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davidvarela_us

390 karma · joined April 19, 2022

personal site: https://davidvarela.us

twitter: @davidvarela_us

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davidvarela_us··on The James Webb Space Telescope is finding too many early galaxies
Isn't this just the anthropic principle[0]? e.g. "conditions that are observed in the universe must allow the observer to exist"

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropic_principle

davidvarela_us··on Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do
- mostly science based strength: Jeff Nippard, The Bioneer - athletic movements/ injury prevention: overtimeathletes, AthleanX - mobility: Tom Merrick, GuerillaZen - overall health: FoundMyFitness (highly recommended)
davidvarela_us··on Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do
Thanks for sharing this. I'm a huge nerd when it comes to optimizing training programs.

This seems like it could be as big of a hack as Zone 2 training [0] was when I discovered it. It is amazing how little we know about our bodies given that we all have one!

0: https://www.howardluksmd.com/zone-2-hr-training-live-longer-...

davidvarela_us··on Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do
Any exercise is better than no exercise. But in my experience, bodyweight training will not put you anywhere near the ballpark of size/strength that a good weight training program can.

I say this because I see a lot of impressive looking dudes selling calisthenics programs, but I heavily suspect that the lift weights and/or do steroids in addition to bodyweight programs.

I exclusively did bodyweight training during the pandemic and it kept me healthy and my physique definitely improved for the better. Once the gyms opened and I went back to weight training, my size/strength absolutely blew up from what it was before with no changes in diet/sleep/time spent training. I gained about 18 lbs of muscle in a pretty short amount of time and I suspect I can gain a good deal more once I dial in my diet and sleep.

davidvarela_us··on Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do
There is a technique known as "cheat reps" in strength training. The idea is to recruit more/stronger muscles to cover the concentric motion and to isolate the muscle you are training in the eccentric. It is an excellent tool when used intelligently. I wouldn't recommend it for beginners because it can make it easy to injure yourself and is not really needed until your strength starts to plateau anyway.
davidvarela_us··on Less gym time, same results: Why ‘lowering’ weights is all you need to do
I strongly disagree. Weight training is one of the best gifts you can give your body. It keeps you healthy and event prevents injury if done correctly.

What you did wrong was not weight training but following an unbalanced training regimen. No judgement there, I was guilty of the same when I was younger. I think younger/uninformed lifters tend to "ego lift" and focus on size over aspects of physical training. It is easy to fall into this trap when social media is heavily skewed toward steroid users.

Building physical strength is no sin. But you have to approach it from a health and not ego-centered perspective. This means lifting within your ability and with good form, practicing mobility exercises, and understanding the kinetic chain.

Developing a healthy body is a lifelong and rewarding journey. I recommend anyone starting their fitness journey to ground themselves in functional strength and physical therapy instead of the bro culture that is rampant in the fitness industry. I recommend the channels AthleanX and Kneesovertoesguy on YouTube if you want learn from people who teach safe and balanced approaches to strength.

davidvarela_us··on Emergency measures needed to rescue Great Salt Lake from ongoing collapse
And the comment section is filled with people saying that these changes are not so bad. I fear our fate is that of the boiling frog as the general population still appears overwhelmingly apathetic to global warming.
davidvarela_us··on Deepest infrared image of universe
I was just going to ask about gravity. TIL that gravity travels at the speed of light. Thanks!
davidvarela_us··on Mercedes-Benz says Level 3 self-driving option ready to roll
few things inspire confidence like companies putting their literal money where their mouth is
davidvarela_us··on Runners prefer the same pace, regardless of distance
I disagree with that conclusion.

Humans are surprisingly efficient at minimizing calories spent on exercise. Exercise is great to optimize other systems in the body, but it shouldn't be used as the primary method of losing weight. Calories In Calories Out is the golden rule when it comes to changing weight (either up or down). To lose weight, I recommend intermittent fasting and consuming less empty calories.

davidvarela_us··on The Front-End Developer's Guide to the Terminal
No kidding. When I was heavily contributing to Julia's Pkg (which uses roughly the same model for modules as NPM, at least in terms of the file system), our test suite would run roughly an order of magnitude slower on Windows. This was very annoying on days where a lot of PRs where in the pipeline. I poked around the problem about for a while, and eventually came to the same conclusion (but I'm no Windows expert).

Eventually, I worked around the problem by using a caching system to avoid blowing up the filesystem. It was necessary at the time, but it never felt like a satisfying solution. I wonder if anyone has the knowledge to make native Windows go fast on e.g. a large number of sequential git clone operations.