Monday, July 28, 2008

Michael Lewis on Golf

It's a bit harsh, but I have to admit I enjoyed Michael Lewis's rant on golf. Golf can be fun, of course, in the same sense as target practice, but I wouldn't really consider something a "sport" unless the participants regularly find themselves gasping for breath. It somewhat reminds me of this recent study, which found that people who read muscle magazines while on an exercise bike don't get the same mood improvement from exercise as do people who read nothing or who read Oprah Magazine. My rule of thumb is, if what I'm doing allows me to read or watch TV, it isn't really exercise.

3 comments:

  1. What if you're doing an exercise video? HA!

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  2. What if you're doing an exercise video? HA!

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  3. There are lot of sports, many of them in the Olympics, in which the participants don't find themselves gasping for breath. Examples would be shooting, archery, sailing, horseback riding, weightlifting, high jumping, throwing the javelin, etc. You can make up a private, restrictive definition of "sport" if you want to (in this case, evidently, restricting it to activities that involve aerobic exertion), just like someone can make up a private definition of "sex," but I don't see the point in that sort of activity.

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