What is the healthiest thing one can do?

[Pedaling Fool]

I've always thought of health as important and as I age it has become more and more important. I look around at people, both old and not so old and see the effects of not taking care of oneself. It's why I got my ass (wihich was quickly becoming fat) on the trail in 2006 after retiring from the navy, because I saw my health headed south and I needed to restart my mindset on it; I was simply getting bored and as a result fat. I think I've got that problem beat now, i.e. I'm not worried about falling off the health wagon again.

I've become a fan of crossfit lately, but I do think some overstate the importance of it, especially the participants. I see it as another tool in the box to keep the body healthy and to fight boredom. However, many seem to think it's the end all, be all, in physical activity. I don't agree and I've saw this that basically shares my opinion on the subject. And it's a little funny

My thoughts, if you want total health, don't do one thing, even crossfit, which is suppose be multi-faceted, but in reality it is just one thing. They pride themselves on being all-around in top shape, but that in its self is a weakness if that's all you do.


http://gawker.com/5928989/


The Problem(s) With Crossfit



First of all let me just say that Crossfit is great. It's great! Crossfit will get your ass in shape. There's no question about it. I certainly am not going to say anything that would make thousands of people in "WODKILLA" t-shirts unduly angry. So it must be said, right up front: Crossfit is a very, very good workout thing.That said, **** Crossfit.


Let's talk about the good parts first! Honey before... flies, or whatever they say. As far as workout fads go, Crossfit is absolutely outstanding. Because it features actual hard workouts with real exercises that will in fact get you in great shape, as opposed to, you know, fake kickboxing moves, or a glorified dance party, or an expensive contraption that does poorly what could be achieved better and cheaper elsewhere, or something that requires you to look at John Basedow's face for an extended period of time. In terms of its actual fitness activities, Crossfit is not a hustle at all. It teaches a good, productive variety of real exercises that produce real power. Its workouts are hardcore. Can't complain, about that! Great stuff! High five, or whatever the similar term is in the Crossfit™ lingo!

It must be said, though: there are a few things wrong with Crossfit.

1. It is group exercise. I'm biased, because I despise group exercise in a rather venomous and irrational way, but **** "group exercise." Workouts should be done alone. The Crossfit workouts themselves are fine as long as the gym is empty and locked and located far away from any Crossfit members.

2. It is generalist. If you've ever joined some crappy chain gym for the first time then you've probably been approached by some peppy personal trainer who says, "What are your fitness goals?" The vast majority of people just quizzically wrinkle their brows, then gesture to nearest copy of People with Jake Gyllenhaal on the cover. "Look like that guy, I guess," you grunt. "Get in shape." If your own fitness goals possess this near-absolute level of vagueness, Crossfit is perfect for you. You do a little of everything. You do some Olympic lifting, and some powerlifting, and some bodyweight stuff, and some cardio stuff, and some running, and some sprinting, and some intervals, and some circuit training, and some whoop do doop. And you will, yes, "get in shape." You may even get abs to show off at the office pool party.

See, Crossfit does not train you for anything specific—their one brilliant stroke of marketing genius was to declare themselves "The Sport of Fitness," making it an end in itself. You're not doing those 1600-meter bear crawls and timed rope climbs to get in shape for anything; you're doing them to get better at doing them so one day you can go to the Crossfit games and do them alongside a dozen other people in front of a small crowd. The simple counterpoint to Crossfit is that if you are training for something specific, you'll want to train for that thing, rather than training for "what if you're caught in a burning building and you have to climb out while carrying someone on your shoulders and then run away at top speed and then throw a kettlebell at an angry dog that chased you," as Crossfit does.

Do you want to be a powerlifter? Don't do Crossfit. (As your MAIN WORKOUT, ********.) Do you want to be a distance runner? Don't do Crossfit. Do you want to simply add muscle bulk at all costs? Don't do Crossfit. Are you training for a specific sport which requires you to sharpen very specific physical skills? Don't do Crossfit. Instead, train for what it is you actually want to achieve. This may seem self-evident. But have you ever tried telling a Crossfit person that Crossfit is not that panacea of all physical training activities? I wouldn't recommend it, unless you are the type of person who enjoys getting into heated religious discussion with Jehovah's Witnesses.

3. It is too expensive. A Crossfit gym is like a regular gym but purposely dirtier and with all the expensive exercise machines replaced by ropes and iron balls. (Which is great!) It is far cheaper to outfit a Crossfit gym than a stupid commercial gym. Those savings are... whatever the exact opposite of "passed on to the customer" is. The normal gym closest to my house costs $40 a month. The Crossfit gym closest to my house costs $250 just to do the "on ramp" classes to be allowed to pay an additional $250 per month to take all the Crossfit classes you want. This is one reason that Crossfit tends to attract an outsized proportion of INTENSE POWER YUPPIES. (Which is fine!) Crossfit is too expensive, the end.

4. Their pullups suck. A pullup goes up, and then down. Crossfit likes to teach people to do these god damn "kipping pullups" which involve propelling yourself up and down using hip generated momentum, like some undulating fish flopping from an iron bar. THIS IS NOT A PULLUP. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED. Here's a guy who did 100 "pullups." Yeah real impressive but those ARE NOT REAL PULLUPS. Yes, they are something. But not pullups.

One of Crossfit's trademark workouts is "Fran," which involves doing sets of 21, 15, and 9 pullups. Now: a very, very small percentage of the population is able to do a single set of 21 proper pullups, without stopping. I guarantee you that the majority of NFL football players cannot do this. But since it's so god damn important to make the numbers in the workout, Crossfit people do 21 kipping pullups instead, and then they're all, "Yeah, I just did 21 pullups right there." Yeah, and I can dunk a basketball as long as I'm jumping off a trampoline. Those are not pullups. This reveals a deeper problem: this whole "sport of fitness" mentality means that Crossfit tends to make people more concerned with the number they put up in the workout—the fastest time, the heaviest snatch, or just finishing the more grueling workouts—than with the benefit derived from the workout. In the same way that lifting a lighter weight with perfect form will give you more benefit than lifting a heavier weight with bad form, so it is that focusing on making the numbers can often derail you from receiving the greatest benefit of a workout. Which brings me to:

5. You will get injured. All these timed workouts and competitive spirit and **** where they write your scores on a board and there is constant peer pressure to push yourself harder? You will get injured. You won't get an Olympic medal or a Super Bowl trophy for this. Just an injury. Enjoy that.

6. The whole "cult" thing. The standard knock on Crossfit is that it's a cult, of fitness. It's not really a cult. (Although everything on this blog is horrifyingly true.) It's more like church: plenty of nice folks there. But the ones who are too into it are ****ing creepy.

7. You can't trademark working out, you ****ers. Doing burpees or overhead squats or 400 meter runs followed by handstand pushups does not mean you're "doing Crossfit." You're just working out. You don't own that ****. You bastards.



And wear some ****ing regular socks why don't you.
Other than that Crossfit is A-OK.

[RedBeerd]

A good friend of mine has got great results from crossfit. 30% BF down to 13% in a very reasonable time. Its too easy to open a crossfit studio so there there are lots of inexperienced trainers pushing people too hard resulting in injury but that's not the case for everyone. Ever watch the cross fit games? Those guys got like that with crossfit. All around fitness.
Me? Balanced healthy diet with regular cardio and weight lifting keeps me in shape.

[surfnturk]

4. Their pullups suck. A pullup goes up, and then down. Crossfit likes to teach people to do these god damn "kipping pullups" which involve propelling yourself up and down using hip generated momentum, like some undulating fish flopping from an iron bar. THIS IS NOT A PULLUP. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED. Here's a guy who did 100 "pullups." Yeah real impressive but those ARE NOT REAL PULLUPS. Yes, they are something. But not pullups.

One of Crossfit's trademark workouts is "Fran," which involves doing sets of 21, 15, and 9 pullups. Now: a very, very small percentage of the population is able to do a single set of 21 proper pullups, without stopping. I guarantee you that the majority of NFL football players cannot do this. But since it's so god damn important to make the numbers in the workout, Crossfit people do 21 kipping pullups instead, and then they're all, "Yeah, I just did 21 pullups right there." Yeah, and I can dunk a basketball as long as I'm jumping off a trampoline. Those are not pullups. This reveals a deeper problem: this whole "sport of fitness" mentality means that Crossfit tends to make people more concerned with the number they put up in the workout—the fastest time, the heaviest snatch, or just finishing the more grueling workouts—than with the benefit derived from the workout. In the same way that lifting a lighter weight with perfect form will give you more benefit than lifting a heavier weight with bad form, so it is that focusing on making the numbers can often derail you from receiving the greatest benefit of a workout. Which brings me to:

In a "normal" gym, proper pullups are avoided like the plaque. It seems most people at the gym are always looking for the easiest excersize, which i dont get. Either way, my core exersize is/are pullups. I do that "kipping" thing, which I just learned about here, when I do behind the neck pullups but only on the last few. It never occured to me it was a technique called kipping.
I never do that for regular wide grip, palms forward pullups. And yes, I am the pullup king, no ****.

[RedBeerd]

More cons than pros? Probably..

[Chuckie V]

You're confusing health and fitness. They're two different things. Optimal health necessitates a certain level of fitness, while a high level of fitness necessitates a certain level of health, but the two don't always relate. A high level of fitness certainly doesn't equate to a high level of health (e.g., we see world-class athletes getting sick and injured all the time, or at least I do).


Optimal health is a combination of many factors---mental, physical/chemical and emotional. When mental or emotional stress levels are high, intense physical training usually only adds to the body's stress load. Poor nutritional habits are yet another stress, just as poor exercise habits are. And alas, we don't adapt to all stress. We might handle them for a while, until we no longer can, and often times it's too late to change what's been done (in the case of a heart attack or a stroke, for example; and there are plenty of other examples that rear their ugly head, given enough time).

Exercise needs to be stressful in order to spark the body into adaptation, but the adaptation must be specific to optimal health if optimal health is the end goal. Or it must be specific to the end goal of exercise performance (i.e., hiking is the "best" exercise for learning to hike; and a golfer is no less fit than a runner, since the fitness he requires is, well, different). A bunch of overly-stressful exercise (anaerobic, sugar-burning, adrenal-depleting, acid-producing stuff, ala Cross-Fit) can affect the body in ways that don't always promote health, no matter the apparent gains outwardly.


We aren't machines that can be easily repaired or replaced, and our body is the only true thing we "own" from birth to death. I find it so sad to see so many people neglect theirs or even fail to understand them.

[HikerMom58]

Well, I do know this... muscles knows no age. You can build muscle at any age & you will get ur bang for ur buck... it will look good on you! As you age, ur skin will sag, ur hair will turn gray but your muscles will look good if you work um... You build muscles by using them.

If you do straight cardio you won't build much muscle unless you add resistance. Cardio will burn calories but does not change your "shape". You will look the same. If it's working for ya, you'll have the same shape but look smaller. Building muscles can change your shape.

I'm not the type of person to "poo poo" any workout that gets you moving. Not all gyms will get it 100% "RIGHT". You do have to be careful of working out "WRONG". Also, overuse if a big problem. I think your body can get used to the same workout so it's best to change it up.

Most important is HAVE FUN working out. Pick something that you LOVE to do. If you love to dance then dance away those extra pounds. Then, try to add in some kind of strength training exercise.. If you love to hike then get out there. If you workout out of guilt or duty you won't stick with it. Just like eating, it can be part of your "lifestyle" to stay strong and healthy. Pick something that you love to do and just do it!

After every workout STRETCH... I learned the hard way about what happens if you don't STRETCH. Drink lots of water 2. That is all.

[yellowsirocco]

The problem with exercise programs is that they are programs and not real life. If you can exchange activities like biking to get groceries instead of driving then you automatically get exercise without having to go to a gym or even think about it and you save money on gas. Maybe run out to get the paper and actually run. Heating your home at least partially with a wood fire is excellent exercise (split the wood with a maul). People in the old days didn't do crossfit or p90x or anything and they were fine, but they did chores and didn't sit on their butts all day.

[JAK]

My own theory, this theory which is mine and only mine, is that it is best to adopt a liefestyle which involves as much natural outdoor activity as possible and a diet which involves as close to natural food as you can get, and by natural I mean what you would have been doing 10,000 years ago, except the nasty stuff. Basically lots of low intensity prolonged activity like walking or paddling or trudging or skiing to get someplace, and some harder stuff now and then, preferable building something besides muscles. Have fun with it. Watch out for the cave bears.

[Pedaling Fool]

You're confusing health and fitness. They're two different things.

Yes, it's true they are two different things, but I'm only focusing on fitness, much like many who focus on diet as the key to a healthy lifestyle.

If you can exchange activities like biking to get groceries instead of driving then you automatically get exercise without having to go to a gym or even think about it and you save money on gas.

Actually that describes me to a tee; I've been cycling as my primary form of transportation since the mid-80's and still do today, average about 20-30mpd at least 5 days per week. However, the problem is that there is no one exercise to keep the whole body healthy (I found this out the hard way). And it can lead to overuse issues. And contrary to popular belief, knees can become damaged from too much cycling -- all the talk about it being good for you because it's a low-impact exercise is complete BS!

The problem with exercise programs is that they are programs and not real life. ... Maybe run out to get the paper and actually run. Heating your home at least partially with a wood fire is excellent exercise (split the wood with a maul). People in the old days didn't do crossfit or p90x or anything and they were fine, but they did chores and didn't sit on their butts all day.

The problem is that in our lifestyles today many don't have time for chores and why would you want to create chores just for health when you can just do the exercise. I believe I save more time just doing "it" in the gym than trying to think up of a chore to work a certain body part. Besides, it gives me more time for doing things that really interest me. I don't like going to the gym, but that's the rules mother nature has laid down. Don't exercise all them body parts and overtime they fall apart -- I don't make the rules...

... preferable building something besides muscles. Have fun with it...

I don't know why so many people have such a negative attitude towards building muscle. Muscle is the body's armor, it's what protects us for injury. Again, that's mother nature's rules, not mine.

Don't hate the player, hate the game

[fiddlehead]

Saw the headline: "What's the healthiest thing you can do?"
I immediate thought of two things; Drink nothing but water, and/or: Pump up your cardio-vascular system at least three times a week.

I do both and haven't been sick in years.
As for being fit? That's a different story and I've always been pretty fit from the waist down but skinny up top.
Probably your cross training deal would help in that regard.
But healthy? I think my system works pretty good.
I eat whatever I like too.

[Papa D]

Walk or cycle as many places as you can and avoid automobiles
Give up meat - go for a plant based diet
Run 3 days a week
Lift weights the other 3 days a week
Don't do too much the other day
drink a little coffee and a little red wine
don't stress - it's all good
if you find the time, treat yourself to an adventure (like a thru-hike)

[Wise Old Owl]

Wow how to give this hours of thought.... Drop dead healthy?

[garlic08]

Michael Pollan, in In Defense of Food, says "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Bingo. The rest of the book merely illuminates those three points. Highly recommended reading.

[rocketsocks]

As someone who has connective tissue problems, it has been very difficult to enter into any kind of a set routine. And do to the flood of information out on the net, (good and bad), my head hurts and spins. Recently I decided to join a gym. It is a gym that is associated with a hospital in my area, and the big draw for me was the hot tub and pool where lifting weights while suspended in the water may prevent further injury. My goal: to be able to carry a pack, and not get injured. I sure would appreciate any input...please!

Note; I do see a doctor

Thanks for posting John, always like your deathly honest posting, and straight forward approach...good stuff.

[Pedaling Fool]

As someone who has connective tissue problems, it has been very difficult to enter into any kind of a set routine. And do to the flood of information out on the net, (good and bad), my head hurts and spins. Recently I decided to join a gym. It is a gym that is associated with a hospital in my area, and the big draw for me was the hot tub and pool where lifting weights while suspended in the water may prevent further injury. My goal: to be able to carry a pack, and not get injured. I sure would appreciate any input...please!

Lifting weights in water That's a new one on me. My recommendation would be to stop the silliness, buddy All water does is reduce the weight, just lift less heavy weights. Also, water, I imagine, helps you stabilize the weight, by conteracting gravity. Sounds good, but that's not real world conditions, so you're setting yourself up for failure in mother natures real world. She's a bitch.

I hear you on the issue of "connective tissue" I injured my shoulder years ago and can still feel it today if I do something wrong. But it has gone from a debilitating injury to just an occasional nuisance today, thanks to weightlifting.

Weightlifting really does keep the body strong and resistant to injury and injury can come from any activity including hiking. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/m.../aa061200a.htm


Excerpt:

Most older individuals are well aware that they need regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, swimming, or running, to strengthen their heart and lungs and tone their bodies, but many dismiss weight training (also called resistance training) as an activity predominantly for the young or the vain. However, it is the only type of exercise that can substantially slow, and even reverse, the declines in muscle mass, bone density, and strength that were once considered inevitable consequences of aging. Unlike aerobic, or endurance, activities, which improve cardiovascular fitness and require moving large muscle groups hundreds of times against gravity, weights provide so much resistance that muscles gain strength from only a few movements.



And stay away from weight machines as much as possible, free weights mimic real life situations by forcing the body to use various stabilizing muscles during the lifting. Just like you do while hiking. And forget the flood of information, just stick with the basics and eventually you'll see results.

[Pedaling Fool]

Wow how to give this hours of thought.... Drop dead healthy?

How's your knee doing

[topshelf]

Crossfit will get inexperienced people injured quick. My ex really messed up her back and knee doing crossfit. No emphasis on form and technique, I cringe watching their competitions on TV. We go online and get crossfit workouts for each day and then go to our own gym and do the workouts, so much cheaper...

[HikerMom58]

Crossfit will get inexperienced people injured quick. My ex really messed up her back and knee doing crossfit. No emphasis on form and technique, I cringe watching their competitions on TV. We go online and get crossfit workouts for each day and then go to our own gym and do the workouts, so much cheaper...

Humm.... interesting idea! Another thought is this: Work hard in the gym work even harder in the kitchen.

[rocketsocks]

Lifting weights in water That's a new one on me. My recommendation would be to stop the silliness, buddy All water does is reduce the weight, just lift less heavy weights. Also, water, I imagine, helps you stabilize the weight, by conteracting gravity. Sounds good, but that's not real world conditions, so you're setting yourself up for failure in mother natures real world. She's a bitch.

I hear you on the issue of "connective tissue" I injured my shoulder years ago and can still feel it today if I do something wrong. But it has gone from a debilitating injury to just an occasional nuisance today, thanks to weightlifting.

Weightlifting really does keep the body strong and resistant to injury and injury can come from any activity including hiking. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/m.../aa061200a.htm


Excerpt:

Most older individuals are well aware that they need regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, swimming, or running, to strengthen their heart and lungs and tone their bodies, but many dismiss weight training (also called resistance training) as an activity predominantly for the young or the vain. However, it is the only type of exercise that can substantially slow, and even reverse, the declines in muscle mass, bone density, and strength that were once considered inevitable consequences of aging. Unlike aerobic, or endurance, activities, which improve cardiovascular fitness and require moving large muscle groups hundreds of times against gravity, weights provide so much resistance that muscles gain strength from only a few movements.



And stay away from weight machines as much as possible, free weights mimic real life situations by forcing the body to use various stabilizing muscles during the lifting. Just like you do while hiking. And forget the flood of information, just stick with the basics and eventually you'll see results.

Thanks for the reply john, and the link. I hope to see some marked improvement by the time the corn around here is knee high. Did I mention the pool is heated, hehe Na I hear ya, just trying to go into this whole thing slow, so as to avoid any further injury. Ultimately, I just would like to pick things up, and put them down.....without getting hurt. Will post progress in the future. thanks again.

[GoldenBear]

"Health" and "fitness" are, admittedly, nebulous terms. If your definitions are different from mine, fine. But let's agree they are NOT the same thing, although there is a huge level of overlap.

I define "health" as living long without disease or disability.
I define "fitness" as being able to do an activity at a higher level.

Thus, exercise will (in general) improve both your health AND your fitness.
However, long-term use of muscle-building steroids will improve your fitness but NOT your health.

Having never heard of "Crossfit" till this very hour, I have no opinion of it beyond what I read in this URL:
http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/what-crossfit.html
While I have no doubt about it being able to increase fitness (although being fit enough to go out and kill terrorists is not a fitness level I need), it doesn't seem to be a major way to improve health.

NOTE: feel free to skip the following paragraph, as it nothing more than my personal story to establish why I have studied this issue.
With my family history of heart disease, health (particularly cardiovascular) has been a focus of my life for decades. Plain and simple, at age 58 I want to be certain I LIVE LONG ENOUGH to complete all miles of the AT. Personal commitments to family and volunteer work preclude my taking off for months to do it all at once (not to mention I'm WAY too much out of shape to do so), but I can certainly do chunks each year. However, I'm QUITE cognizant of the fact that, if I follow the path of my father (dead at age 48), then I have no chance of succeeding. Thus, HEALTH is something I've studied -- and I've even made out a list of healthy habits.

I emphasize that NONE of these are a magic bullet. You can follow all of this advice and still die too young. In all cases, you are simply CHANGING THE ODDS in your favor.
It's like betting on red on a roulette wheel with one green slot instead of two green slots -- you are not guaranteed to win if you do the former, nor guaranteed to lose if you do the latter. So the "My grandfather didn't follow advice (3), and he lived to be 100!" responses are as meaningful as saying, "My grandfather bet red, one time, on a roulette wheel with two green slots and won, while the person who did so on a roulette wheel with one green slot lost -- that disproves your thesis!"

Approximate order, with that of most importance first:
1) This is a negative thing to do, but it's FAR AND AWAY the best way to ensure health: don't smoke. And, if you are a smoker, quit cold turkey today. I've not run the numbers, but my gut tells me that smoking is such a risk factor for so many diseases that (on the average) the number of years of healthy living it reduces, is greater than that of all other risk factors.
2) Have your blood pressure and blood levels checked annually. If you need medication to control them, take the meds. If the meds are causing you trouble, see your doctor.
3) Reduce fat intake, particularly saturated fat.
4) Maintain a weight consistent with your height
5) Eat a balanced diet, focusing on whole grains and fresh fruits & vegetables.
6) Exercise -- both cardio and non-cardio.
7) Get enough hours of sleep, consistently. For the vast majority of people, this means eight hours. Going without sufficient sleep is about the only bad health habit that is considered a virtue. Nobody will tell you, "I'm glad you smoke two packs of cigarettes every day," but they WILL tell you, "Keep up the good work -- we like people who burn the midnight oil."
8) Learn how to handle stress, particularly if you're the type to fly off the handle. There are dozens of programs to approach this, find one that works for you.
9) Use safety gear -- which includes seat belts. Yes, I'm aware that some people think they'd rather die young in a blaze of glory. But guess what: suffering traumatic brain injury, and then spending the next forty years staring at a wall, is NOT glorious!
10) Remember that a "healthy" suntan is as much an oxymoron as a healthy black eye: in both cases, your body is reacting to trauma by attempting to reduce the effect of the trauma. If your skin is increasing its level of melanin, it's because you're doing damage to it! If you can't cover your skin, then at least use sun screen.
11) Maintain social contacts. Scientists aren't sure EXACTLY why, but meta-analyses of scores of studies unambiguously show that having lots of friends is good for health.
12) Drink alcohol in moderation, although this is still being studied. Alcohol consumption unquestionably aids cardiovascular health, but it is not certain if the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.