{"id":1317915,"date":"2020-01-26T20:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T03:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/manieri-column-a-state-of-laziness-i-dont-think-so\/"},"modified":"2020-01-26T20:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-27T03:28:00","slug":"manieri-column-a-state-of-laziness-i-dont-think-so","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/manieri-column-a-state-of-laziness-i-dont-think-so\/","title":{"rendered":"Manieri column: A state of laziness? I don\u2019t think so"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

I was hoping we weren\u2019t going to make the list but, deep down, I knew better.<\/p>\n

The votes have been counted and yes, my adopted home of Kentucky is one of the laziest states in America. (It also happens to be the eighth most obese state in the country.)<\/p>\n

Six other states \u2014 Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee \u2014 reported the highest levels of inactivity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

The results were based on surveys of adults who were asked the question, \u201cDuring the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m calling a foul right away. The question is clearly biased toward traditional forms of exercise.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not suggesting that just because Kentucky also has the dubious distinction of having more adult smokers than any state in the U.S. \u2014 except West Virginia \u2014 that walking to the store to buy cigarettes should be considered exercise. Although if you walk far enough, you might have a pretty good case. It gets a little tricky if you smoke on the way back.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it would set a dangerous precedent \u2014 counting steps to the fridge, for example, could someday be considered exercise. It\u2019s not that far-fetched. Some believe \u201ccompetitive eating\u201d is a sport. I\u2019ve never believed jamming six dozen, soggy hot dogs down one\u2019s gullet is very sporting.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m making the case here for those of us who engage in silly forms of exercise that are not only physically challenging but really, really dangerous.<\/p>\n

Flipping tractor tires, pulling sleds, jumping on boxes, throwing a medicine ball against a wall until you black out \u2014 now that\u2019s exercise.<\/p>\n

And deadlifting. I\u2019ve found that there\u2019s nothing better for a guy in his 50s with a bad back than lifting very heavy weight off the floor. If the potential for severe injury isn\u2019t there, what\u2019s the point?<\/p>\n

Ever hear of a Bulgarian split squat? How about a Turkish get-up? Or what about a Pittsburgh sampler? Actually, I made the last one up but the first two are legit, and I hadn\u2019t heard of them either until I started doing CrossFit.<\/p>\n

My personal favorite is the hammer swing. You get to hit a big tire as hard as you can, over and over, with a sledgehammer. Short of wrestling a bear, I can\u2019t think of anything more fun.<\/p>\n

The CDC kept federal and state health officials busy for four years collecting laziness data. Where were they when I was doing 10 thrusters, five split jerks and a three Sumo deadlifts?<\/p>\n

Golf? Gardening? Please. Where\u2019s the danger? I suppose you can get clocked by a Titleist. And Vito Corleone did drop dead is his garden. All I know is if I don\u2019t have to sign a release form to do it, I\u2019m not interested.<\/p>\n

Besides, I\u2019m just as much a danger to myself in my own home. The other day, I was standing on a folding chair \u2014 yes, dumb \u2014 taking a screw out of the wall when the chair did what folding chairs are supposed to do. I crashed, face-first, on the bedroom floor. I got up and finished the job. One thing I\u2019ve learned from my fitness routine is that a potentially debilitating fall is no reason to stop.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not really trying to defend Kentucky here. Besides, how can I, what with the inactivity, obesity and smoking?<\/p>\n

I am defending the often-overlooked and underappreciated alternative exercise community. Do our battered shins (I missed the box a couple of times), strained shoulders and ruptured discs mean nothing?<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t talk to me about \u201ccalisthenics.\u201d You want calisthenics, I\u2019ll give you calisthenics. You try five sets of five pull-ups, 10 burpees and 25 air squats. You\u2019ll see visions.<\/p>\n

I know that running around a parking lot with heavy sandbags on your shoulders isn\u2019t everyone\u2019s cup of tea. But we demand equality and recognition. This is 2020 after all.<\/p>\n

The CDC and the rest of the world can pretend we don\u2019t exist but we\u2019ll be here, with our Russian kettle bell swings, squat jerks and high pulls.<\/p>\n

I demand to be counted, assuming I survive.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2020 Rich Manieri, distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Rich Manieri is a Philadelphia-born journalist and author. He is currently a professor of journalism at Asbury University in Kentucky. His book, \u201cWe Burn on Friday: A Memoir of My Father and Me\u201d is available at amazon.com. You can reach him at manieri2@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was hoping we weren\u2019t going to make the list but, deep down, I knew better. The votes have been counted and yes, my adopted home of Kentucky is one of the laziest states in America. (It also happens to be the eighth most obese state in the country.) Six other states \u2014 Oklahoma, Arkansas, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 03:50:36","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}