Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
- Lao Tzu
Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
- Lao Tzu
Another 7 days are behind and it's time to sum up what we have learned. By the way, how did YOU spend them? What do you remember? What did you achieve? Write it in comments, but for now let's see what new we have learned during this time:
Day 29. The new exercise
Day 30: Sport and age<
Day 31. Why are you not losing weight?
Day 32. Why are you not gaining muscle mass?
Day 33. Why your muscles hurt after training?
Day 34. Why do people give up exercise?
Day 35. Formation of motivation
A very wise and very true saying that I have read in one of the ancient Chinese book. And the info post you will see today is not about fitness but about a philosophy of life.
Frankly saying, when I started to workout, I was like most of you. I have looked through many sites and magazines in search of information about training, exercises, techniques and all sorts of other things. My primary goal was to build the body because getting numbers in repetitions is much easier than building an aesthetic physique. And even though I already knew that there is no magic secret training formula which is suitable to everyone and which immediately gives results, but, subconsciously, I still believed that somewhere among the tons of photos and videos with the exercises, including descriptions of methods and schemes, I'd find exactly what would help me to achieve the desired result.
You can easily guess the result. I didn't find anything useful. And the reason for that is basically what I was looking for something that does not exist. There is no single correct answer to the question of which set of exercises to do to develop a particular muscle. We are all different, some exercises will be good for one person, other exercises are good for another one, so when I see things online like "5 explosive training exercises for the chest muscles," I could not help a smile on my face. But these themes are popular because people enjoy getting given answers, which are much more comfortable than finding out answers by themselves. Even if these “answers” don`t work. Unfortunately, not so many people think about the effectiveness of this approach, and even fewer people tend to blame newfangled technique for the lack of results (often people blame themselves).
Just 2 examples to clarify my point:
1) We all have seen those glossy magazines about fitness, on the cover of which you can often read headlines like "Super ABS in 28 days" or "How to get big arms ready for summer". Sounds pretty tempting, doesn't it? And then you buy the magazine, look at photos of fitness trainer* that illustrate the techniques and think, well, if it worked for him, it should work for me too. Then you start to train according to this method. And you know what happens? Time flies by, but you dont get any results (or almost any)! You think, "What the hell? I do everything right. I'm doing everything the way it is written, so why nothing is happening?" You think, "Maybe I'm doing something wrong, if he had success, why I don`t!". After that you again go to the Internet and local shop searching for more articles and magazines and given answers! A vicious circle, in fact, because that way you're not trying to find a reason to understand the situation and see what happens. Instead, you try to use suggested answers (more often you pay for them) in search of a suitable solution. You're trying to repeat after someone, instead of trying to understand and move independently.
Let's leave aside that the man on the picture makes his living by working out and posing to fitness magazines, as well as the photographer earns his money for good (!) images, and retoucher who edits pictures (!), earns money for a good retouch and etc.
2) To understand the difference between understanding and simple repetition I offer you to play the following game. Below I will write a 15-digit number and I will give you 15 seconds, so you remember it. 1 second for each sign, it`s not difficult. Then turn away from the computer and try to write it from memory on paper. Are you ready?
581321345589144
Well, tell me honestly, did you get it? Surely the issue is not the most trivial, right? Not really. Of course, to remember up to 15 characters in 15 seconds and then repeat them is not a simple matter, but the question is - do you really need to remember them?
In fact, you did not have to, because this 15-digit number is a variation of the number of the Fibonacci sequence (google it
), so you only have to remember the rule by which it is build and to remember the first two digits and the quantity of digits in the number. It's musch easier:5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144
But also you must see sequence in this number. And that is what I want so say…
One of the key ideas of “<url="http://workout.su/100DW">100 Days WorkOut</url>” is to give you an understanding of how your body works and how to make it work better. I try to provide you with the minimum of ready answers and with the maximum information for your consideration. I want you to be able to create your own training routines and proper nutrition by yourself at the end of these 100 days!
Today it is the 36th day of our BASIC block, which means that very soon it will end
At the beginning of the ADVANCED block I will try to explain all the exercises we use as simple as possible in terms of biomechanics and the load on the muscles and explain to you how and what you need to do to use various muscles. Based on that knowledge, after the program you will be able to make training schemes and choose exercises that will be meet your objectives pretty easily!<url="http://workout.su/100DW">100 Days WorkOut - Contents</url>
P.S. I remember my fresh year at my university (Higher School of Economics) and that it was difficult for me to understand Microeconomics. Then I was just trying to remember and repeat all the things and formulas that we were taught. It was not the best strategy, I can tell you, because our memory doesn`t always work the way you want, and if you forget something, you immediately begin to lose ground. Now it seems very funny, because at the end of my education, I've had an excellent understanding of the essence of Microeconomics and therefore all those formulas which previously seemed to be so complicated, now became simple and obvious. And if I forgot something, I could deduced it from some prerequisites (another priveledge of sciences with mathematical tools!). So once again my advice to you is to try to understand what you are doing, not simply repeat after someone!
P.P.S. Excellent video on the subject of how to make the "before" and "after" pictures in magazines and on the Internet:
09.04.2015 07:58
I will do what you won't today,
So I can do what you can't tomorrow.
So I can do what you can't tomorrow.
10.04.2015 08:00
I will do what you won't today,
So I can do what you can't tomorrow.
So I can do what you can't tomorrow.