Scott Abel Fitness Podcast Scott Abel

We discuss recent as well as some older articles and studies about The Biggest Loser, including issues with metabolism, the framing of how weight loss happens, and some of the more pervasive effects of representing weight loss in the media. Scott also discusses some of the things he knows athletes would do to lose weight from his experiences in the competition.

Articles



* “Forget the pounds. ‘The Biggest Loser’ tries to shed critics of its weight-loss plan,” Los Angeles Times, Jan 28, 2020

* “Authorities Probe ‘Biggest Loser' Over Doping Allegations,” New York Post, May 31, 2016

* “Report: ‘Biggest Loser' Contestants Provided Illicit Drugs to Lose Weight,” Philly Voice, May 22, 2016

* “After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight,” New York Times, May 2, 2016



Studies



* “Audience Responses to Physical Activity in the Biggest Loser Australia” in Journal of Health Communication

* “Losing Weight on Reality TV: A Content Analysis of the Weight Loss Behaviors and Practices Portrayed on The Biggest Loser” Lori A. Klos et al.

* “Metabolic slowing with massive weight loss despite preservation of fat-free mass” In J Clin Endocrinol Metab.

* “No Clear Winner: Effects of The Biggest Loser on the Stigmatization of Obese Person” in Health Communication

* “Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after “The Biggest Loser” competition” in Obesity



Other



* Why Diets Make Us Fat by Sandra Aamodt

Scott and Mike discuss a strategy for training and traveling: “Programmus Interruptus” 

Visit scottabelfitness.com/interrupt for a detailed written breakdown of what we’re talking about, plus a video demo.

The main idea is, if you're traveling and need to substitute in a workout in your hotel room (or what-have-you), you can stay flexible by mixing whole body training with some bodypart emphasis. This way, you might, for example, replace your shoulder workout with a whole body workout that has a shoulder emphasis… but if you miss a day or two (because you're traveling and things are up in the air) it's not as though you've neglected the rest of your body. You've still kept things “stimulated.”

 

Mike is joined by Lou Schuler to discuss some of the larger trends in fitness, as well as how to avoid saying the same things over again in fitness writing.

Mike wanted to talk to Lou to talk about fitness writing because Lou — an award-wining journalist — has been fitness editor of Men’s Fitness, and, later, Men’s Health, and he’s written a bunch of well-known books in the industry, including the New Rules of Lifting Series with Alwyn Cosgrove, as well as a bunch of others you’d recognize.

Mike and Lou also discussed Ruth Engs' Clean Living Movements (read more in this New York Times discussion of Engs' book (http://bit.ly/cln_living) as as well as some relevant history of the Graham cracker at Refinery29 (http://bit.ly/grm_crkr)).

– – –

If you do have a career in fitness and are looking to grow, be sure to check out the KC Fitness Summit (http://kcfitnesssummit.com/) during the first weekend in May. (Check out the speakers.)

 

Links & Resources



* The New Rules of Lifting for Life – (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0074VTHIY)

* theptdc.com – (http://theptdc.com/)

* kcfitnesssummit.com (http://kcfitnesssummit.com/)

* louschuler.com

Scott is joined by Alexandra Paul of Baywatch. They discuss Alexandra's remarkable activism (and even her arrests), her work for animal rights, her career development after Baywatch, and much more.



Links & Resources

• Alexandra Paul's Website - https://alexandrapaul.com/

• Alexandra Paul's IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000575/

We discuss what goes into an actual, solid workout: what to focus on, tempo vs cadence, pumping reps vs explosive reps, myths, warmups.

Some Quick Notes:



* “The muscles work the weights; the weights don't work the muscles.”

* *Most* of what we talked about is related to using the inside/out approach instead of an (exclusive) outside/in approach. I.e., yes, your weights go up, but you should pay attention to how the reps feel. To paraphrase Fred Hatfield: Are you getting very inch of every rep of every set?

* Scott recommends watching the workout sections in Pumping Iron:









Scott's Warmup Videos:

General Preparation Phase



Integrated Warmup and Physical Rehearsal



How much customization is needed for a workout program? Ideally, does every program you do need to be custom-designed from scratch? The answer is obviously not. Any good coach will have their own library of programs that are useful for a variety of different contexts:



* First, these programs are structured around sound principles

* Then, after doing a client assessment, a program can be assigned to a client based on their current individual ‘needs state’ among other factors.

* Then, “tweakology” can be used for minor adjustments, either to the program itself or just int terms of application.



In Scott's Program Design Masterclass, designing new programs can be broken down into figuring out the following elements:



* Theme, goal and/or purpose

* Structure

* Context



Then…



* Strategy and tactics

* Variables and constants



Scott and Mike then discussed some of the different themes Scott might use, different contexts, and how these are then applied to the individual trainee in different situations.