Perhaps when I read RomeoStevens’ post, I am reading it through my preconceptions about the ‘factions’ in the exercise world. But to me it read like just another weightlifter talking about how lifting will make you fit, and dismissing cardio while providing no evidence.
(I have an acquaintance who is a weightlifter and takes this opinion to its most extreme, and shares it condescendingly with anybody who will listen, which I’m afraid gives me built-in bias against lifting.)
The post does seem to be recruiting for a particular faction. If it turns couch potatoes into lifters with false beliefs, it seems to me to produce a pretty good outcome, though a small change in the article might avoid the false beliefs.
But will it produce false beliefs? In saying that cardio is bad for beginners, it seemed pretty clear to me that it was saying it was good for some people. But it doesn’t matter what you or I think it says, only what it does to a beginner. The vagueness of “bad for beginners” will probably lead to more specific, likely false beliefs, but only if it produces beliefs at all.
If it causes beginners who have just started cardio to stop, that’s pretty bad. It might be good if it got them to switch from ineffective types of cardio to effective types of lifting, but the risk of a change being a change to drop the ball seem to me to outweigh possible benefits. Anyhow, I don’t think it will have much effect on beginners who have just started cardio. Maybe ones thinking about starting.
Perhaps when I read RomeoStevens’ post, I am reading it through my preconceptions about the ‘factions’ in the exercise world. But to me it read like just another weightlifter talking about how lifting will make you fit, and dismissing cardio while providing no evidence.
(I have an acquaintance who is a weightlifter and takes this opinion to its most extreme, and shares it condescendingly with anybody who will listen, which I’m afraid gives me built-in bias against lifting.)
The post does seem to be recruiting for a particular faction. If it turns couch potatoes into lifters with false beliefs, it seems to me to produce a pretty good outcome, though a small change in the article might avoid the false beliefs.
But will it produce false beliefs? In saying that cardio is bad for beginners, it seemed pretty clear to me that it was saying it was good for some people. But it doesn’t matter what you or I think it says, only what it does to a beginner. The vagueness of “bad for beginners” will probably lead to more specific, likely false beliefs, but only if it produces beliefs at all.
If it causes beginners who have just started cardio to stop, that’s pretty bad. It might be good if it got them to switch from ineffective types of cardio to effective types of lifting, but the risk of a change being a change to drop the ball seem to me to outweigh possible benefits. Anyhow, I don’t think it will have much effect on beginners who have just started cardio. Maybe ones thinking about starting.