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Fitness Crazed

nytimes.com

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Re: Fitness Crazed

#11

Post by avn2109 »

jds375 wrote: post #3

Here's a link to Starting Strength[1]. I highly recommend it for people looking to bulk, tone, and put on some real muscle. It did wonders for me and I'm sure it will for you too. I also recommend doing these powerlifting exercises (such as squats, bench, and deadlift) with a focus on FORM first instead of weight. It'll prevent you from getting injured and payoff when you start lifting real heavy weight. I highly rec…

Mark Rippetoe changed my life. I second this recommendation. And I've only learned to squat and bench properly so far. Looking forward to (if you'll forgive the pun) picking up the other lifts.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#12

Post by enraged_camel »

Starting Strength works because it's easy to understand, follow, and see results from. By far the primary challenge newer folks face is establishing the discipline and consistency, and that's a lot easier to do when you're motivated by increasing the weight on the bar regularly.

My favorite quote from the book is from the very first page (which is probably very relevant to the HN crowd):

A weak man is not as happy as that same man would be if he were strong. This reality is offensive to some people who would like the intellectual or the spiritual to take precedence. It is instructive to see what happens to these people as their squat strength goes up.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#13

Post by nasmorn »

cjf4 wrote: post #6

Kind of surprising that this article didn't use the word "periodization", because that's really what it's advocating.

No he describing a training void of periodization. He does the same routine for a year just increasing weight. In a per iodized regime he would maybe start with low weight high reps then move to 8-12 reps the doing maximum strength training with 5 reps. This is usually only necessary if you start plateauing on your current regime.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#14

Post by ldonley »

jds375 wrote: post #3

Here's a link to Starting Strength[1]. I highly recommend it for people looking to bulk, tone, and put on some real muscle. It did wonders for me and I'm sure it will for you too. I also recommend doing these powerlifting exercises (such as squats, bench, and deadlift) with a focus on FORM first instead of weight. It'll prevent you from getting injured and payoff when you start lifting real heavy weight. I highly rec…

Another similar workout plan is Stronglifts 5x5[1]. I have never done starting strength but I am a fan of stronglifts and it has a free app that does wonders at the gym for tracking your progress.

[1]http://stronglifts.com/

Re: Fitness Crazed

#15

Post by Someone »

JAFTEM wrote: post #5

I have many friends that in the past wanted to get more fit and healthy and they've always felt the need to do a lot of research or look for some sort of crazy program that they think is necessary to shed off the weight or gain muscle. I always try to just push them in the direction of starting out with the "big four" that this article mentioned: the bench press, the squat, the dead lift, and the clean and press. All…

"wanted to get more fit and healthy [...] to shed off the weight or gain muscle"

Those are two, three, maybe four different things. The typical marathon runner, for instance, is fit, not fat, but also not muscular, and may or may not be healthy; a sumo wrestler is surprisingly fit and muscular, but also fat, and a body builder is muscular, but need not even be strong (world champion weight lifters look quite different from body builders)

The optimal training program depends on what you want to achieve. That's also what this NY Times reporter seems to be confused about. Training programs focussing on getting fit (especially those focusing on endurance fitness) may have a side effect of looking better in the mirror, but if that is your goal, there are better/faster ways to get there.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#16

Post by [deleted] »

cjf4 wrote: post #7
jds375 wrote: post #3

Here's a link to Starting Strength[1]. I highly recommend it for people looking to bulk, tone, and put on some real muscle. It did wonders for me and I'm sure it will for you too. I also recommend doing these powerlifting exercises (such as squats, bench, and deadlift) with a focus on FORM first instead of weight. It'll prevent you from getting injured and payoff when you start lifting real heavy weight. I highly rec…

Unless your rail thin and a teenager, I'd avoid Rip's diet advice. It will undoubtedly get you fat. Lyle McDonald's bodyrecomposition.com is, as far as I'm concerned, the best nutrition resource on the internet. Lyle does a great job of taking clinical research and boiling it down to practical applications for people who train.

[deleted]

Re: Fitness Crazed

#17

Post by Technophobe »

enraged_camel wrote: post #12

Starting Strength works because it's easy to understand, follow, and see results from. By far the primary challenge newer folks face is establishing the discipline and consistency, and that's a lot easier to do when you're motivated by increasing the weight on the bar regularly. My favorite quote from the book is from the very first page (which is probably very relevant to the HN crowd): A weak man is not as happy as…

I'm much happier since I've stopped lifting. I did Starting Strength until I could squat 1.5x my body weight, but I never enjoyed going to the gym, and realized I didn't really care much for the muscle I put on. If anything, it was annoying having such big thighs. I haven't been to the gym for a couple of years now and couldn't be happier. I do quite a bit of cardio (competitive table tennis), and that's it.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#18

Post by arasmussen »

Lifting is something I'm pretty passionate about. I go 5 days a week and don't follow any specific program, just do my own thing. Honestly, if you're in the gym 5 days a week, you're going to see results. Plain and simple, no matter what you're doing. I've always felt the programs were basically saying "do these things in the gym this much then you'll see these results" and it's like yeah I can do almost anything in the gym for that amount of time and I'll see those results...

I feel like supplements are similar to personal trainers in terms of that "client confusion". I've taken a lot of different supplements and doing research online versus talking to someone at GNC will return offensively differing results in what you should take for which reasons.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#19

Post by dylanz »

I've been following Wendlers 5/3/1 for the last 3 months, and have noticed a ton of improvement. My personal goal is to get strong and not big. The foundation of 5/3/1 is to improve strength, and there are supplemental routines to get big, get lean, etc etc. So far so good! Would love to hear others opinions if they've tried 5/3/1.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#20

Post by jds375 »

dylanz wrote: post #19

I've been following Wendlers 5/3/1 for the last 3 months, and have noticed a ton of improvement. My personal goal is to get strong and not big. The foundation of 5/3/1 is to improve strength, and there are supplemental routines to get big, get lean, etc etc. So far so good! Would love to hear others opinions if they've tried 5/3/1.

Right now I'm doing 5/3/1. It works great once your linear gains start to fade. That being said, I feel beginners should do more of a starting strength or strong lifts program since there is so much room for growth and high reps help develope good form.
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