THE STUPID SCALE
Welcome to the STUPID scale (Some Totally Unreasonable People In Denial scale) web site. We cooked this up entirely for fun. The questions were curated from a decade-long conversation with a group of runners/triathletes/cross fit types with extensive experience doing themselves harm through physical activity. There were the two gentleman who, independent of one another, trained so hard they fractured their femoral necks. That was impressive. Then, there was the guy who ran so much he developed Rhabdomyolysis in the Tibialis Anterior. You know Rhabdo, as it is called, is that syndrome where your muscles essentially dissolve into mush from working out too much? Or the more mundane types who would take 2 weeks off for some form of tendinitis (when they actually needed to take 4 weeks off). Upon returning to exercise, they act as if they did not take any time off and run, lift, swim, or bike just as hard as they did before their injury causing themselves an immediate new injury? Not to mention the folks who would work out so hard that they would pass out or poop themselves. In contrast, there were the folks who trained in a disciplined fashion, took adequate time off for injury or illness, and returned to working out in a deliberate and careful fashion. Colloquially, it appeared that some of us were stupid and some were not. We don’t mean stupid in the classic sense of IQ, but more in the category of lacking common sense about our bodies all in the service of some perverse goal (e.g., running that marathon a few weeks after that other marathon, etc).
Some of the less than wise individuals in this group also happened to make a living measuring things and hit upon the idea that we should measure this tendency and thus the STUPID scale was born. Out of genuine curiosity, we want to know who is the most STUPID of them all (mirror, mirror…). So, please fill out our survey and some related questions about your exercise history.
Currently, we have enough data to give a partial answer to the question of who is the most STUPID of them all. Across the first 350 people, the winning group for the most STUPID are the triathletes:
Currently, we have enough data to give a partial answer to the question of who is the most STUPID of them all. Across the first 350 people, the winning group for the most STUPID are the triathletes:
Mean |
Standard Deviation |
|
1. Active Triathletes 🥇 |
13.63 |
4.66 |
2. Active Swimmers 🥈 |
11.81 |
5.58 |
3. Active Runners 🥉 |
10.85 |
4.39 |
4. Active Cyclists |
10.63 |
4.87 |
Where do you rank against these groups? Fill out the survey and find out. We’ll show you how you measure up against these esteemed groups of athletes as well as everyone who has completed the measure. As we are not in the least bit convinced that triathletes are the stupidest of all, share the survey with your friends, teammates, distant acquaintances, or even most dreaded competitors. With more data, we’ll be able to tell whether other groups (cough, cough, CrossFit types???) are the truly stupidest group.
And if you are bored click on some of the other surveys on our website. Those are for science, so you’ll be helping our research team. And, in most cases, we give you feedback on those measures so you can learn something else about yourself other than your propensity to inflict physical harm on yourself through sporting activities.
And if you are bored click on some of the other surveys on our website. Those are for science, so you’ll be helping our research team. And, in most cases, we give you feedback on those measures so you can learn something else about yourself other than your propensity to inflict physical harm on yourself through sporting activities.