The only thing I agree with in the article is that cardio machines in the gym are a waste of time.
Also squats will improve your bone density.
Don't be fooled that suffers like Laird get their physique from surfing. All of them dead lift and squat.
The best thing about squats would be that they "insure" your knees for old age.
Do them right and they are easily the best exercise ever invented IMHO.
Having said that, if you "like" some other exercise, like cable chest presses, dumbbell flyes, standing barbell bicep curls, crunches, or whatever, then fine do them (I do), but do so knowing that the Big Three should be the core of your exercise, and whatever else is complimentary.
(I'm a novice, genuinely curious.)
Lots of great info at t-nation.com .
Dumbbell presses are fine. But bench presses are better, and if you do them, you don't need to do dumbbell presses (but do, if you like them, I do too, as a complimentary exercise).
Injuries are nothing to scoff at of course, and you should always make sure to not put on more weight than you can safely manage. Regardless of exercise method.
You need to do pullups if you do benchpresses else you'll have a big chest and weak back muscles. This will pull your shoulders in. And which will eventually lead to injuries. Yo
In fact I've increased my bench by just working my back.
Lots of people only work the "mirror muscles" (ie ones you can see when you check yourself out in the mirror) and this leads to shoulder injuries.
The areas you mention are covered by the dead lifts, especially shoulders and upper back. The bicep is a relatively tiny muscle that we tend to over train because of its "reputation" so to speak, but at a beginner to intermediate level, it really does get enough from just the dead lifts. You might want to re-evaluate that when you can dead lift at least 2x your body weight though.
The thing to do to build biceps without doing curls are pulling motions - rows and pullups.
Thing is that 5k is really really really short distance for a human. I honestly can not be bothered with gym anymore so I just run about 10k a day with longer weekend runs, 5 times a week.
A body which has been doing squats is not going to be a great runner at a professional level.
But at our "weekend warrior" levels it does very much translate. I infact did this exercise on purpose to prove to myself that squats would translate.
And it very much did increase my sprint speed.
Dont take my word for it... Email a few strength coaches - Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson. Ask their opinion.
How fast were you?
Not sure this is really true or that it matters. A 5 mile run on the treadmill at an x minute pace is the same as a 5 mile run outside at an x minute pace. Advantages of the treadmill include being able to keep a given pace without making any particular mental effort. Advantages of being outside is that it's not boring.
Suffice to say I strongly prefer the real surface.
5 mile run on the treadmill at an x minute pace is the same as a 5 mile run outside at an x minute pace.
Running on the ground you push yourself forward. On a treadmill the amount of work you are doing can vary quite a bit by technique (ie. how much contact you are making with the treadmill) because you are not actually propelling yourself.
Mark a dot on the treadmill track.
How is the person moving relative to that dot?
How is the air in the room moving relative to that dot?
That's basically all that can distinguish between running at constant speed on a treadmill vs. on level (non-treadmill) ground.
If you're running 8mph on a treadmill, it's like running 8mph on level ground, with an 8mph tailwind.
How do you fail so badly at physics?
Treadmills have their place - for warming up a bit before some other kind of exercise, or as a replacement when the weather or traveling keeps you indoors - but they just aren't equivalent to real running. 5 minutes on a trail will tell you that.
That said, the treadmill can be a fine tool for training. It allows you to totally ignore weather conditions, and actually for speed workouts it can have the advantage of forcing you to stay on pace. A common rule of thumb is that a 1% incline on the treadmill compensates for the lack of wind resistance.
I can't stand the damn things myself, but there are runners, including some guys I know personally, who train exclusively using the treadmill and still do well in races up to marathon distance (I've never heard of any ultramarathoners who train exclusively on the treadmill).
I get FAR more tired running 2 real miles than 2 "miles" on a treadmill.
On a treadmill, both of your feet are in the air for a significant amount of time, and you're not being carried backwards. Yet, I bet that distance still gets counted.