For some reason -- probably to mine those hate-clicks -- MSNBC decided to slap a new title on this article from March, 2022, and republish it, proclaiming that anyone interested in improving his or her physical fitness was most likely a political far-right extremist.

It appears the far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends to expand its decade-plus radicalization of physical mixed martial arts (MMA) and combat sports spaces.

Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.

Earlier this month, researchers reported that a network of online "fascist fitness" chat groups on the encrypted platform Telegram are recruiting and radicalizing young men with neo-Nazi and white supremacist extremist ideologies. Initially lured with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes, new recruits are later invited to b>closed chat groups where far-right content is shared.

Physical fitness has always been central to the far right. In "Mein Kampf," Hitler fixated on boxing and jujitsu, believing they could help him create an army of millions whose aggressive spirit and impeccably trained bodies, combined with "fanatical love of the fatherland," would do more for the German nation than any "mediocre" tactical weapons training.

In more modern times, far-right groups have launched mixed martial arts and boxing gyms in Ukraine, Canada and France, among other places, focused on training far-right nationalists in violent hand-to-hand combat and street-fighting techniques.

Has this pyrsyn noticed that the leftwing trans terrorist group antifa is a permanent professional Democrat-Party-supported street fighting unit, or nah?

It's caught the attention of intelligence authorities, especially in Europe, where various reports have noted the role of combat sports and MMA in radicalizing and promoting far-right violence. A series of collaborative efforts between governments, national sports associations, and local gyms in places such as Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom have introduced intervention and prevention programs.

The intersection of extremism and fitness leans into a shared obsession with the male body, training, masculinity, testosterone, strength and competition.

They just hate men, and will not rest until men are forced by the state to take cross-gender hormones to medically reduce their "toxic masculinity."

shoe
@shoe0nhead

guys they're not saying fitness is bad- they're just casually putting fitness & nazis (?) in the same box and going "hmmm kinda weird isn't it!!! just sayin!!!"

The article was widely mocked, including by Joe Rogan and Elon Musk.

MSNBC is going viral for warning about "the far right's obsession with fitness" -- with Elon Musk and Joe Rogan among those mocking the left-wing network's comparison of the health craze to the Nazis.

MSNBC's tweet Monday re-shared a year-old op-ed by extremism expert Cynthia Miller-Idriss claiming that the "far right has taken advantage of pandemic at-home fitness trends."

In it, she even compared some fitness influencers to how Adolf Hitler "fixated on boxing and jujitsu" to garner followers.

MSNBC's tweet soon got more than 34 million views -- and a flurry of mockery.

"Being healthy is 'far right.' Holy f--k," tweeted podcaster and UFC commentator Joe Rogan, a self-styled liberal and lifetime fitness fanatic.

Twitter boss Musk -- who recently started training martial arts again to take on Facebook rival Mark Zuckerberg -- replied to Rogan's message by saying that "parody & reality are becoming indistinguishable."

"MSNBC thinks you're a [N]azi if you work out lmaooo," tweeted Musk, who has previously described himself as a liberal only now labeled far-right because "woke progressives" are pushing the left to extremes.

Others also joked that they were "doing white supremacy" with planned workouts.

"I was doing pushups and suddenly a swastika tattoo appeared on my chest. Weirdest thing," one person replied to Musk. "I'm prone on the couch eating potato chips, hoping it will go away."

Someone else asked: "If I skip leg day does that make me a Democrat?"

...

It was not immediately clear why MSNBC decided to again share the op-ed that was first published in March 2022.

In it, Miller-Idriss said that "neo-Nazi and white supremacist" extremists were targeting fitness fanatics by luring them "with health tips and strategies for positive physical changes."

Fitness and self-defense are exclusively the province of right-wing extremists, huh?

I linked that the last time MSNBC published this "story." If they can repeat themselves, so can I.

Under the sinister left's determination to destroy everything that is good, the whole Army has gotten fat.

It's not exactly clear why America's military personnel are getting fatter. Could be that 15 years of war have weakened the focus on fitness. Could be that millennials, with their penchant for sedentary activities like playing video games and killing time on social media, aren't always up to the rigors of military life. Could be all the burgers, fries, cakes and pies served in chow halls around the world.

And maybe, too, the military is simply reflecting the nation's broader population, whose poor eating habits are fueling an alarming rise obesity rates.

This much is clear, though: Today's military is fatter than ever.

For the first time in years, the Pentagon has disclosed data indicating the number of troops its deems overweight, raising big questions about the health, fitness and readiness of today's force.

About 7.8 percent of the military -- roughly one in every 13 troops -- is clinically overweight, defined by a body mass-index greater than 25. This rate has crept upward since 2001, when it was just 1.6 percent, or one in 60, according to Defense Department data obtained by Military Times. And it's highest among women, blacks, Hispanics and older service members.

It might have something to do with the military making itself into a gender-f!ck joke, reducing recruitment among fit men, and forcing them to expand their recruiting pool to those expanding their waistlines.

Meanwhile, a study says that people can make their brains more resilient to Alzheimer's and Brandon's Syndrome through resistance (weight) training, and that the brain benefits of such a program are visible within four weeks.

Experiments involving mice showed four weeks of training with weights to be sufficient to reverse behavioral and physical alterations characteristic of the disease.

Regular physical exercise, such as resistance training, can prevent Alzheimer's disease, or at least delay the appearance of symptoms, and serves as a simple and affordable therapy for Alzheimer's patients. This is the conclusion of an article published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience by Brazilian researchers affiliated with the Federal University of Sao Paulo (UNIFESP) and the University of Sao Paulo (USP).

...

To observe the neuroprotective effects of this practice, researchers in UNIFESP's Departments of Physiology and Psychobiology, and the Department of Biochemistry at USP's Institute of Chemistry (IQ-USP), conducted experiments involving transgenic mice with a mutation responsible for a buildup of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. The protein accumulates in the central nervous system, impairs synaptic connections, and damages neurons, all of which are features of Alzheimer's disease.

Are they going to make these poor mice work out?

They are, aren't they?

During the study, which was funded by FAPESP, the mice were trained to climb a 110 cm ladder with a slope of 80 and 2 cm between rungs. Loads were attached to their tails corresponding to 75%, 90%, and 100% of their body weight. The experiment mimicked certain kinds of resistance training undertaken by humans in fitness centers.

Mouse GAINZZZ.

At the end of a four-week period of training, blood samples were taken to measure plasma levels of corticosterone, the hormone in mice equivalent to cortisol in humans; rising levels in response to stress heightens the risk of developing Alzheimer's. Levels of the hormone were normal (equal to those found in the control group comprising animals without the mutation) in the exercise-trained mice, and analysis of their brain tissue showed a decrease in the formation of beta-amyloid plaques.

"This confirms that physical activity can reverse neuropathological alterations that cause clinical symptoms of the disease," said Henrique Correia Campos, first author of the article.

Well that's something.

Important for me to remember: Lifting even light weights builds muscle.

Lifting weights regularly builds strength and muscle -- and it doesn't matter if those weights are heavy or light.

It's the act itself, and being consistent, that pays off, according to a new study.

All forms of resistance training are beneficial, including body-weight exercises such as planks, lunges and push-ups, according to kinesiologists at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, who looked at weight, frequency and consistency.

"There are a dizzying number of factors and combinations to consider when creating a weightlifting program to maximize strength and muscle growth," said kinesiology professor Stuart Phillips, who did the study with graduate students Bradley Currier and Jonathan Mcleod. "This is an age-old debate among athletes and strength and conditioning coaches: what combination leads to the best gains?"

Hey, that's the name of the thread!

/Producer Guy off

...

McMaster researchers have spent the last decade pushing back on the idea that heavier is best. Their past research found significant gains from lifting lighter weights 20 to 30 times, toward the point of exhaustion.

In this review, the investigators found that lifting heavier weights was the best way to gain strength. To maximize muscle size, however, the weight was less important than repetitions.

...

He urged people to seek guidance if they don't know where to start and how to move forward. "It doesn't need to be complicated," Currier emphasized.

After going through all this bullshit, I can confidently say that thinking too much about the best method of exercise (or dieting) which will yield the most efficient, most optimized GAINZZZ is mostly a waste of time and also often counterproductive.

It's a waste of time because the difference between one regime and another is pretty incremental. Some might be somewhat better than others -- but all are better than not exercising.

And it's counterproductive because people worry about their exercise program being finely-tuned and perfectly optimized for them, to the extent that they never start any program. They keep thinking that if they're not doing the most optimized, most efficient program of all, then they're wasting effort and no one wants to waste effort, so why bother at all?

So people wind up not weightlifting, or otherwise exercising. because they're hung up on not being sure which of three or four competing plans will produce results 1-3% better than another.

And not only that, for beginners, none of this matters at all. Beginners can get stronger and healthier by doing literally any exercise at all. They're not people operating near peak human performance who have to constantly change and refine regimes to trick their muscles into giving them just 0.1% more output. No, they can just start doing bodyweight squats and push-ups (from the knee, if needed) and begin seeing GAINZZZ in ten days.

The researchers called the findings good news for anyone interested in gaining strength and maintaining more muscle. This helps prevent injury, maximizes mobility and optimizes metabolism.

"The biggest variable to master is compliance," Mcleod said. "Once you've got that down, then you can worry about all of the other subtle nuances, but our analysis clearly shows that many ostensibly important variables just aren't that essential for the vast majority of people."

Yeah, the best exercise plan of all is the one you'll do, period.

I've gotten so weak since I stopped weightlifting that I don't want to do any of it. It just upsets me to have such NEGATIVE GAINZZZ.

But I have to keep in mind that even lifting Soyboy Beta Cvck levels of weight will slowly produce a noncvcked Alpha Male.

So I'm weak now. That just means I can get Noob GAINZZZ again. Noob GAINZZZ are the rapid GAINZZZ that newbies experience because their fitness has so much room for improvement that minimal effort will yield outsized results. No one past the "Noob" level can experience this magical state of getting measurably stronger nearly every session.

This guy lost over 600 pounds, dropping from a morbidly obese 823 pounds to a healthy 200 and change.

He must be the most right-wing extreme extremist in the world. He eats White Supremacy and he craps Dark MAGA.

So, what are YO' GAINZZZ?

Any PLANNZZZ? PROJEXXX?

BOOXXX? I saw a couple of people mentioning books they had finished or were making progress on.