as high as you can up in the air.

Backs need more speed, forwards need more endurance. Some have said that forwards are "fitter" than backs in general - you may agree or disagree, but it's semantics.

Bleh. Go play the game.

Al.

Amz

eff eff ess!

I never once said you shouldn't do CVE work if you're a rugby player my point was that Lump appeared to be concentrating very highly on his CVE work as opposed to sprint endurance which is more relevant to the game of rugby.

Trojan

Originally posted by Amz
eff eff ess!

I never once said you shouldn't do CVE work if you're a rugby player my point was that Lump appeared to be concentrating very highly on his CVE work as opposed to sprint endurance which is more relevant to the game of rugby.

S'alright babe, don't mind the mean people on here. Why don't you come and have a pint with me?

Amz

Coz I wasn't invited...

*sniffle*

EKRIUQ

Originally posted by Amz
Gah!

From reading some of these posts it's obvious to me that when people talk about getting/keeping fit they seem to be going about it the wrong way...

For example Lump, you said you played rugby and were doing from the sounds of things lots of cardio work i.e. running and rowing... this type of training is pretty pointless in the game of rugby as what exactly is the furthest you will have to run? probably a maximum of between 30 and 40 metres, therefore to be training for cardiovascular endurance will not actually stand to you in this sport! You should have been training your speed and agility and focusing much much less time on the running, swimming and rowing as these are not related to the sport of rugby. People training for a specific sport should train using programmes that include specificity. That's what people lack I'm not picking on Lump it's just his post struck me as a perfect example of a bad training programme.





wow what a thread

I would advise people to discuss training programmes with a professional as the reason they seem to be doing more harm than good or whatever is because the programme must be individualised. Everyone is different, so just because your mate says you should run fifty laps a night for three months and you'll have toned abs and be able to compete at the highest level in the Boston marathon because it worked for him, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work for you. People are all too eager to go into a gym and start bashing away at the weights or running for hours on a tread mill. They're not willing to take half an hour to discuss what they need from their training. Talk to a professional and get an individualised programme which will ensure that you get the most out of your training, get the best value for your hours/months/years of work. It's important of course to enjoy training so if you're sloggin away at weights when what you want to be doing is running a marathon then you're only kidding yourself you wont enjoy it and you sure as hell wont be winning a marathon.

This is something that really pisses me off people moaning about how they don't think there's a point to keeping fit, because they've spent hours in the gym on rowing machines lifting weights etc and it hasn't benefitted them. It's pure laziness at the first step that's the problem.

I go out drinking I don't have a proper diet, my training is sporadic and therefore I'm not complaining about not being fit. I know though that my training programme is specific to me and that if and when I decide to get my act together I'll be back to full fitness and that if that doesn't happen it'll be down to me.

Also people confuse exercise with physical activity, I mean people don't walk enough they are so ****ing lazy it's unbelievable! people I know drive to the shop which is a five minute walk away to buy their cigarettes and beer it's unreal. These same people then spend thousands of Euros on a gym membership go three or four times and then quit because it's too much ****ing effort!

Obesity is such a problem these days and people aren't prepared to recognise it. In Ireland the number of men with MIs in their mid twenties has increased so much in the past five years alone.

I have no sympathy for lazy people who complain about weight or ill health because at the end of the day my taxes pay for their hospital treatment and the quicker the keel over and die the better off we'll all be.