I see a few others have pushed back on the running point also. But "Don’t run (it’s bad for your joints)", is not true.
I raced cross country and track throughout high school and college, have logged over 30,000 miles over the past 15 years, etc. So I've got some "joints in the game", and have looked into this extensively. There is no reason to think that even quite large amounts of running have a net negative long-term impact on joints (injuries are possible, but protective and strengthening effects are more common). I think that this myth persists because it is narratively seductive.
Now, what is true is that running has a fairly high incidence of various short-term soft-tissue injuries for people who are starting from a sedentary baseline - plantar fasciitis like you mentioned, shin splints, tendinopathy, etc. In some sense this is a skill issue; you just need to ramp up much slower than it feels like you have to, because the cardiovascular and muscular adaptations for running are faster than various tendon/soft tissue adaptations. If you are already athletic and active, this is less of an issue, but for those of us working modern office jobs and not working out, it very much can be (or other people will be fine).
Now, I also just want to say that running is amazing! My very best experiences in life are kids and family related, but not so far behind are some amazing experiences running. The feelings of power, freedom, fluidity, connection to and mastery of my environment, etc. etc., are really unmatched. I've also achieved my best meditative states/ego dissolution etc. while running, and it's also a great time to think and daydream.
Of course, it can suck when you first start. Absolutely dreadful. And the injury gauntlet to getting started is very real. But the payoffs might be a lot larger than you're expecting. If you do fall in love with running, it will be transformative to your health and may just become your most pleasurable hobby.
(Also love your content, including most of this article, sorry for just jumping in and commenting on the one thing I disagree with! :-) I'll try to leave a positive comment sometime.)
I've met many people who have fallen in love with running and gotten into great shape. I haven't met anyone who has fallen in love with the elliptical or regarded it as anything but a chore. I'm genuinely unsure how the utils net out when you account for actually enjoying the exercise and the induced additional exercise from this
Amazing guide. My only contribution is a recommendation for many people who aren't immediately stoked about lifting, or who have tried it in the past and bounced off:
Extremely minimal routines (think 30-60 mins per week total) are actually surprisingly viable. My best guess is that they get you closer to 50-75% of the benefits of lifting 6 days a week, rather than what you might naively expect, i.e. 0-10% of the benefits.
The only caveat is that you do have to lift quite heavy and try quite hard for that time. My intuition is that for most people who aren't currently lifting, this is the place to start.
Thank you for emphasizing this! If we could go back, we (Anne and I) would put more time into strength. It is a challenge, given my body's issues, but worth it.
I understand going by what you see, but I would push (or pull?) back on blanket "don't run." Anne (62) and I (57) have both been running since our early teen years. (We didn't know each other then. :-) It can be counter-intuitive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/19/running-knee-injuries/
This person is in no way vegan, but he does produce a vegan version of his protein powder.
At AthleneX, Jeff would be "too serious" to watch a lot of, but the way Jesse has worked into things, it is a fun and funny arc. I'm a sucker for people who can laugh at themselves, even obliquely. I'm stronger than I would be otherwise because of that channel.
Very comprehensive. One area I would strongly disagree is breathing out during the concentric phase- at least for heavy squats and deadlifts. You should hold your breath, force it down onto your abdomen and squeeze/push your abs down to create as much inter-abdominal pressure as possible. It's so important, people should be training how to do this properly.
Can you point me to some evidence supporting your statements on injury prevention and "form"? My understanding is that the current expert consensus is trending towards the idea that form has much less impact on injury rate than volume management, and my subjective impression is that "proper form" is more about what's fashionable among fitness influencers than what's supported by hard evidence (e.g. twenty years ago it was "known" that letting your knees go over your toes in a squat causes knee injuries, now it seems everyone (myself included) is doing high-bar ATG olympic-style squats with no knee issues to speak of).
You say that flaring your arms on bench is very dangerous—can you back that statement up? Lots of high-level powerlifters bench with flared arms. Granted, their technique is probably optimised for maximum weight rather than minimum injury risk, but nonetheless you'd imagine they would want to minimise injury risk all else being equal. Regardless, I haven't personally seen any good evidence that a particular arm angle causes or reduces injury risk.
You also mention deadlifting as having a "high risk of injury". I don't really think that's correct (although I know that online people regard it as basically gospel). Besides whether or not it's dangerous, what does "proper form" even mean in this context? If I listen to what fitness youtubers say, I'd probably think that any back flexion will lead to an immediate herniated disk. On the other hand, high-level powerlifters (again) do tend to round their upper backs while deadlifting. (and powerlifting has a very low injury rate for a competitive sport!) There's even a movement picking up steam at the moment that advocates for intentionally incorporating round-back deadlifting, as a way to strengthen the back.
Also—is there any evidence for 1RM attempts being particularly dangerous? My understanding is that heavy singles (and doubles and triples) are actually extremely important for building strength, so I would not want to avoid them. In my personal experience, also, a 10-rep max is much more fatiguing and likely to tweak something than a 1rm test.
Anyways, this comment has gotten too long. I think the post has a lot of good, common-sense advice, but I do get a little annoyed when people talk about "form" being crucial for lifting. I think that because it sounds sensible people don't interrogate it as an idea, but there is no widely-accepted definition of "good form", and I am not aware of much good evidence that one particular "form" has a lower injury rate than another. Focusing on "form" has the effect of scaring people away from the gym, which is a shame since lifting has one of the lowest injury rates of any form of exercise.
I like this comment, in part or largely because of this mantra that I repeated endlessly that you can't get injured if you lift with good form. You absolutely can, people get injured form overuse all the time, often exacerbated by imbalances and immobility.
A notable exception is your lower back position in anything that puts a lot of shearing force there. IE keep your lower back straight when you squat and deadlift. You can really mess yourself pushing yourself with your lumbar region really flexed. After that I suspect a lot of the finer details don't make too much difference, like if I have my weight on my heels versus on three points of the foot when I am squatting. I am sure it makes much less difference still when I am using machines.
I have to admit on form I was going off of basically all the advice I've received from other people in the gym + a trainer + fitness forms + YouTube. Didn't think about actually looking into the data on that one. I'll have to investigate this more, thank you for the detailed reply! Will circle back when I have time.
If you can do the same amount of reps for your first and last set, then you didn't go hard enough on the first one. It shouldn't really be 4x6, but more like first set 6 reps, second & third 5 reps, last 4 reps.
I see a few others have pushed back on the running point also. But "Don’t run (it’s bad for your joints)", is not true.
I raced cross country and track throughout high school and college, have logged over 30,000 miles over the past 15 years, etc. So I've got some "joints in the game", and have looked into this extensively. There is no reason to think that even quite large amounts of running have a net negative long-term impact on joints (injuries are possible, but protective and strengthening effects are more common). I think that this myth persists because it is narratively seductive.
Now, what is true is that running has a fairly high incidence of various short-term soft-tissue injuries for people who are starting from a sedentary baseline - plantar fasciitis like you mentioned, shin splints, tendinopathy, etc. In some sense this is a skill issue; you just need to ramp up much slower than it feels like you have to, because the cardiovascular and muscular adaptations for running are faster than various tendon/soft tissue adaptations. If you are already athletic and active, this is less of an issue, but for those of us working modern office jobs and not working out, it very much can be (or other people will be fine).
Now, I also just want to say that running is amazing! My very best experiences in life are kids and family related, but not so far behind are some amazing experiences running. The feelings of power, freedom, fluidity, connection to and mastery of my environment, etc. etc., are really unmatched. I've also achieved my best meditative states/ego dissolution etc. while running, and it's also a great time to think and daydream.
Of course, it can suck when you first start. Absolutely dreadful. And the injury gauntlet to getting started is very real. But the payoffs might be a lot larger than you're expecting. If you do fall in love with running, it will be transformative to your health and may just become your most pleasurable hobby.
(Also love your content, including most of this article, sorry for just jumping in and commenting on the one thing I disagree with! :-) I'll try to leave a positive comment sometime.)
No this was all very thoughtful and so interesting! Thank you!
I've met many people who have fallen in love with running and gotten into great shape. I haven't met anyone who has fallen in love with the elliptical or regarded it as anything but a chore. I'm genuinely unsure how the utils net out when you account for actually enjoying the exercise and the induced additional exercise from this
Amazing guide. My only contribution is a recommendation for many people who aren't immediately stoked about lifting, or who have tried it in the past and bounced off:
Extremely minimal routines (think 30-60 mins per week total) are actually surprisingly viable. My best guess is that they get you closer to 50-75% of the benefits of lifting 6 days a week, rather than what you might naively expect, i.e. 0-10% of the benefits.
The only caveat is that you do have to lift quite heavy and try quite hard for that time. My intuition is that for most people who aren't currently lifting, this is the place to start.
More here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc4OtzAnVMI
Thank you for emphasizing this! If we could go back, we (Anne and I) would put more time into strength. It is a challenge, given my body's issues, but worth it.
I understand going by what you see, but I would push (or pull?) back on blanket "don't run." Anne (62) and I (57) have both been running since our early teen years. (We didn't know each other then. :-) It can be counter-intuitive. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2022/10/19/running-knee-injuries/
This person is in no way vegan, but he does produce a vegan version of his protein powder.
https://www.youtube.com/@athleanx
Lots of great, sober content there.
Take care.
Yeah I might remove the running point, getting a lot of good pushback. AthleanX is really funny, enjoy his content a lot.
At AthleneX, Jeff would be "too serious" to watch a lot of, but the way Jesse has worked into things, it is a fun and funny arc. I'm a sucker for people who can laugh at themselves, even obliquely. I'm stronger than I would be otherwise because of that channel.
Take care.
Very comprehensive. One area I would strongly disagree is breathing out during the concentric phase- at least for heavy squats and deadlifts. You should hold your breath, force it down onto your abdomen and squeeze/push your abs down to create as much inter-abdominal pressure as possible. It's so important, people should be training how to do this properly.
Can you point me to some evidence supporting your statements on injury prevention and "form"? My understanding is that the current expert consensus is trending towards the idea that form has much less impact on injury rate than volume management, and my subjective impression is that "proper form" is more about what's fashionable among fitness influencers than what's supported by hard evidence (e.g. twenty years ago it was "known" that letting your knees go over your toes in a squat causes knee injuries, now it seems everyone (myself included) is doing high-bar ATG olympic-style squats with no knee issues to speak of).
You say that flaring your arms on bench is very dangerous—can you back that statement up? Lots of high-level powerlifters bench with flared arms. Granted, their technique is probably optimised for maximum weight rather than minimum injury risk, but nonetheless you'd imagine they would want to minimise injury risk all else being equal. Regardless, I haven't personally seen any good evidence that a particular arm angle causes or reduces injury risk.
You also mention deadlifting as having a "high risk of injury". I don't really think that's correct (although I know that online people regard it as basically gospel). Besides whether or not it's dangerous, what does "proper form" even mean in this context? If I listen to what fitness youtubers say, I'd probably think that any back flexion will lead to an immediate herniated disk. On the other hand, high-level powerlifters (again) do tend to round their upper backs while deadlifting. (and powerlifting has a very low injury rate for a competitive sport!) There's even a movement picking up steam at the moment that advocates for intentionally incorporating round-back deadlifting, as a way to strengthen the back.
Also—is there any evidence for 1RM attempts being particularly dangerous? My understanding is that heavy singles (and doubles and triples) are actually extremely important for building strength, so I would not want to avoid them. In my personal experience, also, a 10-rep max is much more fatiguing and likely to tweak something than a 1rm test.
Anyways, this comment has gotten too long. I think the post has a lot of good, common-sense advice, but I do get a little annoyed when people talk about "form" being crucial for lifting. I think that because it sounds sensible people don't interrogate it as an idea, but there is no widely-accepted definition of "good form", and I am not aware of much good evidence that one particular "form" has a lower injury rate than another. Focusing on "form" has the effect of scaring people away from the gym, which is a shame since lifting has one of the lowest injury rates of any form of exercise.
I like this comment, in part or largely because of this mantra that I repeated endlessly that you can't get injured if you lift with good form. You absolutely can, people get injured form overuse all the time, often exacerbated by imbalances and immobility.
A notable exception is your lower back position in anything that puts a lot of shearing force there. IE keep your lower back straight when you squat and deadlift. You can really mess yourself pushing yourself with your lumbar region really flexed. After that I suspect a lot of the finer details don't make too much difference, like if I have my weight on my heels versus on three points of the foot when I am squatting. I am sure it makes much less difference still when I am using machines.
I have to admit on form I was going off of basically all the advice I've received from other people in the gym + a trainer + fitness forms + YouTube. Didn't think about actually looking into the data on that one. I'll have to investigate this more, thank you for the detailed reply! Will circle back when I have time.
If you can do the same amount of reps for your first and last set, then you didn't go hard enough on the first one. It shouldn't really be 4x6, but more like first set 6 reps, second & third 5 reps, last 4 reps.