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Off-Topic Comments made by non-fitness (aka out of shape) people!

steve-in-kville

steve-in-kville

Level 5 Valued Member
Typically I just roll with stuff like this, but as of late, it's been getting more irritating. For example, I hear an older woman, not in great shape herself, go on a rant how "these kids" will pay $30/month to sweat it out in a gym, but refuse to lift a finger at home. I think that was a huge generalization.

Another time, I heard a farmer rant how people pay money to go to a fitness center, but yet he can't hire anyone to labor on his farm and milk cows.

Another, a construction foreman, basically the same as the farmer above: "No one wants to work anymore." Been hearing that one all my life!

Look, I work in a warehouse. Our order selectors, ages anywhere from 18 to 45+, guys & ladies, work their tails off. A number still hit up the gym, YMCA or have a home gym in their garage. Some go all "Mark Wahlberg" and get up at 3am to get it in before work. Others hit it right after work.

A workout session is way different than a manual labor job. To me, it's part of my therapy. I look forward to it. It's just like taking meds for depression or bipolar, except way better!

More often than not, the grumpy old people making these comment lack self esteem or are in poor health, or both.

This is all.
 
The one that always gets me is some variation of older people telling younger people that if they work out too hard they will "wear out their joints." For example, an older person telling me that squatting with heavy weight will give me bad knees when I am older, or that lifting heavy weights overhead will destroy my shoulders. People who make these kinds of comments typically seem like they couldn't get up and down off the floor, or lift their arms over their heads without a lot of strain.

My thought is that "grumpy old people" are comparing today's youth, in today's world, to themselves, in their youth, in the world they grew up in. The world and economy, etc were a lot different 30+ years ago. Their parents probably thought similar things about them when they were young.
 
steve-in-kville said:
No one wants to work anymore.
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I hate that they never finish the thought.

No one want to work anymore for what I want to pay.

There is just more opportunity now. Not all of it is great, but there are just more options. Lots of kids will take a gamble on building a social media empire that has a huge potential payoff instead of knowing they are going to cap their wages by entering traditional careers.
 
Inflation is high, interest rates are high, but I tell you what, people around here aren’t shy on spending at all. Pubs are full, lots of new SUV’s ( the Porsche one is popular, and I’ve seen a masearati one as well ), coffee shops are busy. Gyms? So many new ones as well, and more coming.

I see lots of smart, hard working young people at work, trying to absorb 40yrs worth of knowledge from 65yr old experts. No one in between so they have it pretty tough. They all seem capable and keen to work. But they get base pay and no flexibility. Then the company wonders why they leave, for a job that pays 30% more and more flexibility. Goes both ways
 
silveraw said:
I hate that they never finish the thought.

No one want to work anymore for what I want to pay.

There is just more opportunity now. Not all of it is great, but there are just more options. Lots of kids will take a gamble on building a social media empire that has a huge potential payoff instead of knowing they are going to cap their wages by entering traditional careers.
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My comment about the world 30+ years ago was really your comment in disguise….

I also think some youth would rather gamble on becoming a social media star (because it costs them very little to start) than definitely rack up college debt that there’s a good chance will stick with them the rest of their life.
 
Halfakneecap said:
Inflation is high, interest rates are high, but I tell you what, people around here aren’t shy on spending at all. Pubs are full, lots of new SUV’s ( the Porsche one is popular, and I’ve seen a masearati one as well ), coffee shops are busy. Gyms? So many new ones as well, and more coming.
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Do you think they are spending money or credit? Plus one area does not really reflect all other areas.
 
bluejeff said:
The one that always gets me is some variation of older people telling younger people that if they work out too hard they will "wear out their joints." For example, an older person telling me that squatting with heavy weight will give me bad knees when I am older, or that lifting heavy weights overhead will destroy my shoulders. People who make these kinds of comments typically seem like they couldn't get up and down off the floor, or lift their arms over their heads without a lot of strain.
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I had an interesting debate with my MIL about this. She was medically retired and placed on SSDI from an injury sustained in a factory job in her late 40's. Now mid 70's and dozen's of surgeries later for a variety of things, related and non, she warns me all the time of the road I am heading down.

My response has been something along the lines of "I would rather end up down that road doing things I really enjoy (training) that have the potential to make me stronger and fitter than do nothing and end up frail and weak with issues anyways."

Meanwhile, I'm coaching little league baseball again this year and we struggled to round up enough volunteers because the rest of the parents have <insert body part> problems, none of whom were ever athletes or sustained said problem through training.

As I get off my soap box, I wish more people would want to rather train to be strong, fast, and fit, and risk getting banged up, than not train at all and whither away.
 
steve-in-kville said:
Another time, I heard a farmer rant how people pay money to go to a fitness center, but yet he can't hire anyone to labor on his farm and milk cows.

Another, a construction foreman, basically the same as the farmer above: "No one wants to work anymore." Been hearing that one all my life!
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yeah sitting in front of computer is much better thanks.
 
JPCross said:
I had an interesting debate with my MIL about this. She was medically retired and placed on SSDI from an injury sustained in a factory job in her late 40's. Now mid 70's and dozen's of surgeries later for a variety of things, related and non, she warns me all the time of the road I am heading down.

My response has been something along the lines of "I would rather end up down that road doing things I really enjoy (training) that have the potential to make me stronger and fitter than do nothing and end up frail and weak with issues anyways."

Meanwhile, I'm coaching little league baseball again this year and we struggled to round up enough volunteers because the rest of the parents have <insert body part> problems, none of whom were ever athletes or sustained said problem through training.

As I get off my soap box, I wish more people would want to rather train to be strong, fast, and fit, and risk getting banged up, than not train at all and whither away.
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The irony is that there is a lot of evidence (from what I can tell) that training despite aches and pains improves overall quality of life. That is, you can have some aches and pains and be strong and athletic, or you can have aches and pains and watch your physical capabilities decline. I choose the former.
 
silveraw said:
But I worked part time at a gas station and bought my first house paid for college and supported a family of 10 when I was your age.

It’s those Netflix subscription the kids are wasting their money on
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That $14 per month on Netflix is making me plumb broke, by golly!

It's funny. I was thinking of some of this stuff as I was clearing off the 450lb giant branches that partially fell onto my roof yesterday from a heavy snow we got a few weeks back. I had gotten quotes initially from a couple arborists to take them down and dispose of them and they both came out to around $850 to 900. I thought that was ridiculous, and figured "Hey! I'm an able bodied dude. I can just do this &@!t myself." So I bought a $60 pole saw from Home Depot and cut them down, then flipped them off my roof and onto the ground, then chopped them up with a hand saw into manageable pieces. The whole deal took a bit over 2 hours, and I got in a mini workout. I do know that no person of average (or worse) strength could have done what I did, though. Those tree limbs were quite heavy and I had to do some overhead lifting and pulling to get them down and off the roof, and then into a position to where I could safely cut them down. Don't know of many nearly 47 year olds who could have done that and they would have likely been stuck paying whatever the tree company wanted to charge, so there's one way that investing my time in getting stronger paid off (literally) in a real life, tangible way.
 
bluejeff said:
The irony is that there is a lot of evidence (from what I can tell) that training despite aches and pains improves overall quality of life. That is, you can have some aches and pains and be strong and athletic, or you can have aches and pains and watch your physical capabilities decline. I choose the former.
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Fine and dandy but almost all of your target audience listens with their mouth.

At my age and experience, I just let them babble and stay fat & weak. A “Richard” move, I know, but I’m tired of talking to houseplants.
 
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