Look, no hands!

I ran at the gym today and as I was doing so I was looking around at the many people on the various cardio machines.  I couldn’t believe how many people hold onto the machine while doing things like the treadmill, elliptical and stair machine.  When you hold on to the machine you are robbing yourself of much of the benefit of doing body weight supported cardio.  When you stop holding on you force your body to support and balance which has a big overall benefit for core strength, agility and balance.

I especially have to snicker at the people that crank the angle on the treadmill but then negate much of the benefit by holding onto it.  Hey it’s better than doing nothing at all but if you are going to be at the gym exercising why not get the most out of your time there?

Speaking of exercise, we saw the first episode of this season of Biggest Loser.  They are developing a very dangerous and stupid trend with the show.  Each season they have to bring on fatter and fatter people.  This year they set another record by enlisting a 525 pound elephant. 

They are using the family format again this year where two family members are teamed up, husband/wife, parent/kid, siblings, you get the idea.  They also have an unreal pair of 485 pound twins, I mean wtf??  When they show the background on the various people most of them follow a pretty similar script.  They just don’t know how they got so heavy.

  I get particularly annoyed when fat ass parents in their 50’s cry about setting a bad example for their children and wanting to change.  Cut me a break, it took you 25 years of being a parent before you realized you were setting a bad example for your child?  To me it is just another form of child abuse.  Your kid emulates you.  Set a good example for christ sake, instead of setting them up to be a lazy glutton like yourself.  It doesn’t take a scientist to understand this.   

Yes it’s great that they are finally doing something about their weight, I just have no sympathy for how the majority of them got there. If you can’t exhibit self discipline you will have a variety of big issues in your life, including being BIG.