{"id":19032,"date":"2020-11-27T00:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-27T04:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=19032"},"modified":"2020-12-07T17:53:42","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T21:53:42","slug":"performance-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is performance science? What does Tim Ferriss say about performance science in The 4-Hour Body<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance science is the study of what improves or damages a body’s performance. In The 4-Hour Body<\/em>, Tim Ferriss uses performance science for self-experimentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on for more about performance science and how to use it for your own self-experimentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Brush Up on Performance Science<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To start your self-experimentation journey, you\u2019ll want to brush up on the cutting edge of performance science. Unfortunately, \u201ccommon sense\u201d and published research aren\u2019t always accurate, and you\u2019ll need to learn to distinguish what\u2019s legitimate from what\u2019s propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Always keep the following in mind when you encounter new information on this topic:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. The language around health can be misleading. <\/strong>Sometimes, health advertising is full of meaningless terms that cause confusion. Whenever you hear a term, ask yourself if you can measure it, and if you can\u2019t, you should avoid it. (For example, a program that will make you \u201cstrong enough to do ten chin-ups\u201d is measurable, while one that promises to make you \u201cstrong and healthy\u201d isn\u2019t.) There are two specific types of terms to avoid:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Marketer-speak.<\/strong> These terms have no physiological basis and are used to sell you something or scare you into buying something. For example, \u201ccellulite\u201d is marketer-speak: It first appeared in Vogue <\/em>in 1968 because the magazine was running out of fashion content and invented a problem in order to give themselves content to write about. Cellulite is simply fat; it\u2019s not a disease.<\/li>
  • Scientific-<\/strong>sounding<\/em><\/strong> terms. <\/strong>These words don\u2019t actually have a basis in science and are used in so many contexts that they no longer have much meaning. For example, \u201coptimal\u201d is a scientific-sounding term that doesn\u2019t mean anything\u2014optimal only has meaning when applied towards a specific goal.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    2. Existing recommendations are based on incomplete knowledge. <\/strong>Humanity doesn\u2019t fully understand how the world works and performance science is no different. When it comes to food, there are probably nutrients no one has isolated yet, and it\u2019s impossible to identify a deficiency in something unknown. Additionally, taking nutrients in isolation (as supplements, rather than getting them through food) can have unexpected effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • For example, many people took beta-carotene supplements, but taking beta-carotene by itself can create many health problems such as increasing the risk of brain hemorrhages.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      3. Women and men don\u2019t need to train differently<\/strong>\u2014that\u2019s just a myth invented by marketers. Most of the time, everyone wants the same thing\u2014a little bit more muscle and less fat\u2014and everyone should do the same thing to achieve this. There are two relevant differences between men and women, but neither necessitates a different type of training method:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      • On average, women have less than 10% as much testosterone as men, so they don\u2019t grow muscle as quickly. As a result, there\u2019s no need to worry about bulking up overnight\u2014it won\u2019t happen, even if you\u2019re a woman who has a higher amount of testosterone than average. If you do start to see visible changes to your muscles you don\u2019t like over time, you can change your program.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

        4. Your genes affect your body, but they don\u2019t rule it.<\/strong> While you might be more likely to be overweight or have a particular type of muscle, you can overcome a predisposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

        • For example, you inherit one of two muscle types from your parents: slow-twitch (good at endurance) and fast-twitch (good for sprints and strength). However, you can change the amount of both types by training.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

          5. A \u201cdrug\u201d is anything that you ingest that affects your body (except whole foods). <\/strong>Different names and categories for drugs\u2014supplements, over-the-counter, and so on\u2014don\u2019t indicate what\u2019s effective or safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          6. It\u2019s not always easy to tell what factor is causing a result.<\/strong> Ask yourself three questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

          • Have you correctly identified the result? For example, sprinters have a muscular body type. It\u2019s important to determine whether the body type is a result <\/em>of training sprinting, or the cause <\/em>of why people go into sprinting in the first place. The body type is actually the cause, not the result.<\/li>
          • Is it the absence or presence that\u2019s important? For example, is going on a vegetarian diet effective because getting rid of meat makes you live longer, or because adding more vegetables to your diet does? (It\u2019s the second one.)<\/li>
          • Are there other variables at play? For example, if a study tested the effects of yoga on the heart and all the participants in the control group were from the same upper-class demographic, the fact that rich people can afford healthier food might have more to do with the results than yoga.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            What is performance science? What does Tim Ferriss say about performance science in The 4-Hour Body? Performance science is the study of what improves or damages a body’s performance. In The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss uses performance science for self-experimentation. Read on for more about performance science and how to use it for your own self-experimentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":9818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,160],"tags":[159],"class_list":["post-19032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-science","tag-the-4-hour-body","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nPerformance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you want to make your body stronger, you need to understand what powers it. Performance science studies that\u2014here's how to use it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you want to make your body stronger, you need to understand what powers it. Performance science studies that\u2014here's how to use it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-27T04:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-07T21:53:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-27T04:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-07T21:53:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\"},\"wordCount\":799,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The 4-Hour Body\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Health\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\",\"name\":\"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-27T04:36:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-12-07T21:53:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"If you want to make your body stronger, you need to understand what powers it. Performance science studies that\u2014here's how to use it.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\",\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rina Shah\"},\"description\":\"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals - Shortform Books","description":"If you want to make your body stronger, you need to understand what powers it. Performance science studies that\u2014here's how to use it.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals","og_description":"If you want to make your body stronger, you need to understand what powers it. Performance science studies that\u2014here's how to use it.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2020-11-27T04:36:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-07T21:53:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1600,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Rina Shah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rina Shah","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/"},"author":{"name":"Rina Shah","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287"},"headline":"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals","datePublished":"2020-11-27T04:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-07T21:53:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/"},"wordCount":799,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg","keywords":["The 4-Hour Body"],"articleSection":["Health","Science"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/","name":"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2020-11-27T04:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-07T21:53:42+00:00","description":"If you want to make your body stronger, you need to understand what powers it. Performance science studies that\u2014here's how to use it.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/performance-science\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Performance Science: The Key to Your Body Goals"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287","name":"Rina Shah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/560b3bc3d51625f9becff4fded992607b156f274aa36bc07f8a4285a1d72cdc8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rina Shah"},"description":"An avid reader for as long as she can remember, Rina\u2019s love for books began with The Boxcar Children. Her penchant for always having a book nearby has never faded, though her reading tastes have since evolved. Rina reads around 100 books every year, with a fairly even split between fiction and non-fiction. Her favorite genres are memoirs, public health, and locked room mysteries. As an attorney, Rina can\u2019t help analyzing and deconstructing arguments in any book she reads.","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/rina\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/crucial-conversations-training-exercises-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19905,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19032\/revisions\/19905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}