who coined the 'broscience'bbing,,, layne norton? ..
i'm not sure, but it's a dumb word which is actually synonymous with the term "sophistry", which has been around for thousands of years. sophistry means convincing, but flawed, reasoning. in ancient greece, sophists were basically smooth-talking teachers who would "educate" people for a fee, using very convincing arguments while arriving, nevertheless, at incorrect conclusions.
sophistry is far from unique to the greeks, though. it's practiced everywhere, especially in relatively unscientific circles -- like the bodybuilding community.
the anti- or unscientific method: start from your conclusion (or model), and mold your observations so that they fit your conclusion.
the scientific method: admit you're only guessing, go out and exhaustively record observations in a systematic way ("experiment"), and then adjust your guess to arrive at a conclusion (or model) that explains all of your observations.
science = look first, conclude second.
pseudoscience = conclude first, look second.
naturally, science is hard and takes a lot of work. sophistry, broscience, or whatever you want to call it, is much easier: all you have to do is believe something is true, and then start explaining everything in terms of your conclusion.
for example, someone comes up with a method, say, like galeniko and no ones. the scientific way of proceeding about things would then be to design an experiment and conduct countless trials with as many people as possible, then record and analyze the results, and finally see if they match the expected outcome. if they dont, the method needs to be adjusted.
the "broscience" way is: claim you've found the ultimate fat loss method, tell everyone to go try it, and then, when people report back, if the results aren't what you expected (i.e. resounding success) tell them they screwed up, they are wrong, or invent some other excuse which allows you to continue on believing in your method.
the first way -- the scientific one -- is practically unheard of in the fitness community. the second one is, as im sure you've all noticed, ubiquitous.
the word "broscience" shouldn't really be used as an insult much in the fitness community, as it has come to be, largely because there is little alternative. we're all restricted to using very, very crude, limited "science" with tiny, horribly flawed experiments IN THE BEST CASE. even professional scientists dont have the funding, interest, or capabilities, to come up with the kind of exhaustive program plans that are often peddled by "gurus" and trainers of all kinds -- how much worse off are we, who barely know anything outside of our own time in the gym?
when people forget this and go around preaching their dogma as gospel... things get ugly. just look at the sorry end of the gh15 saga... everyone thought the guy gave great advice, then he starts acting like an infallible "god of hormones" and the next thing you know he's completely alienated everyone.
