Hacker News Reader

Comment by rootusrootus | Hacker News Reader

I must be old or I have a different idea of minimal. A set of squats at ~200 pounds is entirely doable in time, yes, but my guess is it would be non-trivial for much of the adult population. Even when we were doing conditioning in high school I don't recall that a significant fraction of the class was breaking much over 225 or so.

View on HN

The issue is that people stop exercising at all as adults which makes about as much sense as stopping teeth brushing.

If you just consistently do a little bit of strength training then it never gets hard, you just very slowly tail off in absolute strength which is fine.

The average adult probably also isn’t great at learning for example because they just stop once they finish school.

Gaining reliable access to the equipment can also be tricky depending on your budget, schedule and floorplan. I personally couldn't really get a good habit going until I could purchase the equipment and make it available from home. Prior to that I was intermittently going to a gym but Covid really drilled into me how transient that access can be.

Considering how far you can go with just a few gallons of water, would be nice if there was more innovation in this space to increase accessibility in a safe way. While the bars and weights are one thing, it's ultimately the lack of a rack that makes squats troublesome imo.

I've never had space to store the bar itself, but if I had a home gym I'd be okay with a couple of stands like this:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/mp/york/york-squat-stands/_/R-...

You have to learn how to bail, but (depending on low vs high bar) you can get pretty confident at it

Yeah, I have a bar and weights but no racks so I'm limited to front squats and only what I can power clean. I feel though that this has forced me to work on the power clean which is a very satisfying exercise to do well. I've been power cleaning/squatting about once per week for a year and think this is a pretty good approach since it is almost impossible for me to try and lift too much so injury risk is low. The downside is perhaps slower development than if I could easily overload, but I'm in no hurry.

Be careful now, you're veering dangerously close to trying out olympic weightlifting.

I meant minimal in terms of time. I get your point though. Still, a set of your 5RM is going to do wonders for many people no matter how strong you already are. And if you're putting a bit of thought into form and diet, I believe most people can work up to around 80kg with a year of practise twice a week.

I find it quite hard to lift myself on any bar. You don’t need a sports club for it though, which is nice.

Many people lack the mobility to squat at all! Correcting this takes considerable time.

200lb means a BMI of 25 if you're 6'3", which is like 3-4% of the male population in the US, unless you're taller than that it would probably be a better idea to lower your weight first.

Yes, Americans are fat, the average adult male is 200lb and the average height is 5'9 [0]. They'd be less so if everyone could squat their own weight, especially if that was in addition to the bar itself.

Europeans are a bit lighter, about 10 pounds on average [1]. Sounds like we could all stand to lose weight before taking up lifting.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_body_weight

You don’t need to loose weight before taking up lifting. Just adjust your expectations.

Yeah I've been lifting consistently basically my whole adult life - with coaches, and squatting your body weight with proper form is difficult. Maybe 1/10 people I see regularly go to the gym actually squat at full depth. I can squat my body weight, but it took me a very long time and multiple coaches to get there with proper form.

People need to set realistic goals, like squatting _no added weight_. Seriously, squat with no bar and get your butt below your knees. That alone is a serious movement, you can get fit with just that.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com