Tim Ferriss' "The 4 Hour Body" book

[candyflip]

Anyone read this? I just got through all 500+ pages. He advises against this (reading everything), but I wanted to know everything he had learned. I admit I skim-read the improving your baseball bat swinging section though.

What do you think? It appears to me there's lots of stuff in here that keen observers of the iron would already know - but his main contention with Occam's Protocol is to do radically less to gain more, and that is at least at odds with most of what we currently accept as fact in the BB world.

I was gonna jot down Cliff notes for the whole thing, but couldn't be bothered. Some of it is great, but some appears very contradictory and the science appears to be completely off (for example, he makes a point that doing Stairmaster climbs for an hour is essentially a waste of time, as your basal metabolic rate would be about a 100 calorie burn, and a 1 hour Stairmaster climb burns only approx 107 calories, therefore you could have sat on the couch doing nothing and burned only 7 calories less than doing the Stairmaster exercise....Ummm, from what I know of the human machine, that is just completely and utterly wrong. It would be the 100 calorie basal metabolic rate, PLUS the 107 calorie Stairmaster burn for a total of 207 calories approx. Happy to be shown I'm wrong though..)

If you want to read it, I can help, BTW.

 

[gareer]

I enjoyed the section on increasing BMR through ice therapy etc. Was an interesting read and whether it applies im not sure.

 

[candyflip]

I enjoyed the section on increasing BMR through ice therapy etc. Was an interesting read and whether it applies im not sure.

Yes, me too. I absolutely HATE cold water though so I'm unlikely to be trying that one. I run so hot naturally that I reckon it could actually hinder my BMR!

I shoulda been born in Central Australia - under a ute, in the dirt, no water. I woulda outlived the lot of ya.

 

[The Hulk]

Tim Ferriss - In 2008, he won Wired Magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" prize

 

[candyflip]

Tim Ferriss - In 2008, he won Wired Magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" prize

Yes sir, tireless self promotor. You don't get to #1 on the NYT Bestseller List without some marketing savvy.

 

[Timeah]

i've read it. mostly interesting. alot of grain of salt stuff.

i personally ate to his recommendations and lost 10kg pretty quickly. and got stronger in the process. but i put that down to being untrained, haha

 

[kxy]

Yeah ive read probably 2 thirds of the book, some interesting things and principles, I started taking vital greens (athletic greens) on his reccomendation and have had an improvement in health, also interested in trying the PAGG stack.
His comments on mass gain training wasnt much that isnt common knowlledge around these parts, I have started kettlebell swings while waiting on finalising my powerack order, and have definitely seen mass gains in my upper body albeit minor.

Like said previously, it all should be taken with a grain of salt, but i certainly think no one is worse off for reading it, whether you take on board the advice or ignore it completely. Its interesting to see people challenge popular theory, not such an uncommon idea around here.

 

[Timeah]

yeah exactly.
i dont buy into the extra supps he recommends. happy with what i take: whey, creatine, bcaa's, fish oil, mulit-vit, glucosamine, and a ridiculous amount of good quality whole foods!!!

A mate of mine tried that bulking idea, occam's protocol etc. put on a few keg's of course, but got bored not working out frequently!

 

[candyflip]

I read it with an open mind, but some of it was just plain dodgy, as it applies to the rest of the community.

Example: Casey Viator's story and the 'Colorado Experiment' (around page 190). The guy, who was already ridiuclously well trained and had superb muscle memory and genetics, dieted down 20 pounds of LBM (so we guess that it was more when we add in the fat component) beforehand, swears he took no drugs (this from a confirmed steroid user, and don't they all espouse the truth like Snow White?) and then 'eats 6-8 meals a day like its his job' (he had a cash incentive for each pound he gained), works out 3 times a week like a maniac (he's squatting 502 pounds, Leg Press at 750 for 20 reps with virtually no rest in-between each) and puts on 30+ pounds LBM in 4 weeks??

Really not that surprising.

Here's exactly what Ferriss says about that:
"The real significance of the Colorado Experiment is two-fold, despite the fact that Casey is clearly a genetic mutant.

First, it is physiologically possible to synthesize enough protein to produce 63.21 pounds of lean mass in 28 days. This shows that one counterargument (“you’d have to eat 20,000 calories a day!”) is flawed.
​

​

This is true even if drugs were involved.​

There are mechanisms involved that the simplistic caloric argument doesn’t account for.​

Second, the workout logs show that the amount of stimulus needed to produce these gains (remember that Arthur also gained 15 pounds in 3 weeks) was less than two hours per week.​

1st point : agreed, but as Casey is a 'genetic mutant', which cannot be side-stepped by merely pointing it out, he doesn't behave like other human beings of lesser genetic make-up. Therefore, mere mortals like ourselves will NOT achieve this. See Arthur's results (and he's no pussy!)

2nd point: also agreed, but look at the workouts! They are insanely intense - again, mortals like ourselves would not be able to keep up with this for 4 days, let alone 4 weeks.

You can prove anything in a few weeks about muscle gain, fat loss, any metric you like, especially using examples of genetic freaks and untrained guys who start at 124 pound bodyweights (!!), but what is sustainable for the average person or even trained individuals? Surely that is the more worthwhile goal?

 

[ozbergs]

What do you guys think of Tim's PAGG Stack? I bought some and found it to be really good - works well with the slow carb diet. I've lost a bunch of weight and have actually ripped out a bit too. I'm 6'3 and 87kgs so I'm not huge, but my body is much more defined now.