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See the original image at nytimes.com —

The Promise of Fitness Without Effort?

nytimes.com — Can you enjoy the benefits of exercise without the pain of exertion? The answer may one day be yes — just take a pill that tricks the muscles into thinking they have been working out furiously.

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  • that1girlondigg, on 07/31/2008, -7/+47God, what is wrong with us?
    • theberlindoctor, on 08/01/2008, -1/+27We're fat, lazy and want instant results without effort.
    • Tr33fiddy, on 08/01/2008, -7/+16Who is this "God" you speak of?
    • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -1/+4People are becoming like cattle, they don't want to make an effort in any aspect of their lives. Too scared to break a sweat or use their muscles, who knows what unpredictable events could happen if they start to move their wobbly asses, it could cause an earthquake or make even brake their small toe!
    • Joomal, on 08/01/2008, -0/+9The problem doesn't exist because lack of effort in most working home families. The problem exists because of time restraints, too many non-physical work activities, and overall exhaustion from the mental stresses during the course of the day.

      As soon as I don't have to work for a week, I'm at the gym 4 times a week and sleeping 9-10 hours a day. I feel great.

      As soon as I'm back to work, I may get to the gym twice a week, but only followed up with 6-8 hours of sleep and generally get worn down quickly.

      In my opinion, most problems with exercise and training would be solved by only working 4 days a week instead of 5, and/or cutting the working week down to 25-30 hours a week.

      • shagmin, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2You really think more free time would do it? An extra 10-15 hours of free time I bet would 10-15 hours more tv time for many. I think it'd help in some ways but it wouldn't increase the number of people exercising. Those who want to will, no matter how bad their schedule is if someone wants to they will always find time and those who don't want to (and need it the most) will always have another excuse.
      • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1I agree with shagmin, how come you are on digg Joomal when you could have got your work out of the way and be sweating your butt at the gym? Procrastination?
      • Joomal, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2I've already gone to the gym this morning at 6am. 1 hour and 15 minutes is the maximum you should spend there in one day. 45 minutes heavy lifting, 30 minutes jogging.

        I really don't understand why people on digg really have to point fingers and jump to conclusions rather than discuss the topics at hand??
    • bovaejou, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6People work too much, sleep too little and don't eat particularly well.

      These combined make it hard for some people to find the energy and/or time to exercise.

      People need to start working less (for this to happen they also need to *want* fewer items), sleep more (this can happen with less work) and eat more healthily (this could be done with more time, giving more to cook).
      • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3It's called rescheduling their priorities and finding new direction in life. What's the point of all the money if you end up being a fat slob who can't move without a wheel chair?
      • leerayIG88, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2Being a fat slob is nice because you can pay people to massage you to loose the fat.
      • locke2002, on 08/01/2008, -0/+0@TheNakedChef: Not everyone can just send an email to their boss saying "Hey, I'm not working Fridays anymore. You can go ahead and pay me less to compensate." It would take a larger movement in society to say that we want more vacation and fewer hours per week. Meanwhile most Americans don't make enough money to maintain their lifestyles as it is. You can argue that they just need to own less *****, but that's not everyone's problem. Sure Americans have an average credit card debt of X thousands of dollars, but that could just as easily be money spent on unexpected expenses as a new XBox.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4I see absolutely nothing wrong with the possibility of making people healthier without them having to put in a lot of not so fun exercise time that would be better spent working and helping the economy or relaxing and rejuvenating via recreational activities (which may be physical for some, and if so, great, but outdoorsy stuff isn't fun for everyone)

      It's pretty much win-win... why would you complain? I mean, do you think we shouldn't cook our meat, either? After all, people are just being lazy to expect heat to digest stuff for them!

      Honestly, there's no reason to do be forced or shamed into do something the natural way if there is a simple, safe, and effective alternative that is far easier and more efficient.
  • woodge, on 07/31/2008, -3/+16I have always had problems with accepting 'super' pills or medicine that claims to do things that man has always done the hard way, like getting in shape.
    • sanman, on 08/01/2008, -1/+8wait for the big penis pill
      • evilregis, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7Wait for it? I've been getting emails offering it to me at the L0WEST PR1CES EVER for years now.
    • jeremyduffy, on 08/01/2008, -3/+15Screw that, bring on the drugs!
    • theberlindoctor, on 08/01/2008, -1/+4You may have a problem with it, but once everyone else starts bulking up unnaturally social norms will start to shift radically. Everyone will be on these pills. Everyone. Thats what scares me about them..
      • jankind, on 08/01/2008, -1/+4Everyone but me then. I actually enjoy exercise and fitness.
      • Ultrace, on 08/01/2008, -0/+0And then, 5-10 years later when some incurable or disfiguring result comes about from the pills, the few who did things the hard way will be the only ones unaffected... How very clever of you, Mother Nature...
      • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2@Ultrace,

        You mean just like 5-10 years after cars came out, how there was a horrible disease that afflicted all who took the easy way out by not riding horses or walking anymore?

        Or like 5-10 years after the plow was invented, those lazy farming folk got their just deserts and realized the error of their ways, and everybody who hunted and gathered ruled the Earth once again?

        Because it seems an awful lot to me like it was the people who kept insisting on doing things the hard way who suffered for 95% of efficiency inventions throughout human history.
      • sanman, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1People want to look better. It's the natural competition amongst people for more appreciation from their peers or from members of the opposite sex. I think that's fine, as it helps us from falling to abysmally low personal standards. If one day it's possible to give everyone a perfect body without too much pain, then I think that's fine. Man is made of atoms and molecules, and we are increasingly improving our ability to shape matter to meet our needs, including even flesh and blood. I don't object to that.
    • adam71o, on 08/01/2008, -1/+1Umm..... good for you.......I guess?

      I'll take the pill and play xbox 360 (or maybe 720 by that time) while your out sweating your ass off.
    • JKAL, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2Yup, good luck to those who would use this, a side from any side effects of muscle growing without any stretching exercises, this pill would not adequately strengthen your bones at a stable rate as required for your new larger muscles, same goes for your cartilage and tendons, and your lungs would not have experienced a proper growth to handle a larger volumes of air capacity needed to handle your new large muscles also same goes to your heart.
      You also would not have trained your brain (habits) to eat properly so as to maintain said new muscles as you will find you will need to eat more than normal.
      I guess if you want to use this type of pill you need to wait for all the other drugs to tackle what this ones does not do.
  • AndrewKC6, on 08/01/2008, -6/+26You will be in shape but you will steal be a useless undisciplined scrub
    • ErrorLoading, on 08/01/2008, -2/+4Dugg for stealing a useless undisciplined scrub.
    • DamienKarras, on 08/01/2008, -1/+0Dr. Cox?
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4Working out doesn't make you disciplined. Being disciplined helps you work out. So I'm afraid I don't see your point. They wouldn't have gotten better without the pill, either.
    • SquareEnix, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1u need to work on your engrish
    • aterimperator, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1Also, even if it works, it won't get rid of fat, it'll only increase muscles.
  • Alucard010, on 08/01/2008, -10/+37I, for one, welcome our magic-pill overlords.
    • mohsenxp, on 08/01/2008, -5/+3I'm guessing you are 20+ stone.
      • MacEnvy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4Four furlongs to the hogshead, I always say.

        What is it with the UK still using this antiquated "stone" measurement?
      • mohsenxp, on 08/01/2008, -1/+0Interesting really. I wonder that too. I work much better with kg personally. But the stone is just more common here. I slowly turned to the dark side after most people constantly say "but how many stones is that".
        Heck I even measure myself in centimetres. I'm a pretty metric kinda guy really.
  • Mattarang, on 08/01/2008, -1/+35Can you enjoy the benefits of masturbatory orgasms without the semen? The answer may one day be yes — just take a pill that tricks the penis into thinking it has been working out furiously.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1For real - you'd be a billionaire.
    • TastyWheat, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1Call me crazy, but the semen has to stay. What's a bottle rocket without the explosion at the end?
  • foolfoolz, on 08/01/2008, -4/+9Now I can play counter strike all day, but tell the ladies I go to the gym.
    • praetoriansword, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1And they'll no longer be impressed since half of America will be taking these pills and 'ripped' will just become the norm.
  • aftern9ne, on 08/01/2008, -4/+26This begs the question - does a person deserve fitness if they cannot get off their ass?
    • Atomic05, on 08/01/2008, -3/+7No.
    • EntropyFan, on 08/01/2008, -2/+15That is an interesting question.
      Do you own a dishwasher? Do you have a washing machine/dryer, or do you take your cloths down to the river and use rocks to clean them? Do you run everywhere, or have a car?

      There are lots of things that were difficult and/or time consuming, and we have used modern technology to make them easier and more convenient. Why is this so different?
      • Joet1980, on 08/01/2008, -2/+3People seem to have a hard time moving forward. They also think it makes them special because they work so hard for their fit bodies.
      • aftern9ne, on 08/01/2008, -2/+2That is exactly why I ask this question. This sort of evolution in human behavior is much more akin to the switch from nomadic to sedentary lifestyles than from rivers to washing machines.

        Of course it makes things easier, but is the easy way out always the best? And that is why I ask if a person DESERVES to be physically equal to those who put work into it by simply taking a pill.

        Things would be easier if we could genetically alter our children to be how we want them to be physically and mentally, but is that right? There's no clear answer, but I think there's a line where the easy way is not the right way.
      • letuescarpe, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2You'll notice that the article indicates that this "magic pill" could potentially be used for the frail, the obese, and diabetics. I would assume that people who have metabolic disturbances could benefit from this pill as well. It sounds like this pill would be targeted, at first at least, to people who are physically unable to exercise.

        Questioning whether ALL overweight/unfit people deserve to be physically equal seems pretty harsh. Of course everyone deserves to be healthy. We can't punish fat people by forcing them to stay that way, especially when we have a simple solution for it.
      • KingGorilla, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1People don't deserve to be fit if they're doing it for cosmetic reasons
      • praetoriansword, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1It's different because all that you listed are boring everyday tasks that we all have to do and that say nothing about us as individuals. We don't have to work out or exercise in the same way that we don't have to learn a new language or develop a skill or practice an instrument. The fact that we do these things(and which ones we choose to do) say something about us as individuals. How would you like to spend hours of study learning chemistry only to have me take a 'smart pill' that let me skip all that work and be just as smart as you? Seem fair?
    • X9001, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Soon it may not matter
  • mohsenxp, on 08/01/2008, -3/+11This would be good if it will ONLY be used in extreme circumstances for medicinal purposes.
    But seriously, why is science going down this road? I think education is the most important thing to stopping the obesity epidemic. Not working towards magic cures.

    Plus if you are really unfit, working out will be hard and painful at first, but the best part of it is that once your fitness improves it actually becomes enjoyable.
    • wrmjr, on 08/01/2008, -1/+6"why is science going down this road?"

      I'm afraid the answer is simple: MONEY. If someone were to come up with this pill--despite the likelihood of numerous side effects--they would make billions of dollars for the drug industry. We have to realize that much of science is not sought for lofty goals and ideals, but for regular old cash.
    • mleither, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Yes. Unfortunately the consequence of a free market system is that money drives everything. This allows technology to outpace bioethics. If it were up to me, I'd slow down technological advances a bit and let the ethical issues and finances catch up, at least in medicine.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3Why is it any less ethical to take a pill to prevent obesity and muscular dystrophy than to take a pill to prevent polio?

      You could just stay away from big crowds and obsessively cleanse yourself and restrict your dietary sources. That's the "natural way" to prevent polio. Surely we were wasting our time working toward "magical" vaccines to solve problems for us that just took a little elbow grease and complete social isolation.

      If everyone loved exercise, you might have a point, but they don't, and they still wouldn't probably if they did it a lot. I've been a competitive swimmer since I was like 7, and I don't know a SINGLE fellow athlete on my team or others who says, "Yeah! I get to go swim!" on a regular basis.
      • mohsenxp, on 08/01/2008, -1/+1dude being a competitive swimmer is a different matter altogether.
        I am in no way saying one must lend their life to a full time profession of training in order to avoid obesity.
        I am just sick and tired of all these scapegoats and excuses coming out for obesity.

        Your analogy to polio is a little bit confusing also. Firstly obesity is not a disease and you do not get infected by it. It is 100% self inflicted and 100% avoidable. Polio is not.
      • smurfsahoy, on 08/03/2008, -0/+1They're actually very similar, and a lot of people would indeed say that obesity is a disease. It's not pathogenic, if that's what you mean, but that's just a technical detail for the purposes of this analogy.

        Polio is 100% avoidable if you stay in your house all day long and don't communicate with people in person, and if you are very careful about what you have delivered to make sure it's not contaminated. And obesity is not 100% self inflicted. Nobody WANTS obesity. You get it by relaxing your personal rules and allowances, and indulging too much, just like you could get polio back in the day if you relaxed and indulged too often in outings with your friends at contagious public gatherings.
  • phreak79, on 08/01/2008, -2/+5Kinda defeats the purpose of exercise for me, unless these pills can give you the exhileration you get from having a good work out. Plus of course you don't get to ogle the other gym bunnies in skimpy gear if you're sat on your arse at home.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1The gyms can just install webcams!
      • aadnk, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Why not take pills for "exhilaration" then, once your at it?
  • Hax0rJimDuggan, on 08/01/2008, -12/+6I'M GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!
    • obsolite, on 08/01/2008, -1/+9Did all this talk of fat people remind you of how you plan on letting yourself go?
    • evilregis, on 08/01/2008, -1/+11Then there's still time to change your mind.
  • DrDragun, on 08/01/2008, -0/+11What about tendons and connective tissue? The last thing you want is big muscles and wimpy ligaments. They always say take it easy on the squats your first few weeks back in the gym because your muscles will out-grow your tendons and you can pop them right off the bone.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Well perhaps thats a good reason to stay away from these pills yourself for the first few years, but soon it should be obvious that that's either not a problem, or it is, in which case they'd just be banned probably.
    • JKAL, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1yes and muscle flexibility, muscles would need to be stretched on an on going basis to be effective (i.e. some sort of daily routine) so might as well exercise.
  • jeremyduffy, on 08/01/2008, -8/+26People who complain about this pill are like old-fart computer programmers who complain about new coding environments today that do auto-commenting for somethings and have built-in error checking as you type.

    "Bah! That's the lazy way! In my day, we had one missing semi-colon and had to hunt for 3 days before writing the whole damned thing from scratch".

    Yeah, because life was so much better then.
    • ismschisms, on 08/01/2008, -3/+8Fatty...
    • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -3/+4There's nothing better than being proud of something that you didn't have to work for...
      • MacEnvy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Who said people taking this pill would be "proud" of it? This argument can only stem from the vanity of someone who works out just so they can show themselves off rather than someone who does it to be healthy and feel fit.

        For the record I go to the gym 4 times a week, but unlike some people apparently I can keep my smug sense of self-satisfaction to myself.
    • endlessoul, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3Get off my lawn!!
  • o0joshua0o, on 08/01/2008, -3/+16I am not a fat slob who stays inside all day playing WoW. In fact, I exercise pretty regularly. But if there's a pill I can take that will do some of the work for me, I'm all for it. How could you not be? It's like having a choice between having a dishwasher and washing dishes by hand. Either way the dishes get done, but do you want it to be easier or harder?
    • toowired77, on 08/01/2008, -0/+0This is actually good news for disabled and old people that need the benefits of fitness without physically being able to.
  • sassafras1232, on 08/01/2008, -2/+5Buried for linking to an article that requires a login.
    • SlaunchaMan, on 08/01/2008, -0/+5I didn't have to log in. Must be on your end. Try bugmenot.
    • roebeet, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1You just need to enable cookies for the NY Times site.
  • kidblast, on 08/01/2008, -7/+20This is stupid. Get off your asses.
  • ErrorLoading, on 08/01/2008, -3/+3Humans only live so long. Information gain is exponential beyond a training point. Humans are at the point where you need to spend so much time learning before you can add anything to the information base, that any more free time that can be given to a person is welcomed by me. So what if this is unnatural? If something like this did happen, at that time, it wouldn't be seen any different than a vitamin supplement. Why the hell not?
  • lebatte, on 08/01/2008, -1/+13Steroids, guys.
  • kopas, on 08/01/2008, -1/+12Think of these benefits: One, paralyzed individuals who muscles atrophy over time. Two, space exploration where muscles atrophy due to lack of exertion. Plus, being fat and being in shape and not always mutually exclusive.
  • Zman0101, on 08/01/2008, -4/+12But, I actually enjoy exercise..
    • MacEnvy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6So keep doing it. It's not going to be a *mandatory* pill.
  • murk, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6"The last three or four reps is what makes the muscle grow. This area of pain divides the champion from someone else who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens. "

    -Arnold Schwarzenegger
    • hoisonsauce, on 08/01/2008, -0/+7You have to be at a certain level before you can do things like this. When I started working out a friend of mine made me do this and my arms were stuck in an L shape for a week. At least I was able to do the Robot with relative ease.
      • murk, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3when you start, i wouldn't recommend doing anything serious for a few weeks until your muscles get used to it. If i take a long time off and i hit the weights hard (or with med. intensity) my muscles would be sore for an extended period of time.

        take it easy for a month or so, and then go balls to the wall.
    • kraney, on 08/01/2008, -1/+2The last three or four reps, and the steriods: http://www.schwarzenegger-interactive.com/steroids ...
    • praetoriansword, on 08/02/2008, -0/+2What the hell does a Governor know about weight lifting?
  • sodade, on 08/01/2008, -2/+5At 40 years old now, I train 5-6 times a week, but my progress is very slow. I can thank smoking cigarettes from age 12-22 for my huge limitations. If I could take a pill to make up for that so that I actually improved like a healthy 20year old, you can bet that I would.
    • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3At 40 you don't have hormones to improve like 20 year old, that's what steroids are. That's another reason your sex drive is no where near to what it was when you were 18
    • toekneebullard, on 08/01/2008, -1/+4So basically you're saying you'd love a pill that would rid you of the responsibility of your actions when you were younger.

      Who wouldn't?
    • bcrich999, on 08/01/2008, -0/+0Why did smoking cigarettes cause you limitations? That makes no sense...

      Either way -- this pill reminds me of the those electric ab stimulators...
    • JKAL, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1having bigger muscles only, does/will not make you healthy, your limited lung's capacity would not instantly increase, you need to keep working at it. Since you smoked you should also include swiming in your activities to put some strength back into your lungs.
  • roddack, on 08/01/2008, -1/+5Science = Win
  • biogears, on 08/01/2008, -2/+8We're moving towards a society that uses a stimulant to wake up in the morning, a pill to feel happy during the day, another pill to reduce anxiety, vitamins to replace what isn't in food anymore, a pill to replace exercise, a pill to deal with an unplanned pregnancy, a pill to combat addiction, and then a pill to go to sleep at night.

    How about dumping all that and eat right, get some physical activity, get enough sleep, and become more disciplined?

    We are using drugs to compensate for bad behavior.
    • toekneebullard, on 08/01/2008, -1/+1This. Very much all of this.
    • roddack, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2If there is a more efficient way to do it then why not do it that way?

      • toekneebullard, on 08/01/2008, -2/+2IV is a more efficient way of feeding yourself. Must be better than eating.
        A catheter is a more efficient way of getting rid of urine. Must be better than pissing.
        Masterbating is a more efficient way to get semen out of your body. Must be better than sex.

        Yeah, that's really solid logic there.
      • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3@toeknee,

        Those are all false analogies. Catheters and IVs make you more prone to infection, require uncomfortable entry and removal, are embarrassing and restricting, and on top of that, are NOT more efficient. You get more nutrients from less whole food than IV fluid, and catheters add extra failure points, etc.

        Masturbating is definitely not more efficient at getting semen out of your body, either. Unless you just hook up with a lot of really ugly girls... It may take longer on average during sex, but that's by choice, not lack of efficiency. Plus, the whole point of semen is to inseminate females, which is impossible during masturbation - when you're giving these analogies, you have to look at the efficiency of the end goal (which could be pregnancy OR pleasure in this case, both of which sex is better and more efficient at by far).

        And this is not just a trivial point I'm making here - shooting down your three examples. You'll find that it's very difficult to come up with examples that cant be shot down, because when something truly is more efficient, people DO in fact adopt it as the "better" way.

        In the case of this pill, all the conditions are met - pleasure is not a goal (for most people - if it is for the minority, then they can feel free to exercise normally). For most, the goal of exercise is fitness, being buff, etc. The pill does all of that with far less effort (more efficient), and if it was made well, would have zero side effects, unlike catheters, etc.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3How about dumping all of it? Go right ahead. In the meantime, those of us who don't cling to obsolete and inefficient methods (barring evidence of negative health side effects, which you can't assume just because something is a pill) will have 6 times as much free time as you, and we will make more money, get better jobs, and be better educated than you as a result, while still being just as healthy.

      I suppose you think plaster casts, hip replacements, surgery in general are all unnaturally altering our bodies and thus wrong, right?
      • toekneebullard, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1I'd rather be happy than "make more money, get better jobs, and be better educated"
      • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Well that's a beautiful looking straw man you built there, but I never said anything about happiness.

        Since you bring it up, though, there's no reason why exercising normally would lead to happiness and taking a pill wouldn't. In fact, since most people hate exercising, the PILL would be more likely to create happiness too, so add that on to the list of education, money, and jobs.

        That's completely setting aside the fact that a good job, knowledge, and money will make you happier themselves, too.
      • biogears, on 08/02/2008, -1/+0Well that's a beautiful looking straw man you built there, but I never said anything about hip replacements.
      • smurfsahoy, on 08/03/2008, -0/+1Okay... I don't think they're the same at all, but here: I'll indulge you. Go ahead and disregard the part about hip replacements in my post. The main point I am making still stands...
    • praetoriansword, on 08/02/2008, -0/+3Wow dude, you sound stressed about this stuff. You should try some Xanax.
  • MrAwesomeMan, on 08/01/2008, -1/+5Excellent! No more photoshopping my head onto bodybuilder's bodies anymore.
    • praetoriansword, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1Excellent! No more photoshopping MrAwesome's head onto bodybuilder's bodies anymore.
  • wontstoptalking, on 08/01/2008, -3/+7For the love of God, a pill cannot replace excercise. The reason is because excercise actually physically burns off energy and calories. It's like you don't not work out just because you can take steroids. You still work out because steroids have horrible side effects and produce unnatural, unhealthy muscles.

    A pill might "trick" your body to think it's being excercised, but what's your body going to do? The actual physical work burns off calories. A pill might be an imitator (much like steroids) but it will never do the job excercise does as good as excercise does.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4*Rolls eyes*

      The obvious implication is that the same pill or another pill would also cause your body to eliminate fat. Otherwise yeah, the idea is just trivially useless.

      This is like complaining that the article doesn't mention eating protein, therefore it will never work, because hormones can't build muscles without the raw materials to do so. Duh - it's implied you'll have to eat enough, too. This is obviously just one link in a chain of hypothetical advances that work together.
  • jankind, on 08/01/2008, -3/+2FTA "They should help people who are too frail to exercise and those with health problems like diabetes that are improved with exercise, Dr. Evans said."

    Right...And lazy ***** sacks.
    • zmigliozzi, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1And the question is how they get too frail, oh wait because people don't exercise and have terrible diets.
      • ModernDayDarwin, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2Or they are getting up there in age, have been in some form of accident, or any of a number of things. Just because something can, and will, be abused doesn't mean you shouldn't consider it. There's nothing to indicate this would be an over the counter thing. With proper monitoring, and medical attention, this could be a very useful thing.
  • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -1/+10As a gym junkie I say that the pill misses big point and the people who want the pill and just seat on their ass miss big picture. There's more to gym than just having muscles. Is the pill going to make me feel exhausted and yet feeling good? Will my brain be swimming in endorphins and dopamine like it is after a hard work out? Or will I need to pop some E with some Codein as well? Will it make my bones stronger? Which is the major reason why I lift weights, I ride a bike (and crash) and I want my bones resist the impact when I slam tarmac on the race track. Will it help develop the CNS (Central Nervous System) which actually uses the muscles and power them, will it work on reflexes, or am I going have useless blobs of meat hanging on me? There's a huge social aspect about going to gym as well. Also having lots of muscle doesn't mean you will be fit, there's cardiovascular system and lungs as well. Since I train for power and strength and neglect cardiovascular workouts, my stamina is extremely poor and I fatigue fast, I've been working on this lately to help me last longer through my sessions on my bike.

    @ErrorLoading above me, maybe you should expend seeking your knowledge and start learning about one of the most important things in universe, your own body. After all, how can you have a healthy mind if you don't have a healthy body.
    • ModernDayDarwin, on 08/01/2008, -1/+3I agree with you Chef, but I think your zealotry could be missing the point. I would support this for people that have an actual medical need for something like this. My mother for example, who after winning a fight with Hodgkins Lymphoa cancer was told very sternly by her doctor "No heavy physical activity." Or my grandfather who was diagnosed with diabetes before his death (RIP). He was way too old to be pumping iron at the gym, and what he was capable of wasn't enough to combat the disease.

      This should be considered as a supplement for those that aren't medically capable of doing it the right way, like you and I.

      All that being said I would probably be rather upset if it was made available to the masses to "cure America's obesity epidemic." Of course, maybe then I'd always be able to use my favorite cardio machines without worrying about a line ;)
      • TheNakedChef, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2There's no zealotry, but the people who are posting here and want the pill are hardly the ones who require it. I'm not against steroids either, had friends who took them, but they still got to work hard to rip rewards from them, it's not like they muscles come from no where. I also don't have a problem with steroids being used in medicine for AIDS patients etc.

        What I've a problem with is the "pop a pill" to fix your problems attitude where no work is required.
    • smurfsahoy, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Building muscle is not as complex as you're making it out to be. You hit your muscles hard, and your body puts out hormones to trigger various responses to repair yourself.

      If a pill simulates those hormones correctly, then yes, your bones would get stronger too, and your CNS, and you'd feel good. Since this is a pill that would pump the hormones in general, it is very likely that it would also increase cardiovascular health and lung health, since the heart and diaphragm are muscles just like anything else.

      You might not be tired, but I don't really understand why that's a bad thing... Being alert is better for just about any activity in life.

      And every time I go to the gym, I hear about 10 sentences exchanged the whole time, mostly "Hey, will you spot me for a sec?" or "How much can you bench?" Yes, obviously this is a source of indispensable social connection in our lives that could NEVER be replaced by, I don't know, joining a book club during the same timeslot in your schedule...
      • TheNakedChef, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1I've made lots of friends at the gym, even starting off with will you spot me. Later on it can end up with going out and picking up girls at clubs.

        You have just showed that you don't know how human body works. CNS, lungs, bones etc... have nothing to do with hormones. Lets take a body builder, they have pretty weak CNS, since it can only recruit about 30% of their muscle fibre at any time. Compare it to an olympic or power lifter where they can recruit between 70-90% of their muscle fibres at one time. CNS is trained by recruiting more nerve fibres to be fired at any one time. It's training your brain, kind of like playing sudoku, that trains your brain as well to become faster at a puzzle. Next thing I will hear that a person will be able to pop a pill and instantly become great at martial arts, top soccer star, swimmer or valentino rossi. The person is dreaming, since there's a huge brain/CNS component in it and it's not just muscles.

        Bones are not build by hormones either, they are made stronger by the micro-fractures which are created in the bones. The more you load up your skeleton, the more fractures you create, the stronger it will get. Same principle as in martial arts training where they hit shins and other bones and bruise them to get them stronger at those points.

        Increasing lung capacity has nothing to do with diaphragm. It's to do with lungs becoming more efficient at exchanging oxygen and CO2 by creating more capillaries in the lungs. Same as cardiovascular health, more capillaries in muscles and stronger heart. That's where it becomes tricky, you don't want the heart to be to muscular, because than it decreases it's efficiency.

        There's a whole lot more that I could write, but I'm not about to rewrite books that were written on this subjects.
      • smurfsahoy, on 08/03/2008, -0/+1You're making a lot of false assumptions here.

        The CNS component of power lifting is not anything like playing sudoku. One has to do with semantic memory, and the other is just building a more extensive network of nerves down in the body - just like with the capillaries in the cardio training you mentioned. You know how you grow more nerves? You send hormones to those areas of your body telling certain cells to split and reproduce and branch out, etc. according to their DNA instructions. This could absolutely be stimulated by the correct pill. Sudoku learning is NOT guided by preexisting DNA, it is experience guided, thus not simulated by a pill.

        Same for capillaries and for bones - both repair or grow in response to hormones. They aren't going to be the SAME hormones, but they're still hormones. I never said the pill would only have one ingredient in it. Only that it could theoretically be done with a pill. Which it can.

        The bottom line here that addresses most or all of your objections is this: NOTHING improves or grows while you are actually lifting weights. Weightlifting is all about causing damage only - the right kind of damage, which will cause the right kind of growth to be TRIGGERED later at night or the next day. And everything complicated in your body (with very few exceptions, like bacterial infection) is triggered by things called hormones. Hormones can be simulated and put in pills or syringes. This would allow you to "repair" your lungs or heart or bones without ever damaging them, which could quite likely even make stronger muscles or bones than you would get lifting weights...
  • bovaejou, on 08/01/2008, -0/+10Fitness isn't just about having your muscles worked.

    It's also about flexibility, cardiovascular ability, central nervous system activity, balance, coordination, connective tissue strength and more. Barbell training satisfies all these conditions. (If interested, read up on Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength routine).

    This may just cause people to believe they're fit and hence have them feel no need for exercise, which is bad.
  • grahag, on 08/01/2008, -0/+6I can see a couple benefits for this. For people who are morbidly obese and exercise is physically painful and damaging (beyond normal expectations), and then for people who have been injured and are sedentary and unable to exercise. Or as stated previously, this could be a fantastic supplement for space travellers.

    It's interesting to note how the majority of people just assume that lazy people will just use it as a replacement for exercise. You just need to look a little bit deeper to see where this COULD go.

    Granted, there's a lot of room for abuse, but I think this could do some real good for people.

    Too many cynics out there.
  • 054k4, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2I couldn't read the entire article because I needed to log on to the news page (I don't have a subscription to it) but I think this is a bad idea. Although an exercise pill would be good at first, you are just taking the easy way out. Exercising needs commitment and develops a good work effort; and if one could easily become fit by taking a pill, it's just like having plastic surgery. Let's have a thought experiment, one major aspect of becoming fit is to attract the opposite sex. Given this, lets just say that everyone took this pill and therefore became ripped/fit. If everyone was fit then everyone would be more or less the same, thus fitness wouldn't be such an important criteria to finding or attracting the opposite sex. Second, if everyone was fit, it would lower the mortality rate as one gets older since (assuming that this pill burns fat) would eliminate/lessen the affects health problems such diabetes and obesity. But with more people living longer, the must use more resources and thus the enviroment go to hell (assuming that nothing is done), plus think of socal security. I'm not saying that this pill is bad, but one needs to think of the overall effects on society.
    • o0joshua0o, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1If your only motivation for working out is just to impress the opposite sex, you won't have the motivation you need to keep at it long-term. If your motivation is that it's healthy and it makes you feel good, you're much more likely to incorporate it into your lifestyle.
  • mikemil828, on 08/01/2008, -1/+1Of course the folks that spends hundreds of dollars going to the gym will be unhappy about this, all this wasting time and money at the gym would be for naught if you could simply get the same results through a pill.
  • dinosaurblood, on 08/01/2008, -0/+5They had this in the game Bioshock, and from what I recall there were no adverse side effects.
  • ironmn86, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1now i gotta say this would be great for the people they were talking about in the article, but you know this drug will be abused once it gets released. thenakedchef is right on this one it cant change or help the many other benefits that happen when you work out. plus if everyone is tone and buff off there asses, it will kinda take away the fact that you, at one point, worked out and show people that you have strength and determination. but other than for the people who have actual medical issues, such as ms or diabetes, i think this pill should not be accessible to them.
  • WardOnTheWeb, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Results with little effort, huh? Sounds a bit too good to be true. I strongly doubt these drugs will make it through the FDA approval process, if not for adverse health consequences then because the diet and exercise industry will lobby against them.
  • znicket, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2I´m surprised at the negative reaction to something that has the potential to improve the health for many people. Yes, exercise is better and eating healthy has a great benefit but we know that the vast majority of people will do neither. Here we have a pill that can potentially increase overall health over the population. Why is this a bad thing?

    We might end up with a population where obesity becomes something you see in those old photographs from the 1990s.
    That has got to be a good thing.
  • ModernDayDarwin, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2Relative to a lot of American's, I could be considered a fitness buff. A good week I'm at the gym 7 days a week, a slow one I'm there 4 days a week. I eat healthy, but still indulge more often than I should (peanut butter fudge ice cream is goooood). Anyway, I would love this pill for the few days a week i sometimes don't' find the time to get to the gym. That being said, though, I'd much rather see this be monitored hard core and only given to people have a medical need for it.
  • imbachr, on 08/01/2008, -2/+1“It is possible that the couch potato segment of the population might find this to be a good regimen, and of course that is a large number of people.”

    Great, even more fat couch potatoes popping pills and increasing medical costs for the rest of us
    • ModernDayDarwin, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1I'd file that under "misuse" personally.
  • jam3p, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1I'm not even going to get into the laziness part, because that can be seen as a matter of personal preference, etc. Some people like to work out, like to sweat, like to do active things for the competition.

    But even reading this headline made me uncertain. I cannot see in any way how this can be made safe, and I would never ever take it. (I have visions of my heart exploding or something.) While I'm no doctor, I just know that usually the shortcut is more dangerous - that's why it's a shortcut.
  • SoCalMario, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1My goodness!! Why do people think that a simple pill is the answer to their fitness problems? Havent we all seen all the gimicks on tv?? The "ab-shocker" that promises to give you six pack abs by "melting" the fat away or the millions of contraptions that promise a leaner body in 60 days and crap like that. Just join a gym, or buy some weights and be consistent! Watch your diet and quit eating fast food! Lazy ass people!
  • liquidfirex, on 08/01/2008, -0/+4This is type 1 muscle fibers, so the marathon runners have. This won't make you Arnold, that's type 2 muscle fibers, it may make you more Kenyan however.
  • Zonf86, on 08/01/2008, -0/+2Just because this pill may increase our fitness, it doesn't mean we won't still fuel our bodies with crap food.
  • toekneebullard, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Something tells me that if being in shape only takes a pill, then being in shape will no longer be such a significant marker socially.

    Is that good or bad?
  • kponto, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1It would be great for astronauts.
    • r0mper, on 08/01/2008, -0/+0Great point, except for the fact that a prerequisite for becoming an astronaut is being in good physical shape.
  • Stiles05s, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1less fat people is fine by me!
  • kraftj, on 08/01/2008, -0/+3Read the article before you comment, boys and girls.

    You STILL MUST EXERCISE to get in shape and burn off calories. THIS PILL JUST HELPS those gain the energy needed, who are either too "frail" to exercise or too ***** lazy to turn off the TV.
  • jamesjpj, on 08/01/2008, -1/+0" They should help people who are too frail to exercise and those with health problems like diabetes that are improved with exercise, Dr. Evans said."
    Yea Right. That's exactly what it used for.
    [sarcasm]
  • waluum, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1If you take in more calories each day than you burn then you will gain weight. If you take in fewer than you burn then you will lose weight. One way that you burn calories is through exercise - exerting yourself physically burns more calories. Eat reasonable portions of healthy meals and get a fair amount of exercise (whether for strength or endurance) in each day and you will be fine.

    Hard work is the only cure to stubborn laziness.
  • sodade, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1@bcrich999 you don't think that a pack a day habit starting at age 12 had a negative effect on my physical development?

    @toekneebullard - yep, that about sums it up

    @JKAL At this point, I don't think my lungs are the limiting factor, I think it has more to do with my physique being weakened due to my smoking during my developmental stage. Then again, I may just have ***** genes.
  • nydwarf, on 08/01/2008, -0/+1Isn't this what the Wii Fit is for?
  • TastyWheat, on 08/02/2008, -0/+1They invented steroids?
  •  

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