(Untitled)

[motive_nuance]

I've been lifting weights pretty regularly this year. It feels oddly like a subtle betrayal of my social class. Gentlemen do not use free weights! I was talking with a group of people about going to the gym, and one person said that going to the gym made her nervous, because there were all these manly guys doing manly things. Someone else

Comments

[don_negro]

Free weights are great. Absolutely my favorite form of exercise as well.

The social class aspect is interesting. I was raised Southern Gentry, and I guess I'm now American Intelligensia, or at least the subset of it which kicks people in the nuts who make class distinctions over things like using free weights or the fact that one may choose to enjoy an Imperial quart of fine malt liquor from time to time.

I know the_macnab's got my back on this one.

[the_macnab]

I refer you to the final chapter of Paul Fussell's Class.

Also, to King Cobra.

[larksdream]

one person said that going to the gym made her nervous, because there were all these manly guys doing manly things.

Nah. Just like beginner dance classes, it turns out nobody cares enough about you to laugh at you. :) I'm about as wimpy as you can get and I adore going to do weights at a gym. (I have free weights at home, but having a gym was better. Especially since I was a grad student so it was free.) I just try to remember to set the pins further down when I finish, because one muscular guy who sat down at the bicep curl machine right after me nearly flung himself off the seat due to the near-total absence of perceptible resistance at the weight I had used. :P

[spyderella]

Mm... "Free weights" makes me think of "free climbing."

One track mind...

[sunspiral]

By way of encouragement, yet another nice thing about the Boston geek community is the number of geeks in really good physical shape.

[808]

and now we can quantify that

[bryttan]

I think your use of quantification is not directly relevant to sunspiral's comment about geeks in really good physical shape.

One is classified (medically) as obese based on weight & height measurements (specifically: weight (lb) / [height (in)]2 x 703), but that doesn't measure whether one is physically fit.

I am not a good sample set anymore because my bod's all to heck & gone, but I know a not terribly small number of meat-heads (who are also pretty smart Boston-ish geeks) that are considered obese due to their over-average muscle weight compared to their heights. YMMV, but I think the terminology and definitions are important.
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In other news, I think motive-nuance is tres hawt!!!

[808]

I think the distinction you draw is a red herring. To be sure, one can be fit and obese. But that is such a small fraction of the obese population as to not matter in this sense. The stats I link to show that Massachusetts, in general, has less of a weight problem than most of the country. I find that applicable to this debate as it acts as secondary support of the statement, and is the nearest anyone is going to get for finding existing quantifiable data to support such a statement.

[confuseme]

I'm not into free weights myself, but I am into subtle betrayal of one's social class!

[la_chispa]

Hear, hear!