Theory to Practice

“Many a man owes his success to his first wife and his second wife to his success.”

~ Jim Backus

Here’s liver & onions, done TTP style; or, more specifically, done Meesus TTP style.

Mmmm-Mmm. This was just slap yo' mama good!

Check out the full recipe here, at Meesus TTP’s Electic Kitchen.  You’ll find the recipe for these fabulous sauteed French beans at the first link as well.  All mouth-watering and all full-on Paleo.

She’s fighting through some new site growing pains — the bells and whistles aren’t all functional yet, but the content is all there and spot-on.    Enjoy!

In health,

Keith

“Dyin’ ain’t much of a livin’, boy”

~ Clint Eastwood, as Josey in, The Outlaw Josey Wales

Here’s an interesting theory on which I’d like to see some additional studies performed.  I can attest to the fact that, empirically speaking, my nutrient consumption is much lower in the summer, even though my overall exercise volume increases tremendously.  Interestingly enough, though, my bodyweight doesn’t fluctuate much at all, winter to summer.  The retention of body fat as a function of input stimulus makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint; the phenotype must respond appropriately to promote survival under a given set of environmental  circumstances and/or conditions.

On to the review of the past week’s worth of workouts:

Sunday

Fixed-speed, intermittent sprints (approximately 2 miles worth). Followed by barefooted, soccer field sprints:

1. 7-second, full-out sprints
2. Prime times (approximately 40 yards)

Achieved drop-off in the sprints at rounds 9 and 10. Hard, consistent-speed fixie ride (again, about 2 miles worth) back home. I fasted from about 9 PM Saturday night until approximately 5 PM Sunday. This particular workout, as a matter of comparison to my mini-fast, took place at roughly 10 AM, and lasted the better part of an hour. By 5 PM, I was more than ready to chow-down.

Tuesday morning, YMCA

Still in keeping with the 5 x 5 (or 25 for a bigger engine) theme. Next week, I’ll begin phasing back in a more power/explosive-specific work template.

1. BTN Push Press x 5
2. Front Squat x 5

The first round of this superset was semi-heavy, followed by 4 working-weight rounds. I increased the working-weight again at round 2, and once more for round 4; I used the same weights for both the BTN Push Press and the front squat throughout the rounds. In the final round of push presses, though, I had to employ the rest-pause method to achieve (or, in this case, beat) my repetition goal. My last round of BTN push presses looked like this: 4, 2, 1. I was able to achieve 5 reps in the final set of front squats, though, and so I need to increase my working weight a tad here. Something I’ll log and keep in mind for my next hypertrophy cycle.

Thursday morning, YMCA

This was heavy, hard and fast; a real ball-buster, to say the least. In addition to this, I performed my civic duty and took a needle for “team human”, giving a pint of blood in the late afternoon (following lunch).  Of particular note: My body temperature was a bit low (97.2 F) as measured just prior to giving blood. This may be a temporary effect of training so hard and heavy earlier in the day (temporary overreach). Blood pressure registered at 110/70. Quite an improvement over my consistent, 140/90, pre-Paleo-days blood pressure. I’m more and more thankful every day for ditching the grains and refined carbs. Anyway, fasten your collective seatbelts for this one:

1. Front Barbell Push-Press x 5

2. Barbell Lunge x 5 (each leg, alternating)

3. Weighted Pull-Ups x 5

5 balls-out rounds of this complex, with very little rest between exercises. The first set was a semi-heavy “bridge”, serving as a transition from warm-up to working-weight sets. Although the initial set was “light” in comparison to the last 4 rounds, I performed it in an explosive manner. I varied grips in the pull-ups indiscriminately, both throughout the 25 total reps and within each set, from a regular, reverse and parallel grip; “chin-over-the-bar by any means” is how I note this in my workout log. The same weight was used in the front press and barbell lunge.

Moving on to Saturday; No gym?  Raining out?  Hey, no problem.

I hit a few rounds of my CrossFit-inspired, at-home workout.  I had to squeeze this one in between “honey do’s”, home showings and rain showers.  Having just a few simple implements around the house, coupled with a little creative spark, will help salvage the day — workout- wise, at least.

3 rounds of 21, 15 and 9 reps of the following:

Check out the Vibrams — yeah, I’m lovin’ ‘em up!

What you can’t see is the 45 lb kettlebell hanging from my waist.  The 10-foot drop to the floor below acts as added incentive to complete last last few difficult reps 

Kettlebell swings between rain showers.  The dogs have scattered, thinking that I’m crazy as hell.  Meesus TTP is sure that I’m certifiably so.

All in all, a good week in the workout department.  This coming week will be a challenge, as there’ll be high school baseball games a-plenty to be made up.

In closing, I’d like to give notice to Alex (who comments here as AT22) over at A Paleo Journey to Health.  For those looking for a female perspective on the Paleo lifestyle, she’s a great resource.  Drop by and say hey to her!  And hey, hit that 2x BW deadlift already, Alex!

In health,

Keith

“The more injurious the treatment, the larger the difference between the surviving rats and the rest, and the more fooled you will be about the strengthening effect.”

Nassim Taleb, as quoted in this BodybyScience.net post.

Correlation does not necessarily imply causation; Dr. McGuff tackles this subject early-on in Body by Science.  Maybe he anticipated the “hey, you don’t look like you know what the hell you’re talking about”, negative reaction to the underlying premise of his exercise theory.  Now, I’m certainly not advocating the total disregard of visual cues when assessing the probable merits of an exercise system and/or modality; I’m simply advocating for good, balanced judgment, objective reasoning — in essence, the totality of informed thought.

In a discussion that ensued following Part 1 of this series, I stated that the trainee absolutely must “know thyself”.  I can’t emphasis this point enough.  In BBS, Dr. McGuff uses the analogy of attending an AAU swim meet and taking note of the ever-increasing number of “swimmer-like” physiques on display in the later rounds of competition.  This, in effect, is a display of accelerated evolution geared toward a particular prowess.  Someone attending only the later rounds of the meet might conclude — falsely as it turns out — that all swimmers are endowed with this particular, and rather pleasing, body type.  This individual might further conclude — again, falsely — that the key to attaining such a physique is to rack-up hours of pool time.  What this spectator does not see, however, are the vast majority of competitors — all with an equal amount of “pool time” under their trunks as the finalists — who don’t display anything close to the swimmer’s lithe, supple and streamlined look, however well “in shape” they may be as a result of their training.

The point is, that working out like a swimmer will not necessarily give one a swimmer’s physique; on the other hand, if a trainee were born with a genetic make-up that pre-disposes that trainee toward that type of physique, then and only then will said trainee be able to, with a swimmer’s workout, hone a swimmer-like appearance.  And to take this a step further, a person genetically inclined toward this appearance will display a “trained” version of a swimmer’s physique irregardless of training regimen.  Now, can I take a “genetic swimmer’s physique”, train it like a bodybuilder, and tweak that physique toward a more hypertrophied, bodybuiler-like look?  Yes, absolutely — but, however, only subtlety.  The bottom line is that certain physique expressions are genetically predetermined, as is athletic ability.  Through proper training, though, both can be honed substantially.  The take home message here, is that you’ve got to honor your genetic predispositions, and train accordingly.

This, then will segue us into the other aspect of the correlation/causation duality I’d like to cover in this part of the BBS review; the appearance of the trainer/coach vis-a-vis the value of that trainer/coach’s knowledge.  I’m sure you can guess by now where I’m going with this, but be a good sport and play along anyway.  Now, based on nothing but appearance, which of these guys would you take training advice from?

Mark Rippetoe on the left, Greg Glassman on the right

Seriously, would you take training advice from either Mark or Greg?  Based on their appearance, my guess is probably not.  Now, wanna take a wild guess as to which pair of “fitness experts” I’ve tapped for the vast majority of my own training knowledge over the past 5 years or so?

OK, so what about this Poliquin guy?  Yeah, he knows his stuff as well.  And he practices what he preaches.  Will his techniques work for you?  Well, maybe — it depends on your genetic make up.

Charles Poliquin

And knowing what you now know about the effectiveness of the Paleo lifestyle, would you take diet advice from this Lance guy?  The point is this:  you absolutely must be a savvy consumer of knowledge, especially so in the diet and fitness realms.  Unscrupulous people have made (and will continue to make) tremendous fortunes by capitalizing on the general public’s lack of willingness to become informed.

Lance Armstrong

So what’s the antidote?  Avoid snap judgments made solely on appearance; let appearance, though, play a part in your overall judgment.  It’s as simple — and difficult — as that.  Know yourself, your genetic limitations (in as much as they can be known), and set realistic goals.  Marry the right exercise protocol to your particular phenotype and give it hell.  Adjust and recalibrate as necessary; strive for continual improvement.  Repeat.  In essence, this is what the journey is all about.

In health,

Keith

Late edit: one thing I failed to mention here that I’d wanted to point out was Jimmy Moore’s (of the Livin’ La Vida Low Carb show) interview of Dr. McGuff.  Enlightening stuff.

“Ira furor brevis est. Anger is a short madness.”

- Horace

Carl Lanore, of Super Human Radio, hosted an interesting interview recently with Dr. Antoine Roux of the University of Montreal.  The discussion centered around Dr. Roux’s involvement in a study which identified sugar consumption — or, more specifically, glucose signaling — as a factor in accelerated aging.  It’s an interesting discussion, even if Dr. Roux is difficult to understand at times.  God bless him, though — I can only imagine how an interview with moi, in French, would come off

And here’s an article from Science Daily covering the same territory.  Yet another reason to lay off the sugar, and refined, packaged foods, in general.

And if simple table sugar muck’s-up your inter-workings like no one’s business, how ’bout the evil that High Fructose Corn Syrup can lay upon you?  We all know to stay the hell away from HFCS, but just in case you need a little more prompting or “reasons why”, check out this T-Nation article by Dr. Lonnie Lowery.

Have a wonderful, safe and very Paleo weekend!

In Health,

Keith

“We must travel in the direction of our fear.”

- John Berryman

Photo courtesy of the treyerice photostream.

A special thanks to Chris and Devica Urwick, of Spring Run Market, for first drawing my attention to this very important issue.

Two onerous legislative house bills, HR 875 and HR 759, are, as we speak, floating about the halls of Congress. Both of these proposed bills contain provisions that are potentially ruinous to small, local farmers; the very same family organizations that supply our Farmer’s Markets and co-ops with fresh, organic, locally-grown produce, dairy and grass-fed meat. The bills’ provisions are so onerous, in fact – so prohibitive – as to effectively render the small farmer unable to viably compete in the open marketplace. Our Freedom of food choice is being threatened, here folks, and we all know who would love nothing better than to see the ultimate demise of the family farm, don’t we? Yep, that’s right – big Agri-Business, and their companion, K Street lobbyists.

Please take a little bit of time out of your day – hell, just skip reading this blog for the requisite time if need be (I feel it’s that important) – to familiarize yourself with the issues surrounding these two pieces of legislation.

Here are a couple of great resources to get you started:

First up, The Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance (FARFA). This organization is

“…dedicated to representing non-corporate agriculture and animal owners, from homesteaders to horse owners to full-time ranchers.  FARFA’s work also serves those who are local foods consumers, people who care about protecting our traditional way of life, and other like-minded individuals.”

Food Safety Bills Currently Before Congress

The above-mentioned FARFA provides a good, concise overview, here, of the five food safety bills have been filed in Congress this year (as of March 16^th). Each of the five bills includes “traceability” provisions

“… whether for animals, produce, or both.  It’s a confusing situation, because NAIS is not a food safety program.  The NAIS tracking ends at the slaughterhouse, while most foodborne illnesses are due to contamination that occurs at the slaughterhouse, food processing or handling facilities, or at homes and restaurants.  So NAIS provides little or no relevant information in the event of a foodborne illness outbreak.”

Note that of the five bills listed, HR 875 and HR 759 pose the most immediate threat to the viability of local, organic farming.

Also, Carl Lanore, in a recent episode (#277) of Super Human Radio, hosted an enlightening discussion on the provisions of these bills (specifically HR 875 and HR 759) with Judith McGeary, the Executive Director of FARFA, and Peter Kennedy, Vice President of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund. Included in this discussion are suggestions for what we can do to most effectively influence both the content and ultimate outcome of these bills.

I urge all of you to become informed on this issue and voice your concerns to your elected representatives. The sanctity of our food supply is at stake, and unless we want to live in a world where our only food options originate from, and are solely controlled by, the Agri-Beasts (Monsanto, ConAgra, et al) and their all-powerful K Street lobbyists, we need to rise up in opposition.  We absolutely must make our voices heard on this subject.  If nothing else, contact the Capitol Switchboard, at 202-224-3121 (you don’t even have to know your Representative’s or Senator’s name, they can find that information for you), and let your opinion be known.

Now go out and make some noise.  You better believe that the Agri-Beasts will be pulling out all the stops to see these bills passed.

In Health,

Keith

3/25/09 edit: Something I neglected to mention in my original post was that you can follow any and all action on these bills (or any bill, for that matter) at Open Congress.  From the main site, you can search for the applicable bill number and retrive all the information you need; updates, action, the bill’s status — anything and everything.  Open Congress is a great site for the civic minded individual.

Courtesy of soldiersmediacenter

“U.S. Army recruiters say they routinely encounter young people who want to enlist but can’t because they are overweight by Army standards.

It’s enough of a concern that recruiters are trying creative ways to help otherwise-qualified prospects to drop the needed pounds.”

Excerpted from Army Aids Those Too Fat To Enlist, as reported by Julie Rose, of NPR’s, All Things Considered.

I guess this should come as no surprise in this day and age, as it is only a reflection of the much larger, and systemic, societal obesity problem plaguing the nation.

Gordon Lubold, of the Christian Science Monitor, weighs-in (pun intended) on the subject with this article from early January of this year.

History has not been kind to nations that “go soft” either physically or ethically.  Technology may by time, but not immunity from the forces of nature, and working hand-in-hand with those forces is the axiom of survival of the fittest.

In Health,

Keith

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

- Upton Sinclair

Hmmm.  I wonder if Upton was referring to mainstream obesity researchers when he said that?  Just a fleeting thought.

Anyway… on to the subject at hand; last week’s workout compilation.

First off, notice the total rep ranges of each exercise in the following workouts. In following with my 25 for a Bigger Engine hypertrophy philosophy, I’ve tried to maintain within a 20-to-25 rep range in each exercise (time permitting). I can usually pull this off with a simple two exercise superset; thee or more exercises (i.e., a complex), though, means that most times I’ll have to sacrifice total reps to squeeze-in the extra movement. What’s more important, the inclusion of an added exercise, or achieving the total rep goal (20 to 25) on a fewer number of exercises? Well, like most things related to diet and fitness, it depends.  And discussion on that topic would require a post in and of itself, so… let’s get on to the subject at hand, and leave that notion for another day.

Monday morning, YMCA

Just call me the juggle-meister, ‘cause it’s going to be one of those catch where catch can weeks. And away we go:

1. Front Squat x 5
2. BTN Push-Jerk x 5
3. Single-Arm, Bent-Over DB Row x 5 (each arm)

I was able to get 1 semi-heavy round of this, then 4 rounds at my working weight. Total time, warm-up to shower, clocked-in at 45 minutes.

Wednesday morning, YMCA

This wound up being a pretty good “gut check” workout. I minimized the rest time between each set, and, let me tell you, I felt it toward the end.

1. Front Barbell Push-Press x 5 (1^st – 115, 2 thru 5 – 175)
2. Clean Grip Low Pull from the floor x 5 (1^st – 225, 2 thru 5 – 315)
3. Weighted Dips x 5 (1^st – 45, 2 thru 5 – 80)

The first round here was semi-heavy, followed by 4 subsequent rounds at working weight. The last of those 4 rounds was completed in a rest-pause fashion that looked like this:

1. Front BB Push-Press: 3, 2, 2
2. CG Low Pull: 2, 2, 3
3. Weighted Dips: 3, 2, 2

This was a total body hammer. As an example of what I mean by “semi-heavy” and “working weight”, I’ve included the actual loading I used for this particular workout (in parentheses). I think of the semi-heavy round as a bridge between the warm up and the working sets.

Friday morning, YMCA

Went to bed way past my normal beddie-bye time Thursday night due to a late-running baseball game that wound up being the coldest baseball game I’ve ever endured. At least we came out on  the winning end (6 and 0 thus far — woot!) In any event, I ended up with less time than normal to squeeze in a workout. This is how I managed it:

1. “Werner”-style, explosive muscle-ups from the floor x 5

2. Regular-Grip, Power Pull-ups x 6

3. Power Curls, from the floor x 5

I was able to get 3 rounds of this in before I ran out of time. I think I hit on this complex for approximately 25 minutes after my warm-up. Notice I’m still in a higher rep range here. Ideally, I would have opted for approximately 25 reps of each exercise – but “ideally” just ain’t what occurs, sometimes, so you do the best you can with what you’re given; lose the battle, win the war.

Saturday: A CrossFit-inspired, 10-minute quickie

I had a hella-lot going on Saturday; had to go into the office for a few hours, (which is not so bad in and of itself, but I still have that damn hour commute each way to deal with), re-stage the house for home-sale possibilities after a spate of inside painting (paint it in neutral colors, and the buyers will come – or so goes the theory), and run out to pick-up our month’s co-op order from Spring Run Market. I had the itch to do something strenuous, though – but what? Here’s the “what” that I came up with on the fly:

1. Body Weight Dips (done in the attic access opening of my house)

2. Platform Jump (on to a 30-inch-high table)

3. Ab Wheel roll-outs

I did this little routine in a 3-round, CrossFit-esq fashion of 21-15-9 repetitions. It took all of 9 minutes, left me feeling pretty jacked, and – most importantly – satiated that “itchy” need to “do something – anything — physical”

In Health,

Keith

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

~ Thomas Jefferson

Part 1 of this review will concentrate on my overall impression(s) of Body by Science, by Dr. Doug McGuff and John Little. I’ve completed my initial “quick read” of the work, and have thus far thoroughly enjoyed the book.  By way of comparison, I’d say that BBS might be considered the “Good Calories, Bad Calories” of fitness tomes. Not that the book is exhaustive, or written “on a higher level”, but in the fact that it is so heavily backed by documented research. A full 26 pages of reference citations fill the back matter of the work; plenty of “geek food” for folks like me – those of us who like to delve deep and see if we come to the same conclusions as the author.

And by and large, I do come to the same conclusions as the authors here. I think where our differences ultimately lay is in the application of the science and techniques described therein; to invoke a metaphor, here (and one that I’m sure I’ve hackneyed to death by now), I think Dr. McGuff would have the techniques described in BBS be the monkey wrench in his workout toolbox – applying the methods described in BBS universally and across the board – where I see these techniques more as a highly specialized tool in a much, much larger workout “tool box”. The underlying science here is spot-on, though, and for anyone wishing to purchase a thorough, nicely-written and well-documented exercise science and/or physiology book, this is it. The book is written for the lay-person, so the underlying science is, in some cases, over-simplified. Ah, but if you’d like to dig a little deeper, you’ve got that 26 pages worth of references to glory in.

I also get the distinct feeling that much was cut from Dr. McGuff’s original manuscript, by all-too-eager editors in their zeal to mold a product with a more vast market appeal. That’s a shame, though, because I know Dr. McGuff has much more to say on the subjects covered in his book. I’d love to get my hands on the original manuscript; it really is too bad that he wasn’t given the license from his publishing house that was given Gary Taubes in his writing of GCBC.  To make my case, here, just check out this interview that Chris, of Conditioning Research, conducted with Dr. McGuff.  The good doctor has plenty more to say, and the more I hear him expound on his notions, the more I am apt to agree with his conclusions.  I also wish that the publishers would have allowed Dr. McGuff, or at least someone very knowlegeable in the proper form/execution of free-weight exercises, stage the photos for this work.  Dr. McGuff has commented to me about his displeasure over that aspect of the book.  This is an unfortunate consequence, though, of the elaborate dance between authors and editors/publishers.

In the forthcoming installments of this review, I’ll look consider the various themes of BBS from my own Paleo/Evolutionary Fitness-leaning perspective.  Expect to see some heavy discussion in the following subject areas:

1. the efficient absorption of force.
2. Proprioception
3. CNS stimulation
4. the Dose/Response/Recovery continuum.
   

I’ll note as well, that Dr. McGuff is fully on board with the whole of the Paleo/EF lifestyle approach.  Check out the following two short clips of Dr. McGuff discussing the science of fat loss.

As well, Dr. McGuff is an admirer, as am I, of  Nassim Nicholas Taleb.  It is with the foundation of these two perspectives (Paleo lifestyle, coupled with “randomness”) that he and John Little have put together an absolutely fabulous training book — one that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone (novice to “old salt”) interested in underlying science of physical culture.

More to come.  If you haven’t yet grabbed a copy of BBS, by all means do so; you certainly won’t be disappointed.  Read-up, and get ready for some in-depth discussion.

In Health,

Keith

I hate to be such a damn cynic, but could we not see this one coming from a mile away?

“After searching NHANES between the years 1999 and 2004 for participants that fit the JUPITER profile, then extrapolating that to the general population, Michos and Blumenthal estimate that about 6.5 million older adults with low cholesterol and high CRP might benefit from statins. If they expanded their search criteria to the cholesterol level cutoff of 160 mg/dl that doctors often use when deciding to prescribe statins, the researchers increased this statin-benefiting group’s size to 10 million.”

Excerpted from a Johns Hopkins medical study, as reported in the blog, Lab Spaces.

I wrote a while back about the infamous JUPITER study; check out this post for my commentary on the subject, and some good links pertaining  to the study as well.

And oddly enough, no mention was made in the Johns Hopkins paper of the efficacy of Paleo-like diets in the reversal of metabolic syndromes.  Imagine that.

And from the TTP Wha-Huh?? Diet and Fitness Files, we have this:

I swear I am not making this up.  This morning, in the gym, I saw the following scene: On the seated leg curl machine was a girl — I say “girl”, I suppose she was in her late twenties/early thirties — very cute in the face, though, unfortunately, about 75 to 100 pounds overweight.  Fair enough, though, she’s in the gym at 6:30 AM — which I applaud! — however, she’s on the leg curl machine, slowly leg-curling away, while eating a figgin’ honey bun! I swear to you — I could not make this up.  Somewhere in the back of this poor girl’s mind was a small voice from her distant (or maybe not so distant) past, saying you’ve got to eat breakfast, it’s the most important meal of the day. And I’m sure she figured, well, I’ll just kill both the working out and breakfast “birds” with a single stone.  My initial thought was, I’m being punk’d.  Then I remembered that I’m not important enough to be punk’d.  Then, I began to feel very, very secure in my pharmaceutical validation career.

Where would you even begin to correct this mindset?

In Health,

Keith

“We had the experience but missed the meaning.”

~ T. S. Eliot

Picture courtesy of The Economist

Here’s an interesting article that The Economist ran back in February of this year, and one that I’d meant to reference during the hotly contested, “A Calorie is not a Calorie” debates.  This is a good, thought provoking article, as I’m aware of the fact that there is a substantial “raw branch” of the Paleo-lifestyle movement.  This article points out a good many of the main reasons why I’m not a “raw” proponent, per se (dairy notwithstanding — if one is to consume dairy at all).  That’s not to say, though, that I’m so sure that I’d go fully on board with this statement:

“Moreover, without cooking, the human brain (which consumes 20-25% of the body’s energy) could not keep running.”

But the rest of Richard Wrangham’s ideas on the subject — namely, that the control of fire, and the resultant cooking of foodstuffs, enabled the evolutionary transition to the modern physique — are, in my opinion, fully correct.

And don’t forget to give a listen to the companion audio clip, as it contains some additional interesting and expounded upon information.

In Health,

Keith