Is sport and exercise actually a problem?

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Conventional wisdom is sport and exercise are wonderful because they make you more physically attractive, help you lose weight which is beneficial for avoiding illnesses and the endorphins released make you happier.

I found this, though, that contradicts that:

http://www.thegreatfitnessexperiment.co ... -says.html

Often I've been bullied more my people who are sporty and muscular and perhaps it is something they don't even realize they're doing. If excess exercise truly does impair brain function then they may not be able to engage in a friendly or compassionate way easily with others.

What would happen if a school tried an experiment and had no physical education lessons? In my opinion it should be tried and I think what would happen is people would become more intelligent. Most of the the great people - Einstein, van Gogh, Mozart, Thomas Edison - weren't or aren't too physically active.

Go and call a fit, brawny bully dumb to his face if you have the balls—’nuff said.

The study you quoted only had woman participants so it's best I don't comment otherwise my sexism will come out.

While I do think that exercise is, in general, a good thing and people should do it, I do note that, on days where I do vigorous physical exercise around lunch, I do have a bit more difficulty concentrating in the afternoon and evening. I also tend to sleep a bit less well on such days.

Isn't that the opposite of the way it's supposed to work?

That said, I will reiterate that I think that exercise is good and, especially medium and long term, we should all be doing it if we are able.

There are different kinds of exercise though. Cycling which is a moderate exercise is good for your mental health but is weight training?

I can't think of a single funny comedian who has a beefed up physique. Part of what makes many comedians likeable is they're very thin or fat, or odd looking. I would rather stand in a line next to Robin Williams or Eddie Murphy than Dwayne Johnson or Mike Tyson.

I would think comedy is better for mental health than exercise.

Also I think the big muscle building that goes on between some men is like an arms race. Criminals do it so they can mug or beat up someone more easily, security guards and police so it so they can restrain the criminals more easily, but both groups then are a danger to ordinary people because they're tense and uptight from trying to outdo one another. And can lash out at innocent bystanders.

I think everyone would be better off if we all had more normal levels of exercise. I even think the men who build the big muscles are hurting themselves because it often attracts someone wanting to show off and prove they can beat them in a fight, and one punch sometimes kills people, or someone can have a knife.

Just because someone is physically fit that doesn't give them the right to put down others who are not.

To me, being physically active means that you should live a more healthier life, just as long as you don't push yourself too hard.

IMHO, people should be brawny and brainy at the same time.

I'm autistic, worked in scientific and high-tech jobs requiring intelligence, and most of my life I worked out five days a week with weights and aerobic exercise. I found it enormously helpful in reducing stress and producing mental clarity. At work, when I started getting mental fog from focusing too long on technical material, an hour working out and showering would re-center me and made the rest of the day a lot more productive. Most of the folks I knew that worked out in the gym at work weren't any more aggressive or critical than average. In fact my experience is that when I feel good physically it makes me feel better mentally and emotionally too and I'm less likely to get overwhelmed and irritable with people. Exercise and fitness helped me immeasurably more than the various psych meds I tried for awhile. I worked out most of my life and I see more team spirit in people who work out rather than bullying. I ran into a lot of bullies in school a long time ago, but most of those seemed to be kids who were getting some sort of abuse themselves, probably at home, and they would pass it along to convenient targets, like autistics and kids with other differences.

No. Too much sport and exercise may be a problem. Moderate exercise isn't.

A couple of quotes from the author of the blog linked to above,

"The findings support other studies that have found moderate exercise to enhance cognitive function".

"Seeing as I am one of those people who likes to push myself till I puke and loves nothing more than a really intense workout, this is not good research news for me".

So, exercise moderately and don't push yourself till you puke maybe?

I hate exercising but luckily for me some of the things I enjoy doing require a moderate degree of exercise which I find beneficial, both mentally and physically and I'm pretty sure I have never puked.

Taken to extremes I'm sure sport and exercise becomes pretty dangerous. But without moderate exercise people might not live very long.

I have poor stamina but find short distance sprinting to be beneficial.

I play tennis on the weekend, and I find it very fun. I never thought of myself as very athletic, but I see steady improvements in all areas. It is part of a well-rounded life. My tennis instructor said that tennis is one sport you can play all of your life. I hope that I can play into my older years and be fit and healthy.

Maybe watch a toddler or an outside wild/feral animal for how they exercise because it's how it works in nature. We are made to walk for most of the day to find food and shelter, push/pull/build/carry objects to cultivate food and shelter, and maybe an intermittent jog or yawning stretches when we get up. Extreme athletic training is going against our body's nature as much as sitting all day. You need exercise, but balance.

No, IMO.

If anything people are not nearly active enough & this is a part of why obesity rates have skyrocketed. Childhood obesity is also a very big public health problem.

IMO, there should be MORE mandatory physical education in schools, not less, and it should be coupled with proper nutrition education, too.

IMO there’s a common misconception that fit people judge and shame fat people and that’s part of why fat people don’t exercise. In reality, pretty well all of the fit people I know would prefer to see fat people get more active and would encourage them to eat a healthier diet and exercise more and want to see them succeed vs have any desire to put them down for past mistakes that have harmed their health.

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