|
Almost every week I go to a different gym in the USA. True. It’s
what I do these days. ISSA strength coaches,’ performance nutritionists’
and personal fitness trainers’ certification seminars. It’s interesting
because I am getting a cross-sectional understanding of what’s going on in
USA’s Irondom that’s perhaps a bit more in-depth than most perspectives.
How many people do you know who visits DOZENS of different gyms yearly?
It’s also 1) enlightening because I learn things, and 2) frustrating
because I am constantly obliged to help so many people UN-learn
things.
Myths abound in Irondom. That it’s totally understandable
how these myths were born is not a consolation. Most of them are couched
in shallow science (but deeply enough to take root), and are somewhat
believable. I’ll get howls of outrage from many of the perpetrators of
these myths as a result of writing this article. See, they’ve said it so
many times to themselves and others that they actually BELIEVE what
they’re saying! Some have even vested their entire careers -- their very
souls -- in their errant beliefs.
The most damaging yet curiously
enduring ones come from five sources:
· The Bill Reynolds Syndrome
(a.k.a. The Magazine Editor Syndrome);
· The Big Guy Syndrome (a.k.a.
The Gym Guru Syndrome);
· The “I Feel It” Syndrome (a.k.a. The “It
Works For Me” Syndrome);
· The Denizens of the Drawing Board Syndrome
(a.k.a. The “Form, NOT Function, Stupid!” Syndrome); and
· The
Supplement Salesman Syndrome (a.k.a. The “Sell it! Sell it!”
Syndrome).
Mind you, I realize that I’m giving the industry --
Irondom -- a lot of credit by even mentioning these sources of myth. But,
as I’ve said, I have a rather in-depth view of Irondom, and believe there
to be enough Ironheads out there who’ll understand and relate to what I
say here. The rest of you? Well, you’ll no doubt go back to your social
clubs and carbo coolers, content in your current beliefs. We’ll never meet
on the platform, I assure you!
The Magazine
Editor Syndrome
Bill Reynolds --
now deceased -- was editor of Muscle & Fitness while it was still a
great magazine. He was under a lot of pressure to come up with unique
stories each month. In one month he wrote a story about biceps training.
The next time he does a biceps story, it has to have a biceps training
routine that totally different. No one wants to read the same story twice.
Even though there is one way to train your biceps -- lift the damned bar!
Bill and I were sitting in my office one day, arguing whether
there was more than one way to train biceps. See, the biceps span a hinge
joint. The elbow is capable only of flexion and extension. Regardless of
starting position or direction of movement, only unidirectional flexion is
taking place in the elbow joint. There is no way of “attacking” the biceps
from many different angles, as though it were some sort of an invading
organism being attacked by macrophages.
Bill thought differently.
Now, Bill had an advanced degree, had written 30 or so books on training,
and was an accomplished lifter in his younger years. He wasn’t stupid
about training science. So how come he thought differently? The story is
amusing.
Bill ran back to his office and came back with two photos
of Frank Zane, one from 1973 and another from 1983. “See, Fred?” Bill
implored, pointing to the gap between Zane’s biceps and forearm in the
1773 photo. “Zane had a gap there, and it’s gone in the 1983 photo!” I
looked. Bill was right. The gap was gone.
Then Bill said, “Zane
learned how to do better dumbbell curls. Now he starts with the dumbbell
behind his back, and curls it outward and then inward toward his opposite
ear while supinating his forearm.”
That’s what he said. I swear. I
kicked Bill out of my office, as further discussion was virtually
spurious. “You on drugs, Bill, or what!” I muttered. “Zane just finally
learned how to POSE in the 1983 picture!” See, Zane had twisted his fist
outward slightly in the 1983 photo, thereby elongating his biceps by
wrapping the biceps tendon of insertion around the radius bone of his
forearm. Clearly, Bill had bought into his own drivvel for the sake of
selling more magazines.
The Gym Guru
Syndrome
Picture this. A
youngster walks into a gym and notices a big guy training arms. The big
guy has massive arms. No gap either. The youngster says, “Gee Mister! How
can I get big arms like you?”
The big guy, not wishing to appear
stupid to his young admirer, and instead wishing to appear as though what
he does is more “sophisticated” than merely “lifting the damned bar,”
says, “Well kid, ya gotta eat thirty chickens a month, train only at 3:30
in the afternoons to coincide with your biorhythms and twist the bar to
your opposite ear every rep. And, NEVER do legs on the same day you do
biceps!”
The myth is born. The kid buys into the drivel, goes on to
get big guns, and passes the myth on to the next kid. He even gets a
Reynolds-mentality editor to let him ghost-write about the “science” of
arm training.
The “I Feel It! I Feel It!”
Syndrome:
So, how do I get more
“cleavage” between my pecs? How do I fill in the gap between my biceps and
the forearm? How do I get more sweep to my quads? The big guy, the
magazine editor, or someone -- it matters very little who -- says, “Ya
gotta attack the muscle from many different angles!” Gawd amighty!
“Attack?” You at war? What? Attack what!?!!?
Look folks, Your
muscles all have origins and insertions. Usually, you’ll force the muscle
to contract against a greater-than-normal resistance in such a way that
the insertion is obliged to move toward the origin. The force is
transmitted through the belly of the muscle. In other words, you’re gonna
lift the damned bar! That’s what’ll make it grow bigger and stronger.
Attacking it from angles other than this will cause NEGATIVE forces,
meaning that you’ll microtraumatize the muscle. This is a practice which
invariably leads to overtraining.
But therein lay the problem. By
microtraumatizing the muscle through application of negative forces -- by
physically applying shearing or tensile force on the tissue enough to
cause It to rupture -- you have accomplished one thing. Tissue
destruction. NOT tissue growth. The post-exercise muscle soreness you feel
the next day comes from hydroxyproline.
The
Denizens of the Drawing Board Syndrome
I’ve been in the gyms long enough to remember practically every
piece of equipment to hit the gym scene. It doesn’t matter that Arthur
Jones got his idea for his Nautilus variable resistance cams from the
mid-19th century German therapists (wood carvings of early cam weight
training machines exist, and may small museums in Germany feature some of
the old technology). His marketing genius gave the industry a rebirth in
many ways. Body Masters, Cybex, Icarion and the slew of manufacturers out
there all copied him, just as he copied his predecessors. Really, the
NEWEST technology to hit the scene came in the early 1900s with Milo’s
invention of the adjustable dumbbell and barbell.
But I digress.
These machines are not often made by true biomechanics experts with
doctorates in their profession, or years of training wisdom under their
belts. They’re made by engineers, welders and marketeers. In my travels,
I’ve come across many manufacturers who keep an exercise physiologist on
staff. Usually, they’re well-schooled youngsters with very little
in-the-trench experience in lifting, and even less experience in designing
equipment that’s original or biomechanically correct.
It’s chic to
have one on staff. It’s good marketing. It doesn’t, however, ensure that
the best technology has to offer will be forthcoming from these denizens
of the drawing board! In fact, folks, by my reckoning, the dearth of
exceptional equipment out there has given rise to a whole new genre of
myth. “How best to train” has become the purview of these denizens, the
responsibility having been wrested, by virtue of economic power, from the
hands of we Ironheads (many of us are educated too) who generally know
better.
Think of it. By forcing you to follow a given track on any
given machine, isn’t the manufacturer “instructing” you that this is the
correct form for this exercise? Why else would he have made the machine in
that particular configuration? Trust me, it’s generally because everyone
else did it before him.
The Supplement Salesman
Syndrome
I almost needn’t say
more. Salesmen have been filling our minds with falsehoods since the
industry began. Of course there’s some great companies out there! Of
course there’s some great supplements out there! Of course there’s many in
the industry who are truly believers in legitimate science!
Then,
there’re others who are not. We, being a gullible race, and most
particularly one who is constantly seeking for an edge up to greater
muscular size, less fat, improved performance (or whatever). We’re
vulnerable. We’re constantly taken advantage of.
Therein lies the
myth source. We WANT to believe! Many powerful forces make it so. The
cagey purveyors of snake oils know this. They’re master at their craft of
deception. Beware.
What To Do?
There are many avenues out of the maze. Knowledge
is power. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto thee.
Stuff like that.
One thing for sure, though, and that’s the
importance of the mere recognition of the problem on your
part! |
Frederick C. Hatfield, Ph.D.,
MSS