Would you pettily engage with this troll?

[wenchsenior]

So....  I can tell I'm in a super irritable mood this week for various tiresome reasons, b/c all of a sudden I'm spoiling for a fight with a random commenter who essentially called me (and a couple other people) liars in the comments section of a major publication.

I don't lie (not on purpose, typically) so I was quite shocked.

Argument is about the stupid sit/stand test of fitness, seemingly now used as shorthand measure for 'likelihood to die in the next few years'.

I've always found this test laughably, ridiculously easy, and I and several other people noted that we can do many repeated controlled reps of it in a row in less than a minute (I can do at least 15, more if they are very slightly less controlled and faster..I did about 23 this morning before the minute buzzer). Dude insists that is physically impossible even for an Olympic athlete.

My reasoning is: If this only moderately fit mid 50s woman can do that, the test is certainly incredibly faulty b/c it clearly favors shorter leaner people who have short or proportional legs, not long legs. I think lots of quite fit people (definitely fitter than me) who have different builds would struggle a lot more, such as my husband.

I'm sorely tempted to create a youtube burner account just so I can send him a video link of me doing a bunch of them in all sorts of variants... feet parallel (as the original study that designed the test allows), feet crossed on in front of the other (as article we are arguing about shows), shoes on, shoes off, all while flipping the bird LOL.

I've been maintaining equanimity in the face of personal irritation and the collapse of the nations democracy, but apparently this is how my bad impulses come out?

[Fru-Gal]

I definitely wouldn’t engage. If you made a comment already, leave it at that. You aren’t the only one questioning these “just one metric” tests for longevity.

One quibble though, I thought the point was if you could do it once. How many reps has nothing to do with it. It’s mainly a question of balance/flexibility/proprioception. I do notice that women do it much easier than men (the family has done it a bunch at holiday gatherings). In our case our very fit elderly folks (80s) could not do it and we didn’t certainly want them to hurt themselves trying! However, they can get down on the floor and back up.

Sadly the online fitness space is filled with grifters, as perhaps health always has been (snake oil). Very hard to separate good advice and science from the bad. Where YouTube can shine is when you see a slow development of information and inquisitiveness and you can see the personality of the fitness adherent and make your own decisions. The reverse also often happens, especially with fame and money.

The longevity grifters are maybe more terrible… Peter Attia, Bryan Johnson, the Stanford dude, the doc who recommended metformin for anti-aging, etc. Attia was saying VO2Max is the key to longevity, and now that’s back in question. Attia at least may be open to questioning his approaches and revising. Johnson seems mentally ill.

I really like this guy I AM LONGEVITY, who takes all those guys to task and cites scientific studies. His thing is motor units, and the neuromuscular connection. Do I take his beliefs as gospel? No. However, his inspiring example also generally won’t harm me (unless, as with anything, I take it to extremes and injure myself).

[Morning Glory]

I just got 32 lol. Dude's full of it, but I don't think the number actually matters once you get past a pretty low bar.

People who don't have the core and lower body strength to get up from a chair without using their arms are at higher risk of falls, which are a major contributing factor to deaths in older adults. It's also an indication that a person is frail and probably has some comorbidities . Across a large population you can say relative risk of death is higher in people who are fall risks than in those who are not. For an individual it means nothing. 

Health journalism has always sucked when it comes to interpreting these kind of studies and I can only imagine podcasts and YouTube are worse (I don't watch them). 

[NotJen]

People who don't have the core and lower body strength to get up from a chair without using their arms are at higher risk of falls, which are a major contributing factor to deaths in older adults.

Isn't this talking about the test to get up from sitting on the floor without using your hands? 

I have never been able to do it without a little push from one hand, and am in awe of anyone who can actually do it, because it seems impossible.  I like the idea that my legs are just too long, but I'm probably just too fat.

[Kris]

Dumb people are dumb. You are not going to make them smarter by feeding them facts.

Edit: I am not smart enough to have learned this lesson for myself.

[reeshau]

Dumb people are dumb. You are not going to make them smarter by feeding them facts.

Edit: I am not smart enough to have learned this lesson for myself.

"You can't fix stupid." -- Ron White

[RetiredAt63]

People who don't have the core and lower body strength to get up from a chair without using their arms are at higher risk of falls, which are a major contributing factor to deaths in older adults.

Isn't this talking about the test to get up from sitting on the floor without using your hands? 

I have never been able to do it without a little push from one hand, and am in awe of anyone who can actually do it, because it seems impossible.  I like the idea that my legs are just too long, but I'm probably just too fat.

Some of those tests I couldn't do at 20.  With my knees the way they are now, I won't even try.

I'm still aiming for the family norm of 92.  Made it past 70.

So, forget the grain of salt about these tests, we need a few kg.   ;-)

[Loren Ver]

Don't feed the trolls.

If you feed them too much, they will never be able to get up off the floor and will die there leaving a mess for someone else to clean up.