Theory to Practice

“Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer

I’ve received some questions as of late as to how I go about whatever meal planning I do.  Now, please know that I’d rather not have to meal-plan, but given my working environment and time constraints, planning is a better option than “winging it”; I save the winging it option for the weekends, when I can be reasonably assured of ready access to Paleo resources when I’m ready to chow-down.  Anyway, I hope this gives you folks a little visual idea of how I go about a typical weekday’s meal prep.

This was a two-part grilling process,due to the nature of how each meat/cut needed to cook.  First, the chicken quarters and sausage; long and slow for these, over a low flame:

Meat from free-range animals. Fabulous stuff.

Then, we crank-up the fire full bore; grease drippings from the previous round will help maintain the inferno long enough for these to get well seared:

Nice grill marks he says, patting himself on the back...

Meesus TTP and I like our steaks rare to medium rare and heavily seared on the outside.  For that, you need a super-hot grilling surface — and a quick hand.  This is the antithesis of the chicken/sausage process, and the extra fuel (grease drippings) help make for a superbly done pair of steaks — near crunchy outside, still quivering near the bone.  I let the cuts set out until they’re near room temperature, then brush them liberally with olive oil and rub in plenty of  fresh cracked pepper and Fiesta brand brisket rub before they hit the grill.  I then brush each face side after flipping the meat, and again immediately after the steak comes off the grill.  Flip the steaks only once one the grill.  The process is this: oil and season ‘em up and slap them on the super-hot grill, quarter turn (see the grill marks?), flip and oil the now face-up side, quarter turn, take ‘em off and oil the side that was last on the grill.  Now, let them set for a few minutes, covered, as this will allow the juices to move toward the center of the cut.  Ok, now eat-up.

Meanwhile, Meesus TTP had this going on inside:

Can't think of a finer use for bacon grease.

That’s fresh-cut broccoli sauteed in bacon grease, onions, garlic and shallots.

The evening meal, as plated, with a smattering of fresh cantaloupe and little Shiraz to wash things down:

Let's eat!

And the (planned for in advance) leftovers will make for some fine follow-up work-day breakfasts and lunches:

The crumbled white substance in the bottom two containers is raw goat cheese with a little raw butter; nothing better in the AM with a couple of soft-boiled free-range eggs.  The eggs only take about 10 minutes or so out of my AM routine, so I can prepare them fresh even on my workout mornings.  They keep just fine in my chilled cooler from 4:30 AM until I eat breakfast at approximately 8 AM; I haven’t tested it, but I feel quite positive that they would remain fresh all day, though, if need be.

In health,

Keith

“We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

- Louis Brandeis

The View from College Hill

I started out on my trusted fixie Saturday, 14-hours into an intermittent fast, with the idea of doing a quick barefooted sprint session at the ECU athletic complex before coming home and setting in to watch Lance defend his 3rd-place position in the TdF.  As I approached Dowdy-Ficklen stadium however, I thought I might rather hit some stadium sprints instead.

As luck would have it, the stadium was in fact open; lots of action going on, with football recruits moving in and out of the training complex.  August is fast approaching, which means the kick-off of football season is a mere 5 weeks or so away.  Damn I miss that game.  But anyway, I digress…

I eased on through the gates, circled around through the concourse to the ramps, and had

just begun my ascent when I spied a new stash of tractor tires and bumper plates staged for a little outdoor fun for the football recruits.  Change number two to the day’s plan came about when I decided that performing overhead lunges up the entire stadium ramp complex, with a 20kg bumper plate,seemed like a fabulous idea.

Now there are 20 ramp segments from the Dowdy-Ficklen concourse to the stadium’s upper deck, and I managed between 11 and 15 lunges per segment…so let’s see, that’s — I dunno, a whole hell of a lot of damn lunges.  Performed on a steep incline.  And with 20kgs straight-armed overhead.

Madness, right?  Well, I did rest approximately 20 seconds between ramp segments; does that count for anything?

Eventually, I stumbled out onto the upper deck, recomposed myself, then hit a few rounds of step sprints while holding the bumper plate in front of me in a position somewhat similar to say, performing curls with an EZ curl bar.  On each descent, I again straight-armed the plate overhead.

On the way back down the ramps (walking, not lunging), I did a combination of single-arm presses (as if I were “shot putting” the plate) and straight-arm overhead lockouts.

Now I’ve had sketchier fixie rides on the way home after a tough workout, but I think this one won the “endeavor to persevere with toasted legs” prize.  Not to mention that holding my head up with fried traps took a bit of doing.

So as many of you are undoubtedly aware, a tough workout in the middle of a fast will put the squelch on your appetite for a good while following.  I rode this wave for all it was worth (about 4 hours, post workout), and finally ate about 6 PM that evening — eggs, ham, raw milk and a smattering of fruit and berries — purposely holding the carbs to a minimum.  I grazed the rest of the evening on raw cheese, salami (a poor choice, I know — it was situational), pork roast and a little bit of sweet potato with raw butter.  And I made sure to down plenty of fish oil as well.

Hey, if Lance can dust it up with the youngsters in the TdF, I can give the football recruits at ECU a little something to talk about.  “Yo, you see that crazy  mo’ fo’ over at the stadium…?

In health,

Keith

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”

-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I received a very cool email recently, and both it and my reply got me thinking about the subject of today’s post.  But before I go on, here’s the email:

Hi Keith,

I’ve been meaning to drop you a line for ages.  I just wanted to let
you know how much I enjoy your blog.  I find your writing style to be
intelligent, knowledgeable and interesting (not always a combination
you find on the web).

I have gone “primal” over the past few months almost immediately after
first reading about it.  It really hit a chord with me straight away,
and whilst I didn’t have that much weight to lose and was already
relatively active, I have found the “primal”diet has given me more
energy and body is slowly becoming more toned.

I have messed around with weights/gym/exercise for 10-15 years but
have never managed to get the size/tone.or definition I wanted  but I
get the feeling, like you said in your last post, by keeping it simple
with sprinting/sand bag lifts and  a kettle bell( i have just
purchased) I am going to get the results I want, one of my goals is to
I want a 6pack before I am 40 !(which is Feb next year).

So that’s it really, just a letter of appreciation for the effort you
put into your writing and sharing your knowledge with us all.

//guy

Very nice.  And what follows is my reply, seriously reeking as it does of, I dunno…a kind of, middle-of-a-harried-work-day efficient communication, I guess.  It might well have been puked by a robot:

Hey, thanks for the good words, Guy.  It really does boil down to simple theories applied [and] practiced in a most intense fashion.

Short and to the point.  And nothing at all new here, right?  No big revelations, no bombshells.  If my diet book is short — eat lots of quality protein, plenty of good fats, a little bit of veggies and greens and maybe some raw dairy –  my workout book is even shorter — in and out of the gym in 45 minutes or less, but bust your friggin ass while you’re there — so you’d think my reply was spot-on.  And it is, in a sense; the only problem is, I tend to carry this most intense fashion attitude for too long and into just about every other aspect of my life outside of the gym.  If something is important enough to show-up on my radar at all, it becomes an object worthy of being dealt with in a most intense fashion.  And it’s been my experience that most people who are attracted to the Paleo lifestyle and/or physical culture in general are wired the same way.  My point in all of this?  We need plenty of programmed down time to be healthy.  We need plenty of low-intensity, play-like activities to engage in.

With that in mind, check out this short clip from someone I’ve admired for quite some  time.  Most folks have probably never heard of him; he’s an author by the name of Alan Weisbecker who I “discovered” after reading the cult classic Cosmic Banditos, many, many years ago.  I’ve read all of Alan’s books (I recommend them all), as well as the little communique he puts out every so often by the name of  The Down South Prospective.  So why am I profiling a surfer-cum-author in a blog dedicated to the proper applications of diet and physical culture?  Quite simply, because Alan’s got the “get plenty of low-intensity activity” part of the equation nailed.  We’d all do well to follow his lead ; check it out, here.

And here’s another:

Good stuff, a fantastic locale and a hell of a lifestyle.  Sign me up.

Have a great weekend everyone.  And remember that the “plenty of active play” portion of the equation is every bit as important as the periods of short-duration, high-intensity work.  It’s a balance, a yin-yang kind of a thing.  And things out-of-balance tend to fly appart at the seams after a while.

In health,

Keith

“Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just a punch, a kick was just a kick. After I’d studied the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch, a kick is just a kick.”

-Bruce Lee

Photo credit: hanneorla

This past week saw a proliferation of fantastic strength and conditioning information being offered to the masses — podcasts, articles, you name it — all of it for free, I might add.  This kind and quality of information was once only available to upper-end athletes — and when I say “once”, I mean as recently as the early ’90’s.  The problem with this plethora of information, of course, is that the vast majority of it is nothing but noise — misinterpreted, misrepresented, manipulated, or just flat-out friggin’ bass-achwards wrong.  What to do?  How does one go about filtering this low signal to noise ratio for the nuggets of truth (and there are some) that may be out there?  My advice is simply this: All truth is simple in concept, complex and difficult in learning and actual real-world application, and finally, a different kind of simple — elegantly simple — in mastery.  Consider Bruce Lee’s quote above.  Really, this is just he’s saying as well.  Filter all that incoming information with that notion in mind.

As an example of this, what if I said that one could build a stunning body (as “stunning” as one’s genetic hand will allow), and, if athletically inclined, propel this individual leaps and bounds ahead of the competition by doing no more than this: Power cleans, heavy carries, sprints, and adherence to a Paleo lifestyle.  Now, that’s about as simple as it gets in concept; however, give this “workout” a shot: carry a pair of 150 lb dumbbells — any method, it doesn’t really matter — one round of a 400 meter track.  That’s it, you’re free to go home after that — or to the hospital, whichever you feel you need.  That’s the difference between a concept that’s simple, and the application thereof that is anything but.  Is there any question, though, as to the efficacy of such an endeavor repeated over time? Think you’ll lose fat and muscle-up by adhering to that simple workout everyday, coupled with a sensible diet?  You bet your sweet ass you will.  This same idea is applicable to the Paleo lifestyle.  I can’t think of a more simple “diet” concept — eat protein, good fats, fibrous veggies and a smattering of fruit; have some raw dairy if it’s to your liking.  That’s it, that’s my “diet book” in its entirety.  Where the rubber meets the road, though, is when you’re confronted with that luscious carrot cake, or bombarded once more with “oh my God, your cholesterol must be…! or, Everyone knows you have to have carbohydrates in your diet!, or the dreaded just one little piece won’t hurt ya.” There’s a world of difference between being an intellectual Paleo, and in being Paleo in action.  The concept is simple; application — especially in the initial stages, will test your resolve.

Photo credit: Crossfit

Analysis Paralysis

One doesn’t need much in the way of equipment to pull-off what Tanya is doing here.  What one does require, though, is an immense amount of intestinal fortitude.  Simple in application, difficult in actual application.  Nothing fancy here; lunges with a heavy load held at lockout over your head.  Simple; and it’ll simply hand you your ass in no time flat.  Not much programming involved here, either.  And check this out: that very same exercise can be tweeked for strength, power, and yeah, even hypertrophy emphasis with simple manipulations of load, rep speed and total time under load.  How much more detail do we really need to be concerned about?  About as much workout detail as anyone can realistically juggle in a real-world situation are these few things:

• Modality (strength, hypertrophy, power)
• Movement
• Duration
• Rest

If you delve into much more detail than this in your pre-workout planning, you’re just setting yourself up for frustration.  Modalities are best worked in blocks according to what your needs happen to be.  Movements should be basic, multi-joint, and functional (unless there is an underlying need for some sort of isolation work).  Duration is the energy cycle you intend to target.  Rest is simply an avoidance of overtraining.  Now the problem with getting into much more detail than that is allowing yourself to bail on an entire program if, for instance,  someone happens to be occupying the squat rack (probably doing bicep curls) when your “program” called for heavy front squats.  I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen have this occurrence blow their entire workout (and their day’s attitude), and, if they happen to be following some “pre-set program”, said program is now deemed, “useless” now, and unworthy of continuing.  I say to this what the hell, do deadlifts, Bulgarian splits squats, whatever — just have it be of the same modality, basic movement patern and target duration.  Do you think your body really gives a damn? Your body only needs proper and targeted stimulus — it’s your conscious mind that absolutely has to have the particular exercise at the precise percentage of 1RM on this particular day.  Adapt, overcome, and bust your ass at whatever you happen to be doing — even if it wasn’t in your plan — and everything else will take care of itself.  Hey, don’t get me wrong, it’s fine (and even sometimes, necessary) to have a workout template planned out — I usually operate with one  in the background as well — my point is that things can and will go wrong; your shoulder hurts, the car broke down, you had to plow through a 60-hour work week, somebody has the squat rack tied-up with doing bicep curls.  Reach that “enlightened” point of a “kick being just a kick”, realize your template is no more than a crutch for your conscious mind, and move on.

An Example of Simple Vs. Easy

Consider my Saturday, July 18th workout (the first of two that I performed in the middle of an intermittent fast); this one rates pretty damn high on the intensity scale and about rock bottom in complexity.

• Overhead lunges (just like Tanya is demonstrating above); two 45lb plates x 25 yards
• Ring flyes (4/2/x tempo)* x 7 or so
• Muscle-ups on a pull-up bar x 2

*four second eccentric, 2 second hold at critical joint angle (bottom-out position), fast-as-humanly-possible concentric.

I lost count after 4 rounds of this beast.  I had to stay away from home for a while because the realtor was showing the house, so I just kept hitting set after set.  What the hell else was I going to do   After a while, though, I could only lunge for about 10 yards or so, so I walked the last 15 yards of each round the plates still at full extension over my head.  I hit the point where I could only manage 4 flyes at my initial tempo.  And muscle-ups?  My upper body was so toasted from the overhead caries that I hit the point of only being able to eek out a single, then I digressed to the point of being happy to get my chest to the bar.  Simple? You bet.  Easy? Try it on for size and get back to me.  And the second workout?  Interval sprints on my fixed-speed steed, about 2 hours following the workout above.

In health,

Keith

“Once a woman has forgiven a man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.”

- Marlene Dietrich

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs...

TMuscle.com recently posted an interesting article by former big-time power lifter and current strength and conditioning coach (and Elite Fitness staff member) Jim Wendler, discussing Jim’s 5/3/1 routine for strength.  There’s a great amount of, no-nonsense, straight-forward information here.

What’s refreshing about this piece is (1) the program’s simplicity and (2) Jim’s honesty.  I mean, really, getting big, strong and powerful is not rocket science, much as some of the hucksters out there would have you believe.  Intense effort, proper diet, adequate recovery — really, the rest is mere commentary, hair splitting, as it were; the stuff of interesting conversation, but really, nothing more than that.  Of course the further one progresses, or if an athlete needs to pin-point training, well, that’s a different story and a more nuanced approach is definitely called for.   But for the vast majority — myself included, at this stage in my life — the iron game can be simplified to this: short-duration, intermittent, hard-assed work; eat properly, get plenty of rest (nightly, and between workouts), repeat.  Now I’ve just let you in on the secret to muscle gain and fat loss — a secret that holds true for 99% of the population.  Now, if you want to compete athletically, we’ll need to talk a bit more.  Otherwise, you can use the Dalai Lama’s approach to religion — pick a pony (religion) saddle it up, and ride the thing — and apply that theory in the weight room.  As long as you’ve got some intense TUL (time under load) goin’ on, hell, you’re way ahead of the crowd.  Couple that with a good diet and sensible recovery and you’re light years ahead.

Anyway, back to Jim’s program.  What he’s served up here is a basic, nuts-and-bolts strength (or, if you work it right, power) template — a version of which I’ve used many times in the past — and, in fact, one that I’m currently following (interspersed with versions of my favorite — 25 for a Bigger Engine).  Jim has tweeked the lift percentages a bit here in this particular program (which forces a sensible weight selection), but the guts program remain founded in ages-old, proven methods.  Jim prescribes hitting the core lifts (always multi-joint, complex movements) hard and progressively over a three or four week period.  Take a deload week so as to give your body a chance to recoup.  If the three-week “ramp-up”, one week “idle” methodology seems all-pervasive within the strength and conditioning community, there’s a simple reason — it’s been proven empirically to work.  This is where the science “rubber” meets the real world “road”.  It may be physiological or psychological or some combination thereof, but it seems as though one can push hard for about 3 weeks before the wheels begin to come off.  Now, you can either be smart and anticipate this happening and program some “deload time” in you r macrocycle planning, or you can keep pushing and suffer some form of injury-induced set-back; one way or the other, though, you will be taking that deload week.

One thing Jim really didn’t cover in the article was rep speed or tempo.  The nice thing about this program, or the 25 Reps program for that matter, is that you can really snap-off the early, lighter sets and emphasize the power aspect, then, in the final reps of the final set, use a slower, consistent tempo and go on to failure — even some negative failure or forced reps, if you like.  And a quick word about failure: pick your exercises wisely.  I’m good with going to failure on complex movements where momentum is not a key factor (and the skill/technique component is low).  Squats?  Yeah, go to failure.  Jump squats?  No.  Military press?  Sure, knock yourself out.  Push press or push jerk?  Nope, simply not effective.

Anyway, if you’re looking for some structure in your next strength block, you can do a hell of a lot worse than to follow Jim’s 5/3/1 program, as he has, in my opinion, put together a good, solid and sensible program here.  And a quick word about tweeking the prescribed (or any prescribed) program:  I agree with Jim that you can’t manipulate what he’s laid-out here, and then bitch about the 5/3/1 not working for you.  On the other hand, I don’t ever follow a prescribed program to the letter; I’ve to too many variables to juggle in my life and I have a narrowly defined and very clear set of goals I aim to achieve.  Couple that with the fact that I’ve been in the game for 30+ years, and so I have base knowledge to allow a sifting-through of a program for the gems that I want.  You gotta know the rules to know when to effectively break ‘em, right?

Here’s a recent example of my utilization of Jim’s 5/3/1 routine.  This is week one, and the compound exercise of choice is reverse-grip pull-ups (or chin-ups, for you purists out there).  This picks up, of course, subsequent to a thorough warm-up.

Reverse Grip Pull-Ups

Set 1: 60# x 5 reps

Set 2: 67.5# x 5 reps

Set 3: 72.5# x 7 reps, failed midway through the 8th.

Lots of pop on the reps of the first two sets — more along the lines of classic power reps.  The reps of the last set, especially as I made my way toward failure, were ground-out — classic, heavy, “strength” reps.  I took about 2 minutes rest between sets.  Then:

Bodyweight dips, 5 sets of 15 reps.  About 1 minute rest between sets with the last few reps of the last two sets done in rest-pause fashion.

Bodyweight GHR, 5 sets of 10.  1 minute between sets.  A lot tougher than it sounds.

Now, my next time in the gym, I may hit a 5/3/1 routine with front squats as the primary exercise, or I my opt for a 25 FBE routine; it all depends on how I feel and what kind of time I have.  But for this particular primary exercise, though (the reverse grip pull-up), I’ll follow the 5/3/1 schedule (3 weeks ramping, 1 deload week) on through.

This was a fantastic workout.  Nothing fancy — but then again, it doesn’t have to be fancy to be effective.

In health,

Keith

“The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.”

- Sir William Osler

An opportunity missed

…or, yet another instance of damn, I wish I’d had my camera.

Meesus TTP and I had to travel down to Georgia over the July 4th weekend to tend to a few remaining loose ends as a consequence of B’s recent accident.  We’ve both had better 4th of July holidays, I have to say — and yet, we were able to salvage some moments of renewal and rebirth (the stunningly beautiful Victoria Bryant State Park, for one example, where a new butterfly park is being planned in Brittani’s honor) and even a few instances of serendipitous joy.  (Serendipity seems a common theme in my life — possibly something I need to further explore?)  At any rate, one of those “serendipitous moments” came while Meesus TTP was tending to some business at Emmanuel College.  I remained outside of the on-campus, Student Life center for some fresh air, sun, and a bit of quiet reflection when a sign I’d seen countless times prior — Jones Garden — suddenly hit me anew.   While contemplating the alternative/contemporary meaning of “Jones”, I enjoyed one of those laugh-outloud-with-no-one-else-around moments.  I’m sure any onlooker to this scene would have mistaken me for one of the drifting, poverty-stricken and psychologically-burdened casualty cases of the modern American healthcare system.

Then I saw the sign for Jones Church, and I just about lost it.

Those two pictures would have made for a great intro here, but alas, you’ll have to suffice with your own mental snapshot.  And while the Jones connotations above are funny (admittedly, possibly only to me and my quirky sense of humor), a serious Jones of any kind is no laughing matter.  Especially, and in the face of attempting to clean up your act on the diet front,  the dreaded carbohydrate variety of Jones.

Victoria Bryant State Park. No carb cravings, here. Thoughts of those two ducks on a grill, though, are another story.

And to that end, low carb podcast maestro Jimmy Moore recently scored an interesting interview with psychologist Julia Ross, author of The Diet Cure.  Lots of good information to be had here.  And I know what your thinking.  No, this isn’t low-carb 101 for the Opera-watching masses — Ms. Ross actually hits on some very important and advanced issues concerning addictions; addictions of all kinds, really, but in particular here, carbohydrate addictions, and how to curb, and ultimately, overcome them.  One point that Ms. Ross makes — and one in which I totally agree with — is that an addiction of any sort has less to do with lack of willpower and more to do with altered brain chemistry.  Correct the chemistry and, for the most part, the physical addiction will have been eliminated.  The psychological and situational issues will remain, of course — and this is where willpower will have to prevail — so, like most issues, overcoming the carbohydrate Jones requires more than just focusing in on one underlying cause.  I’ve written about the carb Jones, previously, here, and you might want to check that particular post out again for some other thoughts and associated links.

Proper use of amino acid supplementation will go a long way toward negating the underlying brain/chemical cause for the carb Jones, as will increasing the amount of good fats in one’s overall diet.  My favorite trick for curbing a sweet-tooth pang (a pang that will in time, and with the maintenance of proper diet, become a thing of the past) is to horse-down a tablespoon or three of olive, fish, or other such oil.  Good, quality nut butters work well for this, too.  Of course now we have the luxury of partaking in an even more palatable option for this purpose — Artisana’s raw coconut butter — though I must warn you here of the dangers of trading one addiction for another; that raw coconut butter is seriously good stuff.

Channeling obsessions, and the quest for control

Alex, over at a Paleo Journey to Health, brings up an excellent point for contemplation in this post.  Another aspect to the whole carb Jones phenomena may just be the sense of “out-of-controlness” one feels in the initial stages of withdraw.  That is to say, (and this is my take on the issue, take it for what it’s worth) that what we’re dealing with here is another dimension of the psychological issue.  People will do things, and ultimately and eventually (though, unintentionally, in many cases) form habits of those actions, as a means of having some control over their lives.  Now, in some instances, this works out for the greater good.  My initial love of, and remaining immersed in, physical culture (writ large) was born, early on, from a deep-rooted desire to have total control over something — anything — in my life.  Lance Armstrong has famously stated that, in his opinion, the compulsive drive of a professional athlete (he was speaking specifically of TdF cyclists, however, in my opinion, this is true of all compulsive athletes), stems from that athlete’s either running from, or chasing down, some personal demon.  Of course, it can be argued that this kind of compulsion is as damaging to the mind and/or body (in a cumulative trauma and/or free-radical sense) as any other compulsion — and, in a manner os speaking, I agree.  That’s a topic, though, for another time.

Back, though, to known destructive habits.  Some will get on quite readily with actions they acknowledge at the onset are bad for them — even actions that they know (logically) and at the onset of initially partaking, are highly addictive.  Ironic, isn’t it?  The insidiousness of carbohydrate addiction though, is that it’s so very sneaky.  We were brought up to believe (and the masses still cling tightly to the notion) that (1) all carbs are created equal, (2) that refined carbohydrates, while maybe not “good” for you per se, are certainly much better for you than fat of any kind, and (3) addiction? are you kidding me?  This concept of “carb addiction” is still considered the stuff of the lunatic fringe.  Ah, but you and I know it’s real — very real — and for some, the addiction to carbohydrates is overwhelming.  So overwhelming, in fact, that many folks will walk away from a Paleo-like diet because of an inability to shake the carb Jones, even while fully acknowledging and buying into the Paleo concept on an intellectual level. This carb Jones is no puny opponent.  It can be soundly defeated, though, with a little applied knowledge, and a little effort in the form of willpower.

So check out Jimmy’s interview and Julia’s website.  There’s some good information be be had in both.  I can say that The Diet Cure is now on my “books to read list”, as I believe Ms. Ross has the addiction thing — the physical/chemical aspect, at least — pretty much nailed.  And as any of us who’ve made the switch from a western diet to a more Paleo diet can attest, overcoming the carb cravings and the social alienation are the two big storms one must clear to get to the smooth and easy Paleo waters.

In health,

Keith

“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

- Benjamin Franklin

I know many people are intrigued (as am I) by the protocol, and the science behind the protocol, underpinning Doug McGuff’s Body By Science methodology.  During my travels over the past couple of weeks, and, in rather serendipitous fashion, I came across both a podcast and a book which offer complementary information to Doug’s work, so I thought I’d pass them along to you.

First up is a Super Human Radio Show podcast.  In this episode (#325), host Carl  Lanore interviews Joshua Trentine of Overload Fitness.  The subject is Super Slow/one-set-to-failure training.  If you’re curious as to how this methodology plays-out in someone with a favorable genetic hand, check out both the interview and Joshua’s website.  Of course, you can always consider Mike Mentzer as the genetically gifted, one-set-to-failure gold standard.  I would suspect that Dorian Yates leans toward this methodology as well.  One thing to keep in mind here is that we’re talking about enhanced hypertrophy, and not necessarilly improving sproting prowess.  But here is where it all gets very interesting to me.

If you look at the Long duration Isolation methodology proposed by Jay Schroeder (here’s a nice encapsulation of the method, thanks to Kelly Baggett of Higer-Faster-Sports.com).    You’ll see that there’s not a whole lot of real world difference between it and the super-slow (or HIT) methodology.  I feel like there’s definitely something to these methods, but, just like any other method out there, neither is a “one size fits all” or holy grail of training.  For a specific time and for a specific purpose, though, one (or a combination) of these methods might just be the best fit.

I will give Schroeder this — if in fact he was responsible for Adam Archuleta’s training leading up to the 2001 draft, he did a marvelous job.  Archuleta was, in my opinion, someone of (only) decent natural ability who trained/pushed/willed himself into a professional career.  How much credit Jay Schroeder can take for this is anybody’s guess.  It does, though, make for interesting speculation and conversation.   I can say that having personally experimented with a Long Duration Isolation protocol, that performance of the methodology is, in fact, brutal.  Was I a better athlete for having performed the methodology?  Hard to tell.  To be honest, though, I didn’t perform this methodology in a vacuum, nor did I keep to it for long (it’s boring as all hell for one thing).  I can report that I didn’t loose anything, though, with my strength, power and speed having not slipped any that I could tell.

Schroeder contends that a muscle in isolation is not static, but is actually in a rapid fire/release pattern, and that it’s precisely the fast-twitch fibers that are targeted during the set.  Now it’s difficult to tell (because Schroeder never lets on, and, to be frank, he’s a bit evasive) whether he means from the get-go, or after the slow-twitch fibers have dropped out.  In either case, I do think that there is at least some overlap between these two methodologies that I’d love to see explored.

My next find is a book by the publishers of Scientific American titled, Building the Elite Athlete.   The book is actually a collection of past articles, but still, it’s an intriguing read.  I found the couple of articles on gene doping especially interesting.  And by the way, you can pick up used copies of this book cheap — I don’t think I paid more than 5 bucks for mine, postage included.  It’s a 5 bucks well spent.

In health,

Keith

“There is no great genius without a tincture of madness.”

- Seneca

I’ve been under the hyper-crunch of an impending project deadline, and working so damn much lately, that this year’s summer solstice nearly passed me by, completely unnoticed.  That’s not like me, as I’m apt to wax Pagan come solstice and equinox time.  One thing I have noticed though — and this happens every year — that more and more of my workouts are occurring outdoors.  Sprints (both of the running and biking variety), bodyweight exercises, and outdoor kettlebell routines (for example) are showing up at a greater frequency in my workout journal.  And it just makes sense, huh?  Warmer and longer-lasting days bring that out in all of us.  This is, of course, a good and very Paleo occurrence.  Relatively few and far between now are the very heavy, strength-oriented loadings that tend to dominate my dead-of-winter (and mostly indoor) weight routines.  The speed-strength end of the weight spectrum dominates what indoor sessions I do perform time of year — sessions that might occur as few as once/week.  As an example of this, consider the last indoor session I managed to squeeze in prior to one of my (all to frequently now) long and drawn-out work days:

1. Low Pulls x 4
2. Bradford Press x 6
3. Bodyweight, ballistic Pull-ups x 6

I performed 5 rounds of this complex, with an emphasis on single-event power production.  I emphasize single event here because I’ve found that some folks confuse overall workout completion speed with single rep. speed with an eye toward power production.  Two different animals here, with the latter leaning more toward that of an Oly lift format, and the former being indicative of a Crossfit-style workout.  Another way to think of this is that if I were performing this workout in a Crossfit-style manner, I’d do so with an eye toward maximizing a longer-duration power output — attempting to finish the workout in, say, 10 minutes or so.  Of course, this would necessitate dropping the poundages used and radically reducing the between rep. and between exercise rest periods.  Same workout components with a totally different set of performance guidelines and expected results.  And neither of these modalities is any “better” than the other; about the only thing that can be said is one might be better when considered in light of what your goals happen to be.

Anyway, if you’re north of the equator, get out and enjoy the summer weather while you can.  And get in some extra outdoor time for me while you’re at it, as I may end up resembling a pink-eyed lab rat by September with the way my work is going.  Such is life.  Oh well, this too shall pass, right?  Just more opportunity to adapt and overcome.  By the way, there’s just something about sprinting in the dead of night that accentuates the activity’s “primalness”.

In Health,

Keith