Complexity Leads to Simplicity: 3 Keys for Simple Fitness and More Muscle and Strength
December 2nd, 2010
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by Mike T Nelson · Filed Under: Bigger Muscles (Hypertrophy) · Gym Movements Biofeedback
TED Talk from Eric Berlow: How complexity leads to simplicity
I admit that I am totally adicted to TED talks.
This one is awesome and will only take less than 4 minutes of your time.
For fitness and exercise we are making it too hard.
This does NOT mean that physiology is not complex or simple. Far from it. I’ve often said that “physiology is messy” and “associated with every ‘bad’ engineering work like non-linear, anisotropic, etc” I’ve spent years studying physiology only to learn that I don’t know much! ha!
The INTERFACE of exercise is quite simple though!
Here are the 3 keys you must know for more muscle with less fat and pain
1) Measure your range of motion (if you want to know how, click HERE)
a) ROM (range of motion) is less -try a different exercise
b) ROM is better -great! Do that exercise
c) ROM is about the same -try something else to see if you can do better
2) Do each set until you one of 3 things happen:
a) your speed slows down
b) you have inappropriate tension
c) your breathing is altered.
3) Work to add overload with these 3 components:
a) volume (weight x sets x reps)
b) intensity (% 1 rep max or weight used)
c) density (volume/ time)
Rinse and repeat.
It really can be that easy!
Just think 3 x 3
Comments
What do you think? Let me know by posting a comment below!
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
PS
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I think the cycle of simplicity and complexity is fascinating.
The more you learn, the more you realise the simplicity of interaction. The more you understand your simple elements, the more options become available extrapolated from them. The more options you test, the more you reduce your actions to the most effective, recreating simplicity.
Awesome. I think understanding this cycle has to be one of the biggest keys to being truly effective in life. Haven’t watched the vid yet (at work, so it’s blocked) but will be as soon as I hit the home PC.
Are there any other specific TED talks you’d put on the shortlist to watch, Mike? I’ve heard there’re some great ones out there.
Right up my alley.
I’ve often thought many people, myself included, get caught up in the details too much. I love how in the TED Talk he eliminated many options by asking, what is actionable? That line of thinking has enabled me to reduce my training complexity by tonnes. All you have in exercise are movements done at different speeds and loads. Realizing that is fantastic. Then from that mindset, so much of what you’ve been teaching over the past few years has aligned perfectly.
It is the reason I paid for your course, and am glad I did. Sure I have less to learn than a less experienced person, but what I’ve learned is effective. And on paper, I haven’t learned almost anything yet if you look at the number of things I’ve picked up. But guess what, in a world of complexity, it is great to learn the very few things that change the game for ever, and your above 3×3 is worth so much, yet so simple that I fear it will be hard for many to accept right away. But they will.
shouldn’t volume have the weight used in the equation? like total reps times weight used and the volume would be in pounds. (or KG for brothers up north)
Piers, I agree! The goal is to make it as simple as possible, but not simpler.
For TED Talks, I honestly have not seen a bad one! All of them are pretty darn good.
I still love this one from Daniel Pink
http://extremehumanperformance.com/blog/motivation-monday-dan-pink-on-the-surprising-science-of-motivation/
Rock on
Mike N
Roland,
Glad you are liking the Eclass. You are correct. There is TONS of stuff out there to try, do and focus on.
Some is helpful, some is not, most depends on the person too!
My goal is to take all the complexity and make it simple. I believe the more simple the info, the more likely people will take action. If you have to do 13 things in a row just to increase protein synthesis, odds are most will never do it. If you have to do one key thing, odds are much better.
My goal is to get people to take ACTION. Nothing will happen without action.
Keep up the good work!
rock on
Mike N
Gene,
Yes, you are absolutely correct! I have made the correction now and thanks for point that out!
Much appreciated
Rock on
Mike T Nelson
Okay, just caught up and watched the talk. Great stuff, very perceptive.
Mike T,
I will be using this as my paraphrased answer to “what do you do now that you let RKC?”
Thank you for making it simple, but not simpler.
It’s a brilliant idea that’s expressed in Berlow’s talk about complexity, although the details really matter a lot. Bringing more data into consideration does bring new insights to the problem, very often the key insight for solving the problem, but it has to be organized in a way that makes sense of it. The infamous problem is that it’s incredibly easy to organize data in a way that spins it to get the answer we want instead of letting the data speak for itself. The value of this talk to me is that it recognizes so well that it is worth taking the effort to do it anyway, and use our experience and expertise to keep things straight. In the Afghanistan diagram example, there is so much detail that most people didn’t see any pattern. Berlow was able to see useful patterns, but he had to reorganize it visually (at least in his mind, and he seems to have a great visual memory) before the simple connections popped out. The trick is being able to do that visual reorganization so the patterns become easier to spot. Which is probably why the idea never really gained any traction until we started to have fancy data visuallization tools.
Also thanks for lending your expertise in reorganizing the physiology data so we can see the rules so much better!
Todd
Todd,
Thanks for the comments man!
I agree 100% that most spin data to their agreement. I try as hard as I can to let the data change MY direction instead of me forcing the data to match my current beliefs.
Rock on
Mike N
Mr Will!
I will look forward to your article for sure!
Thanks for the kind words man! There is too much crap in the fitness world that is WAAAAAAAY too complicated for what the ATHLETE needs to do at the end of the day. Yes, physiology is VERY complex, but our job is to not make it MORE complicated just to stroke our egos. Athletes of all types pay us for results and if we make it complicated, I feel we dampen their results (they take less action).
Rock on
Mike N
Glad you liked it Piers!!
Your ‘roo shooter email made my laugh hard! Good stuff man
Rock on
Mike N
Wheres the e class at to purchase? its not listed under products…