Bad Advice

[Jean-Paul]

I read at about 20-something different forums, and I am beginning to notice something that really disturbs me. BAD ADVICE! Someone who knows absolutely NOTHING about fitness asks questions and they are answered by an equally ignorant person. There is nothing wrong with asking advice, but jeez, there should be some kind of etiquette with answering these, like qualifying yourself. Instead people just spout nonsense as known fact. On one forum corrected someone's bad advice to another on a nutrition related topic, and the guy who had authoritatively answered the guys question literally asked, "what's a carbohydrate?" Another guy told someone who did not have a bench to use a bed for heavy dumbbell chest presses! More and more I see people preaching pilates to football players or other athletes (hell, even magazines do that). Last Saturday I saw a woman on the Early Show giving horrid advice. For myself, more and more I find myself sticking with the guys in here. Occassionally I see some good advice at T-mag, when they aren't being elitist roid-raging freaks. Of course, MH has been a regular spot for me, although there aren't too many resident experts. The sharpest experts over there tend to post in here pretty frequently anyway. For whatever reason we seem to have become a meeting place for some serious fitness knowledge.

Have any of you run into this? Any horror stories out there?

[massive member]

jp, i participate on many forums also. the responses that make me do this are along the lines of:

"that's not how arnold did it"

[Q.]

JP,

That's one of the reasons I don't visit MH much anymore - how many people have been around over there since they changed the software and still only have 700 posts! - the other is the sheer volume. I don't want to be one of those people giving advice on stuff I'm not qualified to give advice on. Of course, there are other reasons to participate... but the tempation is still there to go beyond simply "this works for me."

Over here, I have next to nothing to contribute except for my own questions and examples of what not to do!. Maybe the greatest thing a person can learn is to question the advice given; over here, these folks can back it up!

Q

[gregl515]

Wouldn't a Pilates class be a great place to see hot women and therefore an important part of any man's fitness program?

[bryanc]

Most guys I know that have taken a challenging Pilates class have their eyes shut from the exertional pain.

[Jean-Paul]

I'm not suggesting that it is not hard by any stretch. Its just that it isn't "sport specific" like the article was trying to portray. It was yet another "build your 'core' muscles and be better at your sport, no matter what it is" article. As I read it I could sense Bill (who has been absent for quite a while recently ) rolling over in his future grave.

[Bill Hartman]

Coming Soon in 2004...Bill-ates!!

Basically, it's where you laugh at group exercise classes so hard that you get a training effect in your "core" musculature that will transfer to any sport!

Bill

[Jean-Paul]

Bill-ates.... I like it. How much to get certified in it? All I have in my pocket is $105. Can I get to at least a level 1 or 2?

[mitsuman47]

Bill-ates. HAHAHAHAHAHA. That's great. Although, I don't know if I'll take that class. I sent my $1,467.83 check in to get the H.A.R.T.M.A.N. test and it never showed up.

Ryan, anti-H.A.R.T.M.A.N. Enterprises

[LVRebGirl]

This is not from a forum... but several of my friends go to a local private women's gym where the owner tells women that they shouldn't ever run (at any distance or speed) because they'll get big muscular legs and look unlady-like!

[Jean-Paul]

Wha? You mean that's not true about women and running? All this time.... DAMN! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[kuri]

Yeah, I've found forums such as this misleading so now I stick to my 80's collection of leather-bound M&F

Seriously though, its rarely worth even checking the training section of T-rag anymore. I've become a bonafide JP forum convert (sorry I've rarely much to contribute).

[Adam Campbell]

I'm a big fan of this forum right now--in fact, it's probably my favorite.

The reasons:
*Good advice from qualified experts. And even if people don't agree, pretty much everyone is basing their advice on sound logic, research, or experience with clients. (Not just, "I do this, it works" crap.)

*Good questions and gracious posters, regardless of training experience.

*No spammers (I probably shouldn't have said that.)

This reminds me a little bit of how Supertraining used to be, although it's not as strong as it once since the passing of Mel Siff.

[russ]

*No spammers (I probably shouldn't have said that.)

Oh, we get spammers. But each one seems to leave the forum with his/her tail between his/her legs

Check out:
http://forums.jpfitness.com/cgi-bin/...=000136#000020

http://forums.jpfitness.com/cgi-bin/...=000105#000004

http://forums.jpfitness.com/cgi-bin/...=000111#000000

[Bond007]

JP, this is probably my favorite forum to read and learn about fitness. Granted, I may not participate much because most guys here know a hell of a lot more than I do about fitness. The questions are real and the responses are usually very deep. (I'm disregarding "BILL-ATES"....hehehehe). I'm gonna try this year to learn even more so I can participate more in these forums.

Thanks for making this a very knowledgeable place!

[DKing]

I am a big fan of this forum and I know what all you guys are talking about. I almost never visit the t-mag forum anymore, I still love the mag, but the forum is crap. I still go to MH quite a bit, it must be sentimental value, who knows. I also frequent the Rugged mag forums a lot. They have a bunch of seriously smart guys like this forum.

I totally see where JP is coming from with the crappy advice. It gets pretty bad on MH sometimes, and I see it all the time at college. More and more I am using this forum and rugged as places to go to escape the idiocy.

Danny

[Jean-Paul]

Thanks for the props Danny. Now that you are coming to LR you are going get some great advice straight from the source, and not off a computer screen from some anonymous faceless posters!

[GqArtguy]

I hang out in the MH forum to address some of the issues of bad advice and call them out on it. For instance, some kid told a guy to take a broom and start twisting to lose the love handles.

I lurk in this forum, but since I havent had any injuries and think I know what Im doing, I dont really ask too many questions.

Same thing at the rugged forum. Its a very high quality site and I love their training log section. I post my log over there. Ive thought about posting it here but there really isnt a space for that and I dont want to clog up the training section.

Mike Meijia has started a forum at his site but its still very new and thus pretty dead.

[Jean-Paul]

I have thought about creating a training log section of this forum. Do you think many people would actually use it?