Re: Settle a debate: running & muscle building

shinypenny wrote:
[women] want firm, toned, and attractive muscles.

Donovan wrote:
Most people are pretty hopeless about articulating what they want.

Pendejo wrote:
Oh please.
Most people speak in plain conversational English and understand each
other just fine most of the time. Just because a person - or 97% of
the populace - don't express everything in the precise language of
science and in perfectly quantifiable terms doesn't make him or them
an uneducated inarticulate fuzzy-headed mush-mouth. Or hopeless.

Doug wrote:
No to pile on but true. Donnovan is always the scientist and has a hard
time unless he can picture a formula or precise term. I never know if he
that anal or just busting balls.

Donovan wrote:
Sometimes it's important to use terminology that is accurate, or at
the very least, terminology that isn't outright incorrect. For example,
in context of a discussion on the fine points of whether or not running
"builds muscle", it is helpful to be somewhat precise.

And the direct context here, per the quote way up at the top, was
about how most women want to look. And the audience, a diverse public
forum, wreck.running. In this context, "toned" is an entirely
appropriate word choice. "13-16% BF with intermuscular fat in the
range .75-1.10 mg/cm^2 of body volume and an type I:type II fibers in
a 1:2.5 to 1:3.5 ratio" would be wildly inappropriate and inadequate.
Somewhere between most and all of us would have no idea WTF Jen had
just said or whether it bore any relation to the truth.


The term "tone" is like the term "fat burning zone", slightly
worse if anything, as the term "fat burning zone" is at least
based on some ground truth. The term itself reflects and
perpetuates mythology. I would wager that if the term were
removed from the language, there would be less belief in the
spot reduction myth for example.

Used as a verb, I have a sliver of sympathy for your viewpoint. I'm
grateful to be losing less sleep over it than you, but at least I see
where you're coming from. Fear not: in the long view either truth
will win out, or an even more insidious illusion will replace the
current one.

However, I see no problem with "tone" the noun (as in "muscle tone")
and "toned" the descriptive adjective. It's the latter which Jen
employed in her "girls just wanna look toned."

So yeah, let's remove the verb from the language. Such a double-plus
good idea!

Yours,
Winston

.

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