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The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

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Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#51

Post by Bostwick »

alexyim wrote: post #30

In this article, http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_trai... It claims that your body can only synthesize about 2 pounds of dry muscle mass per month. 34 pounds in 28 days is roughly a pound of muscle per day . I've always found myself wanting more evidence to back that up, or even just seeing more examples of people saying they've done that. The closest I've heard to getting that kind of result a…

You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're synthesizing has been in a trained state previously.

This is how athletes can return from injury in a few weeks. It's also how most before/after shots for health products and supplements are made.

I've done GOMAD (Gallon of Milk A Day). It's tough to drink that much milk. In the end, I gained ten pounds of muscle over a period of two months.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#52

Post by onan_barbarian »

andre wrote: post #46
gursikh wrote: post #34

Every Tim Ferris thread I see on HN, has nigh 10 - 20 posts that all essentially say: "Tim Ferris is a charlatan. He's relies on spin and marketing to sell his products. His methods encourage people to be lazy and not make a genuine effort to reach their goals. His advice is counterproductive." But while Tim makes every effort to support his claims using facts, anecdotes and citations these sorts of comments are rare…

Exactly. And when he's talking about winning the martial arts fights, he goal was to "WIN", not to play the game. And like gursikh says, either put up or shut up. We need concrete examples! Overall, I think Tim has done a lot for a lot of people with the ideas that he shares in his books.

Exploiting rule loopholes in obscure Chinese kickboxing events doesn't constitute much of a "WIN", especially with his subsequent presentation of himself as a "world champion" and "experienced mixed martial artist".

All up, a call for "concrete examples" is exactly what should be going on. From Tim. Not from the unbeliever. The cliche is "the onus of proof is on the believer". Tim's extraordinary claims about drug-free muscle gain, for example, should have had a third-party drug test involved as well as being put in context with his previous and subsequent physique. His extraordinary claims to be a martial arts champion should come with names, dates and number of competitors in his division. Etc.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#53

Post by jules »

detst wrote: post #15
bobf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that to be true with school. 5% effort usually gets you a B, while the closer you wanted to get to "perfection" (100%/A+), exponentially more effort is required.

And most people would be quite happy with a "B" body. The most important thing for me, as someone that tends to come up with the "perfect plan" before starting, is that doing a little will get you on the path to improving yourself. But then when I do a little, I realize it's often enough to get me where I wanted.

With the right diet and just one hour of exercise per week you can get you an A++ body.

Diet: Not too many calories, many vegetables, enough protein. Cook your own meals. Fat is ok, as long as you don't get too many calories.

Exercise: Mostly running, and a little bit of strength training. The key is to do what you do to the max. Run 10 minutes but make sure run as fast as possible. Do this two times a week, this will take 40 minutes a week (20 minutes running, 20 minutes preparing & showering). Do 5 minutes of exercise when you get up/go to sleep 4 times a week.

If we assume 16 hour days then this will take 1/(7*16) = 0.9% of your time. Just to emphasize, that's less than one hundredth of your awake time.

This is what I do and it works very well, it is the best investment of my time I ever make. YMMV

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#54

Post by jonhendry »

anthonycerra wrote: post #49
edw519 wrote: post #20

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are ve…

Though I don't agree with everything Tim advocates in his first book and feel, like yourself, that some of it is disingenuous, I do find a lot of value in it for the same reason I value any book: it got me to question the way I think. One line from the 4HWW "Ask for forgiveness, not permission," can change the way you address challenges for the rest of your life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what insights he'…

""Ask for forgiveness, not permission," can change the way you address challenges for the rest of your life."

But overdo it and people will think you're an asshole.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#55

Post by jonhendry »

PStamatiou wrote: post #24
dchest wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some publishers/authors really organize reviews by sending preview copies of books to reviewers.

I am one of those. I had an advance copy, loved it and posted my review. Feel free to challenge anything in my review: http://amzn.to/hDRfVB

What did you do to get the advance copy?

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#57

Post by jonhendry »

WillyF wrote: post #44
kmfrk wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is always the case with movies and videogames, so I think the same applies: the people who are interested in the product go to see/watch/read it first. Eventually, "everyone else" gets around to try it out, and the score drops accordingly.

Not sure that's going to happen here. Look at the reviews from the updated version of The 4HWW: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Expanded-Updated-Cutti... The original edition didn't do quite as well, but it still has a huge quantity of great reviews: http://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/p...

It's a bit of a cult. But there are a more reasonable number of 1, 2, 3-star reviews.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#58

Post by jonhendry »

kscaldef wrote: post #35
weeksie wrote: post #12

The muscle building seems similar, though even more extreme than HST training: http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html I switched to HST after a long time of doing typical weight training routines and now do 1-2 sets per body part each time I'm in the gym. It's not nearly as extreme as what he's describing but I've cut my workouts down to 3 40 minute sessions each week and my gains have increased a LOT. Of…

Just wondering... Does anyone actually want to look like that guy on the HST page? I took one look at that and said "this is not the workout routine for me".

And I bet the person pictured was heavily using steroids.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#59

Post by alexyim »

Bostwick wrote: post #51
alexyim wrote: post #30

In this article, http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_trai... It claims that your body can only synthesize about 2 pounds of dry muscle mass per month. 34 pounds in 28 days is roughly a pound of muscle per day . I've always found myself wanting more evidence to back that up, or even just seeing more examples of people saying they've done that. The closest I've heard to getting that kind of result a…

You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're synthesizing has been in a trained state previously. This is how athletes can return from injury in a few weeks. It's also how most before/after shots for health products and supplements are made. I've done GOMAD (Gallon of Milk A Day). It's tough to drink that much milk. In the end, I gained ten pounds of muscle over a period of two months.

> You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're synthesizing has been in a trained state previously.

Do you have a link to that by any chance?

It does make sense though. Perhaps that's what happened with him, but without that key bit of info it's fairly misleading.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#60

Post by jonhendry »

gursikh wrote: post #34

Every Tim Ferris thread I see on HN, has nigh 10 - 20 posts that all essentially say: "Tim Ferris is a charlatan. He's relies on spin and marketing to sell his products. His methods encourage people to be lazy and not make a genuine effort to reach their goals. His advice is counterproductive." But while Tim makes every effort to support his claims using facts, anecdotes and citations these sorts of comments are rare…

"every effort to support his claims using facts, anecdotes and citations"

Has anyone ever bothered to verify those facts and citations? I mean, do his sources actually support his claims?

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