The Crooked Timber of Auschwitz

A brief history of how a concentration camp became an extermination center

BY MICHAEL SHERMER & ALEX GROBMAN

If we are to hope to understand the often violent world in which we live, we cannot confine our attention to the great impersonal forces, natural and man-made, which act upon us. The goals and motives that guide human action must be looked at in the light of all that we know and understand; their roots and growth, their essence, and above all their validity, must be critically examined with every intellectual resource that we have.

—Isaiah Berlin, The Crooked Timber of Humanity, 1991

Isaiah Berlin’s last book was inspired by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who, in one of the great one-liners of philosophy, summarized the history of civilization thusly: “Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.” The grain of the past, Kant and Berlin understood, is twisted and full of knots. Rarely do historical events of any magnitude or import match the linear progression of cardboard textbook histories. Instead, the past is quirky and nonlinear. So it is with Auschwitz, whose crooked history led it to become the deadliest site in the worst genocide in modern history.

From Euthanasia to Mass Murder

Long before prisoners were herded into gas chambers and killed with Zyklon-B or carbon monoxide gas, the Nazis had developed a program of systematic and secret murder of targeted peoples. It began with the sterilization programs of the early 1930s, evolved into the euthanasia programs of the late 1930s, and with this experience the Nazis were able to implement mass murder in the extermination camps from 1941–1945. As shocking as gassing masses of prisoners in a chamber seems, as psychologists know it is actually easy to get people to do almost anything when the steps leading to it are small and incremental. After murdering tens of thousands of “inferior” Germans, the idea of attempting to annihilate the Jewish people did not appear unimaginable. Once targeted peoples have been demonized, excluded, expelled, sterilized, deported, beaten, tortured, and euthanized, the step to mass murder is a small one.

Sterilization laws were passed in late 1933. Within a year 32,268 people were sterilized. In 1935, the figure jumped to 73,174, with official reasons given including feeblemindedness, schizophrenia, epilepsy, manic-depressive psychosis, alcoholism, deafness, blindness, and even malformations. So-called sex offenders were simply castrated, no fewer than 2,300 in the first decade of the program.

In 1935, Hitler told the leading Reich physician, Gerhard Wagner, that when the war began he wanted to make the shift from sterilization to euthanasia. True to his word, in the summer of 1939 the Nazis began killing physically handicapped children, then quickly moved on to mentally handicapped children, and soon after to adults with either handicap. The murders were initially committed through large doses of “normal” medication given in tablet or liquid form, so as to look like an accident (families were notified of the death). If the patients resisted, injections were used. When the numbers chosen for death became cumbersomely large, however, the operations had to be moved into special killing wards instead of isolated units.

The process became so extensive that the Germans had to expand their operation by taking over an office complex set up at a stolen Jewish villa in Berlin, located at Tiergarten Strasse #4. Thus, the program became known as Operation T4, or just T4, the “Reich Work Group of Sanatoriums and Nursing Homes”. T4 doctors arbitrarily decided who would live and who would die with, among others, economic status one of the common criteria—those unable to work or only able to perform “routine” work could be put to death. Historians estimate that approximately 5,000 children and 70,000 adults were murdered in the euthanasia program prior to August, 1941.

Figure 1. Hartheim Castle, 1940, a site of a T4 “euthanasia” killing center. Smoke from the small crematorium constructed inside for burning the bodies of victims can be seen in the background. From: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC.

As the numbers increased so too did the complications of murder on such a scale. Mass murder requires a mass murder process, and medication and injections did not suffice. The T4 physicians were aware of the fact that some accidental deaths and suicides were the result of gas from an automobile engine or a leaking stove. According to Dr. Karl Brandt, he and Hitler discussed the various techniques and decided upon gas as “the more humane way.” The T4 administrators set up six killing centers; the first established at an old jail building in the city of Brandenburg. Sometime between December, 1939, and January, 1940, a two-day series of gassing experiments was conducted and deemed successful. Thereafter five more killing centers were established, including one each at Grafeneck in Württemberg, Hartheim near Linz, Sonnenstein in Saxony, Bernburg in the Prussian province of Saxony, and Hadamar in Hessen. The gas chambers were disguised as showers, the “handicapped” patients herded in, and the gas administered. One observer, Maximilian Friedrich Lindner, recalled the process at Hadamar (Friedlander, 1995, 97):

Did I ever watch a gassing? Dear God, unfortunately, yes. And it was all due to my curiosity….Downstairs on the left was a short pathway, and there I looked through the window….In the chamber there were patients, naked people, some semi-collapsed, others with their mouths terribly wide open, their chests heaving. I saw that, I have never seen anything more gruesome. I turned away, went up the steps, upstairs was a toilet. I vomited everything I had eaten. This pursued me days on end….

The gas was ventilated from the chamber with fans, the bodies were disentangled and removed from the room, the corpses marked with an “X” on their back were looted for gold in their teeth, then cremated. The entire process—from arrival at the killing center to cremation—took less than 24 hours, not unlike what was soon implemented in the larger camps in the East. Henry Friedlander, who traced this evolutionary process, concluded (284): “The success of the euthanasia policy convinced the Nazi leadership that mass murder was technically feasible, that ordinary men and women were willing to kill large numbers of innocent human beings, and that the bureaucracy would cooperate in such an unprecedented enterprise.”

In the T4 killing centers we see all the components of the extermination camps like Auschwitz. Through time the Nazi bureaucracy evolved along with the T4 killing centers, setting the stage for the conversion of concentration and work camps into extermination camps. By 1941–1942, this was just another incremental step in the contingently evolving system that became the Final Solution. […]

Read the complete article

6 Pieces of Workout Advice That Need To Die Forever

from The Stack e-zine

When it comes to working out, everybody's got an opinion, and usually, they're not afraid to share it. The amount of misinformation that gets labeled as fact within the fitness world is simply stunning. People who dole out this incorrect advice often have the best of intentions, but they just don't know any better.

You want to be a person who can separate fiction from fact. You want to believe the things you're doing are effective and backed by science. You want to know you’re making the most of your time in the gym. Whether it's a poor exercise cue or a misguided take on nutrient timing, believing this bad workout advice can really hold you back. With that in mind, here are some of the more prominent pieces of bad workout advice you need to be aware of.

1). You can eat pretty much whatever you want as long as you work out. Not if you want to maintain your weight in an effective way, hit your weight loss goals, or achieve a better body composition.

Physical activity only accounts for 10-30 percent of the calories we burn each day. Yet food/beverage intake accounts for 100 percent of the calories we consume. While exercise has undeniable physical, mental and emotional benefits, it's not the silver bullet for weight loss.

"Most people tend to focus too much on exercise, but it's much more effective to establish an energy deficit through nutrition and use exercise as a tool for more general health benefits," says James Krieger, M.S. in Nutrition and Exercise Science and owner of Weightology.

"Unless you're engaging in really high volumes of exercise (which is not generally recommended), the amount of energy you expend during exercise isn't a big factor in whether you lose fat. Dietary adherence is the number one predictor of fat loss." Translation: those calories you worked so hard to burn during your 45-minute gym workout can easily be negated by one bad meal or snack.

If you want to eat better, focus on eating "as little or no added sugar, adequate protein, as little or no refined grain, and as many vegetables as you can."

2). Women will look like men if they lift weights. This is perhaps one of the dumbest pieces of workout advice out there, and it's caused a huge number of females to miss out on the massive benefit of resistance training.

Newsflash: a female won't suddenly turn into Arnold Schwarzenegger simply by picking up a weight. It just doesn't work that way. Women naturally have much less testosterone in their bodies than men, so it takes an extreme amount of time and energy for them to become anything approaching "bulky".

If you're not training and living like a female professional bodybuilder (and you would certainly know if you were), you don't need to worry about getting too big and bulky from strength training. Rather, resistance training is the best option for toning the body, dropping unwanted fat, fixing your posture, and simply looking and feeling better.

3). Do cardio right after strength training. It's a common sight in many gyms. As soon as people finish their lift, they head directly to the treadmill for 30 or 40 minutes of cardio. In theory, it makes sense: while strength training movements largely target the anaerobic energy systems, endurance exercise largely target the aerobic energy systems.

It would seem that performing both in the same workout is a recipe for ultra-efficient training. However, recent research has found that performing cardio immediately after strength training significantly impairs the muscle gain stimulated by your strength training. This is a classic case where working harder is not working smarter.

The takeaway: if you want to see big gains from your strength training, the last thing you should do is hop on a treadmill for a cardio session immediately after you finish pumping iron. Save it for opposing days, or at least much later on the same day.

By doing the two back to back, the only thing you're doing is making your quest for better overall fitness much more difficult.

4). Always training to failure guarantees huge gains. If you're unfamiliar with the term, "training to failure" refers to performing as many reps during a set as you possibly can. Only once your body "fails" and you can no longer squeeze out another rep is the set complete. It's also often referred to as "AMRAP," short for "As Many Reps as Possible."

In many people's minds, training to failure seems like it'd guarantee serious gains. Pushing your body to the brink guarantees significant muscle damage, which should leave you with an optimum chance for gains as long as you rest and recover appropriately.

However, training to failure throughout a workout has actually been found to result in lesser improvement in max strength and rate of force development than stopping sets with a few reps in reserve (meaning you feel you could perform a few more reps at the conclusion of the set, but you stop anyways).

Leaving a few reps in the tank rather than consistently training to failure is easier yet leads to better results. While training to failure every now and then can have benefit, it should be used only on occasion as opposed to your default approach.

5). Lifting weights will make you immobile. Walk into a gym and you're guaranteed to see at least one guy who looks like he can't move his upper body. We're sure he can lift a lot of weight, but he is the opposite of athletic.

"One of the things I deal with at the collegiate level are athletes who say they cannot train heavy because they will get tight," states Stephen Gamma, a strength coach and athletic trainer. But fear not, lifting heavy won't make you stiff and immobile.

In fact, strength training at a full range of motion is highly effective at increasing flexibility and mobility. Several recent studies have found that strength training, when performed correctly, can increase range of motion equal to, and in some cases greater than, static stretching.

What do we mean by "performed correctly"? Well, if you only do exercises to build your mirror muscles, refuse to perform exercises through a full range of motion, and don't do any sort of mobility and soft tissue work, then yes, you could become big, bulky and tight. But, if you avoid those common mistakes, strength training should help you become more mobile, not less.

6). Pain is just weakness leaving the body. Everyone's heard this phrase, and it can be pretty inspiring. However, it's important to remember that there's a fine line between toughness and stupidity.

Yes, intense training is going to result in the occasional searing muscles and burning lungs. That's how you know you're working hard. But if your pain is the result of a significant injury, trying to train like it simply doesn't exist is a terrible idea.

The number one goal of a strength training program is to prevent injury, not exacerbate it. If you keep trying to push through an injury that will only get better with rest, you're just going to force yourself into an even longer break from training some point down the road. It's simply not worth putting yourself at risk when you're training, especially when your goal is to play a sport. You need to be healthy to do that.

When in doubt, take a break and see a health professional. In many cases, they'll likely be able to draw up a plan that allows you to still train in some capacity while allowing the affected area to recover.

7). Pair a push with a pull. Ok, "Pair every push with a pull" is not a horrible piece of workout advice. In fact, following it would improve many people's workout routines. However, it is outdated. Why?

Because strength and conditioning experts now believe a workout program should include two pulls for every push. That ratio seems to be the winning formula to prevent asymmetries, build better posture and unlock elite athletic performance.

Due to our modern lifestyles and common training habits, the vast majority of us develop what's known as anterior dominance. This means the muscles on the front of our bodies are significantly stronger and tighter than the ones on the back of our bodies.

By making sure that we perform two pulls for every push inside our workouts, we can combat this issue. Not every pull has to be a heavy exercise, either. Mixing in a few sets of Band Pull-Aparts can go a long way towards building a better body.

Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding

What percentage of the population are immigrants? 

How bad is unemployment? 

How much sex do people have? 

These questions are important and interesting, but most of us get the answers wrong. Research shows that people often wildly misunderstand the state of the world, regardless of age, sex, or education. And though the internet brings us unprecedented access to information, there’s little evidence we’re any better informed because of it. We may blame cognitive bias or fake news, but neither tells the complete story. In Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything, Bobby Duffy draws on his research into public perception across more than forty countries, offering a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe. We won’t always know the facts, but they still matter. Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything is mandatory reading for anyone interested making humankind a little bit smarter. Duffy and Shermer also discuss:

• cognitive biases and how they distort what we think about the world

• do men really have more sexual partners than women (and if so, who are they having sex with?)

• why we lie to ourselves and others about almost everything

• fears about immigrants and immigration

• Brexit: leave or remain and why people vote each way

• why we are more polarized politically than ever before (and what we can do about it)

• the “backfire effect”: the bad news and the good

• why we are not living in a post-truth era

• why facts matter and why free speech matters, and

• kids these days…

Bobby Duffy is director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London. Formerly, he was managing director of the Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute and global director of the Ipsos Social Research Institute. He lives in London.

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What NOT To Do In 2020: Ridiculous Fitness Supplement Ads, A Cautionary Tale!

(Side note: Always beware of double talk, fanciful, unsubstantiated, or ridiculous claims. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember Occam's Razor.)

by Tom Venuto 

I think I've only bought one fitness magazine in the last 15 years, but I confess, the other day in the gym, there were 3 mags sitting on the bike, and I flipped through them as I was pedaling. As I saw the number of supplement ads and the outlandish things they said, it reminded me of one of the reasons I stopped buying magazines in the first place - a caution I wanted to pass on to you. I don't want to be completely critical of such media - they inspired me as a young lad in the late 80s and 90s, and there were a few good articles in the ones I recently browsed (you just have to read selectively).

However, the average reader (especially the beginner) would not know the difference between the good info and the bad or the biased. Neither would they know how to sift through the ads to separate legitimate products from the scams. The sad truth is, there are hardly any legitimate supplements in the fat-burning segments/muscle-building segment of the industry. There are rare exceptions, like creatine monohydrate, but the general rule holds true: Buyer beware: Most “fitness” supplements are BS!

A small handful of products may have benefits for exercise and sports performance or (far less often) improved body composition, but the effects are rarely significant (meaning, you won't experience any real, meaningful difference).

The weight loss segment of the supplement industry is the worst - it's almost a complete farce - pure, unadulterated bovine excrement. It's also worth remembering that in the past, products for increasing thermogenesis or pre-workout energy that did work were pulled off the market due to safety concerns (some of them actually contained drugs or harmful chemicals).

Most of the remaining supplements worth consideration don't claim to build muscle or burn fat - they are for the purpose of general nutrition, convenience, and overall health (prevention of deficiencies due to certain dietary restrictions, and so on).

Here's what makes the state of affairs today more embarrassing than ever: If you looked back at the last few decades, you would see a vast graveyard filled with supplements that never worked, made millions in sales before everyone figured it out, then fell off the map.

Memories are short, and young or new customers continually enter the market. I would quote PT Barnum, but for the beginner immersed in fitness or bodybuilding culture, I'm sympathetic because it's just not fair. Newbies have no experience yet and they are overwhelmingly led to believe that you're supposed to take supplements.

As such, the latest, greatest new product release cycle continues, and people keep wasting money and getting scammed, year after year, decade after decade. As I was flipping through those magazines, I snapped some pictures of the supplement ads so I'd remember the headlines and could write about them when I got home. Some of these ads made claims so ridiculous I actually started laughing, but I hope my commentary is taken seriously - this is a cautionary tale…

Ridiculous Ad #1: “I'm always the first to try new supplements - now you can too!” The fitness supplement industry has an abysmal track record. Boron, dibencozide, vandyl sulfate, gamma oryzanol, beta sitosterol, OKG, chromium picolinate, glandulars, bee pollen, Smilax, Inosine, and that's just a tiny sampling of old-school supplements that were all the rage back in the early days.

Many people jumped on the chance to try these when they were first promoted in magazines. I think it's an innate human tendency to be attracted to what's new (novelty) and an easy fix. It can reward us at times, just like questioning the status quo can, but also be our biggest downfall. Some of these products were huge sellers back then, but where are they now?

Consumables aren't ipods or iphones. Being an early adopter of technology might be expensive and there may be bugs, but the odds of finding a convenience or life-enhancing tool aren't that bad. Being an early adopter of supplements on the other hand, the odds are 99 to 1 you're being scammed and you may be risking your health.

Nearly everyone wants the freedom to buy and use any supplement they want, but this comes at a cost. Supplements are not regulated like drugs. Companies can release them fast without approval and don't have to take them off the market until the adverse effect complaints start coming in. Safe until proven dangerous is not a good assumption in this industry. When you put together safety concerns and the dismal track record, that's why, "Be the first to try new supplements" is the worst advice ever dished out!

More sensible advice: be the last person to try a new supplement, and only after you do your homework on the effectiveness, safety, etc. If you use supplements at all, use supplements that have been thoroughly researched for years for effectiveness and safety. Even better, take a pass on fat-burning and muscle-building supplements completely. Most don't work, and the very few that do are lowest on the hierarchy of what's really important and high in cost.

Ridiculous Ad #2: “I want a supplement company to tell me the truth.” Good luck finding that one! Here's a cold, hard dose of reality: If a fat burner or muscle builder advertisement sells a product really well, it's almost a given that it contains lies or even violates a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) law. The promises you see in the most successful weight loss ads are like a word for word transcript of the FTC red flag list for false weight loss claims.

Most fat burners don't work at all - they are complete scams. On the rare occasion a well-done study detects a benefit, it's invariably tiny - barely reaching statistical significance.Imagine if research results were reported honestly, like, "Clinically proven to burn 0.16 kilos more fat per month!", which is a microscopic .35 lbs (yes, you read that right, 1/3 of a pound)! Who would buy that? Tame claims don't sell. It takes bold, outrageous promises to sell supplements. That's why the ads are epitomized by hyperbole, exaggeration and often, outright lies.

Supplement advertising also depends on (paid) endorsements and testimonials - which is pure anecdote, not evidence. How honest is it when an athlete endorses a natural supplement, yet their physique was actually built with a cocktail of performance-enhancing drugs? That's the biggest lie of all.

Ridiculous Ad #3: “It's like testosterone on testosterone! Mimics the stacks used by the pros! Increases your natural production of testosterone! Total hormonal manipulation!” First of all, there we go with the stack trick again. Notice that? Comparing a supplement to the drug stack of professional bodybuilders? Ridiculous!

The claims in this ad continued, “Triggers the release of testosterone, helping to promote explosive strength and head-turning gains in rock-hard muscle mass…”, and of course further down on the page, they couldn't resist claiming that it “Increases sex drive and performance.”

Here's news for young men: Unless you have a medical problem, you have plenty of testosterone surging through your body you don't need to supplement that natural production in any way. More news to men of all ages: This entire category of muscle building- supplements is another total farce. I have never seen any convincing scientific evidence that any over the counter supplements boost testosterone or increase muscle growth over time. True low testosterone (hypogonadism-) is a medical issue. If you suspect problems, go to your doctor, not your local supplement store.

Dr. Spencer Nadolsky is an MD, known as the doctor who lifts. One of his specialties is hormones. Dr. Nadolsky wrote a great editorial on this subject titled, “Quit worrying about your testosterone.” He said:

“Testosterone boosting supplements are BS. Metabolic syndrome (big waist circumferences and insulin resistance) and HPA Axis Dysfunction (mistakenly called Adrenal Fatigue) are two things you can work on to increase your natural T levels if you have these conditions. Other than getting leaner and meaner with great sleep, optimum nutrition, and stress reduction, there isn't much else - and you know what? That is just fine because you can get big and buff without the high normal testosterone levels. There are multiple mechanisms of muscle growth (hypertrophy), so to focus on testosterone only is silly.

Ridiculous Ad #4: “No prescription required!” No kidding! It's an over the counter supplement, not a drug! Still, you see this ploy in supplement ads all the time because it plays on people's desire to not visit a doctor or to find natural alternatives to drugs. Burning fat or building muscle the natural way (drug free) is something I commend and recommend - but it's done through training, nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, not with pills and powders (or drugs).

Ridiculous Ad #5: “The most powerful clinically-studied muscle-building stack: This isn't creatine, HMB or protein - it's far more powerful than any of these supplements.” This ad uses the common trick of calling the product a "stack." Let me explain what that means: It's no secret that many professional bodybuilders use anabolic steroids. What most people don't know is that they typically use multiple drugs, including different steroids and other chemicals with various purposes. When numerous drugs are taken at once, it's referred to as “a stack”.

This term, stack, is used in bodybuilding supplements when more than one ingredient is included. The trouble is, using the word stack implies a similarity to drugs, or at least the advertisers hope a subconscious connection is made in the mind of the consumer (they're hoping or believing that an OTC supplement could have drug-like effects). Also, some ridiculous comparisons are made here. So far, there aren't any bodybuilding supplements that are more effective than creatine. Ironically, even creatine is not so powerful - it won't make or break you, and not everyone even responds to it.

Protein supplements can be convenient and helpful, but I wouldn't describe protein as a powerful supplement, and I wouldn't even say it works. It's just food. Would you say, "Chicken breast is powerful" or ask, "Does tuna fish work?" It sounds strange to phrase it like that because chicken and tuna are just foods. However, if you put powdered food into a tub, suddenly it can be advertised as having magical properties.

And HMB, well that's practically a joke in bodybuilding circles. It's one of those supplements that keeps getting debunked, but keeps trying to come back. HMB is like a turd that won't flush. A recent study helped HMB make the rounds again because it suggested dramatic muscle gains were made in trained subjects. The study was later picked apart by more than a dozen fellow scientists who questioned both research methods and potential conflicts of interest.

A recent meta-analysis which looked at all studies to date (Sanchez-Martinez et al), found no effect of HMB supplementation on strength and body composition in trained and competitive athletes.

Ridiculous Ad #6: “300% Greater Muscle Gains! 200% Greater Fat Loss!” Suppose a supplement has evidence supporting a small muscle-building or weight training performance benefit. What usually happens is someone in the advertising department goes through a study and pulls out some numbers to manipulate. It's easy to do. A fractional improvement in lifting performance or lean body mass, depending on how the data is parsed, can easily become double or triple the gains.

One advertisement claimed that a fat burner pill caused twice as much fat loss, based on scientific research. What they conveniently forgot to tell you was that after 6 months, the fat burner group only lost 1 kilo (which is a mere 2.2 lbs). Whoop de doo! A whole 2.2 lbs after buying a 6 month supply of this "miracle" fat burner. If someone can only lose 2.2 lbs in 6 months, they'd try better fixing their nutrition before chasing fairy dust.

Sometimes important details get reported inaccurately or innocently lost in translation, but there is almost always something shady going on when you see these gigantic percentage gains. There's an old book called, “How to Lie With Statistics” and I've always had a suspicion that it's a bible in supplement company ad departments.

Ridiculous Ad #7: “The weight loss stimulating agent that has freakish effects on both fatty deposits and lean muscle mass. It is a remarkable body shaping tool that must be used carefully. Do not even consider trying this product until you fully understand its strength.” The idea that a legal, over the counter fat loss supplement is so strong that it has to be used with caution is another ploy that lures people into buying. It also allows companies to get away with charging premium prices, like what prescription drugs cost, even though it's a nutritional supplement, not a pharmaceutical.

Since when has a pill ever been recognized as a remarkable body shaping tool? Pills are not body shaping tools! Barbells and dumbbells are body shaping tools!

I'm shocked that anyone still even buys fat burner pills considering how many scams and frauds have been openly exposed for so many years (especially when they're sold with ludicrous hyperbole like this ad headline. How do you stop yourself from breaking into laughter after reading that?).

With the internet today, there's no excuse for failing to investigate before you invest. It's easier than ever today to look up the science, and it's not that hard to find trustworthy, evidence-based, independent fitness pros who will review the research for you. They'll all tell you the same thing: The entire fat burner- supplement category is virtually 100% bogus.
Here's another way to look at it: If the pharmaceutical companies can't even come up with a decent weight loss drug (that proves over time to be both effective and *safe*), what makes anyone think supplement companies can?

Ridiculous ad #8: “BCAAs! Enhance muscle building, speed recovery, increase fat burning! Backed by university studies.” Some feathers are going to get ruffled here, but the truth is, the "darling" muscle-building supplement of the last decade is rapidly being debunked by all the latest science.

It's not that branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) aren't important - they are critical. What most people keeping forgetting (thanks to all the advertising hype), is that BCAAs are found in your protein foods. In a proper diet that contains adequate amounts of protein, any advantages of taking BCAAs as supplements that were found in said university studies- diminish or disappear. 

In the most recent study, the researchers confirmed that BCAA activates pathways that increase protein synthesis in the muscle fibers. But in the same sentence (often left out of the supplement ads), they also said, “BCAAs alone may not be the optimal nutritional regimen to stimulate a maximal muscle protein synthesis response to resistance training exercise.”
In an even more shocking reversal, there may actually be negative effects of taking BCAAs in isolation, instead of with all the other essential amino acids. In a research paper out of McMaster University, the authors wrote:

     “Despite the popularity of BCAA supplements, we find shockingly little evidence for their efficacy in promoting muscle protein synthesis of lean mass gains and would advise the use of intact proteins as opposed to a purified combination of BCAA that appear to antagonize each other in terms of transport both into circulation and likely into the muscle.”

You don't need BCAA supplements when you're already getting enough high-quality protein from whole food sources. If you really want to use a protein supplement, consider instead a powder like whey that contains high amounts of BCAA, along with all the other essential amino acids as well.

In summary: Caution! I've been in this business for decades, and when people ask me today what has changed since I started back in the 1980s, and through the 1990s and 2000s in the supplement industry I reply, "Not much!" There have been major advancements in the science of resistance training and nutrition and I share them every week. However, the promises and assertions made by fitness industry supplement ads are still as ridiculous (and false) as ever.

Yeah, there's a (very small) handful of supplements you might find useful, but to build muscle and lose fat, you don't have to take any supplements whatsoever if you don't want to and you certainly don't need dangerous drugs either. Believe me, you can get in spectacular shape without thinking you have to "take something."

Seeing this kind of BS continue for so many years, has at times made me feel like taking early retirement and getting far, far away from the weight loss and bodybuilding industry, but if I stop, the bad guys win, so this has only strengthened my commitment to redouble my efforts as a writer, educator and coach. Keep watching for new blogs every week.

Train hard and expect success!

Get Off Your Butt: 16 Ways to Get Motivated When You’re in a Slump

BY LEO BABAUTA

(By the way, I need to be reminded of these suggestions as much as anyone.)

Even the most motivated of us — you, me, Tony Robbins — can feel unmotivated at times. In fact, sometimes we get into such a slump that even thinking about making positive changes seems too difficult.

But it’s not hopeless: with some small steps, baby ones in fact, you can get started down the road to positive change.

Yes, I know, it seems impossible at times. You don’t feel like doing anything. I’ve been there, and in fact I still feel that way from time to time. You’re not alone. But I’ve learned a few ways to break out of a slump, and we’ll take a look at those today.

This post was inspired by reader Roy C. Carlson, who asked:

“I was wondering if you could do a piece on why it can be hard for someone to change direction and start taking control of their life. I have to say I’m in this boat and advice on getting out of my slump would be great.”

Roy is just one of many with a slump like that. Again, I feel that way sometimes myself, and in fact sometimes I struggle to motivate myself to exercise — and I’ll use that as an example of how to break out of the slump.

When I fall out of exercise, due to illness or injury or disruption from things going on in my life, it’s hard to get started again. I don’t even feel like thinking about it, sometimes. But I’ve always found a way to break out of that slump, and here are some things I’ve learned that have helped:

1. One Goal. Whenever I’ve been in a slump, I’ve discovered that it’s often because I have too much going on in my life. I’m trying to do too much. And it saps my energy and motivation. It’s probably the most common mistake that people make: they try to take on too much, try to accomplish too many goals at once. You cannot maintain energy and focus (the two most important things in accomplishing a goal) if you are trying to do two or more goals at once. It’s not possible — I’ve tried it many times. You have to choose one goal, for now, and focus on it completely. I know, that’s hard. Still, I speak from experience. You can always do your other goals when you’ve accomplished your One Goal.

2. Find inspiration. Inspiration, for me, comes from others who have achieved what I want to achieve, or who are currently doing it. I read other blogs, books, magazines. I Google my goal, and read success stories. Zen Habits is just one place for inspiration, not only from me but from many readers who have achieved amazing things.

3. Get excited. This sounds obvious, but most people don’t think about it much: if you want to break out of a slump, get yourself excited about a goal. But how can you do that when you don’t feel motivated? Well, it starts with inspiration from others (see above), but you have to take that excitement and build on it. For me, I’ve learned that by talking to my wife about it, and to others, and reading as much about it as possible, and visualizing what it would be like to be successful (seeing the benefits of the goal in my head), I get excited about a goal. Once I’ve done that, it’s just a matter of carrying that energy forward and keeping it going.

4. Build anticipation. This will sound hard, and many people will skip this tip. But it really works. It helped me quit smoking after many failed attempts. If you find inspiration and want to do a goal, don’t start right away. Many of us will get excited and want to start today. That’s a mistake. Set a date in the future — a week or two, or even a month — and make that your Start Date. Mark it on the calendar. Get excited about that date. Make it the most important date in your life. In the meantime, start writing out a plan. And do some of the steps below. Because by delaying your start, you are building anticipation, and increasing your focus and energy for your goal.

5. Post your goal. Print out your goal in big words. Make your goal just a few words long, like a mantra (“Exercise 15 mins. Daily”), and post it up on your wall or refrigerator. Post it at home and work. Put it on your computer desktop. You want to have big reminders about your goal, to keep your focus and keep your excitement going. A picture of your goal (like a model with sexy abs, for example) also helps.

6. Commit publicly. None of us likes to look bad in front of others. We will go the extra mile to do something we’ve said publicly. For example, when I wanted to run my first marathon, I started writing a column about it in my local daily newspaper. The entire island of Guam (pop. 160K) knew about my goal. I couldn’t back down, and even though my motivation came and went, I stuck with it and completed it. Now, you don’t have to commit to your goal in your daily newspaper, but you can do it with friends and family and coworkers, and you can do it on your blog if you have one. And hold yourself accountable — don’t just commit once, but commit to giving progress updates to everyone every week or so.

7. Think about it daily. If you think about your goal every day, it is much more likely to become true. To this end, posting the goal on your wall or computer desktop (as mentioned above) helps a lot. Sending yourself daily reminders also helps. And if you can commit to doing one small thing to further your goal (even just 5 minutes) every single day, your goal will almost certainly come true.

8. Get support. It’s hard to accomplish something alone. When I decided to run my marathon, I had the help of friends and family, and I had a great running community on Guam who encouraged me at 5K races and did long runs with me. When I decided to quit smoking, I joined an online forum and that helped tremendously. And of course, my wife Eva helped every step of the way. I couldn’t have done these goals without her, or without the others who supported me. Find your support network, either in the real world or online, or both.

9. Realize that there’s an ebb and flow. Motivation is not a constant thing that is always there for you. It comes and goes, and comes and goes again, like the tide. But realize that while it may go away, it doesn’t do so permanently. It will come back. Just stick it out and wait for that motivation to come back. In the meantime, read about your goal (see below), ask for help (see below), and do some of the other things listed here until your motivation comes back.

10. Stick with it. Whatever you do, don’t give up. Even if you aren’t feeling any motivation today, or this week, don’t give up. Again, that motivation will come back. Think of your goal as a long journey, and your slump is just a little bump in the road. You can’t give up with every little bump. Stay with it for the long term, ride out the ebbs and surf on the flows, and you’ll get there.

11. Start small. Really small. If you are having a hard time getting started, it may be because you’re thinking too big. If you want to exercise, for example, you may be thinking that you have to do these intense workouts 5 days a week. No — instead, do small, tiny, baby steps. Just do 2 minutes of exercise. I know, that sounds wimpy. But it works. Commit to 2 minutes of exercise for one week. You may want to do more, but just stick to 2 minutes. It’s so easy, you can’t fail. Do it at the same time, every day. Just some crunches, 2 pushups, and some jogging in place. Once you’ve done 2 minutes a day for a week, increase it to 5, and stick with that for a week. In a month, you’ll be doing 15-20. Want to wake up early? Don’t think about waking at 5 a.m. Instead, think about waking 10 minutes earlier for a week. That’s all. Once you’ve done that, wake 10 minutes earlier than that. Baby steps.

12. Build on small succsesse. Again, if you start small for a week, you’re going to be successful. You can’t fail if you start with something ridiculously easy. Who can’t exercise for 2 minutes? (If that’s you, I apologize.) And you’ll feel successful, and good about yourself. Take that successful feeling and build on it, with another baby step. Add 2-3 minutes to your exercise routine, for example. With each step (and each step should last about a week), you will feel even more successful. Make each step really, really small, and you won’t fail. After a couple of months, your tiny steps will add up to a lot of progress and a lot of success.

13. Read about it daily. When I lose motivation, I just read a book or blog about my goal. It inspires me and reinvigorates me. For some reason, reading helps motivate and focus you on whatever you’re reading about. So read about your goal every day, if you can, especially when you’re not feeling motivated.

14. Call for help when your motivation ebbs. Having trouble? Ask for help. Email me. Join an online forum. Get a partner to join you. Call your mom. It doesn’t matter who, just tell them your problems, and talking about it will help. Ask them for advice. Ask them to help you overcome your slump. It works.

15. Think about the benefits, not the difficulties. One common problem is that we think about how hard something is. Exercise sounds so hard! Just thinking about it makes you tired. But instead of thinking about how hard something is, think about what you will get out of it. For example, instead of thinking about how tiring exercise can be, focus on how good you’ll feel when you’re done, and how you’ll be healthier and slimmer over the long run. The benefits of something will help energize you.

16. Squash negative thoughts; replace them with positive ones. Along those lines, it’s important to start monitoring your thoughts. Recognize negative self-talk, which is really what’s causing your slump. Just spend a few days becoming aware of every negative thought. Then, after a few days, try squashing those negative thoughts like a bug, and then replacing them with a corresponding positive thought. Squash, “This is too hard!” and replace it with, “I can do this! If that wimp Leo can do it, so can I!” It sounds corny, but it works. Really.

An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science

An exploration of the scientific mindset — such character virtues as curiosity, veracity, attentiveness, and humility to evidence — and its importance for science, democracy, and human flourishing. Exemplary scientists have a characteristic way of viewing the world and their work: their mindset and methods all aim at discovering truths about nature. In An Instinct for Truth, Robert Pennock explores this scientific mindset and argues that what Charles Darwin called “an instinct for truth, knowledge, and discovery” has a tacit moral structure — that it is important not only for scientific excellence and integrity but also for democracy and human flourishing. In an era of “post-truth,” the scientific drive to discover empirical truths has a special value. Taking a virtue-theoretic perspective, Pennock explores curiosity, veracity, skepticism, humility to evidence, and other scientific virtues and vices. Shermer and Pennock discuss:

• the nature of science
• why Intelligent Design creationists are not doing bad science — they’re not doing science at all
• what to do with anomalies not explained by the current paradigm
• the role of outsiders in science
• what scientific training does to develop the virtues of science
• how authority is different from expertise
• when experts pronounce on ideas outside their field
• fraud in science and why it happens
• why scientists are skeptical of UFOs, ESP, bigfoot, and the like
• falsification of a scientific hypothesis vs. positive evidence in support of a scientific hypothesis
• the naturalistic fallacy and the Is-Ought problem, and
• the ethics of autonomous vehicles and the trolley problem.

Robert T. Pennock is University Distinguished Professor of History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science at Michigan State University in the Lyman Briggs College and the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science and Engineering. He is the author of Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism.

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