Wear and tear?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Wear and tear?

Reader question:

Please explain “wear and tear”, as in: “High-intensity workouts come with a lot of wear and tear to the body.”

My comments:

High-intensity workouts?

Such as running the 100-meter dash, for instance. Olympians are able to finish the 100-meter race in about 10 seconds. That’s how intense it is – Athletes run as fast as they can, giving their all, sparing no effort.

Other high-intensity exercises include the marathon, going swiftly to the other extreme of athletics – or mountain climbing, cycling, swimming, aerobic dancing, anything that makes you feel exhausted and burned out physically afterwards.

Wear and tear to the body?

That means these types of high-intensity workouts are very taxing to the body, putting great pressure to the joints on the knee, for example, and may lead to permanent physical damage in the long run.

Wear and tear practically means they’ll make you feel worn and torn.

Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Let’s find more fitting examples for worn and torn. If you wear the same cotton clothes all year round, for instance, at the year end you may find your shirts and trousers threadbare in some places and torn in others. Similarly, if you wear the same pair of shoes all year round, you’ll probably find them worn and, literally, torn apart.

Wear and tear, in short, refers to the damage caused by continued use. “Wear” and “tear” means the same thing, actually. These two words work together as a phrase simply because they rhythm, sounding musical and nice to the ear.