In that time I’ve watched maybe 100 people join track or cross country teams, and every one who stays on the team more than a month has shown clear improvement, at least at first.
Are you suggesting that people join track teams because they have the capacity to improve at running? Maybe a third of those people had no prior experience with running and could not have known whether they would improve.
Or are you suggesting that people who don’t improve quit in less than a month? I can’t really answer that, except that it seems unlikely that all the people with no inborn ability to improve are also the people who will give up on something in less than a month.
The way it works in normal people seems to be that exercising regularly feels really awful at first, but after the first few times it doesn’t feel that bad (indeed, it starts releasing endorphins) and the person starts getting in shape.
Let’s imagine that it works like that for one segment of the population, but for another segment it never stops feeling awful and doesn’t have the same fitness effects. You’d see the exact same effect you note.
Obviously, what you say is evidence that regular running can make anyone more fit as long as they persist– but it’s not necessarily strong evidence.
Let’s imagine that it works like that for one segment of the population, but for another segment it never stops feeling awful and doesn’t have the same fitness effects.
I’m in a segment where it does have fitness effects, but never stops feeling awful. I was in the Army, and it was possible for me to meet the physical fitness standards, but even exercising strenuously every day during eight weeks of Basic Training never produced the exercise high that people speak of.
Okay, but which way does the causality run?
Are you suggesting that people join track teams because they have the capacity to improve at running? Maybe a third of those people had no prior experience with running and could not have known whether they would improve.
Or are you suggesting that people who don’t improve quit in less than a month? I can’t really answer that, except that it seems unlikely that all the people with no inborn ability to improve are also the people who will give up on something in less than a month.
The way it works in normal people seems to be that exercising regularly feels really awful at first, but after the first few times it doesn’t feel that bad (indeed, it starts releasing endorphins) and the person starts getting in shape.
Let’s imagine that it works like that for one segment of the population, but for another segment it never stops feeling awful and doesn’t have the same fitness effects. You’d see the exact same effect you note.
Obviously, what you say is evidence that regular running can make anyone more fit as long as they persist– but it’s not necessarily strong evidence.
I’m in a segment where it does have fitness effects, but never stops feeling awful. I was in the Army, and it was possible for me to meet the physical fitness standards, but even exercising strenuously every day during eight weeks of Basic Training never produced the exercise high that people speak of.
This is addressed in the parent’s next-to-last paragraph (which may have been a late edit, for all that I know).