Butterfly is the worst exercise?

Former Member
Former Member
New York Times magazine article on the best exercise "Let’s consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in sports, the butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs. It burns more calories, demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue than those other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a swimmer’s endurance and contribute to weight control. So is the butterfly the best single exercise that there is? Well, no. The butterfly “would probably get my vote for the worst” exercise, said Greg Whyte, a professor of sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University in England and a past Olympian in the modern pentathlon, known for his swimming. The butterfly, he said, is “miserable, isolating, painful.” It requires a coach, a pool and ideally supplemental weight and flexibility training to reduce the high risk of injury."
Parents
  • "high risk of injury"??? Relative to what--sitting on the couch? Do your studies consider people performing the stroke properly. Please show me the data on this. I'm sure you have plenty of elegant, double blind, prospective, randomized trials to support your statements on butterfly specific injury. If not, please be more careful with your opinions. Butterfly is hard enough to master without uninformed bad press scaring people away. "requires a pool"??? "requires a coach"???? I would think a well respected professor would be able to bring to bear a little more substantive support onto his assertions. Good Grief
Reply
  • "high risk of injury"??? Relative to what--sitting on the couch? Do your studies consider people performing the stroke properly. Please show me the data on this. I'm sure you have plenty of elegant, double blind, prospective, randomized trials to support your statements on butterfly specific injury. If not, please be more careful with your opinions. Butterfly is hard enough to master without uninformed bad press scaring people away. "requires a pool"??? "requires a coach"???? I would think a well respected professor would be able to bring to bear a little more substantive support onto his assertions. Good Grief
Children
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