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This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

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Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#91

Post by nosequel »

ebiester wrote: post #17
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #10

One of the articles the author links to is a lot more helpful and concrete [1]. The meat of it: "Shaul’s guys out in Wyoming get massively strong and powerful on precisely three gym sessions a week, each lasting an hour and no more. Louie Simmons, the single biggest name in gorilla-style competitive power lifting, will tell you that 45 minutes is the max length of any smart training session. But you can’t spend the f…

If you are serious about it, there's a book by Mark Rippetoe called Starting Strength that explains this in more detail.

I started there a few years ago, progressed past that to his other book, "Practical Programming for Strength Training", and now I'm all over the place. I went from more of a distance person to competing in strongman. I compete in a lightweight division, but still only doing 4 or 5 exercises consistently I'm at a 550lb deadlift, 450 squat, and 350 bench. I think when I started I was about half at each of those. Do a few exercises, do them right, and do them with extremely high intensity and it'll get you places!

Plus, I solve most of my bugs while lifting!

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#92

Post by brudgers »

frasertimo wrote: post #34
brudgers wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two hours a day is a lot of family time to lose for many parents, and more than an old bum knee may take.

So don't spend two hours. Exercise isn't an all or nothing game. There's a TED talk out there somewhere (google it) which explains that you get exponentially more out of exercise from about the 15 minute mark, and it hits a peak around half an hour. The study showed that the single best thing you can do for your health (the closest thing there is to a silver bullet, if you will); and this applied to both average size…

I'm not arguing that 30 minutes of exercise isn't healthy - the parent post to which my comment responded was two hours a day. I'd be dead in a week if I tried that because my spouse would kill me.

So much exercise advice is disingenuous: 30 minutes exercise != 30 minutes out of one's day

Change cloths, warm up, exercise, cool down, shower, change clothes: there's significant overhead even if one doesn't have to travel to the gym.

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#93

Post by brudgers »

guard-of-terra wrote: post #86

There seems to be an elephant in the room: gym is boring, pointless and offers too few bang for the trouble. It's inherently boring. Walking is fun. Hiking is fun. Chopping lumber is fun. Swimming in rivers and lakes is fun (pools - less so). You see new things and move yourself around. In gym, nothing really changes, you just do some repetitive things in a big room without windows. Sitting in cubicle is probably mor…

What worked for me as I became more serious about refereeing was reframing exercise as training. My initial goal was not to collapse running up and down the field with the players. They have progressed from there.

Reframing is a useful strategy in general, increasing physical activity and improving nutrition don't carry all the baggage of exercise and diet carry for many people.

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#94

Post by drumdance »

I've found that classes are best for me. A few years ago I started going to an aerobics class that emphasized strength. Then I did a boot camp. In 2010 I started doing Crossfit and hope to do it the rest of my life. They push me well out of my comfort zone, and the group aspect makes it both competitive and collegial.

Last year I decided two times a week was good enough for me and it's worked. I'm in fantastic shape.

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#95

Post by dredmorbius »

ebiester wrote: post #17
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #10

One of the articles the author links to is a lot more helpful and concrete [1]. The meat of it: "Shaul’s guys out in Wyoming get massively strong and powerful on precisely three gym sessions a week, each lasting an hour and no more. Louie Simmons, the single biggest name in gorilla-style competitive power lifting, will tell you that 45 minutes is the max length of any smart training session. But you can’t spend the f…

If you are serious about it, there's a book by Mark Rippetoe called Starting Strength that explains this in more detail.

Which is strongly referenced in "Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie".

Which is to say: both the referenced article and Rippetoe's books are excellent references.

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#96

Post by dredmorbius »

rquantz wrote: post #83
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #10

One of the articles the author links to is a lot more helpful and concrete [1]. The meat of it: "Shaul’s guys out in Wyoming get massively strong and powerful on precisely three gym sessions a week, each lasting an hour and no more. Louie Simmons, the single biggest name in gorilla-style competitive power lifting, will tell you that 45 minutes is the max length of any smart training session. But you can’t spend the f…

That article was posted here last spring, I believe (forgive me, but I'm on my iPhone at the moment and too lazy to look up a link to the discussion). Reading that article planted the seeds that led me to start barbell lifting three months ago. I've always been scrawny, so it's been amazing to watch my body transform. I've gained 25 pounds and my squat strength has doubled. I've tried gym memberships in the past, so…

Good point on geeking out on strength training.

About 5 years ago I set a goal for myself of both understanding as much as I could about strength training, and accomplishing as much as I could. Rippetoe is indeed a true geek of iron. I've managed to hit a 500# deadlift and mid-300s for squat, trying to get both of them up above that, but it's tough to make progress now.

Another great resource for the squat fanatics is Boris "Squat Rx" Bachmann's "Squat Rx" YouTube series: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=C03D688F10C4DE1F

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#97

Post by dredmorbius »

GBKS wrote: post #56

I think those theories are missing the main point. Going to the gym is not fun, because gyms have a crappy user experience. So let's say you join a gym, but don't know very much about working out. You walk into a room with hundreds of machines, and are expected to know how to structure a work-out, how each machine works, be familiar with all the muscle groups and exercises, and also really care about planning out and…

What's changed over, say, 20 years ago, is that there's a wealth of experience available online. Well, 20 years ago, there was a wealth of experience, but it was in books, and you had to do a lot more work to find people to talk to about what did or didn't work.

Why doesn't a gym hold your hand? Because there's no percentage in it for them (or at least that's the naive calculus). There are exceptions, but they're rare and hard to find. A gym wants you to either 1) sign up and not go (free money) or 2) sign up and go and sign up for a bunch of additional services (personal training, massage) and products (supplements), which have rediculous markups.

What they don't want you to do is become knowledgeable yourself on what works to accomplish your goals. But ... you can do this.

For a couple of nutshell basics: Beginners' Health & Fitness Guide: http://liamrosen.com/fitness.html Hierarchy of Fat Loss: http://alwyncosgrove.com/2010/01/hierarchy-of-fat-loss/ Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie: http://www.mensjournal.com/everything-you-know-about-fitness...

For a great beginner's book, The New Rules of Lifting (Schuler and Cosgrove) distills a lot of good knowledge, and Starting Strength (Rippetoe and Kilgore) has one of the most brutally effective novice strength programs bar none.

It helps to understand basic physiological response to stimulus:

- If you eat more food than you need, you'll gain weight. Whether that's fat or muscle depends on:

- If you overload your muscles periodically (more weight or reps than they're used to), and provide sufficient rest/recovery and fuel, you'll build muscle. How you lift (sets, reps, rest) focuses the adaptation (strength, size, endurance) somewhat. What lifts you do affect what muscles get developed (curls do nothing for your glutes).

- Doing cardio of varying modalities (2-bit word for "types") will maintain/increase your abilities here. Tabata intervals, hill sprints, and HIIT training are great for short, intense work. Doing periodic (1-2x weekly) longer-duration stuff will help your endurance system training (mostly making your body more efficient and effective at burning fat for long periods of time). Which is not the same as losing weight.

- If you're interested in skill-specific activities (skiing, gymnastics, juggling, whatever), do that. Training is highly activity-specific in this regard, though cardio in one are translates well to other areas. Your specific motor skills may not.

There are a few other bits: you need rest and recovery. You can't target fat loss. Too much cardio is catabolic (wastes muscle mass), though most weekend warriors don't need to worry about this. Men and women in their 30s onward are losing muscle mass at the rate of about 1/2# per year, unless they're strength training. And benefits of exercise (strength and cardio) accrue throughout life, even to those in their 100s.

It's something you've got to do regularly, 1-2x weekly if you want to maintain, more often (3-5x weekly) if you plan on progressing.

That's it in a nutshell.

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#98

Post by dredmorbius »

rubashov wrote: post #89
GBKS wrote: post #56

I think those theories are missing the main point. Going to the gym is not fun, because gyms have a crappy user experience. So let's say you join a gym, but don't know very much about working out. You walk into a room with hundreds of machines, and are expected to know how to structure a work-out, how each machine works, be familiar with all the muscle groups and exercises, and also really care about planning out and…

> wants to start working out but doesn't know anything yet? What's there to really know? The average person just looking to be healthy doesn't need a gym or any instruction. Buy a $3 jump rope. Jump over it 4,000 times every couple days. Do some pushups, pullups, and situps on the other days. 20 minutes (at most) and done. "The Gym" as used by most people is a way to create the illusion of effort. "Hey, I'm spending…

There's a few points of this I'd disagree with.

The principles are pretty simple, but it's not so much as "get a jump rope and jump 4000x a day".

The basic parameters I'd tell someone:

- Cover the bases. Do strength training. Do cardio. Do flexibility, motor control, and p/rehab (flexibility, soft-tissue work). You can still cover most of this in 20-90 minutes/day (45-60 is preferable, less is OK in a tight spot).

- Do strength first, then cardio. It has to do with glycogen availability and training stimulus, look it up.

- Make sure your strength program is whole-body, whether you do that in 1 day or as a split. Your basic muscle groups are legs, glutes, back, chest, arms, and abs. Your basic movements are squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows & chins (back/biceps), presses (chest/triceps), and twists/bends (core/abs). These can be done with freeweights (preferred), machines, bands, cables, or bodyweight, though you'll get best results with freeweights if available and you can use them.

- Emphasize compound movements over isolation, for strength.

- Understand that intensity matters for cardio. You'll do much better getting an intense 4-minute workout (Google "Tabata intervals") than plodding lazily on a treadmill for 40 minutes. No, Tabatas aren't easy.

If you want to lose weight, eat less. If you want to gain weight, eat more. Eat real, whole, unprocessed foods, not too much, mostly plants. Eliminate harmful noxious stuff (processed carbs, trans fats). Get an appropriate balance of carbs, proteins, and fats (40/30/30 or 30/40/30 are good starting points).

If you're concerned with body weight, toss BMI out the window (it's completely bogus), and understand the basics of BMR and your estimated daily expenditure.

Agree on bar, bench, and rack. Though the bench is optional -- you can press off the floor. I'd add (or ensure the rack had) a chinning bar. And plates might also be useful ;-)

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#99

Post by rdl »

Hiring a personal trainer (who is used by an early facebook engineering director, friend, and investor of mine) is probably the best health related decision i have made in a long time. One or two times a week, plus tracking diet with her help, and advice tracking and motivation for on my own gym sessions, total bargain.

It basically turns fitness from a long feedback cycle to basically daily. I would probably cover up to 1k per month in employee fitness related costs; it is a huge boost to health, motivation, and productivity.

Re: This Is Why You Don't Go to the Gym

#100

Post by jasonshen »

llimllib wrote: post #52
lancefisher wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pacing can be difficult. On a hard workout, I find I can go out way too fast. I wear a Garmin watch that lets me monitor my pace and adjust it. Some of the people I run with are really good at setting a pace, so I'll follow them. Getting a feel for setting the pace just takes some practice.

It may also be worthwhile to go to the track and practice a pace. After you run 100 laps at a certain speed, it's easier to find that speed again.

I use Runkeeper for my iPhone. There's this great belt you can buy that holsters it (Spibelt), can't even feel it there. Coaching on how fast you're going every half mile. You can calibrate pretty quickly.
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