Hacker News Reader

Comment by sometimeshuman | Hacker News Reader

My take away from the abstract is to work-out as early as possible assuming the gym is not 24hours:

1) Ensures that any surface or airborne pathogen generated the evening prior is likely dead.

2) Less people creating respiratory borne aerosols.

3) Intensity of exercise is probably lower, thereby spreading less aerosols, given most people do not have peak performance early morning.

4) Someone who is sick or is recovering from illness is unlikely to get to the gym early.

5) Perhaps skip the gym during peak flu and cold season.

For decades I would get sick 3 to 4 times a year but now I haven't been sick in 28 months (personal best by 2x) since becoming a pandemic hermit. I wonder how many of my colds/flu's were contracted at the gym and have hesitated returning but miss this part of my life.

View on HN

I can counter you anecdote with one of my own. I go the gym a lot. I rarely get sick. I kept going to the gym when the state allowed it to be open during the pandemic and still never got sick. Telling people to skip the gym to prevent contracting the flu might be some of the worst health advice there is given heart disease is the number one cause of death. Severe covid correlates strongly with obesity too. There was a substantial jump in obesity rates during the pandemic from people sitting around inside. Personally I think gym's are overrated in spreading disease. Almost nobody goes to the gym when they are still feeling sick.

I was fully with you up until the final couple sentences. Anyone who's been in a gym knows it's not a sterile place. Again anecdotally people I have met specifically from going to the gym would go while mildly sick 100%. Justified with some variation of "just power through".

If you're healthy moderate exposure to pathogens can definitely boost your own immune system response. The impact of hosting those pathogens is one of the talking points COVID brought up that I think will be around for a long time.

You're probably reducing your life expectancy much more by skipping the gym (or publicly socializing, but that's a whole other discussion) than you would be from those 3-4 illnesses a year.

Not if they were finding alternative ways to exercise. Speaking as an ex power-lifter turned runner, I'm surprised at the number of people who believe they NEED a gym to exercise.

Seriously. Outdoors is free.

Resistance training and cardio are both necessary for a long healthy life. Neither alone is sufficient.

Regardless, I hear what you’re saying, but that didn’t sound like what GP meant when they said they missed their gym life.

Maybe I’m reading you wrong but are you suggesting that publicly socialising reduces life expectancy? What about the mental health benefits?

My comment wasn’t very clear, sorry. I actually meant the opposite: that by limiting socializing they’re harming their health.

> 4) Someone who is sick or is recovering from illness is unlikely to get to the gym early.

Someone somewhere just said "Challenge accepted!"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com