blutoski
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2006
- Messages
- 12,454
I agree about the stereotype, and will hypocritically add one of my own: P&T are somewhat true-to-form for what I call "old school skeptics". Science people, model rocket builders, math prodigies, that sort of group. They spent their adolescence practicing magic tricks, for Pete's sake. I expect they got shoehorned into lockers by the jocks. (It's hard to imagine Penn fitting into a locker, though)
Shermer's more from the 'new generation'. A competitive cyclist, and somewhat more PR savvy, avoiding overt entanglement with Humanism.
I like to think of myself in this latter group, and I think the movement may change as the old guard passes the torch.
One thing that's unfortunate about this is that there is real need within athletics/health/fitness/sport to combat quackery. It's pervasive. Just pick up a Men's Health and leaf through the ads at the back. Sweet Mary. It is not just customers that buy into this crap; the majority of personal trainers are shills, sincere as they may be.
The certifying boards are aware of it, and fortunately, they haven't been suborned yet. But it's an uphill climb. For example, my recert for a dietetics component had several questions about hydration, and what is an appropriate volume for workouts of a particular intensity and duration. I could detect that they were trying to dispel the myth that people should be drinking many liters of water per hour, as it's very unhealthy. Nevertheless, I overhear other trainers tell their clients to go home and drink literally a gallon of water. This is irresponsible.
Coaches and trainers function on that fuzzy borderline where they are exposed to only trivial physiology information, yet are sought after for medical advice. It also attracts an element. eg: yoga instructors. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with yoga (I often recommend it as an excellent low-impact workout), but most instructors I know exceed their scope of expertise and tell people how to deal with depression or even serious illnesses. This is inappropriate, and should be grounds for decertification.
By ignoring the distinction between the mostly-scientific profession of fitness versus the mixed-bag business of fitness, versus the do-it-yourselfers, P&T are missing an opportunity to support the effort skeptics are putting into this environment.
A note for HCN: swimming is a little different than some other sports in that you can also achieve speed gains by improving stroke&turn skills. Seasonal planning for swim teams usually invests two or three months in low-distance, slower, workouts that concentrate on drills, and then start upping the distance and dropping the interval times. Ask your friend to watch your stroke and suggest drills. Ask for an intro to flip-turns if you're not doing them yet. Do some kick sets to strengthen your legs. Your quads are the largest muscle group: build and use them to get more propulsion.
El Greco was talking about the lactose threshold - the way to achieve this in swimming is with interval sets that have fixed rests. ie: 10x100m with 15s rest between, rather than continuous swimming (unless you're training for ironman).
I find that my triathletes learn the hard way that swimming is much more skill-dependent than running and cycling. They start out scoffing at the drills (they want CARDIO!) but after a few months, all the non-athletes are swimming circles around them and they see the benefits. I can identify better runners by looking at them. I can only tell if somebody's a fast swimmer when they get in the water. Somtimes it's humiliating for me: I was smoked last weekend by a guy who's probably 100lbs overweight and 20 years out of competitive swimming, but he still does a :58 100 back.
One of the nicknacks I bought myself last year was a Shuffle, which is tiny, and there's a company called Otterbox that makes a waterproof enclosure. I spent a whole afternoon in a lake listening to Skepticality podcasts.
PS: I used to work at the CGP. Big pool. Strange bulkheads. Also: one of my favourite swim meets when I was a kid was in Anacortes.
Shermer's more from the 'new generation'. A competitive cyclist, and somewhat more PR savvy, avoiding overt entanglement with Humanism.
I like to think of myself in this latter group, and I think the movement may change as the old guard passes the torch.
One thing that's unfortunate about this is that there is real need within athletics/health/fitness/sport to combat quackery. It's pervasive. Just pick up a Men's Health and leaf through the ads at the back. Sweet Mary. It is not just customers that buy into this crap; the majority of personal trainers are shills, sincere as they may be.
The certifying boards are aware of it, and fortunately, they haven't been suborned yet. But it's an uphill climb. For example, my recert for a dietetics component had several questions about hydration, and what is an appropriate volume for workouts of a particular intensity and duration. I could detect that they were trying to dispel the myth that people should be drinking many liters of water per hour, as it's very unhealthy. Nevertheless, I overhear other trainers tell their clients to go home and drink literally a gallon of water. This is irresponsible.
Coaches and trainers function on that fuzzy borderline where they are exposed to only trivial physiology information, yet are sought after for medical advice. It also attracts an element. eg: yoga instructors. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with yoga (I often recommend it as an excellent low-impact workout), but most instructors I know exceed their scope of expertise and tell people how to deal with depression or even serious illnesses. This is inappropriate, and should be grounds for decertification.
By ignoring the distinction between the mostly-scientific profession of fitness versus the mixed-bag business of fitness, versus the do-it-yourselfers, P&T are missing an opportunity to support the effort skeptics are putting into this environment.
A note for HCN: swimming is a little different than some other sports in that you can also achieve speed gains by improving stroke&turn skills. Seasonal planning for swim teams usually invests two or three months in low-distance, slower, workouts that concentrate on drills, and then start upping the distance and dropping the interval times. Ask your friend to watch your stroke and suggest drills. Ask for an intro to flip-turns if you're not doing them yet. Do some kick sets to strengthen your legs. Your quads are the largest muscle group: build and use them to get more propulsion.
El Greco was talking about the lactose threshold - the way to achieve this in swimming is with interval sets that have fixed rests. ie: 10x100m with 15s rest between, rather than continuous swimming (unless you're training for ironman).
I find that my triathletes learn the hard way that swimming is much more skill-dependent than running and cycling. They start out scoffing at the drills (they want CARDIO!) but after a few months, all the non-athletes are swimming circles around them and they see the benefits. I can identify better runners by looking at them. I can only tell if somebody's a fast swimmer when they get in the water. Somtimes it's humiliating for me: I was smoked last weekend by a guy who's probably 100lbs overweight and 20 years out of competitive swimming, but he still does a :58 100 back.
One of the nicknacks I bought myself last year was a Shuffle, which is tiny, and there's a company called Otterbox that makes a waterproof enclosure. I spent a whole afternoon in a lake listening to Skepticality podcasts.
PS: I used to work at the CGP. Big pool. Strange bulkheads. Also: one of my favourite swim meets when I was a kid was in Anacortes.
