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So you want to be lean?
Ok, we can do that. But the basics always apply. Train intelligently and with intensity. Eat properly. Do those things consistently. Once they are taken care of THEN you can start thinking about being lean. And very likely you will achieve ‘leanness’ by doing only those things.
Once you’ve been training and eating right for a while, you may decide you don’t want to be lean any more. Screw lean… you want to be ripped! That requires a little bit more effort, and before we go anywhere we have to discuss an incredibly powerful hormone: Insulin
Carbohydrates raise blood sugar. You eat something delicious say, a cup full of grapes. The sugar from those grapes enter your gut and the sugar is absorbed into your blood stream. The sweeter the food, and the less fiber it has, the faster the absorption. So eat 10 slices of white bread (high sugar, low fiber)… and BAM your pancreas (the organ that releases insulin) is like “whhhat the FFFF” and floods the system with insulin. Why? Because once in the blood the sugar MUST go somewhere… and insulin is responsible to push sugar into 1 of 3 places: muscles, the liver, or fat.
The word for stored sugar in muscles is glycogen. When you hear someone say “carb load”… they are actually talking about repleting muscle glycogen so those muscles have a local energy source during a race or competition. When you exercise you use up muscle glycogen. When you use up muscle glycogen enzymes are created/called. Those enzymes will tell insulin “give me more sugar, bitch.” And, so, insulin pushes the sugar from the blood into the muscle. (this is one of the important reasons for a post workout meal)
Some people are blessed with muscles that are more sensitive to insulin. These are the people that are naturally ripped no matter what they eat. You also have people whose fat is more sensitive to insulin. These are the people that no matter what, they seemingly cannot lose weight – these are also the people that would survive a famine. Most of us are averagely sensitive to insulin, and lay somewhere in between. As we age, things get worse.
The muscles and liver of a fat person are filled to the brim with glycogen – there’s no room! If this person continues to eat sugary food the body will continue to push all that sugar into an almost limitless reservoir, and the only option: fat tissue. Fatter… and fatter they become… unless 1 or 2 or both things happen: deplete muscle glycogen (exercise), stop raising insulin levels (diet)… or, the fastest way, both.
The key to being lean is controlling insulin… or timing carbohydrate intake. I have a theory that the body adapts to this and will give you a certain amount of leeway if done consistently. Meaning, if I always spike my insulin post workout when my muscles are sensitive, my body will learn to preferentially replete muscles over fat. I’ve not read anything about this (maybe I’m way behind )… but I’ve experienced it with myself and a few others. More to come on this. No more typing.
6-week Conjugate
After reading the Outlaw blog I became intrigued with the Conjugate Method again. I was semi-familiar before, but it prompted me to reread Louie’s book and write out a sample 6 week program (which is what I’ll be doing). To be clear, this is only the conjugate method if it isn’t repeated. So at the end of 6 weeks, one must change the movements and change some other things to allow continual progress.
Also, this program does not include bands or chains… because, honestly, I’m not yet sure how to use them to full advantage. Until I am sure, I’ll leave them out instead of feigning knowledge about something that is rather complicated to me.
This program is designed to be done alongside a crossfit program… but be careful with overloading yourself… monitor the signs carefully. There are 3 empty days per week (M/W/F), you can do what you like in those days. I recommend picking conditioning work that hits body parts that support the conjugate base work. High rep work is also important and should be done as you can fit it in.
If you look through Outlaw, Rudy has done an amazing job with the application of conjugate or what he calls the limited conjugate.
And now here’s the program:
2/27 – 3/4
Monday: Started a whole30 thing to participate with the clients at the gym. Not much different than how I eat normally except I’m taking out raw honey and butter. Oh and no white potatoes. Lol. We’ll see how it goes. Should be fun. I am going to continue to take supplements though… but no protein powders.
Sunday 3/4 – rest
Saturday 3/3
12.2
Conditioning was limiter and weight felt heavy after awhile. Need to up my volume and training freq if I think I’m going to compete in a meaningful way. I think I mentioned it but I’m only doing each open workout once, and not letting it interfere with my current training cycle. It’s actually cool to watch myself as I have feeling about not performing as well as I want to. But when I think about my effort level during the workout, I know it was there… so what’s there to be upset about?
Friday 3/2
rest
Thursday 3/1
Backsquat 370/5 x 2; 3 min rest (2nd set unb)
3×5 Powersnatch @ 135; 30 sec rest
2 min rest
3×3 PS @ 165; 3o sec rest
All reps fast and unbroken. Felt good, traps were kinda sore the next day… but not after the actual 12.2 workout which I find strange
Wed 2/29
Body felt very good today, especially after yesterday not feeling good at all. I think it had something to do with the heavy holds? Not sure.. maybe just the great sleep I’ve been getting.
Snatch up to 225
CJ up to 295
10 prowler push rest while partner is pushing 140# on prowler. 9:21, legs burned. Mike was my partner.
Evening got an upper body massage
Tue: 2/28
Jerk from rack, 285, felt like a ton. Struggled all the way up. Body felt like shit, thinking yesterdays squats did it.
Yoke: 700# x 10 seconds
4 sets of:
250m row
50 doubleunders
90 second rest
Solid, felt great. Didn’t write down times.
Mon 2/27
Snatch up to 215
BS 365/5 x 2; 2 min rest
AMRAP in 12 min
8 thrusters @ 95
10 pullups
200m run
6+18
Went about 90% pace from the beginning all sets unbroken but run was slow.
Thursday February 9th, 2012
I’m on a leadup through the open and into regionals. Feeling good about it. Not putting pressure on myself, but just enjoying getting back into shape after quite a long layoff from ‘hard’ conditioning. Diet is back in line, am on a supplement protocol that’ll help me progress faster, have some good training partners… things are good.
Tuesday I did Backsquat 340/5 x 2; 3 min rest (the week before I had done 335/5 x 3; 3 min rest and it was very easy, all sets were unbroken and pretty quick. I came in and did the 340/5 and it felt heavy. A long weekend of work and being on my feet with little sleep + getting a little sick, really made a difference.
Yesterday did easy front squats 275/5 x 3; 3 min rest + easy press 135 3×3; 2 min rest
+
3 sets of:
15 thrusters
15 pullups
2 min rest
400m run
2 min rest
Thrust/pullups splits were: :52, :49, :50 smooth and pretty easy
Runs were: 1:22, 1:32, 1:38.. not smooth and not easy.
Today was:
800m run
30 pullups
30 ringdips
400m run
20 pullups
20 ringdips
200m run
10 pullups
10 ringdips
11:12
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Sumod DLs working on form and glute activation: 4 sets of 3 reps @ 325
Oh, and the only reason I’m posting this is because I told Adam Rogers I would. I was pretty content with just writing in my journal. 
I’ll try to keep this updates as my training improves. Maybe some people are still interested.
Experiments
It’s been awhile. I’ve been doing a lot of other things… as you can tell. Most of these other things consist of experiments in the realm of cleansing and detoxification. I want my body and organs clean, I love the idea of that… of cleansing. Of running optimally. I know that working out hard and often, and eating for performance may not be the best way to live for the long term, but I also think that doing detoxes or cleansing cycles can do a lot to help ensure overall health and wellbeing. When I do get back into hard training I feel like I’ll be in a good place to progress.
Before I talk about anything I’ve experimented with, you’ll need to be warned. I’m a strange guy, and there’s very little I won’t try if I think it’ll help me. I’ve always believed that I need to experiment with things before forming any real opinion, because if I don’t, I’m trusting someone else’s experience and ‘testing.’ Without truly experiencing it myself, I will not know for certain. I read a lot, and almost everything I read is biased and opinion based. Even medical research is biased, scientists are biased because they are human. I respect people with strong opinions, and it’s very easy to get wrapped up in how convinced they are about one thing or another… so wrapped up that you might start believing them simply because THEY believe it so thoroughly. Beware. Form your own opinions, and you do that by TESTING, by EXPERIMENTING. Do not substitute the importance of that.
Ask yourself why there are so many nutritional camps. Why are there low carb, high carb, paleo, raw foods, zone, vegans etc? Are all but one composed of idiots? Probably not. I’d say most of the time someone who is so absolutely convinced of a single way has found that way to work for them, or has convinced themselves that it works for them because it works for other people, or it appeals to them on some other level (moral, emotional, logical). For the most part these people lose sight of the fact that other ways CAN and DO work for other people. I’ve experimented with many, many ways of eating… and can say that most work pretty well. I’m still seeking answers, I’m still searching, but for the most part I believe the mind is responsible for a lot. Believe it enough and it’ll probably work.
In the process of searching I’ve found some things to be true: 1) Digestion is very important so chew your food. 2) Enzymes rule, so eat some raw fruits and vegetables and sprouted nuts and seeds. 3) Detoxify your body with intense focus a few times per year, either through fasting or other methods 4) Always experiment and build awareness around foods, write things down, and do what works for you… YOU are different than me. 5) Be happy, enjoy life. Love, laugh and always have fun.
With all that said, lets get down to the most recent experiment of mine: The liver and gallbladder flush. After doing a lot of reading in books and online, I decided to give it a try. Supposedly doing these flushes release gallstones from the liver and gallbladder. Many people believe these ‘stones’ to be a product of saponification, which is the process by which soap is made. The flush includes drinking 4oz of olive oil with grapefruit juice, and critics say that when you drink this concoction it produces the ‘stones’ that are produced in your diarrhea (product of drink epsom salts). Being me, I wasn’t going to believe that it did or didn’t work without trying it. So I tried it and had a lot of ‘stones’ release from my body. This is the process:
Day 1-6 drink 32 oz of apple juice (containes malic acid) which supposedly softens up the gallstones.
Day of actual flush
Stop eating around 1:30pm, start drinking epsom salts around 6pm, this induces diarrhea and cleans out some things.
At 10pm drink 4oz of olive oil + 6oz of citrus juice. I drank 5oz of olive oil and 7.5oz of grapefruit juice. Lay down immediately and try to sleep.
I didn’t sleep well, and woke up feeling nauseous around 2am.
The morning at 6am do drink more epsom salts.
From then on I continue to pass stones until the evening – hundreds ranging in size and colors (from very green to tan). The biggest one I saw was probably about the size of my pinky nail.
I don’t know know what the ‘stones’ are, but I figure I can easily test the hypothesis. I’ll do a flush once a month and see if the stones disappear. Obviously if they are in my liver and gallbladder, eventually they will stop coming out no matter how much oil and citrus I drink. If, however, I continue to do the flushes and have stones come out in the same quantities each time indefinitely, I can assume that the stone are a product of what I’m ingesting. I believe that they ARE stones, however, but we’ll see for sure as time progresses.
Over the past few weeks I’ve done a lot of fasting, the gallbladder flush, and limited my meat intake. I’ve also focused on sleeping a lot and training less. I want to get my organs clean and adrenals replenished for the upcoming training cycle. I’ve lost weight and feel weak and out of shape, but don’t mind – it’ll come back quickly.
Don’t put too much weight on scientific studies.
Lies, Damned Lies, and Medical Science
All I can say is Wow.
Wed 9/7
Clean and Jerk up to 265. Jerk is unstable and out of whack. I can feel myself coming back though. About a month ago I built up to 220 and it felt heavy on the stand. Today 265 felt easy. I’m sure it’s all the backsquatting i’ve been doing. Every week 20 reps + 1 dropped rep set.. with a 2 min interval and 10# increase.
+
3 sets of 3 Powerclean @ 225; 2 min rest
+
3 rounds of
225 bench press x 5
80# kb swing x 10
2 min rest
rested an hour or so
500m row x 2; 2 min rest
135.2, 135.9
I started out thinking “Yeah, I’ll just do a 1:35 pace for 5 sets..” I ended up cutting it after 2 sets. What I’ll do is push the sets up to 5 but drop the time to say 1:42… then increase over the weeks until I can do 1:30 for 5 sets of 500m row on a 2 min rest.
My training over the past few months has been interesting. I go based on intuition and have started training a lot less in terms of volume. I stay consistent but my body feels good and I feel strong. Sometimes my training sessions become 2 hour marathons. Sometimes I cut it after 1 set of deadlifts. I base it completely on how I feel and try to attach too much value to it.
This isn’t a way to train all the time. I enjoy having scheduled training too, it’s necessary in terms of peaking or preparing for big competitions. But training like this really puts me in tune with how I’m actually feeling and not blind to what I’m forcing myself to do.
I’m spending time enjoying my training, which is something I haven’t done in years. I was always fighting to achieve something… and that part of me will come up again as I find more goals down the line, but right now it’s nice not caring, and training because I love it.
Essential Nutrients
We know about essential amino acids… and essential fatty acids… but there are said to be no essential carbohydrates.
The human body is obviously resilient. Like, ridiculously resilient. It takes a lot to break us down. Most people walk around in a completely poisoned state… their body literally starving for nutrients. Most people don’t digest and assimilate foods well, and are insulin resistant (and when insulin IS effective it chooses to shuttle carbs and fats to adipose (fat) tissue over muscle tissue). Most people are inflamed, depressed and acidic too.
Observation 1: Fresh, raw fruit and vegetable juice fasts, although containing high amounts of fructose and other, albeit natural, sugars, make fat people thin, and unhealthy people healthy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTMOGLbXWIk (not a scientific resource by any means, and I don’t intend it to be, but still interesting and illuminating)
Observation 2: The opposite, a high fat/protein diet with no processed carbohydrates, has time and time again made fat people thin? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUspjZG-wc (more science basing this one)
These two diets have essentially opposite macronutrient breakdowns but achieve the same end result. Is it all based on biochemical individuality (metabolic type)? I’d say that does have an influence, but there are other things at play
So, back to essential carbohydrates. My observation would be that most people miss the boat with carbohydrates. They are defining them as sugars: sucrose, glucose and fructose – the molecules, and no these aren’t essential. And not by what’s important: phytonutrients – the actual nutrition. The point is not what various carbs break down into, but what they contain when ingested – NUTRIENTS.
Now, I know plants have defenses and all that. They don’t want to be eaten so, according to some, shouldn’t be eaten. But I’ve seen the value of fruits and vegetables first hand, and have read thousands of pages supporting this, so I’m hesitant to believe that fully. I’d argue that some plants, of course, shouldn’t be eaten by some people, but that it depends on the plant and the person.
Let’s get back to the questions, how can these two questions:
The first observation is a matter of nutrition. The body is starving, the cells are starving. Once you start feeding the body nutrition, despite what people say about protein needs etc., homeostasis (leanness) is eventually achieved because previously dulled systems become sensitive again, through nutrients. The body can finally rid itself of toxins (mainly stored in bodyfat) and the stress of all those years of ingesting poisons are relieved. Regardless of how fructose is metabolized or how much protein we supposedly need, the fact remains that people DO lose weight and get healthier, and it has to do with the nutrient density (phytonutrient content) of the juices. Juice requires little digestion and fast absorption, which some would argue is bad… but this isn’t necessarily true as it also gives the body a break from all the incessant digestion of garbage food going on day after day. Juice supplies an environment conducive to detoxification.
The conventional explanation of metabolism where food is projected as energy only, ignoring the subtleties of real nutrition is shortsighted. Believing that all calories are equal, all protein is equal and all sugar is equal is skewed an obvious misinterpretation of how the body actually works. If hormones didn’t exist, and the body was a closed system – a machine – this energy in, energy out theory would make more sense. But it’s not like that. There are far too many variable and thinking this way is like giving crayons, mud, and sticks (low quality foods) to the greatest architects and construction crew in the world (your body) and expecting them to produce the Taj Mahal. It doesn’t matter how good they are, they can’t do what they needs to do unless you give them the right tools and resources. And your body can’t do what IT needs to do unless you feed it the right nutrition.
The second observation is a matter of manipulating insulin. This is the version where we manipulate hormones, without regard to nutritional subtleties. Low carb high protein and high fat causes the body to produce less insulin. It doesn’t mean that it’s healthful long term, only effective… and that it gets the job done without too much damage or discomfort. Fasting for a month can produce excellent weightloss, it’s just that the damage is not worth it. They both manipulate the body in technical ways, it’s just low carb is better because it’s essentially producing a muscle sparing environment that runs on alternate fuel (fats and ketones). Although I’d suggest that with people who have a hard time losing bodyfat, despite low carbing the crap out of themselves, that they include more live, organic, high quality fruits and veggies. Mainly veggies if you intend on still saying in a low carb state
We have to understand that there are things at play regarding fruit and vegetables that we can’t explain. Quality of the soil has a huge part to play in the quality of nutrients within them… and to say there is no difference between conventionally grown produce and organically grown produce is foolish. It DOES NOT come down to vitamin and mineral content alone – otherwise multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplements would be magic. There are unknowns… life energy etc… at play that can’t really be measured and taking a dead pill or powder cannot make up for the living, dense nutrition found in raw fruits and veggies, and especially juices.
How does this all play into performance? Well, I’ll save that for another time.
Cyclic Cho Update
I’ve played with cyclic cho before, but always with daily cho spikes when working out, like 100g post and 70g or so in the morning. Past week I’ve done 30net grams cho daily mainly in the form of veggies or extra carbs in pro shakes. Body is noticeably weaker, burning during workouts comes on faster, body feels ‘thinner.’ Daily averages have been around 2000kcals give or take with about 75% fat, 7% cho, and the rest in pro. Light headedness on standing has increased, as well as dizzy feelings during some workouts (especially heavy deadlifts). Was planning to go this week, but decided to load today as my bw is dropping too much and I’m already quite lean.
Today I plan to take in about 150g Cho every 2 hours, high glycemic index shit earlier in the day, tapering to lower glycemic better quality carbs in the evening.
Took in 30gCho/30gPro prior to workout and the same post.
July 31
Depletion work (still low carbs, bw dropped to 180.3 over past 5 days from about 186)
3 sets:
185 backsquat x 10
135 bench press x 15
20 kipping pullups
3 min rest
+
3 sets
narrow grip chinups x 8; 1 min
db press @ 55 then 35, 35 x 8; 1 min
ng bp @ 95 x 8; 1 min
+
2 sets:
ab wheel but attached to feet x 10
bulgarian split squat x 10 w/ 26# each hand
It’s interesting as my body is definitely getting less of a ‘pump.’ A product of decreased muscle glycogen. Was out of breath feeling like complete crap for this whole thing. Low motivation to train before hand, but knew I needed to deplete… so I sucked it up.
July 29
Press up to 140/5 (very weak. muscle burning almost immediate, had nothing there, 30 net grams of carbs for previous 2 days)
Compare to 135/11 about a month ago.
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Handstand walking 20feet x 5; 45sec rest
easy
Dietary Discipline
I’ve always admired people who can make a decision and unwaveringly follow it to it’s end. And I’ve worked for a long time striving to achieve that ability (with nutrition at least) – yet even with all the work I’ve put in, I still have a tough time.
I expect everyone does.
The problem is with one’s relationship with food. Once you can detach yourself and view food as a means to achieve goals, be it health or performance, the choices and issues that arise become moot. We are all, at some point, swayed by the flesh… the desire to taste something delicious, to enjoy the pleasure of eating. And this is a healthy process. But if you have a goal to achieve, you need to be able to switch it on and off. This is where the magic happens. And if you are lucky enough to be able to cook well, eating with discipline can be pretty damn tasty. I have had plenty of meals of cold vegetables, lean protein with no salt and a gulp of olive oil. To live like that indefinitely would be a tragedy, but sometimes it’s necessary as a test… to test your will, your resolve.
So what’s your level of dietary discipline? Do you have control over food, or do you let food control you? Do you make the choice to eat something delicious because you want to simply enjoy it and you feel confident and know it won’t sway you long term, or do you just find yourself eating a big piece of cheesecake and wonder how it happened – and then fall down a binge path?
Or maybe you fight with yourself for 45 minutes about whether or not you should eat a cookie… and then you finally do, and then you eat the whole bag too. We’ve all been there.
Food is interesting… there’s so much pleasure wrapped up in it. So much emotion. The real benefit comes when you can transcend that, and look beyond it. Then you have some power. But you have to stay aware. Watch yourself and your thoughts and your temptations… then reflect on them and try again. We’ll all screw up along the way… but in the end, we just have to screw up fewer times than we succeed.
Thoughts on diet
Juicing
Nutritionally, it’s amazing. An awesome supplement if you stick to primarily vegetables with just enough fruit to make it between palatable and slightly delicious… but not overly sweet. It can definitely be incorporated into any lifestyle if timed properly with workouts and is based on carrot juice (which is mainly sucrose). In terms of a health focus, it can easily be incorporated. The problem comes when extreme leanness levels or muscularity are desired… then we’d have to stick with pure veggie juice in smaller quantities.
Low Protein
I stuck with a low protein intake for 10 days. I did get weaker by about 3% and my muscles felt distinctly ‘flatter.’ I also lost about 6 pounds. It’s hard to say what the specific cause of this is, as there were other things going on at the same time. But I can’t help my noticings. I know that processing protein is taxing systemically, and can producing HCL is definitely taxing… so I could see a week or so every 3 months where protein is dropped, training is ceased and a recovery protocol is taken. That would make a lot of sense to me for athletes in hard training and/or people who are intaking a lot of protein/meat etc.
Opposite ways to the same end
What’s interesting is that juice fasts, where someone consumes ONLY vegetable and fruit juices, work to drop fat… and so does a protein only type diet. Obviously different nutritional content and the biochemistry is different, but the end result is the same. That is very interesting and illustrates that a lot of things will get you to an end result. The price in terms of dietary stress varies, but to what degree?
Forming your own opinion
People can obviously live on all sorts of diets. It comes down to doing what feels best to you. Not doing something simply because someone else recommends it… and you respect that person and want to believe what he/she says or writes as THE ONLY way.
For instance, I don’t like taking in high levels of animal fats. I don’t feel right. Bacon makes me feel like my body is producing mucus in excess and so do egg yolks. So I tend to avoid these things (although I love the taste of bacon), and periodically put them in to see if it makes a difference – or simply because I want it and am willing to feel that way. Some people LOVE animal fats and do great on them and can eat them all the time.
Bias
Staunch advocates of a certain way of eating just illuminate their biases. Someone saying “I’m right and they are wrong” is just an example of someone confusing their own beliefs and learnings as absolute fact… when in reality, a similar person (in terms of intelligence, education) may have an absolutely opposite opinion and believe it with equal certainty. Who is right? Probably both to some degree. The thing is a lot of shit works, it all depends on what a person needs, their disposition, their goals and desires, lifestyle, training, location, food access… Not to mention THEIR biases.
So, experiment. Try things out. Read different books. Read something about raw food veganism, then read protein power or atkins… but keep an open mind. Don’t go into it thinking how you want to find flaws in logic. Obviously, stay vigilant, but be equally so in all your learning… then take it and experiment with it.
Cancer and Gerson and Application
About 10 days ago I fell into a rabbit hole. I’ve had a lot of my beliefs questioned and I’ve come out the other side with a broadened awareness. Seemingly so, anyway. Or maybe I could be honest and say I’ve simply grown more confused. In either case, a summary is in order.
A bit of digression to start, regarding protein:
Do you know the protein needs of a human during the most aggressive growth period in life? If I said 1% what would you say? Well, that’s the breakdown of mothers milk. I find that very interesting. We’re not all babies, and I’m not sure what kind of scientific significance that has, but the fact that it’s interesting is undeniable.
High(er) protein has been proven to be effective in muscle gain… but that 1% thing just bugs the hell out of me. Does it have to do with assimilation? Low quality protein sources? Adrenaline?
Anyway, back to the point. Cancer. And Gerson.
Back in the day, around 1950, there was a doctor named Max Gerson working with patients with various maladies. It all started with him finding a nutritional cure for his own migraines, this evolved in application to tuberculosis and eventually to cancer… all successfully curing these ailments. This shit is documented. There is lots of real data. Maybe it’s a hoax, maybe it’s quackery… but I challenge you to look at it for yourself – and form a real opinion.
So here we are with this nutritional cure, that conventional medicine can’t accept because it would cost billions of dollars in profits. Pharmaceutical companies can’t let this stuff out… and they don’t. Mad conspiracy, right? Probably. Money = influence.
The Gerson theory is based on two core principles that cause disease:
Deficiency
Toxicity
Deficiency being years of eating like shit, doing drugs, dealing with stress etc and having no more enzymes, resources or energy left in the body.
Toxicity is the accumulation of bad shit in place of the good with no way for the body to rid itself of the crap… because to do so would require it to enter the blood, and thus pollute the system to a degree that could cause death. The body knows it. The body is probably storing it in fat…
Pretty damn logical if you ask me. It doesn’t matter what the disease is, the body is depleted then becomes toxic, and whatever the ‘weak’ link happens to be is the outlet. Could be genetic (ex: hypertension) or lifestyle (Ex: lung cancer), or whatever. You pick. The human body is a system. Seeing the above logic, how much sense does the following conventional approach make:
I have some sort of nutritional/lifestyle/environmental stress that causes cancer over a 30 year period. My body can’t handle the toxicity so it develops a cancerous lump. I go to the doctor who says I need to get it cut out.. so I do. But the underlying issue of a crappy systemic environment is NOT addressed. In 6 months it grows back (what took 30 years before, now takes 6 months… because that tipping point has already been reached). So the Doc recommends Chemo.. something that is generally accepted to poison my body, but ‘luckly’ poisons the tumor MORE.. cool. i get it, my body is poisoned in the process, even more stress is put on my limited resources, and maybe… just maybe, I’m lucky enough (in some cases 1% -pancreatic cancer) to survive. But in all likely hood, I die.
Are you with me? Does that make any damn sense? I know it’s not all as simple as this, but this is just an illustration. Yet another example of something that is conventionally accepted as ‘right’ is just idiotic when broken down.
All this makes me want to go to medical school, try to create change. I stay up at night thinking about this shit. I get pissed and privately outraged at the audacity of these fucking companies…
And then it comes back around, and I apply it to something close to my heart… fitness/strength what have you:
What would a diet like this – something that heals the body in an accelerated manner during the worst scenario possible (cancer) – do to a body that has just been ravaged by a workout? Why would it not heal faster, make better gains etc? What mechanism are at play that change the basic biochemistry?
I don’t know these answers. But I’ll be experimenting and in time hope to have some.
I’m still eating almost all vegetables and fruit with fresh vegetable and fruit juices. Goat milk and some cottage cheese and yoghurt thrown in the mix. I’ve lost 5lbs which confuses me. Is this muscle? Can’t be. Water? Not sure. We’ll see how my strength is this week.
Nutrition 7/12
Been doing a detox-like diet for about a week – not for any particular reason, just feel like it after watching a few documentaries about alternative health. Used to be way into this kinda stuff. Lots of vegetable and fruit juicing, raw foods, good protein etc. Looking to accelerate the healing of my achilles, giving my digestion a break from lots of extra protein, and staying with quite a lot of liquid.
7/10 was lots of juice but was hanging out with a certain someone who made lasagna, and I ate it! it was good, but I’ve recently been eating well and I was amazed at how sleepy I felt afterwards, and how my thinking was very clouded… then she tried to get me to eat ice cream also.
7/11 was composed of parsley, kale and apple juice, raw goat milk, wild elk steak and raw eggs.
Today was:
10AM: 16 oz Carrot juice, kale, apple
11: 6 eggs, scrambled cooked in coconut oil
2:00pm: 12oz carrot and beet
3pm: training
4:30: Carrot juice + raw goats milk + vegetarian pro powder
6:30: Chard, carrot, celery, apple
8:00: 1 sausage
Most juices are only slightly sweet, with a much larger volume of greens. I started out having 2 or 3 apples, and now am going down to 1 as my sensitivity to sweetness is increasing it seems and I need less… plus my teeth get sensitive if I have juice that’s too sweet.
All this is pretty confusing right? In terms of preconceived notions and what YOU feel is the right way to eat. Just goes to illustrate that nutrition is multilayered. There are various ‘tactics’ used for different purposes or reasons at different times.
Not wasting away! — This one’s dedicated to Rocco… although I had a hard time flexing my bi’s holding that camera 
Swimming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97b6XIntfcc&feature=relmfu
Starting around 11:13
“if they were to give out medals for the person that had the highest aerobic power, or the person who had the most impressive anaerobic threshold, or could tolerate the most lactate; if they were to give out medals for that then you probably should train that way so you had the highest measures in those. But they don’t, they give medals for the order in which you finish, in other words how fast you swim, and there has never been a correlation between any of these things, in terms of higher markers, and
higher performance, in fact when USA Swimming did studies they found a negative correlation quite often. Which is in that theyd find mediocre swimmers with the ability to tolerate a lot of lactic acid. Why? because they’re FULL of lactate acid all the time because of their inneficiency, so they develop the ability to tolerate it, whereas the really good swimmers don’t generate as much lactate acid. “
Some of my thoughts:
What happens when you get an efficient swimmer with those things? Phelps? If a very efficient swimmer minimizes lactate production because of technique mastery would training this outside the pool improve swimming performance?
How does crossfit technique and strategy apply here? These things obviously play a more important role, but what role does efficiency play and to what degree?
What level of improvement could someone expect by focusing on technique within crossfit style workouts, considering just how much there is to master.
Sean Buck – 28 Days Later
General Info:
Sean came to me with the goal of losing bodyfat. Performance and health is always the long term focus, but to start out he wanted something very effective – he made this fact clear. Based on Sean’s personality (extremely goal driven) I had some ideas for him right off the bat, and knew that compliance would likely be a non-issue. Basically, that there would be little to no wavering… temptation, yes, that’s a given… but failure, no.
He also had a solid understanding of health and nutrition in general, so I felt comfortable with where we were going. We discussed the potential dangers of something as extreme as this, and came to the conclusion that a month of intense focus on fat loss was worth a bit of risk. Although, at the time, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. Sean, being the guy he is, decided to track everything as meticulously as he could (bodyweight, pictures, journaling etc) and I took weekly site scores and monitored progress; so we have data on just about every aspect of this diet. Wish we could have got blood markers, but this will have to wait until the next experiment.
And, just so we are clear, I DO NOT recommend this for everyone. Sean is a unique case. As we phase to healthier eating styles, we have to be sure to look at potential food sensitives and digestive issues that may have developed during this period; as well as a basic detox away from chemicals and additives.
Now that Sean is living in a new and leaner body, he will respond faster to training and other nutritional tactics… true health and high-level performance will come quicker. A testament to the magic of specialization… the power of focus… in this case, focus on fat loss.
Performance:
Sean increased strength from a 240#/20 backsquat to 270#/20 as well as PRing on several other strength movements including a weighted pullup @ 72#. He lowered his 1000m row time from 3:58 to 3:42 despite a significant drop in bodymass, and improved in all fitness areas. I had no idea this would happen going into it. As we progressed through the weeks he just got stronger and faster. I kept the training tough and taxing and was waiting for a drop off… but it never came.
Stats: 
Physical Transformation:
Sean’s changes are nothing short of amazing. Around week 2 I started seeing big differences.
Weekly Progressions: 
Training:
Mon/Wed/Fri strength/power focus plus a metcon on somedays, and Tue/Thur/Sat long easy work (rowing, walking) or recovery (yoga, SMR etc).
Diet:
Tnation’s V-diet: liquid protein meals 5x a day, 1 solid meal weekly + specific supplementation. Although we did not go with Tnation’s protein or supplements; saved about 200 bucks. Very effective.
Whats next:
Whole natural foods with a focus on digestion optimization and some nutrient timing elements. Intelligent, hormonal training geared towards the right energy systems.
“It seems like only a month ago I asked for Nathan’s help to help get lean. Oh crap, it was only a month ago. This Velocity Diet is definitely one of the most challenging things I’ve done mentally. And I’ve been through USMC bootcamp, so that’s saying a lot. But like anything difficult, it’s extremely rewarding if you can pull it off. I still can’t believe I’ve reached about 95% where I want to be in just 28 days. Nathan’s coaching, programming, support, and motivation were key to getting me through this. I know he tells people it was all me. But seriously couldn’t have done this without him. I am the type of guy that tries to learn how to do everything himself just to save money. But I definitely have to admit that working with Nathan was one of the best investments I’ve made in a long time. And I am looking forward to continuing to work with Nathan on my phase 2 goals of continuing to lean out but increase performance for the next NLI championship series starting in September time frame. Also thanks to Lamarr Smith and my family at Crossfit NLP, I can’t imagine training anywhere else.” – Sean Buck
BTW a LOT of it was Sean Buck. He is not normal. Period. I gave him the guidance, but he made it happen. I challenge anyone to do what he did. There’s only a small percentage of people with the fortitude to make it through this thing.
WTF
What is wrong with this picture?
The JDRF is the juvenile diabetes research fund…
There is OBVIOUSLY a disconnect here. Type 1 diabetes is something most are born with, but how does it make sense to support soda sales to fund the research for diabetes? It’s like cigarette companies giving a portion of profits to lung cancer research. How about we just stop buying the soda/cigarettes all together and solve the problem?
Another example of big business exploiting uninformed people for profit. Although, many of those company’s executives are just as uninformed, unhealthy and overweight as the consumers they target. What a crazy situation.
June 13, 2011 – Phasing
So I feel confident in what I learned about nutrient timing and how it effects my body. In the past month I’ve been able to manipulate bodyfat levels and muscular density without any negative strength or performance issues. In fact, I’ve increased strength in most areas.
I can’t be sure about my health. Have had no sicknesses and energy levels have been fine. Quite a few high protein days that had very little nutrition (fruits and veggies). BMs have been hit or miss, and were better the first couple days after overeating.
Next up is a health phase.. and a longer term strategy. Consistent IF protocol with paleo type parameters. Fruits and/or veggies with every meal, lean protein and adequate fats. Keeping to high fish oil and high vit C intake. Some sort of high glycemic natural food (includes grains etc) post workout along with a protein shake. Approx every other day (when I remember) I’ll have a protein shake before bed(despite this going against a true IF protocol)
Basic goals with this is to get my digestion in line and focus on nutrient density mainly because I believe it will help heal my achilles faster. We’ll see.
Using Food
The way I see it, we can use food (nutrition) for 1 of 3 things:
1. To get fat, get diseases and generally promote ill-health by eating the wrong stuff (usually from being uninformed), addicted to food in one way or another, or by seeking food for pleasure only.
2. As medicine to get health* by repleting adrenals, recovering the gut, and generally giving the body what it needs to heal itself… because it will.
3. As a drug to get lean/muscular/perform better by timing elements to manipulate hormones to get desired effects on performance and/or body composition.
Obviously there is a lot of overlap here. Things aren’t clear cut… but there are general concepts for each that must be understood.
The general recipe to get fat and unhealthy: 
Eat predominantly refined carbohydrates and processed foods and drinks with lots of chemicals and preservatives. Eat sweeteners everyday and avoid anything natural. Don’t exercise, sleep badly, drink lots of alcohol, and stress out about life/work/finances/relationships all the time. Worry as much as you can and be sure to keep your energy levels high with lots of stimulants. Look negatively at everything and make sure doubt is always present in your mind. Get angry with people around you and have general resentment for life. Oh, and throw in some really hard exercise that you are not ready for.
This lifestyle will lead to adrenal fatigue and insulin resistance very quickly… this will make you unhappy, fat and diseased. How many people do you know that live elements of this extreme example?
General recipe for health: 
Have a greater focus on nutrient density. Think: a diet of rotated organic whole/natural state foods (rotation is for intolerances) with journaling, vit/min, fish oil, fermented foods, high quality fresh vegetable juices, raw dairy, and high quality meats for starters. Low level exercise at first, walking, meditation, food awareness work especially if you are very overweight… develop a relaxation ritual that you do whenever you feel stressed. Get your guts in line with probiotics and hcl/digestive enzyme supplementation if you need it. Work on intuitive eating and sensing what the body needs. Work to get at least 8 hours of high quality sleep every night and sleep before 10pm. Gradually incorporate a well rounded training protocol based on your goals and predisposition. Play recreational sports. Enjoy life, laugh a lot and generally have fun with friends often.
General recipe for leanness/performance: 
First and foremost you MUST workout. Then you MUST have health or have a good framework of understanding so you can make informed decisions. Once you have these things in place you can use timing and specific nutritional tactics to mimic drugs… almost like taking steroids if done right. Basically using food as a fuel only and removing feelings about ‘what you like’ or ‘want’ to do. Literally using food as you would drug doseages… like a scientist. It is not necessarily healthy long term.
Again, there are ways you can mix these and have high health and performance together, but I want to draw clear distinctions.
Health and understanding is first. Those who are unhealthy and uninformed who try to manipulate timing, use tactics, or do other ‘diets’ will usually fail due to a poor foundation physically, mentally and/or emotionally. You HAVE to build a groundwork because there are no shortcuts. You, reading this, do at least one thing really well. Maybe better than anyone you know… and to get that skill you had to work hard right? If someone asked you “hey, how can I achieve what you achieved in 10 years, in a few months?” You would probably say… “umm, sorry, you can’t dude”
So understand that, like with everything, these things take time. One step, one more day of learning new things and gaining more experience.
* By health I mean (among other things) someone who is happy, laughs a lot, loves the people around them, sleeps well, digests and poops well. Is horny and has high energy through the day and is sleepy at night. Someone who can do any normal physical task (carry grocery bags or take a hike for 3 hours on a saturday without being accommodated for) and doesn’t worry about things all the time. Cool?
"Eat less, move more. Eat fruits and vegetables and don’t eat too much junk food and enjoy what you are eating. It is simple as that."
Some excerpts:
“Steve: So how do we change the social environment though?
Nestle: Well, we will do it in the way these changes always take place—you do it through education of the public; you create demands for different kinds of foods; you teach parents to go into schools and look at what their kids are eating and then do something about it; you change policy so that it becomes more difficult for food companies to advertise to children; you stop them from marketing junk food to kids using cartoon characters. I mean, all the things that are going on now are examples of policy approaches to trying to get something done about obesity. Let me tell you, it is not going to be easy to do that because they’re powerful industries, who have, as their general interest, getting people to eat more food than last [year]—that’s just the way our investment system works. So I am sure that there are plenty of people in the food industry who wish that they could do better, but they can’t keep the bottom line up and this is most obviously seen in the whole issue of marketing food to children.’
Q “What are some little things they can be on the look out for that maybe they would not have noticed otherwise?
Nestle: Well, the first thing to look [at] is the way the store is arranged. The first thing you go into to the right or the left is the produce section because that is something that research shows draws people into the stores and makes people think that they are dealing with real food. The real foods—that is, the meat, the dairy, the produce—are always in the preferable aisles of the supermarket. You have to walk all the way around the outside of the store in order to get them and that’s for two reasons: One because it is easier for the store to stock them; but also because almost everybody who comes into the store [is] going to be buying milk, and the milk is always going to be in the far diagonal corner from the entrance—very good for your exercise program, but not so good if you’re in a hurry. And then the junk foods, the processed foods, are going to be in the center aisles, and they [these] are very, very, very long and the reason that they are very long is because the research shows that the more products you look at, the more you buy, and that is a rule of supermarkets that research backs up over and over and over again. So the object of the game from the stores’ point of view is to make the aisles long enough so that you will see as many products as possible but not so long that you will run screaming from the store in frustration. But everything about the store is designed to get you to see more products and to see more of the products that are most profitable. And the products that are most profitable are located at prime real estate—that is at eye level at the ends of aisles and at the cash registers where you cannot possibly miss them, and companies pay the stores in order to put their products in those places.”
May 27, 2011
Some dietary notes and developments.
Things have slowly evolved, and small, natural changes have occurred as I continue on.
I kept my overall fat intake quite low for 3 weeks, and now have slowly started to crave more fat. I’ll usually have protein and maybe 20g of carbs AM (had 5oz of blackberries this morning) unless I have cardio which I’ll do fasted or with BCAA’s depending on length of training etc. After my hard training session of the day I’ll have between 50 and 100g of carbs. About 45 minutes after that I’ll have fatty meat and maybe some berries or something – not quite sure why I do this, but it just feels right to me. Then the rest of the day is veggies pro and lower fat. Sometimes I’ll have one additional meal with higher fat.
One day a week I fast for 24 hours. I’ll be playing with just undereating with raw fruits and veggies only as i progress. But for now, I have a meal at 7 to 8pm, sleep, go the day without food and have a meal a moderately sized meal at 7 to 8pm that night.
If I have my overeating day on saturday I’ll continue with ad libitum paleo foods on sunday. If I overeat on Sunday i’ll continue with normal eating during the week. This came down to a compliance thing where I found myself having a really tough time on sunday following an overeat on saturday.
Some of my ideas on diet have been changing over the past few months. Core basics of nutrient density etc always apply, but the application is what is interesting to me. Leveraging the highly-controllable macronutrients, almost using them as drug doses, has been a big eye opener.
Todays training:
A Press: 95/5, 110/5, 120/13, 120/6; 2 min rests
B Sumo Deadlift: 215/20, 215/10, 215/10; 2 min rests
+
3 rounds:
5 manmakers with 20#s
14 incline shrugs with 60#s
14 abwheels in various directions
14 kb swings
10:25, the manmakers just sucked up the time.
+
4 sets:
A1 250m Row sprint; 1 min
A2 15 ballslams @ 20#; 2 min
45.9; :24
45.3; :23
45.9; :23
45.3; :22
Getting Huge!
Well, not really. I’ve actually lost some weight since I started this eating 2 weeks ago. About 2-3lbs. But my muscles are distinctly sharper and therefore appear huge-er.
I need to be in the sun more, I know.
I’d like to talk a bit about the kind of training and the nutrient timing I’m doing while on this diet. Just a sidenote, because of my recent achilles injury, a lot of my training options have had to be modified. I basically live on the Airdyne, doing anywhere from 15sec intervals to 60 minute sustained effort. I’d really recommend mixing it up with running, rowing, swimming, biking etc.
For the most part my AM work is aerobic or intervals of some kind. If I can get it in early I’ll be fasted or have some bcaas, depends on the training. For long aerobic base I like to go completely fasted. If I have to do it late morning then I’ll try to have protein only breakfast with maybe some coffee. On non training days I have the normal dose of post workout carbs/pro in the morning only. The rest of the day is pro and veggies.
Lately as the week gets closer to my overeating day, I drop my carbs by 1/2 then 1/4. Not sure why I’m doing this, it makes sense from a science standpoint (depletion), but it kind of just developed as i went. Did it this week and will do it next week and report back.
This is how my week went and will go:
Mon: 100g cho AM meal, 100g PM PW cho
Tue: 100g cho AM PW, 100g PM PW cho
Wed: rest and Undereating 30g BCAAs throughout the day, 6oz chicken + veggies at 7:30pm
Thur: 50g cho AM PW, 75g PM PW
Fri: 25g cho PW AM, 50g PM PW
Sat: Overeating… 500+g cho, 5000 kcals
Sun: fight instinct to continue eating that way, and get back to normal.
I’m probably going to try to keep this trend going for awhile. If you were on a 3 on 1 off, you could fast every other rest day. Haven’t played with this though.
PM work always has strength/strength endurance and sometimes a short to medium workout that has a heavy lactate element. After this I try to have the same dose as the morning(bigger as the week progresses) of carbs with pro.
Today:
AM: 20 sec max effort airdyne, 2 min rest x 5
then 10 min vibration therapy
PM:
10 sets:
185# sumo deadlift x 8 reps; 45 sec
4 kipping muscleups; 45 sec
All sets easy, last set of muscleups did 8 reps with rings that after rep 3 were totally lopsided. Pretty happy with that.
Oh! And I shaved the various forms of facial hair I had going.
May 18, 2011
Diet is going well. Really love the high carb/calorie day. Can see why people eat that way all the time.
There’s plenty of info out there about cyclic cho/IF/Leptin/nutrient timing etc. So I’ll spare you the specifics. Check out www.leangains.com, www.bodyrecomposition.com, www.alanaragon.com… some differences in all of them. But there are similarities too.
My current experiment is with bodyfat loss and playing with the hormonal mechanisms of the body. I would not classify what I’m doing as healthy… not at all. It’s probably distinctly unhealthy for long term; but I can’t be positive about that as I’m seeing no problems with digestion, sleep, training, mood. My mood has actually been quite good (better) despite a diet that’s seemingly opposed to ‘happy.’
The reasoning for this experimentation lies solely in my ability to prescribe it to clients. I have to feel it, see how it works, watch my own level of compliance etc. Performance will always be my personal priority; but for a lot of folks bodyfat loss and the way one ‘looks naked’ is the secret goal. Attacking this goal with a short term diet, then phasing to longer term (healthier) lifestyle strategies seems like a great idea. Coupling the diet with specific training parameters will just make it better. Depending on someones level of health, fitness and bf levels, various prescriptions would be necessary.
The diet guidelines (general):
Cho timing on workout days, meaning most carbs (60-80%) taken post workout – depends on bf levels among other things.
Few to no carbs in the evening (gh)
One undereating day (36 hours), either complete fast, bcaas, or less than 1000kcals (mainly pro) – this all depends on goals. (also gh)
One overeating day that makes up for the lack of kcals, but also is mainly cho – depends on bf levels. (insulin)
Slight calorie deficit on normal eating days not by much, maintenance kcals can work too for some. (fat loss)
All ‘normal’ meals will be mostly pro, with leafy greens and less than 15g fat (approx) (depends on a few things)
Some more extreme strategies:
Mostly liquid protein meals spaced evenly. No fasting or overeating for a month. Think velocity diet. Again, not healthy long term… but damn effective.
Training on something like this HAS to vary person to person. For some, intense work is a bad idea, for others a necessity. I really like low effort cardio work coupled with weight training and maybe some short intervals. Again, all depends.
I’m actually quite surprised with energy levels. I feel fine and can train hard.
Explanation:
What were trying to accomplish here is to get the body to prioritize replenishing muscle glycogen over bodyfat. That’s one of the reasons the training is very important. There is a tipping point where the body starts to pull back and protect itself; that’s what the overeating day is for. The undereating day is for growth hormone and to give the digestion system a bit of a rest. Protein synthesis should be kept high (with evenly spaced pro meals). Insulin is manipulated with timed cho feeds post workout, and on the overeating day.
I’ve always been a big fan of intermittent fasting, the theory just makes sense to me. Cycling carbs also makes sense to me. Figuring out a way to combine them into something workable would be valuable.
Coupling some of these theories with actual healthy eating is totally possible, and as time goes on I’ll be experimenting with this. As of now, it’s rather extreme – taking elements of bodybuilding, using refined carbs to.. mimic steroids… in a way. Testing, testing, testing.
Back is back
Can say my back is pretty much fully recovered. I’m still gonna give it awhile before trying anything too taxing in the absolute (grinding) strength area. Very happy about this though. Knowing that I’ll be able to participate in sectionals is a huge relief for me.
Diet has been ok, have been slowly building my momentum back after losing it during the injury. Still don’t feel dialed, but by the beginning of next week should have it back in line. Definitely have been eating less than normal over the past week or so, and not sure what’s up with that. I just haven’t had the urge to eat big; and I’ve learned to just go with the flow. For awhile I’ve focused on listening to my body’s signals… but it’s still tough and I have urges to eat garbage or drink lots of caffeine… and sometimes do albeit not in huge amounts. But I don’t worry about it because I know myself and I know my phases.
Did a shorter high output workout the other day and it killed my lungs. James said that because of the lack of power layering in my current program I wasn’t going to put out a crazy fast time, and that the focus should be on how well I recovered. I did recover well, but I was coughing for a long time… seems like my lungs weren’t ready! Lol. The workout was
3 rounds:
15 Powersnatches @ 95
15 pullups
Went in hard and tried to hold on, but by the 3rd round my grip was fried and my lungs were pissed off. Forever overestimating my ability I figured I could get low 3s, but ended up clocking a 4:19. I finished and concentrated on walking around which was actually not that bad until about 3 minutes after when my lungs started really burning.
Not bad but I was very displeased. Even though James had alluded that I shouldn’t expect a crazy time I immediately disregarded it and aimed high (or would it be low?) The powersnatches really sucked up the time though, even going unbroken it still took over 35 seconds, with the transition + pullups we’re looking at just over 1 minute per round without any fatigue. Low 3s would be damn fast. Curious to see how I’ll do on a wod like this after some good power layering.
Today had high output anaerobic interval work and it broke me the f*#k off. Recovered well and felt ready to go again after 30 minutes or so but… damn. Love it.
Inspiratory Muscle Training
I got the elevation mask
and decided to just wear it and do some tests before doing any actual training. This led me to some research and then to creating another breath training apparatus.
The elevation mask makes it hard to inspire only. Exhalation has no resistance.
My first tests were simply perceived discomfort with:
1. As deep an inhale as possible followed by a full exhale.
2. 5 sec inhale followed by 5 sec exhale at 2 effort levels: easy and hard. (based on my own perception)
3. Very easy breathing with no timing
1: I found there is a distinct panic feeling after full exhale with the mask. Feels as if I would not be able to breathe. And would get that feeling of inhale satisfaction that one gets after breathing deeply after shallow breath. This had the highest level of discomfort. At times 7 or 8 on a discomfort scale. (note: the mask comes with three levels, 1 hole (hardest), 2 holes and 3 holes. When I first got it and started doing tests 1 hole was difficult but quickly became easy, so I stuffed the hole with a rolled up piece of paper that made it approximately 60% harder and continued experimenting)
2: Hard efforts at 5 sec had a similar feeling as full stroke breathing, but not as intense. Easy breathing was comfortable.
3: This was easy also, but every minute or so would have to take a deep breath to ‘catch’ up on my breath.
2nd test was done with a heart rate monitor and I noticed that there was very little difference in AVG HR over a 5 minute period. I went back and forth for 4 or 5 cycles and averaged b/t 65 and 70 regardless of wearing the mask or not. There WAS, however, a difference in HR fluctuations. On exhale when wearing the mask my HR would drop significantly more than on exhale without the mask. With the mask I’d see as low as 55 on exhale and pause, and it would immediately spike up to 77 on inhale. Without the mask this variance was much less: low of 65 and high 72. I’m not sure what this represents, but it’s interesting.
I followed up with doing some research on other breath training devices and found this which tells of several studies showing that IMT can increase endurance and strength of inspiratory muscles but that it doesn’t correlate to increases in performance. This is followed by an excerpt from Dr Allison McConnell who states that the studies cited were looking at the wrong things based on what performance changes would actually occur with training the inspiratory muscles. And that her research shows an increase of 2% in performance in HIGHLY trained rowers. Most interesting, however, is the last statement: “The mechanism is not linked to VO2max, but is related to lactate turn-over and possibly blood flow redistribution away from the trained diaphragm in favour of locomotor muscles” Sounds good to me!
This led me to make a very simple device using a pen (stripped of its internals) tape and athletic prewrap. Basically I wrapped the prewrap on the end and taped it down so I have a breathing tube with restricted airflow for both inhalation AND exhalation that is adjustable (by adding additional layers of prewrap). It is similar to this device but home made and costs about 8 cents to make. Yesterday, I started doing 10 minutes of total training: 2-4 minutes at a time of forceful inhales and exhales with several hours of rest b/t. Will continue to test to see what happens.
020711
My back!
So I’ve strained my back 3 times in the past 2 and a half months… this concerns me, and forces me to face a clear conclusion: I need to focus on mobility/prehab/SMR. OBVIOUSLY there is something messed up in the chain. Thank goodness none of the strains have been serious. But I can’t risk it eventually turning serious. So once this current strain heals I’m going to set out a daily regimen and follow it strictly.
It’s only taken 3 nearly identical injuries, within 10 weeks, to make me realize it.
020511
4th round of an interval workout from a few days ago. 3 min on then 3 min rest x 5. ROM issues on the ring dips, felt ok doing them, but on review they were obviously not.
013111 – Competence
I’ve always read a lot. Up to a few years ago I would get sucked into everything I read. I’d believe it and give bits of advice based on what I was reading at the time; judging people along the way for not thinking exactly how I thought. I lacked objectivity and experience. My paradigm at the time was limited; I didn’t know the things I didn’t know… I was unconsciously incompetent.
“I’m not young enough to know everything” -Oscar Wilde
This is common. This is almost everywhere. As our personal evolution takes place, we realize just how much we don’t know. And how much there is to learn. The neophyte sees things simply… sees the surface but nothing beneath… eventually the complexities emerge, but only after a thorough immersion.
We can’t be upset with the unconsciously incompetent. They are on their path, maybe they’ll get to a point where they realize some things and become more aware… maybe they won’t.
013011- Training schedule for next month
I tweaked my back last monday doing triples on deadlift. Have taken almost a full week off, did some light stuff on Friday. Today I’m back on the first day of my next month of training. After reviewing it I can say it’s geared heavily toward aerobic capacity, which has always been a weakness – and something I would never focus on when coaching myself. There are some strength/olifting efforts thrown in throughout, but for the most part stays away from it.
I expect to maintain my strength and power, but will be curious to see what happens. And be interested to see how my strength varies throughout the month.
Here’s to sucking it up and facing weaknesses!
2 sets of today’s anaerobic intervals. Had to use 35#+10# dbs, didn’t have 45s. On first clip watch left hand. Video is super low quality, sorry.
012611 – Learning from Kai
I watched a bodybuilding documentary yesterday, and although it’s not something I do frequently, I learned some things. I don’t agree with the philosophy of bodybuilding. I’m not a fan and don’t follow it at all. I’m uninterested in being huge or being ripped. I used to care 6 or 7 years ago, but my thinking has… changed… and as much as I’d like to say ‘evolved,’ the thinking isn’t evolved… it’s just different. People pursue things for their own reasons and I refuse to judge that.
Anyway, as I watched this bodybuilder (Kai Green) I was struck with how absolutely disciplined and devoted he was. And spare me the bullshit steroid remarks. Steroids don’t supply you with discipline or focus. His workouts were ridiculously long and he ate, napped and meditated on his cause. He was committed, listened to self-mastery audiobooks constantly, journaled, reviewed, visualized. My perception of my own discipline and focus was smashed. It made me feel like I haven’t even brushed the surface of what’s possible when a person is truly committed.
His trainer was answering a question about why Kai always trained in full sweats and why he was hesitant to take it off for a few publicity training shots:
“you know for us and for him it’s about self mastery its not about putting trunks on and going to the beach and flexing and walking around with a tank top on because if you see him he’s very covered up. Most people who gain a little bit of muscle they wanna go ahead and display it to the world and he’s not like that. Some people get a kick out of training in a tank top and looking at themselves in the mirror. It’s not the ego for him. Theres so much ego in the sport of bodybuilding…”
There are universal lessons applicable to any athlete in what Kai does. If you can’t get over the fact that he’s a bodybuilder then I think some self-reflection is necessary. And next time you take your shirt off for no reason, maybe ask yourself… is it necessary? Or is it the ego calling out. When you’re lifting weights in winter going shirtless isn’t the best option. I frequently see guys take their shirt off FULLY 10 minutes before a workout starts. Don’t be that guy. You’re exposing more than your chest.
In training: 
In competition:
He placed fourth in the past olympia. But was absolutely convinced through meditation and visualization that he was going to place first. He thoroughly believed it. And was devastated when reality didn’t reflect it. There’s something to be said about that sort of commitment and belief… I don’t know what that something is. But it’s worth thinking about. It’s worth learning from. I’ll be interested to see this guys success in the future.
012511 – Cyclic Carb
I’ve been interested in cyclic carb diets for awhile. I’ve read DiPasquale’s stuff and just finished up some of Lyle McDonalds writing (he needs an editor badly). I disagree with a few of the strategies, but do think it has some value.
Just a recap: a cyclic carb diet is a food profile that rotates during the week depleting muscle glycogen (low carb/moderate pro and fat/low calorie) for the first 4 or so days, then repleting it over a few days with very high carb/moderate pro/low fat/high calorie. The goal is to manipulate (increase) leptin and insulin sensitivity (and fuel partitioning), and increase growth hormone. Lyle McDonald recommends coupling these days with certain workouts like depletion workouts (muscular endurance/german volume type training), tension workouts (5×5), and power workouts (10×3) respectively… in his book he recommends the equivalent in bodybuilding terms. Doing this takes the diet a step further and from what I figure would legitimately make for some crazy gains. Combining this diet with CrossFit is something I’ve been thinking a lot about and I believe it could be quite powerful in concert if done properly and not long term; 6 to 8 week cycles would work pretty well.
The hormonal implications (essentially mimicking steroids…naturally) of something like this is appealing especially if we’re able to apply it to performance goals (stronger, faster). Up to a point I believe that lowering bodyfat will raise performance, but, again, individual considerations have to be taken into account. Some people just carry more weight and are more anabolic, have better performance and blood markers at that weight.
Both camps recommend bullshit food, which bothers me. And on repletion days recommends 12-16g of carbs per kg of LBM. That equates to over 1000g of carbs for most people… and to me that is unhealthy and damaging. He even says “expect wild blood sugar swings” or something like that… really? Unless I see a need for that first hand in my own experience, I’d like to experiment with healthier ways that would reproduce most of the benefits. Or at least mitigate the damage by incorporating natural whole foods in addition to whatever else is required. THAT would be interesting.
I’ll be working on a basic template and guideline for anyone who wants to give it a try. I’d be looking for an athlete who has been training for at least a year and who is less that 15% BF (females less than 18%) but wants to drop lower. Who also has the ability to track training progress and diet accurately for 6 to 8 weeks.
I’ll provide the training program too, so, obviously, you’d need access to a CF gym that is ok with you ‘doing your own thing.’ Or if you don’t CF, have access to another source and be willing to follow my RX strictly.
012311 – Basic Nutrition cont.
You do know everyone has different nutritional requirements right? I believe that, anyway. I’ve seen people thrive on what would be considered high carb… I know I personally do well on more fats and protein. I see differences everywhere, all the time.
It’s called biochemical individuality, or metabolic typing, or nutritional typing (each defines a slightly different way of thinking). And as surely as we look different on the outside, our insides and the actions and mechanisms at play are different too.
Think about it. Say for generations, thousands of years down the line, your ancestors lived in a certain part of the world. Say… the tropics… lots of sun, lots of fruit year round; I’d say chances are you’d do better on a higher carb profile. This isn’t to say that there isn’t a RANGE of healthy eating; obviously today’s fruits are farmed and not wild, so the sugar content, size and nutritional values are all altered (for the worse).
Another example… northern europe. In the winter there would be little access to vegetables and fruit. Most calories would be from meat with very little sun in the winter and lots of sleeping. The summer would provide more carbs and would probably make most people fatter in preparation for the winter.
Do you think your ancestors way of eating a certain way could have an impact on how you should eat now? Probably.
Does this mean if you have dark skin you should binge on cookies and pizza because you think yourself carb tolerant… NO! It is just something to think about regarding general prescriptions. It’s important to listen to your body… eat higher carbs and observe how you feel. Eat low carbs and observe how you feel. Intermittently fast and see how you feel. I do well on IF, some people have wild blood sugar swings.
There are still general rules to follow: Don’t eat crap like:
“the four white devils”
White sugar (or really any granulated sugar – try raw honey or look at stevia)
White flour
Table salt (use sea salt please)
Pasteurized milk products (look into raw)
Eat organic whenever possible. And organic/free range meats.
Eat some greens with most meals. Just a little is good depending on your needs.
Vary and rotate your foods often. Try new things, damnit. It shouldnt always be chicken, asparagus and 10 almonds.
Relax and realize that eating this way isn’t a diet. If you want to go and eat out with some friends, do it. Have some ice cream. But build these general rules into your life over time. That’s how long term progress and lifestyle change is made. Obsessing about being on a diet and cheating and failing is senseless. Take the pressure off yourself and explore foods and what they do to you. You’ll be happier and make more consistent progress.
012111 – Basic Nutrition
I get questions about diet frequently. Is ‘this’ or ‘that’ ok? what if I have soy? or milk? or grains? or red meat? or saturated fat? should I cheat? do you cheat? what IF I cheat??
My answers vary. I make it clear that my thoughts and opinions about diet might go against what they know… what they’ve done… what they DO. I tell them I can only offer suggestions; that they then have to experiment with and learn from. Everyone is different and I’m a firm believer in that. What works for one person may not work for another.
200 or 300 years ago things were uncomplicated. You ate with the seasons and what was around you. Everything was free range and organic. You woke up and went to sleep with the sun. You put on fat in the summer and lost it over the winter. Your diet fluctuated and changed throughout the year, just like your sleep did and how much work you could get done when the sun was up. nutrition/sleep/work volume.
Now everything is complicated. There are too many choices and too many unknowns. Too many questions. Lights keep our cortisol levels high and melatonin low. We have foods shipped across the globe year round giving us mangos in snow-country. It’s retarded, but lucrative. There is no single answer to ‘diet.’ It’s not as simple as eat this and not that… because sometimes you’ll need to eat this AND that at various times in your year/training cycle/lifetime based on location/season/stressors.
Makes sense right?
In terms of my personal experience I’ve learned a few things:
1. The number one thing is you must build an awareness with food.
2. The best way to do that is to use a journal. Figure out how foods are making you feel and keep yourself accountable by having someone knowledgeable review it.
Don’t beat yourself up. If YOU feel good having ‘cheat’ meals, do it. If you don’t, don’t. You might go through phases… that’s good too.
3. Experiment and go based off what you FEEL. If someone tells you that all grains are bad but when you eat certain grains you feel good, energy levels are high, mental clarity is solid, performance is increasing and your bodyfat is dropping… then DON’T LISTEN TO THEM! You live in your body. Live the way you feel best.
The following are some of the things I do now so you know I’m not just preaching:
Journal daily
Weigh and measure (has no effect on how much I eat – it’s an observation)
Eat more vegetables than fruit and more berries than fruit.
Eat a lot of protein.
Eat a lot of fat.
Occasionally supplement with vitamins and minerals along with fish oil, glutamine, creatine, digestive enzymes and probiotics often.
Drink juiced greens
Rarely cheat. Maybe one bad item every 2 weeks. Sometimes this is more. Depends on where I am in my training.
Eat a wide variety of foods
Go to bed between 9 and 10.
012111
9:15pm-6:00am
Have been waking up at 6 and forcing myself to sleep until 7 lately.
Decided to get up at 6 today to see how it changes my day, and if it does.
7:00am spinach salad w/ bacon and dressing 6P-10F-2C
9:30: cup organic instant coffee w/ stevia
Good energy/focus levels, watched a 2 hour lecture easily
11:30: macadamia nuts + lara bar (0P-6F-3C)
12:30: 6 eggs cooked in coconut oil (6P-3F-0C)
Around 2pm feeling sleepy.
40min nap.
Thinking waking up an hour earlier carried over somehow?
3:00: handful of pecans 0P-5F-0C
3:30: beef jerky, blackberries 5P-0F-3C
8:00pm: big greens salad, olives, salmon patties 5P-4F-1C
Wanting more carbs but too close to bed
9:30pm: glutamine 5g + probiotic+ zma+6g fish oil (had planned to take these but didn’t. no evening supps.. but I’ll leave it as an example of what I normally do)
Day Total: 22P-28F-9C
(Fat is at 4X, so each of my blocks is 6g of fat… a LOT of fat right? 1500 calories right there)
081910
Diet is back to strict. Leveled out about 193 and am not willing to eat like shit anymore. I’ve reached my limit. 10 lb gain isn’t bad either. I’ll keep my food intake high, but quality will will stay strict. I’m curious to see where my weight goes from here as my bf drops a few %.
As I started the strength focused program I noticed my back broke out, and is still rather broken. That’s been a trend for me, whenever I start focusing on the weights, my skin breaks out. I figure it has something to do with test, but I’m not positive. It’s interesting though.
After this weekend I’ll be shifting from Olift focus to a program that’s fairly balanced between olift and metcon but slightly favoring olift. I’ll have to tweak my volume and play with it. I’ll probably follow OPT with mods as necessary and drop my olifts to 3x a week.
080410
Felt crappy today. Sleep wasn’t good, took forever to warmup and generally didn’t feel explosive. And my hands were painfully sore.
in lbs
Sn: 185, 205, 185/m, 185, 175/2
CJ: 225, 255, 255
BS: 345/2
Cut some of my sets, had more planned but decided to listen to how I was feeling. I’ve really been focusing on my technique lately, and have been trying to change some stuff with my snatch. It’s one of the reasons I’m so inconsistent (like missing 185 today). I’ve had to suck up my pride quite a bit and understand that this phase of reconstruction is necessary if I intend on lifting heavier in the future. I want to drill and drill and drill, but my olift coach won’t let me. I think part of it is learning to take the training that I do more seriously… to value it more highly and learn that sometimes more isn’t the answer. Sometimes ‘more’ equates to drilling more of the WRONG stuff – and I would say this is very likely the case for most people who don’t have a high level olift coach.
Over the past month or so it’s become obvious how intensely technical this stuff is. Yeah, you hear it all the time… and I’ve said it for so long “technique, technique,” but I really didn’t KNOW what I was talking about. Now I’m beginning to know. It’s one of the reasons there aren’t any really strong crossfitting olifters (I’m talking 300+ snatch, 370+ cj) After a certain point, better coaching, more time, more training, more focus (specialty training) is just required to reach that high level. You can only muscle a limited amount of weight. The average high level crossfiter seems to have about a 225 Sn and a 300cj – which isn’t bad by any means. But in the olift world, that’s weak as hell. But then again, you have to ask what your goals are. Although I do believe that I can achieve solid olift numbers and then apply it to crossfit with good results (games)
It all comes down to technique. Back in the golden day’s of weightlifting (60s) a lot of the best weightlifters trained themselves. At the York Barbell Club the lifters just got together and lifted… there wasn’t a dedicated coach (Hoffman was a organizer/writer/advertiser extraordinaire, but not a coach). Bill Starr wrote an article in “Milo,” about how he traveled to York to try to figure out what the secret was. Which, of course, was steroids, but that’s beside the point. When he arrived he sat down and observed all the lifters and found that almost every one of them trained differently. There was no set system. Some guys did high volume, some low; some guys did lots of supplementary exercises, some only the classic lifts. The point is, just train. Just lift. If you have access to good coaching TAKE IT! If you have to train alone in your basement at 3 in the morning because you work weird hours… do it. Video tape yourself and send it to Coach Burgener – or Gregg Evererett – or whoever knows what they are talking about.
Remember what your goals are. And if you don’t know them, figure that out first. If you want to be good at something, you have to do that something. You have to practice and understand the sacrifice involved. There’s no way around it.
061210-061310
Rest day.
I’m very excited.
My diet has been strict for a long time now. I hesitate to use the word ‘strict,’ because I’m not being strict with myself. I’ve just concentrated on developing a way of eating that is sustainable. I find thinking about junk meals as ‘cheats’ is counterproductive and psychologically damaging. Because when you ‘cheat’ it feels like you’ve done something wrong. Like you are a cheater… or immoral in some way. Like it’s a failure. As soon as I stopped thinking about that, and started thinking about the fact that most cheat foods are totally devoid of nutrition… a breakthrough occurred. I decided that my primary mission was to eat foods with nutrients. If I did eat crappy foods, I’d make sure to have high nutrient foods WITH them. Why is it that you have to just have ice cream and cake? Why can’t you start the meal with a salad… and then eat what you want afterwards. Have pizza… but eat a bowl of vegetables with some guacamole before hand. It’s not about depriving yourself… it’s about being smart and mitigating the damage.
Another thing I learned is to replace foods instead of eliminating them. Don’t eliminate cheesecake and pizza, just replace them with a raw vegan cheesecake (made from nuts and agave nectar – it actually tastes VERY good) and a frozen pizza from wholefoods (pick a healthy one!) Try it. Seriously. Start that meal off with a salad, bake the pizza, and then eat your dessert. It’ll feel like a big cheat meal, but you’ve just replaced the crappy foods with much less crappy food that supplies a lot of nutrition.
Anyway…
For the next 3 months or so I’m going to be eating more than normal. All high quality foods, just more. I’m looking to gain a bit of functional weight, maybe 10-15lbs… and push all my lifts while improving my running and maintaining crossfit.
That means a solid diet that supplies more than adequate nutrients and building blocks. Lots of heavy lifting, lots of easy running and rowing with track work thrown in, and crossfit skill work practice with occasional metcons (1/2x a week). I’m working on balancing all the factors and have a good working model. Working out frequently, but staying as fresh as possible and attempting not to accumulate too mush systemic fatigue. I’ve had a huge appetite for reading lately (3 or 4 hours a day). And have been watching several hours of instructionals/lectures etc a day. I take notes on everything and have 3o or 40 pages of handwritten notes lying all over the place! lol. I’m not sure what’s going on with me. But I get all excited when I think about reading… god I’m weird.
I spend a lot of time thinking about my programming for Paragon too. It’s all a balancing act. And I can feel I’m just at the early stages. I think I know a lot… but, honestly, I’m still a beginner. I have years of experience but I learn things every day that humble me. I track OPTs programming daily… analyzing and disassembling. That dude is incredible. I’ve fallen into this world of fitness and nutrition and athletics… it consumes me. I love it.
The Next Year
I’m looking forward to this next year of training. I’ve learned so much as an athlete and a coach in the past year. I can’t wait to see what this next year brings. I have made major leaps in capacity and skill level. I intend on simply following my current path and continuing my focus on learning while incorporating as much as possible.
This is a game that simply requires time. Assuming one is following a quality training schedule and understands and incorporates recovery protocols. I need to build the physical support structures in my body that will allow me to put out more work… and then apply them through a strong and developed mind. It’ll take time. But every training day is a joy, and every non training day is equally as important and enjoyable. I simply love what I’m doing, and if I’m 11th every year for the rest of my life, I’ll know that every day gave me happiness – and that it’s the journey that is important.
There is no end point.
042710
So I have an allergy to dairy – yes, even raw. And that includes whey. Kinda knew it all along, but was living in a mild state of denial. Post nasal drip. That’s what really set it in stone for me – it’s not gas, not bloating… just a weird sensation in the back of my throat that feels as if I should clear it. But can’t. So, dairy is out… and I’ve been thinking about what to do about powdered protein. I was using a very high quality whey (free of hormones, ultra-low temp etc) and wanted something dairy-free with a high biological value that still maintained a high quality nature. Egg white protein was an option, but the tasty sources aren’t organic — and the organic ones aren’t tasty. Plus drinking powdered egg whites just doesn’t seem right. I remembered Mahler talking about Sunwarrior, so took a look at the site and ordered some of the protein (meets the requirements). Along with some of their Ormus Greens to round it out. I drink greens in water every morning when I wake up. Something I stole from OPT. So when I saw they offered a greens supplement, I was intrigued. The Ormus greens have some very interesting info:
“…Sunwarrior Ormus Supergreens is grown in a pristine ancient sea bed in a volcanic region of Utah and Arizona. The soil is loaded with platinum, gold, silver, and ORMUS trace minerals giving the greens a magnetic property which increases the vibration and frequency of those who consume it…”
I know it sounds hippie-ish. But after doing some deeper searching, the ORMUS stuff is legit, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity have my frequency and vibrations increased. Plus now I’ll have a tasty alternative to my current disgusting morning water+greens concoction. On a side note, apparently when you take the greens out of the bag, on a spoon for instance, the powder will stand up like little hairs… as if electrified or magnetic. Now that’s just cool.
Training:
A. Dead Lift @ 12X0; build to a 1RM -5%; rest as needed
B1. KBS – 2/1.5pd x 20 unbroken; rest 10 sec
B2. Clap Push Ups @ 10X0; 15 x 3; rest 3 min
+
5 suicides – 3 min rest b/t each
(place 1 cone 10 m out, 2nd cone 20 m out, 3rd cone 30 m out; SPRINT to 1st cone and back, then 2nd cone and back, then 3rd cone and back; rest, repeat for 5 sets)
It feels yesterdays row and cleans taxed my cns:
A: all deadlifts felt very slow (not on purpose). 418/1 attempted 440, but too heavy for today.
B: Kbs and clap pushups unbroken: 1:05, 1:04, 1:01
C: suicides: 21, 22, 22, 23, 22.8 (partner timed)
NLP Invitational WOD #3 Announcement, Info and Standards
WOD #3 NLP Invitational Standards from Nathan Holiday on Vimeo.
“Crush”
Event 3 (10 minute cutoff)
3 rounds of
50m Sprint
15 Ground to Overhead
10 Ring Dips
Weights and Standards:
Intermediate and masters: (85, 55), 10 chest to deck pushups in place of ring dips
Advanced: (115/75)
· Ground to Overhead: weight must be taken from the ground and locked out overhead. Weight must be stabilized overhead with ears visible from the side.
· For women’s intermediate and masters the weight starts below the knees.
· Ring Dips: Rep starts at full elbow extension and ends at full elbow extension. In the bottom position elbow must be higher than shoulders. Kipping is authorized. ·
· Pushups: (intermediate and masters) chest much touch the deck, and there must be full arm extension at the top. Body must remain in a rigid straight line.
032710
Rest
About the deadlift:
“If the hamstrings fail to maintain the back angle, the butt comes up and the shoulders drift forward, allowing the quads to avoid their share of the work since the knees have extended but the bar has not moved. The bar, however, must still be pulled, so the hip extensors end up doing it all, and in a much more inefficient way. They should be working through both the initial phase of the pull with the quadriceps and through the lockout by themselves, instead of having to open the whole angle at the end of the pull. Either way, the hip extensors work, but their job is easier if the initial work is isometric and the last part is active concentric hip extension, instead of the whole movement being a long, mechanically hard hip extension.
The problem is not that the hamstrings are not strong enough – after all, they’re strong enough to lock out the weight without the help of the quads when it’s done wrong. The problem is one of motor learning, teaching the muscles to move the bones correctly, in the right order at the right time. The only way to correctly address this problem is to take weight off the bar and make sure you do the deadlift with proper form, with all the angles correct, so that all the muscular contributors to the pull learn to do their job in the right order.
An interesting thing happens when all the pulling mechanics are correct: the deadlift feels “shorter,” like the distance the bar has moved is reduced when compared to an uncorrected, sloppy deadlift. It obviously hasn’t, but the increased efficiency obtained from the improvement in pulling mechanics is significant enough that the perception is one of a shorter movement. This is larger due to the reduction in extraneous hip and knee movement, and a consequent reduction in the time the lift actually takes.”
Rippetoe, Mark, and Lon Kilgore. Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training Wichita Falls, TX; The Aasgaard Company, 2007. Print.
031810
I’ve been doing some research on HGH and insulin. Two interesting reads:
joe.endocrinology-journals.org/cgi/reprint/170/1/13.pdf (long and technical)
http://www.hghmagazine.com/2-habits-that-immediately-stop-your-natural-hgh-production/
————————————————————————————————–
Both insulin and HGH are powerful anabolic hormones. My take on this is to use varying tactics depending on your goals during your post workout window.
Some tactics I might play with:
On double days, varying high carb/protein after first workout. Protein only, or fast, after second workout.
Single days alternate protein only or 2 hour fasting and high carb/protein depending on the workout.
Protein only or protein/fat meal as last meal/snack.
On days that I’m not having high carb post workout, take 1.5g arginine before workout.
031710
More rest.
More sauna and stretching. Looking forward to hitting it hard in a few days. It’s hard to rest.
Bought a book on periodization; interested in implementing some of the ideas I’ve found online and wanted a more in depth resource. When I think about it, it makes sense that the more advanced one becomes, the more advanced and individualized the program must be. There is no one size fits all… something general will work for awhile, then it’ll stop working. That’s why crossfit works so well… but even crossfit has it’s limitations.
Following OPTs programming has taught me a ton. I know that it is designed to be effective for a broad range of individuals including advanced athletes and novices. I also know that I need individualized work… and to reap the best gains I must do my homework, be objective, and apply it objectively. I’m planning to follow OPTs programming as a base while adding additional weakness work on my own. I’m excited about what’s going to happen.
A training partner, Trenton, is getting into the sort of lifestyle I’m currently leading: focused on training, diet and recovery. I’m excited to see his progress and to just have him around. The dude is strict… disciplined; and it’s motivating. He never complains, and is never negative. He had some problems over the weekend with some movements and I can tell he’s ready to go to the next level; ready to do what it takes. Every time I tell that dude about something that will benefit him (like supplementing with digestive aids, blending greens, Post workout info, drinking green juice etc) he’s implementing it the next day.
And talking about steps. My next step is to take out all sugar, including honey and agave (the only real sugar I eat) and coffee/caffeine in all forms. My diet has been dialed in… and I mean dialed; except for the occasional coffee. And I feel like I have a weakness for it… I’d even say an addiction. And that just isn’t acceptable. The only ‘cheats’ I have are an occasional malt ball when I go to wholefoods… but I’m cutting that out too. Why compromise? It’s like taking only a little bit of heroine. … is that extreme? Anyway, that’s what’s going down.
031610
Rest Day
OPT told me I should rest a week. So I’ll be taking off until Saturday. It’ll be the longest break I’ve had in a couple years.
I’ll be coming back and spending a lot of time at the track doing sprint repeats ranging from 100 to 800m. Along with weights, of course, and OPTs programming. I’m looking forward to the pain of the track work. Time to face it.
Strength Training Interview Rip and Pendlay
“Every type of training works at some point, none work in every instance. Furthermore, athletes have gotten to the top using just about every type of training scheme out there. You realize that and it is tempting to say that hard work is what counts and the training scheme is unimportant as long as you work your butt off. There is some truth to this. Work hard enough and long enough, and you can probably get to a high level on almost any reasonable program.”
Glenn Pendlay
Read the whole thing here. Yes, it’s long.
HCL
Lately I’ve been reading a lot about digestion and, more specifically, HCL production after watching OPT’s nutrition 101 video (several times). I’ve been taking HCL intermittently with meals and have never felt any sensation of burning besides once when I took a pill on an empty stomach. This concerns me. What this means is that I’m not producing enough HCL despite my ‘protein type’ disposition and my O- blood type (I don’t fully buy into the blood type thing though). So I’ve taken to taking 2 HCL Betaine + Pepsin pills with every main meal. Once I start to feel a mild sensation of burning, I should be producing enough HCL on my own again to forgo further supplementation. At which point I’ll take 1TBSP of apple cider vinegar 10 – 15 min before meals. I take digestive enzymes along with my meals, but I think the inclusion of HCL will help me digest and assimilate more protein.
If you are interested in doing the HCL self test do this (taken from the link below):
1. At the very start of the meal, take one capsule of Betaine HCL. Monitor how your stomach feels during and after eating. Should any burning or heaviness occur, or if burning has been present previously (before taking the supplement) and is now worsened with the use of the Betaine HCL, do not continue using this supplement!!! This is an indication that your stomach is overproducing acid, or that your stomach lining may be damaged. In such cases, please consider the use of Alkabase, Gastric Complex-HP and/or Mastica, to normalize excess acid production and heal the stomach lining.
2. If the first dose of Betaine HCL produced no noticeable stomach discomfort, try taking two capsules at the start of your next meal, again monitor for burning and or heaviness during and after eating. If taking two capsules produces some discomfort, but one capsule does not, restrict yourself to one capsule at the start of each meal. If the two capsule dose produced no discomfort, try three capsules at the start of your next meal.
3. If all goes well when taking three capsules at the start of each meal, stay with that dosage, most individuals will not require increasing the dosage to four capsules. Regular use of supplemental hydrochloric acid will in most cases “re-train” the stomach to produce higher concentrations of acid on its own. This process may take anywhere from several weeks to several months, depending on the individual. The most significant indication that acid production is improving is that Betaine HCL supplementation can no longer be comfortably tolerated.
Indigestion, bloating, gassiness, burping etc. are all symptoms of high stomach acidity… but, funnily enough, the symptoms for LOW stomach acidity are exactly the same (read about it here). I would say more people have the second problem — and should try supplementing with HCL at meals. If you get a burning sensation, however, you might very well be producing too much stomach acid and should have an antacid on hand just in case. For me, though, I produce too little… despite having what I would consider a very clean diet.
020910
A2. Muscle Ups – 8/set x 4; rest 120 sec
B1. Jump Squats – 10 explosive x 3 sets; rest 90 sec
B2. CTB Chin Ups – 20 reps x 3 sets; rest 90 sec
+
Tabata Mash:
Switch Lunges
Anchored Sit Ups
A1: 80kg/8, 90/6, 90/7, 90/6 (wrists killed on all sets!!)
A2: Unb, Unb, 5 + singles, 2 + singles
B1: 80kg/10 (unb fast), 100/10 (unb fast), 110/10 (slowed at 5)
B2: broke but didnt get off bar, broke but didn’t get off bar, 12 + 2,2,singles
Lunges:
20, 15, 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 19 = 131
Situps:
15, 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 14, 16 = 112
Started too easy. Should’ve tried to maintain higher numbers.
This workout was brutal. I didn’t eat much yesterday which I think contributed, and I got super light headed a few times — I actually had to sit down.
I also tried some NO Explode which I had from the old days… I’m throwing that crap out! No more chemicals for me. Screw that.
My diet has kept changing. My goal is to be so tuned to my body that I eat what my body needs when it needs it. I want to be able to listen to what my body is saying to me… as opposed to just giving it a prescription. So I’m in the process of learning how to listen. I’m aware that it sounds weird… and if I had heard someone say that a few months ago I would’ve thought “what a weird dude, why don’t you go live in a hippie commune” But along with my diet, my awareness is changing and my paradigm shifting.
Spent about 30 minutes in the sauna stretching and doing mobility work. I’d like to keep this up and see how it affects my recovery.
Running
Anyone who knows me knows that one of my dominating characteristics is that I hate running. In light of that, I decided awhile ago to focus on my running… and for the past 3 months have been running fairly diligently at least twice a week. I’m finally getting better and noticing an increased awareness when running. Whereas before I would just be gasping and hating the run the whole time, now I can actually gauge about how fast I’m running and am much more in tune with what’s going on. It’s amazing.
Anyway, I’ll be rotating several running workout and be running more often. I want to be able to cruise at a 7min mile and run a sub 19 minute 5k. I have a ways to go, but know that the only way to get there is by putting in the hours. Anyone familiar with the 10,000 hour rule from the book Outliers?… well, that’s what I adhere to. Practice, practice and then practice some more.
I fully believe in the magic of consistency. I’ve sucked at a lot of things in my life, and through consistent effort have become relatively good at the ones I’ve focused on. There was a time I couldn’t do doubleunders, or kipping pullups, or butterflys, or CTB butterflys, or full snatches, or full cleans, or handstands…. the list goes on and on. But I made sure that when I decided to learn something I would put it in my warmup and then just do it over and over until I COULD do it. Running is the same. I’ve sucked at running most of my life. But I will be a good runner some day. I don’t care what I have to do to get there, and I know I have to focus on it or I’ll just be another guy who was trying to get to the CF Games.
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