Broscience

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Work 'til you're musclebound

 Bodybuilding  woo

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Broscience is a derogatory term for misconceptions and ideas of questionable scientific credibility, passed around among laymen by word-of-mouth as if factually true.

Most examples of broscience pertain to biology, fitness and sports, and it most often circulates in fitness, athletic and bodybuilding circles, where many people want to know how to most effectively work out but are either ignorant of or do not fully understand the actual science. In general, such beliefs rely on anecdotal evidence and gain their popularity more from how ripped the speaker happens to be than from proof or references.

Bodybuilders know all about hard work and effort being necessary to get the reward. But you need proper science in there too.

Contents

[edit] History

The word broscience is a combination of the word science with the word bro, a slang term for "friend" often used in the social groups where such ideas circulate. It is probably a complete coincidence that broscience abbreviates to BS. One populariser of the term says:[1]

Bro-science is when someone makes a completely unsupportable claim, not backed by either science or any form of reasonable speculation, and when challenged on that lack of support, the person instead points to his pictures, his lifts, or the phenomenal number of Olympic athletes he’s trained as support for the claim.

[edit] Examples of broscience

  1. Fat can be directly converted into muscle.
  2. Spot reduction: the fat in a body part can be individually reduced by exercises using that body part.
  3. Starving yourself is the only/the best/a good way to lose weight.
  4. Anything about "toning" muscles.
  5. Anything that promises results in a few weeks.
  6. Most bodybuilding woo.
  7. A diet that worked for one guy so he writes a book telling everyone it's the one true diet.
  8. Amateur opinions on when it's best to take creatine, and how much to take.
  9. Anything about an ECA stack (ephedrine, caffeine and aspirin)
  10. The urban caveman movement

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

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