JensenZ

There's no need to inject your own words into my story. The reason for the banning of fruit are clear and not disputed. They also have bins asking people to discard fruit and other food. My story was about how customs handled an obvious and honest mistake. It's pretty obvious that no traveller would purposefully import 2 rotten bananas.

What was nonsense? You should try reading a post before making a reply.

This reminds me of my own experience back in about 1998. I was flying from US to Australia. I packed 2 bananas in my carry on bag which I intended to eat on board. I'd forgotten about them, and when I was picking up my bags at the Brisbane airport the sniffer dogs were getting excited at the smell of overripe bananas. They did a full search and treated me like a criminal due to an obvious mistake. Wtf would anyone smuggle 2 overripe bananas (practically mush at this point) into Australia. Customs officers are not allowed to use common sense. The whole customs team was totally bamboozled and didn't know what to do. I was there for hours, waiting for a decision. Luckily they didn't arrest me and sent a fine in the mail. This is no way to treat tourists... over fruit. A tourist is not importing fruit, but bringing something to eat. Just throw it in a bin and tell the tourist it's not allowed.

Having spent a lot of time in both countries... if you can't "have a bloody good time" in Thailand, you're not going to have fun in Philippines. In fact, Thailand is a much better place to be and I have no desire to go back.

I'm with you on that. I did enough travelling when I was young/er. I have no desire for it now in my 60s. I really enjoy the quiet life.

You're not going to die? Of course we are all in the same boat. Even if you make it past 83, you're probably not healthy enough to really enjoy life anyway. Facing reality does not mean you're depressed or depressing.

That's the key question here that no one can answer. Do the Amphur Offices send divorce information directly to the Immigration Office? Your lawyers say they do (now), but I'm not convinced.

My gym is not big (25m2 - a normal bedroom size), but the cardio machines are the best you can get. The risk of injury using an HIIT program is far higher than a more gentle cardio routine - risk of injury and cardiac accidents and other. This is not even a debate as it's so obvious. Do a study of injuries using HIIT vs more gentle regimes. It's a no brainer which is more dangerous. Obviously it's not the best choice for elderly people. Sustaining it long-term will likely be more difficult too, but that's another debate. It's hard to push to high intensity level week after week, month after month, and you're more likely to miss workouts in the long run as there's a natural resistance to high intensity exercise vs gentle exercise. You'll be learning this hard fact after you've been at it a bit longer. The main difference is you push your heatrate up quickly doing strenuous exercise for short bursts whereas I raise it slowly and steadily, probably to similar levels but without the same risk of injury. It might take me 10 - 15 minutes or longer to reach the same HR that you reach in seconds. My heart is working more steadily and efficiently and I'm not producing oxygen debt at probably a higher level of work. Overall my workout requires more effort and burns more calories, and is more sustainable long term.

You said you've been at it for several months and you feel good. I took that as 2 months. If I don't know more about training in gyms after 50 years vs your 4 months, I should shoot myself. I've trained all over the world and in my own gyms. The comment about your gym being better than mine is absurd. You will have more equipment in a public gym. I will wager any amount you wish that my workouts in my home gym are superior to yours. It's not the equipment, but what you do with it that counts. Let me know how you want to setup the wager - I'm all in.

This is a good point. I'm not a drinker myself, but many of my Australian buddies coming here on vacation get wasted when they go out. They don't carry anything so they don't risk losing it. These are the hapless individuals the Immigration police prey on... like taking candy from a baby. Is it a bad thing to get wasted in Pattaya? Well, that's the type of tourists a place like Pattaya (and Bali) attracts. It is a party town. They don't come here to visit temples.

I don't believe "elderly" was categorized. I didn't expect some newby who knows it all to reply "complete BS". Had I known, I would have spent more time explaining my reasoning. I will absolutely own the comment that HIIT is not for you. Come back in one year and we'll see how you're going.

Some elderly people can do it safely. Some elderly people are very fit and have exercised for a very large part of their lives. Most elderly people are not fit and many have never done much exercise. In these cases, there are better and safer ways to exercise. I've never stopped exercising since I was 15 years old - I can do HIIT, but I believe my program is far superior. About training to the point of failure. This is not necessary. You can get stronger without pushing to failure. I never push to failure, but I get stronger. Actually you will get stronger faster if you leave something in the tank. The risk of injury increases exponentially as you reach failure. Train injury free and don't push to failure.

You might have missed it. This bickering was a result of a reply started with "complete BS". That's a sure fire way of ruining a good thread. My apologies if it went on too long.

Good advice. I do a combination of walking and machine cardio (rowing, Skiing and Cybex Arc trainer), and weights for 6 days a week with one rest day. Most importantly I closely monitor my body's response to the exercise and make adjustments if I'm not recovering sufficiently. At my age (in 60's) it's important to maintain painfree joints (knees, shoulders, back etc), so the choice of exercises is more limited that it was in my youth. Body feedback is the most important aspect of my program. When I do slow to moderate cardio, I monitor my heart rate and maintain it between 125 to 140. You don't need HIIT to raise the level of you heart rate, but instead of raising it for 30 seconds or so, I would raise it and keep it raised for longer periods.

They do not. Links need to be checked and cross-checked and can spread lots of BS (your favourite word). There's more than enough marketing BS on the WWW. What you didn't grasp is that a true scientific study of real HIIT vs slow or moderate cardio is impossible due to the range of programs and length of programs that can be designed. How long, how intense, what exercise, how often. At the end of the day, make your choice. I didn't preclude the idea of using HIIT for everyone, but for people who are not in condition and old. You are definitely not fit to use HIIT. I suspected you were doing a dumbed down version of HIIT, so in reality it's not true HIIT. You are doing moderate cardio and light resistance work. That's good! Keep it up!

Unfortunately the NY Times is a subscription only news site so I can't read it. I agree with what you said. The problem we might have these days, with the popularity of HIIT is that the intensity of the program can vary a lot and a lot of people who think they are doing HIIT are not. There is no way that a person should (or could do) true HIIT everyday. 3x a week max.

You're obsessed with links. All your links are irrevant as they don't compare HIIT programs with longer, slower cardio programs, and the range of longer programs is endless. I would recommend you stop doing it immediately as your internal health is dismall. Start doing some resistance work and more gentle cardio. I would recommend the Cybex Arc Trainer. Look it up - you have Google.

It's not a cut and dry situation. Bodyweight is a huge factor in running stress on the knees. Every extra pound of bodyweight increases the stress on the knees by a factor of 3 - 4 times. I'm a muscular 100kg. There is no way I'm going to run for cardio. Marathon runners are generally super lightweights.

The link you provided was from a rehabiliation clinic, selling services. Find real data and it needs to be a direct comparision of different training regimes conducted scientifically.

Seriously? Your very first words were "Complete BS" and you think I'm rude and condescending. I could swamp this thread with discussions and articles of HIIT vs moderate cardio exercise for elderly people. This is all new and exciting for you, but I've researched this for 20 years. You can just use Google, no need for my help. The reason why these rehabiliation clinics like HIIT is because most people are lazy and they like quick workouts. It's appealing. You like your program, good - you're still alive. A good doctor would not have cleared you, but this is Pattaya - anything goes.

Good luck finding a doctor who understands what HIIT is. If you went to a proper sports doctor, you wouldn't have been cleared.

You can count yourself lucky. That personal trainer doesn't have a clue what he is doing if he is actually using HIIT. He's probably using a dumbed down version for you. Btw, go back and read my original post. I said it is dangerous for people who are not in good condition, and/or old. Unlike you, I've done a lot of cardio and strength training for 50 years, (never stopped) since 1975. You've been doing HIIT or whatever it is you do for 2 months, and now you're an expert. There's no need to reply. You don't know anything. In your physical condition you might not last another month anyway.

If you can't show the evidence, it didn't happen.

The worst idea of all. Putting a passport or phone in a carry bag is a good way to lose them.

What a wonderful way to start a conversation and an argument. So be it... Strength training and HIIT are not the same. You can strength train at any age, as long as you build up slowly and know your limits. I do both strength and cardio training, at 64, but never HIIT (but tried it a lot when I was younger). If you are suggesting that we should use HIIT for any reason whatsoever - that's complete BS. By suggesting that HIIT is dangerous (that's pretty obvious if you understand what HIIT is, which you obviously don't), that's not saying strength work is bad or unnecessary. Here's what I do: 1. Rowing (3x - 1 hour per week) 2. Ski Erg (3x - 30 min per week) 3. Cybex Arc (3x - 2 hours a week) 4. Weights (5x per week - short sessions working the main muscle groups) 5. Walking (including stair climb 3x a week - 3 hours) I have my own gym. NO HIIT. In cardio I gently increase my heart rate to an average of between 130 - 140 bpm, and occasionally push it a bit higher - slowly. There's not much you can teach me about cardio or strength traing, but by all means, send me the data.