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Get Fit, Stay Fit, Feel Good - 2026

stangmx13 said:
“As long as people own it” isn’t the end of the story though. One important part is that no one makes health decisions in a vacuum. Any review of TRT (or lack of it) here will impact anyone that reads it. We’ve got “1000 T” and “low T” experiences posted here. Who’s to say either of those are best for a reader.

The same is true for many of the topics we talk about. My experiences with injuries and broken bones may be risky for others. Same with many ppl’s lifting experience. Hell, even my sugar intake is not recommended for nearly everyone else on BARF 😅. It’s hard to convey risks and actually help as often as possible.
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TRT is a doctor approved/ managed treatment. A review of TRT usually involves test levels, etc. as well as consultation. The idea that someone's going to take any sort of comments on BARF and that be the end all of their decision tree is fantastical. Again, all results are personal. It's up to the individual to sort it all out and decide what info to value and what info to disregard. I wouldn't overvalue what is mostly, entertainment talk. on a moto forum.

Congrats on the podium! Effort well rewarded!!!
 
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Holeshot said:
TRT is a doctor approved/ managed treatment. A review of TRT usually involves test levels, etc. as well as consultation. The idea that someone's going to take any sort of comments on BARF and that be the end all of their decision tree is fantastical. Again, all results are personal. It's up to the individual to sort it all out and decide what info to value and what info to disregard. I wouldn't overvalue what is mostly, entertainment talk. on a moto forum.
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This makes me think you didn’t understand my post. I didn’t say your fantastical exaggerations.

You saying you won’t overvalue some info is great. But you aren’t everyone. Maybe it’s fun the laugh at the person that made a poor decision because they were inundated with bro science and pushed their doctor for poor treatment. But maybe we should also blame the bro science. And the point of the post is to understand that we could be shitty bro science if we aren’t careful.
 
There it is. "Bro Science". Whatever that means. I gave it a 60/40 you were on that kinda mission. The thought that people in this thread are going to get onto "bro science" from a BARF thread versus all the other avenues on the internet is "fantastical".
 
Holeshot said:
There it is. "Bro Science". Whatever that means. I gave it a 60/40 you were on that kinda mission. The thought that people in this thread are going to get onto "bro science" from a BARF thread versus all the other avenues on the internet is "fantastical".
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I’ll define what I think bro science is - unsubstantiated claims and misinformation about health that are presented as fact through popular media, especially those that intend to sell you something or get you to join some fad.

This is not a “versus other avenues”. All avenues for misinformation, shitty advice, bro science, lies, etc are bad. BARF doesn’t have the reach but may be more impactful for the comparatively few users here. And you’d be stupid to ignore the possibility that BARF can be an avenue for all that bad. Your posts are just as likely as mine to be bro science if we don’t cite sources. And even unintended bad advice is still bad advice. We aren’t experts, just amateurs on the internet.

I wasn’t actually going there. I was talking about risks with advice and such. But your lack of understanding made me use more broad terms that I thought you’d understand. Seems like I found your trigger term, which likely ends this convo. Oh wells.
 
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I don’t have much of a report but I did finish my race today. My legs feel pretty much like I expected them to. What destroyed me was the constant beating of riding a bike with no suspension over some really really rough roads. Mid distance was an 8 mile descent the was steep and filled with baby head sized rocks. This wore me out worse than the 8 mile long climb that immediately followed. My neck, triceps, back, wrists, and ass hurt way more than my legs.

Did I mention the wind, it blew constantly and it seemed to always be a headwind. Sustained 15mph with gusts in the upper 30mph range. It sucked.

My Garmin says I did 66.4 miles and 5,012 feet of climbing.

Now I am laying on the Placer High School football field watching the lead runners finish the Western States Trail Run. The old record, set 2 years ago, was broken by 23 minutes. 2nd and 3rd also came in under the old record.

It’s been a cool day.
 
Here is the course.

IMG_3581.png
 
Ridley said:
I don’t have much of a report but I did finish my race today. My legs feel pretty much like I expected them to. What destroyed me was the constant beating of riding a bike with no suspension over some really really rough roads. Mid distance was an 8 mile descent the was steep and filled with baby head sized rocks. This wore me out worse than the 8 mile long climb that immediately followed. My neck, triceps, back, wrists, and ass hurt way more than my legs.

Did I mention the wind, it blew constantly and it seemed to always be a headwind. Sustained 15mph with gusts in the upper 30mph range. It sucked.

My Garmin says I did 66.4 miles and 5,012 feet of climbing.

Now I am laying on the Placer High School football field watching the lead runners finish the Western States Trail Run. The old record, set 2 years ago, was broken by 23 minutes. 2nd and 3rd also came in under the old record.

It’s been a cool day.
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(y)

on another note - great weather for the western states. it would have been brutal a week ago. heard early on that the record would likely be broken, and a lot were crediting the weather. RF is a zoo, but nothing like town. it was pandemonium. one of these days i’d love to go to the finish, but it’s so hard to pass up working at RF, so who knows.
 
littlebeast said:
(y)

on another note - great weather for the western states. it would have been brutal a week ago. heard early on that the record would likely be broken, and a lot were crediting the weather. RF is a zoo, but nothing like town. it was pandemonium. one of these days i’d love to go to the finish, but it’s so hard to pass up working at RF, so who knows.
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We stayed until the top woman came in. The woman’s record was broken too.
 
Ridley said:
I don’t have much of a report but I did finish my race today. My legs feel pretty much like I expected them to. What destroyed me was the constant beating of riding a bike with no suspension over some really really rough roads. Mid distance was an 8 mile descent the was steep and filled with baby head sized rocks. This wore me out worse than the 8 mile long climb that immediately followed. My neck, triceps, back, wrists, and ass hurt way more than my legs.

Did I mention the wind, it blew constantly and it seemed to always be a headwind. Sustained 15mph with gusts in the upper 30mph range. It sucked.

My Garmin says I did 66.4 miles and 5,012 feet of climbing.

Now I am laying on the Placer High School football field watching the lead runners finish the Western States Trail Run. The old record, set 2 years ago, was broken by 23 minutes. 2nd and 3rd also came in under the old record.

It’s been a cool day.
Click to expand...

Ugh baby heads are the worst. Staying loose, comfortable, and fast on rocky descents is so hard.

Rough dirt can add a surprise to every gravel event. I hate it when I underestimate it. You can go into a race thinking you’ll do that rolling road at 15mph. But no, it’s chunky AF turning it into a 10mph slog. 😭. This is the main reason why tire choice and pressure is so important.

You have your tire pressure dialed? IMO, even Silca’s tire pressure calculator is a tad high for the rear tire and way too high for the front.

Your race with the climbing at 75ft/mi is a solid gravel event these days. It’d be avg difficulty but the elevation and the chunk you described prob makes it more medium-hard.
 
@stangmx13, I have no idea if my tire pressure is correct. I do use the Silca calculator. It seemed like the small bumps rocks and roots are soaked up by my tires, it’s the big stuff that really beat me up. I know that my bike skills on shitty dirt roads are shit and it’s not something I ride very often so my body has nothing built up to deal with it.

Today I actually feel pretty darn good. My legs are a little heavy and my lower back is little sore and that’s about it. I cleaned up my bike, the drivetrain sounded like it was made of sandpaper after the race, and took it for a quick spin up the street. Again my legs felt a little heavy but I almost talked myself into a couple of laps around the lake.
 
@Ridley

For the Silca calculator: I use the surface choice “Cat4 gravel” for all off road riding. For my current bike config, the calculator gives me 22/23psi. I prefer 20/23psi. When setting the pressure the morning of an event, I’ll do 19/22psi because the day’s heat raises pressure about 1psi.

However, all that depends on your pressure gauge’s accuracy. Bicycle gauges are often terrible. I have 5 gauges and they differ by 5psi at 25psi 🫤. The single gauge I trust matches my moto gauge. That’s the one I’ve “calibrated” to my preferences. So feel free to try lower than Silca says. I tend to get one good impact bottoming onto my wheels per rocky ride. If it happens more than that, I’ve gone too low.

Wax chain with Squirt is the best way to keep the drivetrain nice with our dusty CA gravel riding. Hot wax and drip wax is best. But even drip wax alone is better than oil lube. It’s a process to get wax setup, but it’s worth it. My drivetrain hasn’t been noisy after a 100mi race in years.

That’s great you are feeling good and went for a short recovery ride. I think I can feel the diff even with a 10min ride the following day.
 
@stangmx13, while cleaning my bike today I was asking my wife about the small crockpot and what happened to it during our move. I’m going to get setup for waxing.

Based on what you’re describing my tire pressure is way too high. I set mine at 30f/28r. I will probably be up in Truckee again soon to ride with my friend and will go lower on my pressure.

By the way, I hope you know how much you’re appreciated around here…taking the time to respond to all the questions we have about cycling. You are truly awesome.
 
stangmx13 said:
I’ll define what I think bro science is - unsubstantiated claims and misinformation about health that are presented as fact through popular media, especially those that intend to sell you something or get you to join some fad.

This is not a “versus other avenues”. All avenues for misinformation, shitty advice, bro science, lies, etc are bad. BARF doesn’t have the reach but may be more impactful for the comparatively few users here. And you’d be stupid to ignore the possibility that BARF can be an avenue for all that bad. Your posts are just as likely as mine to be bro science if we don’t cite sources. And even unintended bad advice is still bad advice. We aren’t experts, just amateurs on the internet.

I wasn’t actually going there. I was talking about risks with advice and such. But your lack of understanding made me use more broad terms that I thought you’d understand. Seems like I found your trigger term, which likely ends this convo. Oh wells.
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I'm not sure why that's called "Bro Science", but guess it has to be called something. I'd think "Bro Science" has something to do with Bro splits. These threads were mostly about contributors programs, achievements, and progressions. Posts have been positive and encouraging for others, which made these threads a nice reprieve from other BARF threads that have been a bit more confrontational. Taking a position that posts here have a "proof of truth" standard, only invites the confrontation. Things have done well without it, and I haven't read posts where advice was given that could be considered a different level than the aggregate of posts here.

It seems you have a specific post in mind. I don't know which post this is. I'm here to read and encourage; not engage in what's truth and what's not. Those arguments don't build people up, they just confuse and divide. TRT is controversial here. This is news to me. I don't believe it's in good form to berate contributors who aren't contributing with malice, and instead describing their experience(s).

This thread has morphed into a bicycling thread, for the most part. Don't be surprised when posters may make contributions that hold different values from the bicycle community given the title of the thread.
 
Holeshot said:
I'm not sure why that's called "Bro Science", but guess it has to be called something. I'd think "Bro Science" has something to do with Bro splits. These threads were mostly about contributors programs, achievements, and progressions. Posts have been positive and encouraging for others, which made these threads a nice reprieve from other BARF threads that have been a bit more confrontational. Taking a position that posts here have a "proof of truth" standard, only invites the confrontation. Things have done well without it, and I haven't read posts where advice was given that could be considered a different level than the aggregate of posts here.

It seems you have a specific post in mind. I don't know which post this is. I'm here to read and encourage; not engage in what's truth and what's not. Those arguments don't build people up, they just confuse and divide. TRT is controversial here. This is news to me. I don't believe it's in good form to berate contributors who aren't contributing with malice, and instead describing their experience(s).

This thread has morphed into a bicycling thread, for the most part. Don't be surprised when posters may make contributions that hold different values from the bicycle community given the title of the thread.
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1. Since we are talking about HEALTH, IMO the standard for truth should scale with risk. If you don’t know the risk associated with promoting your experience or giving advice to someone else, perhaps you should overshoot the truth standard. With data.

2. The only value in misinformation - should it occur - comes from the correction afterwards. That’s confrontation. If someone wants to reduce confrontation, they could do the research beforehand and post it all. We’d all learn so much that way. Even “experiences” can present misinformation because it is promoting some idea or action, good or bad.

3. The primary value of biking in here is to be more healthy. Other topics fit if they share the same value.

Here’s one post I was thinking about. I gave Budman some cardio advice a while ago. When writing it, I seriously considered how much I knew about his health, his current fitness level, and whether or not such a workout could be harmful to him. I toned down my original idea to play it safe. And when he did change his workout, he only changed it partway to my eventual suggestion, likely making it even safer. But there was still some fucking risk there! There’s a somewhat similar risk when I post my absurd workouts - what if someone hurt themselves in trying to copy me. It’s not just entertainment for everyone.
 
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stangmx13 said:
1. Since we are talking about HEALTH, IMO the standard for truth should scale with risk. If you don’t know the risk associated with promoting your experience or giving advice to someone else, perhaps you should overshoot the truth standard. With data.

2. The only value in misinformation - should it occur - comes from the correction afterwards. That’s confrontation. If someone wants to reduce confrontation, they could do the research beforehand and post it all. We’d all learn so much that way. Even “experiences” can present misinformation because it is promoting some idea or action, good or bad.

3. The primary value of biking in here is to be more healthy. Other topics fit if they share the same value.

Here’s one post I was thinking about. I gave Budman some cardio advice a while ago. When writing it, I seriously considered how much I knew about his health, his current fitness level, and whether or not such a workout could be harmful to him. I toned down my original idea to play it safe. And when he did change his workout, he only changed it partway to my eventual suggestion, likely making it even safer. But there was still some fucking risk there! There’s a somewhat similar risk when I post my absurd workouts - what if someone hurt themselves in trying to copy me. It’s not just entertainment for everyone.
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I do believe that all the information presented in here is beneficial. Personal experiences can help a person decide whether something they were on the fence about may be right for them. Reading and researching online doesn't give you the full story and sometimes hearing what someone did or did not do may help. From what I have read on the BARFs I am pretty sure most people on here are not Bro-science people and will take anything said here and will adjust it for their personal use. I know there is no way I could hop on a bike and do half of what you and Ridley do but I can take tidbits of what you do and work them into my stuff ( if I could ride a bike safely around here). I don't bike but I do read all your posts because who knows when I may get some nugget of info that may be useful to me especially your hydration tips.

Same thing with SV's posts. Now I may not go to the levels he does with TRT but hearing about his experience does help and it is something to keep in mind when looking at something like that. Of course I would do it under the supervision of a medical professional and follow their advice. But if a high level of testosterone is what makes SV650 function where he wants then that is his journey and I won't cast stones.

I love all the stories and sharing that goes on in this thread and would hate to lose anyone that reads/contributes to the thread but I think we can all agree that we are all thinking rational adults and that any advice given on here is not medical advice or iron clad for all people. I mean we all rode motorcycles at one point so we know life entails risk but we should still enjoy it.

sorry for the long rambling post. back to your regulary scheduled thread.

Oh yeah an update. The Ohio daughter has been in town for the last week or so so the gym time got curtailed so I could spend time with her and her sister but she left me this morning to go back to Ohio (n) so I will be back to my regularly scheduled workout schedule. I think I will do 4 straight with no rest day this week as I missed last night and need to catch up.
 
Theres zero chance we are all thinking rational adults all the time 😭

My coach has me back on lifting 2x a week. The first workout this week was my standard 2x8 RPE3 exercises, mostly for maintenance. The second is 3x10 RPE5 which should produce some gains. It’s all still hip-adjacent single leg lifts like single leg deadlift and lateral lunges. I gotta fix this weakness I have in my left hip / left glute medius. And of course there’s Bulgarian split squat again.
 
stangmx13 said:
Theres zero chance we are all thinking rational adults all the time 😭

My coach has me back on lifting 2x a week. The first workout this week was my standard 2x8 RPE3 exercises, mostly for maintenance. The second is 3x10 RPE5 which should produce some gains. It’s all still hip-adjacent single leg lifts like single leg deadlift and lateral lunges. I gotta fix this weakness I have in my left hip / left glute medius. And of course there’s Bulgarian split squat again.
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ugh hate squats. The barbell one I do hurts my messed up shoulders so I hold it farther down more on my trapezius and it seems to work for now but not sure how that will hold up with higher weights. right now still doing baby weights but it is increasing every session as I get used to it again so time will tell. If it gets too bad I can switch to dumbbell squats or something.
 
Sharxfan said:
ugh hate squats. The barbell one I do hurts my messed up shoulders so I hold it farther down more on my trapezius and it seems to work for now but not sure how that will hold up with higher weights. right now still doing baby weights but it is increasing every session as I get used to it again so time will tell. If it gets too bad I can switch to dumbbell squats or something.
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Ya i like low-back squat way better than up on the trap. The form feels more natural for me.

Bulgarian Split Squat is great with "baby weights" because it fucking wrecks the quad. 135# for a regular Squat and 50# Bulgarian is the same RPE for me, and the amount of DOMS I get. The stabilizer muscle work feels different. But the one legged Bulgarian cant be bad for stabilizers.
 
stangmx13 said:
1. Since we are talking about HEALTH, IMO the standard for truth should scale with risk. If you don’t know the risk associated with promoting your experience or giving advice to someone else, perhaps you should overshoot the truth standard. With data.

2. The only value in misinformation - should it occur - comes from the correction afterwards. That’s confrontation. If someone wants to reduce confrontation, they could do the research beforehand and post it all. We’d all learn so much that way. Even “experiences” can present misinformation because it is promoting some idea or action, good or bad.

3. The primary value of biking in here is to be more healthy. Other topics fit if they share the same value.
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I'll start with a universal reality; everyone gets something a little different from others out of reading a post. What they take with them is what they find value in, and may find useful, or discard it later. This goes for all posts across this board. The level to which one finds commitment to another's post is personal. WRT to "health", I don't believe there has been much (if any) specific health directives. Suggestions and ideas; sure. Again, this comports with other areas on BARF where riders give suggestions on bike sizes, gear, rides, etc. The level of expertise behind the screen name depends on the trust of the reader.

This thread has been about experiences and results from those experiences. We've all found different avenues to arrive at our optimum fitness programs (or on our journey still); that experience and lessons learned we pass on here. We also talk about our current trials and struggles. I wouldn't call this "health" advice being dished out. Setting a standard of "data" for some truth standard is irrelevant to most of the content posted. We're spitballing and taking in alternative plans and results to consider. Most are probably shelved and some are retained.

1. The risks are personal, like all things read and attempted. The risks are based on our own personal attributes and deficiencies. What one poster can tolerate, another may reject. Your message that the standard be one of arguable sources for standards as low as "try some pushups", is discordant with 50 year veterans in the medical field having diametric conclusions of the same data. If they can't settle on what "truth" is, then let readers research and they themselves settle on what truth they accept. After all, their results for taking another's advice will always be.....personal.

2. Misinformation implies the workout threads are about scientific debates/ corrections. This is a new standard that'll break the community support approach for others looking to get into shape, or up their workout game. The "correction" threads are exhausting and isolating. No thanks.

3. The biking sub-topic is fine here, but also encompasses biking successes in competition. That's a good thing; to celebrate success with fitness programs, but tearing into someone else's successes in their alternative sport of choice isn't in keeping with a community support thread.

That's all I got....
 
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