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PaperclipPerfector  16d ago (text post)   3503 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 28, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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How would y'all recommend finding a personal trainer?

I want someone local, and I have a fitness goal of being in better shape for an upcoming underwater hockey tournament. But otherwise I think I'm flexible. Just don't know what to look for or avoid.

Personal trainers are financially motivated to keep you coming back, it's a pretty perverse business model. I'd recommend avoiding it entirely. I say this as someone who briefly was a personal trainer.

If you want programming there are apps for that. If you want someone to motivate you it's far better to get a friend to work out with you. If you don't have friends who want to work out, join a Crossfit gym and now you do.

I sometimes work out with friends, but I want to do more training during work hours when they are not available.

The motivation isn't there right now (or ever?) to do workouts on my own.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

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