291–300 of 370 posts
- Stop drinking, replace it with weed if necessary. - Run or lift weights, or both. But be careful with your back (keep it straight) and shoulders (lift the weight in front/above your head, not directly above. Same for pullups) when lifting, and your knees when running (land with your metatarsus first, not your heel). - Sleep and eat well.
I am 42 and the single best advice I can give you is to invest in a treadmill desk. This WILL change your life as a software developer. You'll start blessing the day you made this as a career choice because this is one of the only jobs that'll allow you to workout while working and end up being more productive than if were not doing so. Here are the readouts for the steps that I walked just on the treadmill (not coun…
Treadmill desks look like a great idea all the way around. I just wish there was a model that would convert back and forth between sitting and walking easily. There are certainly times when I don't want to be walking...
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If you're doing power cleans correctly you should not be dropping the weight. The movement isn't over until the weight is safely on the ground. If the weight makes a noise loud enough to draw every gym goers attention, you are lifting too much and should deload. Or you just might be that guy ;)
The power clean movement is over when you have control of the bar on your shoulders. Gyms are not libraries. They should be dirty and loud.
Strength training 3x a week. Why strength? Strength is the most generalized adaptation there is. Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: strength (duh), power, agility, balance, flexibility, endurance (all 3 types) and coordination. I would also make the argument that in day to day life strength is the most important attribute of fitness for someone in the western world. The ability to carry a bunc…
> Why strength? Strength is the most generalized adaptation there is. Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: strength (duh), power, agility, balance, flexibility, endurance (all 3 types) and coordination > People may have different fitness goals, but for someone who is untrained by far the best thing they can do is a strength program for 3-5 months before training more specifically for their goals…
Eat well, sleep enough and walk plenty. Sleep is something which is seriously overlooked in general. From personal experience, getting enough sleep and eating well are requirements that need to be met first before exercise. There is nothing is worse than exercising whilst you are deprived of sleep and mal-nourished. Speaking about exercise, don't get hung up on dogmas and "this is the only way" personality that is co…
"There is nothing is worse than exercising whilst you are deprived of sleep and mal-nourished." I agree, and so does science. Sleep deprivation will wreck your training efforts, make you weaker, more likely to store fat & break down muscle tissue while also making you hungrier. http://www.strengtheory.com/sleep-pt-1/ http://www.strengtheory.com/poor-recovery-and-increased-musc...
So, yeah, I think it's not smart to deprive yourself of sleep and still exercise. But if you're cursed with sleep issues, consider getting started on an exercise routine even with little sleep.
You may find out in a few weeks time that the sleep issues go away.
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"There is nothing is worse than exercising whilst you are deprived of sleep and mal-nourished." I agree, and so does science. Sleep deprivation will wreck your training efforts, make you weaker, more likely to store fat & break down muscle tissue while also making you hungrier. http://www.strengtheory.com/sleep-pt-1/ http://www.strengtheory.com/poor-recovery-and-increased-musc...
The flip side of that for me, as a long-term (25+ yr) insomniac, is exercise is the only thing that has ever gotten my sleep issues under control. So, yeah, I think it's not smart to deprive yourself of sleep and still exercise. But if you're cursed with sleep issues, consider getting started on an exercise routine even with little sleep. You may find out in a few weeks time that the sleep issues go away.
Reminds me of this attempt[0] I recently ran across to identify the central nodes of a habit network. A neat idea, and one I hadn't seen before, despite a pretty good familiarity with the literature of habit formation.
[0] https://medium.com/forte-labs/mapping-the-habit-graph-13e851...
Strength training 3x a week. Why strength? Strength is the most generalized adaptation there is. Training to be strong improves every component of fitness: strength (duh), power, agility, balance, flexibility, endurance (all 3 types) and coordination. I would also make the argument that in day to day life strength is the most important attribute of fitness for someone in the western world. The ability to carry a bunc…
strength training 3x a week will with no other exercise will leave the average person with extremely poor cardiovascular fitness. if you lack the strength to carry out household tasks you would be better off with basic bodyweight exercises. the average western person is sedentary and does not exercise enough, so it makes little sense to recommend 3 hours a week of training that consists of mainly of recovering betwee…
> strength training 3x a week will with no other exercise will leave the average person with extremely poor cardiovascular fitness.
This is actually not true. I wont argue it's going to give you the same level of cardiovascular conditioning as running daily, but it absolutely gives you a baseline of cardiovascular conditioning. Since we are talking about basic fitness, I would still hold to my recommendation that strength is the most important thing for the first few months, especially for a sedentary population that is likely to hurt themselves doing high impact running. I would agree that after those first few months cardiovascular fitness should be considered, and in fact most strength programs include conditioning as well. Starting strength does not because it's not meant to be run for more than a few months before going into intermediate programs that do in fact contain conditioning.
> there is also no evidence for the preventative benefits of heavy lifting. for the average person who starts lifting to feel and look better, starting strength makes no sense
Re: evidence of preventative benefits, I'd suggest reading this article http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/article/barbell_t... Re: looking better, this thread is not about that...so...
> it is sub optimal for increasing mass
On the contrary, given a year and body building goals I would absolutely be recommending strength based training for a great amount of that time. I suggest you read Practical Programming which goes into detail about why this is, but the short version is myofibrilar hypertrophy vs. sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is a very real difference, and the former is far more important for mass during the novice phase, and for allowing the latter to be quickly added during intermediate phases.
> requires rapid and unhealthy weight gain for progression for many trainees...
This is a pretty poor understanding of the starting strength program and its nutritional recommendations. Have you read the book or just internet forums like /r/fitness where idiots talk about it?
> even if you don't agree with all my points, at least ask yourself if it makes sense to recommend a highly specific sports training routine to everyone looking for basic fitness advice.
If you think starting strength is a sports training routine then you do not understand the basic principals of the program or the philosophy. Please respond to my initial justification, which is that strength is the basis of all fitness and provides gains in every area, as well as the fact that I explicitly recommend a short period of time for strength training.
I quit smoking roughly 3 months ago, since I missed being able to run and not desire death afterwards. Could already feel big difference with improved sleep after just 1 week of quitting, with sense of taste and smell also noticeably improving. Lung capacity that hasn't returned as much as I wished though.
[1] http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/sgr/2004/posters/...
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Starting strength and similar routines are great but be very careful of starting light and maintaining proper technique as getting injured can really impact your health and happiness in a lot of ways especially as we get older. It is very easy to get injured doing squats or power cleans with any kind of sizable weight. For example the injury rates in CrossFit are estimated to be between 20-75% [1,2] of participants w…
heavy lifting is inherently risky. there is little evidence that "correct" form will protect you from potential injury. there is also no real reason to do a strength focused routine if your reason for going to the gym is to improve your health and/or body. don't listen to the starting strength cultists!
This is true for all exercise, but actually if you look at insurance numbers weightlifting has by far the fewest injuries of any sport out there, so I don't think this is correct. Anecdotally I don't know a single person who runs consistently without having chronic issues with their knees or feet, whereas I know many lifters who go years without significant injuries beyond minor tweaks.
> there is little evidence that "correct" form will protect you from potential injury
This is not true at all, or else there wouldn't be a concept of correct form.
I think you are confusing strength training and powerlifting, which are two different things with pretty different recommendations for intensity etc. I agree with you that powerlifting is inherently risky, but all competitive sport is. That's basically the point.
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I think the point about power cleans is fair (although if you read the book they aren't really required, many reasons why you wouldn't do them), but the 5x5 progression is way too much volume way too early.
High on volume? What?! You can be out of the gym in 30 minutes or less. It's 3 exercises 3 times per week. 15 sets total per gym session (not counting warm-up sets). The whole point is to start with a very low weight (empty bar) and work your way up by adding 2.5lbs to each side every time you go back in. It's the fastest linear progression workout for beginners. From my experience, Strong Lifts 5x5 is the recommende…
I think 30 minutes in the gym is disingenuous. Within weeks that quickly balloons to about 1.5 hours as soon as the weights get remotely challenging.
Very very very few people can continue even a 1x5 linear progression to a 400# squat or 500# deadlift.