Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

But also, because of the 'toughness' it takes to force yourself to 'grind' to 'true' failure, especially if you do it often, those who are seen as not operationalizing it as toughly as possible are seen to be weak and soft as well as intellectually wrong.

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

It's highly scientized (e.g. is 'training to failure' necessary for growth/strength and on what physiological basis? How often is it necessary?) but also impossible to measure because it's fully self reported. People like to claim they can tell when someone else is 'truly' failing, but nah.

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

Sorry, addendum: one specific topic that is a bit of a flashpoint is that of 'failure.' Like, what counts as doing an exercise to 'true' 'failure' (being unable to finish the rep) encapsulates a lot of these issues.

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

I just found it a very interesting and unusual case of reckoning with the social production and legitimation of knowledge in a relatively young field, but one which touches a community of practice in a really intense way and for which there are psychosocial stakes of the conversation. So yeah. -end-

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

as laypersons about very subtle aspects of knowledge production, credentialing, etc. Like for example, there was a bit of forensics about edit dates of different documents, whether it was weird or normal for there to be multiple files, what a "rough draft" of a dissertation even means, etc. 9/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

and made a huge video excoriating it and pointing out both minor errors and potential major concerns. People in the comments used this to discuss the state of exercise science, but also speculate about the academic certification process in general, trying to make sense of signals in this case 8/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

the face of Renaissance Periodization. A hugely successful but divisive figure, he's known for touting his PhD a lot in both his content and marketing, and other creators like Solomon Nelson find him insufferable both personally and intellectually. So Nelson looked up Israetel's dissertation, 7/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

who often respond to any stimulus so strongly it can be hard to tease apart confounds; and the harms of over-optimizing specific techniques when physiological response can be so individual based on personal factors). But this really came to a head recently, with a takedown of Dr. Mike Israetel, 6/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

by "experience-based" creators of getting their PhD just so they can call themselves "Dr. so and so" on social media, and thereby increase their following. While at the same time examining methodological issues they have with exercise science research (like over-reliance on untrained lifters, 5/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

There is a lot of unpacking of the merits of exercise science *as a scientific field* in the comments, by people with varying levels of exposure to science, but also explicitly suffused with attachments to specific content creators. Indeed, some "science-based" creators have even been accused 4/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

As such, conversations about what granular approaches to take (e.g. push pull legs, full body splits, blah blah) and on what bases, are highly charged in multiple ways that don't happen in quite the same ways about most other science communication/technical topics. 3/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

a large community of practice on the topic: amateur lifters who watch a LOT of fitness social media content, and for whom there's both significant personal stakes of appearance, achievement, & health; and the frequent framing of discourse in terms of personality and "drama." 2/n

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9h

Yes! So, it has been building for some time in one way or another, but on social media there is often contention between "science-based" lifters and others (no specific label; "experience-based" maybe). What makes it different and interesting is that as it regards exercise and fitness, there's (1/n)

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 22h

I think tortilla needs to be more to the right because it's a component of "the whole enchilada"

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 1d

Someone in #STS needs to study the social media exercise science crisis expeditiously if not sooner

1 1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 1d

You should work with a boba place to have special drinks named after the characters. Imagine an Ayt Mada! It would be smoky and subtle (a Lapsang souchong maybe?), but strong.

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 6d

ahahah I wasn't even paying attention to the sticker. Just the capital N in the middle of FrankeNstein. Forest for the trees I guess.

1 1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 6d

It might be intentional? The 'sleek', 'modern' and of course capitalized sans-serif N stands out jarringly against the more lushly old-fashioned text. It's discordant, it's anti-Romantic, and so maybe it's intended to evoke the same emotion as the book itself?

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 8d

Not a sports person but I do like that the #Cubs have the cute baby name of the animal as their team name. We need to do the Kittens and Puppies as well.

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 8d

For October #Zillow should add a "haunted/not haunted" filter option

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 8d

The thumbnail literally looks like this meme being built en.meming.world/wiki/The_Wor...

The World If

The World If meme is a collection of memes showing a utopian future that would have resulted if certain things (usually inane and silly things) were different in reality.

en.meming.world

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 9d

POV: your stoner friend is about to share a life-changing insight about Doritos

1

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 11d

POV: they're gossiping about you and they know what you've done

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 11d

Xenaon, warrior princess of the 21st century

Ridley LeDoux @ridleyal.bsky.social · 11d

One thing I appreciate from authors, and which wouldn't detract from privacy, is commentary on others' work. Letting us get a sense of what stands out to an author, what shaped them, how similar the stories they like to read are to the ones they write. And of course, recs from knowledgeable people.

1