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Extremely frivolous stuff, but there's a fun debate going down over on Aella's twitter about personal hygiene. In short, as a true empiricist, she measures lots of stuff about her daily routine (iirc, using an app called Daylio), and recently revealed her stats for 2023. What is causing a kerfuffle is not the number of days she had sex (63), took Adderall (126), or escorted (6), but the number of times she showered, namely 37 [sic].
Aella insists she doesn't smell (and says she's consulted with others to confirm this), but I think that's a very relative statement; some people seem to have a high baseline tolerance for stank of various kinds, to the point that even strong odours don't register to them as stank, while others like myself are very smell sensitive; at the risk of TMI, my wife was amused that I could tell when our kids in their diaper days had done a pee, because I could always smell it almost immediately even when she had no idea. Back in my online dating days, there were several dates I simply couldn't follow up on because the person I was with had bad personal hygiene. I'm not talking about a mild healthy body odour here, but when you're having sex doggy-style and get hit by bad ass-stench it's an instant boner kill. And I'll be honest, I've had a crush on Aella for ages; she's a very attractive nerdy woman, and as a sexually confident and charismatic female Rationalist, she is a very horny unicorn among horses. But I've got to say, learning that specific factoid about her life had a similar effect on my idle long-distance lust as an F150's tires do on a small rodent (not that she should care, of course - just putting it out there).
That said, I am a bit of ablutomaniac - I shower and/or bathe 2-3 times a day. I don't think it's a hygiene thing per se. I shower when I get up because it helps me feel awake and ready for the day; I often have a shower or bath in the late afternoon/early evening after a workout because it feels great to soak sore muscles; and I sometimes shower just before bed, because I find it really nice to get into a bed with clean, fresh-smelling sheets having just come out of the shower smelling clean and fresh myself. I also routinely use (carefully chosen, subtle) cologne on my body as well as both fabric conditioner and scent booster when washing my clothes.
Anyway, Aella's feed is pretty funny right now, to the point that she's holding polls about showering, and I was curious what folks here think about it. Obviously me and Aella are at different ends of the ablutic spectrum, but what's a healthy normal number of times to shower/bathe per day? How much of it is down to personal preference?
The more I digest the shower thing the stranger it is to me. Does she never exercise to a sweat? The people quiting shampoo at least makes sense as it's a relatively new invention but humans have been bathing forever.
In the same post she said she only exercised 22 times in the entire year (lol), so I guess that's not a problem.
My gym was closed for 2 weeks during the winter and I thought I was going to lose my mind, how can people live like that?
Believe it or not, not everyone enjoys exercise. 😉 I personally actively dislike it, and find it only mildly preferable to being slapped in the face.
Same. I have never ever felt like exercise was even the least bit enjoyable, and I've tried to enjoy it. I've spent long amounts of time trying to get past that initial painful hump and into the addiction phase everyone tells me will happen. It's never happened. In fact I don't even really believe people anymore when they say it's enjoyable. I assume it's some mix of bragging and them conflating the effects of exercise with the feeling they get after exercising. Or maybe masochism.
No, I genuinely enjoy running. That I enjoy the effects are obvious, but I also enjoy the activity independently of that, and I enjoy it in a few different ways:
I love racing because I'm competitive, I want to see what I'm capable of, and I enjoy competing against other people directly.
I enjoy track workouts because the sensation of running hard is enjoyable in itself and I like dialing in highly specific numbers (being able to run a lap in the exact amount of seconds I'm shooting for is satisfying).
Running in new places is great because you see the world differently on foot than if you're getting around on public transportation.
Normal, everyday running is enjoyable because it's a good time to listen to podcasts without having something else that I'm focused on.
In fact, there are close to zero times that I don't enjoy running or biking. The only time it ever feels like a chore rather than a joy is during a training cycle when there's a workout that I just don't really feel up to.
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Since others have already covered weight lifting (personally my experience on that front matches closer to yours):
I don't think I've ever experienced "runner's high", but I do find cross-country running genuinely enjoyable (as well as walking and jogging). But only that- I do not enjoy running on treadmills or tracks and I do not enjoy rowing or biking, whether in nature or on machines. On the flip side, other family members absolutely hate running but fell in love with rowing or biking.
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My relationship with exercise has been a bit masochistic. I got pretty damned fit in my 20's, although never model ripped. I enjoyed the feeling of self determination in reshaping my body. I also greatly enjoyed my new physical capacities. I was working out all the time, did martial arts for 10 years, was teaching and competing. The soreness and stiffness was fleeting and didn't bother me.
Once my 30's rolled around, I was just sore and stiff all the damned time. I didn't enjoy sparring hardly at all like I used to, since every twist or deep bruise took for god damned ever to heal. I scaled way back, and eventually quit when I had a family.
These days I mostly just do kettlebell workouts. One day is 5 sets of 5 70lb turkish get ups. The other day is 5 sets of 30 70lb kettlebell swings. Usually I throw in a lot of crunches, pushups or military presses too. Once I discovered turkish get ups, no other exercise makes me feel as all over strong as them.
Closing in on 40 and I've aged a fair bit better than most of my peers. Still have a good build, even if my belly button is a bit deeper than it used to be. It's not a problem for me to be outside doing yardwork or repairs all weekend. I can mostly keep up with my 3 year old. I still find myself getting sore from time to time, but mostly when I neglect to drink enough water or have a recovery protein shake after a workout. I've achieved a good enough steady state that keeps me from going to seed, at least for now.
How do you program TGUs? Everyone recommends them, I never get anything out of them, just curious if you have any tips?
I want to love them, but just don't.
I just do 5 sets of 5 with the heaviest weight I can do. Which at the moment is 70#. I try to get them in 2 or 3 times a week. I rest as long as I need to between sets.
My wife also complains that she gets nothing out of them, but she does them with 25#. IMHO, they only become beneficial once you are doing them with a heavy enough weight that it challenges you at every stage of the exercise. It should be a weight heavy enough that you feel worked from the tips of your fingers maintaining the grip to the tips of your toes anchored to the floor. Your shoulders should burn by the 5th rep from the maintained tension. Your core should be solid as it remains rigid while you push yourself into the one armed position. Your glutes should strain up from the kneeling position.
I've committed to TGU's for about 10 years or so, and have worked my way up to doing them with 88# on occasion. They have essentially set the strength floor for every part of my body. All the little stabilizing muscles machines ignore.
Contrasted with my wife, who dabbles in them occasionally with low weights, there is always a weak point keeping her from experiences the full benefits. Maybe her shoulder can only handle 25# of TGUs, while her core and glutes could probably have handled 50#. Or her back is all fucked and can only handle 15# at certain parts of the exercise. This results in reps done sloppily as many parts of her body can get away with poor form, with little actual improvement on the weak muscles.
TGUs for me are very much a case of "Go big or go home". There is a possibly apocryphal story about how if you wanted to be a strongman back in the early 1900's, they'd just teach you the TGU and tell you not to come back until you could do it with 100#. I don't know if that story is true, but it's my guiding light in doing them.
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I have to say that doing a heavy set of 450 lbs deadlifts for 5 reps with heavy metal blasting through my headphones is really pleasant to me, the burning muscles and the exhaustion are obviously not pleasant in themselves, but lifting heavy shit sort of makes me aggressive in a way that's pleasant. The feeling of having pumped muscles, like my skin is about to explode around my biceps, is also quite pleasant.
Hmm, well, I guess I don't hate lifting as much as I hate cardio. I hate hate cardio, but lifting I can do without feeling like I'd rather die.
Actually, my main problem with lifting right now is that I feel like I've reached a plateau. I wouldn't mind your advice. Firstoff, I refuse to have a gym membership. I won't pay a monthly fee to go someplace to feel bad about myself. And I'd probably never use it.
So I've used small barbells (up to 25lb in each hand) for over a decade doing triceps, biceps, chest, shoulder, lats, hamstring, calves, glutes, and abs. But I didn't know how to get past that amount of weight. So I bought a barbell and some weights to try to get more weight in. And now I kinda feel like I'm at the point where I'm physically incapable of lifting what I'd need to lift in order to feel like I'm making any progress. It's still not what most lifters would consider to be a lot of weight. But if I do lower amounts on the barbell, it doesn't give me the correct muscle fatigue, but I can't physically lift any more. Unsure how to proceed. More reps?
I guess my other problem is that I don't really feel like my results are too visible, since I still have a bunch of fat covering it. So, like, what's the point?
There are a bunch of things to mention here, I'll just write a summary of common sport science knowledge that I think would help you, apologies if I say some stuff you already know.
There's no problem with not going to the gym, I don't like it either and workout at home too, though I've spend a few thousand dollars on a power-rack, bench, barbell, 45lb plates, hex bar (for hex deadlifts) and adjustable dumbells (The powerblock EXP series).
The current scientific knowledge on optimizing muscle growth states that muscle growth mainly depends on 2 key variables under your control: daily protein intake and weekly workout volume. I'll go into each of these before mentioning other stuff.
Protein Intake:
Daily protein intake should be around 1g/lb of body weight, that amount basically guarantees that your protein is taken care of, it's probably slightly excessive and you could get away with 0.8 to 0.9 g/lb, but 1g/lb is the main recommended number for bodybuilding to just be able to check that box for sure. If you haven't been eating this amount of protein, but more like 0.4 or 0.5 g/lb, you've been seriously hampering yourself, and you're gonna get essentially a second phase of noobie gains when you start eating correct amounts of protein. Physiologically, large muscles are a luxury. When the body gets protein, it first uses it for critical systems like the heart, brain, organs, blood, stomach lining, etc. any protein it spares for muscle building has to come after all of that, so doubling your protein from 0.5g/lb to 1.0g/lb can take you from 0 muscle gain (because all protein is gobbled up by other systems), to great muscle gain. Protein is really fucking important. The total grams of protein per day is what matters most, but a secondary factor is protein timing: because your body can't store proteins like it can store fats and carbs, any muscle protein synthesis has to take the protein that's currently swimming in your blood, so it's best to consume your protein separated into roughly 3 or 4 meals throughout the day, with one high protein meal preferably right after workouts.
weekly workout volume:
Here "volume" refers to the number of working sets performed per muscle group, per week. Why don't I mention reps? Because as far as current science knows, anything between 5 and 30 reps is pretty much equivalently good for muscle building, as long as 1. you do the same number of sets and 2. you go to either complete failure or just shy of failure in both cases (leaving 1 or 2 reps in the tank, so to speak). There's a bit of complexity, but in general for bodybuilding people choose the 12-15 rep range, in general 5 reps and lower is for strength, and is more injury prone due to higher strain on connective tissue. And higher reps than 15 aren't too ideal because your cardio capacity could get in the way, preventing you from exhausting the muscle correctly.
So the main thing that will determine your muscle growth (assuming adequate protein) will be the total number of weekly sets per muscle. To give you ball-park numbers, 6 sets/muscle/week will cause ok muscle growth in noobies, but is just enough to maintain current muscle mass in intermediates. 10 sets per week is a good number for MEV (Minimum Effective Volume), you'll probably grow quite well if you do that much. 20 sets per week is quite high, it's most useful for advanced people, and you wouldn't want to do that amount for more than a few weeks at a time before scaling back, since the fatigue will pile on quickly. A secondary but important variable to the total number of sets is the number of workouts per week. So 10 sets of chest all done on monday is inferior to 5 sets on monday and 5 sets on Thursday. Working out every body part twice a week yields an important boost over just once a week, though going to 3x week isn't that much better. I personally workout 6 days per week, with a Push-Pull-Legs-Push-Pull-Legs split, so I workout every body part twice a week.
This is what I suspect is hampering your progress. If your volume has been below 6 sets/muscle/week, and you haven't been working out too consistently... then you've essentially just been working with a volume barely able to maintain your current muscle mass, especially if you haven't been eating adequate protein.
What weight to use:
The choice of weight to use is subordinate to the choice of rep range, so if you decide that you want to work in the 12-15 rep range, you would then choose the weight that allows you to do the exercise for 12 reps before you physically can't do any more. It doesn't matter if you're benching the bar alone, if this is what you can bench for 12 reps before you can't anymore, then this is the weight you should start at. Muscle growth doesn't come from the weight itself, it comes from the fact of getting close to failure. If you test your max reps with the heaviest weights you have, and you can do more than 20 reps, it's time to buy some heavier weights.
Progressive overload & Phasic structure of training:
The third crucial factor is progressive overload: the gradual increase of training variables over time, generally either increasing weight lifted for equal reps and sets, or increasing numbers of sets. You can either pre-plan the weight increases, or you can sort of "work by ear" by just doing as many reps as you can with a weight, and increase your weight when you notice it's become much easier and you hit the top of your rep range. If you started benching 135 x 12 reps, then eventually got to 135 x 15 reps after a few months, it's time to increase weight again until you can only do 12 reps with the new weight.
Another useful concept is that of the mesocycle, which imposes a phasic structure on your training on the order of around 6 to 10 weeks. The long-term pattern should be something like 8 weeks mesocycle -> 1 week deload -> another meso -> 1 week deload, etc. The deload weeks you either take completely off from training in order to recover from systemic fatigue, or you do 50% of your usual weight. Within a mesocycle, you increase the weight (or the sets) every week. The beginning weight of the mesocycle should be fairly comfortable, you might start at 100 lbs x 12 reps, then work up to 135 lbs x 12 reps over the course of 8 weeks. Take a week off, then start a new mesocycle at 110 lbs x 12 reps, working up to 145 lbs x 12 reps this time. Each meso starts and ends at higher weights than the previous ones, but the start of the next meso is easier than the end of the last one.
Cycling in this way is really more useful for intermediates and above, there's no problem if that seems too complicated, just working close to failure every workout and taking scheduled weeks off every 2 months is plenty good enough for most people.
Phasic structure of Dieting
If your goal is muscle building, then being in a calorie surplus greatly, greatly helps. Losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time can work if you're a beginner, but even there it's significantly more efficient to split your time between bulking and cutting phases, essentially because maintaining muscle during cuts is easier than building the muscle at maintenance. So in Bulking phases you should aim for roughly 300 to 500 calories surplus, this is enough to heavily promote muscle building, and a very significant part of the weight you gain will be muscle. Follow this up with a cutting phase where you aim to lose 0.5% to 1% of your weight per week in fat (while working out to maintain your muscle).
For how to compute macros, here's how you do it: start with your total number of calories per day for your goal, say you weigh 140 lbs, you're bulking and your aim is 3000 cal/day. You know you'll eat 140g of protein per day, so that's taken care of and you only have 3000 - 4 * 140 = 2440 calories remaining since proteins have 4 cal/g, next you take care of your fat, which you should keep at 0.4g/lb to maintain good hormonal function, any more than that doesn't help too much, so now we have 2440 - 9 * 0.4 * 140 = 1,936 calories remaining, which all goes into 484g of carbs. Carbohydrates promote muscle gain to a much larger extend than fat because they replenish the glycogen stores inside the muscle itself, which promotes the whole chemical cascade that signals for muscle growth, that's why they're preferable to fats.
Sources:
Best youtube channel for this stuff: https://youtube.com/@RenaissancePeriodization
Second best: https://youtube.com/@JeffNippard
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There is a certain swollenness to the muscles that just feels good and seems to scale linearly with how much muscle you have to get swollen. And while lifting you can feel your muscles exhausting into this state in a very satisfying way that feels like progress. And lifting is nice in that you get to do all this at a relatively relaxed pace so you can do other enjoyable things like listen to music and browse obscure contrarian forums at the same time. It probably does vary person to person though, I've never gotten runners high despite most of my family swearing by it and having done more than a fair amount of running. But a good heavy chest day followed by a joint and a hearty meal can be preferable to sex for me.
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