The thing that really gets praise is proving how tough you are—that is, your ability to ignore your evolved safety signals.
I can’t speak for everyone, but this is not the case in my experience. I used to attend my old university’s boxing club and anyone caught ignoring his evolutionary safety signals would have been told to go home, safety was extremely important there, primarily because the university could potentially be legally liable for anything that went wrong.
There certainly was an element of machismo in being able to grit your teeth through the last fifteen minutes of an intense round of cardio, but it’s about defying the voice in your head that tells you to give up, you’re kidding yourself, you’re too weak to be doing this, rather than defying the voice that tells you that you are seriously in danger of cardiac arrest if you don’t stop skipping rope.
A large part of the experience is learning to separate those voices out, know which is which, and know what your real limits are, and what you are in fact capable of as opposed to what you think you’re (in)capable of.
anyone caught ignoring his evolutionary safety signals
How can they tell that, and how is that even possible that there is not for ever 1 such case a 1000 cases of people just being lazy or weak-willed and over-react?
I usually do 1.5 hour box trainings mainly consisting of sandbagging as I am not yet good enough to reliably to hit the mittens as of yet, without having been in any sort of shape except round before that, didn’t run, can’t jump rope, and at 35 I know all the excuses my laziness and weak will wants to throw at me, and yet, despite it all, the only signal that looked more serious than bathing in sweat with a red face was pain in the front shoulder, from keeping my hand in the front and high position all the time, but it felt like just muscle pain and using diclofenac (brand: Voltadol) gel every evening seems to keep it in check. Just what kind of survival signals are 20 years old people who are fit supposed to have from this? It is IMHO not that hard. When I am occasionally allowed the mittens or spar (with trainer only) that is actually easier as I don’t go as hard on them as the bag (I like to prove my strength by making the heavy bag swing 1 m and hit the wall behind it with a back hand straight or hook punch. Ego thing. And tiresome.)
When you state out loud that you think you may have injured yourself, or if you show outward signs of such (e.g. clutching your chest during cardio) or if you’re sparring too heavy, mainly. Ofcourse trainers aren’t psychics and anyone can be ignoring his safety signals and concealing it, but in that case the trainers could hardly praise them for doing it any more than they could be telling them off.
how is that even possible that there is not for ever 1 such case a 1000 cases of people just being lazy or weak-willed and over-react
Well everyone is there of his own free will and his for his own sake. If you under-train you’re only cheating youself, so there’s an incentive not to be a molly. And the fact that you bother to show up to training means it’s probably an effective incentive - at least it was for me.
In the absence of information about what the optimal amount of exercise for general well-being is with regards to joints or anything else, I fail to see what more could be done than to take the ordinary precautions. If you know what the signs are that you’re damaging your joints or any other part of your body, and you’re vigilent in looking out for those signs, the benefits seem to me worth the risk, especially since abstaining from exercise has its own associated risks, e.g. heart-disease.
I think a lot of people override the relatively subtle information that they’re hurting themselves
Well, why? If these signals are subtle then how can we know when we might be overriding them?
I can’t speak for everyone, but this is not the case in my experience. I used to attend my old university’s boxing club and anyone caught ignoring his evolutionary safety signals would have been told to go home, safety was extremely important there, primarily because the university could potentially be legally liable for anything that went wrong.
There certainly was an element of machismo in being able to grit your teeth through the last fifteen minutes of an intense round of cardio, but it’s about defying the voice in your head that tells you to give up, you’re kidding yourself, you’re too weak to be doing this, rather than defying the voice that tells you that you are seriously in danger of cardiac arrest if you don’t stop skipping rope.
A large part of the experience is learning to separate those voices out, know which is which, and know what your real limits are, and what you are in fact capable of as opposed to what you think you’re (in)capable of.
How can they tell that, and how is that even possible that there is not for ever 1 such case a 1000 cases of people just being lazy or weak-willed and over-react?
I usually do 1.5 hour box trainings mainly consisting of sandbagging as I am not yet good enough to reliably to hit the mittens as of yet, without having been in any sort of shape except round before that, didn’t run, can’t jump rope, and at 35 I know all the excuses my laziness and weak will wants to throw at me, and yet, despite it all, the only signal that looked more serious than bathing in sweat with a red face was pain in the front shoulder, from keeping my hand in the front and high position all the time, but it felt like just muscle pain and using diclofenac (brand: Voltadol) gel every evening seems to keep it in check. Just what kind of survival signals are 20 years old people who are fit supposed to have from this? It is IMHO not that hard. When I am occasionally allowed the mittens or spar (with trainer only) that is actually easier as I don’t go as hard on them as the bag (I like to prove my strength by making the heavy bag swing 1 m and hit the wall behind it with a back hand straight or hook punch. Ego thing. And tiresome.)
When you state out loud that you think you may have injured yourself, or if you show outward signs of such (e.g. clutching your chest during cardio) or if you’re sparring too heavy, mainly. Ofcourse trainers aren’t psychics and anyone can be ignoring his safety signals and concealing it, but in that case the trainers could hardly praise them for doing it any more than they could be telling them off.
Well everyone is there of his own free will and his for his own sake. If you under-train you’re only cheating youself, so there’s an incentive not to be a molly. And the fact that you bother to show up to training means it’s probably an effective incentive - at least it was for me.
There’s the risk of joint damage, and I think a lot of people override the relatively subtle information that they’re hurting themselves.
In the absence of information about what the optimal amount of exercise for general well-being is with regards to joints or anything else, I fail to see what more could be done than to take the ordinary precautions. If you know what the signs are that you’re damaging your joints or any other part of your body, and you’re vigilent in looking out for those signs, the benefits seem to me worth the risk, especially since abstaining from exercise has its own associated risks, e.g. heart-disease.
Well, why? If these signals are subtle then how can we know when we might be overriding them?