The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
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Notes -
I saw some bro science post on X a few days ago making some grandiose claims about how sprinting had excellent health benefits, building musculature and something something increasing testosterone. I stopped scrolling and realized that I probably haven't done an all-out sprint in over a decade. Jogging, trail running, weights, calisthenics, I do all of the above on the regular, but then I figured that sustained cardio at 80% capacity is probably very different from running full-throttle until you have no energy left. Alright, you got me, we'll switch things up and try sprinting this week for the heck of it.
After a moderate warm-up, I did a couple sets of sprints. I didn't have a stopwatch so I can't say how long I lasted, but I would be surprised if it was longer than 20 seconds each run. After I got up to full speed, my arms and legs felt like they were on autopilot trying to get me to go as fast as I could. Like long-distance running, I felt like my attention was focused on monitoring my body to prevent it from injury than the act of running itself.
The next day, I was surprised to feel a mild but pleasant soreness all over in my body that I had never felt before. I hope to do more of these soon. For those with the mobility to do so, I'd recommend incorporating it into your workouts.
Sprints are incredibly good workouts but not a good starting point for sedentary people just restarting exercising, like me. They are strenuous enough to cause injury to unhealthy people, unlike a slow jog or brisk walk. Back when I did them it was sprint 15 seconds at 90% of maximum ability then rest 45 seconds at a 10% walk, for 5 consecutive sets.
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