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Self-Experimentation vs. Accepting Conventional Wisdom
12 hours down, 4 more to go tomorrow.
My body actually feels pretty good aside from a very sore butt from the saddle. I do attribute it to the fact that I do weight training AND don’t eat gluten.
I’ve caused my body no additional inflammation from crap food!
My dinner tonight – Free roaming, grass-fed buffalo flank steak and “loaded” potatoes (nitrite free bacon, grass-fed cheese and a primal “ranch” sauce!
However even with the healthy eating, the joints and muscles aren’t 100% so I decided to take an ice bath today.
It couldn’t hurt right?
I mean worse case scenario I sit in frigid water for 10 minutes and it only makes everything go numb for a few minutes.
But I still got strange looks from everyone I told. Why would I ever take an ice bath?
WHY NOT!?!
It could help and if it doesn’t help, it most definitely won’t hurt! As I said above, worse case scenario I waste 10 minutes to only have the muscles go numb for a few minutes.
I must say though, it took some courage to fully submerge my lower body. I stuck one foot in and gasped. BUT everything feels pretty good right now.
We will have to see tomorrow though! (And hey, Tim Ferriss touts them for their fat loss benefits so I guess that isn’t a bad extra bonus! ;-))
Anyway, the point of all this isn’t really to talk about my ice bath, it is to pose the question: Why are people so afraid of TRYING something if conventional wisdom doesn’t tell you to do it?
I mean what really do you have to lose if you TRY something in the hopes of becoming healthier/fitter/stronger?
Some wasted time?
NOT EVEN.
Time isn’t wasted if you LEARN SOMETHING FROM IT!
So why are people so afraid to try things that aren’t approved by conventional wisdom but have studies proving their benefits while they so easily accept that eating Gatorade chews is how they should fuel for a competition just because the media tells them to!?!
Can someone please explain this to me?
Love the Support
So yesterday I stumbled upon two different articles that support the Man Bicep beliefs.
This first article basically states that eating like a Caveman is good for you! THANK YOU!!! The diet can help you lose weight and improve your health – it can lower your blood pressure AND your cholesterol. Seems like carbs may be a bigger problem when it comes to high cholesterol than fat is!!
Of course, this article does recommend lean meats, which you may think is contrary to what I’ve said in the past, BUT I support eating “fatty” naturally raised meats such as grass-fed beef. Grass-fed beef, even the fatty cuts, is leaner than it’s grain-fed counterparts. So yea…eat “lean” aka grass-fed, naturally raised animals! 🙂
Second article that I LOVED is about NOT RUNNING! This is a post about weight training and dieting to lose weight/fat NOT running. I totally agree that cardio isn’t the best tool for weight loss and that there are actually a lot of negatives to chronic cardio.
So if you want to look super hot, stop the chronic cardio and start weight training! 🙂
Chalk up two more points for Man Bicep and 0 for Conventional Wisdom!
How’s that working out for you?
Maybe it’s just that I have a mean streak, but don’t you ever just want to ask someone “How’s that working out for you?”
Like don’t you just want to ask when someone (who is clearly out of shape) orders a non-fat skinny soy chi tea latte with 7 pumps, thinking they are being extremely healthy? I must admit, even if you don’t want to…I DO!
I want to ask people who all the time.
Like when a man with a beer belly walks into the gym to sign up. And I ask, “Would you like to set up one of your complimentary training sessions today? And he says, “No. I already have a program. I’m all set.”
I just want to look down at his belly and ask, “How’s that working out for you?”
How do these people think that what they are doing is working? How do they not see that they aren’t getting results?
My theory is that they just BELIEVE what they are doing SHOULD be working. Conventional wisdom – magazines, TV, radio, internet – have all told them that it should work. Low-fat diets are SUPPOSED to lower your cholesterol and make you healthier. Non-fat milk is SUPPOSED to be better for you (I mean it has fewer calories right!?!).
People ignore the obvious fact that they still haven’t reached their goals because they are doing what is SUPPOSED to work.
These people really should be taking a look at themselves and asking, “How is this working out for me?” I bet you a lot of them would want to reassess their diet and exercise programs afterwards.
So if you aren’t seeing the results you want, stop assuming that because the magazine or some celebrity said the diet works that it works. Because it probably doesn’t.
For example…the workouts in Muscle and Fitness. Those workouts, with some huge guy posing next to them, only work for that guy because he is taking STEROIDS. Just like in Muscle and Fitness most of the popular diet out there have some hidden stipulation that you probably aren’t doing.
Do some research. Experiment. Try different things and let the results speak for themselves.
Please don’t be that person walking down the street following the newest diet trend that makes me want to ask, “How’s that working out for you?”!!!!
Man Bicep 