well, with all due respect, and without knowing anything about your routines, i don't think gym workouts are actually necessarily good for your health.
Well, that depends on how you measure, "good for your health". Is lifting heavy hard on your joints? Yes. However, there are supplements you can add to offset some of this. Is it good for your muscles, mental wellness, cardio, self-confidence, etc.? I would say it is.
some of it consists of very unnatural movements that will break down the body over time. now, you already know this of course, and i don't mean to sound condescending, but i sense we may not actually be talking about the same things when we're talking about health, so maybe i should explain.
I completely understand what you're saying, and I agree. People (often taught to do so by the idiot trainers who work in most gyms) do very stupid things. That said, there are plenty of tried and true movements, that don't run counter to the body's natural tendencies.
imo: the kind of things people do to look good on the beach are definitely good for exactly that, but are not necessarily conducive to health. getting ripped and getting healthy are entirely different paths, that happen to intersect at some, but far from all, points
Being healthy requires exercise (see below). Exercise typically means growing your muscle mass (to varying degrees) and reducing your body fat. Both of these factors intersect with looking good on the beach. Mind you, I'm not talking about looking good in the way some roid freak "looks good".
basically my idea of healthy is: look at what our bodies were probably meant to do from an evolutionary standpoint, and try to mimic that as closely as possible. this goes for every aspect of life: food, sleep, exercise etc. we were not meant to use machines in gyms or lift dumbbells, we were meant to walk around in the forest, run a bit, carry shit around, climb trees, etc.
In theory, this is wonderful. In reality, it's not practical. By evolutionarily speaking, I'll assume we're talking about the way we use to live, before modern technology became so prevalent. From that perspective, I'll assume you mean hunting, gathering, farming, etc. We once did these things from sunrise to sunset. However, we do almost none of these things in daily life. And even if we do, we don't spend anywhere near the time we did when we were evolving.
be active, but don't be a gym rat
One of the fundamental precepts I've always subscribed to, with regard to exercise, is "good, better, best". It's good to be active. It's better to exercise. It's best to train. So, it's great that you're active, walk around in the forest, and climb the occasional tree. It's certainly better than sitting here arguing with me about which version of Queensryche sucks least.
That said, are the activities you're doing making up for the things that our bodies were meant to do? I would argue that you're not even coming close. Thinking of it this way... if we once spent 12 hours a day doing moderate level work, are you more likely to achieve those benefits by doing an hour's worth of easy work (walking through the forest) or with an hour of intense work (lifting weights)? I would argue the answer is the latter.
