Fuckarounditis (2011) | Hacker News Reader

Fuckarounditis (2011)

leangains.com

25 pointsfzliu28 comments

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Man finds his narrow conception of fitness is better than other people’s. If you can’t bench 190 pounds then you are wasting his precious time. PT and postural exercises are for weak losers who can’t measure up.

Don’t go to the gym to feel good or meet with friends, don’t do yoga. Well do yoga, but only for the muscle recovery.

For good measure he posts a picture of his swollen muscles to prove he isn’t fucking around. He’s one of the good ones.

Overcompensating is a word that comes immediately to mind...

I believe the author in the article just enjoys pain:

"Some of the happiest moments I remember are from walking home after a new 20-rep squat record way back in the days. Walking up stairs was like being repeatedly stabbed with a blunt and rusty butterknife. But it was still pure bliss."

Also, he seems to lack the usual mentality:

"I hate to bust your bubble lil’ buddy, but women don’t give a shit beyond a guy looking reasonably fit. Lower than 10-12% body fat won’t make an ounce of a difference. If women is your main motivation for dieting, don’t bother getting shredded."

My guess would be that this guy always wanted to be a cinema-style military drill instructor. And now he's doing just that as a freelance fitness coach: "I work as a nutritional consultant [..] and personal trainer."

Many years ago, the National Lampoon guys brought out some magazine parodies. I think that it was the Newsweek take off that recast the Soloflex ad as Cruciflex, with the motto: No pain, no gain. But then you discovered it was the pain you really wanted.

>Also, he seems to lack the usual mentality

People on the outside generally think that the main motivation for lifting is about women but from inside the community it's an often joked about fact of life that guys are much more likely to appreciate your physique than girls.

The article is obviously targeted at people who try to build muscle by lifting weights, not yoga practitioners.

He's specifically addressing people who have the same goals as him but aren't seeing progress for the reasons he's listed. Nothing in the article suggests that he sees other goals as less valid, and it seems like you're being uncharitable because he reads as a "bro" to you ("swollen muscles").

"Rickard Nikoley is one of those I saved from fuckarounditis. Before I intervened, Richard was flopping around like a monkey in the gym. Nothing good came from that. There’s nothing primal or Paleo about being weak."

I wonder if it really is a good idea to talk like that about your clients.

Leangains was monumental for popularizing intermittent fasting in the early 2010s. His articles come off as redundant now, but back then he was one of a kind.

Came here to say this. This guy is a legend, and as legends have, they might seem outdated in many ways by modern standards, but they still are legends for valid reasons.

There's some useful information buried in here and it boils down to "follow a program, follow a diet, be consistent". The last one is the most important - long term consistency beats short term intensity any day. I'd rather show up 100 percent of the time and put in 70 percent than put in 110 percent for a month and burn out or get injured.

While I have no idea whether this is true for bodybuilding, it's true for software, especially web development, in my perception. Too much fucking around with frameworks, and not enough just writing the dang HTML. We, as a profession, know how to write HTML and we could get more results sooner if we actually just did it.

Contrary to the roid rage induced beliefs of non competitive personal trainer body builders a lot of people don’t go to the gym to see that kind of “progress” they see a professional climber or ultra race runner and call them weak, because they don’t know any better.

So stupid. Internet nerds claiming squats and deadlift build a nice physique. Whereas everyone who lifts knows a dyel deadlifter who can deadlift 600 lbs.

Bench is the only compound that gives good upper body aesthetics

So much info here that's bodybuilder driven and counter to S&C that works with actual athletes.

Actual athletes are training for a specific goal. If you're a swimmer/runner/pole vaulter/whatever you may want a different program to focus on things that improve your performance in that discipline.

Most people who go to the gym just want to be in shape, and for that goal the author is right - assuming "getting in shape" to you means developing a fit and capable body. He's also right that a lot of people misguidedly waste a lot of time on unnecessarily complex routines that don't even work that well, and spend way too much money and effort on supplements.

From personal experience I can say he's completely right. You may not like the presentation but this is pretty much exactly how I trained prior to people subtly accusing me of juicing.

I did 5 exercises: deadlift, squats, bench press, pull/chin ups, shoulder/military press.

Do that 2-3 times a week, track your progress with some kind of workout log, do 3 sets of 5-8 reps of each exercise, add weight once you can do more than your target reps. Keep going until you buckle, at least for the last set.

This takes like 45 minutes or less once you have a routine going, and it works extremely well. The only supplements worth using are creatine and if you don't get enough protein in your diet you can use protein powder. If you're unsure just have a protein shake after each workout.

The way I think about it is this will give you something like 90% of your possible gains, for a relatively low time investment. It may be possible to do slightly better, but you will spend twice or thrice as much time for a tiny improvement.

Or, as the article author points out, you may spend twice as much time for less gains. If you're fine with that that's totally fine. Go to the gym to hang out with your friends, as long as you're happy who cares. This is advice for people who go to the gym for results.

Agreed, if you look beyond the bro-ey tone of the presentation, it is smart and nontrivial advice he is delivering here. It is so easy to get distracted by complexity (esp with so much competing internet advice). Picking a couple lifts then making the numbers go up on them is effective and underrated.

This routine is the Starting Strength routine.

https://startingstrength.com

Yup. I think that is where I first learned about it, something like 15 years ago

I did this for a long time and then started working with a trainer who pointed out my hamstrings were likely super weak compared to other muscles and he was correct. So I added a leg machine and some other exercises that made my workout hit the muscles the main lifts mostly skip. But I agree, if you want to get strong go to the gym and be consistent. Nothing else works.

Both deadlifts and squats work the hamstrings though. But sure, you can definitely add some exercises if you feel the need for it. I've personally never really worried much about hamstring strength. I'm basically just trying to maximize the gain while minimizing the actual gym time. Then I spend the rest of my time doing other things I enjoy more such as rock climbing and hiking. I've also dabbled a bit with running/jogging recently.

Oh I used to feel this way and then I realized I rather enjoy talking nonsense with my trainer and then pushing for maximum gains. I can definitely tell my enjoyment goes up when working out with a trainer or another lifting partner mostly because of the encouragement.

I had the same problem. I think a lot of people reading this will have weak hamstrings. I think it's a natural consequence of desk work.

Adding in some Romanian Deadlifts really forced me to focus on my hamstrings when doing lifts. It helped me breakthrough some plateaus with the conventional deadlift.

He lifts things.

The author has a serious case of notgettingtothepointitis with exhaustingattituditis as a comorbidity. After n paragraphs of them not even saying what they think the point of going to the gym is, I stopped reading.

The point is the opposite of "mediocre physique and complete lack of progress" mentioned in the third sentence, that is good physique and steady progress.

"the roots of 'this ignorance' stems from misinformation and counterproductive advice found in popular media and information hubs on the Internet."

Exactly this same quote could be used for: "Covid is fake", Homeopathy, Anti-vax, "stolen elections", etc etc etc. But when America churns out youth under the "No child left behind" mantra (who are now currently voting age) , what else do you think would happen?

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