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by triceratops 170 days ago
> We had healthy people before the recent weight lifting craze

Most people did manual labor. Even if they didn't, everyone walked more, or rode horses, chopped wood, drew water from wells, and did a hundred other things that required using their muscles in a way that's just not necessary today.

> my strength training is rock climbing

That's weight lifting too. Bodyweight is still weight.
2 comments
ceejayoz 170 days ago
> Most people did manual labor.

The weight training craze is far, far more recent than our shift to a sedentary lifestyle.

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triceratops 170 days ago
To have a higher quality of life in old age, you need to build strength in your youth. The shift to sedentary lifestyles has happened in the last 50 to 70 years, and that also coincided with an increase in life expectancy.

The comment you responded to about not "min maxing" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46499625 only advocated resistance and strength training, not "weight training" specifically. It's hard to dispute that having a stronger body is better for living a healthy life.

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watwut 168 days ago
> Even if they didn't, everyone walked more, or rode horses, chopped wood, drew water from wells, and did a hundred other things that required using their muscles in a way that's just not necessary today.

None of that will bulk you like weight lifting nor is similar to weight lifting. Those guys were smaller. By our standards, they would do a lot of low resistance repetition, basically.

> That's weight lifting too. Bodyweight is still weight.

I mean, you are stretching the definition of weight lifting to unrecognizable. Climbing is not weight lifting anymore then walking is running.

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triceratops 168 days ago
> None of that will bulk you like weight lifting nor is similar to weight lifting

Even weight lifting won't bulk you unless you actively try to bulk. Seriously, appearing muscular or bulky when you're fully dressed is actually quite hard to accomplish for most people (practically all females and maybe half the males). It takes years and years of gym work and diet that most people won't ever put in.

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