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Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

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Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#31

Post by warpwoof »

hugh3 wrote: post #21
tyweir wrote: post #20

Looks pretty good. Two points that I'd not follow. Diet: Eating grains. Gluten is pretty much evil for everyone, including non-Celiacs. Google for "paleo diet" or "gluten autoimmune" to get a sense of gluten's impact. Also check out the "Save my Life" HN thread for more info about gluten-free/paleo. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1399450 Exercise: Cardio, long slow distance is pretty much useless. High intensity…

Those two points seem to me like fringe advice. I'm sure if I googled "gluten autoimmune" and "tabata intervals" I'd find a bunch of people agreeing with you, but no more than I'd find with any number of other fad diets or exercise regimes. It'd take a helluva lot of evidence to persuade me that eating grains is bad, because... heck, grains are tasty, and the vast majority of humans who have lived over the last five…

People have different tolerances to the amount of grains they can eat, but, if you want optimal health, you'd stop eating grains. Grains are not a nutritional necessity. There's nothing in grains that you can't get in meat, vegetables, fruit, or seeds/nuts.

This article is a pretty good treatment of specific problems with grains: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/

Again, some people can be in good shape and eat grains. But if you want to be as healthy as possible they need to be avoided. Or if you're overweight/out of shape, removing them from your diet will definitely speed up the process of improving your health.

I know for my own body, it's best for me to avoid them completely. They have a very addictive quality for me, more so than anything sweet. Forget the ice cream, give me a roll!

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#32

Post by matwood »

KirinDave wrote: post #27
hugh3 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Anything up to 2 lb per week is a reasonably healthy rate of weight loss, especially if you're quite overweight to start with. Losing 40 lb in six months is both perfectly healthy and a damn good achievement.

I'm not saying it's not great, but it's not a sustainable rate of weight loss if your goal is to lose a lot of weight. When I cut soda from my diet I lost 10lbs in a month. In a month! And then it tailed off and I was depressed because I couldn't sustain it, I had unreasonable expectations. And if you're losing 2lbs a week for a very long period of time, it can be an indicator of underlying medical issues.

At some point though you shouldn't want to lose anymore weight. Unless you start out really overweight, simply losing weight shouldn't be the goal anyways. Lowering BF% is a much better goal that reflects your overall body composition. I'm 6' 1" and almost 200lbs and weight wise I could be considered overweight, but my BF% was 11% the last time I had it checked and I've since gotten leaner.

In short, don't get depressed about the scale. Look in the mirror and keep making body composition changes.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#33

Post by chollida1 »

spking wrote: post #9

I agree with the author's recommendation to focus mainly on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, military presses, etc.) I stopped training arms directly and still packed on substantial muscle mass just by training back, chest and shoulders. I'd also point out that in my experience, training legs accounts for 50% of upper body growth due to the specific hormones released.

> I'd also point out that in my experience, training legs accounts for 50% of upper body growth due to the specific hormones released.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. It always pains me to see guys at the gym who spend 2 days a week on chest and another 2 days on back with a day for arms and never train their legs.

It's our legs that often break down first when we're older. You've got to take care of them:)

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#34

Post by gfunk911 »

gfunk911 wrote: post #2

Great article, agree with pretty much everything. The one advantage of machines over free weights is that the machine will enforce your form. If you are able to maintain form with free weights, the effort exerted to do so is an added bonus, but if you aren't, it's not good. I started with machines, and every couple workouts replaced a machine exercise with a free weight exercise. This helped me get started, and let m…

To clarify, I meant that I replace the machine workout with the free weight workout permanently, so that eventually my workout is entirely free weights.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#35

Post by hugh3 »

tyweir wrote: post #26
hugh3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two points seem to me like fringe advice. I'm sure if I googled "gluten autoimmune" and "tabata intervals" I'd find a bunch of people agreeing with you, but no more than I'd find with any number of other fad diets or exercise regimes. It'd take a helluva lot of evidence to persuade me that eating grains is bad, because... heck, grains are tasty, and the vast majority of humans who have lived over the last five…

I understand your viewpoint and opinion, as I've run into it before. I'm going to disagree that gluten has had "no obvious ill effects" because I've seen the changes in my clients lives, experienced it my self (gluten-intolerant) and my mother (Celiac). And your argument that eating grains is not bad because they taste good is preposterous. As for LSD, can you tell what appeals to you about the physique of a marathon…

I've seen the changes in my clients lives

Ah, so you're someone who makes a living by selling diet plans? I'm afraid that if you're a professional x salesman that makes me somewhat less likely to trust your testimony on the advantages of x.

experienced it my self (gluten-intolerant) and my mother (Celiac)

Well obviously if you're gluten-intolerant then gluten is bad for you.

And your argument that eating grains is not bad because they taste good is preposterous

I'm not saying they're not bad because they taste good (cf cheesecake), I'm saying that it would take a lot of evidence to get me to stop eating 'em because they taste good. Basic price/benefit calculation: I'm not gonna give up bread and rice without a damn convincing reason.

As for LSD, can you tell what appeals to you about the physique of a marathoner?

Y'see now you're sounding like a salesman.

Changing peoples eating and exercise habits is like getting people to quit smoking, they need to have the impetus to start, outside advice/encouragement only goes so far.

True. I think crazy diet advice can really do a lot of harm, though, by making people think that getting fit is a lot harder than it actually is. Cutting out ice cream and cookies is easy, cutting out grains is very hard.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#36

Post by matwood »

gfunk911 wrote: post #2

Great article, agree with pretty much everything. The one advantage of machines over free weights is that the machine will enforce your form. If you are able to maintain form with free weights, the effort exerted to do so is an added bonus, but if you aren't, it's not good. I started with machines, and every couple workouts replaced a machine exercise with a free weight exercise. This helped me get started, and let m…

The problem with machines and that most enforce 'bad' form. Every person has their own natural motion that a machine simply cannot match.

The best way to learn a free weight exercise is to simply start doing it without any weight. Start squatting and dead lifting with just your body weight (use a broom handle to simulate the bar). Once you get that down start adding weight. There is a very little that a machine will do to help you with exercises like that and in fact it could end up enforcing bad habits.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#37

Post by matwood »

yesimahuman wrote: post #17
gfunk911 wrote: post #2

Great article, agree with pretty much everything. The one advantage of machines over free weights is that the machine will enforce your form. If you are able to maintain form with free weights, the effort exerted to do so is an added bonus, but if you aren't, it's not good. I started with machines, and every couple workouts replaced a machine exercise with a free weight exercise. This helped me get started, and let m…

This is why you go slow and use easy weights when starting a new free weight workout. Having bad form can be dangerous (for example, the deadlift), but in general I find that it's just not as effective and that bothers me enough to make my form better.

Ah, the dead lift. The single most effective exercise ever invented. I don't remember where I read it, but the quote goes like this:

"A kid walked up to me in the gym while I was dead lifting and asked 'what muscle does that work.' I responded by asking the kid 'have you ever watched a football player run across the field and tackle the player with the ball?' The kid responded 'sure.' To that I said 'that muscle.'"

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#38

Post by hugh3 »

warpwoof wrote: post #31
hugh3 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two points seem to me like fringe advice. I'm sure if I googled "gluten autoimmune" and "tabata intervals" I'd find a bunch of people agreeing with you, but no more than I'd find with any number of other fad diets or exercise regimes. It'd take a helluva lot of evidence to persuade me that eating grains is bad, because... heck, grains are tasty, and the vast majority of humans who have lived over the last five…

People have different tolerances to the amount of grains they can eat, but, if you want optimal health, you'd stop eating grains. Grains are not a nutritional necessity. There's nothing in grains that you can't get in meat, vegetables, fruit, or seeds/nuts. This article is a pretty good treatment of specific problems with grains: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/definitive-guide-grains/ Again, some people can be in goo…

Again, some people can be in good shape and eat grains. But if you want to be as healthy as possible they need to be avoided.

Find me a professional athlete on a grain-free diet.

Maybe they're out there somewhere, but I'm pretty sure if you find me one I'll find you a better professional athlete who eats grains.

With so much effort put into finding optimal diets for athletes nowadays, if cutting out grains would improve fitness in any meaningful way then we'd know about it by now. If Lance Armstrong or Usain Bolt could go faster with a grain-free diet they'd be doing it.

edit: I found a link about Usain Bolt's diet. Turns out he eats quite a lot of rice:

http://dailyrunningtips.com/training/usain-bolt-diet-food/

Now I can't prove he wouldn't be even faster if he cut out the rice, but I am pretty sure it can't be doing him too much harm.

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#39

Post by matwood »

chollida1 wrote: post #33
spking wrote: post #9

I agree with the author's recommendation to focus mainly on compound movements (squats, deadlifts, military presses, etc.) I stopped training arms directly and still packed on substantial muscle mass just by training back, chest and shoulders. I'd also point out that in my experience, training legs accounts for 50% of upper body growth due to the specific hormones released.

> I'd also point out that in my experience, training legs accounts for 50% of upper body growth due to the specific hormones released. I couldn't agree more with this statement. It always pains me to see guys at the gym who spend 2 days a week on chest and another 2 days on back with a day for arms and never train their legs. It's our legs that often break down first when we're older. You've got to take care of them:…

I point and laugh at those guys :)

Re: Beginner's Health and Fitness Guide

#40

Post by gyardley »

matwood wrote: post #30
earlyresort wrote: post #7

I can swear by this - I've lost almost forty pounds since New Year's by cutting out the danishes, making my own lunches, and going to the gym regularly for weight lifting and cardio. The only thing I'd add - working out is time-consuming, and getting started at a gym is both hard and intimidating. Gyms themselves are counting on you to stop going - that's how they make their money. If you're having trouble getting st…

First off, great job! Working out really doesn't take that long. Most studies have shown that a typical non-steroid using weight training session only needs to last 45 minutes to an hour. After that time period, unless you consuming calories during the session the results you can get drop off dramatically from diminishing returns. I agree that the biggest hurdle with people going to a gym is the intimidation factor.…

Your advice here is good. You might want to quietly watch a few trainers in action, if you can do so unobtrusively - I did, and it helped. I picked a female trainer over a male trainer because I saw a few of the male trainers at my gym barking drill-sergeant-style, and I knew I'd react poorly to that.

As for the complements to a stranger, I did have a couple of random people at the gym say 'you've been working your ass off' or 'you've lost a lot of weight' in a non-creepy way when I was in line at the juice bar and I definitely appreciated it. But everyone's different.

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