Theory to Practice

Another 30-minute blow-and-go. What’s highly effective about these fast and furious workouts is the nice, positive hormonal boost this type of workout elicits. These short bursts also keep the cumulative stress on the body low — cortisol is kept in check and the central nervous system is spared any undue abuse. What this amounts to is little threat of overtraining. And to have repeatedly established the correct, net-positive hormonal environment (via proper diet and exercise) within the body is to have mastered 80% of the body composition puzzle.

Matt Metzgar has an observation on the power of a net-positive hormone profile here. It is so obvious as to almost go unnoticed. Thanks here goes to Matt for the reminder to just open our eyes, observe, and think.

Anyway, so here’s what I did this morning:

1. 10 sets of singles, each arm, of a DB snatch/overhead squat/press/push-press/split-jerk combo
2. Reverse- grip pull-ups, DeVany style, i.e., one continuous set of 12 reps/6 reps/ 3 reps, increasing the weight at each mini-break.

That’s it. 30 minutes and no more. I left the gym feeling jacked, not drained, and kept the good buzz for the rest of the day.

In Health,

Keith

Quote of the Day:
The happiest couples are those who spell “us” with a capital “you.”
–Klare Provine

Yeah, yeah; okay, so it is kinda sappy — but it is a good lead-in to what I wanted to put out today.

Sometimes even an obsessed narcissist (self-deprecating humor/sarcasm implied) has to begrudgingly make time in an already crammed-full “Crack”-berry calendar for the needs of others.  I’ll spare you all the gory details, as it’s the end results we’re concerned with here.  And that, my good friends, would be lack of workout time in an already pinched-tight-as-a-frog’s-ass, work-a-day schedule.

This workout took all of 35 minutes.  I can’t say that I warmed-up as thoroughly as I would’ve liked, but it was sufficient for the task at hand.  As I warmed-up, I surveyed the gym for what equipment was available.  The power rack and GHR were free. Imagine that.

So I set my first four exercises of choice as a complex, i.e., one exercise followed in quick succession (time to just catch my breath) by the next.  I did the following, for three full rounds:

1. Barbell step-ups (5 reps each leg)
2. Glute-Ham raise (5 reps)
3. Behind-the-neck push-jerk (5 reps)
4. Regular grip weighted pull-ups (3 reps)

I followed this with a single set of barbell floor presses, 7 singles, using the rest-pause method.  At the end of this I was clock-bit, so to the showers I went.

You’ll notice I wove the push-pull method into the overall fabric of my chosen complex.  The push-pull concept is is my go-to, time saving method, whether used within a complex or in the choosing of super-set pairings. 

In Health,

Keith

This study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of public Health suggests 86 percent of Americans could be overweight or obese by 2030.  A stunning, yet not altogether surprising, ascertation.  Just look around you, at what you see day-to-day.  I happen to live in North Carolina, a state which has rolled-up its sleeves to help the South earn this little bit of dubious notoriety.  Good God I reckon, as we’re apt to mutter, when confronted with such nonsense, down here in Dixie.

Now, it’s obvious (or damn well ought to be ) to the most casual observer that something in our society has gone terribly amiss.  86 percent of the population overweight or obese by 2030?  Are you kidding me?  You’d think those suits in a power position — those with the utmost ability to affect public discourse in this arena — would realize that the government-backed diet prescription of the last 60-odd years is — to say the very least — is a tad bit flawed.  Apparently not, though.  Judging from the likes of such discourse as this, the establishment seems quite all right with the present course.

I don’t agree with everything that Gary Taubes has to say in Good Calories, Bad Calories; for instance, I believe that he fails to acknowledge the contribution of exercise (via positive hormonal/gene expression) as part of a balanced weight control effort.  However, he otherwise presents a compelling case against the prevailing diet “knowledge pool” and official government policies of the last 60-odd years.  Empirically speaking, I can attest to the fact that what he’s promoting in this book — basically, a low-carbohydrate diet — is an effective weapon against body fat (and water retention, for that matter).  It is my personal belief that this type of diet is also healthier hormonally.  I wish that, for the sake of our society’s health, the “powers that be” would at least acknowledge that the diet theory they’ve been promoting for the last 60-odd years is dead wrong.  Hell, they don’t even have to roll-over in submission at the feet of Mr. Taubes.  We can dismiss with the (much deserved as it might be) tar and featherings.  But for God’s sake, at least remain silent so that the dogma of the high-carb, low-fat “diet pyramid” might finally be allowed die a natural, long overdue death. 

The Pagan Christ, by Tom Harpur.

This is a fantastic book that does for Christianity what Gary Taubes’s Good Calories, Bad Calories does the established (i.e., mainstream) thought on diet.  That is to say, liberates it from the cage of orthodox dogma.  My hope is that this blog will help right the myriad of misconceptions on the fitness end of things. 

Quote of the Day:
Sincerity is the highest compliment you can pay.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson

It has long been my experience that the ferocity of held religious dogma can only be outdone by that of entrenched diet and fitness “knowledge”.   I’m sure there is a biological/survival component to the clinging onto of deeply entrenched societal beliefs.  When tribal wisemen (women?) proclaimed a certain plant poisonous, it would not have been to the individual tribe member’s advantage to think outside of the box, challenging the established mindset.  I recon that the “question authority” bunch was effectively winnowed thin  rather early in the evolutionary process.  Thankfully, the trait did manage to scrap together an existence, albeit a meager one.  I suppose this explains why there are so relatively few individuals able to resist the established dogma of their culture’s prevailing religion and “heath” practices/promotion norms.  I think, sadly too, that this must also explain the dearth of us libertarian-minded folks in the world.  One mustn’t ever give up hope, though. 

Do yourself a favor today, right now.  Take the first step in wrangling control of your own health.  Do away with the misconception of the established food pyramid and its fat-phobic, carbohydrate-heavy base.  Open your mind to a new possibility.  What have you got to lose — save some body fat and ill-heath?

I made the following response to a question posted in a diet/health-related discussion group on TeeBeeDee.  The gist of this person’s question dealt with how to go about getting fit at an advanced age.  The person in question happens to be 50 years old, which — and maybe I’m somewhat biased here, being that I’m 43 myself — in my opinion is in no way an “advanced” age.  Cases-in-point: Art DeVaney, Jack LaLanne; the list is long, both male and female.  An aside: “advanced” age females might want to checkout Art DeVaney’s wife.  He calls her Wonder Woman (or, WW for short).  She has a fabulous weight-loss/fitness story, chronicled (somewhat) on Art’s site.

Anyway, back to my response to this discussion-group question.  Here’s what I said:

“It’s a simple as this: (1) Forget what you ever thought you knew about diet & exercise. (2) follow a “paleo” diet as much as practicable. (3) make exercise intense, brief and sporadic. (4) strive toward, but do not insist upon perfection.”

Really, that single statement encompasses the entirety of diet and fitness universe.  Obviously, each one of these points can be (and most certainly have been) expanded, ad nauseam.  In every interaction I’ve ever had with someone who is trying to begin (or renew) a diet/fitness regimen, however, adherence to step #1 above has proven to be the deal-maker or the deal-breaker.  If you want to make this a lifestyle change — which it must surely be if the results are going to “stick” — you’ve got to relinquish old thoughts and be open to a new paradigm.

Workout #1.

The scenario: It’s a Sunday.  Lot’s of time (relatively speaking) to kill. Hey, a couple of free hours!? Are you kiddin’ me? And the fire is good an’ stoked from watching stage 15 of the TdF. It went down like this:

• 45 minute hard fixie ride. This is one of those difficult things to quantify. I was winded, yet, primed for more at the end.  Lots of starts and stops, which, on a fixie, adds tremendously to the total physical exertion.
• Reactive split-squats, 3 sets of 3 each leg
• Single-leg Romanian Deadlift, 3 sets of 5 each leg
• Reactive shrug/upright row, 3 sets of 8
• Strict front military press, 3 sets of 5

Okay, now I’m waxed. And I still needed to ride home, another 10-minute fixie burst to mi casa. I must say that was pretty worthless the rest of the day; I needed it and enjoyed every minute of it though — both the workout and (maybe especially so) the idleness.

Now, contrast the above with Tuesday’s, normal day-in-the-life, friggin gauntlet run.

• 4:20 AM, up and at ‘em. Pack lunch (pre-prepared on Monday night) in the cooler. Get the joe brewing. Soft boil two eggs to take in as part of my at-work breakfast.
• Out the door
• Listen to a podcast of the Strength-Power Hour during the commute. Lost a contact lens somewhere along the way.  Life with one eye is a bummer.
• Stop for gas midway. (3.79/gallon. Yahoo, it’s my lucky day after all! (sarcasm implied)
• 5:50 AM, Hello wonderful Rocky Mount YMCA front-desk ladies!  Two towels, please!
• 6:10 AM: Change of clothes in the locker. Warm-up complete. Locked, loaded & ready to rock-and-roll.

1. ALT DB Lunge for 1 trip around the indoor track (approximately 120yards?). 60LB DBs, 5 stops/short rests.

2. Jump Squat from parallel/BTN push-jerk combo, 3 sets of 3. Superset with regular-grip, weighted pull-ups, 3 sets of 3.

3. Barbell Floor Press. Seven singles, rest-pause method.

· 7:10 AM: Shower, shave and otherwise purty-up.

· 7:30 AM: Out the door – again — of the gym, this time.

· 7:45 AM: Punch the Hospira clock. Sadly, it did not come up three cherries. Important validation work awaits, though!

· Flash forward to 5:15 PM. Punched the clock once more. Headed the right direction this time, though. Listened to a fantastic Tapestry podcast during the commute

· 6:15 PM, home again. Happy wife! Happy dogs!

· 6:50 PM, completed a wonderful meal of steak salad and a glass of Cycles Gladiator.

· 7:00 – 8:20-ish PM, Dance lessons. I know. But hey, it keeps the Meesus happy.

· 8:30 PM: Now I am officially cooked. The end of the day already? Not quite. Still need to shower and stage (i.e., meal preparation) for tomorrow morning.

· 10:00 PM, sleepy time at last.

Averaging a post every six weeks or so isn’t exactly burning up the blogosphere. One thing I have realized, though, is that I’m pretty damn good at maintaining what I consider to to be my top priorities in life as — well, top priorities. And while I dearly love writing, I have to say that I love living, actually doing, just that much more. Add to to this fact that 1) its summertime, and getting me to sit still in front of a computer when there are so many other options available is, at best, tough and, 2) Michelle and I are actively trying to get our house sold. Downsizing, as it were. The kids have left, but every time I turn around there’s another dog in the house. Sheesh, at this rate, I’ll never get into a smaller dwelling. Quick, anyone want to buy a house in beautiful Greenville, NC? That’s G-Vegas, to those in-the-know!

One thing that might help: if anyone has any ideas on what they’d like to see commented on, just let me know. I’ve been doing this work/workout/diet/family/etc. juggle for a long, long time and there are some habitual things that I do that are, of course, very important — but that I really don’t even think about until somebody asks me.

Today’s workout went like this:

Rode the Bianchi fixie up to the ECU track/soccer field where I proceeded to crank-out ten 100-yard sprints (barefooted, on the soccer field) at about 80% max effort. I followed that up with a ride over to the G-Vegas Gold’s to knock-out a 5-minute LDI (Long Duration Isometric) in an exaggerated-stretch, push-up position. It was a nice, quick workout that primed me for the rest of the day.