Hacking strength: Gaining muscle with least resistance

Some of this is terrible advice.<p>You want strength, you do high weight, low rep sets of compound barbell lifts.<p>Dumbbells are a body-building tool, not a strength building one.<p>Press machines are horrid horrid horrid. At best they don't target the important stabilizing muscles that compound lifts are supposed to. At worst they can pull your movements into unnatural ranges of motion, causing lasting damage to your joints.<p>If you have no one to spot you, buy a power rack. It'll work out cheaper, and you'll be better off.<p>Honestly though, the best way to get in shape is not to MAKE yourself exercise, it's to find something that you ENJOY and do that. Judo, BJJ, boxing, squash, tennis, football, badminton... join a sports club, have fun, and you won't even notice yourself getting fitter.

I've plugged this here before, but so what: <a href="http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-training-program" rel="nofollow">http://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5-beginner-strength-tra...</a>.<p>The key observation here is that your average person doesn't need a particularly sophisticated routine to get "average in shape" (if that makes sense). I think the conventional wisdom that you need to be eating health food all the time and running an hour a day makes people feel like it's just not worth the effort. If you're like most people and not even getting 7-8 hours of sleep, an hour a day of working out isn't in the cards. But: "eat lots of protein and work out 3x30 minutes a week" is so much more approachable.

A lot of what he advocates still displays that he's largely a novice, just one with more knowledge than your average programmer. But still a novice.<p>Research (I'm not finding the studies, sorry) has indeed shown that protein intake is minimally correlated to muscle growth. He was on the mark by mentioning that only certain amounts of protein can be used in one setting, while the rest is wasted by the body. It's not one hard and fast number; individuals bodies vary greatly according to metabolic rates, capacity to grow, and ability to gain strength.<p>After going from zero resistance training to 90 minutes a week, as was his case, anybody is obviously going to get much stronger. In the strength community these are just referred to as beginner gains.<p>When you've been lifting for a few years, 90 minutes of strenuous resistance training a week is only going to help you maintain your current body, at best, even at maximal resistance levels and training until failure. This is why it's so common to see guys who go to the same gym for years and never look any different. Over time, your body acclimates and it takes more resistance AND more volume to continue growing. Genetics and the aforementioned variability between individuals does play a large difference, but for nearly anyone, doing three 30 minute workouts a week (at maximum intensity) for more than a couple years won't result in any noticeable difference.<p>If you're focusing time efficiency, go for it, else there are far more reputable sources for how to gain strength and muscle mass than one guy's anecdote of how he did half a year of strength training.

You can quibble with some of his techniques or equipment. I found that they weren't objectionable and not far from what I've put together over the years.<p>The main takeaway from the whole article is to minimize the difficulty in getting your workout done. Easy equipment to setup, adjust, and maintain in a convenient environment are critical factors.<p>I set up a DVR with some news/interest shows that record for me every day. I used to sit on my butt in the evenings and watch them. At some point, I figured... why am I not lifting weights while I watch these shows? A few trips to the sporting goods store later, and I was rocking and rolling.<p>My favorite pieces of equipment:<p>1. A good, versatile bench. 2. A bar for pullups (with some extra weights that I hook my feet under for extra resistance) 3. My dumbells 4. A multi-angle-grip curl bar.<p>With minimal equipment and an entertaining setup, working out can be easy to accomplish without feeling like you have to drag your ass to the gym for interminable hours every week.

My problem is I just do not enjoy exercise. I grant that some level of exercise is probably healthy, but I just don't enjoy it. At all. Not long ago I made myself run 3 or 4 days a week, for about 4 months. I did build up my ability to go longer distances but it never made me feel any better. After running I never felt energized or more productive; I felt tired and wanted to go to bed. I had similar experiences with strength training, tennis, raquetball, cycling... I don't think you can form a habit out of something if you don't enjoy it. You can keep doing it out of sheer willpower, but it will never become a habit.

Just my 2c here as a national level powerlifter -<p>This article is terrible. If you want to get fit/strong/whatever your goal, just do it properly. Go to a gym, go and run, whatever. This is an awful article. The general theme is good, and there is some good info in there, but I wouldn't expect much result or progress from it.

Nice classy article, HN.<p>- 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.<p>- 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.<p>- 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.)<p>- 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 <i>very</i> specific about what exercises you're talking about before you suggest that.<p>- 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.<p>- 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.<p>- 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?<p>- 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.<p>- 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.<p>- Come to think of it, no acknowledgment of the people or information sources who helped him get started and influenced his choices.<p>- 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.

I don't disagree with the overal theme of the article, but I have to disagree on some particulars. Some thoughts:<p>&#62;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>&#62;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>&#62; 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>&#62;Safety<p>&#62;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>&#62; 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>&#62;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>

It looks like "least resistance" here means, "I don't want to have to go to the gym, so I bought equipment so I could exercise at home." No shit, Sherlock.<p>You don't need much equipment to get a good workout at home. Most of the machines at the gym are for isolation exercises. They serve three purposes: they help sell memberships, they're useful if you're injured, and they're useful for serious bodybuilders. This is, I think, common knowledge.<p>But I think it bears repeating that if you have an injury, free weights might not be for you.<p>As a side note, Schwarzenegger did an AMA over on /r/fitness yesterday. He was a powerlifter before he was a bodybuilder, and his advice is simple.<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/1brg0z/im_back_ama_about_fitness/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/1brg0z/im_back_ama_...</a>

Habit is pretty much the biggest thing here. Looking at the success of P90X and others, it's all about working out REGULARLY. Everything else pretty much builds on the habit factor -- motivation through competition/ finding exercises that are fun, diet to enhance, etc.

Reads a bit like an ad for some popular products. Most equipment junkies agree that SelectTech dumbbells are the worst choice. Cheap spinlocks are better because they're sturdier, can take some abuse. Regular handles are 14" and you can get 18" handles. With Bowflex and their copycats, the dumbbells are an annoying length at any weight.<p>Ironmasters are the best dumbbells you can quickly adjust, followed by Powerblocks. They get shorter with less weight. Quick adjustment is not very important once your weights get above 50 lbs because you're taking long enough breaks to switch weights and get bored.

The blog post had some decent information but I think it was a bit scattered to me.<p>Here are the key principles to gaining muscle with the least resistance (in my opinion):<p>1. Lift heavy as possible - you'll have a difficult time stimulating lots of muscle growth with light weights which I've personally tried.<p>2. Use proper form - tons of people get injured on heavy resistance exercises because of improper form or lifting too much without a spotter.<p>3. Go to muscular failure - the final rep where you can't lift the weight no more is the most important. It contributes the most to kick starting your muscle growth mechanism.<p>4. Don't overtrain - you need to give your body ample rest and recovery for your muscles to grow the most. (Personally I'm training once every 3 days and currently this is working well for me).<p>5. Train the full body - building stronger/bigger legs will help build mass everywhere in your body. Don't think you're get strong just doing push-ups. You need to work all the major muscles in some way - quads, hamstring, glutes, calves, pecs, lats, delts, triceps, biceps, etc.<p>6. You only need to spend 25 minutes 2-3 times a week. Tip: look into High Intensity Training principles from Arthur Jones, Mentzer, Darden and others. They promoted short, intense workouts (usually one set to failure per exercise) that stimulated arguably more muscle growth than longer workouts.

This article has some good points, but doesn't explain some of the basics. If you're after a good read on fitness, try this article: <a href="http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/everything-you-know-about-fitness-is-a-lie-20120504" rel="nofollow">http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/everything-you-know-abou...</a><p>The recommended reading list at the end of that article is extremely valuable.

Buying a pressing machine is terrible advice. I'm sure it cost him hundreds or at most a few thousand. He could have gotten a set of heavier dumbbells for that money, or a barbell.<p>For the record, any lifter should know how to either dump the weight on a barbell or roll it down the chest. It isn't particularly dangerous to bench without a spotter if you're not going to failure

Can anyone recommend a good reference for dumbbells training with compound/functional movements? Something like this but with better explanations. <a href="http://www.mensfitness.com/training/build-muscle/dumbbell-workout" rel="nofollow">http://www.mensfitness.com/training/build-muscle/dumbbell-wo...</a>

If you are considering starting out with weight lifting and muscle training, get some proper instruction from an actual strength trainer, rather than a random CS prof.<p>While "hacking your body" sounds appealing to CS people (work smarter not harder!), the reality is there is no shortcut. You'll have to lift a lot of iron regularly, for a lot of time, while eating correctly, for anything serious to happen.<p>Following advice like in this post, will most likely end you up with a lighter wallet and a garage full of unused Flexotronic Bulkmaster 2000 machines and expired supplements. In worst case with a serious injury, you'll carry around for a long time.<p>Today everybody's an expert on everything, but do consider taking CS advice from a CS prof, and strength advice from a strength trainer.

Hacking things is good, but for some things, there just is no shortcut. Getting strong is not something you can hack. You need to do progressive resistance training using compound movements and consume a large amount of protein. That's it. There are different methods for achieving this, and they are not all equally good, but if you ask someone who is legitimately strong, they can point you to a proven routine.<p>If there's any "hacking" left to be done in this space, it's probably diet-related (nutrient timing techniques like intermittent fasting, carb back-loading, etc) and not workout-related.

Congratulations on your success. There so many comments here on what you <i>could</i> or <i>should</i> have done differently. I know you'll read it and maybe you'll give some of it a try. But if what you are doing works for you, then keep at it. When you stop making gains or want to switch up your program, you know what to do. Thanks for documenting all your tips and what you have learned. Keep lifting.

I followed the link to your weight loss suggestions where I learned about BMR. I don't get it. I must be a very abnormal human being. My BMR worked out to be 2660 * 1.2 = 3192 calories. But I tracked my caloric intake using MyFitnessPal for over a month and I was averaging abut 2000 calories a day and often pushing myself down as low as 1500 calories a day. Yet I barely lost a pound.

&#62; I hit 90 pounds per hand on the flat bench press (up from 25 per hand at the start).<p>I call BS unless he's tinkering with terminology. 50 lbs max bench press to 180 lbs max in 5 months is impossible.

make exercise a a habit. lift heavy objects. consume calories and protein. supplements may help.

blogspam pure and simple.

Doing basically anything will show improvement over not doing anything. Very frequently you find various fad exercises gaining momentum because of this fact - these people go from doing nothing to doing <i>something</i>, and when it does work they become huge proponents of a system that basically works solely on the fact that it's not nothing.

Finally an article relevant to Matt's website domain.

Matt Might is the new Tim Ferris. Only better :)