TL;DR: Stronglifts.
Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
291–300 of 376 posts
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every time there's an article on exercise or diet, there's a pileon of people promoting their own beliefs, with no apparent sign that they read the original link. How do you address the fact that your point is actively contradicted by the article? Did you even know your point is actively contradicted by the article? I'm not even saying that proves you're wrong; what bothers me is that you just ran off to post your ow…
The author talks about his experience or getting fit by going to a gym and lifting free weights. I countered with my approach, which revolves around setting your life up so that fitness is merely a side effect. I'm not contradicting anything that he says. I used to lift weights in much the manner that he describes, and it'd be difficult to deny that it works. The thing that he misses is motivation. Most people simply…
For what it's worth, the author of the article is the real deal, has written one of the best books on Yosemite climbing and a memoir of a year in which he surfed N Cal every day. It's not like he's some wide eyed dilettante who has never been outside.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
Numerous studies (See the first chapter of "Why we get Fat, by Taubes) have shown that Obesity is a disease of poverty. The food that keeps you lean (protein/fats) is expensive. Carbs are cheap. Poor people eat carbs. Rich people eat steak, chicken, fish. There is no significant research that shows adding exercise to an overweight person's lifestyle will significantly reduce their weight - typically just increases th…
If obesity is a disease of poverty, then how come truly poor people (e.g., the poor in India or China) are skinny? Lack of money for food is not a cause of obesity. If your goal is to obtain 2500 calories (assuming that is what you need to maintain a healthy weight) for a little money as possible, you will consume 2500 calories of carbs. You will not become obese. If you instead consume 3500 calories and become obese…
You're completely discounting the effect different foods have on insulin response as a factor in obesity. 2500 calories from carbs has a different effect on metabolism than 2500 calories from protein and fat.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meh? I buy store-brand bacon, eggs, cheap beef, and Vermont cheddar. When I treat myself, it's to a $12/lb steak (on sale at $6). I mostly don't eat vegetables aside from the odd mixed-green salad when I'm in the mood. I don't buy mechanically separated and prepackaged meat only because it either tastes worse, or costs more. I eat whatever's cheap and tasty, as much as I want, mostly meat— the literal antithesis of P…
How do you ever manage to poop? (serious question, though I appreciate the fact that I just asked the most base question in this entire comment page)
The normal way, I guess? :P
In seriousness, there was an adjustment period of "intestinal irregularity" when I first switched, presumably due intestinal flora etc. adapting from substantial amounts of carbs and fiber to all fats and protein. These days I'd say I'm on the infrequent end of normal, pooping once every day or two, which I think is pretty typical for paleo folks.
If I do end up eating a substantial amount of carbs, usually at a restaurant or dinner party, it does often give me the runs later, which is my primary reason for strictly avoiding grains moreso than health or philosopical concerns. And if I drink too much (which is easy to do when you eat low-carb) all bets are off.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think feeling fit is about effortlessly dealing with physical things you usually have to deal with in your life. "My car broke. No problem. I'll just run 5 miles to work." situation does not occur very often.
That's a ridiculous straw man. Yes, running will make running easier for you. That's great if you play sports. But sports aren't the only time people might get winded. It may be more common here in Asia where people aren't as reliant on cars but I, for example, have to about 20 minutes of walking and several flights of stairs involved in my daily commute. So do most of the other people I see in the subway. I've moved…
Do you feel fit because you can effortlessly deal with few flights of stairs and 20 minute walk daily? How old are you?
I go out of my house about once a week and I can do that. I don't think running 5km is necessary to achieve it since maximum distance I ran in my life was 1km and after that I was spitting my lungs for longer time than I actually ran.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#296Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan spells it out very well, but I'll just give you my simple definition: Eating healthy is as close to eating dirt without actually eating dirt. Produce, grain, cheese, 1/2 pound to a pound of meat a week[1], and whatever else Marion Nestle recommends[1.5]. Just imagine what primitive man would eat.…
> don't eat boxed foods or foods that went through multiple stages of processing What's wrong with cheese, or butter? Or sauerkraut and pickles? All processed food. Also, powdered mashed potatoes and puffed rice are just conveniently preserved starch. They're perfectly healthy. The "processed food" and "mostly plants" stuff is just marketing psychology that taps into SWPLs' inner hippie. The real diet rules aren't my…
Wait, what's wrong with vegetable oils now? Last I heard things like olive oil were supposed to be healthy.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I believe it's a CrossFit thing. Based on this claim I assume also that Crossfit invented the barbell, the bumper plate and gravity. The sudden outburst of anecdotes about how your Crossfit gym rooly trooly emphasises form seems to have come after years of sustained criticism by strength coaches and Olympic weightlifting coaches. It's as simple as this: nobody -- not me, not you, not your coach, not the pros -- nob…
I haven't done crossfit, but I am curious - what prevents you from doing 20 proper form clean & jerks if you lower the weight?
Nervous system fatigue.
The Olympic lifts require:
1. Precision.
2. Power.
In that order.
The problem is that the motions happen so fast that even at light weights you quickly deplete the central nervous system's ability to provide sharp signals. Ideally the signal conveyed to muscles looks like a square wave. However as repetitions mount, it becomes more and more to resemble noise, leading to sloppy form.
Repetition is the basis of learning, especially for complex movement. If you are doing 20 reps, and 15 of them have degraded form, what will you wind up learning?
And it doesn't help that the emphasis is doing the 20 reps in the minimum time possible, which discourages lifters from taking the time to set themselves in the correct position off the floor.
The weight is almost, but not quite, irrelevant to my main point. My main point is that the body learns what you make it do. If you continue to work through degraded form you will only learn to make the lifts sloppily. As you increase the weight (Crossfit calls this "scaling the workout" as if they were the first to think of changing the weight on the bar), you will only increase your risk of injury.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends on where you live. A hilly area can kick your ass a lot harder than a treadmill, but my current neighborhood is flat and it compares pretty evenly to a treadmill run.
It does not. Running on the ground you push yourself forward. On a treadmill the amount of work you are doing can vary quite a bit by technique (ie. how much contact you are making with the treadmill) because you are not actually propelling yourself.
A treadmill makes me run at a pace that is faster than I would run outside though.
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#299I've been wondering about getting fit for years, then suddenly one day out of the blue, my doctor told me the secret: "Eat Less & Work Out More"
smashes forehead, why has everyone been keep this a secret for so long :)
Re: Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie
#300I get the logic and intent behind these kind of articles but at the same time they infuriate me, because this is the kind of crap that people read and use as yet-another-reason as to why they don't try to get fit. Sure, machines aren't perfect, and they railroad your form, but it's better than nothing. I train on machines, _and_ with free weight, _and_ doing bodyweight / crossfit stuff. They all have their place. The…
ummm, No! From anecdotal experience - the training plan he describes is something I did when I started out mountainbiking and ran straight into a probably best coach in vicinity. My training program was a lot like the one described in the article - It was longer, but I was too lazy to do all of it - so I landed right where he suggests 3-4 times lifting weights a week. And boy did I get strong. But then I started fidd…
My gripe is about "getting fit" as in coming from baseline / nothing to being a reasonable human being. When I was pushing 310 pounds (as in ass weight, not bench weight), this is the kind of thing I would read and go, hey, yeah! Super clever mountain man training! That's the stuff, screw the gym, I'm all over this, I'm so pro!
Not a unique attitude at all. What got me down to the 200 mark though was just joining a gym, pushing out squats / deadlifts / presses (on machines for the first few months), utilizing the trainers, getting some buddies on board, eating less and getting the job done.
Average joe doesn't have room for gear at home, or the motivation to independently structured programs, or they just flat out get intimidated by hanging around training camps or gyms. I don't think there's room to discourage anything that has potential benefit for people.