To be very clear - the OP of the thread has not, and to my recollection not a single poster over its entire breadth has.
I’ll go further though -
Be real. We run to the aging side here. The poster who five years into the thread chimes in to again feign offense at being asked? Is no longer doing so much physical labor. Mostly he’s saying I worked hard physically for years and I don’t want to now. (Snarking about “have you really worked?” or something like that.) Yes he does household maintenance and chores, mows his lawn, bikes a bit. Those are great! And count. And does do some strength training for his back. Important. But upper 60s or beyond, no longer doing much non-exercise physical labor, a little investment in resistance training of some sort that hits the whole body? Suggesting that is a wise choice is not sneering. Honestly this is not a crowd that overwhelmingly does a lot of physical labor. For many here ever. Many of us want to be able to do something physical when the need occurs. But you can’t do it just on rare occasion and expect to do it safely. Or at all.
I have been tempted to start a thread asking why people don’t cook for themselves, and maybe someday I will, because I am genuinely interested in their reasons/life situations. But when I’ve started to compose the OP in my mind, I’m always very careful to make it clear I am not judging at all, I just want to have a better understanding of their perceptions and values, beyond the obvious reasons of too busy, hate chopping, or whatever.
As for me, I’m amazed if, for example, I go to a potluck and someone brings store-bought food instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to show off one dish they make really well.
I don’t think less of them, I’m just curious as to what they’d rather be doing than cooking. Lifting weights, probably.
Heh. Everyone else is having a very fun busy life. And I’m a dud. ‘Cause we cook everyday(I’m demoted to peon in my kitchen), for 12 or more individuals.
They might cook, but then who cleans up the mess? Who did the shopping?
So it’s not just the cooking.
Door dashing or going out every night sounds great. Would that I could.
“Why Don’t You Lift Weights” has as far as I can see, (I skimmed it but find the subject boring) mainly become a discussion between people who DO lift weights.
I could see a “Why don’t you cook” or “Why don’t you like kittens” if you were genuinely trying to just attract people from the don’t section of society.
I am 75 with a heart condition. And I am using all the physical energy I still have available on farm work, wood splitting, schlepping the laundry, and so on.
I’m well aware that there are people living in this society who have little opportunity to get any physical exercise in their routine lives. If some of them want to lift weights instead, that’s fine, good for them. But people who have less energy available because of getting older have less energy available for whatever they’re doing; and if they spend it lifting weights, it won’t be there for whatever else they might have done with it; including both things that in themselves involve significant physical activity, and things that involve just getting up and going out of the house. Again, spending some of what energy remains on weight lifting is an entirely reasonable choice for some people (and I’m well aware that getting some exercise may, to a point, actually increase energy; but that’s not limited to weightlifting); but telling me to “get real” for pointing out that it’s not the only reasonable choice, and claiming that older people with less energy somehow can’t do useful physical work but can still do exercise that accomplishes nothing but exercise, does not strike me as reasonable at all.
— thorny locust, feeling rather thorny at the moment.
Not surprising. Many people who do lift weights appear to find it interesting. Many who don’t do, indeed, find it boring.
Meh. I get genuine joy from cooking, and exercising is almost always a tedious chore for me. I (or other family members) cook most of our meals, and we eat well: right now at home we have homemade bread, homemade biscuits, at least three different homemade soups in the freezer, and leftovers from burrito night. And I’m off to the gym after work, but I don’t wanna.
I totally get it if someone is different from me, if they resent having to prepare food but love exercise. Or maybe they love both or resent both. Vive la difference!
You clearly appreciate that your level of physical labor is not the norm. Not at 75. Not at 65. And for most of these forums possibly at any age.
Here though I strongly disagree:
Nope. Plain wrong. Strength training two to three times a week, maybe 20 to 30 minutes a session, and regular aerobic exercise does not leave an otherwise sedentary person so exhausted that they cannot perform activities of daily living. That’s not opinion; it is well established fact. Look through the thread for many cited studies! It results in the strength, power, balance, and endurance that allows them to do the activities of daily living in an ongoing manner. It lowers incidence of disability not only physical but cognitive as well.
But also not completely true.
The initial period was chock full of folk answering with what their own reasons why not were. No judgements were imposed upon them. Good answers to the question. By those who wanted to share. And through the thread quite a few who recognize the benefit of exercise in general, and some strength training of some form, who were not doing it, getting some cheerleading, support, and practical advice. Some taking to it as a result.
Of course it is also a place for those who do enjoy exercise to talk about their hobby. And a place for those of us who nerd out on fitness science stuff to share.
