11 votes

Fitness Weekly Discussion

What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

16 comments

  1. [3]
    Tanukey
    Link
    About to finish my 5km running goal. I already ran 4.8km last week, so I’m pretty much finished already, but this was more about being patient and consistent than the actual distance. Next phase...

    About to finish my 5km running goal. I already ran 4.8km last week, so I’m pretty much finished already, but this was more about being patient and consistent than the actual distance. Next phase is keeping it up while I travel for work for a few weeks then slowly increase one day to 10km to be my long run.

    Very pleased with myself!

    4 votes
    1. [2]
      Paul26
      Link Parent
      That’s awesome. I hope to one day be able to run that. I can do about 3 km. Anything past that I feel like my lungs are gonna explode.

      That’s awesome. I hope to one day be able to run that. I can do about 3 km. Anything past that I feel like my lungs are gonna explode.

      2 votes
      1. Tanukey
        Link Parent
        3km is nothing to snuff at either! When I restarted this time I was huffing and puffing just trying to run for 5 min. I was so happy to get back up to 3km, but it took me a while. I think the age...

        3km is nothing to snuff at either! When I restarted this time I was huffing and puffing just trying to run for 5 min. I was so happy to get back up to 3km, but it took me a while.

        I think the age old adage of slowing down might help. For me it’s never my lungs since I know anything like that means I’m going too fast a pace. For me it’s usually leg fatigue or just plain mental endurance.

        But when I first started running when I was a teen, I do distinctly remember that metallic taste and feeling like my lungs were going to explode. It definitely goes away eventually. Even when it’s been more than a year since I ran, I think my lungs are the first to acclimate again.

        1 vote
  2. [2]
    cloud_loud
    Link
    So it turns out I’m allergic to retatrutide. I’ve been on it for a month, with fantastic results btw, but this week I had noticed a red mark under my eye. I thought it was sunburn from having...

    So it turns out I’m allergic to retatrutide. I’ve been on it for a month, with fantastic results btw, but this week I had noticed a red mark under my eye. I thought it was sunburn from having driven with my window down.

    The next few days it spreads to my arms. At this time I think it’s just dry skin. But I also start experiencing this strange feeling in my arm, my tricep is tense and sensitive when it touches something. And today I go to work and people point out that I have rosey cheeks. And then soon my entire face is red.

    At this point I’m still thinking it’s sunburn, it’s hot to the touch. But things don’t really add up. I wear sunscreen every day, high SPF Korean sunscreen, and I’m outside max 20 minutes a day in the direct sunlight. That’s when I start thinking “what if I’m allergic to the shit I’m injecting.” Which is when I confirm that the muscle tension I have in my arm is also explained by allergic reactions. And that was kind of my confirmation that I have to stop using this now and will be seeing a doctor sometime next week. What’s interesting is that I take hydroxizine every night so I imagine that my allergic reaction was being held back by that from the beginning and it’s now that it’s breaking through.

    Oh well. At least I got some use out of this, I finally broke through the stubborn weight I’ve had for the past almost year now. And I’m closer to what I looked like last summer, which is when I was at my leanest.

    4 votes
    1. cfabbro
      Link Parent
      Damn, that's kinda scary. But TBH, you're probably lucky that a seemingly mild allergic reaction is all that happened considering your source for the drug, and the fact that it's still an...

      Damn, that's kinda scary. But TBH, you're probably lucky that a seemingly mild allergic reaction is all that happened considering your source for the drug, and the fact that it's still an experimental one which hasn't actually been approved for use yet. I know it might be a bit embarrassing or whatever, but please tell your Doctor the whole story so they can be fully aware of the situation, and screen you thoroughly for any other health issues it might have caused.

      1 vote
  3. Akir
    Link
    After more than a week of bad workouts - ones where I didn’t feel good coming off of them after having to take a break from an injury - I finally had a good one. I upped my weight on a few...

    After more than a week of bad workouts - ones where I didn’t feel good coming off of them after having to take a break from an injury - I finally had a good one. I upped my weight on a few machines and had a day where I was finally able to beat my goal of 900 burned calories on the Apple Watch - it was actually more like 1100. Of course it was also a day where I ate candy and crap, so the burned calories are kind of useless, but I met the goal so I don’t care!

    Previously I had kind of given up on going to the gym in the morning. I was thinking my problem was not having my husband come with me and it was having a bigger effect on my motivation than I had realized. But my husband was not with me today either and it turned out to be good. Maybe it was because I decided to listen to a political podcast for a change and was powered by hate? 😅

    I talked to the people at the front desk at the gym before I left and it turns out that months after I first joined, they finally are going to have a trainer. They’re still three weeks out though.

    3 votes
  4. Paul26
    Link
    Was a bad week for me. Due to various “excuses” I only worked out one day. Annoyed with myself, but motivated to exercise hard this coming week. No skipping any days. On a better note, been...

    Was a bad week for me. Due to various “excuses” I only worked out one day. Annoyed with myself, but motivated to exercise hard this coming week. No skipping any days.

    On a better note, been meaning to buy a coupe of kettlebell weights and finally did so. I got 15, 25, and 50. I have a decent set of dumbbells so this was something of a nice to have more than a “need”, but it’s making me excited for this week’s workouts where I’ll take advantage of the new weights to add a bit of variation where a kettlebell may work better than a dumbbell.

    2 votes
  5. [8]
    cloud_loud
    Link
    I don’t want to make a thread about it because it’s basically just influencer drama. Solomon Nelson released a video critiquing Mike Israetel’s PHd dissertation which has gone viral with the...

    I don’t want to make a thread about it because it’s basically just influencer drama. Solomon Nelson released a video critiquing Mike Israetel’s PHd dissertation which has gone viral with the fitness community.

    Nelson has many videos about Mike including this really long one he made with Lyle McDonald. But this recent video is what’s actually caught on.

    I only briefly watched Mike when I was first starting to work out more seriously two years ago. I took some of his advice, as I did many other influencers at the time, but the one I listened to the most was probably Greg Doucette.

    1 vote
    1. [4]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Well, the drama continues, and someone on /r/PhD might have called it; Solomon appears to have critiqued a draft version of Mike Isreatel's dissertation, which is ironic since Solomon even...

      Well, the drama continues, and someone on /r/PhD might have called it; Solomon appears to have critiqued a draft version of Mike Isreatel's dissertation, which is ironic since Solomon even mentioned it looked like a draft version in his video. It could have been an honest mistake, but given Solomon's history of attacking Mike I wouldn't be surprised if he did it intentionally to make Mike look as bad as possible. And if it really was just a draft, I also wouldn't be surprised if Mike sues Solomon for defamation at this point.

      3 votes
      1. [3]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        The drama looks like it's finally concluded. Mike just admitted on his Insta that the dissertation that Solomon reviewed actually was the final version. And even though he didn't admit to this...

        The drama looks like it's finally concluded. Mike just admitted on his Insta that the dissertation that Solomon reviewed actually was the final version. And even though he didn't admit to this part, I suspect Mike may have used ChatGPT (which he's been obsessed with lately) to edit it after the critique, which is the version Milo Wolf and Dr Pak were then given by Mike to defend him with. Pretty shitty, disappointing behavior on his part. He probably could have just joked about his dissertation sucking and moved on with his life, but instead he tried to save face by lying, dug the hole deeper, and now his reputation is deservedly in the toilet.

        2 votes
        1. [2]
          Tree
          Link Parent
          Thanks for the updates you've been providing on this. this isn't something I've been following closely but I do find it interesting. I'm not too involved with fitness social media beyond a few...

          Thanks for the updates you've been providing on this. this isn't something I've been following closely but I do find it interesting.

          I'm not too involved with fitness social media beyond a few podcasts, some customized reddit searches, and maybe a YouTube video here and there, but I still know how popular Mike and RP have been in the community.

          I'm very curious to see where this goes and if there is any fallout to Mike or RP beyond the reputation hit. Not in legal terms or anything, but more in subscriber loss, media opportunity loss (guest speakers in podcasts, videos, seminars), or potentially financial loss due to people leaving RP coaching/apps.

          1 vote
          1. cfabbro
            (edited )
            Link Parent
            NP. I've only been a fan of RP for a short while now, so I'm not too terribly invested in Mike or the channel. But this was genuinely disappointing behavior to witness regardless. I still think...

            NP. I've only been a fan of RP for a short while now, so I'm not too terribly invested in Mike or the channel. But this was genuinely disappointing behavior to witness regardless. I still think Mike's exercise advice is generally pretty sound, despite his dissertation being absolute shit. And Solomon seems like a massive drama whoring dick, even if he happened to have valid criticisms this time. But it is what it is, and Mike's response was pretty damn shameful.

            As for the consequences of this? Who knows... but I suspect Mike's probably not going to be doing many collaborations for a long while. He burned quite a few bridges by besmirching the reputations of a bunch of other science-based lifting content creators who came to his defense based on his lies. At the very least I hope that this puts an end to Mike's ChatGPT fueled videos on untested "miracle" drugs still in development, the future of AI, and a bunch of other subjects where he genuinely has no idea WTF he's talking about.

            1 vote
    2. [3]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      That whole PhD critique drama is so fucking obnoxious. A dude with 35k subs and a VERY obvious penchant for stirring up fitness influencer drama, as well as a clear grudge against Mike Israetel in...

      That whole PhD critique drama is so fucking obnoxious. A dude with 35k subs and a VERY obvious penchant for stirring up fitness influencer drama, as well as a clear grudge against Mike Israetel in particular (seriously, he has a 1 hour video basically making fun of Mike and calling him "mentally ill" for getting cosmetic surgery) released a video critiquing Mike's 12 year old PhD dissertation... and now every commenter on every YouTube fitness channel won't STFU about it, and are acting as if it invalidates every bit of advice Mike has ever put out. It's so fucking dumb.

      Personally, I think Greg Nuckols (from Stronger by Science) had the most well informed and level-headed response to this whole thing:

      I don't like Mike, but wasn't he published multiple times? If his PhD had glaring errors idk if it invalidates the rest of his credentials

      Ehh, not really. He was an author on a couple of papers from his Masters program, and a tertiary author on a study his company funded, but that's the extent of his academic output: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=israetel+ma&sort=date

      But, I do generally think that a poor-quality dissertation is primarily a reflection on the program and the advisor. Graduate studies are effectively a mentorship – different fields and subdisciplines have different norms and standards, and it's generally expected that the academic advisor will ensure their students can conduct research that conforms to those norms and standards (obviously the students have agency in the process as well, but if a dissertation clears the committee, that means it met or exceeded the expectations of the advisor). I don't think a poor-quality dissertation tells you all that much about someone's knowledge or abilities 12 years later, though. I know several very good researchers who published what I (and they) would consider to be lackluster dissertations 5-10+ years ago – almost by definition, it should be some of the worst research you ever do, assuming you get better with more practice.

      Fwiw, I have a bit of first-hand and quite a bit of second-hand knowledge about the program where Mike did his PhD (it's one of the places I applied to grad school, I visited and met the faculty, and I know quite a few MS and PhD graduates from that program). It's a pretty weird PhD program. The faculty there is very up front about the fact that it's a sports science program, not an exercise science program. To them, the distinction is that exercise science is supposed to equip you to do boring research on schlubs who've never lifted weights, and sports science is supposed to equip you to monitor and optimize training for elite athletes. The school has a partnership with the USA Olympic team, and most of the "research" they conduct is just case studies on Olympic hopefuls (much of which is never intended for publication).

      I've heard from multiple people that the chair of the program is very fond of saying, "Pavlov only had one dog" when people prod him about his ... unique ... approach to science and mentorship. The implication is that the only way to learn about coaching elite athletes is to try to learn as much as you can from closely monitoring individual elite athletes, instead of doing standard controlled research with more reasonable sample sizes of sub-elite athletes. He's something of a legend in the strength coaching community, but he's also a dinosaur who's fairly hostile toward a lot of advances in the field that are intended improve methodological rigor. Since it's a PhD program, there is still a dissertation requirement, but the dissertation (and formal academic research more broadly) is not really the focus. It's somewhere between a terminal vocational degree (like an MD, JD, or DPT program) and a typical PhD. It’s much more focused on turning out working sport scientists (people who pro sports teams would hire to try to help them reduce injury risk and squeeze 1% better performance out of the athletes) than the next generation of academics.

      [caveat – read all of that in the past tense. Mike graduated in 2013. If memory serves, I was checking out the program in 2015 or 2016. The program is actually publishing much more research, and the research they're publishing is of a considerably higher quality, now that Mizuguchi is in charge of the sports physiology program. Also, I'm speaking in generalities; I'm certainly not implying there was no good research or good researchers coming out of ETSU a decade ago. Just saying the program was quite a bit less focused on formal experimental research than you'd typically expect from a PhD program]

      Basically, it is a degree that's pretty relevant to the type of influencing Mike primarily wants to do – if you want to claim expertise about how to optimize training specifically for elite athletes and bodybuilders, a PhD from ETSU is arguably a more relevant credential than a PhD from a program that's more focused on, say, clinical exercise science. But, if you know much about that PhD program (or, at least, how that PhD program operated a decade ago), you'd know that it's not a credential that necessarily implies a high degree of research acumen. Also, to be clear, I don't really consume much of Mike's content, so I don't have a strong opinion on it – just commenting on the PhD program itself.

      Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DecodingTheGurus/comments/1ntu79l/mike_israetels_phd_the_biggest_academic_sham_in/ngx3o8p/

      1 vote
      1. [2]
        cloud_loud
        Link Parent
        It’s so interesting how like he finally landed a shot that made an impact. I’ve been aware of this guys channel for a while, and I mostly just watched his stuff with McDonald. And you could tell...

        It’s so interesting how like he finally landed a shot that made an impact. I’ve been aware of this guys channel for a while, and I mostly just watched his stuff with McDonald. And you could tell he was waiting for this exact moment.

        1 vote
        1. cfabbro
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Interesting isn't exactly how I would put it, lol. But I certainly can't deny that Solomon Nelson finally got the attention he's clearly been looking for with all his shit stirring attempts. That...

          Interesting isn't exactly how I would put it, lol. But I certainly can't deny that Solomon Nelson finally got the attention he's clearly been looking for with all his shit stirring attempts. That latest video has gone mega viral now, at least amongst the various fitness communities. :P

          1 vote
  6. Raspcoffee
    Link
    Been working out less recently, though I fortunately cycle to and from work so my stamina is still good. But its been a bit difficult to keep things up. Partially due to lots of things happening...

    Been working out less recently, though I fortunately cycle to and from work so my stamina is still good. But its been a bit difficult to keep things up. Partially due to lots of things happening in my life, but also have been given myself more slack than I'd like.

    As some of you may now I've been working on recently acquired self-love and while it's far easier to take care of myself it's also a bit different in some ways. Though I did use my weights yesterday again after putting it off for a bit, so I'm confident I can reinstate the good habits.

    1 vote