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Everything You Know About Fitness Is a Lie (2010)
- Jack000 13y agoExercise always seemed like a huge time sink to me. I usually do it while watching tv. Doing it before bed also saves a shower. The TV thing also helps me maintain a schedule - xyz cop show is on? Time to bust out the weights.
- sz4kerto 13y agoWatching TV kind of removes the psychological advantage of training.
- thesz 13y agoI have to say, you doing it wrong: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/fashion/18FITNESS.html http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/fashion/18FITNESS.html I used to do the same thing, now I don't use music or anything else to help me relieve the stress of exercise.
- Jack000 13y agoThat article says that music and tv is beneficial to beginners. I guess I'm doing it right since it works for me, but hey to each his own.
- Evgeny 13y agoExercise always seemed like a huge time sink to me. I usually do it while watching tv. Funny how I would use a completely opposite statement, i.e. watching tv seemed like a huge time sink to me. So I removed it. :)
- tekalon 13y agoI also find it more to be intellectually boring. When exercising, I don't feel as if I need to use my brain any more than what it takes to actually move. Compared to me sitting in a chair and reading/writing/studying. As listed above, I could be doing it wrong, but that is my biggest deterrent to exercise- it's boring as hell.
- eagsalazar2 13y agoNot an exactly match but this article makes me feel pretty good about crossfit, which I've been doing for a couple months now and have been making great gains with.
- zv 13y ago6 pages. Really. In age of tl;dr it is madness.
- MortenK 13y agoNothing of substance can fit in a tweet.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoWell, it is an article from 2010, in the good old days of content longer than 140 characters. :p
- retrogradeorbit 13y agoMaybe he got paid per word?
- ivanche 13y agoLet me try, quoting first sentence from Mark Rippetoe's book "Physical strength is the most important thing in your life."
- stefanve 13y agoafter being sedentary for a long time my weight ballooned to 220lbs/100kg I didn't feel strong or actually I was week. So I started working out in a gym, but figured it was costing to much time and I didn't like it. now I do mostly body weight training (You are your own gym) and running an biking for fun. Some times I do a different program like Rush Fit which is very fun to do. in a year time I have lost a lot of weight and gained a lot of mussel and I feel much better. it only takes me 20-45 minutes a day 4-6 days a week. So yeah the 10 pages are right as far as I'm concerned ;)
- nodata 13y agoBut 20-45 minutes a day 4-6 days a week is completely unobtainable for most people.
- kevando 13y agoAt-Home workouts.. http://imgur.com/gallery/FkVrO http://imgur.com/gallery/FkVrO
- netcan 13y ago'Unobtainable' is probably the wrong word for it. Most people, even those who set out to will not do it long term. That includes me and it's true. But calling it unobtainable makes it seem like it is outside an individual's control which it is not. IMO, it is probably not more difficult (or obtainable) for most than following a good dietary regime long term.
- Cthulhu_ 13y agoI'd say that their physical health is only one of their problems if that's the case.
- sz4kerto 13y agoI just simply can't believe that. Everybody has an extra 2.5 hours a week, if you don't, then there's some _very_ serious issue with your schedule.
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- pgl 13y agoSorry, but the article seems to contradict itself quite a lot, and aside from a lot of anecdotes about what worked for the author in particular, I don't see much actual useful information.
- sizzle 13y agoDo you even lift?
- rosner 13y agoAnd then, somebody came along and made another program out of it called stronglifts: http://stronglifts.com/ http://stronglifts.com/
- rhubarbcustard 13y agoI've been doing Stronglifts for about a year and I can say that my own experience backs up the "lift heavy weights and do compound exercises using free weights" that the original article suggests. I'd messed around with routines from Men's Health and other magazines at various times over the years and got nowhere at all. I'm now doing far less exercise than I did with those routines and am seeing real progress. Stronglifts is a routine for beginners and the 5x5 three times a week soon gets too much as you start squatting heavier amounts - I had to drop to squatting once or twice a weeks once I started squatting about 1x my own body weight (about 250 lb). Based on personal experience alone I thoroughly recommend Stronglifts and Starting Strength as a good way to obtain good general fitness and to lose weight. Squatting and dead-lifting are whole body exercises that really do work the whole of you - it's surprising how much your abs and glutes hurt after some squats. A word of warning: you must start with light weights and work on doing each exercise properly - and I mean stupidly light to start with, start with just the bar if you are completely out of shape. If you try and start with impressive-looking heavy weights then you'll be resting up with a bad back before you know it.
- sizzle 13y agoany advice on how to squat with weak, tender knees that hurt on their own before even starting a program?
- dnr 13y agoTake plenty of time to warm up before doing anything with weight, and pay close attention to form. Never let your knees go in front of your toes! The good news is that all my knee problems basically disappeared once I started doing some strength training. Hopefully it'll work for you too.
- Link- 13y agoAnd the tl;dr version of this is?
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jcfrei 13y agoTL;DR squats, dead lifts and bench presses are the fundamental exercises to build strength. But if that's really news to you then I don't know what kind of "gym" you've been going to.
- neverminder 13y agoMost of the newbs are afraid of these exercises and they are right to do so, because if you don't do it right you can have some premium level traumas. The gym I started in had at least 2 professional trainers at all times circling the floor and correcting, advising everyone. Unfortunately most of the western gyms nowadays don't use this approach and instead offer "everything or nothing" - either train without supervision whatsoever or pay a fortune for a personal trainer.
- retrogradeorbit 13y agoI discovered what this author is saying with this site: http://stronglifts.com/ http://stronglifts.com/ And I've been doing the Reg Park 5x5 routine ever since, and for the first time in my life I love working out. Short, powerful and intense. As Mehdi would say: Stop wasting your time with all that bullshit! Get strong!
- rhubarbcustard 13y agoHow does the Reg Park 5x5 compare with Stronglifts? I've been doing SL for a while but I possibly need to move on as I can no longer sustain 5x5 squats tree times a week - it totally wipes me out (I'm squatting about 1.2 x BW and DLing 1.6 x BW). Interested to know your thoughts on Reg Park 5x5.
- xmonkee 13y agoStop doing squats 3 times a week. It's a beginner's move, and only valuable if you're planning to be a competitive powerlifter. I moved onto a more traditional 4-day split (chest, shoulders, back, legs) years ago and it's much more fun and productive.
- Evgeny 13y agoMaybe it's just the phrasing, but the squat is in no way a beginner move. Maybe squatting 3 times per week is a beginners move? To that I agree - as the weight gets heavier, you can no longer recover quickly enough. But the squat should be the key exercise for everyone who is interested in strength and/or mass. It uses, directly or indirectly, about 2/3 of your total muscle mass (compared to all time favourite gym goer bicep curl, which involves a staggering 2% of your muscle mass), and was reported to be the exercise that causes the highest level of growth hormone release.
- thesz 13y agoYou can limit any heavy exercise to two or even one set, it gives you 50% or 80% of train to failure effectiveness, but allows for faster recovery (due to less stress on nervous system).
- neverminder 13y agoI'm an engineer, so my life is all about logic. Logic suggests that healthy body would make me more productive, so I spend 7 days a week in a gym (1 hour each morning, 4 days of free weights and 3 days of cardio) and I always research and tune my diet. The result is that it does make me considerably more productive, improves energy levels, mood, etc. On top of that I have wider shoulders and visible abs. Bottom line is - you don't have to like working out and dieting, especially if you do it right, but you're gonna love the result.
- greggman 13y agoI'd like to believe your anecdote but since I know lots of engineers that appear to be super productive and also very out of shape I'll have to counter your anecdotal evidence with mine :P Note: I started working out about 7 months ago for my health regardless if it would make me more productive. I haven't noticed an increase in productivity, a better mood, or improved engery levels, but I do have a belief that I'm healthier
- neverminder 13y agoThe end result depends on so much more than just working out. My first coach told me long time ago: the impact to the result is 30% working out and 70% diet. So there are quite a few questions that I'd ask, like: 1. Is your diet correct? Micro/Marco nutrients? Supplements? 2. Is your workout routine correct? Weights, cardio? 3. Did you check your hormone, thyroid, etc levels? Testosterone, HGH, etc?
- teemo_cute 13y agoI used to read a lot of fitness articles without doing much. Since then I changed my attitude — I became a doer. A fitness trainer once said that you can have access to the best training program in the world but if you don't actually do the exercises you'll get you nowhere. On the other hand, you can be given a crappy program and if you manage to do the exercises regularly, you'll still get results. Fitness is simple. Sure there are lots of programs out there, but the basics always stay the same. Once you got the basics down it all comes down to doing.
- rhubarbcustard 13y ago+1 for "Fitness is simple" and "it all comes down to doing"
- sizzle 13y agohardest part for me is starting up again
- gadders 13y agoThis has been posted before. I'd post a link to the previous discussion if the HN Search was up.
- tehwalrus 13y agoI remember it too - it changed how I think about fitness then, and my mind remains changed!
- abdullahdiaa 13y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4971196 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4971196
- probably_wrong 13y ago> Down the road, if you're like me, you'll want to train multiple aptitudes at once: strength, power, and endurance. Things get complicated quickly when you're self-coaching for multiple aptitudes (...) And yet, almost no word on that. Anyone has a follow up on how to move on from there? And where does flexibility fit in here? AFAIK, focusing only on strength will make you stiffer, and I'd rather be able to kick at head level than having a larger chest, assuming that's a XOR choice.
- neverminder 13y agoThink about it logically - lifting is stretching. If you lift correctly (form and full amplitude) and don't shy away from free weights it will increase your flexibility. Some info to back it up: http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/can-lifting-weights-make-you-flexible http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/can-lifting-weig...
- sizzle 13y agoTL;DR: do you even lift?
- Wohui 13y agoTLDR from someone who spent a sad amount of time assessing the article: Page 2: For (general)strength, don't sit at isolated-muscle machines. Page 3: Don't stick to low weights and core exercises if you're going to suddenly switch outlook and judge yourself on strength and classic squats etc. Page 4: For strength - low reps Page 5: Again use more muscles It probably filled ten magazine pages IRL.