Author of the best-selling Muscle and Strength Pyramid books. I write no-nonsense nutrition and training guides. Join 100,000 others and download my Nutrition Setup Guide.
The fitness industry's biggest lie
|
I had some fun replies to yesterday's email. (Recap: I listed ~30 fad diets and supplements from the last few decades, and asked people what they have in common.) You absolutely nailed it: The myth of a magic bullet. It's rare for success at anything in life to simplify to a single variable.
- Chad
You can sell a magic pill, but not the work it takes to succeed. Most don’t want the work, just the easy results.
- Craig
They all promote some new, exciting, shiny thing as the reason for a lack of results, rather than the un-sexy but simple truth of hard work and consistency with the basics.
- James
They are all gimmicky and either take away an entire food group or sell a one-time quick fix.
- Steve
"Here's the one secret answer to all your problems that's been hidden from you!"
- Taylor
They all offer a quick and easy solution. We all know the answer is simple: be consistent and work hard.
- Tony
Pick a thing, really! Pick anything! Attach some before and afters (steal some if you don’t have your own!), attach a wild claim or unrealistic timeline, BOOM! You have a fad or niche diet, and some desperate folks who will pay to have the secrets/guide/product to get them the results.
- Shane
The promise of an easy solution to a complex problem. Just use this supplement... It will solve all your problems! Just switch to this diet... You will lose body fat and build muscle like crazy! The problem is that some of these diet models actually work for some people because they make it easier to stay in a caloric deficit. Those are the very same people who then extrapolate from their success, saying, "This is the best diet model in the world!" Which it isn't.
- Thomas
They're all shortcuts that pretend basics don't matter.
- Vlad
They're all sold as magic pills, but they potentially limit the knowledge we need to have to get results.
- Isaías.
The fitness industry's biggest lie is one of omission. Here is the simple, but unpalatable truth: 👉 Results come from consistently nailing the basics. 👉 The basics are simple, but unsexy, and sensible voices teaching them get drowned out. 👉 If you don't understand the basics, you're likely to focus on the wrong things. You work harder than you need to, get subpar results, and have no framework for what to do when you get stuck. The way out of this nonsense is to develop a framework for thinking through your nutrition and training decisions. If you understand the hierarchy of importance in a few key areas, you can identify the key levers to pull. This requires a little mental effort, which people naturally avoid like the plague. But is this not easier than spending the unnecessary time, money, and physical effort because you can't be bothered to think it through? I really think so. And while you may feel a little isolated, watching your friends ride the hype train and keep doing crazy shit they can't be talked out of, you'll be free of it because you'll see a clear path forward. You’ll stop getting pulled off course and finally start stacking wins that stick. And so, in the coming emails, I will show you those frameworks we use to help our clients get unstuck. |
RippedBody.com
Author of the best-selling Muscle and Strength Pyramid books. I write no-nonsense nutrition and training guides. Join 100,000 others and download my Nutrition Setup Guide.
If you've checked out any of our free training programs this year, you may have noticed a shift: Our bodybuilding programs now use RIR (Reps in Reserve) instead of RPE (Rating of Perceived Exertion) to guide training intensity. Why the change? RIR has become more common in bodybuilding circles, and as we updated the new edition of The Muscle and Strength Pyramid: Training, it made sense to follow suit. To explain what this means, why it matters, and why we’ve mostly moved away from...
In the last email, I talked about the hierarchy for stress management — one of the four pillars of physique change. Today, I want to talk about training. When it comes to training, we’re often taught to focus on the wrong things — flashy techniques over foundational principles that drive results. That’s because the most important levels — adherence, volume, and intensity — aren’t catchy, and they require nuance. The Training Pyramid has six levels. Here's our most up-to-date version, which...
In the last email, I talked about the hierarchy of importance for sleep, one of the four pillars of physique change. Today, I want to discuss stress. There are six levels to the stress hierarchy pyramid: Let's dive in! 1. Total Stress Load and Adaptive Reserve At the top of the hierarchy is the total amount of stress you are coping with. This is not just what you do in the gym, but everything you experience outside the gym as well (work, relationships, sleep loss, calorie deficits, etc.). All...