Archive for July, 2010

No, you didn’t. At least, you didn’t do it naturally. Even still, do you even realize how much muscle that is?

I hear this all the time from guys who subscribe to a lot of “broscience.” What is broscience? Glad you asked.

According to wikipedia:

Broscience is a derogatory term for misconceptions and ideas of questionable scientific credibility, passed around among laymen by word-of-mouth as if factually true. Most examples of broscience pertain to biology, fitness and sports, and it most often circulates in fitness, athletic and bodybuilding circles, where many people want to know how to most effectively work out but know bugger all about the actual science. In general, such beliefs rely on anecdotal evidence and gain their popularity more from how ripped the speaker happens to be than from proof or references.

The word broscience is a combination of the word science with the word bro, a slang term for “friend” often used in the social groups where such ideas circulate. It is probably a complete coincidence that broscience abbreviates to BS.

Put simply, don’t rely on simply anecdotal evidence. Everyone is different, and to think you can precisely replicate someone else’s results is foolhardy. It gets even worse when people see steroid-aided gains and think they can do the same thing naturally. It’s just not going to happen.

So, how much muscle mass did you really build? Likely, a lot less than you think. Think about the size and composition of 1 lbs of chicken breast. Now, imagine taking twenty packages of that and putting it all over your body. Gross, I know, but that gives you a rough idea of what you would look like if you gained twenty pounds of muscle. That is a huge amount of muscle.

Some guys are just never satisfied

That’s what makes the claims of people gaining 65-70 lbs even more absurd. Just think about how much extra volume that is.

The much more realistic thing to do is to strategically place one, two or even five pounds of muscle in key areas of the body. Just a one pound increase in muscle mass in your shoulders will make you look massively bigger. It’s really a huge difference in the way you look. And not only that, you will be amazed at how much stronger you will become with such a seemingly small amount of muscle mass increase.

So, how can you do this? I recommend two programs. Both Visual Impact and The Adonis Effect will teach you exactly how to build muscle to achieve  not only a great-looking physique, but one that performs well, too.

And the best part is that neither makes ridiculous promises that they can’t keep. They will get you lean and build muscle in all the right places. You don’t have to stress about you could ever lift enough weight or eat enough food to gain ridiculous amounts of muscle mass. It’s a lot simpler and easier than you think.

-Drew

Continuing my series on fitness fallacies. I hate this one. HATE HATE HATE. It’s simply not a foregone conclusion. Let’s look at why this is.

Calories Alone Don’t Build Muscle

Simply put: You can’t eat your way to big muscles. You have to do resistance training. Otherwise, you could simply eat eat as much as you wanted, and your muscles would grow accordingly. Since we know that muscles do not grow only as a function of diet, why would it be true that a simple decrease in calories will rob you of your muscle? Read the rest of this entry »

This one is going to be short and sweet. We’ve all heard this person, or at least heard OF them. They say that they can “eat whatever they want” and not get fat. So, you hear this and are immediately discouraged. What’s wrong with you? How can you fix it?

The simple answer is this: You’re not broken. And they’re not special, either. Their idea of “eat whatever they want” may not be the same as yours. If they’re eating whatever they want and not gaining an ounce of fat, they just don’t want to eat enough to gain weight.

It always comes down to calories in vs. calories out. They’re not hiding some super-secret metabolic trick. They’re just burning as many or more calories than they consume. So, they may just want different, lower calorie foods. Maybe they want smaller portions. Maybe they just don’t eat like a pig every single day. They might consume far more when you see them as opposed to when you don’t.

So, when you hear this, relax. Realize that a lot goes into that statement. Perceptions of “want” differ between everyone. Keep in mind that everyone has a different activity level. But they are always going to pay the energy toll eventually.

-Drew

Number 9 on my list can be a bit confusing. This is because it is often difficult to accurately measure fat loss versus other kinds of weight loss (muscle mass, lean body mass, or water weight).

Water, or fat?

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard someone say “I started this diet two days ago, and I’ve already lost 5 lbs!” Well, I sincerely doubt you lost 5 lbs of fat. That’s 17,500 calories. Extremely difficult to do in two days, even if you’re named Michael Phelps. Read the rest of this entry »

While I was on my vacation, I had a lot of little things that were nagging at me. So, I decided to make one of those infamous Top 10 lists. This is pretty much going to be about things that I hate or some common misconceptions.

#10

Working out while hot doesn’t help you burn fat!

Read the rest of this entry »

Following up on my previous post regarding my barefoot running adventures, Jason Robillard asked if I would review his book, “The Barefoot Running Book.” If you are curious about barefoot or minimalist running, this is, without a doubt, the book for you.

And I’m not just saying that. I received the book a few weeks ago, but wanted to put it through its paces myself before recommending it to my readers. And let me tell you this — it does not disappoint. Read the rest of this entry »