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You Don't Need to Exercise for Hours a Week to Look and Feel Better

83 points by theBashShell 8y ago

newnewpdro 8y ago
As little as a one ~maxreps set of pushups every day before showering will have you looking like a soldier after a couple years, assuming you're not starting out obese and are eating reasonably.
- unclebucknasty 8y ago
  >one ~maxreps set of pushups every day before showering will have you looking like a soldier... This statement definitely needs to be qualified with "depends on genetics".
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    Only insofar as some actual soldiers never attain some kind of soldier-like physique. Generally speaking, a consistent daily, and increasing pushup regime gets you most of the way towards the most visible differentiating feature of a soldier vs. random person. There are exceptions, it's not really worth fixating on. You, the reader, are by definition probably not an exception.
    - smt88 8y ago
      > Only insofar as some actual soldiers never attain some kind of soldier-like physique. Doesn’t this qualification end up nullifying your original comment?
      - newen 8y ago
        He means that there are exceptions but that that comment is true in general.
    - everdev 8y ago
      Keep in mind that only doing pushing exercises can lead to muscular imbalances. You can create a more balanced body by doing pulling exercises like pullups or body rows in the same quantity as your pushups.
      - azhenley 8y ago
        Too many people overlook this! I suggest alternating between push and pull days. And don’t forget the cardio.
        newnewpdro 8y ago
        After a couple years of daily pushups, the maxreps should be over 100 and it much more closely resembles a quick cardio burst than anything resembling strength-training. I do > 160 in a regular set after over a decade of daily pushups, it's not really an issue. Eventually I ended up adding handstand pushups to my daily routine to bring back something strenuous. Edit: Both of my wrists have been broken in the past. When I started this regimen it wasn't even possible to do 20 pushups without agonizing wrist pain. Those pains are a distant memory, they vanished completely around the one year mark. Thank you daily pushups.
    - unclebucknasty 8y ago
      When you say "soldier-like physique" it evokes a level of fitness that is a good bit more than "above-average"; converging on elite. And, a single exercise is not likely to produce that outcome in the average person. Genetic factors greatly influence specifics like fat-distribution and leg musculature (or lack thereof), hormone levels, etc. So, the effects of one-set-to-failure will vary wildly among people, even when considering solely the targeted muscles. But, if you're lucky enough to benefit from it, it's still reasonably likely that you'll wind up looking decidedly unsoldier-like from the nipples down.
      - newnewpdro 8y ago
        I didn't say Rambo. All soldiers go through basic training. Basic training achieves pretty much just "above-average" fitness. Sure, the military has PT studs, but so does your local gym. Those aren't really representative of the average soldier. The point is you can make your general appearance comparable to the average soldier's with a very minimal investment of time and effort, and zero additional equipment. A developed upper body and solid core does wonders for a man's posture and overall appearance. I'm confident that prospect appeals to a significant portion of the male keyboard jockey population. I live in a military town, most soldiers just look like guys forced to do pushups every day wearing well-fitting clothes. And I'm regularly mistaken for one, even though I spend all my time at a computer.
        unclebucknasty 8y ago
        >most soldiers just look like guys forced to do pushups every day wearing well-fitting clothes. So, your statement was actually "most soldiers look like guys who do a bunch of push-ups, so do a bunch of push-ups and you'll look like a soldier"? Hmm. Sure, I get that most soldiers don't technically look like Rambo, but if you weren't using that phrase as a figure of speech to convey "extremely fit", then it's kind of meaningless right? Like saying a "professional boxer's physique", then saying you were thinking of Butterbean. So, yes, if we lower the bar to say "slightly above average", then your point is "more valid" though a good bit less revelatory. You're essentially saying "exercise will help you", which I think we can all agree on. But, the broader point you're now making that doing anything is much better than doing nothing is certainly valid and worth emphasizing--especially for us in the HN crowd.
  - nradov 8y ago
    Which specific genotype is a factor? The reality for most people is that genetics have only a tiny impact on fitness and body composition. Unless you're trying to compete at an elite level it just doesn't matter.
    - ubercow13 8y ago
      If you have very narrow shoulders you're probably not going to look like action man any time soon.
  - rorykoehler 8y ago
    I'd argue depends on diet is more applicable.
    - unclebucknasty 8y ago
      Possibly. But, I was replying to the OP's comment which held that constant. Obviously though, the body's response to diet is in no small measure a function of genetic factors as well.
      - rorykoehler 8y ago
        >the body's response to diet is in no small measure a function of genetic factors as well. Honestly I think this is way over stated in relation to weight loss. It applies more accurately to what variation of macro and micro nutrients constitute a healthy diet for a given individual.
- ubercow13 8y ago
  This seems like a bad idea. Building muscles using one exercise like that without developing the opposite muscle groups will lead to imbalance that could cause pain or bad posture. Also I expect doing as many pushups as possible every day could cause wrist or shoulder problems. You are likely to cause tendon injuries if you start trying to reach your max reps every day without building up much more gradually.
  - seizethecheese 8y ago
    So, what's a quick way to develop the opposite muscle group from push-ups?
    - ubercow13 8y ago
      You'd want to do a rowing movement, which is maybe a bit harder to do without equipment but you could do it with a rubber resistance band.
      - joshschreuder 8y ago
        If you have a sturdy table or similar you can do inverted pull ups from underneath the table
  - inspector-g 8y ago
    > will lead to imbalance that could cause pain or bad posture Citation needed.
    - ubercow13 8y ago
      It is a controversial suggestion that doing only one exercise as much as possible is not a good idea? Maybe these are relevant: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/muscle-imbalances-can-wreck-your-workout/2013/11/12/165d2730-466e-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html?utm_term=.c9aa0a11f40f https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/muscle-imb... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_imbalance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_imbalance
- rambojazz 8y ago
  What does "one ~maxreps" mean?
  - NegativeK 8y ago
    One means one set of pushups, no rests. Maxreps means do pushups until you can't do another, despite digging really deep.
  - lcpriest 8y ago
    In this context, maxreps means to do as many push-ups as you can in a single set (until your arms give out).
  - goldenchrome 8y ago
    The other commenters haven't said this yet: it's short for "maximum repetitions".
  - newnewpdro 8y ago
    It was just shorthand to say "in the ballpark of what the maximum you can do in one set is" (note the tilde). I'm not suggesting you destroy yourself every day. Just that you continuously increase the number as your endurance improves over time. It levels off at some point, in my experience this never becomes a session taking more than three minutes. You can add more sets if you feel like it, or you can add other exercises, this doesn't exclude any other activities you wish to add. It's just an excellent minimum hygiene-level of physical activity to maintain every day. The more burdensome you make your routine, the more likely you are to say fuck it.
- askafriend 8y ago
  This is really poor advice that will lead to all kinds of imbalances and issues. Bodyweight training on the other hand, is a great option for people who want to train at home with little-to-no equipment. Bodyweight training includes but is not limited to push-ups, pull-ups, and other similar movements that rely mostly on your own bodyweight (as the name implies). Doing only pushups is a pretty bad idea if you care about your overall fitness.
stefanperson 8y ago
I'd have a look at what Dr. John Jaquish is doing with the X3 Bar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ewn0f7LY7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ewn0f7LY7c
- alphabettsy 8y ago
  This feels a lot like an ad.
  - stefanperson 8y ago
    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wasn't meant to be.
  - luxuryballs 8y ago
    Yeah but I mean look what he’s doing with the X3 bar.
  - joshschreuder 8y ago
    You must be new to the fitness industry :) Pretty much everything looks or is an ad.
- crb002 8y ago
  Way cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/GoFit-GF-RAB-RAB-Resist-A-Bar/dp/B01MTM7N97/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1548051325&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=resistance+band+bar&dpPl=1&dpID=21jscgOlGML&ref=plSrch https://www.amazon.com/GoFit-GF-RAB-RAB-Resist-A-Bar/dp/B01M...
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- Spearchucker 8y ago
  Why would you travel with (or even use) this when a pull-up bar you can jam into a doorway, and body weight exercises suffice? Also, resistance bands don't provide consistent resistance. Are you promoting the product?
nradov 8y ago
High intensity single set training can absolutely work to build strength, if that's what you want. But muscular endurance takes longer to develop. And be careful trying to lift too heavy too soon; your muscles may be fine but you can really damage your tendons if you don't build them up gradually.
- Zanni 8y ago
  If you click through to the study, they say they tested endurance too (at 50% 1RM). It may be that one set is insufficient to build endurance at higher loads (say 80% 1RM), but not clear. The biggest difference between 1, 3 and 5 sets was muscle hypertrophy (which increased with the number of sets). A lot of "strength" training has hypertrophy as an unstated goal, which makes sense if you're training for the football team, but less so if you're just training for life.
BLKNSLVR 8y ago
The last third of this short article is about cutting sugar out of your diet. Anecdotal: For the last two and a bit weeks I've stopped adding sugar to anything, and stopped having any dessert or pointless snacks that are primarily sugar. One week in and people asked if I'd lost weight. For most of last year I was hanging around 86 kilograms and probably tending slowly upwards. I weighed in mid last week at 83. No other habits have changed. Don't know if I "feel" any different, other than being hungry more often and physically feeling the void of the drug-like high of sugar intake to the point that I need to pursue an activity in order to distract myself from it. Two weeks isn't very far in though.
- ardit33 8y ago
  Most likely just water loss... Every bodybuilder knows: when they start 'cutting', the first few kgs, in the first couple weeks are almost water loss and glycogen, so you always discount it (i.e. don't count it as fat loss). Eating carbs (carbo-hydrades) makes your body retain more water. Less ingested carbs means your body will shed that extra water out. After the first week or so, if you keep losing weight, then it means that it is actual fat loss.
- hutattedonmyarm 8y ago
  Most of that weight is water though - simple carbs tend to bind quite a lot of it. I've started to feel better after severly cutting back on added sugar,but it does take a while to get used to
- inapis 8y ago
  Those hunger pangs are temporary. Your body will adjust in some time. Fruits like watermelon or vegetables like raw cucumber help. They make you feel full without costing calories.
- dotancohen 8y ago
  When I found myself weighing in 84 Kg naked, I also stopped eating sugars. No change in other eating habits or exercise, only stopped snacking between meals and stopped eating baked desserts. I was down to 73 Kg within a few months, which is the upper limit for my BFI at 170 cm. I've somehow since stabilized at 75-77 Kg, but that is a huge difference from the scary 84.
blocked_again 8y ago
My daily exercise routine is to walk for an hour (8000 - 10000 feet) in the evening and then do pushup and situps as much as I can. I am currently at 30 pushups and 20 situps. I have started the pushups and situps only recently but I have been walking for a while now. Is this healthy?
- mikekchar 8y ago
  Certainly healthier than not doing it! "Healthy" in the context you've used is not a binary state. "If I do X it is healthy, therefore I will do X and I don't have to do anything else". Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. It's more like a curve and it's not just one thing. So you can be super fit training for marathons, but honestly you need some excess muscle mass because you're going to start losing it when you are 50-60 years old. You need to make sure that you are flexible because when you get older, if you aren't flexible you won't be able to balance and walk, etc. It's best to start training early so that it's easier to maintain that flexibility. Even if you are running marathons and staying trim, if you eat junk you can die of lots of different conditions. So endurance training, strength training, flexibility training, and diet all work together to help your health. At the same time, there are lots of ranges of activity where you will be just fine as you age and there are ranges of activity at both ends (sedentary and over training) where you won't be fine (although it's a heck of a lot harder to over train that to be sedentary ;-) ). Finally, there is something to be said for not overdoing things at a start. So while you might want to have this amazing training regimen someday, it would be a bad idea to start out tomorrow and do it -- you want to slowly work your way up to it. So the answer you are probably looking for is "No, it's probably not sufficient to keep you fit and healthy for your whole life". But it's certainly a great start -- especially if it gets you doing other things that you might not have tried before. And it doesn't have to be training -- it can be playing soccer with a local league, or cycling with your friends or any number of social and pleasant activities. How much is enough? Try to keep your weight, muscle mass, endurance and flexibility a fair bit more than what you actually need so that you can afford to lose some. Eat a diet that makes you feel good and consult with doctors when you have health problems. It's hard to say exactly what that will entail, because it is different for everybody.
colbyh 8y ago
This feels like pseudoscience dressed up as the real thing. "Getting stronger only takes 13 minutes three times a week" starts off with a reference to a recently published paper that looks promising, but the second paragraph is about the author's personal belief that high intensity/slow motion workouts are the best for you. There's no real connection between these two paragraphs except that they both prescribe shorter weigh lifting sessions. "You can improve your body's function and alleviate anxiety in two minutes a day" again lists someone's personal take on dealing with anxiety and stress. While deep breathing is certainly helpful they don't site any peer reviewed papers or clinical studies that say 2-4 minutes of deep breathing a day will impact your heart rate/blood pressure/anxiety much less do it via increasing alpha waves. "Cutting out sugar..." is similarly good intentioned (almost everyone should eat less sugar than they do, myself included) but again cites nothing meaningful. Also this damn site somehow popped up two autoplaying audio/video ads, one of which I could not see or get rid of. Rage inducing.
- AckSyn 8y ago
  It reeks of the same attitude those late night infomercials give when they claim you can lose weight with a pill/supplement.
- tzekid 8y ago
  It's not pseudoscience, but misinterpretation. Unfortunately, the author cherry picks the studies (eg. [0][1]) to get the narrative she wants, even though the research groups were small to begin with (n=34 and n=18 respectively) and were quite different (trained men[0] vs just older individuals[1]), etc. etc. etc. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30153194 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30153194 [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2465144/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2465144/
- davebryand 8y ago
  And all you have to do is try it yourself to have your answer.
- NoPicklez 8y ago
  I didn't think to begin with that in order to look better and feel better I needed to exercise for hours. How about eating healthy foods? Getting enough sleep? For me its about what my motivations and intentions are and if your article provides a measurable result to compare. That bloody autoplay video at the bottom of the page got me too
RegW 8y ago
Is it possible to turn off the irritating music on this page. Sorry, but I like to choose my own.
sridca 8y ago
Eat meat. Do calisthenics[1]. Practice prolonged fasting every month. There is no money to be made in any of these activities (hence you won't see it as part of everyday propaganda). [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2G0WUH73YBFYE/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2G0WUH73YBFYE/
dejaime 8y ago
Scientists: ######################################### "Yeah, let's get 34 males that did not regularly workout and then prove that they can get stronger even with 13 minutes of a good workout routine! All we need to do is get non-lifters and put the 70 minute group with a shitty lazy routine. That ensures the "year one effect" where everyone gains a lot of strength in the beginning and gives a good advantage to the 13 minutes group! In the end we'll prove that for a beginner a good yet short workout routine is superior to the lazy yet long one!" Journalist: ######################################### "That's not going to get any clicks! I'll just say that 'we don't need to exercise for hours a week to look and feel better' based on a research that doesn't even mention 'look and feel better'. And now we pretend that this also applies to experienced lifters, that's important!" That's science journalism for you.
joker3 8y ago
"one set to failure is all you need!" is one of those ideas that seems to come up every fifteen years or so, and gets really popular for a while before people discover that it doesn't really work all that well. Mike Mentzer was an advocate in the 80s, it was popular when I was just starting out in 2003 or so, and I guess it's coming around again.

83 points by theBashShell 8y ago

As little as a one ~maxreps set of pushups every day before showering will have you looking like a soldier after a couple years, assuming you're not starting out obese and are eating reasonably.

unclebucknasty 8y ago
>one ~maxreps set of pushups every day before showering will have you looking like a soldier... This statement definitely needs to be qualified with "depends on genetics".
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  Only insofar as some actual soldiers never attain some kind of soldier-like physique. Generally speaking, a consistent daily, and increasing pushup regime gets you most of the way towards the most visible differentiating feature of a soldier vs. random person. There are exceptions, it's not really worth fixating on. You, the reader, are by definition probably not an exception.
  - smt88 8y ago
    > Only insofar as some actual soldiers never attain some kind of soldier-like physique. Doesn’t this qualification end up nullifying your original comment?
    - newen 8y ago
      He means that there are exceptions but that that comment is true in general.
  - everdev 8y ago
    Keep in mind that only doing pushing exercises can lead to muscular imbalances. You can create a more balanced body by doing pulling exercises like pullups or body rows in the same quantity as your pushups.
    - azhenley 8y ago
      Too many people overlook this! I suggest alternating between push and pull days. And don’t forget the cardio.
      - newnewpdro 8y ago
        After a couple years of daily pushups, the maxreps should be over 100 and it much more closely resembles a quick cardio burst than anything resembling strength-training. I do > 160 in a regular set after over a decade of daily pushups, it's not really an issue. Eventually I ended up adding handstand pushups to my daily routine to bring back something strenuous. Edit: Both of my wrists have been broken in the past. When I started this regimen it wasn't even possible to do 20 pushups without agonizing wrist pain. Those pains are a distant memory, they vanished completely around the one year mark. Thank you daily pushups.
  - unclebucknasty 8y ago
    When you say "soldier-like physique" it evokes a level of fitness that is a good bit more than "above-average"; converging on elite. And, a single exercise is not likely to produce that outcome in the average person. Genetic factors greatly influence specifics like fat-distribution and leg musculature (or lack thereof), hormone levels, etc. So, the effects of one-set-to-failure will vary wildly among people, even when considering solely the targeted muscles. But, if you're lucky enough to benefit from it, it's still reasonably likely that you'll wind up looking decidedly unsoldier-like from the nipples down.
    - newnewpdro 8y ago
      I didn't say Rambo. All soldiers go through basic training. Basic training achieves pretty much just "above-average" fitness. Sure, the military has PT studs, but so does your local gym. Those aren't really representative of the average soldier. The point is you can make your general appearance comparable to the average soldier's with a very minimal investment of time and effort, and zero additional equipment. A developed upper body and solid core does wonders for a man's posture and overall appearance. I'm confident that prospect appeals to a significant portion of the male keyboard jockey population. I live in a military town, most soldiers just look like guys forced to do pushups every day wearing well-fitting clothes. And I'm regularly mistaken for one, even though I spend all my time at a computer.
      - unclebucknasty 8y ago
        >most soldiers just look like guys forced to do pushups every day wearing well-fitting clothes. So, your statement was actually "most soldiers look like guys who do a bunch of push-ups, so do a bunch of push-ups and you'll look like a soldier"? Hmm. Sure, I get that most soldiers don't technically look like Rambo, but if you weren't using that phrase as a figure of speech to convey "extremely fit", then it's kind of meaningless right? Like saying a "professional boxer's physique", then saying you were thinking of Butterbean. So, yes, if we lower the bar to say "slightly above average", then your point is "more valid" though a good bit less revelatory. You're essentially saying "exercise will help you", which I think we can all agree on. But, the broader point you're now making that doing anything is much better than doing nothing is certainly valid and worth emphasizing--especially for us in the HN crowd.
- nradov 8y ago
  Which specific genotype is a factor? The reality for most people is that genetics have only a tiny impact on fitness and body composition. Unless you're trying to compete at an elite level it just doesn't matter.
  - ubercow13 8y ago
    If you have very narrow shoulders you're probably not going to look like action man any time soon.
- rorykoehler 8y ago
  I'd argue depends on diet is more applicable.
  - unclebucknasty 8y ago
    Possibly. But, I was replying to the OP's comment which held that constant. Obviously though, the body's response to diet is in no small measure a function of genetic factors as well.
    - rorykoehler 8y ago
      >the body's response to diet is in no small measure a function of genetic factors as well. Honestly I think this is way over stated in relation to weight loss. It applies more accurately to what variation of macro and micro nutrients constitute a healthy diet for a given individual.
ubercow13 8y ago
This seems like a bad idea. Building muscles using one exercise like that without developing the opposite muscle groups will lead to imbalance that could cause pain or bad posture. Also I expect doing as many pushups as possible every day could cause wrist or shoulder problems. You are likely to cause tendon injuries if you start trying to reach your max reps every day without building up much more gradually.
- seizethecheese 8y ago
  So, what's a quick way to develop the opposite muscle group from push-ups?
  - ubercow13 8y ago
    You'd want to do a rowing movement, which is maybe a bit harder to do without equipment but you could do it with a rubber resistance band.
    - joshschreuder 8y ago
      If you have a sturdy table or similar you can do inverted pull ups from underneath the table
- inspector-g 8y ago
  > will lead to imbalance that could cause pain or bad posture Citation needed.
  - ubercow13 8y ago
    It is a controversial suggestion that doing only one exercise as much as possible is not a good idea? Maybe these are relevant: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/muscle-imbalances-can-wreck-your-workout/2013/11/12/165d2730-466e-11e3-b6f8-3782ff6cb769_story.html?utm_term=.c9aa0a11f40f https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/muscle-imb... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_imbalance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_imbalance
rambojazz 8y ago
What does "one ~maxreps" mean?
- NegativeK 8y ago
  One means one set of pushups, no rests. Maxreps means do pushups until you can't do another, despite digging really deep.
- lcpriest 8y ago
  In this context, maxreps means to do as many push-ups as you can in a single set (until your arms give out).
- goldenchrome 8y ago
  The other commenters haven't said this yet: it's short for "maximum repetitions".
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  It was just shorthand to say "in the ballpark of what the maximum you can do in one set is" (note the tilde). I'm not suggesting you destroy yourself every day. Just that you continuously increase the number as your endurance improves over time. It levels off at some point, in my experience this never becomes a session taking more than three minutes. You can add more sets if you feel like it, or you can add other exercises, this doesn't exclude any other activities you wish to add. It's just an excellent minimum hygiene-level of physical activity to maintain every day. The more burdensome you make your routine, the more likely you are to say fuck it.
askafriend 8y ago
This is really poor advice that will lead to all kinds of imbalances and issues. Bodyweight training on the other hand, is a great option for people who want to train at home with little-to-no equipment. Bodyweight training includes but is not limited to push-ups, pull-ups, and other similar movements that rely mostly on your own bodyweight (as the name implies). Doing only pushups is a pretty bad idea if you care about your overall fitness.

stefanperson 8y ago

I'd have a look at what Dr. John Jaquish is doing with the X3 Bar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ewn0f7LY7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ewn0f7LY7c

alphabettsy 8y ago
This feels a lot like an ad.
- stefanperson 8y ago
  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wasn't meant to be.
- luxuryballs 8y ago
  Yeah but I mean look what he’s doing with the X3 bar.
- joshschreuder 8y ago
  You must be new to the fitness industry :) Pretty much everything looks or is an ad.
crb002 8y ago
Way cheaper: https://www.amazon.com/GoFit-GF-RAB-RAB-Resist-A-Bar/dp/B01MTM7N97/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1548051325&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=resistance+band+bar&dpPl=1&dpID=21jscgOlGML&ref=plSrch https://www.amazon.com/GoFit-GF-RAB-RAB-Resist-A-Bar/dp/B01M...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Spearchucker 8y ago
Why would you travel with (or even use) this when a pull-up bar you can jam into a doorway, and body weight exercises suffice? Also, resistance bands don't provide consistent resistance. Are you promoting the product?

nradov 8y ago

High intensity single set training can absolutely work to build strength, if that's what you want. But muscular endurance takes longer to develop. And be careful trying to lift too heavy too soon; your muscles may be fine but you can really damage your tendons if you don't build them up gradually.

Zanni 8y ago
If you click through to the study, they say they tested endurance too (at 50% 1RM). It may be that one set is insufficient to build endurance at higher loads (say 80% 1RM), but not clear. The biggest difference between 1, 3 and 5 sets was muscle hypertrophy (which increased with the number of sets). A lot of "strength" training has hypertrophy as an unstated goal, which makes sense if you're training for the football team, but less so if you're just training for life.

BLKNSLVR 8y ago

The last third of this short article is about cutting sugar out of your diet. Anecdotal: For the last two and a bit weeks I've stopped adding sugar to anything, and stopped having any dessert or pointless snacks that are primarily sugar. One week in and people asked if I'd lost weight. For most of last year I was hanging around 86 kilograms and probably tending slowly upwards. I weighed in mid last week at 83. No other habits have changed. Don't know if I "feel" any different, other than being hungry more often and physically feeling the void of the drug-like high of sugar intake to the point that I need to pursue an activity in order to distract myself from it. Two weeks isn't very far in though.

ardit33 8y ago
Most likely just water loss... Every bodybuilder knows: when they start 'cutting', the first few kgs, in the first couple weeks are almost water loss and glycogen, so you always discount it (i.e. don't count it as fat loss). Eating carbs (carbo-hydrades) makes your body retain more water. Less ingested carbs means your body will shed that extra water out. After the first week or so, if you keep losing weight, then it means that it is actual fat loss.
hutattedonmyarm 8y ago
Most of that weight is water though - simple carbs tend to bind quite a lot of it. I've started to feel better after severly cutting back on added sugar,but it does take a while to get used to
inapis 8y ago
Those hunger pangs are temporary. Your body will adjust in some time. Fruits like watermelon or vegetables like raw cucumber help. They make you feel full without costing calories.
dotancohen 8y ago
When I found myself weighing in 84 Kg naked, I also stopped eating sugars. No change in other eating habits or exercise, only stopped snacking between meals and stopped eating baked desserts. I was down to 73 Kg within a few months, which is the upper limit for my BFI at 170 cm. I've somehow since stabilized at 75-77 Kg, but that is a huge difference from the scary 84.

blocked_again 8y ago

My daily exercise routine is to walk for an hour (8000 - 10000 feet) in the evening and then do pushup and situps as much as I can. I am currently at 30 pushups and 20 situps. I have started the pushups and situps only recently but I have been walking for a while now. Is this healthy?

mikekchar 8y ago
Certainly healthier than not doing it! "Healthy" in the context you've used is not a binary state. "If I do X it is healthy, therefore I will do X and I don't have to do anything else". Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. It's more like a curve and it's not just one thing. So you can be super fit training for marathons, but honestly you need some excess muscle mass because you're going to start losing it when you are 50-60 years old. You need to make sure that you are flexible because when you get older, if you aren't flexible you won't be able to balance and walk, etc. It's best to start training early so that it's easier to maintain that flexibility. Even if you are running marathons and staying trim, if you eat junk you can die of lots of different conditions. So endurance training, strength training, flexibility training, and diet all work together to help your health. At the same time, there are lots of ranges of activity where you will be just fine as you age and there are ranges of activity at both ends (sedentary and over training) where you won't be fine (although it's a heck of a lot harder to over train that to be sedentary ;-) ). Finally, there is something to be said for not overdoing things at a start. So while you might want to have this amazing training regimen someday, it would be a bad idea to start out tomorrow and do it -- you want to slowly work your way up to it. So the answer you are probably looking for is "No, it's probably not sufficient to keep you fit and healthy for your whole life". But it's certainly a great start -- especially if it gets you doing other things that you might not have tried before. And it doesn't have to be training -- it can be playing soccer with a local league, or cycling with your friends or any number of social and pleasant activities. How much is enough? Try to keep your weight, muscle mass, endurance and flexibility a fair bit more than what you actually need so that you can afford to lose some. Eat a diet that makes you feel good and consult with doctors when you have health problems. It's hard to say exactly what that will entail, because it is different for everybody.

colbyh 8y ago

This feels like pseudoscience dressed up as the real thing. "Getting stronger only takes 13 minutes three times a week" starts off with a reference to a recently published paper that looks promising, but the second paragraph is about the author's personal belief that high intensity/slow motion workouts are the best for you. There's no real connection between these two paragraphs except that they both prescribe shorter weigh lifting sessions. "You can improve your body's function and alleviate anxiety in two minutes a day" again lists someone's personal take on dealing with anxiety and stress. While deep breathing is certainly helpful they don't site any peer reviewed papers or clinical studies that say 2-4 minutes of deep breathing a day will impact your heart rate/blood pressure/anxiety much less do it via increasing alpha waves. "Cutting out sugar..." is similarly good intentioned (almost everyone should eat less sugar than they do, myself included) but again cites nothing meaningful. Also this damn site somehow popped up two autoplaying audio/video ads, one of which I could not see or get rid of. Rage inducing.

AckSyn 8y ago
It reeks of the same attitude those late night infomercials give when they claim you can lose weight with a pill/supplement.
tzekid 8y ago
It's not pseudoscience, but misinterpretation. Unfortunately, the author cherry picks the studies (eg. [0][1]) to get the narrative she wants, even though the research groups were small to begin with (n=34 and n=18 respectively) and were quite different (trained men[0] vs just older individuals[1]), etc. etc. etc. [0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30153194 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30153194 [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2465144/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2465144/
davebryand 8y ago
And all you have to do is try it yourself to have your answer.
NoPicklez 8y ago
I didn't think to begin with that in order to look better and feel better I needed to exercise for hours. How about eating healthy foods? Getting enough sleep? For me its about what my motivations and intentions are and if your article provides a measurable result to compare. That bloody autoplay video at the bottom of the page got me too

RegW 8y ago

Is it possible to turn off the irritating music on this page. Sorry, but I like to choose my own.

sridca 8y ago

Eat meat. Do calisthenics[1]. Practice prolonged fasting every month. There is no money to be made in any of these activities (hence you won't see it as part of everyday propaganda). [1] https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2G0WUH73YBFYE/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R2G0WUH73YBFYE/

dejaime 8y ago

Scientists: ######################################### "Yeah, let's get 34 males that did not regularly workout and then prove that they can get stronger even with 13 minutes of a good workout routine! All we need to do is get non-lifters and put the 70 minute group with a shitty lazy routine. That ensures the "year one effect" where everyone gains a lot of strength in the beginning and gives a good advantage to the 13 minutes group! In the end we'll prove that for a beginner a good yet short workout routine is superior to the lazy yet long one!" Journalist: ######################################### "That's not going to get any clicks! I'll just say that 'we don't need to exercise for hours a week to look and feel better' based on a research that doesn't even mention 'look and feel better'. And now we pretend that this also applies to experienced lifters, that's important!" That's science journalism for you.

joker3 8y ago

"one set to failure is all you need!" is one of those ideas that seems to come up every fifteen years or so, and gets really popular for a while before people discover that it doesn't really work all that well. Mike Mentzer was an advocate in the 80s, it was popular when I was just starting out in 2003 or so, and I guess it's coming around again.