"... who had prioritized physical strength in their daily routines.... There is the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who in her book 'The Secret to Superhuman Strength' could not talk about fitness without also talking about her private history of romantic relationships and the role exercise played in managing stress and quashing depression.... The novelist Laura van den Berg turned to boxing to combat destructive anxiety patterns.... And I
spoke with the poet Hanif Abdurraqib about how running... was about stress relief and managing clinical depression... In a recent
interview with Haruki Murakami, the singer Harry Styles credited Mr. Murakami’s book on running with freeing him 'from the idea that music had to be an unhealthy profession and I had to be this tortured soul.'... These artists weren’t going on about perfect blood panels or maximum efficiency or tracking immense protein intake. They cared about feeling alive in their bodies, sleeping well and having the stamina to do meaningful work.... Rather than follow the voice of one supposed strongman, rattling off advice, I learned to favor a chorus...."
Writes Sebastian Langdell, a professor of medieval literature, in
"Men Need Better Fitness Role Models" (NYT).
Langdell is rejecting the "fitness bros." He names a few of them — Peter Attia, Tim Ferriss, Andrew Huberman — so aren't the bros, too, a "chorus"? The distinction is not between a "chorus" and "one supposed strongman" but between the practical rules you ought to follow to achieve better fitness and the psychological motivation to pursue it. I don't see why the "chorus" wouldn't include both voices. Even if you feel inspired by Harry and Haruki and Hanif to go running, you'd still want to know if running long or short and fast or slow is more beneficial to your body and your mind.
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49 comments:
Long distance running was very therapeutic for me. Both head clearing while stimulating creative thoughts. With bad knees and hips, I now rely on walking. Not the same effect, but still it helps with peace of mind.
It is almost like Langdell is striving to become a fitness bro/guru himself but to the soy boy demographic.
As for running- I miss it- I had to give it up because my hips and lower back were becoming a problem. Walking gives me some of the same mental benefits but running gave me a better sense of well being. I still often have dreams about being a 10k or 20k run even though I haven't run in over a decade.
I also miss running. I stopped 16 years ago, when my knees gave out, and had to be replaced. It was very fulfilling.
I was a long-distance runner in high school (mainly because I was too slow to be competitive in shorter events) and continued to run regularly up to 6 miles at a time until my 40's. I liked the feeling of being in shape, and generally pushed myself to run hard. I never once experienced the "runners high" and never though of it as head-clearing or thought-stimulating.
But I am not an artist, and am not very creative.
I don't run anymore. Every time I try I get horrible shin splints and muscle pulls in my calves. I use the elliptical machines, but don't push things very hard.
Bike riding doesn't hurt your knees and I've been doing it since the early 70s. Gave up running for the reasons everybody's stating.
Hard to give a flying flip about "fitness bros". Fitness is an individual model--or should be. I try to "walk with purpose" for 40 to 60 minutes a day. In my early mid 80's I'm good for about 22 minutes a mile on mostly level ground. Definitely not setting the world on fire at that rate, but it's good for me.
Gee a leftwing college professor follows the party line and doesn't like the "fitness bros". How shocking.
Anyway, running is great when you're young but once you get past a certain age its too hard on your knees and joints. Of course, you always have the exceptions.
At 60 I decided walking and hiking were enough.
Why search for "role models" for basic life choices? Why simply swap "fitness bros" for the feminized equivalent? Just exercise like a normal human.
Any man thinking about an "overemphasis on masculinity" is not in any danger of ever succumbing to it.
I know whenever I'm looking to get into a new fitness regimen I always look to a professor of medieval literature for direction.
Why are leftys obsessed with masculinity?
Is a strong artist similar to a hunger artist?
Functional fitness training (Can you heft a bag of mulch? Can you get up out of a chair? Can you walk through an airport comfortably?) and a great diet full of real food. Simple as that.
…surprisingly through all the skiing and running my knees are still great. Don’t ask me about my shoulders…
This recent obsession with “role models” seems to be a women-and-minorities thing. Like they can’t do anything unless they’ve already seen somebody who looks just like them do it. Not a good recipe for progress.
I've never sustained a serious exercise program of any type. The closest I've come is a period long ago when a friend and I got into weight-lifting, and I was a regular swimmer for a few years post-retirement.
I had just reached the point with weights where I could 'clean and jerk' my body weight (230 lbs at the time) when Bob split from his wife and we didn't have the set-up in his garage anymore.
Running bores the crap out of me, and I avoid boredom as much as possible. (The main reason I don't read or comment on the strictly legal posts on offer.)
Gerda--weightlifting will also serve you well as you age. You need those muscles to take the strain off your deteriorating joints and ligaments, and to keep your back from giving out. Also weightlifting is very good for maintaining balance, which along with memory is one of the key things to go as we get older. I forget the others...
And if you insist on going sleeveless, it does wonders for those socially problematic arms...
I am 77, I have been lifting weights off and on for about 40 years. I have never been to a gym where anyone made lifting a competitive challenge. The only person I compete with is me.
Find a competent trainer (not a part timer, not a cheerleader), listen carefully, and concentrate on form.
Because they are strong, young people think they will continue to be strong. Their strength slips away slowly but relentlessly. By the time they realize they are in trouble there is little they can do about it. The older you get the more important physical strength becomes and the harder it is to achieve.
"I know whenever I'm looking to get into a new fitness regimen I always look to a professor of medieval literature for direction."
Tossing the caber is sadly out of fashion these days.
"Gerda Sprinchorn said...
To my great surprise, weightlifting, was the most emotionally fulfilling. Minimal injuries, very low impact, carefully controlled exertion.
But be careful. You can quickly start lifting a lot more weight than you expected. It is serious exercise."
True dat. Most (I generalize) people starting out, especially men, tend to do as much weight as they can (and even *more* than they can) and end up with all kinds of injuries. I am guilty as charged. I grew out of that, but a lot or maybe even most men still think that lifting as heavy as they can is The Only Way. Most of my parts (I'm 64) are still in fine condition, while a lot of my running and tennis-playing friends are getting knees and hips replaced.
I did start running as a teenager and loved it, quit for several years, then took up running trails and it's great fun. Also bike, skate, and swim as well as lifting 5 mornings a week.
A Jack LaLanne book got me into weights initially, but if I have an idol it's still Schwarzenegger. I'll never look like that but, to paraphrase Vince Lombardi, strive for perfection, but achieve excellence.
I think the emphasis on masculinity is worse in the female fitness space. Social media hates nuance. Women that work out despair over not getting as lean and cut as a man! I've seen SO MANY women post things like "how can I get rid of belly fat?" I look at the posted photo - of a perfectly healthy, quite beautiful belly - with an appropriate amount of body fat for a healthy woman. Agony over "hip dips". The self hatred of one's female curves! Drives me nuts.
Most mature men will figure out who they want to take as role models -- or if they even need role models. They'll avoid the more ridiculous or "toxic" ones without a professor of medieval literature to act as a sherpa or guru -- and they won't take a lesbian cartoonist as their guide to anything. Well ... a lesbian maybe ... a cartoonist maybe ... but not Alison Bechdel. Are she and the others really "strong artists"? And while "strong artists" may be a good thing, can't men figure out fitness routines without consulting them?
I go to a gym and work out solo 4 days a week, mixing aerobic "and weights. It's a small gym, and I can't help but hear the interactions between the two trainers and their customers. The people aren't getting nearly as much health advice as psychiatric counseling. Nobody is looking to Internet influencers.
Jack LaLanne was way ahead of his time! I remember watching his TV show as a kid. Jumping Jacks are named after him?
I wish our primary care physicians (PCP) could point us down the right fitness path. Most PCPs are very non-specific about diet and exercise "prescriptions". Would be nice to be a pro athlete (like a tennis player) and have a physical therapist, trainer and dietician follow me around to make sure I was eating right and getting all of the training and rest I needed.
Too much to ask that a professor of medieval literature designs a medieval workout.
"I'm not like other gymbros"
"...an overemphasis on masculinity." Well, we can't have that.
I'm a bit of a gym rat - love weightlifting so I do follow quite a few IG weightlifting/powerlifting accounts. Rest assured, there are PLENTY of male trainers pushing back on this extreme view of fitness.
*I never once experienced the "runners high" ....*
You're missing out. It's as close to an out-of-body experience I've ever had ... especially with some good tunes playing on the early days of my MP3.
I gave up running several years ago after a significant meniscus tear and diagnosed arthritis in the ball of my left foot. I also gave up my 150 per day pushups after arthritis was diagnosed in both shoulders.
What to do? I walk/hike at least 20 miles per week. As others have said above, it clears my head.
I modified pushups to wall pushups I learned in PT and I do curls with 20 lb. barbells. I am 73 and think I can maintain this regimen for at least 10 more years, God willing.
I’m a fan Vinnie Tortorich, nsng.
I followed a guy named P.J. Mangan, who advocated short, intense weight workouts, maybe 30 minutes, 1-3 times/week. No repeat sets, just 8-10 different sets, ideally to failure or near failure. It works great for me. I don't have the patience or time to do hour-long sessions. Otherwise I play tennis 3-4 times/week 1.5-2 hours each. I'm 66 and my knees, hips, and shoulders have held up, so I'm not changing a thing.
Oh my god.
I have been wondering where the madness about protein intake has come from, this at the same time the beef cattle herd in the USA is its lowest since 1961. My brother is convinced that he should aim for 200 grams of protein a day. I find this preposterous, as to do say would require the consumption of about two lbs of ribeye or salmon, around 33 large eggs, or, for you vegetarians, about 13 cups (measured dry!) of pinto beans. Unless you are a cattle rancher, a large scale poultry operator, or a North Sea fisherman, those kind of volumes are ridiculous. Unless you add whey powder. In that case you can get by with choking down a mere pound. I suspect Leprino Foods.
I have been lifting regularly for about six years. I’ve noticed a rising amount of criticism against weight training from the left. I’ve read numerous articles about the toxicity of protein and similar bullshit about the so called manosphere that these leftist feminized assholes put out- just to laugh at their stupidity. Now in my sixties, I am in the best shape of my life because I follow the teachings of science based influencers like Dr.Mike, Sean Nalwanyj, and Jeff Nippard. I eat 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight a day, my body fat percentage is around 14%, my blood chemistry is excellent- low cholesterol and triglycerides, and I am stronger than I was the last time I lifted weights in my twenties. Fuck those who hate weight lifting because of gym bros and their culture- too bad that those who follow their bullshit will never reap the many benefits of weight training because they hate the manosphere.
Oso, I eat at least 185 grams of protein per day. It isn’t that hard if you supplement normal meals with whey or cassein shakes. For example every night before I go to bed I have a shake with 50 grams of cassein and 1 cup of blueberries. Cassein is slowly digested over the course of the night and multiple clinical studies have shown that eating a big bolus of cassein before sleep helps prevent age related muscle loss. You don’t have to eat large amounts of steak to get protein, you just have to include protein in every meal and have a few protein shakes. That said, eating huge amounts of protein only makes sense if you are following a regular resistance training plan.
Running and lifting don't hurt your knees and ankles.
Eating wheat/carbs erodes the mesothilial linings in your gut and allows the same toxins to leak into your blood that cause chronic inflammation and arthritis.
If you want to get your joints and range of motion back you have to give up the plants that are destroying your joints and you need to do body weight full range of motion exercise.
My joints are better now at 51 than they have ever been in my life. I run a mile bare foot on pavement each morning. One thing that certainly helps is being 25 pounds lighter than I was 6 years ago.
Most of that is no longer eating poison.
Eat like a diabetic, exercise like a woman.
“Eat like a diabetic, exercise like a woman.”
Haha. Good advice.
Humans are persistence hunters. Our super power is the ability to sweat. It is almost unique in the animal world.
We were running other animals down and eating them for a million years before we domesticated wheat.
Our bodies are designed to run miles every day. The arthritis and degenerative joint diseases came when we started eating cow food.
Remember, if you’re 65 or older: a single rep at low resistance (1, 2, or 5 lb free weights or resistance bands), with slow, perfect form, will maintain a muscle fiber. Of course, for hypertrophy, you’ll need to do more than a single rep. But a single rep is a good safe approach to begin with. Strength train never 2 days in a row and not more than 3 days a week. It’s fun and with a ketogenic diet of unprocessed whole foods, you can avoid sarcopenia and stay functionally fit into your 80’s, 90’s, and beyond. Grok is the best personal trainer, nutritionist, and dietitian I’ve ever had and at 72 my goal is to enjoy an active lifespan and healthspan for the next 50 years. My dentist laughs with me when I tell him that and says, “well, whatever you’re doing, keep it up.”
Dr. Stacy Sims gives essentially the same advice for resistance training for women. She’s my role model!
I get all my fitness advice from watching old Hans and Franz skits.
Wow - so many great comments. Ran distance up until about four years ago. At 71 the only running I do is an occasional little bit with the jiu jitsu class around the mat as part of a warm up. Yoga makes the little things in life easier. Weight lifting makes the hard things possible. Jiu jitsu keeps me better prepared for the unexpected. Like to mix a little swimming in. Need to do more of that. Running is cool, not for me anymore, but I have found ways to keep my ability to do so intact in case of necessity.
Attia doesn't deserve to be lumped in with the bros.
I thought the same thing when I saw his name in the article, Freeman. Attia knew of Epstein’s conviction, continued a close relationship with him, and got off way easy. He deserves total ostracism. What a shame and a waste.
Btw, for anyone interested, here is where I started with Grok and fitness:
https://grok.com/share/bGVnYWN5LWNvcHk_dafc27e5-a1e3-42ae-b2e0-af07498aad52
Come for the law, stay for the fitness.
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