Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance
I don't disagree with the overal theme of the article, but I have to disagree on some particulars. Some thoughts:<p>>Habit First<p>Absolutely agree, especially when you're trying to get out of morbid out-of-shapeness. I personally find that mixing it into a pre-existing daily routine works well. I personally do core work and pullups/chinups before my morning and evening showers, and stretch exercises while I'm in the shower.<p>>Diet<p>IMO the Diet section is way too detailed as a first step. For someone who is trying to improve from very poor nutrition, I would advise the following:<p>1. Get rid of all processed sugar products from your house: candy, juice, soda, cookies, etc. (imo all processed items are bad, but again it's about keeping the barrier low)<p>2. Only walk around the outside lanes of a Grocery store (where the meats, dairy, and vegetables are). Don't go into the middle aisles where they have all the sugary, salty, processed goodies. Keeping bad food out of the house is the easiest, lowest friction way to keep a healthy diet.<p>> Dumbbells first<p>Totally disagree with this one. Compound lifts using Barbells are vastly superior to isolation lifts using dumbbells, particularly for beginners. And for beginners, Starting Strength has proven time and time again to be the most effective program. [1]<p>If you're "starting out", then bodyweight exercises like pullups, chinups, bodyweight squats, planks, pushups, situps, are going to be low barrier to entry, good-habit inducing work that can be leveraged to take the person to the next level when they're comfortable. Once they're at this stage, they can buy whatever barbell setup they're comfortable with (I personally really want an Olympic Lifting platform in my garage...), which is going to be much much cheaper than that complicated Nautilus weight thing anyway.<p>>Safety<p>>Even with dummbells, I was able to put loads on my back that felt uncomfortable within about three months.<p>That' because dumbell lifts don't engage the stabilizer muscles. As a result, those support muscles are going to be underdeveloped and you won't have developed the coordination to engage them when you need them.<p>> Padded lifting gloves with wrist support helped keep my wrists in a stable, safe position and alleviated wrist pain.<p>IMO using outside assistance like this promotes bad form and bad habits.<p>>Str training machines<p>Ugh these machines are terrible. They (a) don't engage your auxiliary muscles well, and (b) move weights in an unnatural path relative to your body and tend to cause more injuries than just plan barbell work. A great example is squatting on a smith machine, which puts you into very dangerous positions. (yet every single small'ish gym believes that they are somehow safer than regular squat racks)<p>---<p>I find it odd that the article started out with the premise of helping very novice people get into a healthier routine wrt both diet and exercise, yet evolved into a fairly intermediate article. IMO most people don't need to optimize strength training to this extent. Just getting in any kind of routine and eating well will go a lonnggggg ways.<p>[1] <a href="http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/The_Starting_Strength_Novice/Beginner_Programs" rel="nofollow">http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/The_Starting_Strength...</a>