Sort of related, it always surprises me how little we teach our children about the importance of exercise (why we need muscles, how we move them to protect the joints) and nutrition (why we eat macronutrients, what vitamins and proteins do in our body).
While I don't doubt the value in finding the very best percentile in something, at the end of the day this is very much yak shaving. As the article admits, regardless of the exercise, these are relatively small drops when looking at the bigger picture. The general problem we need to find good answers for is that as a society, on average we just don't move enough.
The article says "many people just can't do them" which I can't but think points to an underlying problem.
So maybe.. start small? Half planks. Gentle wall squats not full squats. Build.
Wall squats _and planks_.
And gentle reminder that the world record for a plank is over 9 hours. Humans are awesome! ;)
I couldn't get around for nearly 15 years without a wheelchair, and in my recovery, I've been using a bicycle quite a bit. But wall squats are the hardest thing I do all day.
It also hurts more when I fall off my bike than it does to lean forward exhausted after 30 seconds of wall squatting. It's brutal on the tops of my thighs, which are still pretty deflated from disuse, despite the bike riding.
Thanks for sharing.
I have hyptertension around 140/100, the best thing works for me is tennis. After 3 hours the numbers are 125/95, it went back after 1 hour.
For me best thing I ever did for my blood pressure was quitting caffeine. Completely normalized after I dropped it.
> But wall squats and planking led to larger falls than aerobic exercise.
Slightly unfortunate wording
Articles / opinions like these used to be very detrimental for accomplishing anything for me. In real life it's not that important that you do the ideal thing, the biggest issue is not doing anything at all. Partly because of being obsessed about finding the ideal thing. Doing squats regularly is an order of magnitude better than spending a lot of time figuring out the ideal and then doing it infrequently.
I now exercise a lot more than before and other than paying attention to not causing an injury, I do not care at all about doing optimal things. It's a big motivator to start when I know I can just do whatever I like at that moment in time.