I'm apprehensive about Tim Ferriss. I've read 4HWW, and found it to have some good advice, as well a a significant amount of fluff. The announcement of "The 4-Hour Body", with lists like this on the book, have only increased my skepticism and apprehension.
I enjoy fitness. I've worked out four to five days a week for the past seven years, first at a climbing gym, and then with Crossfit. I've competed in fitness competitions. I've know a number of well-respected high-level Crossfitters. I would call myself, at the very least, a fitness enthusiast.
I think some of these claims are at best, laughable, and, at worst, will give false hope to people who might truly be interested in fitness. Fitness is hard work!
> * How Tim gained 34 pounds of muscle in 28 days, without steroids, and in four hours of total gym time
Muscle memory will allow people to gain significant amounts of muscle in short periods of time, if that muscle has been trained before.
It's why athletes who take rest periods or have injuries are able to come back just as strong in only a few weeks.
It's the source of many of the before/after pictures for "health foods" and supplements.
If you're actually interested in gaining muscle and weight, the easiest way is to eat tons of food and do heavy, compound exercises three to four times a week.
> * How to sleep 2 hours per day and feel fully rested
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphasic_sleep
Anecdotally, a friend of mine ended up in the emergency room for severe dehydration after trying the Uberman's Sleep Cycle for three weeks.
> * How to triple testosterone and double sperm count
I imagine he's be talking about various supplements here. Supplement science is sketchy, and should always be taken with a grain of salt.
The best way to take supplements is to not take them, but rather, eat more fruits and vegetables.
> * How to go from running 5 kilometers to 50 kilometers in 12 weeks
Pretty simple, actually. There are progressive running plans in almost any running book.
Also, the difference between five and 50 km, at least to your muscles, is much less than the difference between 400M and 5K. It's just training your aerobic system and converting more of your muscle tissue to slow-twitch muscle fibers.
> * How to reverse “permanent” injuries
Eat right and exercise correctly.
If you read the forums for crossfit, or stronglifts, or a number of other fitness websites, or diet websites, you'll see people who miraculously cure their bad back, bad knees or diabetes, just by eating right and exercising correctly.
> * How to add 150+ pounds to your lifts in 6 months
This is almost guaranteed to happen when someone goes from an untrained state to the beginning of a trained state. It has to do with muscles learning to be used, rather than significant strength gains.
When I started Crossfit three years ago, I could barely deadlift 135#. Three years later, my last 1RM deadlift was 455#. Going from 135# to 300# was _so_ much easier and faster than going from 300# to 455#, because my body had always been able to do it, it just didn't know it.