- Muscles don't grow during training, muscles grow in the rest time when your body recovers. Always rest 2-3 days after a hard workout.
- In order to grow, muscles need a constant supply of protein, between 80g and 200g per day. Your body can't store reserves of protein.
- In the morning, try to get as much carbohydrates as possible (for energy), and gradually reduce the amount over the course of the day.
- In the evening, you should avoid carbohydrates as far as this is possible. Try to get more protein, instead.
- Fat is not the only thing that lets you put on weight. Carbohydrates can be just as dangerous, if not even more dangerous.
- Sugar is a poor form of carbohydrates and should be avoided whenever possible. It doesn't last long, and is of lower quality.
- "I don't count my sit-ups. I only start counting when it starts hurting, because then it really counts." (Muhammad Ali)
- "I hated every minute of training, but I said: Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion." (Muhammad Ali)
- "You can't control how lucky or smart you are, but you can control how hard you work, so that's the first thing." (Michael Bloomberg)
- "If we get on the treadmill together, there's two things: Either you're giving up first, or I'm going to die. Simple, right?" (Will Smith)
- "While it's true that exercising at light intensities uses fat as the dominant source of energy, the overall energy requirement is substantially smaller, so you are burning far fewer calories than you would be if you were exercising at higher intensity. So in terms of achieving weight loss, that's totally counter intuitive." (Chris Easton)
- "One of the biggest health benefits of swimming is that it's non-weight bearing, which means you won't be putting any strain on muscles and joints. Sadly, that same effect might be your downfall if you want to swim to lose weight, because you aren't lifting your own body weight as you are with running, which makes for a comparatively easier workout. [...] [There] is another potential pitfall: swimming can stoke the appetite more than other forms of exercise." (Catherine de Lange)
- You have to truly enjoy your workout, the routine itself. If you love the results only, you will be able to stick to your workout for some months or years, but not forever. If you enjoy your workout itself, however, you will never suffer from a lack of motivation.
- "I enjoy my workouts. They are my peace, my joy — I get my whole head together! I value that time more than my shower! And it really gets me together. But it's a habit." (Terry Crews)
- "[O]ne of the most frustrating parts [...] is [the] overwhelming emphasis on exercise. Because when it comes to reaching a healthy weight, what you don't eat is much, much more important. [...] Moreover, exercise increases one's appetite. After all, when you burn off calories being active, your body will often signal you to replace them. [...] Unfortunately, exercise seems to excite us much more than eating less does." (Aaron E. Carroll)
- "Exercise has many benefits, but there are problems with relying on it to control weight. [...] But I can't say this enough: Exercise has a big upside for health beyond potential weight loss. Many studies and reviews detail how physical activity can improve outcomes in musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, pulmonary diseases, neurological diseases and depression." (Aaron E. Carroll)
- “Despite the prevailing advice, exercise is pretty unhelpful for weight loss. While 100 percent of the energy we gain comes from food, we can only burn about 10 to 30 percent of it with physical activity each day.” (Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina)
- “While exercise is hugely important for overall health, how much and what you eat has a much bigger impact on your waistline.” (Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina)
- “While [...] hunter-gatherers were physically active and lean, they actually burned the same amount of calories every day as the [modern] American or European, even after [...] researchers controlled for body size.” (Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina)
- “One very underappreciated fact about exercise is that, even when you work out, those extra calories burned only account for a tiny part of your total energy expenditure.” (Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina)
- “If [you] decide[] to increase food intake or relax more to recover from [...] added exercise, then even less weight [is] lost.” (Kevin Hall)
- “You work hard on that machine for an hour [to lose weight], and that work can be erased with five minutes of eating afterward.” (Kevin Hall)
- “Coca-Cola [...] initiated a strategy of funding scientific research that played down the role of Coke products in the spread of obesity [...] [and] encouraged the public to focus on exercise and worry less about how calories from food and beverages contribute to obesity.” (Anahad O’Connor)
- “[A] focus on energy-out for energy balance is an inadequate and a potentially dangerous approach, because it is liable to encourage people to ignore or underestimate the greater impact of energy-in.” (Sara Kirk and Tarra Penney)
- “Exercise is excellent for health, but it’s not important for weight loss. The two things should never be given equal weight in the obesity debate.” (Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina)
- “[T]he most important thing a person can do [to lose weight] is to limit calories in a way they like and can sustain, and focus on eating healthfully.” (Julia Belluz and Javier Zarracina)
- “[Y]ou have to do an awful lot more exercise [to lose weight] than most people realise. To burn off an extra 500 calories is typically an extra two hours of cycling. And that’s about two doughnuts.” (Susan Jebb)
- “If you want to lose a pound of body fat, then that requires you to run from Leeds to Nottingham, but if you want to do it through diet, you just have to skip a meal for seven days.” (Paul Gately)
- Concentric muscular contractions are the motions of active muscles when shortening against load. For the biceps, that may be raising a dumbbell as part of a curl, for example. The generated tension is sufficient to overcome the external load.
- Eccentric muscular contractions are the motions of active muscles when lengthening under load. For the biceps, that may be lowering a dumbbell slowly as part of a curl, for example. The generated tension is insufficient to overcome the external load.
- Isometric muscular contractions mean building up and keeping tension without changing the length of the muscle, e.g. holding a heavy object in place.
- Exercises that include both concentric and eccentric muscular contractions (i.e. a forceful lifting and a controlled lowering of the weight) can produce greater gains in strength than concentric contractions alone.
- Eccentric muscular contractions consume less (chemical) energy than concentric contractions.
- „The body prefers to generate most of its energy using aerobic methods, meaning with oxygen. Some circumstances, however – such as evading the historical saber tooth tiger or lifting heavy weights – require energy production faster than our bodies can adequately deliver oxygen. In those cases, the working muscles generate energy anaerobically.“ (Stephen M. Roth)
- „[L]actate or, as it is often called, lactic acid buildup is not responsible for the muscle soreness felt in the days following strenuous exercise. Rather, the production of lactate and other metabolites during extreme exertion results in the burning sensation often felt in active muscles [...].“ (Stephen M. Roth)
- The main reason for delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is probably actual, small-scale muscle cell damage (microtrauma).
- „[E]ccentric [muscular] contractions have been shown to result in more muscle cell damage than is seen with typical concentric contractions [...]. Thus, exercises that involve many eccentric contractions, such as downhill running, will result in the most severe DOMS, even without any noticeable burning sensations in the muscles during the event.“ (Stephen M. Roth)
- Stretching or warming up muscles does not prevent delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).