When I was younger, and had gotten seriously into jogging, I tried making it harder by carrying weights. Not being one to bandy about, I took 100 lbs of hand weights for a jog around the block. I got about halfway before I had to sit down, and I could barely walk them back to my house.

A few years and five dozen pounds later, I was -incapable- of jogging, then at my most overweight; I went straight into a high-intensity interval jogging training, and within three weeks had developed shin splints and knee issues (my legs, lungs and heart could do it, if barely; my bones and joints could not keep up), neither of which I'd ever had a problem with before. I had jogged before (and got into incredible shape doing so), and I'm picking it up again since losing forty pounds (by dieting), but I think it's misleading to suggest that endurance training is always a good idea starting off. Your muscles are one thing, but it's very easy to strain your bones and joints, which don't always let you know you're hurting yourself until it is too late. In my case, it was necessary to lose weight before I could get fit. (No, they're not the same thing.)

I will also add that losing forty pounds made jogging considerably more pleasant; the last time I picked it up, I had already been in shape. Having tried it both ways, my experience is this: sixty extra pounds on your frame turns an enjoyable activity into torture, and for me at least, resulted in lasting injury. Health benefits don't matter much if you can't keep doing it.

I view Romeo's comments on strength training as an alternate mode to my own path, dieting. And I suspect, based on personal experience, that he's more correct in his assessment that cardio is something that is best picked up after you're already started down the road to good health than you are in your belief that it should be the primary focus, provided you're in poor enough shape to begin with.

And if you disagree, I'll ask you to repeat my original exercise experiment: Take a hundred pounds with you, and just try to walk around the block, just once. Or try taking 50 lbs of weights with you the next time you jog. Tell me that's a program you could stick to.

Because most the people I see who push cardio as the best word in fitness have never really been there.

Started out good, but I was cringing when I got to the part where he states that rationality tells people to defect in a Prisoner's Dilemma.

I'm not sure a lot of praise is a good idea since that would lower its effectiveness as a reinforcer.

Hello. I've been browsing articles that show up on the front page for about a year now. Just recently started going through the sequences and decided it would be a good time to create an account.