Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
matt.might.net
Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
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Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#2Doing basically anything will show improvement over not doing anything. Very frequently you find various fad exercises gaining momentum because of this fact - these people go from doing nothing to doing something, and when it does work they become huge proponents of a system that basically works solely on the fact that it's not nothing.
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#3I don't disagree with the overal theme of the article, but I have to disagree on some particulars. Some thoughts:
>Habit First
Absolutely agree, especially when you're trying to get out of morbid out-of-shapeness. I personally find that mixing it into a pre-existing daily routine works well. I personally do core work and pullups/chinups before my morning and evening showers, and stretch exercises while I'm in the shower.
>Diet
IMO the Diet section is way too detailed as a first step. For someone who is trying to improve from very poor nutrition, I would advise the following:
1. Get rid of all processed sugar products from your house: candy, juice, soda, cookies, etc. (imo all processed items are bad, but again it's about keeping the barrier low)
2. Only walk around the outside lanes of a Grocery store (where the meats, dairy, and vegetables are). Don't go into the middle aisles where they have all the sugary, salty, processed goodies. Keeping bad food out of the house is the easiest, lowest friction way to keep a healthy diet.
> Dumbbells first
Totally disagree with this one. Compound lifts using Barbells are vastly superior to isolation lifts using dumbbells, particularly for beginners. And for beginners, Starting Strength has proven time and time again to be the most effective program. [1]
If you're "starting out", then bodyweight exercises like pullups, chinups, bodyweight squats, planks, pushups, situps, are going to be low barrier to entry, good-habit inducing work that can be leveraged to take the person to the next level when they're comfortable. Once they're at this stage, they can buy whatever barbell setup they're comfortable with (I personally really want an Olympic Lifting platform in my garage...), which is going to be much much cheaper than that complicated Nautilus weight thing anyway.
>Safety
>Even with dummbells, I was able to put loads on my back that felt uncomfortable within about three months.
That' because dumbell lifts don't engage the stabilizer muscles. As a result, those support muscles are going to be underdeveloped and you won't have developed the coordination to engage them when you need them.
> Padded lifting gloves with wrist support helped keep my wrists in a stable, safe position and alleviated wrist pain.
IMO using outside assistance like this promotes bad form and bad habits.
>Str training machines
Ugh these machines are terrible. They (a) don't engage your auxiliary muscles well, and (b) move weights in an unnatural path relative to your body and tend to cause more injuries than just plan barbell work. A great example is squatting on a smith machine, which puts you into very dangerous positions. (yet every single small'ish gym believes that they are somehow safer than regular squat racks)
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I find it odd that the article started out with the premise of helping very novice people get into a healthier routine wrt both diet and exercise, yet evolved into a fairly intermediate article. IMO most people don't need to optimize strength training to this extent. Just getting in any kind of routine and eating well will go a lonnggggg ways.
[1] http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/The_Starting_Strength...
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#4It looks like "least resistance" here means, "I don't want to have to go to the gym, so I bought equipment so I could exercise at home." No shit, Sherlock.
You don't need much equipment to get a good workout at home. Most of the machines at the gym are for isolation exercises. They serve three purposes: they help sell memberships, they're useful if you're injured, and they're useful for serious bodybuilders. This is, I think, common knowledge.
But I think it bears repeating that if you have an injury, free weights might not be for you.
As a side note, Schwarzenegger did an AMA over on /r/fitness yesterday. He was a powerlifter before he was a bodybuilder, and his advice is simple.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/1brg0z/im_back_ama_...
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#5Some of this is terrible advice.
You want strength, you do high weight, low rep sets of compound barbell lifts.
Dumbbells are a body-building tool, not a strength building one.
Press machines are horrid horrid horrid. At best they don't target the important stabilizing muscles that compound lifts are supposed to. At worst they can pull your movements into unnatural ranges of motion, causing lasting damage to your joints.
If you have no one to spot you, buy a power rack. It'll work out cheaper, and you'll be better off.
Honestly though, the best way to get in shape is not to MAKE yourself exercise, it's to find something that you ENJOY and do that. Judo, BJJ, boxing, squash, tennis, football, badminton... join a sports club, have fun, and you won't even notice yourself getting fitter.
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#6Habit is pretty much the biggest thing here. Looking at the success of P90X and others, it's all about working out REGULARLY. Everything else pretty much builds on the habit factor -- motivation through competition/ finding exercises that are fun, diet to enhance, etc.
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#7It looks like "least resistance" here means, "I don't want to have to go to the gym, so I bought equipment so I could exercise at home." No shit, Sherlock. You don't need much equipment to get a good workout at home. Most of the machines at the gym are for isolation exercises. They serve three purposes: they help sell memberships, they're useful if you're injured, and they're useful for serious bodybuilders. This is,…
Problem with buying your own equipment: I'm in my early 20's, so haven't settled into a permanent residence yet. I move around fairly often; I doubt this is uncommon. Exercise equipment is difficult to move (often by intention!) so buying it is just cause for headache.
I do own one 15 lb sandbell, which is basically just a more versatile medicine ball. I can do enough exercises with it to avoid not being able to move for three days after a game of ultimate. Anything more would be much too inconvenient.
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#8I've plugged this here before, but so what: http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-tra....
The key observation here is that your average person doesn't need a particularly sophisticated routine to get "average in shape" (if that makes sense). I think the conventional wisdom that you need to be eating health food all the time and running an hour a day makes people feel like it's just not worth the effort. If you're like most people and not even getting 7-8 hours of sleep, an hour a day of working out isn't in the cards. But: "eat lots of protein and work out 3x30 minutes a week" is so much more approachable.
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#9It looks like "least resistance" here means, "I don't want to have to go to the gym, so I bought equipment so I could exercise at home." No shit, Sherlock. You don't need much equipment to get a good workout at home. Most of the machines at the gym are for isolation exercises. They serve three purposes: they help sell memberships, they're useful if you're injured, and they're useful for serious bodybuilders. This is,…
Problem with buying your own equipment: I'm in my early 20's, so haven't settled into a permanent residence yet. I move around fairly often; I doubt this is uncommon. Exercise equipment is difficult to move (often by intention!) so buying it is just cause for headache. I do own one 15 lb sandbell, which is basically just a more versatile medicine ball. I can do enough exercises with it to avoid not being able to move…
I have found kettle bells to be both effective and mobile.
Re: Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
#10> I hit 90 pounds per hand on the flat bench press (up from 25 per hand at the start).
I call BS unless he's tinkering with terminology. 50 lbs max bench press to 180 lbs max in 5 months is impossible.