FlyRod said:

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I think the United States is the only country in the world where people believe gyms are necessary for physical activity. Interesting how may countries have populations in far better shape, with vastly fewer gyms to boot.

The advice from the study is solid, but you don't need a gym for it.

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Yep. I also suspect the benefit comes from the greater lung capacity associated with all the things you can do without a gym. I have always preferred my exercise outdoors!

bay fan said:

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FlyRod said:

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I think the United States is the only country in the world where people believe gyms are necessary for physical activity. Interesting how may countries have populations in far better shape, with vastly fewer gyms to boot.

The advice from the study is solid, but you don't need a gym for it.

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Yep. I also suspect the benefit comes from the greater lung capacity associated with all the things you can do without a gym. I have always preferred my exercise outdoors!

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I agree but I do think that increased muscle mass also contributes to better immune systems. Studies are starting to suggest such. But one still should not stop certain level of cardiovascular and/or conditioning with their training even if weights are their main source of training...I walk a lot. And just got a dog. First one since we put our lab down in 2015. He is a 1-2 year old lab mix and great walker. Already putting in my slow steady state cardio each morning and night when it is cooler. Hope to get 7-11K steps in each day once it cools a bit more...

FlyRod said:

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Capitol Ag said:

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FlyRod said:

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I think the United States is the only country in the world where people believe gyms are necessary for physical activity. Interesting how may countries have populations in far better shape, with vastly fewer gyms to boot.

The advice from the study is solid, but you don't need a gym for it.

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100% correct. BUT, I assume you don't live in Texas currently? Right now, you kinda do need somewhere to train without getting heat exhaustion. Also, if you are like me, you train for hypertrophy or for strength or both, depending on my goals at a particular time and with that I need a place that offers the ability to train at a particular level to get the results I want. You pretty much have to have a gym or have the money to put together that type of arrangement in my garage or home.

Now, if you just go to a gym to talk and socialize, occasionally walk on a tread mill or use the elliptical and walk naked around the locker room while trying to start conversations with other people (you know the guys I'm talking about), all you really need is a sidewalk and a park. Except for the naked locker room part. That will get you arrested. But if you want to train? On a real program? You need a gym. This includes anyone serious about training and sport, whether power lifters, body builders, cyclists, runners, cross fitters, Olympic lifters, triathletes whatever. Once you get serious about a modality of training, adding weight training is essential for bettering performance, limiting potential injury and aiding in better results, you will need a gym. I further would argue that one ultimately should become a more serious trainee for the obvious increased health benefits and the fact that one is more likely to stay training when they have increasingly harder and more interesting goals to try to achieve.

So with that being stated, gyms should have and still should be kept open, imho.

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I live in Texas and yes I found ways to keep fit during the (very brief) period gyms were closed. There also happens to be several gyms that moved weight facilities outdoors during the peak of things. Yeah the heat's an issue. As it is in many countries with relatively fit populations. You deal with it.

Also, the study the OP posted wasn't about gym rats, but simply being more physically active as a hedge against severe Covid.

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I'll be totally honest as to where I am coming from. For a lot of us training at a high intensity level, and who truly prefer that level, outdoor calisthenics won't cut it. Sure, BW exercises can be intense and great, but if your goals are high level, you will need free weights to achieve those goals and that includes maintenance of a level you currently want to stay at. I get that for 90% of folks that won't be relevant. But those of us who were locked out of our gyms experienced setbacks in strength and size. And at least TX was opened back up by mid May, albeit with stupid useless policies put in place like forcing members to wear plastic gloves, etc. This of the places that remained closed for months. There were plenty. And for what? This policy saved no further lives I contend. At the very best, lockdowns pushed back the inevitable but did not stop it. In the end, the rate of spread was the same regardless. In defense of the policy makers, hindsight is 2020, but to me, leaving almost everything open in March would have added to the number of cases we did end up having and was a useless policy. I guess my point is, the gym rat was the absolute least person in the world to be threatened by Covid and a case could have been made to exempt them from the lockout.

Now, what did happen at a lot of gyms, especially the more locally owned ones across the country, they snuck members in to train, "hired" members so that they could say they were employees of the facility if asked by law enforcement, who in many cases were the very members actually working out, so obviously no questions were asked. And you had the times where a SWAT unit would show up and pull guns on members innocently exercising which was truly ridiculous and ended up being a real bad look for those particular police forces. I was the head trainer at my gym. I had the key. So I did keep training. And I maintained the facility and even trained clients via zoom plus did office work. Hell, selfishly I LOVED the whole gym to myself! No waiting for a rack, no need to wear a damn shirt. Could play whatever music I wanted without fear of a person complaining of a couple of curse words. Others I know were able to keep their gyms open and actually gained clients as commercial gyms enforced the shutdowns more firmly and local gyms basically could stay open if they stayed relatively cool about things. In truth I fully support these places doing what they could to keep their doors open as they had to if they wanted to stay alive as a business after the shutdowns ended...Way too many gyms locked their doors for good due to our reactions to Covid. It is sad and I feel could have been avoided with less strict policies to begin with...

One more point to your correct point that the study was concerning the more physically active, give. The results, would that not mean that this finding actually shows leaving gyms open would have been ok as gyms would not have been a vector for spreading Covid significantly? Especially within the gyms membership but for that matter outside given we probably can all agree that shutting down didn't stop the spread long term.

Capitol Ag said:

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FlyRod said:

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I think the United States is the only country in the world where people believe gyms are necessary for physical activity. Interesting how may countries have populations in far better shape, with vastly fewer gyms to boot.

The advice from the study is solid, but you don't need a gym for it.

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100% correct. BUT, I assume you don't live in Texas currently? Right now, you kinda do need somewhere to train without getting heat exhaustion. Also, if you are like me, you train for hypertrophy or for strength or both, depending on my goals at a particular time and with that I need a place that offers the ability to train at a particular level to get the results I want. You pretty much have to have a gym or have the money to put together that type of arrangement in my garage or home.

Now, if you just go to a gym to talk and socialize, occasionally walk on a tread mill or use the elliptical and walk naked around the locker room while trying to start conversations with other people (you know the guys I'm talking about), all you really need is a sidewalk and a park. Except for the naked locker room part. That will get you arrested. But if you want to train? On a real program? You need a gym. This includes anyone serious about training and sport, whether power lifters, body builders, cyclists, runners, cross fitters, Olympic lifters, triathletes whatever. Once you get serious about a modality of training, adding weight training is essential for bettering performance, limiting potential injury and aiding in better results, you will need a gym. I further would argue that one ultimately should become a more serious trainee for the obvious increased health benefits and the fact that one is more likely to stay training when they have increasingly harder and more interesting goals to try to achieve.

So with that being stated, gyms should have and still should be kept open, imho.

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I live at 6K feet and hike avg of 15 miles a week between 6K and 8K feet. Love the outdoors. But I also like lifting weights in a gym and the opportunity for cardio work inside when it's single digits outside.

Rocky Rider said:

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Capitol Ag said:

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FlyRod said:

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I think the United States is the only country in the world where people believe gyms are necessary for physical activity. Interesting how may countries have populations in far better shape, with vastly fewer gyms to boot.

The advice from the study is solid, but you don't need a gym for it.

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100% correct. BUT, I assume you don't live in Texas currently? Right now, you kinda do need somewhere to train without getting heat exhaustion. Also, if you are like me, you train for hypertrophy or for strength or both, depending on my goals at a particular time and with that I need a place that offers the ability to train at a particular level to get the results I want. You pretty much have to have a gym or have the money to put together that type of arrangement in my garage or home.

Now, if you just go to a gym to talk and socialize, occasionally walk on a tread mill or use the elliptical and walk naked around the locker room while trying to start conversations with other people (you know the guys I'm talking about), all you really need is a sidewalk and a park. Except for the naked locker room part. That will get you arrested. But if you want to train? On a real program? You need a gym. This includes anyone serious about training and sport, whether power lifters, body builders, cyclists, runners, cross fitters, Olympic lifters, triathletes whatever. Once you get serious about a modality of training, adding weight training is essential for bettering performance, limiting potential injury and aiding in better results, you will need a gym. I further would argue that one ultimately should become a more serious trainee for the obvious increased health benefits and the fact that one is more likely to stay training when they have increasingly harder and more interesting goals to try to achieve.

So with that being stated, gyms should have and still should be kept open, imho.

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I live at 6K feet and hike avg of 15 miles a week between 6K and 8K feet. Love the outdoors. But I also like lifting weights in a gym and the opportunity for cardio work inside when it's single digits outside.

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And b/c you lift weights, you are a stronger and better hiker. B/c you are a strong hiker, you probably are better at lifting weights.

I am wordy and probably b/c I love the topic of physical culture in general I can ramble, but to sum up all my posts after the initial OP, for advanced training one generally needs to have a gym to reach their goals. I think that is not really questionable. While the study is about more general physical fitness, it's obvious that the more advanced athlete would have at least the same benefits regarding Covid, but I would postulate that the benefits are exponentially better the more advanced the athlete. Hence why you see almost no D1 or professional athlete suffering serious issues from covid. Further, it was told to us by "experts" and government leaders regarding the closure of gyms at the time that one could get the same benefits from just training outdoors, which is not true if you happen to be in that group of advanced athletes. So closing the gym for those athletes hurt or limited their progress as we look back, I contend. While some felt at the time the price paid might be necessary, this study, to me goes further to show there probably would not have been any real uptick in hospitalizations had gyms stayed open as the average gym goer was very unlikely to require hospitalization. Now we know. And I am not saying that a bodybuilder couldn't have spread the virus to a non gym going family member or friend, but it seems now that even that isn't likely to produce much if any stress on hospitals as it is such a limited segment of the population. The implications of this are relevant as we are already starting to see a bit of initial reaction to the small uptick in covid cases in certain parts of the country. If this uptick was large enough to make some leaders feel closures or limitations in access to health clubs and gyms was necessary, this study flies in the face of that...

My bias? I always feel people should incorporate more advanced weight lifting into their lives. I makes one stronger, allows them to perform better and even if they do not focus hard on the nutrition, still makes one look better which is what MOST clients actually want.
so to sum up:

Quote:

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"Strong people are harder to kill than weak people and more useful in general."

Mark Rippetoe

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Exercise, especially endurance exercise, decreases angiotensin II and increases the anti-inflammatory angiotensin (1-7).

Balance between the two is lost when the COVID virus hijacks ACE2 (angiotensin converting enzyme 2) which produces Ang(1-7) from angiotensin II...causing the ratio of angiotensin II/ang(1-7) to skyrocket leading to damage in the lungs, heart, brain, etc.

It will be interesting to see if exercise results in recovery from long COVID which is possible.

So what the name of the gym you own?

Gunny456 said:

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So what the name of the gym you own?

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I wish! Train at Destination Dallas. And garage occasionally.