Hmm, I learned a bit about something I didn't know I didn't know much about. And then through the comments I learned a bit more. I'd say that's exactly why I come here :)
For the record, there is a large number of long time users to this site that are very serious about lifting in general. Furthermore, as it's been repeatedly stated, articles that are submitted to HN are what interest the community and many members of this community are interested in lifting.
Powerlifting for 10 here. Just hit 40, and I'm stronger than I've ever been. What scared me into seriously exercising when I hit 30 was that it started being painful for me to walk up a single flight of stairs, and when I went to my doctor she looked at me with utter disdain and handed me a sheet of basic bodyweight exercises and sent me packing...
Now my 1RM squat is 192.5kg / 424lbs and my knees never give me trouble any more.
I think quite a few of us get into lifting partly because we need something to counteract the damage office jobs and sedentary lifestyles out of work do, and partly because it's something that fits the hacker mindset - weight lifting, whether oly or powerlifting or body building, lets you endlessly tweak programs and diets and measure results fairly precisely.
Every time an article that has something to do with diet, exercise, or lifting gets posted we come out of the woodwork. Awesome goal by the way, I wish best of luck with it.
That's why there's a voting system. If enough people think it's interesting, then it makes the front page. Trying to tell people what to vote for is not productive.
Of course we don't think that. Some people found it interesting, and it's good for HN to have a wide range of stories.
Most times when someone has a fixed idea of what this site is supposed to be about, they get it wrong. HN is supposed to be about literally anything, as long as it's intellectually interesting. We don't mean that in a highbrow sense—topics not traditionally thought of as intellectual are welcome. This story is perhaps borderline by HN's criteria, but at worst it's not far off, and the thread is substantive, so we decided not to call it off-topic.
Story diversity is super important here. No one would call Rust off-topic, yet we don't want a front page of all Rust stories. At least most of us don't!
In no way this is related to what this site is about. There're hundreds of site where stuff like this is supposed to be posted and discussed.
I wouldn't care if I wouldn't need to read to all those cs and startup unrelated headlines.