Basic fit: A basic approach to moderate fitness and exercise

No one is required to do this!! It’s just to make you think and give you some good ideas!!

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Basic fit

A basic approach to moderate fitness and exercise

This is supposed to be a somewhat unexciting and bland but otherwise perfectly satisfactory approach to exercise and fitness, consisting of true moderation and plenty of it. It's not supposed to be aspirational. It includes some sports, some strength training, a moderate amount of light-moderate cardio, some stretching, some lifelong learning (education in the area of physical skills grows your brain, a lot), some walking and a little bit of exposure to nature.

I'm not sure exactly who the target demographic is. Perhaps it is suitable for persons 15-45, male and female, and in tolerable health (and who aren't morbidly obese).

The idea is that it contains ideas for moderate exercise and moderate physical activity in appropriate quantities.

Please note, it doesn't have to be a life long approach. This is because life has seasons. Sometimes you're training and practising hard, sometimes you're not. Sometimes you're trying to develop new skills. Sometimes you're just trying to stay fit and healthy. And sometimes you're trying to rebuild after a surgery, illness or injury.

It’s about basics, moderation* and fundamentals. And “right sizing” your investment in exercising and fitness.

This is just one approach to fitness and exercise...

*Moderation in terms of intensity, not necessarily frequency or quantity.

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Seven categories:

Sport

Cardio

Strength

Stretching

Walking

Lifelong education + modules

Nature exposure

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One:

Play some sort of a normal sport or engage in some sort of normal sporting endeavour, or engage in some sort of sport adjacent activity (such as dancing).

Any one of the following will do quite nicely: table tennis, badminton, tennis, squash, pickleball, soccer, rugby, touch rugby, field hockey, netball, basketball, cricket, baseball, softball, volleyball, snowboarding, rowing, kayaking, indoor climbing, rock climbing, handball, (light) mountain biking, lacrosse, padel, fencing or dancing*. Even curling or other exotic sports are totally cool.

I would recommend soccer, cricket, table tennis, tennis and basketball as the best of these. But badminton is great as well.

*dancing is what I might call a "sport-like" activity, or a sport adjacent activity, or close enough. So I'll put it on this list, even though it doesn't really fit perfectly. But please stick to types and styles of dancing that support your overall health and fitness, not types and styles of dancing that hamper, harm or damage your overall health and fitness. Salsa (or Latin dancing in general) might be particularly good. Rock and roll is good too, and ballroom is also an option. On a personal note, I had always wanted to take up dancing for a while and had intended to do it when I was university. Something like ballroom probably.

Two:

Do some light-moderate resistance/strength training on a regular basis. Keep it light-moderate and keep your goals modest: just make sure that the muscles stay strong enough to maintain good, robust overall health, and that you're supporting your body's ability to play your chosen sport long term (or casual sports in general). Use low weight, high reps, and low overall intensity. Just showing up and being consistent is the thing. You can use the machines at the gym, free weights, body-weight exercises, compound movements and isolation movements are all good and all have their place. Working out at home is fine, and working out at the gym is fine too.

By the way, you don't have to "lift heavy"! That's just bad dogma. You don't have to "lift heavy" to benefit from weight lifting or strength training as a normal person. You just need to lift or otherwise engage in some sort of strength or resistance training. It's extremely beneficial for many people from many different walks of life.

Note: If low weight, high reps doesn't suit you, then you can lift heavier. But try to embrace the spirit of moderation.

Ps: if you want to be a serious body- builder or a serious weightlifter, then this obviously isn't for you. I will include a note about moderate strength training lower down in the page.

Three:

Do some light-to-moderate cardio

Do this 2-3 times per week.

Do something like cycling, swimming, rowing, using an elliptical machine, hiking, run-walks. Or with some caveats and disclaimers, do jogging*, dancing*, jump rope, and jumping jacks. Don't push yourself too hard!

*The disclaimers and caveats are... 

That I don't like jogging and don't want to recommend it, not really. It is actually perfectly fine as a form of exercise, but I still don't want to recommend it. Instead of pure jogging, I might instead recommend going for a "run-walk" 2-3 times a week. That energises you tremendously, compared with jogging. I feel that running or jogging should boost your feelings of energy and vitality, instead of being a slog that leaves you feeling drained and haggard. Or else don't do it. I know I'm silly, but I still have opinions. And if you do a run-walk instead of jogging it gives you the same cardiovascular health benefits, but energises you at the same time instead of feeling like a boring slog. Sometimes if you're jogging for 30 or so minutes, then by 15 minutes in you feel like it's just not got the same feeling it did in the first ten minutes. The first ten minutes felt energising and full of life. The rest doesn't feel that way.

If you hate my advice, then jogging/running is still ok. It's still good for you. Maybe you graduate from run-walks, and maybe that's how it goes. Or maybe you stick with them long term because you prefer them.

[[[perfectly fine]]] - bold this]]] as a form of exercise

Dancing: If you dance for cardio... be very wise about it. Don't sacrifice wellbeing or the health of your joints just to burn fat. And don't ruin your form just to add intensity and burn extra calories. Maybe some dancing is to be used for improving your skill and grace, and some is to burn fat, and some is to have fun, and some boosts energy. Be sure you know why you're doing what you're doing. Don't do gruelling stuff that just harms you in the name of mindlessly "burning calories". And please don't damage things like your knees or ankles in the process.

Jumping rope and jumping jacks: These are good exercises, but just do them as part of something else. A few sets of 2-3 minutes of jump rope as part of an exercise routine is fine. It's awesome. I looooooove jump rope. But don't do it in a gruelling manner unless you really need to for a different reasons (for example, if you box?). Just make sure it's not hurting your knees, and it's boosting your energy levels not making you feel haggard. 

And jumping jacks (aka star jumps) are great as a part of a warm up as well, or as a minor exercise in a routine.

The point I'm making here is that you probably don't want to just do 30 straight minutes of jump rope as a normal person. And you probably don't want to do 30 straight minutes of jumping jacks as a normal person.

I will say that both jump rope and jumping jacks are great ways to warm up before strength training.

Anyway, cycling is possibly the best of the bunch when it comes to ideas for how to do cardio or approaches to cardio. Followed closely by swimming. And then hiking is also is one of the most suitable and achievable and realistic forms of cardio for a lot of people (I would define hiking as where you walk for 90-120 minutes on slightly challenging terrain - anything less than that is just a nice comfy walk. Hiking also includes multi day hikes/tramping, where you could be walking for up to 6-8 hours in a day).

And an extra note for people who swim. If you swim, then for best results, do a little bit of cycling or jump rope sometimes as well. Insert it into your lifestyle. Or something else. Do something for your legs sometimes, it doesn't have to be cycling or jump rope. That's just a suggestion.

These are just ideas.

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Four:

Stretching

Learn to do some stretches. Stick mostly to basic static stretching. Be sure to warm up first. Stretching after cardio is a good time to do it.

Personally, I'm not a big stretcher. Back when I was young, I could touch my toes from standing, or better yet the ground in front of me. But I wasn't a good stretcher. But I think it's important. But once you have enough flexibility, just maintain it. You don't need infinite flexibility.

Hamstrings, quads, groin, calf muscles, outer hips. These muscles often need stretching. As do the pectoral muscles and triceps. But just be sensible.

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Five:

Walking

Including some walking in your life. It's good for you. And it's good for your heart, lungs and circulatory system. You might try going for a decent walk 2-3 times per week, plus get some walking in every so often throughout the day. The best thing about walking is that it is relaxing, and the second best thing about it is that it is usually well tolerated. If you hate walking, it's okay to give it up for something else such as some other type of light "cardio", just make sure you do at least a few quick 10 minute walks here and there throughout the week.

Walking is very good for you.

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Six:

Learn new things every so often. It's good for your brain!

Always be learning new things.

Here are some examples of things you could learn which might be good for your brain.

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Learn to juggle

Learn to play hackey sack

Learn to play croquet and pétanque, and practise them regularly for a number of weeks, along with other lawn games

Learn to play table tennis

Learn to dance: I'll break that out a bit

Learn to salsa (highly recommended)

Learn rock and roll dancing

Learn Latin dancing in general

Learn ballroom dancing

Learn Maurice dancing, or verbunkos, or folk German dancing

Learn to play darts

Learn to play pool

Learn to surf

Do exactly 6 months of Pilates, including reformer Pilates (six to twelve months might be just the right dose - Pilates doesn't have to be a lifetime commitment)

Learn to hula hoop, practise a little bit

Learn to roller blade

Learn to shoot hoops

Fool around with poi and devil sticks (similar to juggling)

Try stilt walking for a smidge, if you’ve never done it before (low stilts only)

Just find a way to learn new things. Do a short stint of this sort of thing perhaps once a year. Just learn something every now and then!

You can also find and choose new things for yourself to learn. They are supposed to be things that involved physical movement and coordination.

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I want to add something called "modules" to the section about learning new things.

Do some "modules". Because modules give you "experience" and new experiences. Which helps over time. It's like education and experience. The list I already put in here just above is more important though.

I'll talk about these in the notes. There is a list of modules in the notes.

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Seven:

Nature exposure

Do this at least once a month, if possible. Or more, if you live somewhere like New Zealand.

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Forests are best, but the beach, water front or public gardens are fine in a pinch. And wide open grassy plains with mountains around are just as nice.

Just spend some time out in nature.

It can just be a walk in a forest. It could be a walk followed by sitting in pleasant natural surroundings, reading a book. Or it could be just relaxing by drinking tea and reading poetry in a forest clearing 10 minutes away from where you parked. Or a walk on the beach. Or it could be a trip to go to a lake. Or a walk on the beach. Or you could just sit outside and gaze at the stars with something warm to drink. Or you could try Shinrin Yoku. Or you could take a loved one, a blanket and a picnic lunch into a grassy meadow and have a picnic, and eat bread and wine and cheese. Whatever works for you. Or go swimming in the river or take a trip to the seaside for a few days. Or go hunting, trapping or fishing. Go on a fishing holiday. Or kayak nearby wetlands.

You don't have to do the same thing every time. For example, you might usually just go on a short bush walk once a fortnight for 60 minutes. But then you go on a fishing holiday to a cabin once a year for a week. And that's what I mean by it doesn't have to be the same thing every time you go somewhere. Or a different person might just love Shinrin Yoku and do weird stuff like that once a month. Or someone might just have a few favourite walking trails and go for a decent walk along any one of them maybe once a week and that's it. And go on the same trails most weeks. The trails are out in natural surroundings.

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One extra thing, this probably could have been the 8th point...

Relaxation, rest and chilling out

This is important, but I don't how to give advice here. My idea of relaxation is either playing video games or listening to Pink Floyd. Or zoning out  to carefully selected pop music, disco or easy listening.

But it's important, so do something to relax once in a while, but it doesn't have to be eastern mystical stuff. It can just be a walk in a forest, sitting in pleasant natural surroundings, reading a book. It could be doing cross stitch or making teddy bears. It could be going for a walk. It can be shinrin yoku or a hike or listening to music. Or just relaxing by drinking tea and reading poetry in a forest clearing 10 minutes away from where you parked. Or a walk on the beach. Or a warm bath. Or you could just sit outside and gaze at the stars with something warm to drink. Of all of these, listening to music with a cup of tea is one of the best options. Or get down on your hands and knees to say hello to your pet cat, pat them and scratch them under the chin.

I want to add in something about television and how television only counts for half when it comes to rest.

In my opinion, TV is only medium-relaxing. It isn't as relaxing as you might think. It's still fun though. Using TV to zone out in the evening to relax before bed might not be as effective as listening to a podcast, listening to music, reading, or having a quiet conversation. Now if you're watching TV because it's entertainment and a leisure activity, then that's good. But if you're using it in a borderline medicinal manner for relaxation last thing at night, it might not be the best tool for the job. Maybe it's better enjoyed earlier in the evening when you're still winding down after work, and at that point in the evening it might be just what the doctor ordered.

I will admit that TV is practically medicinal for some people for about an hour after getting home from work (or half an hour). But it isn't the best for proper relaxation once you're already relaxed a bit.

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I think that meditation and qigong and yoga are overrated for relaxation. See appendix/notes.

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Notes:

Note 1:

Modules

Here is a list of what I call "modules". They're like add ons. But they're not modules. So I need a better name. Maybe do no more than one of these per year.

These things could be very useful for problem solving! And for personal development.

Modules:

Learn to dance: just ten weeks, unless they've done it before

Kung fu stances, practise kung fu stances for seven weeks

Practise bouncing a ball on the back of a table tennis bat

Calisthenics: like Iroquois twists (see the Simpsons), and also marching on the spot and star jumps, and just whatever else makes sense, for seven weeks three times a week

Climb trees for four weeks, twice a week

Climb indoor climbing walls, twice a week for four weeks

I think that doing a period of climbing trees would be amazing 

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Module: Child's pose and a couple of token poses, like warrior one and two; then table tennis on back of a bat. Brisk walk to start and end.

Routine: brisk walk 6-7 minutes, then child’s pose, then warrior one and two for 30 seconds each side for each pose. Then child’s pose. They warrior one and two on each side for 30 seconds each. And then child’s pose for the third time. And then 6-7 minutes brisk walk, and then bounce a table tennis ball on the back of a bat.

Why? It's to help with posture. But not to do it disconnected with basic coordination. It might actually be a silly idea, but I'm putting it here.

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Three week module: yoga poses: Lions breath and a couple of token poses. Like warrior one and two. Only twice a week and only for three weeks.

Lions breathe: Chasing the feeling of melting tension with this is a mistake. Just do the exercises and call it a day. Don't chase feelings of relaxation or the sensation of tension melting away.

By the way, tension isn't always the enemy. You need tension, including in the neck, jaw and breathing apparatus. You need it in stuff like boxing. You need it in lots of things. It's just there?

And the thing where you have your arms on the ground in lions breathe. The arms don't have to face the other way around with this. Don't over think it.

I reckon that the tongue connects with tons of stuff in the body

Routine: walk for 6-7 minutes, then do warrior one and two for 30 seconds each side, and then do lions breathe.

Then do warrior one and two for 30 seconds each side, and then do lions breathe.

Then do warrior one and two for 30 seconds each side, and then do lions breathe.

And that's it.

This might be a lame idea. But it might actually be really good.

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Oh, and do some normal tmj exercises to open the jaw. For a few weeks. Just google "jaw opening exercises"

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Throwing and catching: practise throwing and catching every Saturday and Sunday for five weeks. Something like a softball, rugby ball or baseball with glove.

Learning to sink hoops in basketball

Or learning to slam dunk, if you're fit and tall and motivated.

Shinrin Yoku: every week for four weeks.

Learning to jump rope, and do it well. 

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Meditation

Try doing 7 weeks or so of Buddhist meditation: just do it to inoculate yourself with the weakened strain of it; and never again: don't take the experience of "thought drop" too deeply into yourself, don't take the "clear head, cleared mind, mud settled state of mind" with you into daily life. It's super bad for you if you want to be a problem solver or a super awesome thinker!! You need to be thinking heaps. The absent minded genius trope exists for a reason. The absent minded genius always has his mind full of other stuff.  Don’t take mindfulness with you into daily life!

[[[bold: Don’t take mindfulness with you into daily life!]]]

But you can learn a little bit from doing meditation, just so long as you reject the conclusions of it.

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Do the Muslim prayer postures three times per day for a month. This might actually reset parts of your posture. It could be really good.

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Note 2:

A few other things

Meditation

Before you even think about trying meditation, you need to do other stuff to grow your brain. 

You need to do this first.

Try doing these sorts of things to develop your mind: read, write, talk, have conversations, paint, learn to play music, learn to problem solve, do mathematics, try computer science, take day dreaming walks, try "active thinking" practise, take up dancing or martial arts, try darts/pool/table tennis.

You need to grow your mind before you can learn to settle it.

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Note 3:

Some of that "woo woo movementy" stuff can be used to solve problems.

But then sometimes it causes problems. It like, detunes and slackens and mis-calibrates you?

Now while you're using it to solve problems, it feels like you're "releasing tension" or getting rid of blockages or things that impede "natural flowing movement". Or block "energy". Or get rid of "excess hardness".

And that stuff feels great! And it might actually be solving problems. Perhaps you have solved a few problems, and gained some relief and some genuine actual improvement (like a mobility problems, pain problem, or an injury, or a stress problem, or a posture problem, or a voice problem). Maybe the problems aren't totally solved, but they're massively improved. Or maybe you solved a problems outright.

And then you say... If it feels good, and if it helps me solve problems, and if it is natural, and it's helping me to achieve a more "natural" type of body and movement style, then I am going to embrace it!

And you do more and more of it, and you feel better (subjectively) and you chase those subjective feelings of improvement (or release of tension), or you use them as a guide to doing more. As a signal that it is helping. But actually, it isn't helping you. It's making you less capable and excellent of a person (physically). It's actually bad for you and mis calibrating you.

It's giving you problems.

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There is a Ray Bradbury story about it (or about something similar). This "movementy stuff" and the way it harms you. The person's spine and bones vanish. I think it's in the illustrated man collection of short stories.

In my opinion, Ray Bradbury is an extraordinarily nasty person.

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Note 4:

Why? Why basic fit?

I don't want people to miss out on the awesome benefits of exercise just because they think you have to do something epic and massive just to receive and enjoy all of the good stuff that comes from a fairly ordinary and moderate approach to exercise.

You don't have to do hardcore exercise if you don't want to. And you don't have to do hardcore exercise to be able to get awesome results for your overall health, fitness and wellbeing.

You can get tons out of exercise, and get way more out of it than it takes out of you.

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Why?

Some people do things like trail running, iron man competitions, brutal combat sports, dangerous BJJ rolling, marathons, or do yoga and injure their neck, shoulders or hips.

You don't have to do anything gruelling to be doing cardio. You don't have to do high intensity interval training to do cardio. You don't have to lift heavy.

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On a slightly different note, strength is a bit of a project. It's a project to build it, and then you maintain it. It takes time? It takes time to build strength and muscle in an intelligent way.

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Note 6:

Concerns about meditation, qigong and "eastern stuff"

I think that meditation is overrated for things like stress relief or relaxation. I also couldn't recommend progressive relaxation for relaxation. Ditto for yoga nidra (which is similar to progressive relaxation).

Qigong might often cause problems just as easily as solve them (depending on  a lot of things and how long you do it).

Yoga is... odd? But I think that it's popular enough that if you find a class where your friends do it that it's not that bad. I still think that Pilates is better. I would suggest to people that they strictly avoid head stands in yoga though.

When it comes to eastern stuff as a whole, it can sometimes solve problems and resolve issues. I think that sometimes it might "rejigger something" and fix a problem. That's nice! And make you feel good! But chasing those "feel good feelings" can make you have problems long term. Such as weakness or poor coordination. The eastern stuff like yoga, meditation, qigong, t'ai chi and internal martial arts and even external martial arts can sometimes feel like it holds great promise, and may even help things in the short term, but not give you the long term positive results you wanted. You might not feel satisfied with the outcomes long term... But anyway, be careful with that stuff. And don't chase feelings of "wellbeing". Those feelings are deceitful. "Releasing tension" isn't always what you need.

I will repeat that: you can sometimes cause yourself problems with Eastern stuff, such as weakening yourself, making your coordination worse, and damaging your body awareness and giving yourself joint pain. 

I have tried meditation, progressive relaxation and a couple of other things. Progressive relaxation was okay, but I wouldn't want to do it too often.

A short program of meditation can be useful for developing new skills relating to awareness and consciousness. But I can't recommend it outright. And if you meditate, they will mislead you and basically ruin your cognitive excellence in foolish ways. They will tell you that it's normal to take that feeling of "mindfulness", ie empty head feeling, where you're immersed in the reality around you, into daily life. But it's dumb. It makes you less bright and smart and fun and creative.

Progressive meditation can teach you new things too. But I can't recommend it either.

Qigong is weird, but a short stint of it might not do you much harm. 

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Note 7:

Badminton

Badminton is extraordinarily popular for women in China. And for good reason. It's a lower impact sport and suitable for life long participation.

It's practically therapeutic.

It's good for both guys and girls.

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Note 8:

Cycling: variation, peaks and troughs

In my opinion, if you're going for a short bike ride for the sake of fitness (30 minutes), then you don't have to make it a "steady state" ride. You can vary the intensity/speed. It works better that way. You bike with easy intensity for a bit, and then quicken the pace for slightly more intensity, and then slow down again. Or when you go up hill it's tougher, and down-hill it's easier. It's like a "sine wave". It's not interval training though, and you don't have to push yourself to the limits like you would with interval training. It's just... variation, peaks and troughs in intensity while exercising. I wouldn't recommend interval training on the bicycle for the sake of just basic, enjoyable fitness. As far as I'm concerned, this paragraph is just normal, basic advice.

Note 9:

Strength training, aka resistance training

Do some light-moderate strength training.

I don't actually know how to give suggestions on this topic.

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Maybe as a male, get to the point where you can do:

50 pushups (5 sets 10)

50 squats (5 sets 10)

50 sit ups (5 sets 10)

20 lunges (whatever sets idc)

20 calf raises (whatever sets idc)

20 bent dumbbell rows (whatever sets idc)

30 dumbbell curls each arm (whatever sets idc)

Jump rope a bit first

And then do it 4-6 times a week. And then you’re healthy. It’s okay.

You achieved "okay and basically healthy".

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Add some stuff...

Maybe learn to do 5 sets 20 pushups, and do that 2-3 times a week. This can take time and also consider doing some kettle bell squats with kettle bell somewhat less than half of your bodyweight. Or whatever feels right. And do 3 sets of 8. Maybe use a 16 weight, then a 24, then a 36 (depending on your weight!). Do you really need anything more than that!? And do it 2-3 times a week.

Do the kettle bell squats along with the body weight squats.

And maybe then you have achieved a modest level of fairly basic fitness in terms of strength. As long as you're also walking, doing cardio, playing a bit of sport and stretching.

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My theory on resting

It's okay to put a bit more time in between sets for rest than you might think. Try to feel fresh for the next set. I dunno. Instead of like 10-15 seconds. You can have 30-120 seconds.

I have a theory (unproven) that taking a little extra rest between sets is good for you. Even if you haven't done anything strenuous at all (absolutely nothing is strenuous about those above ideas).

Hmmm. I'm not sure how much people should rest between sets that small and easy. But I have a theory that if you rest extra, but combine it with low intensity exercise strength training, that you feel better. And have better energy levels.

You can just get up and walk around and even grab a cup of tea between exercises. Just pad things out with rest. It's an "unproven" theory. But many of the best ones are. Don't forget, you're playing a bit of sport a couple times a week, you're walking, and you're doing some light cardio a few times a week. Therefore the strength doesn't have to make you feel knackered for it to count as proper exercise.

Padding the strength practise out with rest is perfectly fine.

Also, in some cases, "Pain is no gain". It can be a motto for this stuff, if you take this approach.

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Orrrrr, just go to the gym three times a week. And do whatever a trainer tells you counts as "moderation" in terms of strength.

Gyms are good.

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As for stretching, do it 2-3 times a week.

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As a woman, do women’s push ups. It's perfectly fine to do women's push ups.

Also, don’t start everything at once in the program.

And think of these and guidelines. And I’m not the boss of you. And you can literally just ride a bike, walk, and play table tennis or badminton, touch your toes sometimes and be okay. Maybe not everyone, but many people. And do a few squats.

/ women.

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I’m tired and can’t be bothered fixing it. The strength part.

Everything in moderation, except for moderation.

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Total flip side: or you can say to yourself, weight lifting is my hobby. Or something that I’m passionate about. And say… I want to build strength, mass l, muscle, or athletic ability. Just know why you’re doing it. But that’s different to my ideas for moderation.

If you want to push for something, then do it. It's fine. It's awesome.

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I reckon that learning fun things like hackey sack or playing things like table tennis and badminton or soccer, or learning to play pool/darts for the first time, or getting dancing lessons or playing softball or basketball is more interesting than moving weight around at the gym to build an extra 200 grams of muscle.

Now it's very important to have some muscle for around well-being and fitness. Extremely important. I think that it might be the second best* investment based on exercise that you can make towards your fitness. But uhhhh... there is such a thing as diminishing returns. Or "right-sizing your investment".

And I still think that weight lifting and strength training (aka resistance training) is extremely valuable. It's just a question of how much. And to what end and for what purpose.

*Why second best? I think that it's second best to playing a bit of light sports.

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Note 10:

Run-walks

If you're very athletic, then you can ignore the stuff about run-walks - that's for other people. And maybe it's the sort of thing you recommend to an unfit friend while they're getting into exercise and they don't know what to do. Athletic people who need to train for something, like a combat sport. Umm. They should probably just go for a run if that's what they're used to. Maybe if they're out of shape people like that might use the run-walk approach for a few weeks to get back into it.

But anyway, this is called "basic fit", not "general fitness for athletic endeavours". And it's not called "fighting fit" either. It's not for people who want to be competitive fighters or highly competitive athletes, nor soldiers or police officers. It's not for everyone. Definitely not.

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Note 11:

Just a few random thoughts

One of the purposes of the old basic fit page was to buy time and create confusion so that could invent and also write my story. I’m unsure if it was a good idea!! But I’m struggling a bit here!? And it’s not the right saying, but I’m also “flying by the seat of my pants”!!! I’m making everything up as I go.

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When you’re young and male, you should do something a little bit dumb! Like rugby, ice hockey or boxing! But not too dumb, and not for too long! Do a contact sport or something crazy. Or something fun.

If you’re a girl, I dunno. You should do something fun. Dancing or martial arts or horse riding or HEMA, or ice skating? I dunno.

But to embrace moderation long term can actually be a good idea. Some of those things aren't exactly the antithesis of moderation, but I think people know what I mean.

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Moderation helps you to be less likely to “burn out” or to wear yourself out.

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Final phrases:

Exercise and fitness and the culture associated with it has become a bit of a massive vanity and pride driven preoccupation in some corners of society. I think that it’s a good idea to sometimes scale things back.. and just make sure you’re doing things that make sense both for you as an individual and for someone in your particular social context. And sometimes you need to “right size your level of investment in fitness”. Some people could do a little less fitness related activity in their life or reduce the intensity.

And also maybe… the flip side of that is don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Just because some people are overly preoccupied with fitness, it doesn’t mean that you should say… “I’m going to skip it (or just do one thing and half arse it) it’s too hard to do it ‘right’ anyway!” Nah, maybe people can just find the right level of investment for them. Which I believe could/should include: a sport (or dancing), a bit of strength training, and some light cardio (walking can be included in that). And I think people could/should choose to learn new things sometimes (it grows the brain).

Moderation in all things, except for moderation. Be immoderate in your level of engagement in light-moderate exercise and light-moderate physical activity with modest and appropriate goals! Hurray!

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Reframing the same thing as above:

Just a few ideas about moderation..

I think it's fine to lift weights in moderation, and to have really modest goals. And then to be really happy with the results, even if the results aren't spectacular by the standards of "the culture" (if there is even such a thing as "the culture"). To lift even in a light-moderate manner is fine.

And then if that's combined with some sensible and sustainable sporting activities, like table tennis, soccer, cricket, basketball, netball, rock n roll dancing or badminton. And some moderate cardio like cycling or walk-runs or swimming.

And a little walking and a little stretching.

Then that's amazing. It's perfect in many cases. Especially instead of pushing the limits and aiming high and working really hard and becoming fitness obsessed. And I guess maybe people could or would find their equilibrium point if they did that 

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From another angle:

A casual or otherwise moderate sport, played regularly

Strength training at the gym, with modest goals. And at a light-moderate level of intensity

Cardiovascular training of a sensible kind, practised regularly. And at a light-moderate level of intensity

This is the holy trifecta of basic fit.