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Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

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Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#271

Post by subwindow »

ashr wrote: post #172
subwindow wrote: post #66

I read this article around the time it was first published, and it has changed my life. I know it sounds corny and cliched, but it's true. This article was the first seed in my head that I needed to change the way I was doing things. It took me about 18 months after reading it to actually buckle down and start lifting, but it's no doubt that the journey started here. I ended up reading "Starting Strength" and started…

That is fantastic info about actual execution, many congratulations to you. It will be great if you could please share your age group range (very roughly; 20+, 30+, 40+ etc). Just trying to relate the results with the age group.

I'm 29

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#272

Post by enraged_camel »

subwindow wrote: post #168
analog wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've no doubt at all that you're significantly stronger, but not all of that 40 extra pounds is going to be muscle. You might want to reduce the amount you're eating now so that you don't have to eat at a deficit for so long later.

It's 40 pounds of muscle, give or take (at most) a couple of pounds of increased bone mass. I take weekly caliper-based readings of body fat percentage, which has fallen by over 10% in the last 6 months. Overall I've gained 20 pounds while losing 20 pounds of fat.

Blackjack already said this, but humans can gain up to 0.5lbs of muscle per week. And this assumes perfect sleep, perfect diet, and a perfect workout regimen. A little more than that number is possible, but you have to be either genetically gifted, or use steroids. Assuming neither, the 40 pounds you gained over the past six months was mostly fat. You are probably confused because gaining muscle can make someone look less fat, as muscles are emphasized more.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#273

Post by jetti »

IgorPartola wrote: post #243
jetti wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Congratulations. You got lucky, and got a great trainer. The sad reality is this is the exception." Ain't that the truth! My wife thought that personal training would get her motivated to lose weight and get in shape. Unfortunately the trainer was a complete jerk. He was inconsistent with making his appointments, to his credit though, he must have the unluckiest family ever because just about ever Saturday was a "fa…

You may like the concept of a personal training studio. They are typically a bit more expensive, but the atmosphere is very different from what I hear.

As of now, my wife is just going workout with me and skip the personal training. She has had better results in the past by working out on her own, so we are going to revisit that. As for me, if I'm going to spend money on training it will definitely be with a USAW certified coach as I would just want to learn the Olympic lifts. Thank you for the advice though, if my wife does decide to get back in to see a trainer I'll definitely keep that in mind.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#274

Post by enraged_camel »

My own research on the subject, and my several years of experience applying said research, taught me this: fitness as an overall goal is actually very, very simple. It gets complicated only when you try to optimize and fine-tune your workouts and diets, which most people do not actually need to do unless they are professional bodybuilders or powerlifters. Regardless of your goals, it comes down to three things: eat well, sleep as much as your body actually needs, and lift weights.

The problem is that the fitness industry, in order to justify its own existence, feeds people so many little details and tricks and drivel that it intimidates those who want to start, and quickly overwhelms those who actually do start. Furthermore, when someone fails to see results, they attribute it to some little detail that they must have missed, which perpetuates the existence of all those fitness magazines and websites.

Combine this with people's natural tendency to look for quick fixes, and you got yourself a huge mess. What I tell people who want to become fit is this: your current body is the result of years and years of certain habits you followed. You can't undo that in a month.

For those who are reading this and want to become healthier, my advice is as follows.

1. If you want to lose weight, then you need to eat below maintenance, do a mix of cardio and weightlifting, and sleep eight hours a day.

2. If you want to build muscle, then you need to eat a LOT of food with tons of protein, do mostly weightlifting, and sleep eight hours a day.

3. If you want to get "toned", that actually equates to losing body fat to make underlying muscles more visible, so follow 1.

4. If you want to build cardiovascular endurance (e.g. for sports), then focus mainly on cardio, with some weightlifting to build the muscles used in those sports.

From there, it's a matter of figuring out the basics and sticking with them.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#275

Post by kyllo »

tedunangst wrote: post #38
dave1619 wrote: post #5

This is a great article especially because it: 1. explains the supercompensation period and how to time your workouts. 2. champions free weights and resistance exercise. 3. explains injuries and gives some practical exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff (frequent injury among bodybuilders) However, I'm not sure if I agree with the "Fundamental Four" and him saying muscular endurance (low weights, high reps) "is gr…

Note that the paper you cited measured protein byproducts, not strength. Running six miles a day will not radically improve your 100m dash time. Low intensity, high rep walking 15 miles a day isn't likely to help either. If you want to get better at something, do the something you want to get better at.

Exactly this. What most people fail to understand about fitness is that over time, your body adapts to whatever you make it do. Whatever you want to get better at, just do that thing over and over, and you will get better at it. There is no shortcut or "hack," it's just practice and adaptation over time.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#276

Post by xweb »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #77
sliverstorm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, body weight training has a big hole- it's very difficult to progress when you don't have a minimum level of strength to perform a given movement. With weights, you can just use lower weight, and can thus freely work your muscles to exhaustion. With body weight movements, you can try negatives, but again- much more difficult.

While I generally think progression is more straightforward with weights, this claim isn't true. With bodyweight exercises, one typically progresses by making it more difficult via leverage. See this diagram for example: http://www.operatorchan.org/pt/src/135399773193.jpg The book recommended by xweb explains in more detail how to fill the holes between these exercises.

Thanks, yummyfajitas - exactly what I would have said. If you can't do a pushup, then can you do a pushup against a wall? When you can do that with good form, then you lower the angle so you're pushing more of your bodyweight.

The logic works the other way, too, for increasing difficulty. Can you do 3 sets of a hundred one-armed pushups? Well, start climbing your feet up the wall!

If you can do free-standing one-hand vertical pushups without strain, I've got nothing for ya. Go ahead and start vert pressing 600 pounds. Also, try out for the Olympic weightlifting team--the gold medal should be easy!

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#277

Post by jonstjohn »

enraged_camel wrote: post #274

My own research on the subject, and my several years of experience applying said research, taught me this: fitness as an overall goal is actually very, very simple. It gets complicated only when you try to optimize and fine-tune your workouts and diets, which most people do not actually need to do unless they are professional bodybuilders or powerlifters. Regardless of your goals, it comes down to three things: eat w…

This is my feeling exactly. People seem to over analyze various approaches to fitness and diet to the point that it becomes un-productive. There is not a magic bullet workout or diet - in fact lots of different workouts and diets will have a positive effect if you stick with them. We are so obsessed with micro-optimizing that we miss the big picture.

I would add some general principles with regards to diet that could benefit most people. Reducing or eliminating processed foods and sugar, for example, can benefit anybody. Maintaining a reasonable proportion of fats, protein and carbohydrates is another.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#278

Post by peterwwillis »

There is no secret to getting fit!

You can't be "sold" fitness. It doesn't come in a barbell or a bosu ball or on the track or in the pool. It's not in your food and it's not in the mind of a trainer. It's definitely not a recipe, WOD, set, game, trail, or pitch.

Want to get fit? Get off your goddamn ass three times a week, eat healthy, proportional meals, and get your doctor to evaluate you. That's it. I have nothing else to say because that is fitness.

--

That being said, this whole article is fucking ridiculous as it purports to tell you that lifting a ton makes you "fit". For me personally, I know i'm "fit" when I can do real-world exercise without getting exhausted. Running a mile in 7 minutes, hiking a medium-to-hard trail, pulling myself up over a ledge/fence, climbing a tree, or sparring for three minutes without falling over. Those are my fitness tests.

Those are my fitness tests, though, not yours. Make fitness personal and work towards your own goals - not something Men's Journal tells you is right for you.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#279

Post by Afton »

WA wrote: post #223
Scotchy wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you mean warm up, not stretch, right ? Stretching happens after if ever, not before :)

The philosophy of stretching changes every couple of years. One year, stretching before is the way to go. Then, stretching after sport. Then, no stretching at all. From what I know: Stretching after doing a workout is bad, because it tenses muscles even more, stopping the flow of blood in the muscle and thus, making muscles more sore. But maybe that opinion is just the current trend.

The science on this one seems clear, stretching is only useful for increasing range of motion. It doesn't prevent injury ( in the studied contexts), it doesn't prevent DOMS, and it doesn't lengthen muscles.

on phone, but sources are a quick search away.

Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie (2011)

#280

Post by bjourne »

tomasien wrote: post #2

This is a solid article, but the title is just wrong. "Free weights are better than machines" is not a "little known" fact, it's a well known fact by anyone who has cared to read the internet re:fitness since 2009. So is "lifting weights is much more efficient than cardio". I say this only so that you don't read this and think these are some kind of fringe theories. They're widely, WIDELY known and 100% true.

> "lifting weights is much more efficient than cardio"

That's news to me. Not saying it is wrong, but if it is a fact, it's one even reasonably informed people doesn't know. Studies (http://jap.physiology.org/content/102/4/1439.long and http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100311123639.ht...) suggest that High-intensity interval training is an incredibly time efficient way to get in shape.

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