"Folks in tech tend to think... differently. They will often think in discrete parts, rather than holistically. (This is call 'neckbearding,' and it's done by people called 'neckbeards.')"
Sorry, male startup people. Maybe targeting startup people as a niche market for non-tech non-business related services is a good marketing move. Personally, I hope to never ride my Startup Bike™ to get a Startup Latte™ followed by a trip to the Startup Gym™. I expect to consume the same bikes, lattes, and gyms as the rest of the population. :)
Yes. :) Lifestyle is one of the biggest factors into fitness regimen fit. The lifestyle of folks who work in tech/startups, especially with regards to variability, tend to be far different than your average working Joe.
My first job was a startup, and the hours weren't much different to working in an agency (where I work now). I still manage to go to the gym three days a week, and I manage to get a run in every week.
For naturally skinny "dicks" like me, I find I get the best workout and feel the healthiest when I do a mix of the tread mill with intermittent breaks of lifting and power push-ups when my legs can't take it anymore.
If you aren't making progress, than you aren't exercising "for health." This article is very enlightening: http://startingstrength.com/articles/barbell_medicine_sulliv...
Now there are only two us that ever go anymore. I am fit. They are not. It must be remembered that the routine you design is not going to run on a cpu that will execute it exactly over and over without complaint. It runs on you, which in my case is much more fickle, and needs to be indulged a bit to keep going.
-If you typically squat less than 270 pounds all the way down to parallel, do Starting Strength until you do [1].
-If you typically squat at least 270 pounds all the way down to parallel, do Madcow 5x5 [2]. I can't speak past this fitness level because this is where I am.
-Eat according to the Leangains nutrition guide to achieve massive strength gains while getting/staying lean and eating only a couple meals a day [3].
Make sure to read the Starting Strength book or watch Mark Rippetoe videos on youtube to learn proper technique (vitally important!)
[1] http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/The_Starting_Strength...
[2] http://stronglifts.com/madcow-5x5-training-programs/
[3] http://www.leangains.com/2010/04/leangains-guide.html
Disclaimer: There are obviously other programs which offer the same amount of benefit, but I don't think you'll find anything that surpasses the benefit you'll receive from these guidelines, and you certainly won't find many programs that surpass the simplicity; therefore, for the sake of not overwhelming anybody, I've only listed a small compilation of systems that really work.
Really it's somewhere between 250 and 300, but I chose 270 because 1) it's in the middle near where average-weight men would be and 2) starting strength just keep being good right up to around 300 pound squats.
It seems (to me at least) that some exercise is better than no exercise, and that more exercise (at least to an extent) is better than less exercise. It seems to me therefore, that people should find an exercise that they really enjoy (whether running, cycling, strength training, climbing, martial arts, etc) and do it. That way, they'll be doing something they enjoy and they'll do more of it.
It seems slightly disingenuous for "experts" to recommend that everyone drop everything else and just do one type of exercise as if everyone they're speaking to is exactly the same, has exactly the same goals and enjoys exactly the same stuff.
Are they targeting geeks/the HN crowd because geeks tend to favour the idea that there is one "right way" of doing something and are more likely to latch on to it?
Fitness relativism is not acceptable. It leads people to live unhealthy, and, in some cases, shorter lives.
To take two examples (these two because I am intimately familiar with them): Why should someone stop climbing or doing martial arts and start lifting barbells (by stop I mean assume said person doesn't have enough time to do both and must choose one or the other)? Both of the former seem (to me at least) really good for developing strength and, AFAICT do so in a much more realistic and natural way than lifting barbells.
However, it IS general advice. "Cardio" is loosely defined, and can be anything from steady state (takes a longish time) to intervals (can be VERY quick) and anything in between. I'd be more inclined to say if you like to do it, be it basketball or gardening or running or whatever, then do it because you'll be more likely to stick with it.
I don't really buy the lack of time argument as a reason to not do something you enjoy that has health benefits. I see the argument here though, IF you believe you lack time (which I don't think you should believe) then MVF is a good way to go, but not the only option.
If you're not particularly fit then rigorous strength training including ballistic and plyometric activities will get you out of breath, increase heart-rate, and give you a serious workout while being a lot more fun than running on the spot. (But as always, different strokes for different folks..)
Not all "cardio" is equal. I generally run 20 to 40 miles per week at 7:30/ mile pace. So my caloric burn is 120 calories per mile x 1 hour (8 miles) = 960 calories. So I could lose 1 pound of fat per 3.5 hours.
Someone walking 3mph (20 minute miles) on a treadmill would burn 300 to 360 calories in contrast. So that means they would lose 1 pound every ~10 hours. This is very doable for most people. This of course assumes they don't eat more.
Then the OP is very hand wavey about the idea that you have more muscle so your metabolic rate is so much higher. It's quite hard to build many pounds of lean muscle too!
An interesting section on individual metabolic rate differences: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate#Causes_of_...
I've never lost weight via cardio. I lost 30 lbs over 6 months without any exercise at all (too busy with school and would just forget to eat until the end of day.) 3 years later, I'm back up at the same weight. I worked out 5 days a week for 3 months (~1000 calories per day) and didn't lose any weight.
Completely anecdotal, but I think it's a good data point. I'm going to give the no cardio work out a shot.
Without seeing the actual program its very hard to make a determination if this is something that would be beneficial to do or not.
It's kind of like being asked to buy a car but you can't see it until you put down your money:)
For other programs like P90x you can atleast try it out and see if you like it.
> 40 minutes, 3 days/week.
This seems about right for a beginner program and for anyone looking to maintain their current form.
> The price is $125/month for founders and $175/month for folks with salaries.
This is just bizarre. I think the whole founder worship thing has gotten a bit out of control here. What about employee #1 :)
Regarding the discount for founders, it's more because I remember how much it sucked being broke when I started Fitocracy. :) I'd assumed it'd be easier for employee #1 just because at that point, some de-risking had probably occurred. Really wanted to do funded/non-funded, but that would've been unfairly glorifying raising money for raising's sake.
lifting = only 3 days per week*
running = all the rest, not too far (except once a week).
* someone else has mentioned Riptoe - go read that. then do that.
However, Dick and I spent the last year working 60-80+ hour weeks while our company was stationed out of a pretty big coworking space. I can tell you that in our time there, I only saw a single person out of the (what must be at least several hundreds of other people) peers sharing our space with us at the gym, where as Dick and I went at least 3x a week every week.
I also lost 60lb while working more than I've ever worked in my life (by following Dick's program) and here's the punchline: 20lb of that was the weight I gained from my last start-up job.
I think the issue is the exact mindset Dick wrote about, of having to "pay off your credit card" by going and running hours and hours after eating badly (a mindset that I still default to sometimes and have to try really hard to stop myself from doing) makes it so that people who are already insanely stressed eventually just give up and decide to go into a default instead of "paying off their card", so to speak.
P.S. There's already been some lawyers, creative agency folks, and people from big government funded organizations applying to take part in the course, I think the difference between what they saw on the page versus what you saw on the page is that they (correctly) assumed being "in tech" meant "work really long hours" to the people that wrote the page versus "do you work at a company that has an AngelList page".
If you read Starting Strength (Riptoe, mentioned many times on this thread) you'll learn about the recovery and response cycles to stress on the body. You should be regularly increasing the amount you're lifting regardless of your bodyweight (which is what you are always lifting in climbing,) in order to actually increase your strength over time.
Barbells also allow you to start with smaller weights at the beginning of the workout, and then move on to heavier sets when you're warm. AFAIK there's no way to do this with climbing.
Re: barbells not "natural" - firstly, more natural than most of the other equipment in the gym, and secondly it depends what you're doing with them. lifting them over and over, slowly is one way to use them (and builds strength), but speeding up your reps and/or performing power cleans will improve your power (literally rate-of-work) which is what is important in sports like martial arts and ball games. You can train for almost any sport with a barbell, with the right lift, rate, set lengths and intra-workout rest period.
Ok so that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the explanation.
> Barbells also allow you to start with smaller weights at the beginning of the workout, and then move on to heavier sets when you're warm. AFAIK there's no way to do this with climbing.
So with climbing in general climbing harder problems (smaller holds, further apart, more overhang, etc etc) works muscles more, and the harder you climb, the fitter and stronger you will be.