Wildfires, Water Pistols, and Buried Bars: The Danger of Misleading Fitness Articles
Fighting misinformation in fitness is like battling a wildfire with a water pistol—misleading claims offer quick fixes but fall short of delivering real results. This article dismantles the allure of oversimplified promises, revealing the dangers of half-truths and the need for a holistic, progressive approach to health. It’s time to rise above mediocrity and embrace the effort that fuels true progress."
Ah, welcome. In ancient Norse tradition, they’d call this a thing, a gathering of minds and power, leading us today to confront an inconvenient truth fitness articles dangling low-hanging fruit so enticingly that it’s no longer on the branch, but lying on the ground, overripe and rotting. “One 20-Minute Workout Per Week Might Be All You Need!” it proclaims, a shiny bauble of convenience. At first glance, it seems like a gift. But as with all things too good to be true, there’s a catch.
This isn’t an indictment of simplicity,
simplicity has its place. This is about the dangerous allure of an accurate yet sorely misrepresented idea. Allow me to explain why this article well-meaning though it may be likely no longer serves you and why embracing it now would be nothing short of a disservice.
The articles, drawn from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, boasts impressive first-year results: chest-press strength increased by 50%, leg-press strength by 70%. Extraordinary gains, on the surface. But dig deeper. This seven-year study reveals that those stellar numbers dwindle over time. Why? Because the human body is a brilliant adapter. It rises to meet the challenge, but without progression, it plateaus. At best, it stagnates. At worst, it begins a free fall.
This article’s promise is designed for the young and the uninitiated, for those taking their first tentative steps into fitness. For them, it’s a starting line—and a poor one at that. For you? It’s more likely a step back, a retreat, a white flag of surrender.
Here lies the larger problem. By the time we reach our 40s, our muscles are no longer passive assets. They’re battlegrounds. Sarcopenia, the gradual loss of muscle mass, is a relentless foe. It doesn’t ask permission; it simply takes. And one short session a week? That’s akin to fighting a wildfire with a squirt gun.
What’s required isn’t the least you can do it’s the most you can do efficiently. Two or three sessions a week. Compound lifts. Functional movements. Progressive overload. A diet rich in protein to fuel recovery. A regimen that blends strength, mobility, flexibility, and cardiovascular health.
Articles like this, with their low-hanging fruit, may be well-intentioned, but they do more harm than good. They whisper the sweet lies of mediocrity to those who should be reaching higher. They’re a permissive parent, swapping the broccoli of truth for the green gummy bears of convenience, simply because they’re the same color. They’re not a roadmap; they’re a cul-de-sac.
These types of articles, well-meaning as it may be, paint a ridiculous picture that has real consequences. It doesn’t lower the bar; it buries it in the sand and encourages others to bury their heads right alongside it, only to wonder later why their time feels wasted and their results are minimal. Thus, they slide backward even further.
This article doesn’t apply to you anymore. You’ve outgrown it. And that, my friends, is not just progress it’s triumph. It's time to Make Life More
How do I find time for exercise?
A client comes to me and asks me "Christopher, how do I find time to include exercise in my life? I don't have enough hours in the day. "
"You shouldn't be doing anything else." is my reply.
Exercise and your health should not be confined to the limitations of this hour or that hour. The limitations of this indicate that if you did exercise for this many minutes and then did nothing else the rest of your day you would continue to move forward and we know this is not so. It should not be confined to the limits of this external space or that location or time. Your development, health, and fitness is an always there experience. If this is a continuous process then what ever activity you are doing does not truly matter. Everything can be included into a program of movement and exercise. This does not mean numerous hours at the gym or out on the trail, but the incorporation of growth into the daily life. When you go to the office and work why can you not take the stairs and work the proper knee alignment? When you go to the store why can you not take an aisle to align the spacing between your feet and legs? What is the difference between laying on the couch and laying with the feet up the wall? The opportunities for your exercise are always present. It is the insistence of grouping them all together into a lump that has us believe there is a conflict with everything else.