Beard of the Day
Thanks to Stuart C. for the vid, who says it should be the 70’s Big theme
What have you…
I was listening to Colin Cowherd on ESPN Radio today, and he was addressing two things; that he was allegedly a contrarian, and that Mike Vick is an NFL MVP candidate. Cowherd is in his mid 40s and explained that our society is more “knee-jerk” for a variety of reasons (knee-jerk meaning we respond intensely to things immediately and change our minds collectively). We are a nation of young people; young adults have grown up in the technology era playing videogames, experiencing the boom of the internet, and now we’re in the “social media” age. Information can virally spread within minutes across the globe with Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Our attention spans are much shorter and our actions are hasty. I know that I run out of things to look at on the internet quickly because I navigate it so fast. I type and click like the wind (it’s necessary for StarCraft).
Cowherd blamed this societal development for the knee-jerk reaction of campaigns flaring up for Vick as the Most Valuable Player in the NFL when he is 19th in the league in passing touchdowns, has only played in 6 of 9 games (and only played in half of one of those games), and his best stats come against mid-level or struggling teams (Redskins are strugglin’ like Brent trying to flex his biceps). The Vick argument aside, Cowherd has a point. There are knee-jerk reactions to everything. If you’ve looked in a “Muscle and Fitness” (or Fiction, as Kilgore likes to say) magazine, it is FILLED with one-time studies and over-generalizations. A study will show that something may be vaguely correlated, and those experts will immediately implement it into their advice (and may even draw up a 15 page article complete with 87 pictures of shaved dudes working out and flexing all the muscles that aren’t involved in the movement). M&F isn’t the only magazine that does this; any major magazine that has any kind of health section will list one research study (without even discussing whether it was a good study to begin with) and generalizing the results. And the general public reads this shit and Eats. It. Up. (to clarify: they don’t actually eat shit).
This is part of the reason why the fitness industry seems like it isn’t salvageable. So much crap has been fed to the layman for 30+ years, it’s hard to say that everyone should know better. The only constant among any of this is that progressive overload training with weights yields strength and muscle while intensity is a must for quality conditioning. Those ideals existed long before the aerobics hysteria and they continue their action today behind the scenes. Relevant research that supports the fundamental ideals is kinda shady since the industry as a whole is what drives research (and funding). It will be even harder to dig the layman out of the shit pile that they find themselves wallowing in. But I will continue wielding the shovel, gently displacing piles of poo until so that I can lead them from their cave of shadows (I wish I didn’t have to link my references although I didn’t link the “Of Mice and Men” reference yesterday).
Two things have to be in effect for the truth to sprout. First, the community that “gets it” — and understands how proper fitness works — shouldn’t look down on the unknowing. Plato couldn’t just bust in the cave and say, “Yo my peoples, yous have been checkin’ out da shadows your whole life, and yous is a bit thick,” (apparently Plato talks like Ali G). Instead we will respectfully lead them in the right direction by teaching them how it can benefit them. We aren’t going to scare them into believing (cough — religion, cough, cough) or coerce them into doing it (cough — tyranny, cough, cough). Secondly, we have to be more scientific about mainstream reporting on research studies that allegedly change medicine, exercise, or health. Find the original studies, determine whether or not it was a good study, and see if it can be generalizable to an entire population. Most often it can’t be — imagine trying to say that something applies to everyone in a world where a gothic teen is the same species as an NFL offensive lineman. Keep a clear head in spite of new fangled research, diets, and training methods. Maintain a commitment to the things that work over and over again, yet keep your mind open in light of development. Ask questions and learn all you can. It won’t make you popular (every time I ask questions at a workshop or seminar, people get angry and have even written nasty things on the internet about it), but it will help you learn.
Helping you learn is all I care about.
When I look back on all of the wasted years in the gym where I never made real progress and never got strong, it makes me cringe. I envy every one of the twentysomething men and women who read and post here the two decades you have to improve, decades that I pissed away without realizing I was doing it.
That said, I’ll be damned if I don’t use the decades in front of me to get strong as hell, and I’m going to make sure I do my best to keep the kids around me from making the same mistake.
That video is Awesome.
Also, the whole “Vick for MVP” argument is silly anyway. MVP has never, and will never, mean the true “Most Valuable Player.” 90% of the time, it means “Most Impressive Quarterback/Running Back” to watch (in which case Vick is in the lead). Only two defensive players have received the award, and only one defensive lineman – and no offensive lineman. There are many teams out there that simply can’t exist without their left tackles or centers, for example.
So the real problem here is that our society is too attracted to “pretty things,” and not the REAL reasons behind them. Flash and shiny things are as deep as most people care to think. Yes, attention spans are shorter, but even worse, they’re aimed at dumb shit most of the time.
/rant
I 2nd what DaveN said. I spent a good 2 years back in college just spinning my wheels and not really getting anywhere strength-wise and just gave up on it until about 2.5 years ago. I only wish I had known back then what I know now.
I’m not the kind of guy to offer unsolicited advice to people I see in the gym, but when people ask I make sure to try to point them toward the sources I trust.
I just sent that video to my second mum. We’ll see how he reacts.
I’m so ashamed to be a Redskins fan. I was at that game and it was just devestating to watch. My seats were right below the press box. Sonny Jergenson and Larry Michaels pulled out depression cigars at half time. Michael Vick was very, very impressive, and the Redskins aren’t all that terrible, they’re just stacked with mediocre players. Still, he’s definitely not the MVP. No one is the MVP until they prove they can last a whole season and actually be valuable to the team. When the Redskins injured his ass last month I thought the Eagles should have done to him what he did to all those dogs: since he couldn’t compete next week, they should have taken him out back and put him out of his mysery.
I’m another guy who wasted his high school and college years reading Men’s Health (the absolute king of gross generalizations based on single studies with small sample sizes) and doing bullshit circuit training and being afraid to increase the weights. Then a few months into my 22nd year I’d gotten frustrated and out of the blue googled “how to get strong” and came accross stronglifts, then Rippetoe, then 70s Big. It was pure luck. It shouldn’t be that way. But thanks to guys like Justin, Gant, Rippetoe, Medhi, etc., knowledge of real training is definitely spreading. I see more guys in my globo gym (up to around 3 or 4) doing 5-rep range barbell training all the time. This could eventually be a problem because I can’t imagine the gym ever buying more squat racks.
I watched “the Biggest Loser” last night. That show is the epitome of all that is wrong with the mainstream view of health and fitness. Jullian Michaels actually does have some good advice and doesn’t always follow the standards “fat is bad” FDA type guidelines, and she encourages people to go all out. So does, “Bob” but he is an incredibly weak man who makes the contestants do ridiculous exercises like swiss ball biceps curls. Stuff that they’ll never stick with outside of the show. The product placements for “health” foods like flavored yogurt are egregious. More importantly, I’ve never seen anyone on that show do a squat. Maybe this is because the goal of the show is to lose poundage, not necessarily to get fit and improve body composition, so the last thing the contestants want to do is risk gaining some muscle. But so many lardasses out there watch that show looking for ideas of how to improve their health and fitness. It’s no wonder everyone is bewildered, even though there’s only a few rules: Eat enough real food. Train hard with compound movements using barbells. Progressively increase the weight. Don’t forget to sleep.
Well, yeah, I don’t really have any kind words regarding someone’s health habits when they are obese. If they decide that it’s time to do something about it, then I will do anything I can to help. I say that because while they may be a “lard-ass”, they still can turn it around. They aren’t in obesity jail yet. It may be irritating having to deal certain types of fat people, I don’t want this to ever be a fat bashing arena. Unless it’s a witty joke (see next comment and response).
–Justin
You know, I’ve only been reading this blog for a few months, but I never thought I would see the same old anti-religious crap that I see all over the internet on this blog. I thought you guys were about good, solid training advice and a good laugh now and then. To see this kind of unintelligent crap put on here is just depressing. I mean, I expect it in places like youtube, but here? I guess that just goes to show that no matter where you go on the internet, you’re going to find the same tired old (unintelligent) anti-religious junk. Thanks for the good things you have written on here, but if this kind of uniformed bigotry is the norm, I guess I really have no reason to keep reading.
Within my circle of friends, and even the relationship with my girlfriend, we have something called humility. We make jokes all the time, and some of those jokes are at the expense of one of the people in the group, yet the target exhibits humility in how they receive them. I’m not sorry at all that I wrote it because I expect everyone else in the world to be able to exhibit humility (especially when reading something on the internet), and if you’re offended then you should re-evaluate why you’re having a knee-jerk reaction.
–Justin
The problem is people don’t choose to believe something because they think it’s true. They believe what is socially acceptable, what is expected of a person of their station. They see a certain position as gauche, as questionable because “Who does that?!.” Everyone they know disagrees, so you must be not only wrong, but a weirdo.
A few people want the truth, but for most, what’s socially acceptable is paramount.
The most effective way to promote real strength training would be to have the cool people celebrate it. Have a number of celebrities sing its praises to the media. I don’t give two sh*** about what celebrities do, but that’s what it takes. When people see powerlifting exercises, they think “OMG I don’t want to look like a huge ugly dude.” Like anything else, if it were associated with the cool crowd, it’d get more traction.
All that aside, most guys would rather look like David, lithe, hairless and gracile than Laocoon, strong, masculine, defiant. (Laocoon: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Laocoon_Pio-Clementino_Inv1059-1064-1067.jpg – strong beard of the day candidate) David is considered a paragon of beauty, Laocoon and others like him are not.
And as Cowherd alludes to, we are in a state of perpetual adolescence. Septuagenarians listen to nothing but the music of their teens. Baby boomers on down desperately avoid acting their age. Not many men today aim to look 40 at 20 like Pisarenko. The countenance of a warrior counts for little nowadays.
PS: Fashion is going in, I daresay, a Big direction. Slightly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/fashion/17MANLY.html
at Charles -> Of course people wouldn’t want to look like Laocoon. Look at his piece in that picture. He’s extra white.
@ 275
correct, you have no reason, good day sir
I can’t stand new fangled diets and training techniques, why not just stick to what brought us here???
On the other hand, does anyone think the “Biggest Loser Sculpting Video” will help me tone my core?
70sBigotry. I’ll keep that in mind.
275lbs, are you being serious? One minor poke at religion and you start calling us a collection of bigots (and unintelligent, at that)? If you don’t think there are organized religions out there that use scare tactics, then you are smoking crack.
@275
Relax man… seriously.
You don’t have to agree with a 100% of the things said here to get value from it. Just like everything else, you take the good with the bad. In this particular case, for you the good is your opinion on religion and the bad is Justin’s opinion.
At the end of the day you have to remember that the weights don’t care about your religion. That’s your bag… something that brings comfort to you. To steal a couple lines from Henry Rollins , “The iron never lies to you… The iron will always kick you the real deal.”
I stand by what I said. It’s ironic that I’m called a bigot when my whole point of bringing it up is to not be bigoted towards people who don’t know any better regarding fitness.
–Justin
JMOvechkin, I’m pretty sure that video is over 10 minutes long. I’d stick to 5 minute abs if I were you. http://www.fitnessmxxxxx.com/workout/abs/express/5-minute-core-workout-strong-abs-and-back/
Link modified so nobody actually clicks it and gives that website hits, from this website no less. Silly Jacob.
–Justin
Insightful post, surprised to see such a reaction.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but bigotry is “stubborn and complete intolerance of any creed, belief, or opinion that differs from one’s own.” (dictionary.com)
275lbs, I don’t see any bigotry in the post. In fact, your immediate dismissal of an opposing viewpoint on religion could likely be construed as more bigoted than the post.
Just my two cents.
@275lbs
The majority of the site’s readers are berated with the status of ‘not yet an adult male’ due to their weight under 200. Is this bigotry too, or does it not bother you since you’re 34kg over the cutoff?
It’s a form of weightism (heightism for the shorter folks who wouldn’t be 200 even at their best development). Now here’s the difference, those thousands of readers see it as a light hearted way to make a point (that gaining weight makes you stronger) instead of a serious decree of hatred towards humans 199.9 and under.
So relax a little and read the site content for the main points of the post and not scan and blow up at the minutest bias of the writers.
@Justin…yeah I shouldn’t have used the term lardass. Sorry about that. Saying things like that can turn people off who might otherwise consider what I’m trying to say. My point was that a lot of people watching that show (like the girl who eventually made it on the show and got voted off last night) do so in the hope of getting motivation and ideas for improving their fitness. I take issue with the show basically showing people that they’ve got to do these incredible complicated exercises in order to get healthy, and should buy health “food” instead of “real food that grandma would recognize.” If I hadn’t exercised in years and was upset about my health situation, it would be very discouraging to watch a show that makes it seem like you’ve got to have super complicated equipment and movements in order to improve fitness. Then again, it’s one of the most popular shows, so they’re obviously doing something right from their perspective.
@275…really random.
@Justin and his minions:
It’s quite clear from the text that you were not joking about your offhand comment. Is forcing people to follow your form of exercise akin to tyranny? It would seem so. If it is, then if your analogy is logically consistent, then you are equating inciting fear with religious action. If none of this is true, then your entire statement is nonsense. When I read, my “knee-jerk” reaction, as you put it, was to assume that you are capable of logical statements and that you had in fact written one. There is no indication of a joke. The bigotry and anti-intellectual part of this comes in when “religion” is treated as a word that can describe all world religions. This is a case of over generalization and is logically fallacious. Do some use fear? Sure. Do all? Nope.
I read a lot of training sites. When the discussion becomes political/racial/religious, I tend to reduce my reading of those sites because it becomes quite clear that the authors are not intending to focus on training and having fun, but instead are intending to use their site as some sort of soapbox. It’s sad. I like reading political sites and have a lot of respect for other views. Same with religion. What I don’t respect is offhand jackass comments that are dripping with logical fallacy.
I’m not calling anyone names or anything like that, so a lot of the “responses” I’ve received from readers sort of don’t make sense.
I do believe we’re all Brothers and Sisters, prophets of the Almighty Iron. Go forth and spread The Swole.
Please take your boo-hooing somewhere else. No comments on here are meant to attack you or your views on religion.
I ripped my pants last night.
DaveN, I’m right there with you. I spent my 30’s sitting on my ass eating cheetos. I try to tell everyone about doing the basic lifts and short, intense metcon workouts. Very few want their workouts to be difficult.
I guess I’m a godless heathen, I had to go back and reread the post to notice the Offending text.
Wait, so a religious person is considering not reading this blog anymore?
Excellent, so nothing of value will be lost.
Justin – I am glad you haven’t responded. Don’t.
You innocently made an analogy that is correct in some cases.
70sBig.com is an amazing resource.
(Minus the football chatter…its not a sport.)
The last line made me laugh.
–Justin
file this under “more reasons why russia > US”
http://www.brobible.com/story/the-115badass-publicity-stunts-of-vladimir-putin
Ha! Wow, you have a group who can really handle logic and reason. Not.
It sucks getting blasted for calling people out, but someone has to do it. Oh yeah, and he did respond, jdp. Fail.
Crossfit is a joke.
fwiw, I took the “religion” mention in the blogpost as a dig at crossfit, p90x, or any of those other exercise programs that seem to have a cultlike following.
Given the constant flow of jokes and humor on this site, I’m kind of surprised it took this long for some random internet person to get butthurt over something posted here and use that to start a Comment Crusade. :)
In other news, I had an awesome squat session tonight.
Hahaha, what a joke :) 275lbs = random. I was unaware 70s Big was now affiliated with CrossFit…
On the upside, I’ve always wanted to be a minion – awesome.
“Wow, you have a group who can really handle logic and reason. Not.”
>implying that religion isn’t the antithesis of logic and reason
Oh boy, here we go.
“JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!”
Damn you 70’s Big! Why the hell can’t the military allow beards? If only Chesty Puller had a beard…
Michael Vick has been outstanding this year. Anyone who disagrees is kidding themself. The ironic thing that not many people realize, though, is that the MVP award is not the “Most Valuable Player in the league” award…it’s the “Most Valuable Player to his team”. If this is taken into true consideration, you can’t give him the award, since Kevin Kolb is more-than-capable of being a good starter (just ask Andy Reid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVJEeVAnI4).
Plato and ALI-G, together at last.
The only thing cooler than this song is The Beards’ other song called, ‘Beards dont kill people…. people with beards kill people.’
I know this post probably wasn’t meant to go in this direction but I have to say that I dont think I’m the only person who has noticed the similarities between the commercial fitness gym huckster and workout mountebank racket and the religious mega church racket.
The real question is, what is the exercise equivalent of Ted Haggard down on his lousy knees with a gay hooker doing a line of speed and a bit of bone smoking? Richard Simmons arse to grass back squatting?
Ok fellas. Let’s not get all uppity about one joke that is posted on the site or a user who feels like this site has become some low level bashing blog.
Everybody can take a breath and let the site continue to roll. If anyone wishes to stop checking this site they can at their own will. No one is forcing anyone read 70’s Big.
Let’s all move on and show some humility here.
275lbs, you DO realize that ALL of religion is only a social construct designed to control communities through fear and disinformation?
of course there will be strong anti-religious sentiments on 70s big … that is because anyone with any sensibility would, virtually by implicit definition, be anti-religious
really, i think you are completely overreacting and just being unreasonable
you are basically saying it’s unusual for full grown adults to still believe in Santa Claus
this is good
PS religion isn’t a sport
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Brent, you’re my hero.
PS Do you need a spot?
Brent’s just upset because Asians don’t have souls.
But Starcraft is?
@Justin
Don’t link your references. If people haven’t had a well rounded education to know Plato or Steinbeck and also not knowing how to google something, they can’t be saved.
If you can click like the wind in Starcraft, your micro must be through the roof.
It’s relative. I still haven’t utilized much psi storm or EMP shots. I probably should since I have to deal with people massing one unit (I’m in Bronze).
–Justin
Regarding Brent’s soul…who needs a soul when you have traps like Brent’s
Brent,
http://www.chaobell.net/newgallery/d/2736-1/internetfistbump.png
I converted to old school training this year via Cross Fit. Prior to that it was a bunch of near useless Men’s Fitness/Muscle and Fitness nonsense. Lots of leg extensions, leg curls, concentration curls, triceps push downs and when I got really crazy some leg presses…nary a squat or dead lift ever.
I realized from trying Cross Fit that I needed to get stronger so via Rip’s association with Cross Fit stumbled into Starting Strength and never looked back.
I try to convert my friends, but it is tough to break through all the nonsense that has been drilled into their heads.
Keep up the good work!
I just finished your post and was looking for a link to buy the Sketcher Shape-ups or Reebok Easytones. Those must work, everyone looks so fit in the commercials!
@Brent Kim- 275lbs made ignorant statements. With that said, do you really show humility by making ignorant statements of your own. Come on now.
Brent is a fierce troll. If you’re new you’ll notice it more, so don’t take him seriously.
–Justin
“Fierce troll” cracked me up. Point taken.
i rofled at all of the comments
jake, consider yourself re-fist bumped
antigen, starcraft is ABSOLUTELY a sport, and Protoss commander Justin definitely has potential of going pro in StarCraft 2 and making 50k a year in Korea if he so chooses
boner, showing humility in the face of a religious apologetic is like losing to an “easy” AI computer in StarCraft 2, i have no further comments ooh KAY
humility isn’t a sport
For what its worth, I actually feel like proper knowledge of lifting is on the rise–as far compound, low-rep strength training is concerned.
Maybe it’s selective perception, but it seems to me I’ve seen a rapid influx of people squatting and deadlifting at the gym recently. In light of that, I occasionally head over to bodybuilding . com and Men’s Health forums and much of the recent talk has been of starting strength or bill star/mad cow.
I think the “social-media” age will only make it easier for the masses to become educated about proper training. And I think the increases in compound lifting in globo gyms (even if the form sucks,) is a testament to that.