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Comment by robterrell | Hacker News Reader

Do I really need to go into the gym to get something heavy to lift? I happen to have something heavy already at my house: my fat self.

Right now I do nothing other than jogging or strenuous hiking, and I recognize that I need to add strength training. More than half of these seem to be strength exercises.

I don't understand all the weird schisms and cliques that pop up on HN when fitness topics are discussed. From an idiot's perspective, it seems like I could get good strength gains with these exercise and my (already-considerable) body weight.

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You definitely don't. My home barbell area is 6x8 feet, and could be less, but that's the space I need to train in so I leave it set up. Like pyoung said, you want to make it easy to want to exercise; I do it at home because it's just more convenient and takes less time. For others I'm sure a gym makes more sense.

I am not familiar with any of the 'science', but from what I understand you definitely want to do some sort of strength training. It helps with weight regulation, injury prevention, and overall health. The scientific 7-minute will probably work, or at least be a good place to start.

For me personally, I've noticed that when I pay for a gym membership (or some other fitness program), I actually force myself to use the service due to the financial commitment. When i try and save money by working out at home, I always skip sessions. If I could get better at motivating myself for the home workouts, I would probably do those more, but like someone else said, the best workout is the one that you actually do.

The keys to great beginner strength training are low reps and linear progression. Let's say you're an average male and start squatting 135 pounds in 3 sets of 5 reps. Next time you lift 140. Then 145. Etc. Once you reach the 300lb neighborhood a few months later, you will be massively stronger, but still only an intermediate beginner in the view of a good strength coach.

If you're like me and you reach that point, you'll then look back at the years wasted doing pushups and biking or whatever and consider it time wasted. You'll wonder "why isn't this more widely known?!"

You are correct. Push-ups, pull-ups and other exercises that you can do with your own body provide the same kind benefits as weight training, just at a much smaller range. That is, it's harder (and slower) to start, and you can only go so far.

> That is, it's harder (and slower) to start, and you can only go so far.

That's a strange definition of "same benefits".

You build muscle mass and get bigger. That's the benefit.

If you lift weights, you get the added benefit of being able to start with a lower weight and work your way up. If you are just doing push-up/pull-ups you will likely find you hit a threshold where your body weight is no longer sufficient for strength training.

TBH, most people will never reach that point. You've got to be in damn good shape to be able to do 50 pushups with your feet on a chair.

So yeah, the benefits are the same for most people.

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