The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body • Hacker News Board

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#31

Post by 3dFlatLander » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:08 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #20

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are ve…

I've got a real love/hate thing going on with Ferris. He seems like he's got a lot of confidence and has done a lot of neat stuff. But at the same time, I can't help but feel that he uses his life experiences as ammo wrapped in exaggeration to fire at us plebs so we'll buy his books. The 4HWW had some useful bits of knowledge in it, but there was much fluff that came in the form of Tim pimping his lifestyle.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#32

Post by swombat » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:09 PM UTC

bodybuilder wrote: post #23

Tim Ferriss is correct that it takes 4 hours to get a body like his. However, to be accurate, he should have said 4 hours per DAY. 2 hours weights + 2 hours cardio will get you in shape like him. Not drinking milk and expecting to lose 10 lbs = fail. the guy is a sales/marketing genius.

A great many people (also known as "hard-gainers") will not gain any muscle whatsoever by exercising every day - let alone exercising for 4 hours every day.

If you're a hard-gainer (I am), you will need to:

* Do the right kinds of exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups, inverted rows, etc)

* Rest enough in between sessions (2 days between sessions at least)

* Eat enough, including enough protein from a variety of sources

If you do those things, you will put on muscle no matter what your body type. Exercise 4 hours a day, and you will only put on muscle if you have awesome genetics.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#33

Post by ArcticCelt » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:12 PM UTC

FluidDjango wrote: post #25

edw519 wrote: post #20

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are ve…

I appreciate my life choices for not having such a fellow on my radar (spelling is Ferriss - I discover by searching on Amz). Yet I wonder how I could have become so cynical as to doubt the "socially redeeming value" of an ~author~ who gets a book published by including claims such as: > YOU WILL LEARN (in less than 30 minutes each): > How to lose those last 5-10 pounds (or 100+ pounds) with odd combinations of food…

Ok, I though you were satirizing his content. I just want to confirm to other readers that the list of points you mentioned are verbatim from his web site.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#34

Post by gursikh » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:18 PM UTC

Every Tim Ferris thread I see on HN, has nigh 10 - 20 posts that all essentially say:

"Tim Ferris is a charlatan. He's relies on spin and marketing to sell his products. His methods encourage people to be lazy and not make a genuine effort to reach their goals. His advice is counterproductive."

But while Tim makes every effort to support his claims using facts, anecdotes and citations these sorts of comments are rarely supported by anything other than the commenter's opinion. I'm not saying people shouldn't post Tim-hating comments, to the contrary I'm asking for Tim-haters to form a strong argument against his ideology by citing studies and literature that clearly contradict what he preaches.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#35

Post by kscaldef » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:19 PM UTC

weeksie wrote: post #12

The muscle building seems similar, though even more extreme than HST training: http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html I switched to HST after a long time of doing typical weight training routines and now do 1-2 sets per body part each time I'm in the gym. It's not nearly as extreme as what he's describing but I've cut my workouts down to 3 40 minute sessions each week and my gains have increased a LOT. Of…

Just wondering... Does anyone actually want to look like that guy on the HST page? I took one look at that and said "this is not the workout routine for me".

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#36

Post by bodybuilder » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:26 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #32

bodybuilder wrote: post #23

Tim Ferriss is correct that it takes 4 hours to get a body like his. However, to be accurate, he should have said 4 hours per DAY. 2 hours weights + 2 hours cardio will get you in shape like him. Not drinking milk and expecting to lose 10 lbs = fail. the guy is a sales/marketing genius.

A great many people (also known as "hard-gainers") will not gain any muscle whatsoever by exercising every day - let alone exercising for 4 hours every day. If you're a hard-gainer (I am), you will need to: * Do the right kinds of exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups, inverted rows, etc) * Rest enough in between sessions (2 days between sessions at least) * Eat enough, including enough protein from a va…

you dont do the same routine every day; you do a 3-day split. I guarantee you if we did a study of 1,000 americans who did 4 hours per day and rotated their weights and cardio vs. Tim's method; 95% would be in much better shape my way. and the 5% who dont cant put on weight.

" 1 point by swombat 3 minutes ago | link | parent

A great many people (also known as "hard-gainers") will not gain any muscle whatsoever by exercising every day - let alone exercising for 4 hours every day.

If you're a hard-gainer (I am), you will need to:

* Do the right kinds of exercises (squats, deadlifts, bench press, pullups, inverted rows, etc)

* Rest enough in between sessions (2 days between sessions at least)

* Eat enough, including enough protein from a variety of sources

"If you do those things, you will put on muscle no matter what your body type. Exercise 4 hours a day, and you will only put on muscle if you have awesome genetics."

exactly; the same kind of "superhuman" genetics tim ferriss (and me) already have. thing is; if we don't do 4 hr/day, we get fat just like most of America!

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#37

Post by onan_barbarian » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:27 PM UTC

Someone on IronGarm (don't look it up if you're easily offended) put it best: "Tim isn't very strong and is a Jenga of fairly serious injuries that a smarter trainee would avoid."

"Gaining" (actually regaining) large quantities of muscle in a short period of time is an old Iron Game trick (the "Colorado Experiment" with the Nautilus guy and Casey Jones IIRC). You can't gain nearly as much muscle as someone else can regain.

As for the other strategies to 'gain' this much 'muscle' while 'clean', the high points are (a) dehydration, (b) steroids and/or exogenous testosterone and (c) a modicum of fat gain (which on a normal muscular physique won't be that notable and, most importantly, (d) a willingness to claim that you haven't done a/b/c whether it is true or not.

Tim is a master of 'hacking' these kind of demos but it would be more impressive if he tried doing something more sustained where there isn't a short-cut to success. For example, compete in a sport where there is a lot at stake and a high number of well-prepared competitors. Not, for example, by finding a rules loophole in some obscure Chinese kickboxing event and winning it through a combination of extreme weight cutting and pushing other people over (one of his claims to fame as a martial artist).

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#38

Post by MikeCapone » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:31 PM UTC

WillyF wrote: post #26

edw519 wrote: post #20

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are ve…

I realize that there is a lot of hate directed towards Tim Ferriss and his tactics, but you can learn a ton from him. Even if you ignore everything that he says and writes, just watching him in action will make you a better entrepreneur. I haven't watched/listened to the interview yet, but it seems like Tim is a great fit for Mixergy.

I have up-voted both you and the parent, because while you both have opposite points of view (more or less), I fall somewhere in the middle.

My favorite thing about Tim Ferriss are the video podcasts that he does with Kevin Rose. They're posted on his blog ("Random episode X"), and they're usually pretty interesting (the one they did when traveling around China comes to mind), though not mind blowing.

As for the rest, I try to be inspired by his energy at trying new things and being methodical about learning, but I don't really follow him on most of the specifics of what he does.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#39

Post by AndrewWarner » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:31 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #20

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are ve…

You're the reason I'm on HN, so your feedback is always more than "just another comment" to me.

WHY I INTERVIEW TIM:

1) Eric Ries once told me how a tiny change to a marketing page is worth hours of recoding. I believe there are little changes that have big significance and Tim is good at identifying and explaining them.

2) There are loads of books about health, but his is going to be a top seller. I'm curious about what it is about the way he presents & markets ideas that help him stand out.

3) Tim Ferriss gets a lot of attention. This response would be incomplete if I didn't admit that Tim's name got my other work a lot of hits, and it will continue to. He has fans that still tweet about an interview that I did with him over a year ago.

WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE BETTER:

1) I should have addressed some of his health claims. It's outside the scope of my work to talk about health, but if we brought it up, I needed to talk about opposing research.

2) I might have been too fawning at the end. I always love my guests, but at the end of an interview, when someone sits for 1 hour and answers questions, I'm prone to gushing out of gratitude.

Re: The 4-Hour Body: (Quickly) Hacking The Human Body

#40

Post by detst » Tue, Dec 14, 2010, 10:35 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #20

Andrew, I think mixergy is one of the coolest things on the web. You've done great work bringing so much content to inspire us. So I'm surprised and a little disappointed to see you interview the likes of Tim Ferriss. Don't get me wrong; I understand that you're a journalist and want to keep an open mind. No question about the popularity of this person and his subject. I just don't think that he or his message are ve…

> I was totally turned off when he claimed winning a martial arts contest by finding a loophole in the rules

That's not really my style either but it is a bit amusing that he did it.

I guess I just have a filter for those things. I'm mostly inspired by his unconventional thinking and the idea of non-conformity. Even if I don't agree with everything he says, I love that he's always looking for different and better (at least to him) ways of doing things.