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

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

#61

Post by jonhendry »

andre wrote: post #46
gursikh wrote: post #34

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 rare…

Exactly. And when he's talking about winning the martial arts fights, he goal was to "WIN", not to play the game. And like gursikh says, either put up or shut up. We need concrete examples! Overall, I think Tim has done a lot for a lot of people with the ideas that he shares in his books.

If he doesn't feel that as a wholly empty accomplishment, he must be a sociopath.

He didn't prove his ability to fight was superior. He didn't prove his mastery of martial arts was superior. He proved his ability to push his opponent over the line.

If there were no line, he'd be crushed.

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#63

Post by PStamatiou »

jonhendry wrote: post #55
PStamatiou wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am one of those. I had an advance copy, loved it and posted my review. Feel free to challenge anything in my review: http://amzn.to/hDRfVB

What did you do to get the advance copy?

I've known Tim for a while now. I have a somewhat known blog and a decent Twitter following. He asked me if I wanted a copy.

Related: I had mentioned Tim and something he had said about metabolism downregulation in my popular "startup diet" post this year: http://paulstamatiou.com/programmers-startup-diet-how-i-lost...

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

#64

Post by bobf »

jules wrote: post #45
bobf wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found that to be true with school. 5% effort usually gets you a B, while the closer you wanted to get to "perfection" (100%/A+), exponentially more effort is required.

Yup. When I notice that I won't learn much from a course or the subject doesn't interest me I skip the lectures and the day before the final I go through the book with 100% of my focus on "is the paragraph or formula I'm reading now going to help me pass this course". This allows you to skip tons of stuff and gets you much more bang for the hour. I've noticed that most other students just mindlessly read everything a…

Also, after ~two semesters of college, I realized I typically focused a lot on homework, etc. during the first three weeks of the semester and started to burn out. However, it is the last three weeks of the semester that usually impact your grades the most. I changed my focus to the last three weeks, and got better grades with less effort/burn out/stress.

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

#65

Post by steveklabnik »

jonhendry wrote: post #48
steveklabnik wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ed, I respectfully disagree. Tim Ferriss is a hacker. All of those things are _exactly_ the kind of "creative playfulness" that embodies the hacker spirit. I find Tim way more inspiring than "yet another discussion on how $TECHNOLOGY_X is {dead,the hottest thing since sliced bread}." YMMV.

"Tim Ferriss is a hacker." So are the Chinese dudes who put melamine in the milk and formula they sold, poisoning untold numbers of children while increasing their profits by selling watered-down milk. (The melamine tested as protein, covering up the dilution.) That was a hack. Same with 'hackers' who use shoddy building materials resulting in buildings that collapse. Hackers like that are a dime a dozen. It's not an…

I think that comparing "I _actually_ read the rules to this boxing context" to "poisoning untold numbers of children" is just slightly hyperbolic, don't you?

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

#66

Post by zacharycohn »

alexyim wrote: post #30

In this article, http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_trai... It claims that your body can only synthesize about 2 pounds of dry muscle mass per month. 34 pounds in 28 days is roughly a pound of muscle per day . I've always found myself wanting more evidence to back that up, or even just seeing more examples of people saying they've done that. The closest I've heard to getting that kind of result a…

Just for clarification from someone who is familiar with GOMAD (Gallon Of Milk A Day):

The purpose of GOMAD is to pair a intense workout program (Three or so lifts per workout, workouts every other day, 3 rounds of 5 reps per lift, adding 5lbs to your max each workout), with more resources than the body can possibly utilize. GOMAD + a normal diet comes out to roughly 4000-5000 calories a day. This is typically enough to allow your body to fully recover from every workout in such a short period.

The system is designed so calories are "left over," which adds fat. Then after you're done with GOMAD, many people typically go on a paleo-style diet and then lose that fat they gained.

Just some info from someone who's done it!

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

#67

Post by zacharycohn »

dpritchett wrote: post #14
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…

I'm enjoying a two days a week interpretation of Starting Strength. It also focuses on progressive loading and low rep, high weight sets. http://startingstrength.wikia.com

Starting Strength is amazing. Paired with GOMAD and it is hands down the most effective strength building program I've ever come across.

Enjoy it!

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

#68

Post by sedachv »

bodybuilder wrote: post #36
swombat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 exe…

The point is why bother? You can get exactly the same or better results in terms of fat loss and muscle gain doing 2 or 3 30-40 minute HIT workouts a week. The only way you can do a real 4 hour per day workout is if you're a pro athlete and have the rest of the day off to rest and eat. Cardio and most bodyweight exercises are a waste of time if you're not doing them for sport-specific training but just to shed fat. Take the stairs and cycle or walk to work instead of wasting your time on a treadmill.

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

#69

Post by Bostwick »

alexyim wrote: post #59
Bostwick wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're synthesizing has been in a trained state previously. This is how athletes can return from injury in a few weeks. It's also how most before/after shots for health products and supplements are made. I've done GOMAD (Gallon of Milk A Day). It's tough to drink that much milk. In the end, I gained ten pounds of muscle over a period of two months.

> You can synthesize more than 2lbs of muscle per month, if the muscle you're synthesizing has been in a trained state previously. Do you have a link to that by any chance? It does make sense though. Perhaps that's what happened with him, but without that key bit of info it's fairly misleading.

Start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Experiment. Then read http://blog.legendarylife.com/the-colorado-experiment.

Anecdotally, here's one guy's attempt at repeating the Colorado experiment. http://www.placeintheground.com/2008/07/21/testing-out-the-c... http://www.placeintheground.com/2008/09/25/colorado-experime...

Re-reading this makes me think that Tim Ferriss is probably advocating the Colorado Experiment's methods in his book. One of the other comments mentioned five-seconds-up, five-seconds-down.

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

#70

Post by weeksie »

kscaldef wrote: post #35
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".

Yeah, that's not something you just accidentally end up looking like. I'm not into being that big at all but there would be fair warning well before hand ;)
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