How Weight Training Might Change the Brain • Hacker News Board

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#81

Post by vl » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 7:51 AM UTC

kasey_junk wrote: post #8

Kpourdeilami wrote: post #3

for me personally the biggest benefit of weight training has been the discipline it gives me. Once I stick to my gym plan, everything else in my day falls to its place. Knowing I have to be in the gym every other night from 10 to 11:30, gets me to get my chores done quickly before 10 and not waste time on Reddit/Netflix all night. I also listen to audio books between sets to make a better use of my down time For anyo…

Strong recommendation for the StrongLifts 5x5 iOS app. That said there are some downsides to 5x5. - the lifts in it are simple, but also very easy to hurt yourself with if you don’t have good form. Form work is not emphasized. - there is no flexibility work in it. It’s basically impossible to do strength work without flexibility. To the point 5x5 should likely recommend yoga as a central component or something. - whi…

There are few things they don’t tell you about weightlifting:

- stretching is critical and takes time, without stretching you’ll eventually injure yourself.

- eventually you’ll get some minor injury and will have to manage that and wait for it to heal.

- start by getting a coach to specifically learn good from and find your max weights for different lifts. Strictly control trainer’s desire to add some non-core exercises, once good form is established, dismiss the trainer.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#82

Post by pagnol » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

woutr_be wrote: post #55

pagnol wrote: post #45

Speaking of exercise, anyone want to go for a run together in Hong Kong?

I'm not into running anymore, mostly focussed on weight lifting, if you're on HK island, go for a run on Bower Road, it's definitely an experience. I also used to run in Happy Valley race course, it's nice and quiet there.

Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll give it a try. I’ve been mostly running up and down Quarry Bay Park, but it does get boring after a while and the proximity to the highway probably isn’t too healthy either. I also love cycling but in Hong Kong it seems too freaking dangerous for all sorts of reasons.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#83

Post by nextlevelwizard » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:03 AM UTC

User23 wrote: post #28

valleyjo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5x5 is an amazing starting program. Highly recommend. Just make sure you have good form.

Which is to say get a competent coach or record every compound lift you do and form check the videos. You may think you are doing a lift correctly, but you're rounding out or whatever. It's very hard to tell without that extra evidence. Done correctly powerlifting is about as safe as strenuous physical activity gets, but with bad form you will ruin your knees, your back, and who knows what else.

If you are doing SL 5x5 correctly you don't need coach because you start with an empty bar. What you should do is to read and watch tutorials on how to perform each lift correctly. Then as your progress you can do some recordings to check your form, but there is no need to out source that stuff. Just take things slow.

Only time someone starting has had issues with form is when they rush things. Either they don't start with empty bar and progressively add weight each week and they jump to higher weights or they rush the setup.

When I started I just watched videos of the lifts I was about to make on Youtube and started with empty bar. Now 2 years later I've obviously progressed to programs that better suite me, but I've had no issues. I have no doubt that my form isn't 100% perfect, but seeing the clients of the personal trainers at my gym my form is way better than average and it is completely because I have a check list in my mind for each lift.

Off topic: while I'm writing about SL 5x5 the biggest issue I had with the program was squatting every day. I was fat when I started so even low bar weight made my knees hurt and it put me off on squatting for months, but now with reduced squatting (once per week) I have no issues squatting even heavier weights.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#84

Post by pasquinelli » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:06 AM UTC

leet_thow wrote: post #57

ramblerman wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone really is a victim these days aren't they. I'm sorry but as another tall, muscled software engineer, it sounds like you need to get off those forums. I'm sure there are some people that feel that way, but when it comes to leadership, and other areas in life the truth is that your frame will give you 'instinctual' benefits. Not to mention with women. Life isn't fair. But don't feel bad for the positive traits…

I don't feel bad and don't feel like a victim, I'm just stating an observation. I'm on those forums because I've become fascinated by social and evolutionary psychology and they provide a lot of insight into people's thinking.

Do they? Evolutionary psychology in particular seems like myth making more than anything else. Though, myth can produce a sensation of insight...

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#85

Post by nordsieck » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:07 AM UTC

nextlevelwizard wrote: post #72

BeatLeJuce wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you feel out of place because you're thinking in terms of "alphas" etc., which to me sounds like a totally douche/"bro" thing to do. Most people I know that don't lift don't care about body shapes etc., otherwise they would lift.

> Most people I know that don't lift don't care about body shapes This is a lie and you know it. Everyone and I mean literally everyone cares about appearances. No matter how you slice it everyone has a style they are trying to project. This same goes for body shape. If we had a pill that instantly -- without effort -- gave everyone a six pack and lean muscular body, everyone of your friends would be on it, because d…

>> Most people I know that don't lift don't care about body shapes

> Everyone and I mean literally everyone cares about appearances. No matter how you slice it everyone has a style they are trying to project. This same goes for body shape.

Even those few people who are too lazy or apathetic to project an image on purpose have preferences about others' appearances. This is literally the reason why advertising uses professional models to sell products.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#86

Post by blunte » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:07 AM UTC

mycall wrote: post #16

dirtyid wrote: post #9

Serious lifting or athletics in general necessitates cultivating competent time management, planning skills and self control/discipline. Even more so if you roll into dieting for maintaining weight class or generally aesthetics. Once a lifter exhaust all novice and easy gains which doesn't take long, it's down to planning multi week/month long meso cycles, trouble shooting and learning about about your body, refraini…

I'm curious how lifting would compare to other core activities, like hiking or lumberjacking.

There is something significant about learning to coordinate the firing of signals to a dozen muscles at once (and maintain those GO signals for the duration of the rep) which cannot be replicated any way other than lifting a big weight with one or more major muscle groups.

Also, as an aside, for the duration of that one rep, (if the weight is sufficiently heavy for the lifter) the mind narrows focus completely - no other conscious thoughts are present at that time. This is an interesting contrast to how many of our HN-type minds usually operate.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#87

Post by blunte » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:14 AM UTC

vl wrote: post #81

kasey_junk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong recommendation for the StrongLifts 5x5 iOS app. That said there are some downsides to 5x5. - the lifts in it are simple, but also very easy to hurt yourself with if you don’t have good form. Form work is not emphasized. - there is no flexibility work in it. It’s basically impossible to do strength work without flexibility. To the point 5x5 should likely recommend yoga as a central component or something. - whi…

There are few things they don’t tell you about weightlifting: - stretching is critical and takes time, without stretching you’ll eventually injure yourself. - eventually you’ll get some minor injury and will have to manage that and wait for it to heal. - start by getting a coach to specifically learn good from and find your max weights for different lifts. Strictly control trainer’s desire to add some non-core exerci…

Most people can’t distinguish a good coach from some buff person with confidence and a track suit. There are surely more bad coaches than good ones.

For this audience, I would recommend reading/scanning StartingStrength.com, or the book of the same name by Mark Rippetoe.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#88

Post by saiya-jin » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:16 AM UTC

dirtyid wrote: post #59

bartread wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 5 plate, but if you're talking about 5 x 20kg plates on either end of an olympic bar (which is another 20kg), that's a 220kg/495lb deadlift and is still very much a solid deadlift. For an 85kg man (average in UK is 83.6kg) that's as near as makes no odds 2.6x body weight. For a 70kg woman (average in UK in 70.2kg) it's more than 3x body weight. Generally anything more than 2x bod…

~500lb is very much an aspiration life time goal for most trained men, even revised army fitness standard full score doesn't ask for more than 340lbs. Minimum is 140lbs. I think NASA / astronauts prescriptions is also a very low sub bodyweight multiplier for reps to prevent atrophy AND MITIGATE INJURY RISK in space which is key. That is probably what the general population should shoot for. On social media, the gold…

Hmm, maybe people doing lifting should focus less on some pathetic instagrams and facebooks and more on real life, real people and real interactions

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#89

Post by fiblye » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:19 AM UTC

hueving wrote: post #27

fortran77 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure. Even though I don't want to admit it, I'm sure I, along with many others, would have more confidence in a fit, muscular person than an out-of-shape slovenly one.

I'm the opposite for hardcore engineers. An in-shape, muscular person looks like they have dedicated a non-trivial amount of time to not software. I presume most people that look like that just see writing software as "a job" and won't be as capable of fully owning anything more complex than small portions of a complex application.

Your ideal engineer seems to be someone who devotes their life to your business at the cost of their personal health and betterment. Someone who’ll burn out when they realize their employer only sees them as a tool to be used and having any personal life or hobbies comes at the cost of their boss not making record profits every quarter.

Nearly every notably brilliant programmer out there has other pursuits. You need to diversify your interests for your health and to gain inspiration from outside sources. Locking yourself into a bubble of software only makes you miss out on the world.

Re: How Weight Training Might Change the Brain

#90

Post by siphon22 » Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 8:23 AM UTC

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #49

hueving wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the opposite for hardcore engineers. An in-shape, muscular person looks like they have dedicated a non-trivial amount of time to not software. I presume most people that look like that just see writing software as "a job" and won't be as capable of fully owning anything more complex than small portions of a complex application.

That's a strange view. Goof programmers are supposed to be smart people than can focus not only on little implementation details, but also the overall vision. Part of your overall vision as a human being is a healthy lifestyle, so I can see being fit only as an advantage, especially for a programmer.

>"Goof programmer"

What did you just call me?!