Doug McGuff > Quotes

“if one desires to have the body type of, say, a champion swimmer, the best course is to start by having the same parents as that champion swimmer—rather than his or her training methods.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“While both low- and high-intensity physical activity burn calories, high-intensity exercise does something that is highly important in the fat-burning process that its lower-intensity counterpart does not: it activates hormone-sensitive lipase.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“The average person weighing 150 pounds burns roughly 100 calories per mile—whether the person walks or runs that mile.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“On June 6, 2005, CNN reported on the startling (to some) findings of a McMaster University research group, proclaiming that “six minutes of pure, hard exercise once a week could be just as effective as an hour of daily moderate activity.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“controlling insulin levels adequately such that serum insulin levels remain low. In this way, hormone-sensitive lipase is easier to activate, making mobilized bodyfat the body’s primary energy source preferentially over other sources. This state can be achieved through a diet that is relatively restricted in carbohydrates, but one will have more dietary latitude if, in concert with going easy on the carbohydrates, one engages in the performance of high-intensity exercise.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“Moral hazard refers to the fact that people take on greater risks when they are personally shielded from the negative consequences.”
― Doug McGuff, The Primal Prescription: Surviving The "Sick Care" Sinkhole

“Wayne Wescott took nonambulatory seniors from a nursing home and had them participate in a brief workout involving one set of six different exercises for a fourteen-week period. The average age of the subjects was eighty-eight and a half. At the end of the study, the seniors had averaged a four-pound gain in muscle, a three-pound loss of fat, an increase in strength of more than 80 percent in their lower-body musculature, and an increase in strength of almost 40 percent in their upper-body musculature. They improved their hip and shoulder flexibility by an average of 50 percent and 10 percent, respectively. More important, at the end of the study, many of the formerly wheelchair-bound subjects were able to walk again. They were out of their wheelchairs and no longer required around-the-clock nursing.16”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“your muscles deal only with force-production requirements, which, in turn, are determined by the resistance to which the muscles are exposed—whether that resistance comes in the form of a free weight, a Nautilus machine, or a bucket of rocks. The scientific literature backs this up: according to the few properly performed studies that measured the effects of free weights versus machines, both are equally effective.1”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“The problem is not that people today are inactive; the problem is that calories are so readily available to be consumed. Diners judge the value of their meals by the size of the portions they are given, and when people go out to eat, they want to leave feeling full. On this point, studies have shown that there is a difference of roughly 1,000 calories between feeling satisfied and feeling full. Moving on, there is a difference of 2,000 to 3,000 calories between feeling full and feeling stuffed. If you go out to an all-you-can-eat buffet and leave feeling stuffed, you may have consumed as many as 4,000 unneeded calories.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know the sort of disease a person has.”
― Doug McGuff, The Primal Prescription: Surviving The "Sick Care" Sinkhole

“The bottom line is that a single set taken to a point of positive failure is a sufficient stimulus to trigger the growth and strength mechanism of the body into motion. Additional sets produce nothing but more time spent in the gym.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“Yes, health care is a crucial component of a person’s lifestyle, and that might make Americans hesitant to rely on “the free market” to deliver it. But food, clothing, and shelter are even more fundamental staples of life, and most Americans would agree that having the government act as a “single payer” for all of their purchases at the grocery store and The Gap would be an absolute disaster.”
― Doug McGuff, The Primal Prescription: Surviving The "Sick Care" Sinkhole

“The literature came down overwhelmingly in favor of a single set of exercise as being sufficient; only two out of the forty-seven studies surveyed showed any benefit (and a marginal improvement at that) to be had from the performance of multiple sets.3”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“And if a giant new government agency—perhaps called “Housicare”—were given the power to tax all paychecks in order to pay for all home purchases and apartment rentals (according to an official schedule of prices corresponding to family size and job location), the disruption in the market would be mind-boggling. By severing the direct connection between buyer and seller, consumers’ satisfaction with their homes and apartments would suffer while prices would soar. After a few years of such a nutty system, the housing market would be just as screwed up as … well, as the health care and health insurance markets currently are.”
― Doug McGuff, The Primal Prescription: Surviving The "Sick Care" Sinkhole

“many people who happen to possess such abnormal physical capabilities frequently misidentify themselves as sources of authority, taking credit for something that nature has, in essence, randomly dropped in their laps.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week

“The adage that “practice makes perfect” has merit, but it should be amended to include “only when perfectly practiced.”
― Doug McGuff, Body by Science: A Research-Based Program for Strength Training, Body Building, and Complete Fitness in 12 Minutes a Week