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Fitness Crazed

nytimes.com

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Re: Fitness Crazed

#71

Post by biot »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #59
jere wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>From a biological perspective, a specimen might want to be able to do this to signal to potential mates that he is worthy of reproduction You've made a lot of assumptions about his motivations. In Starting Strength , Rippetoe basically makes the claim that these exercises are the most effective way to improve someone's overall health and fitness. His attitude is probably best summarized by the following quote: >Huma…

> that these exercises are the most effective way to improve someone's overall health and fitness. This doesn't explain anything, however. It's tautological... he wants to increase his fitness, to increase his fitness ? > Now, I'm not going to argue with you about whether humans need exercise to be healthy or if so, To what end? To eke out another 3 years at the end of his life, probably in a nursing home? If he was…

If your body is healthy, you're going to avoid that nursing home. My father was in such a home in his seventies, yet family friends of the same age who stayed active and fit were going on kayaking vacations around the world. If you disagree that someone who keeps their body in great shape is going to be healthier than someone whose body is out of shape, then I suspect you're either trolling or you're not old enough to recognize the ill-effects of a sedentary lifestyle.

Also, the article calls it a craze but what, objectively, is a craze? Google tells me it's a widespread but short-lived activity; a fad. This is certainly true of specific fitness programs, but the general desire for people to not be out of shape is anything but short-lived.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#73

Post by fhars »

smegel wrote: post #58

> outdated barbell movements I stopped reading about here.

Then your reading comprehension is probably lacking. You do realize that the article is a strong defence of classical barbell excercises?

Re: Fitness Crazed

#74

Post by jqm »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #68
jqm wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A male's ability to provide benefit to a female just doesn't lean much towards the "fighting off sabertooth tigers" anymore, nor even in the western world towards "fighting off other males" Yes, you are exactly right. And the brain knows that. Yet, our evolutionary selection criteria, eh....let's just call it what it is... the desire of people to have sex with you, hasn't caught up yet. There is a reason big breasts…

> And the brain knows that. Yet, our evolutionary selection criteria, eh....let's just call it what it is... the desire of people to have sex with you, hasn't caught up yet. I disagree. There is a tremendous selection pressure going on, constantly. I always chuckle when I read something by some disaffected 19 yr old whining about how girls don't like him. And what does he do? He talks about going to the gym. Even if…

"I contend that this is because of a psychological defect in the human species"

Oh, I don't disagree with you. We seem to have no shortage of psychological defects as a species. 100,000 years of evolution and we are still selecting for big breasts and dominating non-cooperative personalities. Fortunately most of our "selection" doesn't actually result in procreation anymore.

Now, about all those "increase your penis size" ads in my spam folder....

Re: Fitness Crazed

#75

Post by mattchamb »

will_work4tears wrote: post #56
x0x0 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who started lifting a year ago: you don't know what you're talking about, but don't let that stop you from giving others advice that could hurt them. For the rest of people interested in getting strong: get a competent trainer (one easy evaluation metric is, as I mentioned, their deadlift maxes; greater than 500 pounds makes avoiding injury w/o good form very unlikely; or participation in powerlifting even…

Well, my max deadlift comes pretty close to 500lbs and I have been lifting for far longer than a mere year and I'm sorry to say that you are wrong. You don't need to go to a trainer. I learned everything I know from reading, watching videos and having my form critiqued. It's actually better to go to a good powerlifting gym and make friends with some strong people, but you don't NEED to. At least not until you get to…

Deadlift of 507lbs raw (no belt, just chalk) here, been training for 4+ years.

When I started, I lucked out when I started training and got a trainer who started me on light squats and barbell bench. Then after a while I made friends with the strongest guys in the gym who have been training for 15+ years.

I dont think you need to find a hulking trainer - my advice would be to find a trainer who has been training for a long time. By that stage they have realised that slow, steady, consistent progress is much more important than just quickly posting huge numbers. They are much more likely to know the benefits of maintaining good form because they will have suffered, and recovered from, injuries.

P.s. I know a trainer who can DL over 500lbs - though he trains mostly women, he does get them deadlifting. They dont do anything like SS because they have different goals.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#76

Post by sumeno »

Good article, however the author overlooks the most important factor of any "exercise", "training", "diet", "strength/size building" program.

Diet.

Starting Strength is a great strength program, however if you are eating garbage you are still going to look like garbage. Someone doing a fad exercise routine and eating right is going to have better results than someone doing an optimal training routine with a poor diet.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#77

Post by mhb »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #70
jere wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If he was trying to avoid diabetes, that makes sense to me, that affects anywhere from 10-40 years of your life, and is a very extreme quality-of-life factor. Sure and two of the biggest factors in preventing/treating diabetes are exercise and weight maintenance. >This doesn't explain anything, however. It's tautological... he wants to increase his fitness, to increase his fitness? Nope. He is performing weight bear…

> Sure and two of the biggest factors in preventing/treating diabetes are exercise and weight maintenance. 60 years ago, your grandfather's generation had no problems with this at all. They didn't go to the gym. While exercise is a factor, these people have taken the required level of exercise and kicked it up 10,000%. > Nope. He is performing weight bearing exercise to, not only become better at performing those exe…

The hamster doesn't run on the wheel because it thinks that being a fatty is deplorable, but because it's become mentally ill trapped in its cage.

Wild mice actually enjoy running on exercise wheels:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/grrlscientist/2014/may/21...

Re: Fitness Crazed

#78

Post by yodsanklai »

To each his own but I find it easier to get fit as a side effect from practicing a "regular" sport, like swimming, climbing, running, boxing etc... I feel it's less artificial and much more entertaining.

However, not many sports can give you those huge muscles people get from a proper strength training with high protein diet.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#79

Post by a8da6b0c91d »

michokest wrote: post #21

My story with fitness echoes this post closely. Gyms have long had the motivation to push the latest machines or fitness fads, because that's how they retain customers with the promise of a new program that'll change everything. After a ton of research, the only thing that worked for me was bodyweight workouts and barbell training. To drop my weight I followed bodyweight programs at home. 20 minute short sessions wit…

I've done a lot of olympic lift training over the years and am competent at it. I am very much pro machine. The modern machines are excellent at preventing injury while providing an ideal strength training movement. The barbell stuff is these days fetishized for no good reason.

People get hurt using barbells all the time. It is easy to mess up and tweak something and then be a bit injured for a few weeks, even if you know what you're doing. It is much harder to mess up with the good machines. The barbell doesn't have any special advantages. In fact, loading up the plates is a nuisance.

Re: Fitness Crazed

#80

Post by davycro »

I followed the Starting Strength regime for about 7 months and had great results where I added about 15 lbs of muscle to my frame. Its a fantastic method for building a foundation of strength and muscle. My biggest complaint during the process was that it was difficult to track my progress. To my surprise none of the iPhone applications out there were very good for tracking lifts and I ended up tracking with the Notes application. Recently, I stumbled upon the StrongLifts app, which is tailored for a different lifting regime, but one that is somewhat similar to Starting Strength. StrongLifts is executed perfectly, in my opinion. If I wasn't in school, I'd try and build a StrongLifts clone retooled for Starting Strength. I think there would be a huge market for that app.

I would like to see an iPhone application that tracks your progress in the Starting Strength routine. The app StrongLifts would be a great starting place. StrongLifts has a fitness regime that is similar to Starting Strength, and is executed beautifully. I love the idea of combining a fitness program with a smartphone application.

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