Perceptions

Training Bodybuilding
1

G’day!

I don’t post too often mainly because what I’ve got to say gets said by someone (or many someone?s) well before I can hit reply! This time is probably no different but here goes anyway!

LIFE STORY ALERT!

I am FFB who developed an eating disorder that nearly cost me everything. I was always a fat kid but by the time I was 20 I was 120kg with a skyrocketing BP. Then like magic (absolutely no training or dieting) it started to drop off.

Now it was probably what is referred to as puppy fat. Maybe change in metabolism or some such. But anyway this sparked a new lifestyle. I started to care more and more about looking lean. I joined a gym and read everything I could get my hands on and of course, I found this site.

This is where I think the “perception” comment made early makes the most sense for me. I became so obsessed with dieting. Every piece of info was more exiting/confusing than the next. I think I was taking the totally wrong message from everything I read. I almost stopped eating! I dropped down under 65kg and some pretty serious depression set in. At my lowest I crushed my thumb with a dumbbell during a 2-hour workout while on a 900-calorie (almost zero carb) diet. What a fucking dunce right?

What I am trying to get at (not very quickly!) is that while there is a lot of “paralysis by analysis” when it comes to fitness information. There are some (ME!) that will take everything they read mix it up in their head, apply a formula that sounds right, add the square route of the equation that some dude said once and guess what?
FUCK IT ALL UP. While I am probably the worst-case scenario I am sure I am not alone.

I am in NO way blaming this site. This site has inspired me to pursue a life in the fitness industry. I am currently 85kg at I don?t give a fuck body fat %!
I lift whenever I can and eat what I know makes me feel good, not what tastes good and definitely not because its low in calories.

My only suggestion is that this site publishes more ?common sense? articles. I believe that in this lifestyle it isn?t that fucking common!

Sorry if this was way too long winded!

BOW out!

2

In one of my past incarnations I did a lot of professional dog training, all kinds, obedience, drug and munitions detection, perpetrator tracking and apprehension, area guard work, home protection and even some tricks and agility.

There’s a saying in that world. “The only thing any two trainers ever agree on is what a third trainer is wrong about”.

I knew guys with very different approaches to the same excercises who got very good results. To a somewhat lesser degree you see the same thing in this game. Maybe not even to a somewhat lesser degree.

The rationalistic certainty that appears to be all over those scientific papers rarely seems to produce the same rationalistic results in the mirror or under the weights. There is science and lots of it, but I think the people who legitimately know the most realize how little we yet know in a lot of areas.

It’s trial and error bro. The studies are useful, but you’ll land yourself in an institution doing nifty finger paintings if it’s not kept in perspective. This isn’t likely to get a lot better while the two of us are still training. There’s my overanalytical view of overanalysis.

–Tiribulus->

3

Very well said mate!

Thanks for the reply.

Bow.

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But the demographic for this site is not really for the ‘normal’ gym goer, its not geared towards them.

If people want a dumbed down, over simplified, no thought needed, version of this site, there are plenty out there don’t you think? I can think of a few.

I for one appreciate the scientific approch taken on this site. Afterall what do you think you are doing in the gym other than a scientific experiment staring the guinea pig, yourself.

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[quote]jbodzin wrote:
But the demographic for this site is not really for the ‘normal’ gym goer, its not geared towards them.

If people want a dumbed down, over simplified, no thought needed, version of this site, there are plenty out there don’t you think? I can think of a few.

I for one appreciate the scientific approch taken on this site. Afterall what do you think you are doing in the gym other than a scientific experiment staring the guinea pig, yourself.[/quote]

I didn’t take him as saying there was anything wrong with this site, but more that he let himself become overwhelmed with the information and wound up going in too many directions at once and thereby nowhere.

I certainly wouldn’t have it any other way. You just have to understand that, like so many other things, nobody has a mathmatically certain equation that works for everybody the same way. There are obviously univerally true principles, but the many particulars are, as you’ve quite rightly said, an experiment that everybody has to conduct on themselves.

The tedious part is when you try something new, whether it be nutritionally or training wise and it works better than what you’ve been doing and you wonder how much further toward your goals you’d be if you’d just done this in the first place. But, wait!!!

If that worked better who knows if that new article you just read will work even better. If so you could be missing out on gains(or fat loss, whatever). However, what if, horror of horrors, it doesn’t? Then we’ve set ourselves back however much time we “wasted” when we alredady had something that was working well and round and round it goes. That’s just the nature of the game. Not good or bad, at our presently limited level of universally true knowledge there is no other way.

You just have to keep in mind that you’re on the right track overall and not drive yourself nuts trying to figure out the all upside, no downside panacea that doen’t exist.

–Tiribulus->

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Very true Trib.

If I knew back in H.S. what I know now about training, could be a whole diffrent story for sure.

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[quote]jbodzin wrote:
Very true Trib.

If I knew back in H.S. what I know now about training, could be a whole diffrent story for sure.[/quote]

Truer words never spoken. But I needed to ‘waste’ a few years mucking around to learn what worked for me. Now every workout is an excellent one.

It’s like karate, you can’t kick like a black belt on your first day. It takes years of practise.

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[quote]Sxio wrote:
jbodzin wrote:
Very true Trib.

If I knew back in H.S. what I know now about training, could be a whole diffrent story for sure.

Truer words never spoken. But I needed to ‘waste’ a few years mucking around to learn what worked for me. Now every workout is an excellent one.

It’s like karate, you can’t kick like a black belt on your first day. It takes years of practise. [/quote]

Yes, but had I known my coaches were full of crap and knew very little about strength training.

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[quote]jbodzin wrote:
Yes, but had I known my coaches were full of crap and knew very little about strength training.
[/quote]

Hahaha. Yes. My hip still hurts from my old jujutsu coach being shit.

In hindsight, the best thing to do would be to get personal training whilst educating yourself.

But I didn’t have that kind of money when I was 17.