I think you are missing the point of the book (not surprising since you did not read it).
The thesis of the 4-hour body is to understand as much of the science as meaningful, and then to do the absolute minimum in terms of diet and exercise in order to improve your body. As you know, the book is written for a general audience.
As an elite athlete, it may be easy for you to look at the situation and say 'you are seeing novice gains'. But thats not the point. The point is that the book is a knowledge repository for me to accomplish the goals the author has set forth.
Instead of just criticizing, perhaps you can offer a suggestion for a better alternative of a knowledge repository aimed at the goals and the audience Tim Ferriss is trying to impact?
> The thesis of the 4-hour body is to understand as much of the science as meaningful, and then to do the absolute minimum in terms of diet and exercise in order to improve your body
And my point is that the absolute minimum is all you need to get novice gains, in any system. High reps, low reps. High frequency, low frequency. High intensity, low intensity. High density, low density. High volume, low volume. High tempo, low tempo. They will all work for the novice, just not very long. Nothing I have heard about this book changes this fact.
> Instead of just criticizing, perhaps you can offer a suggestion for a better alternative of a knowledge repository aimed at the goals and the audience Tim Ferriss is trying to impact?
For novices, the go-to golden standard is Starting Strength by Rippetoe. He's a strength coach with decades of both practical and research experience. I'd back him in a controlled twin study against Feriss for AU$1000 right now.
Again, you seem to think the book is about this claim that TF has invented some new kind of workout routine. Its not.
At a novice level there is a minimum amount of work that can be done to get the desired outcome. Further, an intermediate or professional athlete also has a minimum amount of work that can be done to get their desired outcome. In every goal, no matter what your experience or skill level, there is a minimum amount of work for the desired outcome.
How do you quantify this minimum amount of work is? The 4 hour body prescribes a methodology of continual trial and measurement. That is what the book is about.. applying this principle to your goals for your own body. And, he has sections in the book for both beginners and more experienced athletes.
Occams Protocol, as the book refers to it, is really a brilliant principle if you can just remove yourself from your expertise in this subject for one minute.
Starting Strength looks great. I started lifting about 15 years ago - my first read was Arnold's 'Encyclopedia of Body Building'. Either of those books would take me a few weeks to really absorb. The Four hour body took me about 6 hours to read, it encouraged me to cut back my workouts from 6 hours per week to 3 hours per week - so far with solid results. That is significant, that is important to me - that is something that I would like to share with other people.
btw, I would not take your bet, however, if that challenge was to happen, I would not bet against Tim Ferriss.
> Again, you seem to think the book is about this claim that TF has invented some new kind of workout routine. Its not.
OK. Admittedly I am attacking my own impression of a book I don't own (and don't plan to). Technically I am beating up a strawman, which is always an uneven fight.
> How do you quantify this minimum amount of work is? The 4 hour body prescribes a methodology of continual trial and measurement. That is what the book is about.. applying this principle to your goals for your own body.
Thank you for the best point made yet. I think it's great to experiment on yourself. I keep a log for more or less this purpose. However, it is problematic to generalise from "this worked awesomely for me" to "this will work awesomely for everyone forever", because novice gains dry up fast.
> Starting Strength looks great. I started lifting about 15 years ago - my first read was Arnold's 'Encyclopedia of Body Building'. Either of those books would take me a few weeks to really absorb
Yeah, I had Arnold's book in high school. Spent hooooours in the gym doing every variation of shoulder exercise known to man. My only really fond memory of the book is that it insisted on squatting and by god I did lots of them. Squats have never let me down.
> The Four hour body took me about 6 hours to read, it encouraged me to cut back my workouts from 6 hours per week to 3 hours per week - so far with solid results.
I am very pleased it is working for you. I note in passing that Starting Strength aims for 3 workouts of 45 minutes duration -- less time than you are spending now.
Edit: a good book to follow Starting Strength is Practical Programming for Strength Training, by Rippetoe et al.
Yes, I could have been clearer. In strength training jargon, novice basically means "unadapted". It's a person who hasn't strength trained before -- elite cyclists, swimmers, sprinters and even bodybuilders can all be called novices in the right circumstances.
The point of books like this is always the same: Where your focus is will become more.
When you focus on problems becoming an entrepreneur you won't become an entrepreneur. When you focus on health you will get healthier. Nothing new here. So I don't think parent missed the point.
But maybe for some Tim Ferriss books are reminders to focus.
The thesis of the 4-hour body is to understand as much of the science as meaningful, and then to do the absolute minimum in terms of diet and exercise in order to improve your body. As you know, the book is written for a general audience.
As an elite athlete, it may be easy for you to look at the situation and say 'you are seeing novice gains'. But thats not the point. The point is that the book is a knowledge repository for me to accomplish the goals the author has set forth.
Instead of just criticizing, perhaps you can offer a suggestion for a better alternative of a knowledge repository aimed at the goals and the audience Tim Ferriss is trying to impact?