Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie • Hacker News Board

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#321

Post by tensor » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 12:50 AM UTC

jules wrote: post #147

mzl wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that the bulked up guys probably weigh a lot more than you do so the number of achieved pull-ups is not an interesting measure? The really bulked-up ones most likely train for muscle mass, not for any useful activity.

Sure, they do weigh a lot more than I do. Isn't that part of the fair comparison? You don't give a cyclist or runner a backpack with weights in it because it's "unfair" that he weighs less than the other cyclist/runner. These guys were probably training pull ups every week at least, so it's on their home territory. Yet their training is less effective than running & cycling. For the vast majority of activities, perfo…

And in a rock lifting competition they would win easily. I don't see your point. You pick an arbitrary metric that you happen to be good at and declare victory.

As it stands, all you've done is point out that there are different tasks and depending on your target task the ideal body composition and training routine differs.

If you want to be good at pullups you should probably let all your leg muscles atrophy and just build lats and biceps.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#322

Post by Groxx » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 12:51 AM UTC

I dunno. I was always told free-weights are better than isolation (because you'll exercise complementary muscles), don't train the same thing until the second day after, and you won't get far if you don't push yourself.

For a massively-super-summary: that's all they said, in 6 pages.

The rest of it is a lengthy exposition about how his motivating force was someone who told him how pathetic he was, made him realize it instead of just hear it, and then made him do the above.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#323

Post by light3 » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 12:57 AM UTC

yummyfajitas wrote: post #176

ghshephard wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numerous studies (See the first chapter of "Why we get Fat, by Taubes) have shown that Obesity is a disease of poverty. The food that keeps you lean (protein/fats) is expensive. Carbs are cheap. Poor people eat carbs. Rich people eat steak, chicken, fish. There is no significant research that shows adding exercise to an overweight person's lifestyle will significantly reduce their weight - typically just increases th…

If obesity is a disease of poverty, then how come truly poor people (e.g., the poor in India or China) are skinny? Lack of money for food is not a cause of obesity. If your goal is to obtain 2500 calories (assuming that is what you need to maintain a healthy weight) for a little money as possible, you will consume 2500 calories of carbs. You will not become obese. If you instead consume 3500 calories and become obese…

Very true, in my mother's generation overweight people in China were seen as 'freaks', as in circus freaks. This was even when there was enough food to feed everybody, most people remained in shape because

1. The food was whole. 2. People were very active, particularly where my mother grew up(Shanghai), mothers usually got up at 5am to get the fresh produce from markets everyday, people walked around a lot, bicycles were a luxury item.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#324

Post by Groxx » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 12:58 AM UTC

emeltzer wrote: post #10

Prisoners are among the most fit people in the world, despite an absence of good machines, good diet, coaches, and instructional material. If you want to be fit, start exercising--a nice way to get started is to truly understand that any kind of exercise is very much better than doing nothing.

Their diets are better than what my schools (any of them) served for lunch. Seriously. If that's all people ate, our prison population would be half what it is now, it'd simply kill at least half of them off within a few years.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#325

Post by fagballs » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:10 AM UTC

jules wrote: post #60

[citation needed] Here's another anecdote: No lifting weights, only running & cycling and lately swimming. Pretty much the opposite of what the article is arguing. Since I started this I'm doing I'm doing fairly well, six pack included. I went to the gym once, and saw bulked up guys getting 5 pull ups. So I tried that and could easily do 30. Lifting weights may make you look like a bodybuilder, but are you really fit…

Are you just taking this sample from a random time you looked at someone in the gym? There's a very good chance that these "bulked up" guys were near the end of their workout or have already heavily fatigued their back somehow. Either that, or they probably had a lot of bodyfat in which case obviously body weight exercises for reps wouldn't be their strong suit.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#326

Post by c0nsilience » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:17 AM UTC

The author's article is just another opinion, and something that happened to work for him. I've found that mixing things up works for me, and not because it "shocks" or "confuses" the body, but because the biggest obstacle - like he mentions in the early parts of the article - is boredom. However, he's a little too dogmatic in his approach.

Finally, I have a huge problem with the article being entitled "Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie" when he fails to define "fitness." He keeps talking about seeing changes in the body--is that what fitness is? Becoming more muscular and lean? What about cardiovascular endurance? Or is it both? He spends too much time bashing the health & fitness industry and not enough time defining what good health is.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#327

Post by Liron » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:31 AM UTC

btilly wrote: post #189

JoelMcCracken wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. But not to any significant degree that will cause a change as a species.

I'm sorry, but anyone who says this has failed to understand evolution. Evolution is a slow process. But there is no reason to believe that it is going any slower today than it ever did in the past - we're just being selected for different things than in the past. (For instance carelessness about birth control.)

No, he's right. The most powerful force shaping the future is intelligence. Natural selection on biological genes is orders of magnitude slower.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#328

Post by eru » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:46 AM UTC

chicagobob wrote: post #299

I've been wondering about getting fit for years, then suddenly one day out of the blue, my doctor told me the secret: "Eat Less & Work Out More" smashes forehead , why has everyone been keep this a secret for so long :)

You can also eat more. I added a few kg since I started weight lifting.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#329

Post by eru » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:47 AM UTC

drstrangevibes wrote: post #74

great article , the only question I have is how to accurately measure when your muscles reach super compensation peak?

For starters: You don't. Just do your strength training three times a week, more or less every two days. Works.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie

#330

Post by eru » Sat, Mar 05, 2011, 1:48 AM UTC

ryanfitz wrote: post #11

When it comes to lifting the only real "fact" is that what works best varies from person to person. People with great genetics can do heavy volume lifting 5 or 6 days a week and make amazing gains. Meanwhile, others will struggle to make any progress even with a low volume 2 day a week routine because their body doesn't recover well. Just go out there, experiment and see what works for you.

Yes. But just include the workout from Starting Strength (or similar) in your experiments. It should work for nearly all beginners.