TRIGGER WARNING: trigger warnings make you soft and week. I would avoid them if I were you.
I will start with another note of personal philosophy relative to Mark Rippetoe: I like Rip and think he did great work for fitness, though I do not fully agree on his philosophy. I agree with get big and strong, not with as big and strong as possible. I think there is an optimal point after which it gets counterproductive, especially the big part. I am around 6 feet tall and 200 pounds American these days. My desired weight, should I have the discipline to achieve it, is 180. Mark would say I should be 245. That is quite the gap. I am not that happy with 200, I do not want to gain weight. I am pretty damn sure I would feel better, sleep better and function better at 180 rather than 245. Back in the day, when I had no muscle to speak of, I went from 88 kg to 72 kg in 3 and a half months. Rapid weight loss showed me how much better I feel lighter, how much better I sleep etc. Now I am not saying 72 kg is a good weight for 182 cm. I was way low on muscle. But 82 kg should be good. Maybe 90 for some. I can entertain 100 kg for a very strong and muscular dude – certainly not for me. 110 kg is just too much for ~6 feet. And off course you frame is important, two equally lean people can have different weights. You cannot make blanket claims of you should be 250. Similarly, you cannot randomly claim there is something magical about sets of 5 or that anyone who does not get the best results from your program is just not doing it right. It is a good program but people can find programs that work better for them. As a controversial opinion, I think at least some people who are overfat and think they feel good do not actually feel good, but do not remember what feeling good is like. So sure get strong, but not if that requires gaining too much body weight especially in the form of fat. Also lifting very heavy does increase injury risk and wear and tear on the body, which may bite on in the behind in old age, should one reach old age. I would think that the health and function benefits of weight kind of stop at 125% bodyweight bench, 150% squat, 175% deadlift. Beyond that it is just fun and games. Anyhoo back to the topic at hand.
I said in previous posts that, overall, in the fitness space, The Science ™ is pretty weak, for many reasons. All studies are short term, low sample size, impossible to control for variables. And the measurements are quite bad. Ultrasound for muscle growth and dexa scan for body fat are much too weak for the short terms of the studies. But it also draws the wrong conclusion. The studies are usually small, short and the outcomes poorly measured. The statistics is poor. And what they do is average the result over the training group and say on average higher volume is better. But looking at the individual data, one can also conclude there is large individual difference. Some people do well on low volume, some on high. Each should find what works for them personally.
And again, I will have to say, that time efficiency is a big thing that is overlooked in most studies. And it is sort of an area of focus for my fitness interests. Someone who has the time and is willing to spend 10 hours a week in the gym will get results either way. But how do you get them with 2 hours a week? If 8 hours gets you 10% extra gains compared to 4, is it worth it? Beyond time, one needs something one does consistently. I have said that discipline beats motivation, discipline is key in training and diet. But discipline is not endless, and the harder the grind the less sustainable. So, although you should not start thinking it will be easy, you should try to make it as easy as possible. It is easier to diet if you at least kind of like the food and do not feel very hungry every moment of your life. It is easier to train if you do not feel sore all the time. Let’s look at the impossible workouts in a Schoenfeld volume study. In one workout 5 sets of heavy squats to failure, 90 seconds rest; followed by 5 sets of heavy leg press to failure, 90 seconds rest; followed by 5 sets of leg extensions to failure, 90 seconds rest. This is just ridiculous. No need to even look at the study. No one does this. If you ever did leg press to absolute failure, you can not even get up from the press for 30 seconds, let alone do another productive set in 90. And then take a day off and do it all again 2 days later. And then again two days later. Tom Platz maybe, but you are not Tom Plaz. And Tom only did it once every week or two.
There are off course other considerations. Biomechanics are different from person to person. Leverages are important. Short arms make you good at benching, but bad at deadlifting. Torso size, overall leg length, femur to tibia ration, torso/arms/legs ratio, shoulder width, waist thickness, all mater. Your muscle fiber types- there can be variation between people and your muscle insertions. Some might do best on low volume to failure, some on higher volume. In the end you need to find what works for you, both as exercise selection and as weight/rep ranges. So no, Mark, not everyone needs to do low bar squats for 5 or barbell bench, even if their shoulders feel much better with dumbbells.
Heavy deadlifts are, for example, a topic of debate. Some say you should not do them at all as the risk to reward is not good enough. Others say that it is an essential exercise as it allows you to move the most weight. But if you have bad leverages or are generally clumsier, unathletic, uncoordinated it is hard to do them right, unless you have a really good coach, and those are few and far between. This may influence the decision. I do ehm Romanian deadlifts myself, pun not intended. They just feel better. Good coaching is very important in fitness and it is a big problem that it is very rare. Bad coaches can mess you up. The average coach is a person naturally athletic, gifted who likes the gym so might as well make it a job. They rarely know how to teach. They don’t know how it is to struggle to learn a lift as it came easy to them. The do not get they need several methods and cues of teaching a lift, in case one does not work try another. Many just say keep your back straight and expect it to simply work. You need to know how to handle unusual biomechanics. Making a program as a list of exercises is no great feat. Hell, AI can spit one out these days. A few sets of x reps. Most programing is bad anyway. An example is percentage of 1RM for non-advanced lifters. Most do not know their 1RM. And anyway, people have different muscle fibers. X reps at 80% of 1RM can be light for some, heavy for other.
There are many variables that can be tweaked in the fitness space. For a multi-day workout period, most of the time a “week”, you can vary mainly 3 things: volume, intensity, frequency. If all 3 are low, you don’t get much benefit. If all 3 are high, it is not sustainable. You should keep one or two high. I generally think of things in terms of hypertrophy / body parts. But off course if we are talking powerlifting / strength training it is in terms of lifts e.g squat, press, bench, deadlift. Basically, standard volume is usually 9 to 18 sets for a body/part lift; less than 9 is low volume, more than 18 is high volume. I would say standard frequency is two / three times a week. Once a week or less is low frequency, more than 3 times is high frequency. Intensity is about weight and proximity to failure.
Now I will say, like most, I have my opinions on the topic. I do not like low frequency training, I think it is an inefficient way to go about it, though you can gain plenty with it. I would recommend training a muscle/lift at least twice a week. Especially since I do not write for the benefit of elite powerlifters on contest prep. A heavy elite powerlifter, squatting singles or 2-3 reps, may only squat every other week, due to recovery. This is extreme intensity, low frequency. Though they will do assistance work for legs every week, even more than once. But the heavy squat, no. But for most purposes, I say training a muscle twice a week is better than once. You get more productive work for probably less fatigue. And muscle protein synthesis signaling does not really last a whole week. I will also say that I absolutely hate the bro splits, the chest day / back day / arm day / skip legs training. And that is for several reasons, one of which is biased: when I started going to the gym, it was so dominant in Romanian gyms that I did not even think there are other ways to train. And I think I lost many years doing it wrong, like most do it. Going to the gym for 16 sets of junk volume on chest day.
Now looking at The Science, the studies either show twice a week is better or they show identical outcomes. But most studies showing identical outcomes are weight/set/rep equated, which is nonsense. One of the advantages of twice-a-week is that you can do more work in the same number of sets. Doing 12 on Monday versus 6 on Monday 6 on Thursday, well if you equate weight and reps you will be farther from failure in the two a week training, which means you are holding back, which you should not. No one trains like that. If you go twice you will adjust the weight, reps to be as close to failure as you usually train. It is better to get more work in for the same time/fatigue. But in any case, if in the best case they are identical but two a week is potentially better, I would go for two a week. And for higher volume I would definitely do two a week as most people cannot do more than 10 maybe 12 productive sets in a workout. Its all junk after that.
Just like I think frequency is good, I think weight is good as well. Strive to actually lift heavy and get stronger – just do not use it as an excuse to be fat, which some powerlifters do. There is a whole debate about how high weights are bad for you, injure you, bad for the back, knees etc. They are not, if done right and not too heavy. Off course higher reps also works, if you do not want the high stress. But a little heavy lifting goes a long way. Recently the Science was all about lowering the weight to get very high ROM and a deep stretch, but recent better-done studies show that it is not all that. And anyway, if you get stronger lifting heavier with Reasonable Range of Motion, you will be able to do more weight for the stretch if you want. In fact, and again this is what I personally do I am not necessarily recommend it to everyone, one can easily do both. Most of my training is based on back-off sets. What I do is warm up to my top set – I do not accumulate fatigue doing work sets on the way up – and do one heavy top set. After which I lower the weight, do another set. Lower the weight, do another set. I can do more reps, more stretch this way and reduce the rest intervals for time efficiency. I accumulate load on the top set and accumulate some volume on the back-off sets. Say I do incline dumbbell chest press with 42 kg dumbbells. I do 5-6 reps, then I take a few minutes rest. I then take the 38 and do a set. The next set will be 34 or 32. And on the last set I can get a bit of deep stretch. Going heavy and deep stretch on dumbbell chest work is a recipe for shoulder impingement. I only do it after lowering the weight quite a bit. But I do not sacrifice lifting heavy, I do that on my top set with RROM. I accumulate both load and volume this way. And I get faster to the point of doing deep stretch with 32s if I get stronger using the top set.
The take away is find something that works, and do it consistently. I am planning another post with some details and opinions on rep and volume schemes and so one, but who knows what the future brings.
I think the primary question to ask yourself is: what are my goals? The answer to that will dictate your approach and the programs will be drastically different depending on the approach. If, as a guy, your primary goal is to get laid, trying to move massive amounts of weight to get tremendous mass is likely going to be counterproductive. Women typically like toned definition, not enormous mass; you’re better off dieting hard to get low body fat coupled with lower weight high rep work. If you want to just get as strong as possible, you’re better off eating a massive surplus and doing low rep max-out work. If you wanna look like Tom Platz, go find a morally flexible pharmacist because no one looks like that without a lot of chemical assistance.
https://archive.is/ItNJa
Titty Tuesday.
what are my goals? – make money fuck bitches?
Look at you living the dream.
toned means decent muscle low fat. from a muscular point of view aint no such thing as toned
Goals, as QC says are the important part. If you want an active life play actively. Watch kids, they run and jump. As we get a little older we can modify that to run/walk/exercise modestly.
If you’re well-to-do financially that will cover up a lot of sins with the ladies.
Fourscore’s opinion
Eat as best you can, sleep as best you can, avoid tobacco/booze, wash your hands frequently and avoid little kids, they are germ factories.
Do what ever else you enjoy or have to do. While you may not live a long life enjoy the life you have in the present.
^^^This guy gets it.
What are my goals?
I hate the goal system in our performance review tool.
This is another reason I play hockey. I train at the gym to be a better hockey player, and for me that’s better incentive than just being generally healthy. When that’s done, I’ll probably focus on Spartan DEKA and train for that.
and do it consistently
Stupid cold has had me off my routine for four days now.
cold – vitamin D and whisky
So, what is the plan for the senior citizen with a bad back and bum knees?
anything is better then nothing. Pin squats, rack pulls, walking, weight vest etc
thanks
Maybe one should vary one’s workout to avoid falling into habitually going through the motions.
going through the motions kinda works for me i prefer that
Pretending to “going through the motions kinda works for me”
My fall back position.
I have been half-assedly dabbling at a few internet fads, served up by the all knowing algo. I won’t go into detail. Some seem to help. I’m basically trying to get unstuck and regain some lost balance and mobility. Some asshole snuck up on me and hung seven decades around my neck while I wasn’t paying attention.
And time speeds up from there, Brooks.
I measure time from when I was in the army. We got paid once a month, time seemed to drag between paydays. Slowly, slowly 20 years passed.
That was 50 years ago. Where 50 years went I dunno. I had a lot of fishing and hunting left to do but suddenly I can’t climb in a boat so easily.
Seems like someone added a bunch more steps on my deer stand .
Now I wait for snow, I can still run a snowblower as long as I don’t have to bend over. I dumped 2 bags of corn into a garbage can today, they’re
putting in way more than 50 lbs in a bag. I know, ’cause it wasn’t too long ago I could have done that easily.
What is the best blood type to drink for recovery?
Virgin?
these days …
Connie Swail is unavailable.
TIL that I have Pie’s ideal physique.
*flexes in mirror*
Can Pie even see his physique in the mirror?
Pretty sure modern mirrors don’t use silver, so… sure?
“unless you have a really good coach, and those are few and far between”
This is where I can brag about my wife. She is definitely not a natural-born athlete, she started late in life, had some good coaches, and had every type of struggle you can imagine. Which makes her really good at picking apart people’s form and getting them past plateaus. In her strength classes they test 1RM every 12 weeks, which is happening now. Yesterday was bench day, and all 6 or 7 people had an increase including one really tall lanky guy who added 17 pounds. Tomorrow is deadlifts, and Friday is squats.
“The take away is find something that works, and do it consistently.”
This reminds me of Scott Adams and his “systems not goals” mindset. Find a system that works, and when it doesn’t, adjust it. Make sure whatever you do is sustainable. Don’t pressure yourself with specific goals, if the system is good you’ll keep making progress.
I think that this mindset is a critical one. Goals are easy to quit on. To avoid that, you need to make yourself the kind of person for whom the goals come easily. Focus on the process, rather than the outcome.
I usually stick to a routine until it doesn’t work, and then I try something else. I like doing the research and putting together my own programming. To me that’s part of the fun. Right now I’m adding dynamic lifts, basically several sets at 50% lifted with as much velocity as possible. It’s supposed to increase explosive power, which makes your lifts better and helps sports performance.
There are 5 turkeys looking in the window at me, a couple are pecking on the window to remind me that they are hungry.
Jive turkeys!
Don’t they know that we eat them?
Unfortunately my knee won’t allow me to squat. I can get away with leg presses.
Huh. Apparently Hunter can’t use Daddy’s name to get money anymore.
https://mxmnews.com/article/28d7cd0b-5b84-4779-a123-04692ce9a89f?obvious-f-ing-failure-hunter-biden-admits-his-dad-failed-in-afghanistan
In Vino Veritas?
No…damnit, what’s Latin for crack cocaine?
rack-cay ocaine-cay?
/oink
I saw that. Big surprise, another thing labeled “misinformation” turned out to be true.
Did you see his statement about the laptop? Lawyers must have worked on that for months so he could deny remembering anything about it.
My Dresden counterparts sent us a stollen. It’s very good.
I prefer lebkuchen, but the girlfriend loves her stollen. She did get mad at me when I pointed out that it could qualify as fruitcake.
Happy news
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/oklahoma-instructor-gave-student-zero-gender-essay-barred-duties-schoo-rcna250641
Oklahoma instructor who gave student a zero on gender essay barred from teaching duties, school says
The failing grade has prompted protests at the university in recent weeks, and the state’s governor weighed in.
The University of Oklahoma said Monday that the graduate teaching assistant who assigned a failing grade to a student for a psychology essay on gender stereotypes will “no longer have instructional duties” at the university.
Oklahoma universities are getting overrun like everywhere else. That’s scary because the state is 100% red during elections.
From what I read, she probably should have failed because I don’t think she answered the question. Probably not a zero though.
It was a re
It was a re
Idaho is the same RJ.
following the links to the article she was supposed to review:
Abstract
The current study examines whether being high in gender typicality is associated with popularity, whether being low in gender typicality is associated with rejection/teasing, and whether teasing due to low gender typicality mediates the association with negative mental health. Middle school children (34 boys and 50 girls) described hypothetical popular and rejected/teased peers, and completed self-report measures about their own gender typicality, experiences with gender-based teasing, depressive symptoms, anxiety, self-esteem, and body image. Participants also completed measures about their peers’ gender typicality, popularity, and likeability. Results indicated that popular youth were described as more gender typical than rejected/teased youth. Further, being typical for one’s gender significantly predicted being rated as popular by peers, and this relationship was moderated by gender. Finally, low gender typicality predicted more negative mental health outcomes for boys. These relationships were, at times, mediated by experiences with gender-based teasing, suggesting that negative mental health outcomes may be a result of the social repercussions of being low in gender typicality rather than a direct result of low typicality.
So what the fuck is “gender typicality”?
If the paper says that young people tease the shit out of anyone that doesn’t fit the normal stereotype, then that’s pretty much true. If the paper about rejection of gender-bending horseshit, then perhaps the OK student had some basis for complaining about the article.
AI Overview
Gender typicality is how much a person feels like a “typical” member of their own gender, reflecting their self-perception of having expected traits, interests, and behaviors compared to others of the same sex, and it significantly impacts psychological well-being, with low typicality sometimes linked to distress but also potentially to flexible attitudes, say KU ScholarWorks.
Could reference tom-boys and boys that like to play with dolls. Except those kids get pushed hard into the transworld these days.
I didn’t expect that to happen.
Scanning the end of year economy stories it’s hard not to think a lot of “economics writers” are disappointed the economy didn’t crash or go into severe stagflation.
Go figure.
Why won’t the economy obey??? Doesn’t anyone know where the controls are? What about unplugging it?
Well, for the first time in my memory, more breweries have closed than opened in Cleveland (and I believe the state as a whole) this year.
Weed is taking over where booze left off.
the graduate teaching assistant who assigned a failing grade to a student for a psychology essay on gender stereotypes
It wasn’t just a “failing grade”. It was a fucking zero.
This was a learning moment. You give the failing grade; you give guidance on staying on topic and answering the question; you give guidance on keeping your personal biases out of scholastic analysis and being professional {all of which the instructor failed at as well}.
The instructor fucked up because Curth took personal offense at the student’s response.
If the paper says that young people tease the shit out of anyone that doesn’t fit the normal stereotype, then that’s pretty much true.
I think the student pretty much said they deserved it. Not acceptable.
+1 Quadzilla
My biggest feat when I powerlifted competitively in high school. National deadlifting meet in Boulder, 2003. I won the under-18 132lb weight cuz I was the only one in it! Did 280 (to ensure *a* good lift), 300, then 310 (IIRC, maybe 315). I also beat the three kids in the 148 class. Bro was good enough to be invited to competed for the Jr Olympics in Florida, but didn’t make the cut. He coulda been an Olympic powerlifter if he gave a shit, which he really didn’t. Ah, The Pit in Evansville, where we worked out. Ran by an ex-cop and populated by his fellows and bunch of parolees and seedier characters. Some rough folk, but people played straight there, no tomfoolery. Great childhood memories and lessons.