coffeetime (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
coffeetime) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
lifting_heavy_things2023-06-29 07:17 pm
coffeetime) wrote in lifting_heavy_things2023-06-29 07:17 pm
I can't believe some troll got PAID to write this
https://slate.com/business/2023/06/exercise-machines-expensive-gyms-alternatives.html
"The $4,000 Muscle D Smith Machine can be replaced by squatting with a heavy sandbag. The $4,170 Steelflex Shoulder Press machine can be replaced by hoisting the same sandbag over your head. The $2,000 Body-Solid Pro Clubline Series II Arm Curl Machine can be replaced by curling the same sandbag up and down. (Perhaps that will be the Series III?) I could go on. Do you want me to go on?"
No, no we don't. But I can tell you're going to anyway, aren't you, ableist troll boy?
"The $4,000 Muscle D Smith Machine can be replaced by squatting with a heavy sandbag. The $4,170 Steelflex Shoulder Press machine can be replaced by hoisting the same sandbag over your head. The $2,000 Body-Solid Pro Clubline Series II Arm Curl Machine can be replaced by curling the same sandbag up and down. (Perhaps that will be the Series III?) I could go on. Do you want me to go on?"
No, no we don't. But I can tell you're going to anyway, aren't you, ableist troll boy?
"Your $4,800 treadmill can be replaced by running your hermit ass down the street."
Supposing your "hermit ass" lives in a dangerous urban area and you're a woman and you work a later shift and you have the hours of midnight-3a to run. Where to do that? Down the "street" where people are waiting to assault you? IF ONLY YOU WEREN'T SO LAZY.
Supposing your "hermit ass" has a disability and you can't pick up a sandbag, but you want to do squats the best you can. Should you never squat with weight, because Troll Face thinks you ought to be using a sandbag because fancy MACHINES are just so terrible?
Supposing you're injured and can't curl a sandbag, but you'd like to not lose your hard-won mass while the injury heals. No curl machine for you, because machines bad, sandbags good!
Orrrr you're a single parent and you can squeeze in an hour on the elliptical at home while your 2-year-old is still asleep, even though you have to start at 4AM so you can still get the kid to daycare and yourself to work. But you should just run "your hermit ass down the street."
Right: only wealthy, fit people get to work out, because they deserve that life, but the rest of you aren't trying hard enough. Bootstrap that workout, you lazy poors.
I cannot believe Slate paid someone to write this sexist, ableist, privileged tripe.
Supposing your "hermit ass" lives in a dangerous urban area and you're a woman and you work a later shift and you have the hours of midnight-3a to run. Where to do that? Down the "street" where people are waiting to assault you? IF ONLY YOU WEREN'T SO LAZY.
Supposing your "hermit ass" has a disability and you can't pick up a sandbag, but you want to do squats the best you can. Should you never squat with weight, because Troll Face thinks you ought to be using a sandbag because fancy MACHINES are just so terrible?
Supposing you're injured and can't curl a sandbag, but you'd like to not lose your hard-won mass while the injury heals. No curl machine for you, because machines bad, sandbags good!
Orrrr you're a single parent and you can squeeze in an hour on the elliptical at home while your 2-year-old is still asleep, even though you have to start at 4AM so you can still get the kid to daycare and yourself to work. But you should just run "your hermit ass down the street."
Right: only wealthy, fit people get to work out, because they deserve that life, but the rest of you aren't trying hard enough. Bootstrap that workout, you lazy poors.
I cannot believe Slate paid someone to write this sexist, ableist, privileged tripe.
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Also you can't run outdoors in inclement weather.
Also also, sometimes you just wanna work out around other people instead of by yourself. It's like going to a coffee shop to write.
And machines come with built in safety features! Which this idiot would know if he's ever squatted in an actual smith machine. He's surely not going to do the clean up if he drops the sandbag and spills it, is he?
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There are so many reasons why working out can't be sandbags and outdoor runs for every person. I have seen wheelchair-bound people working out with a hand cycle - should they just get their lazy butt out of the wheelchair and run? I remember a news story about a guy with Parkinson's who couldn't walk straight but he could lift, so he went to the gym every day to lift - not barbells but like cables and...machines. He should just stay home and deteriorate, I guess? When I was recovering from a broken leg, I could still lift (arms) but I didn't own any equipment, and the first cardio I was allowed to do at that time was riding a stationary bike...which was available to me at the gym. A MACHINE. Guess I should have waited until I magically got better, huh?
Slate could just fire whatever editor decided to run this piece, for starters.
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💯
Edit: Actually, maybe this article is an outrage piece, intentionally written as ragebait so people share it. I see the comments are full of similar rebuttals like what you & I wrote here.
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My mum's in that category and, I kid you not, she is working out with her trainer right at this very moment. I know this because I'm visiting the city where she lives and got an e-mail saying she was seeing him at 7am in case I fancied joining them.
(I do not because I'm still drinking coffee and staring blearily at the internet while I try to force myself awake, and the mere idea of exercising at this hour gives me the horrors. My mum is considerably more hardcore than me.)
And they do all sorts of stuff with free weights and bodyweight and co-ordination, but damn right they also use machines when that's the best option to make a particular exercise viable for her.
no subject
Greg Doucette on Youtube did a video on "machine exercises are killing your gains", debunking I think another Youtuber's similar stance on machines. He, too, made a good case on how machines are much safer and a great way to exercise for many people. The video only talks about resistance training machines, though, I believe.