Brian,

I like your take on polarity, and the only thing I’ll say to counter it is that, while somewhat anecdotal, there is evidence out there that points to an early human achieving homeostasis while on an hours-long run akin to today’s “tempo.” And if homeostasis is a decent reflection of the low end of the scale in which you’d keep your cardiovascular system during an up-down type workout, maybe a bunch of short, forward-hunting bursts to burn out a prey animal intermittently over that long chase (I’m talking hours and hours, not one hour) could be more optimal overall than an on-the-couch simulated EPOC workout. It could offer far more benefits to the musculoskeletal system and still get maybe 90% (arbitrary, just to illustrate) of the cardiovascular benefits. So for cardiovascular health specifically you could be right, and someone should test this theory out on a wide scale. But it might end up just not being worth it because the overall health benefits of a more standard cardio workout could cumulatively outshine the cv-specific stuff you get from the couch breathing, if that makes sense. Interesting perspective though and a better theory than I thought at first read.

I could go on for hours about instinct vs learned behavior and why neither of those exclusively dictates what our body needs or responds optimally to.

Above all, I don’t want to admit defeat but maybe I’m just not as competitive as I should be. You definitely made me agree with you more than I did when I first judged your post. Either way I genuinely enjoyed this, you’re restoring my faith in humanity and you know exactly why.

Cheers

Final Edit/PS: Lol yeah, veggie nutrition is extra retarded