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Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

mensjournal.com

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Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#111

Post by gexla »

rue wrote: post #95
gexla wrote: post #49

I think a lot of the comments here are missing the point of this article. Free weights are vital for muscle strength, mass and edurance. That doesn't mean free weights take the place of your other activities such as skiing or mountain climbing. That doesn't mean that you cut out cardio, that's something else entirely, even though some people work on cardio in the gym along with strength training. Free weights are als…

Actually it kinda reads exactly like cutting out cardio for the most part, though admittedly I only skimmed through it. Perhaps it isn't communicating its point very well? Personally I heavily favour cardiovascular fitness over muscular fitness, and would choose the former in a heartbeat (ahaha) if I had to pick one. Currently I cycle and do astanga, though I plan on adding some low-rep strength training to the mix t…

The article doesn't really touch on cardio much. The general idea of the article is that in the gym all you really need is the basics of free weights. That's the best you can get out of the gym for the other activities in your life which may include all the cardio you need. There's lots of ways to get cardio, but everyone would do well to follow the same basic free-weight program like he lays out.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#112

Post by jnorthrop »

[deleted] wrote: post #99

[deleted]

I'll start off by stating that I disagree with you whole-heartily about the benefits (or dangers) of lifting heavy weights -- that is when done correctly and with a full range-of-motion.

I think your 3 point philosophy for life-long health is dead-on but I think the second point "move your body through space, sometimes with volume, sometimes with intensity" is too abstract and certainly open to interpretation. Does the hour of pickup soccer I played last night count? (A pretty intense hour of sprinting) To me, yes. To others maybe walking the dog with a brief jog to the door from the end of the driveway is as intense as it gets. I would argue that "walking the dog" doesn't cut it if that is your "sometimes with intensity" definition.

Every person needs to squat and deadlift heavy things from time to time. And that does not need to happen in a gym -- a good sized rock suffices. Doing so will help with mobility, bone density, strength and balance. And if those movements cause injury then they need to fix the disfuctions that aren't allowing proper movement. Not addressing those issues will lead to hip, should and back problems down the line whether they lift or not.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#113

Post by tjogin »

keeptrying wrote: post #83
mmaunder wrote: post #43

This is a one sided view of fitness. e.g. there is zero focus on cardio. Would be interesting to see one of these guys do a light 5 mile run. Look into real world training: running, hard hiking with a pack, mountain biking, swimming/surfing. These types of exercise have been the most rewarding for me in terms of skeletal, muscle and cardio fitness. The only thing I agree with in the article is that cardio machines in…

I once trained for a 5k race by doing just squats. I beat most of my "cardio" friends. When you start squatting above your BW then you'll be just as out of breath after 8 reps as after a full-on 5k run. Your heart will beat just as fast, and youll be sweating about the same. Also squats will improve your bone density. Don't be fooled that suffers like Laird get their physique from surfing. All of them dead lift and s…

Squats, dead lifts, bench presses, those are the Big Three. That's what you absolutely need to do, and if you do them it is where 90% of your results will come from. It's also the only exercises you need to ever do.

Having said that, if you "like" some other exercise, like cable chest presses, dumbbell flyes, standing barbell bicep curls, crunches, or whatever, then fine do them (I do), but do so knowing that the Big Three should be the core of your exercise, and whatever else is complimentary.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#114

Post by neutronicus »

jrockway wrote: post #65
mmaunder wrote: post #43

This is a one sided view of fitness. e.g. there is zero focus on cardio. Would be interesting to see one of these guys do a light 5 mile run. Look into real world training: running, hard hiking with a pack, mountain biking, swimming/surfing. These types of exercise have been the most rewarding for me in terms of skeletal, muscle and cardio fitness. The only thing I agree with in the article is that cardio machines in…

The only thing I agree with in the article is that cardio machines in the gym are a waste of time. Not sure this is really true or that it matters. A 5 mile run on the treadmill at an x minute pace is the same as a 5 mile run outside at an x minute pace. Advantages of the treadmill include being able to keep a given pace without making any particular mental effort. Advantages of being outside is that it's not boring.

Coaches discourage running on a treadmill - getting used to the ground moving under your feet makes you slow.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#115

Post by dualogy »

aik wrote: post #89
dualogy wrote: post #81

I swear by bodyweight-only resistance / circular strength training. Currently doing TacFit -- despite their ridiculous hard-sell marketing which is uselessly and pointlessly "spec ops" and warrior-themed (I won't link as I'm not affiliated other than a legit happy user). But there are more body-weight approaches than that one. Google circular strength training / CST and much cheaper than buying the TacFit videos woul…

For TacFit, what resources do you have (or would recommend)? I found one very shady looking website selling some DVDs and a book...

Yes the shady-looking site is the one ... I know it's just a horrible ridiculous "spec-ops / warrior-themed" silly uber landing page. But the sports / education / science bits behind it are sound and a lot of effort, expertise and coaching experience went into the videos. My guess is that this guy tried hard to be his own marketer or hired some "ebook sales copy pro" or his cousin to do the overall presentation. It looks shady but isn't one bit once you get to the actual contents.

Maybe better to start from here:

http://www.rmaxinternational.com/forum

The TacFit coaches are also RMAX coaches or somehow connected but sell their own TacFit creation under their own label it seems.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#116

Post by DTrejo »

jobu wrote: post #58
georgieporgie wrote: post #28

I have one bit of specialized weight training advice. We all spend entirely too much time in front of our computers, typically hunched or slouched back, deep in thought. Ten years of doing this professionally led to shoulder/neck problems, culminating in a pinched nerve between my C6 and C7 vertebrae. It improved with physical therapy, but was never truly fixed, and has bothered me off and on for two years now, despi…

Thanks for the link. I recently injured my neck (c5-c6 and c6-c7), and the physical therapist has suggested a few exercises, but was unable to explain the purpose or benefit of them.

There's also a graphic further down in the article about how to prevent various injuries (search 'kevin brown'):

http://www.mensjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/picture-81.jpg

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#117

Post by xiaoma »

The author clearly equates fitness with strength, and some of his claims are way off.

Here's one: "...maintaining cardiovascular fitness doesn’t really take much more than breathing uncomfortably hard for about 20 minutes, three times a week"

As a former competitive runner, I've read hundreds of studies and abstracts about improving various cardio-vasuclar metrics. 20 minutes, three times a week is barely enough to generate even modest VO2 max improvements. Ideally it takes 40-60 minutes, five times a week, plus an extra long session of over 90 minutes. This is about the minimum training you'll see in a 5k runner or 1000m swimmer. Top 10k runners generally require 70-90 minutes a day, even when doing interval work and have long runs of over two hours. The results of this sort of training are measurable. LT, VO2max, resting HR and a variety of other metrics show a dose dependent response.

Many studies[1] have also demonstrated that even recreational distance training results in a wide variety of benefits that weight training does not, even including increased rates of neurogenesis and longer telemeres than average for one's age.

Weight training clearly is superior for increasing muscle and bone mass, but it isn't a magical silver bullet that improves everything.

[1] I've cited all of these on hn before, most don't have paywalls and they should be googleable.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#118

Post by xiaoma »

desigooner wrote: post #88
NickPollard wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not going to argue that what you describe isn't good, but 'nature intended us to' isn't a particularly solid argument. You could argue that nature intended us to die from Malaria by the age of 30, I'm very glad that for most of the world that's no longer the case.

That's precisely why the "nature intended us to" argument doesn't really work for me when I hear people trying to convince me to try the Paleo diet. Whatever the benefits might be (besides making the author of those books a good chunk of money), they can be garnered by other means. What I hate even more is when a few devotees of such diets go on a slant about vegetarianism/veganism etc. etc.

Not only that, but our "nature" has changed considerably since those times. Evolution has been far faster, likely 100 times faster the past several thousand years than it was before civilization. 15,000 years ago, nobody was lactose tolerant, nobody had blue eyes and who knows what else was different.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#120

Post by byrneseyeview »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #101
wil2k wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Don't eat what your grandmother wouldn't recognize". is how I've heard it being summarized. :)

So no Indian/Chinese/Japanese/Mexican food? No avocados? No seafood, unless your grandparents are from the coast? (Food diversity sucket in our grandparent's era. )

Maybe what a grandmother would recognize as food.
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