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Comment by throwaway22032 | Hacker News Reader

throwaway22032

Most fitness advice is "how to not get fit, for people who don't want to get fit".

It's honestly not that hard once you treat physical health as being an _essential_ part of the human experience. It's not a chore, it's not a task, it's fundamentally important, it's what you are on this planet to do.

You "don't like it"? I'm sure you do loads of other things that you like even less (8 hour work day?) - society just supports those things more.

If someone told you that you could become a great chess player by playing 30 seconds a day would you buy it or would you think they were completely full of it?

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> I'm sure you do loads of other things that you like even less (8 hour work day?) - society just supports those things more

Well, it does not merely supports those things. It almost coerces you into them. There are few ways to get enough money so you can live. I would not work the same 8h/days if I could.

> it's what you are on this planet to do

Not at all. I'm here for no reason. Now that I'm here, I'll optimize happiness while creating as little harm as possible to others.

Doing sports would at best be a means to this happiness if it helps me feel better, longer. Even knowing it is not quite enough to like it and be motivated to do it enough. I say this as someone who likes hiking, does most of their trips by bike, and runs regularly, as long as I'm not too tired and it's not extremely hot or cold outside.

I don't like practicing, and I won't lie to myself about it. I only do it because I believe it makes the rest of my life better. I guess considering it as essential helps indeed, but that's a very abstract idea, to be honest.

Physical reality is far more coercive.

You can earn money without a 9-5. Hell, a person can just have money and not need to earn it.

You can't get fit or maintain fitness without putting in the work.

That's part of the reason it's so valued, there is no cheat code.

well, there's steroids.

I’m a former high school athlete who has seen a lot of class mates juice.

Steroids help someone who is working out intensively get 10 to 20% more out of their effort (at a trade off for health later on).

It does not do anything for someone who sits on their ass sedentary.

It’s an augmentation, not magic, and a serious athlete could beat a non-athlete even if they juiced.

yes, it's not magic, but it is a bit of shortcut / cheat code, no?

The context of the article is that you should work out a little each day and is about advice on how to keep basic fitness. In that case, no, steroids do nothing for you. If you go ahead and take steroids and do your (from the article) “ Just lowering a heavy dumbbell slowly once or six times a day is enough.” nothing is going to be different.

Steroids are going to help ppl who need extreme performance.

The threat of suffering and death are the threats used both to make you work for money, and to make you eat healthy and work out. However, the consequences of the former are much more imminent, while the consequences of the latter can take years to show up. Unfortunately, we find delayed reward or punishment to be a much weaker motivator.

> Unfortunately, we find delayed reward or punishment to be a much weaker motivator.

That is the core issue I think. Since your gut is not helping, you need to intellectualize it a lot.

I am a meat-based robot, and see exercise as a natural form of maintenance. The gym is my favorite physical activity, and I see it as performing physical upkeep on myself, to offset my hilariously sedentary lifestyle.

> I'm here for no reason. Now that I'm here, I'll optimize happiness while creating as little harm as possible to others.

Same, but I enjoy having my bodily maintenance, and the semi-sculpted look I've achieved. Different people will have different fitness goals.

> It's not a chore, it's not a task, it's fundamentally important, it's what you are on this planet to do.

I'm here to sit on my arse and get fat eating chocolate and makeing games, then kill myself at age 34, actually.

Sounds like you've got solid advice on how to not get fit then ;)

> It's not a chore, it's not a task

What does that even mean?

> it's what you are on this planet to do.

Source?

I enjoy my work a lot more than I enjoy most exercise...

> It's honestly not that hard once you treat physical health as being an _essential_ part of the human experience.

Maybe. But that breaks down quickly when you realise that it just isn't. It's perfectly possible to live a good life in mediocre health.

Yes, that's advice for if you want to not get fit.

If you're happy (can have a good life) not being fit, you can just follow advice that will not make you fit.

If you're unhappy not being fit, then it is essential to fix that, because unless you are a depressive it is essential to fix any fixable issues that are making you unhappy.

You speak as if there are just two extremes. There is plenty of space between the extremes where most people live (healthily enough to reach old age).

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