Luca Mandato

Lindsay Ferra

Intro to redirect

November 18, 2022

TED TALK PAPER

The Ted Talk that I chose to write about was “What Makes Muscles Grow?” The author

of this TEDTalk is Jeffery Siegel. What motivated the author to create this text is to inform

people about their muscles. He wants to make people understand how their body works because

it is important to have a healthy diet and exercise frequently to be healthy. The purpose of this

information is to inform viewers that how you treat your muscles daily determines whether they

will grow or not. Many people have physical goals for their bodies, and if they do not have this

information, they will not be able to reach those goals. The audience of this TEDTalk is the

human population, but also people who try to go to the gym on a consistent basis to lose weight

or gain muscle. The audience could also be people who do not know exactly what they are doing

when they go to the gym. I know this because he informs us about the human muscles and how

to treat the muscles, we use every day. I also know this because Siegel appeals to people who

have goals to look and feel better, mentally, and physically.

The larger conversation of this TEDTalk is to inform us what can happen to our muscles

when we do not expose them to some resistance, and how if you do not have a protein in your

diet, it will also delay your muscle growth. The main message that is talked about in this text is

to inform the population about how to grow your muscles correctly by exercising and having the

correct nutrition intake to do so. Because without proper nutrition, hormones, and rest, your body

would never be able to repair damaged muscle fibers. Protein in our diet preserves muscle mass by
providing the building blocks for new tissue in the form of amino acids. Adequate protein intake, along

with naturally occurring hormones, like insulin-like growth factor and testosterone, help shift the body into

a state where tissue is repaired and grown.

The three appeals that are used in this essay are ethos, pathos, and logos. The ethos is

used in this TEDTalk by how the author talks about the information that he brings up and his

background a life coach he has his own website for people who are looking to improve

themselves. On his website he says, “feeling better, building confidence in yourself, creating a

body you can trust, and learning how to perform at your best.” This quote shows that he cares

about what he does, and he wants what is best for people. Being a life coach establishes his

credibility because he would have to study this type of material to be successful as a life coach.

He would also have to be correct to have the following that he does. As well as this, the talk

itself is with TED, which is a company that many people know and see as credible. Ted talks are

scientific claims by speakers whose data has survived the scrutiny by experts in the field, and the

speakers must have their information be factual claims and have scientific evidence for them.

Which makes them a hundred percent credible.

I trust the author because when he is talking about the topic, he brings up the facts, which

is an example of logos. For example, he states “if you tear your muscles up, eat right, rest and

repeat, you'll create the conditions to make your muscles as big and strong as possible.” He backs this up

with scientific information that has been proven for muscle growth. The logos in this essay are used

when the author talks about the facts about our muscle growth. Siegel talked about the topic in a

way that made sense, especially to viewers who do not know much about the topic. He is using

scientific words that help him back up his argument. This means that there was some research

that must have gone into his argument.

 Pathos is used because the author talks about the values of how you view yourself, setting

goals for yourself, and achieving them, and invokes emotion at the end of the talk by saying “it is

with muscles as it is with life: Meaningful growth requires challenge and stress, “This quote is

very important because he is trying to explain that nothing happens in a blink of an eye. Growing

your muscles takes time. First you feel better about yourself. Then you start to see results and

hope in what you can become. But to get that feeling you must face the challenges of that

process it is not going to be easy and that is where building discipline comes into it. And once

you achieve that goal your growth feels meaningful because you overcame the aversity. This

relates to everyday life as people face adversity every day.

The target audience would find this TEDTalk appealing and eye opening. It is eye

opening because the information that he talks about in this video proves how you control how

you change. If you want to be lazy and sit on the couch and not exercise and not be healthy that’s

your choice. If you want to try and better, yourself and become fitter there are resources and

people who can help like Jeffery who help you achieve your goal.

I also found this TEDTalk appealing and eye opening because I realize how my muscles

grow. When I am eating consistently and going to the gym every day, following my routine, my

muscles and my body look and feel great. However, when I am inconsistent and eating food that

is not good for my body and my muscles, my body looks and feels weak. After reading and

listening to what the author has to say it really opened my eyes that it’s all about consistency and

commitment to make your body feel good and the best way to make your muscles grow.