[Chumbaniya]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
That's what wound me up the most actually. I am not personally very 'clued up' about fitness, but my fiance is, and he keeps abreast of research in the area and follows a lot of fitness blogs. And we both gym practically every day. I turned up in the forum and gave fitness advice to a girl asking for tips on an exercise programme to lose weight, and got hit like a tonne of bricks by several very self-important regulars who reacted as though I'd told the girl to swallow acid, when in fact I was just relaying the advice my fiance had suggested, which I know he's carefully checked up, and which had me dropping a dress size in 6 weeks!

I don't have a great understanding of how things are at the moment, but when I was most active I think there was definitely a tendency of some regulars to jump to conclusions about any advice given which seemed even slightly different to what they might say, to the point of almost wilfully misinterpreting advice given by others in order to very hastily and heavy-handedly criticise it. I hope it wasn't behaviour I was particularly guilty of, but it's entirely possible I was like that when I was still young enough to get worked up about PEOPLE BEING WRONG ON THE INTERNETS.

It doesn't make such behaviour right, but I can understand the irritability of people trying to get the right advice out to people as there are plenty of flaws in what's considered 'official' information on health and fitness - BMI is of course the classic example.

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
I don't have a great understanding of how things are at the moment, but when I was most active I think there was definitely a tendency of some regulars to jump to conclusions about any advice given which seemed even slightly different to what they might say, to the point of almost wilfully misinterpreting advice given by others in order to very hastily and heavy-handedly criticise it. I hope it wasn't behaviour I was particularly guilty of, but it's entirely possible I was like that when I was still young enough to get worked up about PEOPLE BEING WRONG ON THE INTERNETS.

Yes, exactly. I'm glad it happened though, because my dupe was very new and I'd made it male. I thought it highlighted some interesting social dynamics, and I honestly don't think I would have had the same response if I'd gone in with this account, showing threatening levels of rep.

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
It doesn't make such behaviour right, but I can understand the irritability of people trying to get the right advice out to people as there are plenty of flaws in what's considered 'official' information on health and fitness - BMI is of course the classic example.

Yes that is very frustrating. Dave's other pet interest is nutrition, and its amazing how far behind the 'official' advice is when it comes to consensus in the latest research

PS: Where is your username from?

[Chumbaniya]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
Yes, exactly. I'm glad it happened though, because my dupe was very new and I'd made it male. I thought it highlighted some interesting social dynamics, and I honestly don't think I would have had the same response if I'd gone in with this account, showing threatening levels of rep.

Yeah, the response could well have been quite different. Being female might get a slightly more favourable reaction, but I'm not convinced it would have been that strong. It certainly is (was?) a male-dominated forum but I didn't get the feeling it had a particular strong white-knighting element.

PS: Where is your username from?

It's not from anywhere - I just made up an odd sounding tribal-ish word to be a username for something at about age 11 and it's been my online handle for absolutely everything ever since. I get asked fairly regularly, so I wish I had a more exciting story behind it!

Now, I have an appointment with the doctor at 8:50 tomorrow so I should probably sleep. What I'm actually going to do is get myself a glass of Baileys (it's late at night so nobody can see me drinking girly drinks!) and watch another episode of Mad Men since I started re-watching this afternoon and remembered how excellent it is.

[Drogue]

(Original post by Little Jules)
I'm a Tory (sshh) and even I couldn't stand OUCA. Horrendous.

But then OUCA isn't really about being Tory, it's a social club for posh people. I've known people who weren't actually Tories become members because they fitted in, and plenty of serious (but not so posh) Tories who wouldn't go near it.

(Original post by ice_cube)
The current boyfriend who did go to public school had never heard of it and looked faintly green when it was explained.

If you're tasting your own, aren't you playing it wrong/with weird rules?

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
Maybe I'm just a prude (well, I'm definitely a prude!)... but it just sounds so grim

I think the idea is that it's meant to be grim. Many guys seem to take enjoyment in doing things that are pretty grim just so others will also do it. I was at a party the other week where people had a competition of who could eat a teaspoon of cinnamon without water (apparently very difficult and unpleasant, though I wouldn't know personally).

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
I suppose all I can do is continue to do my bit to force the situation back in the opposite direction, by failing to make even polite advances on women who clearly do have an interest in me!

I don't think I'd ever have had a relationship if I didn't go for strong girls. Well, perhaps I would now, since I have a lot more confidence than I did in my teens and early 20s, but definitely not then.

Just lucky I don't need to anymore

[Becca]

(Original post by IlexAquifolium)
I loved Spartacus - RIP we watched both of the series. Never seen such an utter sausagefest on mainstream telly though! My straight male friend was expressing shock at the amount of willies on GoT (two?). I told him never to watch Spartacus. Cocks everywhere.

Give me some vicarious joy. What did you have?

Yeah the new guy is ok. Looks pretty similar to Andy Whitfield, but he doesn't seem to have the burning intensity. Most of the old cast are there though so I am managing to enjoy it. GoT is nothing compared to Spartacus. Neither should be viewed with parents though

Sushi, I just had a selection. A few maki, mainly salmon, plus some salmon and tuna sashimi and some nigiri. It was very nom, and kind of a celebration of me getting my "proper" job. After that we went to the cinema to watch 'Hamilton', which was my first ever purely Scandinavian film (it was Swedish with Norwegian subtitles) and I managed to follow it completely and enjoy it! There was some English in it though, seeing it was a spy film! Feeling a bit proud of myself though.

(Original post by obi_adorno_kenobi)
Hmm, boxed set marathons: I must admit that, for all of my pacifist beliefs and anti-war stance (I'm not such a fan of war games on the PC for instance), I have a soft spot for Band of Brothers and Pacific. I'm not entirely sure why but I do find the latter a grittier programme to watch in part because of the subject matter. That theatre was far more brutal than the European one and I think, second time around, the programme makers knew what they were doing far more.

Oh god, Band of Brothers. I found that so hard to watch. In a couple of years I will brave watching the Pacific, but I found Band of Brothers incredibly stressful to watch. I still tear up inside just thinking about it. I can't believe people actually did that stuff. Wow.

(Original post by ice_cube)
Two of my ex boyfriends have tasted their own spunk, one of them via soggy biscuit.

The current boyfriend who did go to public school had never heard of it and looked faintly green when it was explained.

I didn't think anybody actually played it Maybe I'm naive.

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
It's not something that I have a great degree of exposure to as I'm not exactly a big boxing fan, but I feel like the public perception of boxing has a pretty big gender split too. While there are camps which will dismiss boxing as brutish, male boxers at least get widespread respect as athletes. I feel like many people, on discovering that a woman boxes, would immediately label her as masculine, uncommonly aggressive, lacking in feminine graces and so on, which reactions to men as boxers aren't all that pronounced.

This is definitely true. I've had a lot of this kind of stuff towards me and weight training/weightlifting.
Women are generally shocked but then intrigued, whereas men (unless they are my friends who know me well) usually come out with comments like "hope you don't get too muscly" etc. One of the main problems though, is the very large public misconception that bodybuilding, powerlifting, weightlifting and "doing weights at the gym" are all the same thing. This is perpetuated by the media. I think when my colleagues think of me training they imagine me doing bicep curls or something.

Very interesting reading the discussion about the fitness forum. Have to say I agree with everything said.

(Original post by Craghyrax)
Yes that is very frustrating. Dave's other pet interest is nutrition, and its amazing how far behind the 'official' advice is when it comes to consensus in the latest research

Oh god, this is so true! My mum came out with some brilliant stuff on the phone last night which was basically: eat a lot of protein = look like Jodie Marsh.

[sj27]

...sometimes I'll read something on the net and think "y'know, I could happily have lived my entire life without ever knowing that". I shall probably never look at biscuits the same way again.

[*Corinna*]

(Original post by sj27)
...sometimes I'll read something on the net and think "y'know, I could happily have lived my entire life without ever knowing that". I shall probably never look at biscuits the same way again.

oh no, what did you read????

[Cirsium]

(Original post by *Corinna*)
oh no, what did you read????

The above....?

[Cirsium]

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
That's a genuinely distressing thing to hear. I'd honestly always considered sexual violence to be something that a minority of women suffer, but (while your case is obviously anecdotal) the possibility that the majority of women suffer something worse than being groped in a club is troubling.

I suppose all I can do is continue to do my bit to force the situation back in the opposite direction, by failing to make even polite advances on women who clearly do have an interest in me!

I think my perspective changed dramatically when I moved to Bristol. I'm not sure how much of that is a culture shift in terms of things happening here more often and how much is me being indignant at the way things seem to be swept under the carpet and ignored here. Two particular incidents come to mind, one of which involved me essentially being told that I'd probably enjoyed being groped by somebody who I worked with and already really disliked; and the other involving a girl I was pastorally responsible for basically being accused of lying because when a taxi driver assaulted her in a cab with her friends (she was in the front seat) she panicked and did nothing rather than hitting him or trying to get out of the car or something. Half the battle seems to be getting people to realise how prevalent this sort of thing is, and that somebody's reaction or lack of it doesn't mitigate whatever some twisted loser has done. As long as people are prepared to say "but she must have been lying, because I know him and he's a good guy and he wouldn't do that" (yeah, that's a direct quote) then what's to stop "nice" guys doing horrible disgusting things?

And on a completely different tack, I've been asked whether I'm not concerned about getting really muscly too

[*Corinna*]

(Original post by Cirsium)
The above....?

OMG! Why, why did you tell me?? I was happy having skipped the page and never having seen it...I thought sj27 just read something about biscuits being unhealthy or something...:s

[sj27]

(Original post by *Corinna*)
OMG! Why, why did you tell me?? I was happy having skipped the page and never having seen it...I thought sj27 just read something about biscuits being unhealthy or something...:s

Why should I suffer alone?!

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by Becca)
x

At your Mum and the protein thing.

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
It's not from anywhere - I just made up an odd sounding tribal-ish word to be a username for something at about age 11 and it's been my online handle for absolutely everything ever since. I get asked fairly regularly, so I wish I had a more exciting story behind it!

It makes me curious to know whether you're African or if you just like African-sounding things (I grew up in South Africa).

(Original post by Chumbaniya)
What I'm actually going to do is get myself a glass of Baileys (it's late at night so nobody can see me drinking girly drinks!) and watch another episode of Mad Men since I started re-watching this afternoon and remembered how excellent it is.

We don't stock Baileys anymore because its dangerous And you're not supposed to drink after gym.

[Cirsium]

(Original post by Athena)

I've never been out-right groped (although, out clubbing in the middle of "My Humps" I squeezed an old [male] friend's man boobs, and he responded in kind...), but you get a LOT of men in clubs doing the 'casual slide past with hands on top of your hips/bum' move. And I've had to tell one guy in the MCR who tried something similar at a formal, having met me five minutes before, that I would break his fingers if he ever touched me again.

The captain is always supportive in these situations "I could break him for you, if you like, but I'm sure you'll do just as good a job and enjoy it more if you do it yourself."

Really? I'm actually genuinely surprised. I obviously haven't done an exhaustive survey of my friends, but the only ones I'm aware of having avoided this sort of thing are ones that don't go out and are fairly conservative. I've sort of accepted that, even if I'm sober, since the age of 18 a night out will involve at the very least the kind of thing you've described and on more than one occasion someone responding to my verbal frustration at him grinding his crotch against my ass by shoving his hand down the front of my skirt. How delightful

[Cirsium]

(Original post by Athena)
That's horrendous! How do you resist the temptation to break his nose?!

Time number 1 I was barely 18 and in a foreign country and had mistakenly understood that the guy was the boyfriend of one of the girls I was with, so hadn't seen it coming at all and just had a meltdown. Time number 2 I was sufficiently drunk (read: hockey tour) that I pretty much just ineffectually flailed in his general direction and called him a loser

[The Lyceum]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
At your Mum and the protein thing.
It makes me curious to know whether you're African or if you just like African-sounding things (I grew up in South Africa).
We don't stock Baileys anymore because its dangerous And you're not supposed to drink after gym.

Well, sure that rule isn't 100% In my second year for example ontop of usual training and the competition I fought an unusually long match (45 minutes) and celebrated my victory with much drinking afterwards.

Actually come to think of it, pretty much most competitions I've fought in have ended in lots of drinking. I've never really realised how much I drink.

[IlexAquifolium]

It's not too much if you're not George Best

[Craghyrax]

(Original post by The Lyceum)
Well, sure that rule isn't 100% In my second year for example ontop of usual training and the competition I fought an unusually long match (45 minutes) and celebrated my victory with much drinking afterwards.

Actually come to think of it, pretty much most competitions I've fought in have ended in lots of drinking. I've never really realised how much I drink.

I think you misunderstand why you shouldn't drink after exercise. Its not because of it making you more drunk, or having any noticeable effects. Its because it basically wastes your workout by stopping your muscle cells from generating new cells/repairing broken tissue/growing more muscle, and it also inhibits the positive effect gym has on your metabolism and your body's ability to burn sugars and fat. I'm probably exaggerating a bit. It doesn't completely stop these things but it definitely retards and minimises them to a very high degree. So essentially you don't get the benefits from exercise because alcohol interferes.

[Chumbaniya]

(Original post by Cirsium)

I think my perspective changed dramatically when I moved to Bristol. I'm not sure how much of that is a culture shift in terms of things happening here more often and how much is me being indignant at the way things seem to be swept under the carpet and ignored here. Two particular incidents come to mind, one of which involved me essentially being told that I'd probably enjoyed being groped by somebody who I worked with and already really disliked; and the other involving a girl I was pastorally responsible for basically being accused of lying because when a taxi driver assaulted her in a cab with her friends (she was in the front seat) she panicked and did nothing rather than hitting him or trying to get out of the car or something. Half the battle seems to be getting people to realise how prevalent this sort of thing is, and that somebody's reaction or lack of it doesn't mitigate whatever some twisted loser has done. As long as people are prepared to say "but she must have been lying, because I know him and he's a good guy and he wouldn't do that" (yeah, that's a direct quote) then what's to stop "nice" guys doing horrible disgusting things?

And on a completely different tack, I've been asked whether I'm not concerned about getting really muscly too

The "he wouldn't do that" attitude is really interesting, because it shows how willing a lot of people are to assume that a woman is 'misinterpreting' the actions of a man if they accuse him sexual assault/misconduct towards her. It's not the sort of thing that happens for other crimes - if a man accused another man of punching him in the face, there would naturally be disbelief from friends of the accused man if they believe him to be normally good-natured, but there wouldn't be a response along the lines of "Oh he probably just gave you a perfectly acceptable tap on the nose, stop complaining!".

(Original post by Craghyrax)
It makes me curious to know whether you're African or if you just like African-sounding things (I grew up in South Africa).

No African connection at all. I don't know why, but I'm suddenly aware I'm the most boring person imaginable in terms of my family history and upbringing - both sides of my family have been in the same small area of the Midlands for as far back as records go and the two houses I lived in whilst growing up are with 2 miles of each other. It actually felt far away when I was university, and when I lived in London last year. I hadn't even left Europe before this year!

[scarlet ibis]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
I think you misunderstand why you shouldn't drink after exercise. Its not because of it making you more drunk, or having any noticeable effects. Its because it basically wastes your workout by stopping your muscle cells from generating new cells/repairing broken tissue/growing more muscle, and it also inhibits the positive effect gym has on your metabolism and your body's ability to burn sugars and fat. I'm probably exaggerating a bit. It doesn't completely stop these things but it definitely retards and minimises them to a very high degree. So essentially you don't get the benefits from exercise because alcohol interferes.

So my rowing club (essentially a drinking club with a rowing problem) is stuffed then! I generally don't drink much at all, but would half a cider after training still have a detrimental effect?

[The Lyceum]

(Original post by Craghyrax)
I think you misunderstand why you shouldn't drink after exercise. Its not because of it making you more drunk, or having any noticeable effects. Its because it basically wastes your workout by stopping your muscle cells from generating new cells/repairing broken tissue/growing more muscle, and it also inhibits the positive effect gym has on your metabolism and your body's ability to burn sugars and fat. I'm probably exaggerating a bit. It doesn't completely stop these things but it definitely retards and minimises them to a very high degree. So essentially you don't get the benefits from exercise because alcohol interferes.

Well traditionally I've always lifted early (8amish) so I don't normally drink after training, I mean competitions specifically. I can imagine its not the best thing, but then brandy, for example, can help numb the pain of competing. I remember once taking a nasty sword blow to the elbow and Courvoisier (the doctor of champions) did more for me than anything else in that situation.

Sigh all this training talk is making me realise no one is going to force me to start hitting the gym and training again and that it has to come from deep inside me. I literally think I have nothing more to give right now though.