- Links to over $500 dollars worth of equipment on Amazon, and over $1000 overall (I guess the Marcy device isn't sold on Amazon?) but no links to any sites with good information about lifting weights.
- Recommendation of specific supplements and lifting program (including suggested numbers of reps and sets) but only a haphazard list of random exercises and no information about how to perform them.
- No discussion of how his suggested total time and set count imply very short rest periods, which isn't necessarily wrong but deserves some comment, especially for beginners who might wonder "WTF is going on?" when they try to do five sets to failure in ten minutes (that's 15-20 sets split into three sessions totaling thirty minutes per day.)
- Come to think of it, very little discussion of how beginners should work their way up to such an effort, especially since they should be much more slow and careful until they're comfortable with good form. Beginners working to failure? You'd better be very specific about what exercises you're talking about before you suggest that.
- Recommendation to use creatine with no discussion of what it does. Creatine does not in itself make you stronger, but it makes it possible for you to sustain a harder pace for a longer time in your workouts. Even if you're experienced in the gym, you have to be careful about overuse injuries when you start using creatine, because the sudden ability to work harder, longer, allows you to put more strain on your connective tissue than you're used to.
- The section on safety includes nothing about safety, except, in the last sentence, a weak suggestion that a single session with a personal trainer might be helpful. No warning that many personal trainers know little about weights. No tips on how to find one who does. NO OTHER SAFETY INFORMATION. And, again, no links to better sources of information.
- Bizarre recommendation of a belt for safety, despite suggesting dumbbell exercises only and suggesting that no instruction is needed beyond a single "fix-up" session with a trainer. What the heck is a person with no instruction and a bunch of dumbbells going to do that makes a belt a good idea?
- Recommendation of working out in the morning with no mention of the possible danger of working your back within one hour of getting out of bed.
- Many links to his own articles but no links to external sources of information about weightlifting (of which there are many) except for a calorie calculator.
- Come to think of it, no acknowledgment of the people or information sources who helped him get started and influenced his choices.
- Finally, seriously, given the choice between creating all those links to equipment and supplements on Amazon and creating a decent list of suggested exercises with links to instruction on how to do them, we got the Amazon links. Odd priorities, there. Very odd.
Matt Might enjoys a certain amount of credibility on HN for his fantastic blogging on CS topics. While I don't begrudge his attempts to share aspects other aspects of his life and even monetize his blogging, I think you raise some valid criticisms of this post. Certainly the topic of personal fitness and weightlifting is much deeper than a single article with sparse links, I'd treat this more as his personal experience with starting instead of a definitive guide to the subject.
I'd treat this more as his personal experience with starting instead of a definitive guide to the subject.
If it's supposed to be taken that way, it should be written that way. Instead, someone with a little bit of personal experience about a subject wrote a soup-to-nuts guide for beginners that strikes an authoritative tone, acknowledges no other authorities, implies a great deal of expertise (even implying that the information he presents is derived from scientific studies,) gives advice that is extremely incomplete and in places off the wall, and refers entirely to his own work with NO suggestion that readers should seek out any other source of information. That's not normal. It's bizarre. Our jaws should be dropping at the inappropriateness of it. If it feels normal to people, I can only surmise that it is due to a distortion of culture where pumping yourself up as an expert (and "monetizing your blog") is not something that can be accurate or inaccurate, or honest or dishonest, but is simply assumed as the socially normal way to communicate.
> - Recommendation to use creatine with no discussion of what it does. Creatine does not in itself make you stronger, but it makes it possible for you to sustain a harder pace for a longer time in your workouts. Even if you're experienced in the gym, you have to be careful about overuse injuries when you start using creatine, because the sudden ability to work harder, longer, allows you to put more strain on your connective tissue than you're used to.
I don't mean to sound like a Melvin, but, "That is literally flat out wrong/bullshit" is a remarkably poor thesis. Why is it bullshit?
I just got into the whole exercising thing a few months ago. The entire culture/industry around weight lifting is so hard to figure out. Everyone has different opinions -- usually really strong ones too -- but few actually defend their assertions on factual grounds. So, it's purely out of self interest when I ask "Why is it bullshit"
I just want to know about these things! Hell, I still don't even know if I should be holding my breath or breathing out while squatting... The pool of information about weight lifting is that muddled.
For creatine, while it is true that the supplement serves to help you push out an extra rep or two, I've literally never heard of anyone getting "overuse injuries" due to starting creatine. It's just a scare tactic on one of the best-studied supplements out there. Read up on it here: http://examine.com/supplements/Creatine/
There is an "external resources" section at the end of the article, containing:
- Bodybuilding.com workout planning, which addresses your points 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11
- The fitness subreddit, and its FAQ, which addresses most your points
- Examine.com, which addresses your point about the actual effects of creatine and other supplements
Matt shared his experience and gave out the references that helped him get started, does everything have to be a batteries-included exhaustive guide to everything these days?
Came here to post something similar but far less eloquent or well structured. It reads like long-form copy designed to get you click through to buy things you don't need.
If HNers want to build strength they need to look at their surroundings, their patterns and see whats achievable in their day. Buying machines won't help you get fitter or stronger, doing the right routine that fits in with your life will. Until I fell ill I was doing bodyweight-based calisthenics, which worked well for me as it was less than 15 minutes a day and could mostly be done anywhere. I'm hoping to go back after a bit of a longer break.
I opened the article in hopes of advice on improving my "hacking strength". Alas, it was about actual weightlifting, which... maybe I'll have time for again some day.
But I clicked the "my son" link in the post, and might.net has a free pass forever on making me accidentally spend ten seconds scanning something irrelevant to my current interests. Fascinating story, and I hope the tenacity they showed in getting a brand-new diagnosis pays off with effective treatment:
http://matt.might.net/articles/my-sons-killer/
- Links to over $500 dollars worth of equipment on Amazon, and over $1000 overall (I guess the Marcy device isn't sold on Amazon?) but no links to any sites with good information about lifting weights.
- Recommendation of specific supplements and lifting program (including suggested numbers of reps and sets) but only a haphazard list of random exercises and no information about how to perform them.
- No discussion of how his suggested total time and set count imply very short rest periods, which isn't necessarily wrong but deserves some comment, especially for beginners who might wonder "WTF is going on?" when they try to do five sets to failure in ten minutes (that's 15-20 sets split into three sessions totaling thirty minutes per day.)
- Come to think of it, very little discussion of how beginners should work their way up to such an effort, especially since they should be much more slow and careful until they're comfortable with good form. Beginners working to failure? You'd better be very specific about what exercises you're talking about before you suggest that.
- Recommendation to use creatine with no discussion of what it does. Creatine does not in itself make you stronger, but it makes it possible for you to sustain a harder pace for a longer time in your workouts. Even if you're experienced in the gym, you have to be careful about overuse injuries when you start using creatine, because the sudden ability to work harder, longer, allows you to put more strain on your connective tissue than you're used to.
- The section on safety includes nothing about safety, except, in the last sentence, a weak suggestion that a single session with a personal trainer might be helpful. No warning that many personal trainers know little about weights. No tips on how to find one who does. NO OTHER SAFETY INFORMATION. And, again, no links to better sources of information.
- Bizarre recommendation of a belt for safety, despite suggesting dumbbell exercises only and suggesting that no instruction is needed beyond a single "fix-up" session with a trainer. What the heck is a person with no instruction and a bunch of dumbbells going to do that makes a belt a good idea?
- Recommendation of working out in the morning with no mention of the possible danger of working your back within one hour of getting out of bed.
- Many links to his own articles but no links to external sources of information about weightlifting (of which there are many) except for a calorie calculator.
- Come to think of it, no acknowledgment of the people or information sources who helped him get started and influenced his choices.
- Finally, seriously, given the choice between creating all those links to equipment and supplements on Amazon and creating a decent list of suggested exercises with links to instruction on how to do them, we got the Amazon links. Odd priorities, there. Very odd.