# Independent single women: How do you confront your physical weakness? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 29, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291 "2015-08-29T15:47:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/141 "2020-05-06T01:09:59Z")
> [@thorny locust](#): > > And let me try putting this in the form of a question: Why did you come into a thread in which women are discussing dealing with being disturbed by a particular problem in order to say (based on no evidence) that you don’t think most women are disturbed by it? What was your point? I want to know as well. The OP is addressed to women for a reason: I wanted to know if women specifically can relate to the negative feelings I was experiencing five years ago. **Fotheringay-Phipp** bumbles into the thread and post something that unintentionally screams, “I cannot relate at all to what you’re experiencing, so I’m going to downplay/disagree/critique it rather than just listen and digest. Because I have to be That Guy. You can’t have a thread like this without That Guy telling women that their feelings are weird and wrong. But I’ll be polite when I do it so no one can get mad!” ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/142 "2020-05-06T01:45:54Z")
> [@you\_with\_the\_face](#): > > It means what I just explained. They don’t oppose one another. They are independent issues. Having a bad case of one doesn’t mean you can’t have a bad case of the other. This is pretty much the exact definition of “mutually exclusive.” None of the definitions you offer for “orthogonal” are even close to being as clear or precise. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/143 "2020-05-06T01:49:55Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > It’s extremely common for words in English to have more than one meaning. So, I asked for an explanation of what was meant and why that term was used. Sometimes I prefer to directly ask people who are actually using a word to account for its use. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/144 "2020-05-06T02:04:23Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This is pretty much the exact definition of “mutually exclusive.” None of the definitions you offer for “orthogonal” are even close to being as clear or precise. And what is the point of this argumentative lecture? You guys are in rare form today. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/145 "2020-05-06T04:59:10Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Try exercising with [steel clubs](https://www.onnit.com/onnit-steel-clubs/?pid=198&gclid=CJfcnvbJ-ccCFVcUjgodbbAGPA). > > Stranger > [@epbrown01](#): > > I’ve been working out for decades, and I’ve never seen or heard of these before. Cool. I heard about them in a PG Wodehouse book as the exercise equipment of a man who was the cutting edge fitness enthusiast of his day (his day being in 1915). It sounded cool - and I also realized I was likely to break everything in my house if I tried to use them. Weight training is also a great way to get strong. And if you know that you can bench \_\_\_\_, then when the lawnmower won’t start or whatever other thing that’s disguising itself as a feat of strength won’t do what it’s supposed to do, then you know that it isn’t anything to do with your strength (you have objective proof that you’re strong), it’s because the lawnmower is stupid. ---
**Author:** ![BeagleJesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5daacb/32.png) [@BeagleJesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeagleJesus)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/146 "2020-05-06T11:59:06Z")
My big take away from this thread is that pull cord shame is _real_! And I thought it was just me… ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/147 "2020-05-06T12:11:08Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I heard about them in a PG Wodehouse book as the exercise equipment of a man who was the cutting edge fitness enthusiast of his day (his day being in 1915). It sounded cool - and I also realized I was likely to break everything in my house if I tried to use them. > > Weight training is also a great way to get strong. And if you know that **you can bench \_\_\_\_,** then when the lawnmower won’t start or whatever other thing that’s disguising itself as a feat of strength won’t do what it’s supposed to do, then you know that it isn’t anything to do with your strength (you have objective proof that you’re strong), it’s because the lawnmower is stupid. Wrong exercise. Do pullups/rows/pulldowns. Actually, you should have a balanced program but bench press is a pushing exercise while starting a mower requires pulling. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/148 "2020-05-06T14:02:30Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This is pretty much the exact definition of “mutually exclusive.” ??? “Mutually exclusive” applies when two things cannot occur together: the presence of one excludes the possibility that the other is also present. What is the probability that the flip of a fair coin is tails, given that it is heads? Zero - heads and tails are mutually exclusive outcomes. “Independent” is pretty much the opposite: the presence of one says nothing about the probability that the other is also present. What is the probability that the flip of a fair coin is tails, given that the previous flip was heads? 0.5 - fair coin flips are independent, so the outcome of the first has no effect on the second. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/149 "2020-05-06T14:09:51Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > I heard about them in a PG Wodehouse book as the exercise equipment of a man who was the cutting edge fitness enthusiast of his day (his day being in 1915). It sounded cool - and I also realized I was likely to break everything in my house if I tried to use them. You don’t swing steel clubs (or maces, or kettlebells) inside your house unless you have a room with a lot of open space and a very well padded floor. However, you can do grip, wrist, and ankle strengthening exercises with clubs without swinging them; just hold them upright (inverted) and articulate your wrist to create an offset load. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/150 "2020-05-06T16:08:12Z")
> [@BeagleJesus](#): > > My big take away from this thread is that pull cord shame is _real_! And I thought it was just me… “All it took was a big jerk to get it started.” ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2020, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291/151 "2020-05-06T17:33:39Z")
> [@BeagleJesus](#): > > My big take away from this thread is that pull cord shame is _real_! And I thought it was just me… Which actually is part of the point of such threads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/independent-single-women-how-do-you-confront-your-physical-weakness/729291.md?page=7)