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How to Build Muscle

julian.com

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Re: How to Build Muscle

#81

Post by gaius »

jmartinpetersen wrote: post #55
gaius wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stretching cold muscles will do nothing at best or injure you at worst - stretch after your workout. Warmup with light exercises first. E.g. if you are planning barbell squats, start with air squats.

"Another warmup type that provides no performance benefit is doing a light starting set before lifting your normal weights (study). " This advice worries me. You do not warm up to increase performance in each session, you warm up so that you can keep doing sessions (hint: you can't work out when you're injured).

Absolutely. Air squats before real squats get blood flowing into the muscle, you "rehearse" the move a few times to remind yourself of the form, etc. That's what reduces the possibility of injury.

If you think about it from an evolutionary perspective, a warmup to increase performance makes no sense - you wouldn't have time to stretch first if you were about to be eaten by a hungry mammoth - the body would want to jump straight to peak power and if you get injured it's better than being dead...

Re: How to Build Muscle

#82

Post by emcq »

yoplait_ wrote: post #56
fixxer wrote: post #51

So far, after 20 years of competitive rowing and an office job, I've found the best advice for me is simply don't get injured, remain active (get out!), and cook more. All these fads might work (IF, keto, crossfit), but I think they mostly answer other questions than fitness or health. People want to feel like they are getting results fast... That is rarely sustainable in my experience and observation.

keto is the best way to lose weight, period. You lose weight while not even trying ... it really is the miracle diet, for most people anyway. Gives great mental energy as well. (yeah, sounds like bullshit, but turns out to be true for lots of people)

Are there any peer reviewed (or not) evidence that the keto diet provides additional weight losses beyond that which can be explained by calorie deficiencies?

Re: How to Build Muscle

#83

Post by vemv »

kazinator wrote: post #34

> I’m a startup founder and engineer. My work has been profiled in Forbes, I’ve written a book, I’ve built a popular open source library, and I’ve started and sold a company. http://www.txstate.edu/philosophy/resources/fallacy-definiti...

Might be technically a fallacy, but:

- General problem-solving is a skill, guy seems to have it and it does apply to fitness research

- His success in various fields undoubtedly require perseverance, which also is a relevant trait.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#84

Post by yladiz »

It's a bit disingenuous that the guide states that it's free, but then the second half of it is paid only, and that while there are a lot of citations, especially in the second part of the guide, the author isn't really in a place to explain to someone how to gain muscle except for some personal experience (1 year of research, and some time weight lifting) and instead must make an appeal on the basis of accomplishments, which basically just makes this like "another blogger's personal journey to weightlifting and so can you", albeit with some scientific research to back it up.

The thing I would worry about the most is that the guide is made to seem better than others because it has some cited studies, but who's to say that those studies are statistically valid (which is somewhat hard to come by in the field of nutrition and fitness) or that the author didn't pick certain articles to back certain points and pick others to back others?

Re: How to Build Muscle

#86

Post by yoplait_ »

emcq wrote: post #82
yoplait_ wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

keto is the best way to lose weight, period. You lose weight while not even trying ... it really is the miracle diet, for most people anyway. Gives great mental energy as well. (yeah, sounds like bullshit, but turns out to be true for lots of people)

Are there any peer reviewed (or not) evidence that the keto diet provides additional weight losses beyond that which can be explained by calorie deficiencies?

Anecdotically you'll find lots of testimonies (including mine) arguing that it's much easier to control hunger on keto. I don't have food craving since I started and I get to eat as much as I want. So it's a lot easier to not overeat. Scientifically it's well known that eating carbs (especially fast acting carbs like sugar) triggers storage of fat.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#87

Post by savorypiano »

It's true that gains can be had quickly. I've seen athletes go from Charles on the left, to bodybuilder on the right, in a 3-6 month timeframe. These are athletes who would get drug tested, so I'm pretty sure it's all natural.

Although I think it's yet to be proven Julian can make you look like Charles though. Achieving gains is a bit different than building a well rounded athletic body - the kind that is recognizable and aesthetically pleasing.

My physique was like Charles' but I got it from playing sports over years, not from doing isolated exercises in the gym. It's easy to spot who got big in the gym, as certain muscles are overemphasized.

So it's quite easy to be healthy and strong. Just pick an activity you like, and eat well. IMO, gym work should be on top of that, to get you competitive in the sport you choose. It's not a complete development unless you really know what you are doing and are extremely disciplined. That is, doing things the hard way.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#88

Post by hogrammer »

He's wrong about one thing: this girl prefers the bigger "jacked" guy.

As a woman who's into fitness, the real key is: don't be fat. If you are slender, a small amount of muscle goes a big way. And fat guys rarely get the pretty girls.

Re: How to Build Muscle

#89

Post by vannevar »

The 2.5lb increments/week seems unrealistic. If you can increase weight by 2.5lb/week over any sustained period, it most likely means that you started with too low a weight. A 2-3 week increment cycle seems intuitively more likely to match actual strength gains. I'd be curious to hear others' experience, or any references on the subject.
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