Article: The Rise of the Minimalist Workout

[Sid]

This sounds like a terrible idea. A bunch of couch potatoes doing intensive exercise sounds like a recipe for injury.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/the-rise-of-the-minimalist-workout/

 

[flammee]

I think it's plain stupid to recommend short but highly unpleasant type of exercise instead of long and pleasant exercise. It's simply higly unlikely that people continue to do exercises they don't like. Inspiration is a lot more effective reason to exercise than self-discipline. Worst outcome of this recommendation would be that people who are doing sensible and pleasant exercise routine start feeling like they should do high intensity training and after trying become unmotivated to train at all...

 

[Bare Lee]

This sounds like a terrible idea. A bunch of couch potatoes doing intensive exercise sounds like a recipe for injury.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/the-rise-of-the-minimalist-workout/

Damn right Sid. I was in OK shape still when I started getting back in shape a few years ago, and it still took me a while to get everything toned up before I could start pushing it. I can't imagine someone who's really out of shape launching right into a HIIT regimen.

Inspiration is a lot more effective reason to exercise than self-discipline.

Couldn't agree more flammee. I hate discussions about what the best exercise or training protocol is. The best exercise is something you enjoy enough to keep at it and do it consistently.

And it's well-known that there are different fitness modules--high-intensity (power/speed), stamina, and endurance. Anyone who wants general fitness should train all of them to some extent.

 

[scedastic]

Damn right Sid. I was in OK shape still when I started getting back in shape a few years ago, and it still took me a while to get everything toned up before I could start pushing it. I can't imagine someone who's really out of shape launching right into a HIIT regimen.


Couldn't agree more flammee. I hate discussions about what the best exercise or training protocol is. The best exercise is something you enjoy enough to keep at it and do it consistently.

And it's well-known that there are different fitness modules--high-intensity (power/speed), stamina, and endurance. Anyone who wants general fitness should train all of them to some extent.

AMEN.
I do what gets me out of the door in the morning. Once a person gets in the habit (one would think this is easier if one chooses an enjoyable activity) of exercise, it becomes its own reward. I hear so many people tell me that they can't get into shape because........ and I can tell they approach the whole thing as a chore, like a really healthy but heinous vegetable they feel they should eat but that will make them gag. And so, it becomes something they put off, "can't" do (I tried, say, running, but my knees hurt, and I hated it, so now I have to be a slug), or have to devote a huge chunk of time to or none at all.
People start to see exercise as medicine, not as something that they can use to make life more fun and less painful.