Can’t it be addressed with any regular, properly practiced sport, which many people don’t do over 30? Lifting seems like effort without the fun of a game.
Lifting seems like effort without the fun of a game.
The fun is in learning your muscles, feeling them shift and move as you put new strain on them and ultimately improving. Any metric you can track for improvement gives you a big source of pride when you hit a new milestone. Maybe it’s more reps. Maybe it’s a bigger weight with the same number of reps. Maybe it’s a new more difficult exercise you can do. Maybe you’re aiming to join a local competition. There’s always a goal to work towards and you can watch your body get better as you work on it. There’s incredible magic in knowing the control you have over your body’s shape, and suddenly being able to join in races or competitions that you might have used to be annoyed by how they get in your way.
I’ve gone big into biking. I started out struggling to make it around the block (which includes a big hill because where I live there really isn’t any flat surfaces to bike on) and last week I hit 12 miles in one go, and that’s including quite a few hills, some I powered up standing on the pedals, and some I powered through going as slowly as I needed and just continuing to pedal and push through. Every week or two I can achieve a new best for the season or even a new personal best, and that’s just tracking distance. I could instead focus on increasing my average speed. Or I could download an app where I race other people on the same route in virtual time trials.
It is certainly 1000 times better than doing nothing, but even athletes lift weights to complement their training because there’s nothing quite like targeting the muscles directly. But like others have commented running is also good for strengthening the back, so any sports where there’s a lot of running like soccer, football or basketball will help.
Weightlifting can be a game itself though, at least for me it is. The game is attempting to best my previous numbers every session. Very much a single player game but a game nonetheless.
Seriously depends. If someone is out of shape, starting with a game can be both disheartening when you physically cannot compete and make you far more likely to injure yourself when you’re not paying full attention to what your body is doing.
Going from out of shape (and most nonphysical people are out of shape nearly completely) to in shape is a treacherous path that should not be taken lightly.
Not to say sports are a bad idea, but they aren’t a silver bullet.
Can’t it be addressed with any regular, properly practiced sport, which many people don’t do over 30? Lifting seems like effort without the fun of a game.
The fun is in learning your muscles, feeling them shift and move as you put new strain on them and ultimately improving. Any metric you can track for improvement gives you a big source of pride when you hit a new milestone. Maybe it’s more reps. Maybe it’s a bigger weight with the same number of reps. Maybe it’s a new more difficult exercise you can do. Maybe you’re aiming to join a local competition. There’s always a goal to work towards and you can watch your body get better as you work on it. There’s incredible magic in knowing the control you have over your body’s shape, and suddenly being able to join in races or competitions that you might have used to be annoyed by how they get in your way.
I’ve gone big into biking. I started out struggling to make it around the block (which includes a big hill because where I live there really isn’t any flat surfaces to bike on) and last week I hit 12 miles in one go, and that’s including quite a few hills, some I powered up standing on the pedals, and some I powered through going as slowly as I needed and just continuing to pedal and push through. Every week or two I can achieve a new best for the season or even a new personal best, and that’s just tracking distance. I could instead focus on increasing my average speed. Or I could download an app where I race other people on the same route in virtual time trials.
It is certainly 1000 times better than doing nothing, but even athletes lift weights to complement their training because there’s nothing quite like targeting the muscles directly. But like others have commented running is also good for strengthening the back, so any sports where there’s a lot of running like soccer, football or basketball will help.
Weightlifting can be a game itself though, at least for me it is. The game is attempting to best my previous numbers every session. Very much a single player game but a game nonetheless.
Lifting is an RPG
That’s why I have a character sheet with all my stats.
Seriously depends. If someone is out of shape, starting with a game can be both disheartening when you physically cannot compete and make you far more likely to injure yourself when you’re not paying full attention to what your body is doing.
Going from out of shape (and most nonphysical people are out of shape nearly completely) to in shape is a treacherous path that should not be taken lightly.
Not to say sports are a bad idea, but they aren’t a silver bullet.