200 Pounds is 200 Pounds

Recover and Grow

2012-01-31T04:34:00.000-08:00

I believeI’m paraphrasing Mark Rippetoe when I say that you do not get bigger andstronger by lifting weights. You getbigger and stronger by recovering from lifting weights. The average trainee seeking size and strengthwill spend anywhere from 3-8 hours per week doing the work in the gym to achievetheir goals. But it’s the 160-165 hoursoutside of the gym that can make or break even the best written trainingprogram. Without recovery there is noprogress. If you’ve put in smart work inthe gym you come back just a bit stronger and bigger than you were lasttime. These effects aren’t noticeablefrom one training session to the next, but the cumulative effects can be seenwhen looked at through the lens of time. Here are some recovery methods that can help speed up your recovery soyou can train harder for longer and reach your goals or bust through plateausquicker.

Myofascial Release.

Or rollingout, or foam rolling, or whatever you want to call it. If you’re not doing it you should be. The products necessary for myfascial releaseare extremely inexpensive. All youreally need are three tennis or lacrosse balls and an 18” section of 4” pvcpipe with or without some foam padding taped to the outside. The techniques are all over the internet butsome of the big ones to focus on are the iliotibial bands, ankles/calves,quads/hip flexors, upper back, and pectorals.

Myofascialrelease does just what its name implies. It releases the fascia surrounding your muscles. Fascia is a thin filament that surrounds allyour muscles and essentially connects everything to everything else. Think of it like a balloon surroundingair. When you compress one section theother sections are put under pressure to accommodate the decrease in area. Myofascial release relieves these pressurepoints and decreases the overall pressure back to normal.

It is also agreat way to start and end a workout due to the increase in blood flow to themuscles.

Contrast Showers/ Cold Baths

The scienceinvestigating the efficacy of contrast showers and cold tubs is inconsistent. Some say there is no physiological benefitsto temperature change in regards to decreasing recovery time in muscles. But the anecdotal evidence can’t be ignored. Many athletes will report that cold tubs andcontrast baths help them recover to a greater degree than nothing. This may be a case of the placebo effect inaction, but the placebo effect can be a powerful thing.

Food

If you don’teat, you don’t recover. All nutrientsare required for this. Fats,carbohydrates, and proteins all play a significant role in the repair of bodilytissues after a training session. Protein is important in that it is made up of amino acids which are thebuilding blocks to new muscle. Proteinsare also the building blocks to many of the hormones that drive cell repairwithin the body.

Fats areneeded for cell repair since most cell membranes are made up of lipids. Fats also play a significant role in hormonalfunction and vitamin absorption.

The fish looks depressed.

Many believethat post-workout carbs are needed for the insulin response which drives aminoacids into the muscle. While insulindoes do this it also does other things that promote protein synthesis. What insulin does is to keep the proteinsynthesis (muscle building/repair) window open for longer.

Proteins areneeded for the amino acids they provide which are the building blocks of newmuscle. Proteins also make up your skin,hair, nails, many hormones, and are vital to your immune system.

Water

When you gothrough a tough training session you break tissues down. When they are broken down they are then builtback up. All of this creates wasteproducts that need to be flushed from the body. Having enough and sometimes more than enough is a great way to helpflush these waste products out of your tissues. As was stated in the walking section excess fluid and inflammation cancause pain. Forcing your body to getthose fluids and waste products moving out of your body by drinking a lot ofwater is a great way to reduce that inflammation.

A hydratedmuscle cell is also a requirement to building new muscle. No water, no new muscle.

Walking

Walking andany kind of light cardio is great for recovery due to the blood flow that itstimulates. With blood flow comesnutrients needed for repair and a conduit for the removal of waste andinflammation. There is evidence tosuggest that some of the pain associated with soreness is due to swelling andinflammation that pushes on nerve ending causing them to send a pain signal tothe brain. Walking/light cardio is agreat way to help flush the muscles and get excess fluid moving out of them.

Sleep

Besides foodfor obvious reasons getting more sleep is the most important on this list. If you do only one thing on this list make itbe getting more and better quality sleep. 7-9 hours per night with as much of that coming before midnight aspossible will help you repair and recover and help keep your body’s naturalrhythm of hormone release right where it should be.

Make surethe room you sleep in is as dark as possible and is a cool temperature.

Massage

Getting amassage is like rolling out on warp drive. Massages help release trigger points, break up adhesions where themuscle is actually sticking to the bone, release toxins from your system. Manypeople will feel sick after a particularly vigorous massage. That’s the toxins. Drink lots of water to help flush them out.

Stress Management

Stress andits signature hormone, cortisol, are big hindrances to recovery and ultimatelyimprovement. In some cases you wantcortisol and other stress hormones to be released but for those who haveconstant stress there is a constant supply of cortisol release. Having elevated cortisol raises bloodpressure, kills testosterone production, affects sleep, and long story shortmakes you very good at putting on fat and losing mouscle.

There aremany stress management techniques out there and it may take some trial anderror to find what works best for you but it will definitely go a long way tohelping improve recovery and ultimately performance.

Deloading

Deloading insome strength circles is a four letter word. In others it is the majority of the program with no one really pushingthemselves. The key is balance. I feel it is beneficial to take a break frompushing yourself every now and again. The “now and again” is important because it requires you to listen toyour body. I feel planned deloads every4 weeks are overkill. If I’m feelinggood I don’t want to pull back. Butsometimes after a few months of heavy training I’m beat up and need a break. So I take one. I don’t plan a deload, my body basicallytells me when to take one.

Deloadingcan take many different forms. Somepeople avoid the gym altogether while others maintain the routine of showing upand just do some light work and leave. My feeling is that during a deload you should stick to your trainingplan but just drop your intensity and volume. It is also a great time to really hammer away on mobility issues andsoft tissue work since that is probably the crux of why you need a deload.

But like Isaid, listen to your body. Don’t take adeload just because you’re having a bad day. Everybody has those. A string ofbad workouts in a row would be a better justification to take a rest. I’m also not a fan of the fixed timedeload. Some people need two weeks,others need two days away from the gym and they are back to where they need tobe to hoist some iron. This is going tosound like a broken record, but seriously, listen to your body.

Summary

One caveat to all of these recovery methods...If you're not putting in the work and busting ass in the gym then stop worrying about recovery. You have to put in the work to get anything out of these.

Finding theright method of recovery is more of an art than a science. Start with the big picture methods likegetting more and better sleep, cleaning up your diet, drinking more water andremoving stress. After you get those down start adding in the other ones. Some of the methods on the list work for somebut not others. Give each one a fairshake and if it doesn’t work move on.

I would not try to do all of them at once. If you do that you never really know what isworking and what isn’t. Then you arestuck in a recovery routine that takes up more of your day than training. And we all know lifting heavy things is waymore fun than recovery work, unless your recovery work is frequent massage by abuxom Swedish masseuse. If that’s thecase, recover away.

Training Update and Random Thoughts

2012-01-27T13:05:00.000-08:00

To keep this short and sweet I'm only going to give you the major points from each day of training. To paraphrase my friend Tim in the food line in college, "I'm just giving you the meatballs."

Monday
Strict Overhead Press:
150x5

Wednesday
Clean High Pull:
264x3, 264x five singles

Friday
Squat: 365x5
RDL: 286x6x3

For being deep into the diet and now weighing what I weighed my freshman year of high school I'm pretty happy with how this week went. Many people will assume strength will plummet on a diet. It will if you don't do it correctly. Doing a diet correctly basically entails eating enough protein to maintain your muscle mass and losing the weight slowly. Quick weight loss diets usually emphasize drastically cutting calories and lot's of cardiovascular work. That is definitely not me.

There is one more week to go on the diet and this is how I'm feeling about it:

Once the diet is over I'll be switching back into mass gain mode. I'm not going to do what I've done in the past though and just start indiscriminately shoveling calories down my throat. I'm going to be taking my time with it. It's the flip side of rapid fat loss leading to muscle loss. Rapid weight gain, even with hard training, leads to fat gain. I'm going to try to maintain as low a body fat as possible. If I feel like it's creeping up a bit too much I'll readjust. Same as always.

I'm also going to continue with the Intermittent Fasting. I want to see how it works with mass gain. Hopefully it will help me maintain relatively the same leanness. If I take my time and don't get too lazy with the diet it should.

I just finished reading Michael Lewis' Boomerang. It's about all of the factors that led to the global market crisis we are currently digging our way out of. It basically boils down to a few people (mostly bankers and credit lenders) gaining access to lots of easy credit and borrowing a lot of money they couldn't pay back. If you have any interest in the markets or finances I'd definitely recommend it. Even if you have zero experience (me) with complex money situations it's still a good read as Lewis makes the material accessible to just about everyone.

On top of doing the clean high pulls I also did some acceleration sprints. These made me sore from my glutes to my calves since it has been a long while since I've done them. Excited to see what kind of progress I can make with them.

That's it for now. Working tomorrow morning and then some treadmill incline sprints. Can't wait.

9 Tips To Help Erase Back Pain

2012-01-24T07:46:00.000-08:00

The statistics on back pain are pretty surprising. On any given day it is estimated that 31 million people will deal with the symptoms of back pain. The American Chiropractic Association estimates that four out of five people will report back pain issues to a health care provider at some point in their lifetime. Hopefully, with these tips you'll get pain-free and stay pain-free

STRETCH YOUR HIP FLEXORS- The hip flexors are a group of muscleslocated along the front side of your hips just below your abdomen. Their job is to bring the knees towards thechest and/or the chest to the knees. Since many Americans spend a large portion of their day sitting thesemuscles become extremely tight over time leading to what is called an anteriortilt. This is where the pelvis is tiltedforward. When the pelvis is tiltedforward you will have what is called a lordotic curve. Think of a lordotic curve as always beingbent backwards a little bit. This curveputs a lot of pressure on the structures (muscles, nerves, vertebral discs,supporting ligaments, etc.) of the low back and will lead to back pain over time. Consistent rolling out and stretching willhelp reduce this. Also, standing more insituations where you would normally sit- such as when you are at your desk/work station- will help prevent this.

STRENGTHEN YOUR GLUTES- This is the other side of the coin to#1. When you simultaneously open up yourhip flexors and strengthen your glutes you will get a synergistic effect. In fact, doing one without the other will notbe anywhere near as effective as doing both. Some great exercises include glute bridges, RDLs, and reverse lunges.

ROLL OUT YOUR PIRIFORMIS- Your piriformis is a muscle that sitsacross the upper and somewhat outside of your glute complex. The piriformis also happens to sit across thesciatic nerve. When the piriformis isirritated or tight it will cause irritation in the sciatic nerve which willsend pain signals through your low back and occasionally down your leg.

STOP DOING SPINAL FLEXION AB EXERCISES- Remember when the lordoticcurve of #1 led to stress through the spinal column? This is the same thing, just in the otherdirection. Spinal flexion exercisesinclude crunches and stability ball crunches.

PERFORM ANTI-ROTATIONAL ABDOMINAL MOVEMENTS- Your back is designedto be stable and resist movement while your limbs move freely. In many people this is backwards where thehip and shoulder joints are extremely tight and as a result they compensate byusing their low backs for movement. Totighten up those abdominals and thusly, your back, you’ll want to performexercises that resist movement. Theseinclude (but are certainly not limited to) planks, pallof presses, bird dogseries, V-sits and rope chops.

STRENGTHEN YOUR UPPER BACK- People with weak upper backs oftendevelop what is called kyphosis. This iswhen your shoulders are rolled forward and you have a rounding of the upperback, AKA slouching. This slouchingposture places stress on the musculature of the lower back, specifically thequadratus lumborum, or QL.

SLEEP ON YOUR BACK- Sleeping on your back takes pressure off ofyour spine, especially if you tend to sleep on your stomach. To help maintain the normal curvature of yourback place a small pillow underneath you knees. If you sleep on your side a pillow between your knees with prevent yourtop leg from sliding forward and twisting your lower spine.

LOSE YOUR GUT- This is the one that no one really wants to admitto. But if you are carrying extraweight, especially around your midsection, you are very susceptible to backpain. The extra weight will pull your lowerspine forward and cause painful compression of the vertebral discs due to theeffects of gravity. Losing and thenmaintaining a healthy weight will help alleviate this.

Training Update

2012-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day back from my deload. It felt good to know that I had some heavy stuff planned and didn't have to take it easy. My next twelve weeks I've got planned out. The program that I'm going to do incorporates heavy strength days, moderate repetition days, some Olympic style weightlifting, conditioning, and something that has been missing from my training for a while, sprints/moving like an athlete.

I've been putting all of my training eggs into the lifting basket for a while now that it's time I up my conditioning and movement training. Like all things I'm going to ease into it with medicine ball work, jumps, and basic movement progressions. I'll also have a day where all I do is conditioning work like hill sprints, prowler sprints, sled sprints and things of that nature.

Since I'll be doing something just about everyday I'm going to just throw out an end of the week training update instead of a bunch of small posts throughout the week. During the week I'll try to roll out 1-2 new articles instead. Some will be motivational, some will be technical, and some will focus on different exercises I'm trying. All will be stimulating to the highest degree.

In any case, here is what I did today:

Strict Fat Bar Press:
115x5
135x5
150x5
135x5
120x 3 sets of 5

Single Arm Row:
100x 2 sets of 10
110x 2 sets of 10
120x10

Wall Walk Up with a Press:
15 total reps

Fat Bar Single Arm Curls:
3 sets of 8
w/
Band Pull Aparts:
3 sets of 25

First article of the week coming tomorrow.

The Week So Far

2012-01-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

I've been deloading pretty good this week. Really hammering away on mobility issues namely my quads, hip flexors and TFLs. My back has been jazzed up lately and is still giving me some static but it feels OK right now. I attempted to do some heavier stuff today. The back held up fine. I just need to be conscious of it and give it time to heal up.

Safety Squat Bar: up to 275x1, 185x5x3

Front Lever Tuck Holds

Dip Bar Holds

Wall Walk Up and Overs x 5

Rather than me explain it, here's a video. Sorry about it being sideways. Not used to taking video with my phone.

Going to do some more mobility stuff this weekend. Hope everyone has a good one!

Internet Thievery

2012-01-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

Last week I ordered some new shoes from Zappos.com. I got some Asics Onitsuka Tigers to be exact. Decent shoe, for the most part flat heel, nothing too fancy. This morning I was perusing my Twitter timeline and one of the news feeds I follow lets me know that lo and behold Zappos.com customer data was hacked and 24 million accounts had been compromised. Needless to say I'll be watching my credit card balance like a hawk.

I've touched on this topic before but I'm going to rant again. I have zero tolerance for thieves. I'm not even too keen on dressed up foxes stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.

Douche.

The most cowardly form of thievery has to be internet thievery. To sit behind a computer and steal someone else's credit card numbers and then use those cards to buy stretch pants to fit their 350 lb fat asses at Wal-Mart is an act that needs to be punished. And I think I know just what that punishment should be.

I'm proposing a very Old World solution to a New World problem. If you get caught hacking or buying credit card info you should get your hands chopped off. Simple as that. I'd like to see some fucking nerd with a neck beard and a Zelda t-shirt try to press ctrl+alt+F5 without any fingers. No more tappity-tap for the self-proclaimed "world's best hacker". Nope, you just sentenced yourself to a lifetime of typing with a pencil in your mouth and not being able to shovel Flamin' Hot Cheetos down your throat.

But that will never happen. We've grown soft as a society when prisoners and criminals live better than half the free population. Go to jail and live comfortably off the government's endless bank account. We could save a lot of time and a lot of money and I'm sure some cavalier, young scientist can figure out some way to put all those extra hands to good use. What do you think?

Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable

2012-01-16T07:43:00.000-08:00

“Get comfortable being uncomfortable”is one of those catchy, turn-on-itself phrases that speaks volumes to a lot of people with a minimum of words. Sort of like, “The only thing we have to fearis fear itself.” Get comfortable beinguncomfortable was probably first uttered by some Navy SEAL drill instructor tosome SEAL recruits that were entering their third hour in 50 degree oceanwater. I’m sure he called them maggotsat some point too.

I can safely say I would not enjoy this. Source: MSNBC

I had thought I was possibly to firstto bring it to the strength and conditioning world while working with a clientthis past year. But when I was readingthrough Zach Even-Esh’s blog a few months later I came across a few articles onthe exact same subject, the first of which I think had been written in early 2010. No matter. Here is my take on the issue and how I came to discover this guidingprinciple.

As strength and conditioning coacheswe all know not every client “gets it.” That is, they don’t understand that in order to achieve any of the goalsthat they have set out for themselves they are going to have to work. And get sweaty. And sore. And dirty. It’s a simple fact oflife in the strength world and goes back to the old saying, “To get somethingyou don’t have you have to do something you haven’t done.” And for many people that means pushingthemselves beyond what they thought themselves capable. It means being OK with your heart rate at orabove its hypothetical maximum. It meansbeing OK with having fire in your lungs from Prowler sprints. It means inwardly being afraid to getunderneath a bar and squat it but outwardly displaying confidence and a steelreserve. And it means getting under saidbar and lifting the weight you previously thought yourself incapable of lifting.

Mark was a client that was not OKwith any of those things. He had somepretty lofty goals and it was going to take an extraordinary amount of workjust to get him in the ball park of where he wanted to be. He was totally detrained and had never playedcompetitive sports in his life. He wouldget winded and asked for water breaks DURING THE WARMUP. He refused to take less than two minute restperiods in between all sets of lifts. Movement work consisted mostly of him needing a minute to catch hisbreath. He would consistently misstraining sessions all together. He evensigned up with our nutritionist but wouldn’t eat what she had laid out for him. Many times we sat him down and spelled outfor him exactly what he needed to fix in regards to his attitude and effort andhe just couldn’t or wouldn’t change. Andthen, to boot, he would trash the training and eating principles that herefused to follow as the reason he wasn’t getting better. But that’s not the point of the article. The point is that he was starting fromabsolutely zero. The bar for improvementwas incredibly low. The bar for where hewanted to be was miles above it.

Many times when we would be workingtogether he’d ask questions like, “Do you think I can do it (achieve the goalshe had in mind)?” or “Do you think it’s my cardio that’s lacking?” I would respond to the first by saying, “I’llnever say something is impossible but unless you turn it around, it is going tobe very improbable.” It was the secondquestion where I stumbled upon the concept of Getting Comfortable BeingUncomfortable. In fact, those wereessentially my exact words to him.

I could see plain as day what wascontinuously happening. Mark would gothrough his sessions and as soon as his heart rate rose and his breathingbecame a bit more labored and he could feel the burn in his muscles he shutdown. He thought that he had approached his limits and no amount ofencouragement would get him to push further. I stopped the session and said to him, “Mark, it’s not your cardiothat’s the problem. It’s your effort. The reason your cardio and work capacity suckis because you refuse to push yourself beyond your current limits. You have no concept of what it is to workhard for something. And unless you startlistening to us when we tell you to do something you never will. You have to GET COMFORTABLE BEINGUNCOMFORTABLE. I promise you only goodthings will happen when you push past your limits.”

Mark didn’t turn it around. Even though it’s frustrating to put effortinto someone only to have them not take advantage of it there are still thingsto be learned. On top of the concept ofgetting comfortable being uncomfortable I also realized that many aspects ofphysical fitness are simple concepts to grasp. You want to get stronger? Liftheavier. Gain or lose weight? Clean up your diet and then eat amounts thatjive with your goals. All are simple intheory but not easy in practice. And itcomes down to comfort.

Are youcomfortable lifting beyond your current strength levels?

Are you comfortable being hungry for someparts of the day to lose body fat?

Areyou comfortable lifting and eating more volume than you thought you could togain muscular body weight?

Are you comfortable embracing THE PROCESS and taking it one training session at a time and one meal at a time?

This applies in life as well.

Are you comfortable doing something you hatelike public speaking or working 60 hours a week to get the job done?

Are you comfortable making the toughdecisions?

Are you comfortable with nottaking the easy way out?

Are you willingto GET COMFORTABLE BEING UNCOMFORTABLE?

Diet Update and Confessions Of a Former Fat Boy

2012-01-11T03:36:00.000-08:00

Here is what my diet looks like on a daily basis. Every few days I have a high carbohydrate day and drop the fat as much as possible. In the next week or so I'll probably start cutting some protein out as well.

Meal 1: Preworkout and 10g BCAA (branch chain amino acids)
(workout)
Meal 2: 2 scoops protein, 10g BCAA, Apple, Orange

Meal 3: 2 whole eggs, 6 egg whites, handful of bell peppers

Meal 4: 1 chicken quarter (thigh and leg, skin removed), 5 oz. sirloin steak

Meal 5: 12 oz. chicken breast, 2 cups steamed broccoli

With the intermittent fast all the meals are eaten within a 6-8 hour window. I'm liking this as it's keeping me full for a while and let's me get on with my day.

While the before picture on the left isn't a true before picture, it gives you a good idea of where I started. About 13% body fat on the left. If I had to guess I'm probably in the 8-9% range on the right.

With this diet I can safely say that right now I am at the leanest I've ever been in my life. People at work have noticed and have said positive things and I appreciate them all. Despite that I've always got this chip on my shoulder. No matter how many times I see myself in the mirror I still feel like the fat, young kid that I was. Let me explain. This is not an eating disorder kind of thing. There is no way in hell I will ever develop an eating disorder. I like food too much.

Maybe saying I feel like that kid was wrong. I should say I still remember what it was like to feel like him. I was always over weight as a kid. Even when I was little I was usually off the height and weight charts at the doctors office. As I got older the height leveled off but I was still usually one of the heaviest kids in my class. A few memories from my childhood...

Being the kid that wore his shirt in the swimming pool and being laughed at when I didn't.

Asking my sister if she thought I was fat.

My very well meaning mother, trying as delicately as she could, to tell me different foods to eat to lose weight.

Hating looking at pictures of myself because I hated my chubby cheeks.

Praying to God to make me skinny before we went on the class field trip to the swimming pool.

Agreeing with one of the other chubby kids in class that the Presidential Fitness Test was just to embarrass us in front of everybody.

Getting a personal low of 2 seconds in the flexed arm hang.

I'm sure there are more but these ones stick out the most.

The reason that I'm telling you this is that I'll always have that chip on my shoulder. I'll always have that burning desire to never go back to what I was. I'll always have that whiny fat kid whispering in my ear, "Yes, that's it. Eat the cupcake. Come join us and be fat and happy." No thanks, fatty. I'm good right here.

Monday

2012-01-09T14:56:00.000-08:00

Squat:
up to 315x5
275x5
225x5x5

Bulgarian Split Squats:
4x8 each leg

Reverse Hypers
4x10

Hanging Leg Raises:
15 total reps

Upper Body Body Weight Stuffs:
10 mins.

Stretching:
10 minutes

I've been reading a lot on body weight upper body work and experimenting with some things in my training. Adding in a few exercises here and there I think has really helped me retain a lot of my pressing strength as I've dieted down. Usually pressing strength is the first thing to drop off when losing fat. A lot of the stuff I've been trying is done statically. That is, I don't actually move. I just try to hold myself in place for as long as I can. I think this has given me a good amount of CNS improvement which will carry over in the form of more efficient motor unit recruitment. This essentially means I've gotten stronger with what I've already got. I haven't really added any new muscle per se, just made the muscle that I do have stronger.

Training: Last Few

2012-01-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

Tuesday

Fat Bar Bench:

135x5

185x8

205x5

225x5

205x5

185x5x8

Handstand Push Ups:

4 sets of 3

Pull Ups:

4 sets of 7

Single Arm Fat Bar Curls:

3 sets of 8

Wednesday

Lots of mobility and ab work.

Thursday

Trap Bar:

154x5

264x5

352x5

418x5

308x5x5

Bulgarian Split Squats:

4 sets of 8 each leg

Reverse and Regular Grip Fat Bar Curls:

3 sets of 8-Reverse

5 sets of 5-Regular

Sled Sprints:

30 yardsx6

The back and more specifically the prirformis muscles continue to be tight and give me a little pain. Nothing too serious just need to focus on keeping my belly tight and not letting the weight pull me out of position. The diet has been going good and I'm consistently in the high 190's. There's about four weeks left and I hope to be about 6-7 pounds lighter than I am now. That should put me in pretty good position to win. I'm definitely feeling a little more run down and tired than normal, but that comes with the territory of being at a new lighter weight. Getting lean is hard, hard work and takes sacrifice. And if anyone tries to tell you otherwise they are trying to sell you something.

Intermittent Fasting: A Few Talking Points

2012-01-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

Intermittent fasting (IF) has become a popular subject inthe nutrition world within the last few years. In fact, some of the biggest names in the strength and physique trainingfields have been trumpeting its benefits for a while. These include Martin Berkhan(website), JasonFerruggia (website) and John Romaniello (website). The main reason for this is not only becauseof its outstanding results and ease of use but because it has challenged a lotof long held “truths” of the fitness industry. The biggest “truths” it has challenged have to do with meal frequency,meal timing and total metabolism.

Intermittentfasting is alternating periods of not eating (fasting) with periods ofeating. Most forms of intermittentfasting have the fast range in time from 16 to 36 hours. Usually the longer the fast the less frequentthe fasting periods. For example if youchose to fast for 16 hours and have an 8 hour eating window you could do thisevery day (which I have been doing). Onthe flip side of that, if you fast for 24 hours or longer you would only do it1-2 times every 7-10 days.

Thereasons more and more people are gravitating towards IF are both physiologicaland psychological. When you chose tofast for 24 hours twice per week you are eliminating two days’ worth of eatingand therefore eating less total calories. If you have only a six hour window to get your daily calories in you willoften feel fuller for longer. When youeat smaller meals throughout the day you may never get that “full” feelingwhich is important for some people mental states when trying to lose weight.

Whengoing for longer periods of time without eating you are forcing your body torely on other forms of energy other than the food you take in. This means it will more rapidly break downfat stores and damaged proteins for use as energy sources. The fat break down is what we are going forbut the protein break down? Really? You want that?

Everyday our bodies go through cellular break down and regeneration and our musclecells are no different. Damaged or oldproteins get broken down and new proteins are built back in their place. Think of it like a herd of waterbuffalo. Through the natural order ofnature the old and weak buffalo either drop off and die when food and water getscarce or are the first ones targeted when a lion is on the hunt. It may be sad to think about but it makes theherd stronger as a whole since the young calves don’t have to compete with theold and weak and can take their place in the herd. When we limit nutrient intake and force thebody to turn to these old proteins we keep our cells young and healthy sincenewer and stronger proteins are built back with the nutrients you take in oncethe fast is over.

Old, weak proteins making way for newer, stronger ones. The cycle of life.

Thisbrings me to my next point: insulin sensitivity and breakfast. Without going into a long scientificdiscussion, you want to be insulin sensitive. The more insulin sensitive you are the better. Breakfast has long been heralded as the mostimportant meal of the day. And studieshave shown that we are insulin sensitive in the morning and should takeadvantage of this by eating a big, carbohydrate-filled breakfast. They also say that you will probably pass outand die if you don’t eat breakfast due to a being hypoglycemic. This is a bit misleading. We aren’t insulin sensitive because it’smorning. We are insulin sensitivebecause we’ve just fasted for 8-10 hours. The time of day has nothing to do with it. Thereis nothing inherently wrong with skipping breakfast as long as total calories are sufficient.

Mostproponents of IF skip breakfast every single day and most train in a fastedstate. Training in a fasted statefurther increases insulin sensitivity which will make your post workoutcarbohydrates that much more effective once you do eat. And since you will be more sensitive to theinsulin that the carbohydrates cause to be released you will probably need lessof them leading to fewer calories consumed overall.

Thisnext point is going to go against what a lot of you believe and it flew rightin the face of something that I had been doing for years. Yourmetabolism is NOT dependent on how many meals you eat. That’s right; meal frequency has absolutelyno bearing on how many calories you burn in a day. The thought behind the whole “eat six smallmeals through the day” theory was that your metabolism is elevated every timeyou eat. Therefore the more frequentyour feeds the more elevated your metabolism. That’s not the whole truth. Thetruth is that as long as total calories stay the same your metabolism will staythe same whether you eat one meal or ten. I like to use this example:

You’vejust opened a bank account that gives you ten percent interest on every deposit you make. One person deposits one dollar every day forthirty days. Another makes one thirtydollar deposit at the end of the month. Each person ends up with thirty dollars deposited and three dollarsearned in interest at the end of the month. Same thing goes with your metabolism. The increase in your metabolism is dependent on the amount of caloriesyou take in. So at the end of the day ifyour calories are the same so too will be the increase in metabolic rate. This was a concept that was hard for me tolet go. It was something that I believedin and something that I had told many clients. Don’t get me wrong, eating six meals a day isn’t wrong or bad, it justdoesn’t make a difference. For those ofyou sick of planning your entire day around your eating schedule the 2-3 mealsin a short window may be the way to go.

My cupboard looks even worse.

Thoseare the some of the major talking points on IF. There are a lot more benefits and limitations that are beyond the scopeof this article and a lot more research being done on its implications. I just wanted to pinpoint some of the reasonswhy I’m giving it a shot. IF is not foreveryone. For those seeking to gain leanmass but keep off fat it may be beneficial but will be slower moving due to theinability to eat sufficient calories for growth. But for those looking to lose weight and/ormaintain weight lost it may be a way to go not only from the physiologicalbenefits but from a practicality standpoint as well.

Weekend, Monday, and Some Thoughts

2012-01-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

This weekend I was all over the place. Up to Green Bay for my Mom's side family Christmas Celebration, down to Chicago to ring in the New Year with my girlfriend and her family, and then back to Stallis for some relaxing before the work week begins anew.

Here's how today's training broke down (literally)

Pin Squats (about a 1/3 squat so not very deep)
worked up to 485x1 and my back had enough

Barbell Split Squats:
3x8 each leg

45 degree Back Extensions:
3x10

Glute Ham Hypers:
4x12

The caloric deficit and my general laziness when it comes to recovery work is starting to take it's toll. The biggest culprit I don't feel is my training however. It's my sleep. Friday and Saturday night were horrible in terms of amount and quality due to varying reasons. Sleep is by far the most underrated recovery tool out there. 7-9 hours with as much of that coming before midnight as possible is the gold standard. Less than that and you start running into problems. And as I'm finding out right now it doesn't take more than a few days in a row to start seeing the negative side effects of a lack of sleep. So get to bed on time. It'll make a world of difference.

The diet has a little less than five weeks left to it. I'm going to be dropping my intensity over the coming weeks. With the drop in intensity will probably come a slight increase in volume and an increase in the volume of cardio work. I hate walking on the treadmill and 20-25 minutes at a pop is about I'll I can stand outside with the dog so I'll put a little more effort into the sprint column.

Speaking of the diet, I've been experimenting with Intermittent Fasting (IF) and have been liking the results so far. IF is essentially alternating periods of fasting and eating. I've been doing mostly 16/8 fast/eat ratios but have sometimes gone into the 18-19 range with the fast.

This weekend I knew I was going to cheat so I gave myself a four hour window on Friday night from 6-10 pm to eat and drink whatever I wanted. After 10pm it was just water until about 2pm the next day. There was no drop in energy (crappy night of sleep not withstanding) and some coffee took care of any hunger pangs. I stayed good the rest of the weekend and feel that I came back Monday a touch leaner but at about the same weight as I was on Thursday.

I'll have more info on this way of eating tomorrow but might become my standard way of eating in the future.

Until tomorrow, train hard.

Wednesday and Thursday

2011-12-30T05:15:00.000-08:00

Wednesday:

Snatch:
up to 198x1
208x 4 misses

Clean and Jerk (2 cleans, 1 jerk)
176x1
198x1
220x1
242x3

Snatch Grip Dead Lift to RDL:
242x 3 sets of five
I did a snatch grip dead lift then did and RDL at the top then returned the weight to the platform to begin anew. One rep = one dead lift and one RDL.

paired with

L-Sit Chins:
3x6

Thursday:

Chain Squat:
up to 315x3x2
Then did two sets of three paused with 225

Bulgarian Split Squats:
3x10 each leg
w/
Banded Glute Ham:
3x12

Weighted Glute Extensions
3x15
w/
Body Saw:
3x10

Two pretty good sessions in a row. I really wanted that 208 snatch. Just didn't have it on Wednesday. My lower back has been really taking a pounding lately. I may need to lighten my weights for a few days to let it heal up. I think my piriformis muscles are just tight and are pulling on my sciatic nerve. Nothing major, just need to be smart with it, like all things.

Tuesday

2011-12-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

Chain Bench:
205+30 lbs of chain x 8 sets of three
225+ chain x 1
245+ chain x 1
265+ chain x .99 (I'll explain)

Hand Stand Push Ups: BW x 8,6,4
w/
Pull Ups: BW x 8,8,8

Fat Bar Cheat Curls: x 8,8,12

Fat Gripz Rope Push Downs: 3x12

2" Rope Climbs: I'd guess about 25-30 feet to the top x 3

I think I'm starting to settle in to a more structured routine. It's going to look like this:

Monday: Heavy Lower
Tuesday: Upper
Wednesday: Olympic Lifts
Thursday: Speed focused Lower
Friday: Upper
Saturday: Body weight stuff, gun show, and auxiliary
Sunday: off

I'm going to play around with this set up for a bit and see how it goes. I'm sure some tweaks will need to be made here and there.

About that .99 lift during chain bench. Every lifter has experienced the feeling of grinding, grinding, grinding a lift and needing that 1% help from the spotter. The actual help that the spotter gives could probably be measured in ounces. If you haven't ever experienced this it is one of the more frustrating things in the strength world. To know that you were a half a pound away from completing the lift is like a kick to the nuts. You know that if you had it to do all over again you could change a thing or two and get the lift. But you can't give it another go because you just wasted all you energy and busted a few blood vessels trying to get that last one. Oh well. Live, learn, keep moving forward.

The New Year's Resolution Solution

2011-12-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

Every yearit’s the same old thing. It’s been goingon for generations. New Year’s Daystarts getting closer and everyone gets a shot of confidence that this year isgoing to be the year. They’re going tomake some big changes in their lives. They are going to lose weight, save money, build better relationships,get ahead in life and the list goes on. We all know them and many of us have been that person. They start out with a bang and three or fourweeks later they end with not so much as a whimper. They just fall back into their usualcomfortable routine.

Don’t get mewrong, I respect people for taking a shot to better their lives, but if you aregoing to wait for a certain day chances are you aren’t too serious about itsundertaking. Big significant changesrequire a lot of things. Commitment,consistency, and resiliency (maybe the biggest factor and I’ll get to that in abit) are chief among them. But using anarbitrary day like New Year’s as an artificial tipping point is a recipe fordisaster. If you want to do something,do it. Do it now. Not tomorrow. Not in 2012. Now.

And don’tgive yourself the option of failure. There has to be consequences for quitting. If you only tell yourself that you are goingto lose 20 pounds and don’t what was lost personally? Nothing. You failed your goal but only in your eyes. And human beings are pretty good atself-delusion so chances are there will be a multitude of reasons why it wasimpossible for you to succeed. Ifyou’re going to do something tell people you are going to do it and make themhold you accountable. Don’t let them letyou by on bullshit excuses.

If you sayyou want to do something and don’t do it, you really never wanted to do it.

If you’rereading this article the day it’s published and you have a New Year’sresolution why wait? The world is outthere. And it sure as hell isn’t goingto wait for you. Nor does it care aboutwhat day it is. If you want something,take it. Don’t wait for it to be givento you because it’s not going to happen.

AbrahamLincoln said, “Good things come to those who wait, but only the things that areleft behind by the people who hustle.”

The scroll says, "Seize the day bitches!" source: sharpwriter

You can sitthere for four more days and hope that the pounds fall off, or that moneymagically lands in your bank account. Oryou can go out and hustle and makethose things happen. Write out yourgoals and do something every day to realize those goals. And if you have a bump in the road the lastthing you should do is fall off and give up.

Resiliency Ifeel is becoming more and more scarce these days. I could, and more than likely will, write anarticle on this one factor but I just want to get this out there:

SHITHAPPENS.

And ithappens to those with the best of intentions. Business ideas don’t pan out, you have a moment of weakness and bingeeat, your car breaks down and have to use your savings to get a car to get towork. That stuff happens. But it’s those that have the most resiliencyto know that having problems in the short term doesn’t mean all is lost in thelong term.

This iswhere a lot of people fail. Theyexperience a setback and they can’t throw in the towel fast enough. Setbacks happen and they happen a lot. But there are two types of people when itcomes to setbacks: those that pack it in and quit, and those that learn fromthe setback and are better for it. Inthe words of the wise sage Mike Tyson, “Everyone has a plan until they gethit.” But getting hit should only be aninvitation and motivation to keep moving forward. You get hit but you learn how to avoid it andother hits like it in the future.

What's your plan for when you get hit?

Tosummarize.

1. Pick Your Goal- Pick your goal andlook at it every day. Make it specificas possible. Losing weight is not specific. Being at 10% body fat by August 1^stis specific. Let it sink into you untilyour pursuit of it becomes a part of everything you do and a little bit of whoyou are.

2. Start Now- Don’t wait for a randomday. Don’t even wait for tomorrow. Dosomething right now that will carry you towards your success. Even if all you do is define what your ownsuccess looks like.

3. Be Held Accountable- Don’t let yourselffall into the same old rutted routine. Make there be consequences for failure. Could something like if you don’t do what you wanted to do you have todonate money to a charity. But there hasto be a punishment for quitting.

4. Be Resilient- You are going to slipup. That’s a given. You are going to make mistakes. No one is perfect. You are going to find that your journey ishard, and maybe the hardest thing you’ve ever done. If it was easy everyone would do it. Concede the small battle but keep winning thewar.

There’s yourmission. You only have so many hoursleft to shuffle around in this mortal coil. Don’t waste a single one.

The Day After

2011-12-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

Clean Pulls
292x2 singles
198x3x2 from the hang

Bottom Up Squats
Up to 405x1

Squat Supports:
600 x 10 singles

I then ran around the block as fast as possible. Yikes.

My motivation for today's garage gym was that I put it in my head that I binged this weekend and needed to work it off. Christmas is in all regards National Cheat Day wherein the average person eats 4000-6000 calories during the festivities. And that's just Christmas Day. Many people have multiple celebrations over the few weeks before and after the actual holiday. In any case I was somewhat of a party pooper.

If I had to guess I'd say I stuck to my diet about 90% of the time. I had a few cocktails and a few unplanned meals but didn't stray too far from what I normally ate.

This isn't really a good or bad thing. If I wasn't doing this diet competition then all bets would have been off and I would be in a cookie coma right now. One story kind of illustrates my mentality on the whole thing:

A little background. The winner of the diet challenge gets to chose the food that Lance and I are going to eat for our Super Bowl get together. The loser is going to buy. My girlfriend's three year-old son was picking at a gingerbread house and eating some of the candies and gum drops off of it. He was kind enough to share one of the gum drops with me. Once he walked into the other room I went to throw it away. My girlfriend's mom then said, "Jeez you can't even eat a gum drop?" I replied, "The way I see it is that could be a $100 dollar gum drop right there. I'd much rather win than eat the gum drop."

I'm extremely thankful that everyone that knows that I'm doing this is very understanding and supportive. I don't have cravings so being around food isn't a problem. I just don't want to offend anyone by not eating what they have prepared. But luckily it hasn't been an issue.

The moral of the story is that it is possible to diet during the holiday's. At the very least it's possible to maintain where you are at without gaining extra weight. It just takes discipline. A good support system always is a big help too.

Tomorrow I'm going to lay down some TRUTH about New Year's Resolutions. To be blunt: I'm not a fan.

Hope everyone has had a happy and safe holiday season with one left to go.

Holiday BEAST Mode

2011-12-24T07:09:00.000-08:00

At 8 am this morning I decided to crank out a nice little garage workout. Here's how it went down.

5 rounds of:
Power Clean: 176x3
w/
Seated Pin Press: 185x3

3 rounds of:
Split Squatsx10
w/
Bent Rowsx8

I then re-installed the bed box on my truck. All told it took me about 25 minutes. Oh yeah, it's 20 degrees right now.

The satisfaction of being done only comes to those who have done something. Do something. And Happy Holidays from 200 Pounds Is 200 Pounds.

Thursday and Friday

2011-12-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

Thursday:

Snatch:
up to 198x1

Clean and Jerk:
up to 242x1, cleaned 264 but missed the jerk

Friday:

Squat:
315x 3 singles
365x 3 singles
405x 3 singles

Fat Bar Bench:
255x1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3

Last two days have been pretty good training wise. I can tell that my ability to recover is a bit diminished with the lower calories. All about playing it smart and keeping my eyes on the main goal. I sometimes feel like the rules don't apply to me and it usually bites me in the ass. Not this time. Playing it smart and going to keep progressing.

Monday and Wednesday

2011-12-21T18:40:00.000-08:00

Monday:

Band Resisted Squat:

up to 405x1

Fat Bar Bench:

265x10 singles

Wednesday:

Fat Bar Overhead Press:

up to 185x1, the 135x5x5

Front Squat:

225x5x2

Pendlay Row:

154x6x3

242x3x3

I was having a discussion with a client the other day who always says that his left side- particularly in his upper body- is underdeveloped compared to the right. I have the same thing except the two sides are switched. I was thinking about this a few weeks ago and wondered to myself if it had anything to do with the fact that when I was a freshman in college I got a nasty stinger on my right side. I had no idea what happened and didn't want to be a wuss and stop practicing so I just babied my right arm through the rest of practice.

If you're unaware of what a stinger is it's essentially a stretching or pinching of the bundle of nerves (brachial plexus) that supply the arm. The initial symptoms such as stinging, pain, and weakness usually go away pretty quickly. I'm just wondering if perhaps there is more long term damage that doesn't manifest itself until later. I don't feel there is a huge difference in strength. I emphasize "huge" because there is some, but this is normal in most people. It would make sense that I had a bit of damage to the nerves that supply that side of my body and over the course of years of training I'll accumulate a bit more muscle on the non stinger side due to the fact that it's playing with a full brachial plexus. The stinger side would then be like the kid that could have been really smart but decided to eat a bunch of paste in kindergarten and turned out average at best. Maybe we'll never know.

Friday

2011-12-17T04:33:00.000-08:00

Clean High Pulls:
264x1x5

Squat:
Up to 385x1, 2 ,3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Fat Bar Bench:
Up to 245x1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3

Single Arm Row:
4x8 w/ 120s
w/
Inverted Row:
4x8 w/ body weight

Fat Bar Curls:
4x8
w/
Reverse Hypers:
3x12

35 yard sprintsx8

Really good session today. Squats got a little funky at the end. I think my piriformi (pl. of prirformis which is part of the gluteal complex near the top and outside of your butt cheek) had had enough by the time I got to the last set. Since this muscle sits across the sciatic nerve when that little guy gets tight you feel loads of lower back pain. In fact there are those that would guess that around 90% of low back pain is due to piriformis tightness. I would tend to agree although I would say it's more just muscle tightness and weakness in general that causes most of it. I think I've just stumbled upon an article idea.

Wednesday

2011-12-14T19:08:00.000-08:00

Clean andJerk:

198x1x3

10 Roundsof:

Front Squat:315x1

With

Fat Bar PushPress: 205x1

FrontLevers: some sets x some reps

WeightedSlide Board Leg Curls: 3x15

Power WheelWalks: 30, 20, 20 yards

I apologizefor the lack of updates lately. After Idid the meet with Lance and Nic at NX Level a few weeks ago I haven’t reallyfelt like recording my training. I’vebeen training pretty much every day but no two sessions have been thesame. One day I’ll dead lift and benchand the next I might just do seated pin presses. I’m just going by what I feel like doing whenI get started. I haven’t been goingheavy every day and it’s really helped me to keep moving forward without havingto take a break. My light days usuallyconsist of calf raises, biceps and triceps, shrugs, and sometimes neckwork. These exercises require arelatively low amount of motor units to be used and help to keep me fresh. I’ve also tried to really cut down on myassistance exercises on my heavy days. Igo heavy on 2-3 exercises and get out. When I do add in assistance it’s usually higher reps with moderateweight.

I’ve alsobeen on a diet since November 14^th. Lance and I are doing a fat loss challengeand we’ve got a lot riding on it. Theloser has to buy the winner’s choice of food for our Super Bowl gettogether. I started at 209 pounds and13% body fat. I’m right about 200 poundsnow and if I had to guess I’m just creeping into single digit territory. I’m feeling really well right now. I’m still as strong as I was before itstarted and my energy levels haven’t really crashed at all. I’d post some progress pics but I forgot totake a before picture and bathroom selfies are about the lamest thing a man cando.

The mainreason that we are doing this is that I’m writing Lance’s diet on a week toweek basis and I figured he could use some help/motivation to keep him on trackduring the holidays. He’s doing reallywell and it should be a tight race.

With theupdate out of the way I’m rededicating myself back to the blog. I’m going to start trying to write everydayeven if it is stuff that doesn't end up getting published here. I’m hoping to be able to consistently bustout 2-3 new articles every month. I’malso going to shift my Twitter feed back over to training and nutrition tipsand info. Right now it’s just me tryingto be funny which doesn’t happen too often. So click the follow button on the right for some good bits and pieces ofadvice. I’ll also be putting up links tosome of my old articles in case any new readers haven’t checked them out.

That’s all I got for now. Stay tuned for lots more content tocome. Keep training hard and if anyonehas questions or comments I’d love to hear them.

Exercise and Brain Health

2011-12-14T04:54:00.000-08:00

Here’s ahypothetical question for you. When youget older would you rather A) have a healthy body and have dementia orAlzheimer’s, or B) become extremely physically handicapped while maintainingfully functioning faculties, or C) maintain a robust physical presence whilestill being as sharp upstairs as you ever were. The obvious answer is C, but more often than not people will fall intoeither the A or B column. The positiveeffects of exercise in staving off the effects of Father Time on your body areobvious and plentiful. But the positiveeffects of exercise on brain health are only recently being recognized.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most commonform of dementia, affects the areas of the brain that control memory, speech,and thought and can seriously impair a person’s ability to carry out day-to-daytasks. The CDC estimates that about 5.4million Americans are currently suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The number of Alzheimer’s patients hasdoubled since 1980 and is expected to be at 16 million by 2050. In 2011 the total cost of Alzheimer’s diseaseis expected to be around $130 billion. About 5% of people aged between 65-74 years are affected by Alzheimer’swith that number jumping to 50% or people 85 years and older.

The exact cause of Alzheimer’s isstill unclear. It probably includesseveral factors that play different roles in each individual affected by thedisease. Scientists have uncoveredseveral risk factors for the disease with age being number one. Other factors include family history of thedisease and risk factors that are similar to those of cardiovascular diseasesuch as high blood pressure and cholesterol and low levels of folate. Researchers are also starting to uncover someroutes for preventing and slowing the progress of the disease once it isdiagnosed.

Many studies have begun to show thepositive correlates of exercise to brain health, especially in patients withAlzheimer’s disease. In one study eachpatient was assigned to either a walking group or non-walking group. Each patient was administered a mental stateexamination. At the end of the study thewalking group, in addition to improving walking times, had a much slowerdecline on the mental state examination (47% for the non-walking group to just13% for the walking group.) Studies haveshown that exercise increases a cells endurance and resistance to oxidativestress and has positive effects on neurogenesis (growth of new nerve and braincells) and memory improvement.

Exercise also seems to help improvesymptoms in patients diagnosed with depression. In a study done on treatment-resistant patients, moderate to intenseexercise improved depressive parameters and functioning. Exercise also contributed to the remission of26% of the patients enrolled in the study. Although the effects are promising exercise is still only a supplementto normal treatment measures. In a studythat investigated whether or not exercise decreased the risk of post-partumdepression in women the only group of subjects that showed statisticallysignificant benefits were those mothers that were not active prior to beingpregnant. In another meta-analysis ofthe literature on the role of exercise and depression most of the benefits werenot statistically significant and more studies were needed. But just because data isn’t statisticallysignificant doesn’t mean there isn’t something to be gained from it.

Despite what the literature says Ican speak from my experience and from the experience of others that exercisecan be beneficial for brain health and mood regardless of age or current mentalstate. When things aren’t going your wayand you feel the weight of the world on you exercise can be there as a way toexorcise (pun intended) some of your demons. It can be there to be the one thing in your life that you cancontrol. It can be like a steady ship ina stormy ocean. Speaking for myself Iknow that when life throws me a few curves and I can’t get my normal lifts inI’m not the same person I usually am. Small annoyances go from being mole hills to mountains. In other words I get a serious case of theCrabapple McNasties. And once I get backinto the gym and hoist some heavy poundages my worries seem to shrink andoftentimes disappear entirely.

The data on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and exercise iscompelling to say the least. Ifsomething as simple as walking a few times per week can slow the progression ofthe disease I would think that being active from an early age on would have abeneficial effect as well. I would liketo see some longitudinal studies done on the protective effects of exercise,but for right now make sure you are getting in some good exercise a few times aweek and constantly surround yourself with people you care about. And don’t forget to break a mental sweatevery now and again, too.

Sources:

http://www.cdc.gov/aging/aginginfo/alzheimers.htm

Exerciseplays a preventive role against Alzheimer's disease. Radak Z, et al. J Alzheimer’s Dis. 2010;20(3):777-83.

Six-Month Walking Program Changes Cognitiveand ADL Performance in Patients With Alzheimer. Venturelli M, et al. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen. 2011 Aug 17.

Exercise-inducedcognitive plasticity, implications for mild cognitive impairment andAlzheimer's disease. Foster PP, etal. Front Neurol. 2011;2:28. Epub 2011May 6.

Moderateexercise improves depression parameters in treatment-resistant patients withmajor depressive disorder. Mota-PereiraJ, et al. J Psychiatr Res. 2011 Aug;45(8):1005-11.

Doesexercise during pregnancy prevent postnatal depression?: A randomizedcontrolled trial. Songøygard KM, et al. ActaObstet Gynecol Scand. 2011 Sep 1. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0412.2011.01262.x.

Exercise for depression. Mead GE, et al. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009 Jul8;(3):CD004366.

A Few Thoughts On A Saturday Morning

2011-12-04T11:04:00.001-08:00

Saturday I woke up early (4:30 am early) to train before work. Since it was just me at the gym I had a lot of time to myself to think between sets. A lot of times what goes through my head is inconsequential. But today I actually had some interesting revelations on training in the morning and a few thoughts on the exercises I chose. Here was the workout.

Fat Bar Bench:
worked up to 265x1x5

Zercher Squats from the pins:
275x1x5, 315x1x2

Pendlay Rows:
220x3x5

Wall Walk-Ups:
4x5
w/
Band Pull Aparts:
4x20

If you are someone that doesn't usually train early in the morning getting up and throwing some weight around can be a shock to your system if you don't prepare correctly. If you are someone that consistently trains early you have probably noticed that your body has become adapted to it. But if you are someone that only does it once every few weeks here are some things that can help you stay productive when all you really want to do is crawl back in bed.

Get up 1.5-2 hours prior to training: I wanted to start by 5:45 am so I set my alarm for 4:30. Waking up at least an hour before you start is important to get out of sleep mode and get the nervous system firing. Getting up and doing some light stretching is a great way to get amped up for the coming lift.

Go through your normal morning routine: Especially if your routine is designed to help you wake up and get ready for the day. If you get up and have coffee or take the dog for a walk or take a shower try to follow that plan before you go train. This goes back to the first point in that just getting up and moving is a lot better than rolling out of bed and right into the gym.

Hydrate: If you aren't going to drink at least 24 ounces of water before you set foot in the gym then just go back to bed. Due to your body's natural rhythm of hormones you are naturally dehydrated in the morning. This is why you feel stiff and why your morning pee looks like diluted coffee of flat Coca-Cola. Getting some fluids in will lubricate your joints and get your body's systems going at top speed.

Eat: After fasting for anywhere from 8-12 hours overnight your body is in a catabolic state. That is it's breaking stuff down, including muscle. Getting some calories in helps turn off catabolism and gives you some fuel for your workout. Choose foods that are easy for you to digest and include "white" proteins (egg whites, chicken, fish) and some simple carbohydrates (fruit is my go-to).

Get excited: Getting excited about training the night before will almost ensure that you will get up and get moving and get motivated to train. Not a lot of people can or are willing to get up and train early while the rest of the world sleeps. Know that you are doing something that 95% of the population will call you crazy for doing but will get you closer to your goals. To paraphrase 50 Cent, "Sleep is for poor people."

While I don't think early morning is an ideal time to train, sometimes it's the only time available and I'll be damned if I let some piddly excuse like, "It's too early" get in the way. With these tips you can make your early morning training sessions as productive as all the others.

Hey, How Ya Doin'?

2011-11-24T05:54:00.001-08:00

At the same time this question is so innocuous yet so very loaded. My usual response is, "I've got no complaints." But on occasion the stresses of everyday life have me saying in my head, "Well, how much time do you have?" I've come to the realization that my outward response is the truth and my inward monologue is just a bullshit attitude trying to squirm it's way through.

What do I, really, have to complain about?

I've got a roof over my head, I'm in no danger of going hungry, and my furnace is kicking ass as I type this. I go to work everyday to a job that I love and get to help people. I've got money in my bank account and a few extra dollars in my wallet. I've got no major illnesses and haven't been sick in a long time. I've never worried that tomorrow I might wake up to some crazy madman with a gun that wants to kill myself and all of my fellow villagers. Shit, just the fact that I'm typing this means I'm doing better than half the fucking people on the planet. Not too shabby.

So on this day here's a few of life's perks that I'm thankful for:

-Parents that knew when to be parents and when to be friends.

-All of my failures and mistakes and the ability to learn from them.

-Coffee/ caffeine.

-The fact that my dog still loves me even after I give him a bath (which he hates with the intensity of a thousand suns).

-A sister that forces me to hang out with her.

-Family members that have shown me the proper way to be a man and how to treat a woman.

-A wonderful girlfriend who does things like surprise me for my birthday, puts up with me growing a moustache during Movember and then donates to the cause.

-A work environment that values its employees being themselves even if they are jerks (me) sometimes (all the time).

And here's a few of the things that are like icing on this big ol' birthday cake called life:

-Budweiser, Jameson, and all of the other tasty, tasty alcohols
-Nitrous to get me through getting my cavities filled
-Fast cars, loose women
-Huge Beds
-Iron weights
-Books
-Democracy
-The Internet
-Loyal Dogs
-Underwear fresh out of the dryer
-Back Rubs
-Caffeine
-Rock 'N' Roll

There are countless other things that I'm thankful for. These are but a few off the top of my head. The point is that I've got it pretty good. There are very few reasons why I should ever be in a bad mood and the only ones that I can think of involve death. So on this day think about what you are thankful for and keep it with you every day going forward, not just until the end of dinner. Speaking of which, I'm going to eat so much fucking turkey.

Song of the Day:

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of thanksgiving." -W.T. Purkiser

Who Wants A Ride?

2011-11-20T14:31:00.001-08:00

Being that this is Movember wherein members grow moustaches and raise money to help fight prostate and other men's cancers, I think it is appropriate to bring to light some of the most famous moustaches in history and the great men behind them. The moustache of late has taken on some negative connotations. One kid at the gym said that I was close to having a "pedo-stache". This is a moustache that gives the wearer the look of a pedophile. To the best of my knowledge the kid has never encountered a true pedophile nor grown a single facial hair in his life so he can't be trusted as a knowledgeable authority on either subject. Regardless, the moustache has been and will always be a symbol of manhood far and wide. Here are some of the best.

Teddy Roosevelt

TeddyRoosevelt was hands down the most bad assed president ever. He was a Harvard Boxing Champion in his earlyyears. He killed people as the leader ofthe Rough Riders. He was a cattlerancher in the old days of the Wild West. Killed all kinds of endangered species in Africa. And he once started a speech with, “Ladies and gentle I don’t know ifyou realize this but I have just been shot.” Yeah, he’d just been shot.

Arthur Saxon

One of thestrongest men to ever have lived. Still holds the record for the bent press and two-hands anyhow. Don't know what those lifts are? Google them. Wantto know how he died? He was supporting abridge that had cars on top of it. The bridge failed and collapsed on topof him. Pretty awesome way to go.

John L. Sullivan

When youinvoke the image of a bare-knuckle boxer you think of John L. Sullivan. He was one of the greatest pugilists of alltime. And boy did he like to drink. He was the first American athlete to earn over a million dollars and died with $10 to his name. Like a boss.

Tom Selleck

Sincethe 1980’s Webster’s Dictionary has had a picture of Tom Selleck a la HawaiiFive-O in place of the definition ofthe word moustache. No words areneeded. Only Tom Selleck’s sweet sweet ‘stache.

Hulk Hogan

If you grewup in America in the 80’s you wanted to be just like Hulk Hogan. I still remember being amazed when my firstgrade teacher Mrs. Hunt said that we all had the same muscles as Hulk Hogan,his were just bigger. After the tank tophad been ripped off and the bandanna lost all he had was his famous handlebarmoustache to beat the likes of the Iron Sheik and Andre the Giant. The only question that remains is, “What yougonna do when this sweet handle bar moustache runs wild on you brother!?”

There you have it. Five awesome examples of manliness to motivate you to grow a sweet moustache. If everyone does their part we can take back the moustache and cast off the negative connotations. Will you do your part?

Saturday Night Press Fest & Sunday Morning Back Attack

2011-11-20T14:21:00.001-08:00

Saturday Night

Bench Press:
225x2x5
25-x1x5

BTN Push Press:
185x3x5

Dips:
BW+50x5x3

Sunday Morning

Pendlay Rows:
242x3x5
312x1x5

Shrugs:
405x8x5
525x3x5
Threw some chins in there as well

Band Pull Aparts:
3x25
w/
Neck:
2x25

Bonnie, my client who had her first powerlifting meet on Saturday crushed it. She had two PRs and had a blast in the process. She definitely wants to do another one. Team Murder Death Kill is now multi-gendered with another one getting bitten by the iron bug. Great job, Bonnie.

"You don't have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things- to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated." -Edmund Hillary

Back In The Saddle

2011-11-18T07:33:00.001-08:00

After four days of laying low and recovering I'm back. The days off felt good since my back was sore until Thursday. I'm still trying to figure out the exact direction of my training. This may end up being just a go by feel period. I've always liked having an unstructured training plan. The only downside of it is that I, like most people, gravitate to the things that I'm good at or like to do and shy away from the things I need to do. Mainly mobility work. I'll try to remember the lessons of the past and stay on top of it.

Here's what I've done the last two days.

Thursday

Snatch:
up to 186x1, 176x1x2

Military Press:
135x5x3

Squats:
315x5x3

Friday

5 rounds of:
Single Arm Dead Lift: 155x5 ea arm

Push Upsx10

And just a reminder that Movember is still going strong. I've gotten a lot of nice comments on my sweet 'stache so far. If you want to donate please visit mobro.co/TroyDequaine.

This weekend I'll be in Dubuque, IA helping out a client in her first powerlifting meet. My guess is that she's going to kick some ass.

Liftageddon Write Up

2011-11-13T18:38:00.001-08:00

Liftageddon was like a cold slap in the face. I don't really feel the need to go into too much detail on each lift but needless to say it was not my strongest day. I've got a whole list of excuses I want to make as to why but I'll keep them to myself.

Squat warm ups went well until the last warm up set. It was a single at 455. For whatever reason my decent was all kinds of messed up. I broke at the knees first instead of my hips so I had to quick shift back and waste a bunch of energy to right the ship and bring it back up. I opened at 500 and got it but it was a grinder. I went 515 and it wasn't even close. I had zero pop out of the bottom, said, "nope" and let my competent spotter help me up.

Bench went much the same way. I got my opener at 265. Grinded out 280. Then went for 285 and was close but needed help from Lance to finish it.

Dead lift was the lone bright spot. My opener was 544 even though I didn't know what it was when I pulled it. I decided to throw caution to the wind and called for 600. This lift was probably the ugliest and slowest of my life. I got it but probably would have been red lighted in an actual competition as I hitched the absolute shit out of the bar. Oh well, there weren't any judges there.

In hind sight there are things that I would definitely do differently. One would be to rest more in the couple weeks leading up a meet. I squatted and dead lifted on Tuesday and benched on Thursday. Not a lot of down time to recover. There's some other stuff too. But it's technical and boring and I don't really feel like thinking about it right now.

Next week I'll be taking things easy. I'll be heading to Dubuque on Friday to handle a client from the gym who is doing her first meet. Should be a great time. After that I'll come back with a renewed sense of purpose and a hunger to smash some weights.

Thursday

2011-11-11T04:13:00.001-08:00

I'm writing this post on Friday morning, 11.11.11. A lot of people are getting married today. Cool. But more importantly it's Veteran's Day. I want to say thank you to all of those that have heard the call and served our country. Without you I wouldn't be sitting in my heated house, drinking coffee, and game planning for the weekend. I'd probably be taking a shit in an alley somewhere like some kind of goddam animal right before I got in the bread and soup line or something. We have it easy peazy lemon squeezy in this country and we have our veterans to thank. So again, thank you.

It was also the Marine Corps birthday yesterday. 236 years young and still putting boots to asses. Semper Fidelis.

Yesterday I just worked up to my first attempt on bench (265) and it felt pretty good. After that it was just some chins, dips, push ups, and arms. Nothing special, just keeping it light and easy before Liftageddon 2011: The Wreck-oning.

In honor of Veteran's Day here's a link to an article that I wrote about an American soldier who I am eternally thankful was on our side. This guy's story is the kind of stuff they use in movies. Oh wait, they did!

http://200poundsis200pounds.blogspot.com/2011/03/guys-id-like-to-have-drink-with-vol-2.html

Tuesday

2011-11-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

Squat:
worked up to 455x1

Dead Lift:
worked up to 505x1

Single Arm Row:
3x8
w/
Walking Lunge:
3x20 steps

Glute Ham:
4x10
w/
Band Pull Aparts:
4x25

Standing Abs
4x10

Today I just worked up to my last warm up sets on squat and dead lift. Squat went fine. Dead lift I can tell I haven't pulled heavy from the floor in a while so it was good to feel some weight. Saturday is shaping up to be a pretty epic day. Got to work in the morning, then Liftageddon 2011:The Wreck-oning in the afternoon, then Medieval Times in Shaumberg, IL at night. Fuckin' A.

Song of the Day:

"Truth is truth to the end of reckoning." -William Shakespeare

Thursday and Friday

2011-11-06T06:16:00.000-08:00

Thursday:

Bench:
95x5x2
135x4x2
185x3
225x2
245x1x2
255x1x2
270x1x2

Weighted Dips:
Body Weight (BW)x5
BW+25x4
BW+50x3
BW+75x2
BW+100x1
BW+50x6x3

BTN Push Press:
135x2
155x2
175x2
195x2
205x2x3

Arms

Friday:

Chest Supported Row:
50x10
55x10
60x10
65x10
70x10
75x10

Meadows Row:
5x8 each arm.

10 rounds of this:
Rack Dead Lift (Bar just below knee):
x1 (reps 1,2 @ 445, 3-6 @ 495, 7-10 @ 545)
w/
Rack Pull Ups:
x6

Two pretty good day this past week. On Saturday is going to be Liftageddon 2011 at NX Level. Again, since the meet that Lance and I were going to do is full we'll be having our own meet with some of our other lifting friends joining in. I'm still game planning what I'm going to do this week. Thinking I might work up to my last warm up sets on squat and dead lift on Tuesday and the same thing for bench on Thursday. Then on Saturday it'll be nothing but heavy-ass poundages being thrown around all over the place. Can't wait.

Song of the Day:

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -H.L. Mencken

Tuesday- Lower

2011-11-01T19:17:00.000-07:00

Squat:
135x5x2
225x4,3
315x2
405x1
445x1x2
475x1x2
500x1x2

Dead Lift:
300x1x3
330x1x3
360x1x9 (one rep every :20 seconds)

Walking Lunge:
3x20 steps
w/
Band Resisted Glute Ham:
3x12

Power Wheel Walks:
3x20 yards

Dip Bar Straight Leg Raises:
3x12

Pretty good session today. Squats felt really good. Dead lift went smooth. Accessory stuff is accessory stuff. And don't forget, today is Movember First. Check the links below.

Movember- us.movember.com
My MoSpace- mobro.co/TroyDequaine

Song of the Day:

"A man without a moustache is like a cup of tea without sugar." -English Proverb

Monday and Movember

2011-10-31T18:48:00.000-07:00

Did a quick little workout this morning...

400 yards as fast as I could (1:25)

Handstand Wall Walk Up
x5,4,4
w/
Chins:
3x5

Box Jumps:
3x5
Single Leg Box Step Downs:
3x8

Band Pull Aparts:
4x20
w/
Vertebrae Situps:
3x10

All said and done it took me about 35 mins with the warmup. I'm probably going to be adding 2-3 of these little workouts in each week on my normal off days. I like that they are all body wight which doesn't beat me up at all, gets some blood flowing, and helps with my work capacity. I'll also be able to focus on some weak points that I alluded to in a previous post.

Like last year I'll be donating my face to the Movember cause for the month of November. Movember is a cause that benefits prostate cancer and other men's cancer initiatives. A a sign of solidarity all the men that help the cause grow a moustache during November. When someone says, "Hey, what's with the 'stache?" we get them learned up on the cause and maybe even pull a donation or two. If you'd like to donate I would greatly appreciate it. After all you get hours of amusement for free from this blog so five or ten bucks to a good cause isn't too much to ask I don't think. At the very least visit the links and check out the cause. Thanks. Oh, and Happy Halloween!

Movember- us.movember.com
My MoSpace- http://mobro.co/TroyDequaine

Song of the Day:

"In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog." -Alfred Hitchcock

Saturday

2011-10-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Push Press:
95x5x2
135x4
185x3
205x2
225x1
235x1
135x10

Squat Supports:
245x1
355x1
445x1
535x1
625x1
675x1

Wall Handstands:
3x as long as I could hold
w/
TRX Face Pulls:
3x12

Ab Wheel Hand Walks:
3x20 yards

Gassers:
x3

Pretty good day in the weight room. Push press was only 10 lbs off my all time PR. I moved the pins down on the squat supports so I did more of a half squat to stand up with the weight. 675 felt heavy as shit.

I've been thinking about my pressing strength or lack-there-of lately. Part of it is I feel my triceps are weak. This is a biggie. Without strong triceps lockout strength is greatly diminished. Part of it is that my upper body structures feel weak as a whole. My shoulder girdle is tight and full of knots. My shoulder joints feel weak and unstable. With these issues present pressing strength in general is never going to be what it could be. To that end I'm going to take action to increase the strength of the support structures. This starts with the wall handstands. These are tough as shit. I used the wall to balance and just held for time. I got about 40 seconds on each one but was shaking after about 20 seconds. I've never really put a focus on improving body weight strength movements. But I'm going to go into it in earnest once the meet passes. Should be interesting.

Song of the Day:

"You must have the devil in you to succeed in any of the arts." -Voltaire

Thursday- Upper

2011-10-27T19:50:00.000-07:00

Bench:
230x1x3
235x1x3
250x1x3

Shoulder Press:
4x8
w/
Dips:
4x8

Pendlay Rows:
4x8
w/
45' Pull Downs:
4x8

DB Curls:
3x6
w/
EZ Bar Reverse Curls:
3x8

Db Skull Crushers:
3x10
w/
Push Ups:
2x20

Bench actually felt pretty good today. A big part of it was that I felt really locked in on my technique. Not sure why today felt so great but I'll take it.

I got some disappointing news earlier this week. The meet that I was planning on doing in November is full. The meet director capped the full power entries at fifty and by the time I went to register there was no more room at the inn. So instead Lance and Eric and I and whoever else wants to join in are going to have our own little meet at work the Saturday before. If I get some PRs they won't be official lifts, but something to hang my hat on nonetheless. I'm still going to go to the actual meet to handle a woman from the gym who is doing the meet. This is her first one and she is going to kick some ass.

Song of the Day:

"If we will be quiet and ready enough we shall find compensation in every disappointment." -Henry David Thoreau

Tuesday- Lower

2011-10-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

Squat:
135x5x2
225x4x2
315x3
405x2
445x1

420x1x3
435x1x3
455x1x3

Rack Pull (mid shin):
510x1x3
600x1
630x0

Walking Lunge:
3x20 steps
w/
Banded Leg Curl:
3x12

Ab Wheel Rollouts:
3x10

Today was tough. Squats went well but by the time the 455's rolled around I was starting to fade. Got through them like a champ though. Pin pulls were a different story. Where I set the pin is essentially the toughest spot to do a dead lift from. You get zero leg drive and therefore zero momentum to pull back and clear the knee. At its core it's a very heavy RDL. The 600 pin pull felt harder than when I pulled it from the floor a few months ago. I gave 630 a few tugs but by that time I was shot. This one might take a while to recover from.

Song of the Day:

"By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thursday and Friday

2011-10-25T08:15:00.001-07:00

Thursday:

Bench:
95x1
135x4
185x3
225x2
245x1
250x1
265x1
275x0
225x1x3

DB Bench:
4x8 w/ 80's
w/
Dips:
4x8 @ BW

Sternum Chins:
4x8
w/
45' Pull Downs:
4x8

Drag Curl:
4x10
w/
DB Skull Crushers:
4x12

DB Laterals:
4x8
w/
Band Pull Aparts:
4x25

Friday:

Good Mornings:
135x5x2
185x5x3

Squat Supports:
I set the pins so they were about 4" below the top of my squat lockout. So I was essentially doing a 4" squat. Each rep was held for 10 seconds at the top.
265x1
355x1
445x1
535x1
625x1
715x1x3

Push Press:
95x5
135x4
175x3
195x2
205x1
185x3x3

Single Arm Row:
4x10
w/
DB Pullovers:
3x12

My pressing strength continues to be a fly in my ointment. I know it's because in the past I haven't put as much focus into it because I was bad at it. Well getting strong doesn't happen by accident. After my meet I'm going to back off on the squatting and dead lifting and really hammer on the presses. If that doesn't work then I'll just start doing Zumba or something.

With Halloween coming up I'll be sampling mostly Misfits songs. This song was actually written about my dog, Saxon. GOT A HELLHOUND DOG! THAT HELLHOUND'S GONNA RIP YOUR FACE OFF!

Song of the Day:

"There is something haunting in the light of the moon; it has all the dispassionateness of a disembodied soul, and something of its inconceivable mystery." Joseph Conrad

My First Training Partner

2011-10-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

I still,very vividly, remember the first place I ever trained at. It was a basement gym with minimalequipment. There was an old treadmilland jogging trampoline for cardio. Therewas only one set of dumbbells and they were covered with blue plastic and onlyfive pounds. The center piece was anold-school selectorized weight machine that looked like an old torturerack. This wasn’t one of those modernmachines with a leg press, chest press, a lat pull down bar and a half dozenbar/handle options. Oh, no. The one weight stack was bolted intowhichever wall you had chosen. It camewith a flat bench that could be put in front of or moved away from the weightstack. The bar is difficult todescribe. It was essentially a metalsquare with a prong on one side that was inserted into the guide rails thatcould be moved up and down. On the otherside were handles that could be used for bench presses, squats, overheadpresses, shrugs and anything that fancied your imagination. There was also a horizontal row handle at thebottom. In my mind it was the first ~~failed~~attempt at a Smith machine. Needless tosay, the gym was pretty bare bones.

My first training partner had takena weight training class in college where he had worked his bench press up to (atthe time I thought this was astronomical) 275 pounds. I don’t remember much of what we did but Iknow he probably put up with a lot of whining and a short attention span. I didn’t make a lot of progress. In fact, I think he once pitted my sister andI against each other in a test of strength and she came out the victor.

I was about six or so when Ifinally understood what that equipment in my basement was used for. My first training partner was obviously mydad and I like to think he just enjoyed my company and so was willing to put upwith my whining and being weaker than my older sister. Neither of us knew it then but those sessionsin the basement ignited the spark that lit the flame that has led me to mypassion for strength training. Eventhough I didn’t take training seriously until high school I look at thosemoments when it first piqued my interest.

Fast forward to middle school. Being a chubby kid growing up I’d always beenself-conscious of my weight and the way I looked. I decided that for my birthday I wanted aweight bench and some weights and that I was going to get into shape. My parents delivered and I got a small weight bench with a bar and weight set. (I once took an informal poll at work tosee who had owned a similar set-up when they were kids and every single trainerhad the same thing I did. Definitelymore than mere coincidence.) The weightset had a hundred pounds of weight and a one inch standard bar. The weights were the old cement weights thatwere covered with hard plastic. I hadabsolutely no clue what I was doing. I’m pretty sure I benched every single time and more than likely gavesquatting a few rides. I’m fairlycertain I was completely ignorant of the Olympic lifts, which was probably agood thing since I more than likely would have hurt myself.

Down in my basement by myself with absolutelyno direction or instruction I remember being beside myself when I had maxed outthe amount of weight I could get on the bar with 135 pounds on the bench press. Sprinkled between the time I started and upto that point there were also a few close calls where I failed on a rep andeither had to roll the bar to my waist and stand up or tip it to one side andlet the weight fall off one side and then the other. This is where my survival instincts werehoned. It was either, finish the rep,not get the rep and look like an idiot getting out from under the bar, orperish with 100 pounds on my neck. Itwas one of the first two every time. I don't go quietly just like that.

Once I got into high school my dadpretty much stopped exercising besides the occasional cross country skiingouting or roller blading around our subdivision. I had been in the high school’s weightprogram and trained with a buddy’s uncle who was a former bodybuilder and hadmade some pretty good progress. I’venever been the strongest person on any team, but I’ve always described myselfas above average in strength. I took itseriously but never really gave any thought to continuing to train once I wentto college. That changed when I decidedto play football at Carroll College.

I had my summer workouts that I didand enjoyed seeing the progression from one phase to the next. I was also going through the studentguidebook trying to decide what I was going to do with the rest of mylife. When I showed up on campus I wasready to play and ready to begin my journey to being the most awesome highschool English teacher you ever saw. Iended up playing football all four years and had a pretty good career. My majoring in English lasted a semester.

When I was mulling over the decision to switch my major to Exercise Science it was my dad who took the stance that I may be making a poor decision. He took the side that I should really figureout how the job market was going to look once I graduated. I’m eternally thankful that I have a dad thatis willing to do this. Even thoughstrength and conditioning had become a passion of mine he was ever thepragmatic. Could I make a career out of it? Would I always be struggling with moneyissues? Those were the tough questionsthat I had to answer before he’d be satisfied with my decision.

Back then I had plans of continuingmy education beyond my undergrad and working at a university or for aprofessional sports team. Instead Ifound a great job working at a sports performance center working with kids whoare just as hungry as I once was but now have a much better resource for theirstrength training other than a magazine or their own imagination.

I sometimes ponder what my lifewould look like if I hadn’t been introduced to the physical culture by my dadall those years ago. Where do Iwork? Who are my friends? Where do I live? I’ll never know but I wouldn’t really wantto. I owe a lot more to my dad than juststarting me on a path to a career that I enjoy. He set me on a path towards a life worth living. One filled with hard work, determination,setting and accomplishing goals, and being a useful human being. Everyday I’m thankful for the attitude towards life and the work ethic he’s instilledin me. I just wish he’d exercise moreand eat better.

Tuesday- Lower

2011-10-19T18:17:00.000-07:00

Squat:
135x5x2
225x3x2
315x1x2
405x1
455x1
485x1
510x1

Dead Lift:
352x3
372x2
420x1x3

Walking Lunges:
3x20 steps w/ 88 lbs
w/
Back Extensions:
3x12

Leg Press:
5pps 4x8
w/
Leg Curl:
4x8 w/ 75 lbs

Whoowhee! This one was more of a grinder than the slutty girl at a high school dance. For starters I had some "stomach issues" on Monday and hadn't drank my Pedialite. So I was a little dehydrated going in and at a body weight of 206 I was lighter than I had been in a while.

Warm ups on squat went well. Little bit of pain but nothing out of the ordinary. Once I got to 455 that all changed. As I was going down with it I could feel the pressure in my head building. Vision was getting blurry and I almost passed right the hell out as I started to come up. I had to step back to keep from falling back but was able to stand up. Could have been a lot worse. Thoughts of packing it in crossed my mind but I hadn't gotten all dressed up for nothing so I pushed on. 485 was OK. A little easier than the last time I had it on my back but nothing to get worked up about. I was having some serious doubts about the 510 but knew I had a competent spotter so I decided to give it a ride. Slow as the kid that ate glue in grade school but it was a good lift.

I'm glad I went for it. That weight is probably going to be my opener in November depending on how the rest of the training cycle goes. In the words of Ice Cube, "...today was a good day."

Song of the Day:

"There is no way to success but to take off your coat, grind, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday- Wait, what?

2011-10-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

Good Mornings:
135x8x3
185x6x2

BTNPP:
Up to 215 for a single

Leg Press (pps=plates per side):
2ppsx10
3ppsx10
4ppsx10
5ppsx10
Drop Set:
5ppsx10, 4ppsx20, 3ppsx30

Calf Press:
3ppsx 15, 20, 25

Ab Wheel Rollouts:
3x12

I trained Friday morning due to the fact that I'm a busy man and have many going's ons this weekend. When it comes to throwing iron around I'm not usually a morning person but today was a pretty decent session. My shoulder is a little jacked up from the presses but other than that I couldn't be happier than a pig in shit with how today went. Booyah.

Song of the Day:

"Early morning hath gold in its mouth." -Ben Franklin

Thursday and Saturday and Tuesday

2011-10-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

You can call me Dr. Cheeks because when it comes to this blog, I'm a little behind. Horrible joke I know. Deal with it.

Thursday

Bench:
95x5
135x4
185x3
230x2
245x1

Dead Bench:
225x3 singles
235x3 singles
245x3 singles

DB Low Incline:
4x8
w/
Dips:
4x8

Bent Row:
4x8
w/
Neutral Grip Chins:
4x8

Saturday

Squat:
worked up to 405x1, 315x3x3

Military Press:
95x5
135x4
155x3
175x2
185x1x2

RDLs:
4x8
w/
Single Arm Row:
4x8

DB Curls:
3x12
w/
DB Lateral Raise:
3x10

Tuesday

Squat:
135x5
225x4
315x3
405x2
445x1
420x3 paused
445x3 paused
455x3 paused

Speed Dead Lift:
352x3
396x2
421x1x3

Walking Lunge:
3x20 steps
w/
45' Back Extension:
3x12

Trap Bar Carry:
After warm up sets, 505x25 yards x2

Training has been going pretty well lately. I haven't had any bottom 10% sessions in a while and I haven't missed any weights. Just how a meet prep should go.

I saw these guys at RiotFest this past weekend and they put on a hell of a show.
Song of the Day:

"You either reach a higher point today, or you exercise your strength in order to be able to climb higher tomorrow." -Nietzsche

Tuesday- Lower

2011-10-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

Squat:
135x5x2
225x4
315x3
405x2
455x1

405x3 paused
435x3 paused
445x3 paused

Dead Lift (3" deficit)
265x3
352x3
392x2
420x1x3

Single Leg Step Downs:
4x8 ea leg

w/

45 Degree Back Extensions
4x10

Trap Bar Carry:
255x25 yards
345x25 yards
435x25 yards
505x25 yards

Pretty decent session today. I'd definitely put it in the 80% range. The trap bar carries lit my hips up big time. I like them though. I can see myself doing them in the future.

"A great man can bend and stretch." -Chinese proverb

Thursday and Saturday

2011-10-02T06:07:00.000-07:00

Thursday:

Bench:
95x5
135x4
185x3
230x2
245x1

Dead Bench:
215x1x3
230x1x3
240x1x3

Low Incline DB Bench:
70'sx8x4

w/

Dips:
BWx8x4

Bent Rows:
154x8x4

w/

V-Grip Chins:
BWx8x4

Arms

Saturday:

Squat: 315x1x10

Military Press:
95x5
115x4
135x3
155x2
175x1
135x8x2

Single Arm Row:
120's x8x4

w/

RDLs:

220x8x4

Thursday was one of my better upper workouts in a while. The dead bench is where I set the rack pins a few inches from the top of my chest and press the weight from a dead stop. This takes away the benefit of a stretch response and will build strength from my chest, which is where I've always had trouble.

I'm still trying to find a direction for my Saturday workouts. Truth-be-told I never really feel that great squatting on Saturday's as I usually have some lingering soreness from my Tuesday workouts. Doing another bench workout on Saturday has also really lit my shoulders up. That's why I brought back the overhead work. Plus, it's the weekend and I don't really feel like doing shit either way.

"When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." -Will Rogers

Hard To Kill

2011-09-28T05:36:00.000-07:00

These days you can’t watch TV or listen to the radio for more than a couple of minutes without hearing about the latest thing that causes this or that chronic disease such as cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. All you really ever hear is about how this or that environmental factor or dietary practice or supplement reduces or increases your chances of acquiring said disease. The list of things goes on and on ad infinitum. But the real message is essentially, “Do this and not that so that you don’t die earlier than you were supposed to.” But maybe there is something simple you can do that reduces your chances of early death without all the contradictory evidence of environmental factors and food choices. There is. It’s called being strong.

Many studies have been performed on the old (age 65-80) and the very old (85+) that look at strength levels and mortality rates. What the researchers basically do is test the old people’s strength levels (most often hand-grip or leg extension maximal efforts) and then follow them around for a specified period of time and see who dies and who doesn’t. This is science at its most complex, folks. What they’ve found a lot of the time is that the people that were the strongest at the beginning were more likely to still be alive at the end. These studies are compelling but do have their drawbacks. First of all are the confounders. Are people stronger because they happen to be in good health or are they in good health because they are stronger? And on the flip side, are older people weak because of their failing health or is their failing health due to them being weak. It’s hard to separate and show causality of the strength level from the health level. But the proof is still in the pudding. The strong survive.

So that’s the old people. But what about young, robust characters that are in the prime of life? A huge study was performed at The Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas in the 80’s. If you ever had to do the Pacer (beep) test in gym class you can thank the Cooper Clinic. This study was a longitudinal study like the ones done on the elderly, but on a much bigger scale. When it was all said and done there were over 8,000 participants. And when the researchers controlled for variables that would skew data they found much the same thing. Those that were in the strongest third of study participants lived longer. For all the runners out there they even controlled against cardiovascular fitness and found the same thing.

In fact, muscular strength has been shown to be a great predictor of risk of cardiovascular disease in young adulthood. In two studies done on younger Swedish men, baseline levels of strength were assessed and were then followed up on later in life. Researchers found that muscular strength was inversely associated with risk of fatal and nonfatal heart disease and stroke, meaning that the stronger you were the less likely you were to have incidents of fatal or non-fatal cardiovascular disease or stroke. But why is that?

The studies, to my knowledge, didn’t take into account current levels of physical activity. They just made the association between current health statuses and where they end up. This means that someone who is just naturally strong has more protection against these diseases than someone else. This is my theory and I may be off, but it makes sense to me. In order to lift a heavy weight you must have a high tolerance to elevated blood pressures. Normal resting blood pressure is around 120/80. When lifting weights, that pressure can sometimes get to around 200/75. This is dependent on the weight lifted and the intensity of the weight relative to the trainee’s strength level, but that’s a lot either way. The same goes for heart rate. I was once working with a client who was wearing a watch with a heart rate monitor on it. During her squat workout I would glance at the watch to see how much her heart rate had climbed and at one point it had gone up about 45 points in a span of about 15 seconds.

What the studies seem to indicate is that it’s not so much that you do this on a regular basis, but that you have the ability to do it. They only measured strength levels at the beginning, waited a specific amount of time, and checked to see who was alive, who was dead, and who had had any instances of heart disease or stroke. The protective effects lie in the ability, not so much the doing. Now this is not to say that if you belong to the strongest third of the population you can put things on cruise control and ride in the easy lane until you kick the bucket at a robust 112 years old. It doesn’t work that way. Very few people have the ability to maintain a lot of strength and cardiovascular fitness if they all of a sudden stop doing the things that got them strong and fit in the first place. You still need to train and you need to maintain some type of cardiovascular fitness. Because if those things aren’t a big part of your life then what’s the point of living anyway?

Sources:
Association of body size and muscle strength with incidence of coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular diseases: a population-based cohort study of one million Swedish men. Silventoinen K, Magnusson PK, Tynelius P, Batty GD, Rasmussen F. Int J Epidemiol. 2009 Feb;38(1):110-8.

Muscle strength and body size and later cerebrovascular and coronary heart disease. Shrier I. Clin J Sport Med. 2010 Mar;20(2):131.

Physical fitness and 6.5-year mortality in an 85-year-old community-dwelling population. Y. Takata, et al. Arch Gerontol Geriatr. 2011 May 16.

Objectively measured physical capability levels and mortality: systematic review and meta-analysis. Cooper R, Kuh D, Hardy R; Mortality Review Group; FALCon and HALCyon Study Teams. BMJ. 2010 Sep 9;341:c4467.

Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study. Ruiz, J.R. et al. BMJ 2008;337:a439

Tuesday- Lower

2011-09-28T03:28:00.000-07:00

Squat:
135x5
225x4
315x3
405x2
455x1

395x3 Paused
420x3 Paused
435x3 Paused

Speed Dead Lift:
340x3
360x2
380x2x3

Single Leg Step Down:
4x8
w/
45` Back Extension
3x12

Glute Ham Hypers:
3x12
w/
Leg Press Calf Raises:
4x10

Not sure what it was, but squats felt pretty awesome today. Everything felt strong and explosive out of the bottom, nothing hurt, and my technique didn't break down at all. Just got to keep it going.

"Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second." -William James

Thursday- Upper

2011-09-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Bench:
85x5
145x4
184x3
150x2
275x2 singles

225x8

DB Low Incline Bench:
55x8x8

Pendlay Rows:
154x8
242x5x3

Swimmer Lat Pull Downs:
3x12

Push Ups:
3x12

Arms

Finisher:
Log Clean and Press x10
Farmer's Carry x60 yards
Tire Hits x15 each side
all x3

Bench felt ok. The first single at 275 was pretty awful. I came back and got mentally in the game and the second one went much better. That's always been my problem on bench, not being intense and attacking the rep.

"I never did anything worth doing by accident." -Plato

Tuesday- Lower

2011-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
455x2 singles
490x1

Speed Dead Lift
340x3
360x2
380x2x3

Leg Press:
4 plates x8x4
4 plates +25 x8x4
:30s rest on all sets

Single Leg Step Downs:
3x10

Leg Curls:
3x15

Ok session. 490 was a grinder. Felt like the up part of it took 20 seconds. Still got it though. Need to get stronger.

"Only the mediocre are always at the top of their game. -Anonymous

Saturday

2011-09-17T13:02:00.000-07:00

Squat:
225x8x8 w/ :30s rest

Chain Bench:
145x3x6

Single Arm Row:
110x8x6

Decent session today. I think I've figured out why my right side is so tight and gives me so much pain. I have a feeling that my glute medius (smaller glute muscle to the top and outside of your buttcheek) on my right is weak and relatively inactive. When I walk and palpate at the same time my left side is much more developed than the right. So today and the last week I've been focusing on using it more. Today on the squats I really focused on pushing through my left heel to squeeze my glute medius. I'm hoping as this muscle develops more the pain and tightness on my right side will go away. Only time will tell.

Song of the Day: Smoke or Fire- Goodbye to Boston

"Human behavior flows from three sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge." -Plato

Thursday- Upper

2011-09-16T16:32:00.000-07:00

Bench:
85x5
145x4
185x3
245x2
265x1

225x9

BTNPP:
135x5x3
155x5x2

DB Low Incline:
50sx8x8

Chins:
BWx6x5

Lat Pull Downs:
3x15

Dips Plus:
3x15

If I had to use one word to describe this session it would be, "Meh". That is all.

Tuesday- Lower

2011-09-13T12:40:00.001-07:00

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
445x2
475x1

340x10

Pin Pull (#34, just below knee)
245x5
425x4
510x3
540x2
630x1

Leg Press:
4 plates x8x8

DB RDL:
110's x 8,12,15

Leg Press Calf Raise:
8x8

Pretty good session. Squats felt good. Deadlift felt heavy, but 630 lbs. is always going to feel heavy.

Song of the Day: The Flatliners- Mastering the World's Smallest Violin

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
-Dylan Thomas

Never Forget 9.11.01

2011-09-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

In an Age of Fops and Toys
Raplh Waldo Emerson

In an age of fops and toys,
Wanting wisdom, void of right,
Who shall nerve heroic boys
To hazard all in Freedom’s fight,—
Break sharply off their jolly games,
Forsake their comrades gay
And quit proud homes and youthful dames
For famine, toil and fray?
Yet on the nimble air benign
Speed nimbler messages,
That waft the breath of grace divine
To hearts in sloth and ease.
So nigh is grandeur to our dust,
So near is God to man,
When Duty whispers low, Thou must,
The youth replies, I can.

Thank you to the men and women who run towards danger when everyone else is running away.

Tuesday- Wheels

2011-09-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
435x2
455x1

330x14
225x20

Dead Lift:
300x3
330x3
360x3

Leg Press:
2 plates x10
4 plates x8x5 (30 second rest between sets)

Single Leg Step Down:
3x10 each leg

Ham Killers:
3x8

Decent session despite feeling like garbage. I think the coffee got me. My head felt foggy and I had the scooties which doesn't bode well for heavy lower body lifts. Despite the ailments I made it through to fight another day.

I hope everyone's Labor Day weekend was as fun and relaxing as mine was.

Song of the Day: NOFX- The Decline

"Without continual growth and progress such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning." -Benjamin Franklin

Why Am I A Jerk? Part 2B: Bringing It All Together

2011-09-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

In the first part of this series (here) I reported on the fact that a few of my coworkers had taken to saying that I had become more of a "jerk" in the time since I had lost some body fat and gained some muscle. I also reported that the same thing had happened to a client of the gym. I went on to outline a number of possible reasons for my increased, we'll say for the sake of brevity, "aggressive" behavior and some possible reasons for my coworkers increased, again we'll say for the sake of brevity, "sensitivity".

The second part of the series (here) was devoted to the rebuttals of said coworkers and my responses to those rebuttals. That part of the series was a joke more than anything. The coworkers in question are great friends of mine and I have a lot of respect for their opinions on a lot of things. But when someone lobs you a softball right down the middle sometimes you just gotta hit that fucker out of the park and stare down the pitcher as you slowly round the bases and then defiantly stomp on home plate. But on the the third part, Bringing It All Together.

In the first part of the series I led people to believe that testosterone influences aggressive behavior. This is a stereotype that a lot of people and a lot of scientists assume to be true. It is actually murky at best. While there are many studies showing a correlation between testosterone and aggressive behavior, causality has never been proven.

If you break down aggressive behavior further into hostility and sensation seeking you are more likely to see a direct effect of testosterone levels and people who like to skydive and race cars than people who get into fights and mock their coworker.

Another factor is that testosterone is just one hormone. There are dozens doing an intricate dance in your body at any given time. It is very difficult to study the behavioral effects of one thing (hormones, stress levels, societal influences, etc.) while controlling for all the others. To say that when ABC happens with testosterone then XYZ happens with behavior shows a correlation at best but is flat out wrong at worst.

Digging deeper is the fact that some people are more responsive to certain rises and falls in their hormones than others. A study that looked at a modulator of androgen receptivity found that there were significant interactions between CAG repeat length (the modulator for androgen receptor sensitivity) and testosterone. There were signs that a longer repeat length led to certain behavior and a shorter led to others. To make this clearer it wasn't the hormone itself, or even the receptor for the hormone that influenced behavior, but the modulator for the androgen receptor sensitivity. That's three link down the chain of command if you think about it.

Now let's take a look at how the actual levels of androgens themselves effect behavior. In Dr. Robert Sapolsky's excellent book, The Trouble With Testosterone he did exactly that. In the title essay he looked at a number of studies done on humans and animals that led to some interesting conclusions that have been missed by much of the lay public.

Instead of rewriting what Dr. Sapolsky has already written I'll just get to the main points. Many studies have shown that when males are placed in a group together basal testosterone levels predict nothing about who is going to be aggressive. It's behavior that drive the hormone secretion rather than the other way around. Let that sink in. Testosterone secretion doesn't drive aggressive behavior. Aggressive behavior drives testosterone secretion.

In studies (I only hope on animals) where the testes are removed aggressive behavior drops. But when testosterone is readministered to only 20% of precastration levels the same amount of aggressive behavior occurs. The same thing happens when testosterone is administered to 200% of precastration levels. The brain can't tell the difference. There is more to this argument, but the proof is right there in the pudding. There is no way I've increased my testosterone production to twice what it used to be. I don't know because I've never had them checked but I'm fairly certain that the things that I've done have made a difference, but not even that big of one.

Now, for the sake of the argument let's say that I did. And let's say that I did in a big kind of way. A study was done where a group of monkeys were placed together and given time to sort out a social hierarchy. The researchers then took the number three monkey (He was number three out of five. This meant he could boss around numbers four and five, but took marching orders from numbers one and two.) and gave him four times the amount of testosterone he had at normal levels. This monkey was probably pissing testosterone. A very interesting thing occurred. Instead of making power plays and going beast mode on numbers one and two he ended up just being a colossal prick to numbers four and five. He still ate crow when it came to numbers one and two. What does that mean? Testosterone exaggerates aggressiveness not cause it.

This is where you get into the tricky business of mixing behavioral biology and outside environmental and societal influences. To say that a biological ABC causes a behavioral XYZ means nothing if those other factors aren't taken into account.

So what does this mean for me and why I'm a jerk? To put it simply I am, always have been, and always will be a jerk. Especially to Lance and Jake. Those guys are total jerks.

Sources:

The Trouble With Testosterone. Robert M. Sapolsky. 1998.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16136009
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15179027
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20479013
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20816841
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18505319
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10097017
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15795710
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19054624
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21382439

Saturday

2011-09-03T12:28:00.000-07:00

SSB Squat:
135x10
185x10
225x15x3

Close Grip Bench:
95x10
135x10
185x8x4

Cambered Bar Good Morning:
135x10
185x8x4

Rope Lat Pull Downs:
3x20
w/
Hammer Curls:
2x10
2x8

Pretty solid day. The squats felt kind of weird. I've got some pretty decent adhesions in my right IT band/vastus lateralis. Going to have to get those out of there.

Song of the Day: Propagandhi- The Banger's Embrace

"Never mistake motion for action." -Ernest Hemmingway

Why Am I A Jerk? Part 2A: The Rebuttals

2011-09-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

In my previous installment I outlined a few reasons why I may have become a jerk and/or the people accusing me of becoming a jerk are just oversensitive babies. The big on had to do with me dropping some body fat and living alone. My accusers on the other hand live with significant others and are, well, fat. The kid gloves have come off. Here's what they had to say.

Accuser #1

Accuser #1 took immediately to Facebook to voice his displeasure with this to say. "So i read the article and here is what i pulled away from it. now that you have changed your body your t levels are higher making you more competitive and less sensitive. on the other hand your so called accusers are in commited relationships lowering their t levels making them overly sensitve. sounds like your in trouble now that your "offically in a relationship". one might also say that dedicating a two part article to prove a point to your accusers is an overly sensitive thing to do. thats just my opinion and every one is entitled to there opinion without being accused of being a jerk"

(Between bites) Where's (hrumph) the dislike (hrumph) button? Ha! (hrumph)

That's copy and pasted right from his comment on the article link and probably what he looked like when he was posting it. You'll notice it's riddled with spelling and grammar errors making it almost indecipherable, but that's beside the point. I am now in a relationship but I don't think it will have any effect on my endocrine system since we don't live together. I can shit with the door open, walk around in my undies, blast metal and punk, and pretty much do whatever the hell else I feel like doing.

His other argument is that writing an article is "an overly sensitive thing to do." Ha. What am I supposed to do? Just accept his criticisms of how I carry myself with a smile and say, "You're right (Accuser #1). I am being a jerk. I'll change." Screw that. I'm coming out with guns blazing. Only a slacked-jawed eff would sit back and take those kinds of criticisms. And only a slack-jawed eff would use a Facebook comment section to argue something with someone he sees every day.

Accuser #2

It took accuser #2 a while to actually read the article. He's a technophobe so that's understandable. He didn't really have much to say initially besides parroting a joke that a couple of our friends made about being "fat as hell but with higher T levels than everybody." At this point he didn't have a rebuttal because he knew that everything I said was true. But inside the mouse was turning the wheel that produces his thoughts.

A little bit later he came to me with this.

If this dog had a voice it's what Accuser #2 would sound like.

Accuser #2: I was, uh, thinking. And you may have raised your T and dropped your estrogen but me and (Accuser#2) have way higher T levels regardless.
Me: How do you know that?
Accuser#2: I just do.
Me: Have you had your endocrine levels checked?
Accuser #2: No, but just look at us.
Me: Whatever you say, Marmaduke. (I didn't really say that, but I should have because that's what a jerk would have done.)

Sounds like some solid evidence. Really outstanding detective work Accuser #2. If you go back and read the article I never said that my T levels were higher and my estrogen levels were lower than those of my accusers. I also never said that either of those hormones were outside of normal levels for myself or my accusers. I merely stated that, based on scientific research, I may have experienced a raise in T and a drop in estrogen and vice versa for Accusers #1 and #2. They obviously interpreted it in the worst way possible.

Part 2B: Bringing It All Together is going to finally put this issue to rest. There's a lot of interesting subtleties to this issue that have been studied and written about by people much smarter than me. The end result will probably surprise a lot of people.

Thursday

2011-09-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

Bench:
95x5
145x4
185x3
230x2
245x1

200x13
135x20

Pendlay Row:
132x10
176x8
220x5x4

Neutral Grip Chins:
4x6

DB Lateral Raises:
4x10

Fat Bar Clean and Jerk:
3x5
w/
DB Single Arm Push Press:
3x10 each arm
Push Ups:
3x15

This was done with all the exercises paired for three sets.

Pretty decent session. I haven't really pushed my numbers on bench in a while so I'm excited to see what I can do. The rest was just basic stuff. Nothing too exciting.

Song of the Day: Ruiner- When the Mourning Ends

“Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.” -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Why Am I A Jerk? Part One.

2011-08-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

The question the title asks is a rather loaded one. It implies that I am, in fact, a jerk. This is a very subjective assessment of anybody. One person's behavior could be seen as crude and boorish or lighthearted and carefree. It all depends on who is doing the judging and what kind of mood they are in in that particular instance.

With that in mind it has been brought to my attention that I've recently become more of a jerk than usual. Specifically, since I lost some body fat and put on a little muscle. I'm going to hold off on agreeing or disagreeing for right now as I don't feel that I've become a jerk per se. Chippy, quasi-confrontational, and a little shorter fused? Yes. A jerk? No. In any case the part that intrigued me was that everyone agreed that it came about when I changed my body composition.

I mentioned this to a client who had lost a significant amount of weight and he said, "The same thing happened to me. My youngest [child] said just the other day that I was more fun when I was chunky." This got me thinking that maybe it's not just a coincidence. Let's take a look at the evidence.

Studies have shown that obese men have higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of testosterone. This is a fact. If you're carrying some extra stuff around the mid section you've probably got some issues with your endocrine system. This is true even in young men. Many men know they are not the virile go getters they were when they were young. Until recently it has just been something that was relegated to the just-a-part-of-getting-older category. While testosterone production does naturally decrease as men age the fact that a lot of men gain abdominal fat is also a contributing factor.

One thing I found interesting while researching the subject is that winning has a positive impact on future success and testosterone and all the good things that come with it. In animal studies it has been shown that there is a natural surge of testosterone when one wins. And the more you win, the more likely you are to win again. What does this have to do with me? Maybe that I get a sense of winning satisfaction any time I win an argument. Or set a PR. Or feel that my hard work is paying off in the way that I want it to. Have I perceived myself winning anytime I mock one of accusers speech impediments? Have I perceived myself as winning when I watch one of my accusers warm-up for 45 minutes and only lift for thirty and I think to myself, "What an effing girl that guy is."? I'm going to say that I do feel a sense of winning because all I'm thinking in my head is, "SWISH!" when that stuff happens.

But are these contests with a with a winner or loser that will actually feel the repercussions of winning or losing?

I'm not sure and I really have no way of knowing for sure if those situations parallel the animal models, especially since those were physical contests over territory. One could maybe say we have a pissing match here or there but that's hardly as stressful as a dispute over territory or females that the animals go through. This also leads to a chicken and the egg type question. Am I competitive because my testosterone is high or is my testosterone high because I'm competitive?

Is my testosterone even higher than what is considered normal? Not sure.

But I'm sick of talking about me. Let's talk about my accusers. Remember, being a jerk is dependent on who is judging and what they are feeling. If we flip the situations previously described in the evidence supporting my increase in testosterone and decrease in estrogen we come to some interesting results.

First let's look at probably the biggest factor, body composition. I'm going to tread lightly here. None of us, myself included, are going to be gracing the cover of GQ or Muscle and Fitness anytime soon. We are all decently fit guys, but male models with 6% body fat we are not. Some of my accusers are carrying a little, as I like to say, extra shit. That extra subcutaneous fat does not bode well for free testosterone. In the study cited it is thought that sex hormone binding globulin (this stuff sticks to sex hormones thus rendering them useless) gets an upswing when one is carrying extra fat. Strike one.

Now let's take a gander at the living/social situations of my four accusers. Of my two biggest accusers one is married with a kid on the way and the other lives with his girlfriend. Survey says?! Men who are in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone. It's the name of the damn study for crissakes. In our society this is probably a good thing since evidence has shown that lower testosterone leads to better paternal care and problem solving and all that jazz. Whatever, they have lower test. Strike two.

Those are the two biggest factors. We could argue over a strike three all day since the only other things I've found to lower test are piddly shit like types of music, lavender scented things (wtf?), warming up food in plastic containers and blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong, I do everything I can to keep my testosterone high and estrogen low, but at the end of the day I sometimes just say, "Yeah? But who gives and shit?" when confronted with stuff like that.

So let's take stock of where we're at. I've decreased fat mass, increased muscle mass, and perceived myself winning. On the other side of the ball we've got some guys who have a bit of extra weight and are all in committed day-to-day relationships.

So what the hell am I getting at? I'm sure everyone has connected the dots that I think I've experienced an upswing in my testosterone thus leading me to be more aggressive and an otherwise outwardly asshole while I think my accusers have experienced a downswing in testosterone and a possible upswing in estrogen thus rendering them overly sensitive and easily offended by my witty repartee. Open and shut case, right? If you know anything about me then you know if you've been thinking this your new name should be Lord Wrongsley of Dumbassfordshire. Part Two is going explore just what all of this nerdy stuff means. You might be surprised.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21771886 Independent and Additive Contributions of Postvictory Testosterone and Social Experience to the Development of the Winner Effect.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17426100 Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue assessed by magnetic resonance imaging in relation to circulating androgens, sex hormone-binding globulin, and luteinizing hormone in young men.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20433613 Socially explosive minds: the triple imbalance hypothesis of reactive aggression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21403636 Combining behavioral endocrinology and experimental economics: testosterone and social decision making.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2401584 Obese men have elevated plasma levels of estrone sulfate.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3293358 Hormonal abnormalities in obesity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20666639 Between- and within-sex variation in hormonal responses to psychological stress in a large sample of college students.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13129483 Men in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone.

Saturday and Tuesday

2011-08-30T17:04:00.000-07:00

SSB Squat:
135x10
225x10
275x10x3

Close Grip Bench:
95x10
135x10
165x10x3

Cambered Bar Good Morning:
135x10
155x10x2
175x10
185x10

Lat Pull Down:
3x20

Calf Raise:
3x20

After this I drank a bunch of booze and ate a bunch of food. L-I-V-I-N, livin'.

Tuesday:

Squat:
165x5
275x4
340x3
420x2
445x1

315x13
225x20

Dead Lift:
300x3
330x3
365x3x3

RDL:
4x10

This one felt pretty good. The 445 came up faster than it has in some time. Nothing really hurt although I still have the discomfort through the outside of my right thigh. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Song of the Day: The Dopamines- Thankyouverymuch

Thursday

2011-08-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

Bench:
95x5
145x4
185x3
230x2
245x1x3
185x10

Single Arm Row:
100x10
110x10x2
120x10x2

with

DB Lateral Raise:
5x10

Face Pulls:
2x25

with

Shrugs:
2x20

Arm Circuit

Pretty decent session tonight. Bench technique felt solid yet the weight didn't move as fast as I probably would have liked. Such is life. Next week I'll be bumping up my calories so hopefully a little extra weight will help.

Song of the Day: Comeback Kid- The Blackstone

"If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way." -Mark Twain

Tuesday

2011-08-23T15:19:00.000-07:00

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
395x2
445x1
275x15
225x20

RDLs: 176x10x5
w/
Calf Raises: 225x15x5

I'm starting my meet cycle in earnest one week from today so I took things somewhat easy. I also tweaked the everloving shit out of my mid-upper back on Saturday. I had finished my last heavy set of front squats and dropped down to 135 to do a high rep set. On the third rep I must have gotten loose because all of a sudden my back seized up and I could hardly breath without feeling a shooting pain. I quickly realized that it was more or less a severe cramp and I just needed to give it a few days to relax. I was a little nervous going in to today but everything held up just fine.

Song of the Day- Choking Victim- 500 Channels

“Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.” -Oscar Wilde

Thursday

2011-08-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

Bench: 85x5, 145x4, 185x3, 240x2, 255x1

Single Arm Row: 5 sets of 10
w/
DB Front Raise: 4x10

DB Lateral Raise: 4x10
w/
Face Pulls: 3x15

Arms Circuit

Bench felt heavy today. I wasn't very good about getting fluids in me today and I think that played a part. My scale weight is also down a bit and pressing movements are usually the first things to drop when losing weight. Not worried though. Meet is still a ways away.

Song of the Day: Guttermouth- That's Life

"Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." -Henry David Thoreau

Last Couple

2011-08-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

Saturday:

Front Squat: 95x10, 135x10x2, 185x10, 225x10

BTNPP: 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 155x10, 165x10

RDL: 225x10x2, 275x10x3

Monday:

One Clean, Two Press Medley

165 lb. keg
80 lb fat gripz dumbell
191 lb axle
186 lb 10" log

x3 rounds

Tuesday:

Squat: 185x5, 265x4, 340x3, 445x2, 475x1, 225x15x3

Dead Lift (speed): worked up to 405x1x5

Pendlay Rows: 225x6x3
w/
Calf Raises: 275x15x3

Saturday and Tuesday weren't anything out of the ordinary. I was happy I got the last set of front squats on Saturday. The 475 on Tuesday may have been a touch high but I'm not too worried about it right now.

On Monday I got a wild hair up my ass to do some strongman conditioning stuff. That's one hair I wish I would've plucked.

Song of the Day: Wugazi- Nowhere To Wait

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." -Kenji Miyazawa

Thursday

2011-08-11T18:19:00.000-07:00

Bench: 85x5, 145x4, 185x3, 235x2, 250x1, 185x10x2

DB Low Incline Bench: 55x10, 85x8, 8, 10
w/
Sgl Arm Row: 90x10, 105x8, 8, 10

DB Laterals: 3x10, 1x15
w/
Rope Pull Downs: 3x20

Shrugs: 405x8x3

Band Tricep Pushdowns: 3x20
w/
EZ Bar Reverse Curls: 3x12

Shoulder Prehab

Pretty solid session tonight. Upper body can definitely handle a lot more volume than the lower body. I'm really hoping that the extra GPP and muscle mass will be a big help when it comes time to transition to more strength based stuff. I don't know why it wouldn't.

Song of the Day: Banner Pilot- Skeleton Key

"To keep the body in good health is a duty...otherwise we will not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." -Buddha

Tuesday

2011-08-09T16:33:00.000-07:00

Squats: 160x5, 265x4, 340x3, 435x2, 455x1

Pause Squats: 225x5, 275x4, 315x3,3

Speed Dead Lifts: 225x5, 315x3, 365x3x3

Standing Calf Raises: 3x20
w/
1 1/2 Bulgarian Split Squat: 3x10 each leg

Decent 80%er tonight. Squats felt kind of off. I'm not a very good judge of speed when the weight starts to creep up, but the last two sets felt kind of slow and like I was losing my arch a bit. I was playing around with my descent a bit so that may have thrown me off.

Everything else went fine. The 1 1/2 Bulgarians kicked my ass. Long time since I've done these and I know they'll be reminding me of that fact for a few days to come.

Song of the Day: The Flatliners- Mother Teresa Chokeslams the World

"Asses don't kick themselves. You gotta kick them." -The Rock

The Footwear Manifesto

2011-08-09T03:16:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start this post with the disclaimer that I am speaking from a weight room performance perspective first, an overall health perspective second, and a running perspective in a shameful, shameful third. That is to say, I have zero authority to tell you what to put on your feet when you go out and run more than 50 meters at a time. I see a lot of kids with a lot of different shoes on everyday. And some stick out more so than others. On with the show. If you were to go into a modern athletic footwear outlet and put all of the shoes there through a scientific gauntlet, and test a myriad of variables on each, a lot of them would be fairly similar to each other with obvious differences towards the extremes. These numbers don't really mean much to anyone outside of the designers of said shoes and maybe a few researchers. Now, if you did a series of tests on habitual wearers of said footwear you'd likely draw some conclusions as to which shoes are better than others. We'll start with some of the worst offenders.

Reebok Zigs and Nike Shox

If it were up to me I would outlaw these shoes and draw and quarter anyone who had a hand in their creation. These are by far the worst shoes that you could wear to lift weights and/or live your daily life in. The heel-centricity of these shoes basically means you'll live the rest of your life with tight ankles, hamstrings and hips and be weak as a kitten with MD in the same areas. I won't bore you with the biomechanics of the foot, ankle, knee, and hip but suffice it to say these shoes blow.

I can't hear you. Your shoes are too loud.

Every kid I've seen wear these shoes has horrible ankle mobility, weak glutes, and tight-as-piano-string hip flexors. This stems from the fact that you are basically putting on four inch pumps when you slide these guys on. Talk to any women who wears heels on a regular basis and she'll tell you. It ain't fun. The raised heel put a lot of stress through the hip flexors. This causes them to become tight and pull the pelvis into an anterior (forward) tilt. This anterior tilt tightens and weakens the glutes and hamstrings rendering you all but useless when it comes to any type of pursuit that involves any kind of physicality.

The raised heel also shortens the calves which will adapt and stay that way over time. Tight ankles mean that the knee can't bend over the foot when doing anything with the lower body. If you want a recipe for disaster in the form of lower body injuries this shit is the bomb. The Achilles tendon and ACL can only take so much.

A crime against humanity

On top of all this, wearing these shoes feels like wearing a cloud. You're probably saying that's a good thing, right? Wrong. Double wrong. Let's do a test. Take two people and assign one to hard, strenuous, but not back breaking labor and the other to complete bed rest for six months. Which one is going to be better set up to defend themselves against a zombie uprising? It's definitely not the dirty hippie laying in bed because he's trying to prove some stupid point. Same thing happens in your feet. If you keep your foot completely supported and never make it do any work shit gets weak. Everything happens from the ground up and if your feet are weak then you're weak. A weak foot means a weak foot strike when running, it means a weak base of support when squatting, dead lifting, and pressing, and it means a weak blunt object when trying to shit stomp a zombie's skull in. None of these things are good.

What To Wear When Smashing Weight

Every person who has spent a good amount of time training and is above average in strength has a personal favorite shoe to wear. Some like Chuck Taylor's, some like indoor soccer shoes, and some, like me, prefer wrestling shoes. If you can picture all of these shoes they all have something in common: a relatively flat sole that rides close to the ground. Having a flat sole with little cushioning allows you to A) Create space at your hips while squatting, dead lifting, and pressing by being able to sit your hips back. This is what engages your glutes and hamstrings along with your quads. The flat sole also allows you to push your weight to the outside of your foot, keeping your knees towards your pinky toe. If you like your ACLs then you'll try to keep your knee to the pinky toe.

An oldie but goodie.

And B) Keeps you as close to the ground as possible. Being close to the ground keeps you stable. It's the old adage that you can't fire a cannon from a row boat. And you can't squat well with your feet an inch and a half off the ground on top of a bunch of soft cushioning. If you try to tell me something about balance training or relate it to bosu balls then you need to turn your computer off, get in your van and drive outta my face. Seriously, if that thought came into your head never read this blog again.

One caveat to this is that some weirdos prefer to wear Olympic weightlifting shoes. These are shoes that have a wooden, raised heel that is about a half to a quarter inch up. Doing the Olympic lifts in these shoes definitely help, but for the majority of gym lifts I could take them or leave them. For some people the biomechanics of their own body makes these shoes a better, ahem, fit. I've tried these shoes for squatting and other movements in the past and have had mixed results. I like to wear them when I'm trying to target my quads a little more, but don't wear them while doing max effort power lifts. The difference in these shoes and the Zigs and Shox mentioned above is that the sole is completely solid. It's very hard to fall back on them because the heel doesn't give. It's hard and made of wood. Also, they are ONLY worn during lifting. The same things would happen to my lower extremities if I wore these all the time. So don't do it.

My Two Cents On Barefoot Running

Barefoot running or running with minimalist shoes like Vibram's has been gaining a lot of traction as of late. One of the reasons for this are studies that watch African and South American tribesmen, who never wear shoes, run. They strike the ground with their toe or mid foot first with the heel never really making any significant contact. The studies then go on to say that they have healthy joints and muscles and blah blah blah. I don't disagree with the studies. In fact, I fully agree with them. The one detail that gets lost on a lot of people is that THEY HAVE NEVER WORN SHOES. These tribesmen didn't wear heel-centric shoes their whole lives, read an article in a magazine, and suddenly decide to run barefoot. They've been doing it their whole fucking lives. As such they have developed the movement pattern and the support structures (bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles) to support running barefoot. If you are going to give barefoot running a try you first need to give running with shoes with less of a heel drop a try. Then try flat soled shoes. Then try barefoot. You need to build up your body to be able to handle it.

But that's only half the equation. If you've worn shoes your whole life then you have a movement pattern ingrained in you that requires shoes. It takes 10,000 perfect repetitions at something to make it a habit. To make the switch you have to unlearn how to run with shoes and relearn how to run without them. That takes a lot of time. Like months to years of knowing what the hell you are doing. And in the instant gratification society we live in not a lot of people are willing to do that. Or even realize they need to do that if they don't want to hobble around the rest of their lives because they were too lazy to do something the right way. I better stop before I completely change directions. Remember at the beginning when I said I had no authority to tell you what to wear when running? Yeah, I lied.

Some Recommendations

First and foremost I would recommend people to take their shoes off whenever possible while not doing anything strenuous. That being light yard/house work, short walks, or while at work. Forcing your foot to do some work and putting your ankle through a full range of motion is definitely going to help. But like I've said previously, ease into it. You can't go from having shoes on 24/7 to doing everything barefoot and not expect some stuff to hurt, specifically the bottom of your foot, the plantar fascia. Only dummies would do that. Right?

Same goes for everyday flat shoes as for going barefoot. A good starter shoe would probably be the Nike Frees or New Balance Minimus. These shoes are a lot flatter than most but still have a good amount of sole to help your foot work into it.

As for lifting start wearing flat shoes now. It's only while you are lifting so you don't really have to worry about hurting your feet by overdoing anything. Try out the Chucks, soccer shoes, or wrestling shoes and pick which one you like better. Some people even prefer to lift in Frees. While not the best in my mind, one could do a hell of a lot worse.

These make take some time to get used to the different movement pattern that they will put you through, though. Especially when squatting the big thing to remember is to use your heels and the outside of your feet as much as possible.

Friday and The New Training Cycle

2011-08-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

Front Squat: 95x10, 135x10, 175x10x3

BTNPP: 75x10, 95x10, 115x10x3

RDL: 220x10x5

Guns

SPRINTS!!

In case I've failed to mention I'm doing a meet on November 19th in Dubuque. With that being a mere 13 weeks away my training is going to shift from more of a hypertrophy plan to a strength plan. Here is the weekly template:

Day 1: Squat, Deadlift, lighter posterior chain work

Day 2: Bench, upper back and shoulder work

Day 3: Ok, listen close. I'm going to pick a main supplemental exercise for each lift and do rep work with it. So in the example above I did front squats (squat), behind the neck push press (bench), and RDLs (dead lift). I'll keep these lifts to their own day so that I don't over do it on the strength days.

So in the week I'll have two strength days and one rep day. For the first 4 weeks or so I'm going to push some rep maxes and build some work capacity. I'll also have a day or two of conditioning work in there. At about 8 weeks out I'll cut the conditioning and focus more on the one rep strength. I think it's a good plan that will bring me some good results. Only one way to find out. And that's to get it on. Got's to get it on. Got no choice but to get it on.

Song of the Day: The Copyrights- Hell Will Be Party Time

"How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know what is in thee." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wednesday

2011-08-03T18:34:00.000-07:00

Bench: 85x5, 145x4, 185x3, 215x2, 245x1, 165x10x3

Single Arm Row: 3x10
w/
Db Side Lateral: 3x10

Band Shrugs: 3x20
w/
EZ Bar Reverse Curl: 3x12

Another lightish session. Just easing back into things. The regular bar felt a little weird in my hands after months of fat bar but I'm sure it won't take long to get used to it.

Ted Nugent is not bad at guitar.

Song of the Day: Ted Nugent- Great White Buffalo

"You are the only person on earth who can use your talent." -Zig Ziglar

Tuesday

2011-08-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

Squat: 160x5, 265x4, 315x3, 395x2, 445x1, 225x10x3

Deadlift: 315x3x3

Glad I decided to fore go doing 475 for 1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3. Based on how 445 felt it would've been a no go. Instead I'm going to ease into my meet cycle. The actual cycle is going to be 12 weeks starting in two weeks. Until then I'm going to throttle back a bit and work into it. I'll lay out what I'm going to be doing for the 12 weeks a little later this week.

As requested by Eric.

Song of the Day: Dethklok- Hatredcopter

“What is difficulty? Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a mere notice of the necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a stimulus to men” -Samuel Warren

Friday

2011-07-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

Deadlift: 515x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

45` Back Ext.: 3x12

Leg Curls: 3x15
w/
Leg Press Calf Raises: 3x20

Pulldown Abs: 3x12

Deadlifts were a smoke show tonight. One thing that I've struggled with in the past is getting decent leg drive when the weight gets heavy. Used to be that my ass would kick out and up and I'd essentially do a rounded back RDL. I really felt like I was pushing through my feet and pushing the weight up. Felt damn good. Hammies felt a little better this week.

Song of the Day: Dillinger Four- Who Didn't Kill Bambi?

"We shouldn't be looking for heroes; we should be looking for good ideas." -Noam Chomsky

Wednesday

2011-07-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Fat Bar Bench: 250x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

DB Low Incline: 5x10

Single Arm Row: 5x8 @ 100's
w/
DB Lateral Raise: 4x10

BW Chins: 4x6
w/
BW Dips: 4x10

Hammer Curls: 3x10
w/
Tate Press: 2x15

Decent session. Nothing to get excited about. Everything felt about as it should. Solid 80%er.

Song of the Day: Sepultura- Rumors

“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” -James Anthony Froude

Tuesday

2011-07-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

Squats: 135x5, 225x4, 315x3, 405x1, 455x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Bulgarian Split Squats: 4x10

Calf Raises: 275x12x3

Today was a grind. The 455 felt heavy from the first rep. One thing that Matt and I noticed was that I have decent speed coming out of the bottom, but I tend to slow as I come up. This is the opposite of what is supposed to happen. My guess is that once I know a squat is in the bag I don't relax, but I don't put the necessary force into the bar to keep it accelerating. I'm thinking I do this to save myself for the following reps. This is definitely something I need to fix for when I begin my meet prep and I'm dealing with heavy singles.

Other than that I was happy with the session. I'm going to have to think long and hard about whether I'll try 475 next week or drop it down.

This song definitely helped me bust through and drive up my third double.

The Lawrence Arms- Recovering the Opposable Thumb
Song of the Day: http://youtu.be/YIez4D-C40Y

“What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but his opposition, to his instincts. In one direction or another he strives to live a supernatural life.” -Henry David Thoreau

Friday

2011-07-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

Snatch: up to 208x1

Deadlift: 500x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Glute Ham: 3x10

Leg Curl: 3x15
w/
Leg Press Calf Raise: 3x25

Deadlifts felt pretty fantastic last night. All of the reps were done from a dead stop. This means that on the 2's and 3's I didn't bounce the weight off the platform. This makes things a bit more difficult. Also, the weight was supposed to be 495 but screw that. Nobody climbs Mt. Everest to stop twenty feet from the summit. Right? Right.

I'm beginning to think I don't have hamstrings. I'm not sure what it is but when I do posterior chain work I can feel my low back and my glutes and that's about it. This is something that needs to be addressed. I think maybe some more direct activation in my warm up is what is needed.

Song of the Day: Joe Cocker's Feelin' Alright

"Ability is nothing without opportunity." -Napoleon Bonaparte

The Question

2011-07-21T19:07:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was at a party with some college friends and friends of friends. Being that most of us have stayed active and participate in the "physical culture" the topic of training came up. During the conversation the inevitable question came out.

"What do you think of P90X?"

My first reaction is to cringe. My second reaction is to laugh disapprovingly in the questioners face. My third reaction is to say, "Shit's stupid. You need to skwaat!"

But this is a tricky question with many different levels that I've been thinking about a lot lately. It really has nothing to do with what I think about P90X or Insanity or Barry's Boot Camp or Hip Hop Abz as a system. That's irrelevant. As a fitness professional it is not my job to automatically dismiss a prepackaged system and say it's a waste of time.

I know it's bad form to answer a question with another question but this is what I feel needs to be done. Here's a sample dialogue of how it would go.

Trainee: So Troy I've been doing Kim Kardashian's 90 Days to a Better Booty DVD. What are you thoughts on it?

Me: Well, I don't really know anything about it. Do you enjoy doing it?

Trainee: Yeah it's kind of fun and it's something that I enjoy doing on my off days.

Me: Are you getting the results that you wanted to get from it?

Trainee: Yeah, check this out. You could rest a coffee mug on my ass.

Me: Sounds like it's working great for you. Stick with it.

That was obviously the best case scenario. Here is how it could go differently.

Trainee: Hey Troy, I read this article in MuscleRag called, "Six Weeks to Amazing Arms" and decided to give it a try. What do you think of the routine?

Me: Don't know anything about it. Describe it to me.

Trainee: Well it has me do A, B, C, and D exercises for X number of sets and Z number of reps.

Me: Are you getting the results it promised?

Trainee: Not really. I did the full six weeks and my arms haven't grown at all.

Me: Hmm, well based on your own body and what I've seen work for you in the past let's try this and that exercise for XYZ sets and reps instead. Try that and tell me how it works.

Trainee: Ok, thanks. I'll get back to you.

You'll notice a few themes. In both cases I knew nothing of the training system yet didn't immediately shoot them down and say, "Do this and this. That other shit is pointless." In the first example the system was working great and getting the trainee the desired results. Why fix it if it ain't broke?

In the second example the trainee was not getting the desired results. This is both good and bad. It's bad that he spent six weeks and got nothing to show for it. It's good in that he found something that didn't work for him so he'll no longer waste six weeks, or any time for that matter, on something that won't work even though MuscleRag said it would.

Thomas Edison once said, "I didn't fail. I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work."

That right there is the heart of the matter. If something works, ride it until it doesn't. If something doesn't work change things up and give it another go. Consistent, well thought out change is essential to progress. Program jumping and trying to mash multiple different training styles into one is not.

One thing that I've tried hard to do is to not be the carpenter with only a hammer that sees everything as a nail. There are many many ways to achieve the results that you want to achieve regardless of what they are. There are, however, ways that work better than others. It all comes down to what your goals are, what your time frame is (within the realms of reality), and what you are willing to do to achieve said goals.

The same goes for nutrition. You could follow Atkins, South Beach, Macronutrient Cycling, Mediterranean, etc ad nasuem. For every person that wants to change their body composition, whether it be lose fat, gain muscle, or both, there are that many different ways to do it. Like the training aspect there are ways that will work better for each person. What works great for one person could cause another to go backwards. It's all about finding what works. And the only real way is through trial and error. I could go on but that would be opening a new can of worms and is probably best saved for its own post.

The take home is that there is nothing that is completely useless. If someone enjoys a particular way of training and likes the results they get who the hell am I to tell them differently? Likewise, if someone is dissatisfied with their training program and/or its results than I am all the happier to help remedy the situation through a well thought out change in the program.

Wednesday

2011-07-20T18:36:00.000-07:00

Fat Bar Bench: 245x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Low Incline DB Bench: 3x8, 1x15

Arnold Press: 3x8

Weighted Chins: 3x6
w/
Weighted Dips: 3x10

Tate Press: 3x12
w/
Zottman Curls: 3x10

Lots of volume tonight. My upper body can usually take a pretty good beating and recover pretty quickly. Belly button down is another story.

Benching felt ok. I think my bench is down right now due to my squat and deadlift numbers being high. I usually go in cycles like this. When my bench is doing awesome my squat and DL numbers are usually down and vice versa. So it goes.

I apologize for the non embedded videos. Blogger is being a bitch recently.

Song of the Day: http://youtu.be/RbIGuLXCziU

"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." -Bertrand Russell

Tuesday

2011-07-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

Squat: 135x5, 225x4, 315x3, 405x1, 435x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Front Squat: 135x8, 225x6, 275x6

Bulgarian Split Squat: 3x10

Squats felt much better than last week. Hitting my depth was a non issue, nothing hurt, and none of the sets felt like ball busters. I'll take it. If I can get through next week at 455 and the following week at 475 before I have to reset I'll be pretty damn happy about where my strength is at. But I gotta do the work first.

Song of the Day: http://youtu.be/Bc1vDw-5Tgc

"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work." -Mark Twain

Friday

2011-07-15T18:01:00.000-07:00

Snatch: 198x1/1, 208x2 huge embarrassing failures

Deadlift: 485x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

RDLs: 315x10x3

Shrugs: 315x20x2
w/
Leg Press Calf Raise: 2x20

Snatches felt really awkward. I haven't done them in 6 weeks or so and it showed. On my last attempt I caught the bar in the squat position, fell to my right knee in an attempt to save it, realized that wasn't going to happen and as I dumped it to the front of me my right leg kicked forward and I broke the bar's fall with my shin. Snatches: 1, Troy: 0

Deadlifts felt good. Nothing too straining. I kept my belt loose to force my belly to work a little harder. I could feel myself round forward but nothing bad. Oh, and I tore a callous on my last set. It's always the last one.

I've got zero plans this weekend and I love it. Time to chillax.

Song of the Day:http://youtu.be/sBqUSVIe52Y

“A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation... is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run.” -George Matthew Adams

Wednesday

2011-07-14T05:07:00.000-07:00

Fat Bar Bench: 175x5, 205x4, 225x3, 245x2, 265x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/1/1/1

Log Press: up to 185x1, 120x10x2

Chest Supported Row: 3x10
w/
DB Side Laterals: 3x10

Gun Show

This session was one for the dumpster. I'll be backing my bench numbers back down to 245 next week and then I'll progress up by 5 pounds each week. I was hoping to get to 275 before I would have to back down, but that's life.

Log press actually felt pretty good. The 185 was strict with no knee bend so I was happy with that.

My forearms are still jacked up from water skiing so everything after that was blah.

Song of the Day:

“Even the knowledge of my own fallibility cannot keep me from making mistakes. Only when I fall do I get up again.” -Vincent van Gogh

Tuesday- Squats

2011-07-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Squats: 225x5, 315x4, 355x3, 385x2, 415x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Front Squats: 135x8, 225x8, 275x4

Speed Skater Squats: 3x10

Calf Raises: 4x15

Cold Tub: x10mins

Squats felt off until about the last two sets. Not sure what it was. I'm guessing I'm still feeling the effects of water skiing for the first time on Sunday morning. My gracili (sp?) (lower, inside part of the thigh.) were still lit up. Worked through it and the last two sets felt awesome.

In other news Team Murder Death Kill failed to bring home the Second Annual Flippy Cup Championship. We lost in the championship match in Game 7. Total disappointment but we will be back. And we'll be taking what's ours.

This song is for Team What The Flip!?.

Song of the Day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdfkdVmmLeA

"But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated." -Ernest Hemingway

Friday

2011-07-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

Dead Lift: 225x5, 315x4, 405x3, 440x2, 475x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3/

RDLs: 225x15x3
w/
Shrugs: 315x20x3

Pretty good session considering I wasn't feeling all that fresh going in. The dead lifts felt heavy but nothing took any extra effort to get up. RDLs and shrugs felt ok. My grip was trashed so I used straps. I have baby hands and I'm ashamed of them. Seriously, I'm like a carnie.

Tomorrow team Murder Death Kill will reign supreme. There will be much bloodshed.

Song of the Day:

Be not simply good; be good for something." -Henry David Thoreau

Troy Dequaine's Top Ten Non-Steroidal Performance Enhancers Part 1

2011-07-07T18:07:00.000-07:00

1. Being American

Uh, Rocky? Anyone? If you're an American you've got 200+ years of an ass-kicking, big pipe-swinging, take-no-shit-from-anyone tradition behind you. When you need that last little bit of oomph to get you through a workout all you need to do is think of George Washington, Pearl Harbor, the moon landing, Chuck Norris, Momma's sweet apple pie and fucking democracy and you should be able to power through a brick wall should you so choose.

ROCK, FLAG, AND EAGLE!

One thing that this country needs to get back to is electing people based on how well they kill people. Many of our past leaders were great enders-of-life. Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, George Washington, and the like. All of them fucked some dudes up. Shit, Jackson used to duel with pistols like it was a game of badminton or something. Now, not so much. Used to be that the President and other elected officials gave a damn. Now everybody is only out for themselves and their agenda. We need more asskickers and name takers and less politically correct douchebags. I don't care who's toes get stepped on or who's face gets pushed in with a club because they deserved it, I want progress.

Ol' Hickory himself killed more than a few men.

2. Eating Meat

I can't believe it's 2011 and I need to talk about this. Eating meat is one of the most primal things that you as a human can do. Meat is chock full of the stuff that it takes to build muscles, namely amino acids. When you don't eat meat two things happen:

You don't build new muscle on top of the muscle you already have.
You start to atrophy. That is, your muscles waste away.

Go to any local vegan restaurant and look at the patrons. Twigs. Or worse, skinny fat. They've got zero muscle mass, but a whole lot of fat. They claim to be healthy but couldn't dig their way out of a shallow grave of zombie corpses if their life depended on it (which it will). Pathetic.

Eating meat allows you to absorb not only the amino acids and other micro nutrients present in the meat, but that animal's soul and power as well. I've got a whole army of steer, fowl, and swine waiting at the ready to be released on some unsuspecting fool. Think you can get that from eating celery and eggplant all day? You're California dreaming if you do.

One of my minions.

3. Aggressive Driving

You know how you feel when you get off a roller coaster? You feel like you could take on the world, right? Well, you can get that feeling everyday. When you drive aggressively you stimulate the stress response which releases, among other things, adrenaline. Tailgate, cut people off, make your own lanes, cause a few "almost" accidents on your way to the gym and get ready to set some new PRs. In other words, always drive like you've got a woman in labor in your back seat and you've got to get to the hospital before she splatters placenta all over the carpet. And if you get stuck in traffic use the Homer Simpson method: Gas, brake, honk. Gas, brake, honk. Honk, honk, punch. Gas, gas, gas.

This guy is ready to crush it in the gym.

4. Getting Enough Sleep

Who doesn't like to sleep? I know I do. I wish I could sleep more. When you don't get enough sleep you get groggy, cranky, sick, and, if it goes on long enough, die. The best part about sleep is all the stuff that goes on physiologically that we aren't even aware of. When you are asleep your body is like a construction site with all the recovery going on. If you give your body the right stimulus by throwing some heavy weights around you'll be laying down muscle, taking away fat to restore energy, and ingraining all the neat-o things you learned through the day. Plus, if you've ever taken a mid-day nap and woken up and immediately started killing it productivity wise you know that sleep is important. So dominate, rest, repeat.

5. Loud, Angry Music

You know that song that comes on and when you hear it you want to throw a tank at the nearest member of al-Qaeda? What is it about that song that makes you want to do that besides your burning hatred of al-Qaeda? (You do hate al-Qaeda, right?)

Regardless of what type of music you listen to it's probably has an uptempo beat and lyrics that are sung fast. Well, there is no music that is better at that than punk and/or metal. Hard driving guitars, insanely fast double kick drum beats, and lyrics that are both aggressive in the message and the delivery are what metal and punk are all about. Not only that but ingesting aggression in the form of music leads to aggression expressed outwardly by the listener. Channel that aggression and you're half way to scoring six touchdowns in your life's equivalent of the Super Bowl. Which is probably racing your kids up the stairs or bowling four strikes in a row on league night.

This man has created more PRs than any other in history.

Troy Dequaine's Top Ten Non Steroidal Performance Enhancers Part 2

2011-07-07T17:49:00.001-07:00

6. Using Power Tools

Nothing gets the juices flowing like being 4 inches away from living the rest of my life with 9.5 fingers or getting a screw permanently lodged in my abdomen. Every time I hold a power tool in my hand I feel like I could take on an army of Nazi zombies single-handedly. But seriously, using tools makes you a man. Whenever you saw a board in half you grow four curly chest hairs. Whenever you drive home a screw your voice lowers ever so slightly. And whenever you chainsaw a tree into oblivion your testicles grow in diameter by 6.5%. And ladies, using power tools does not actually make you a man. But using power tools will make me attracted to you. If that's what you're after.

Master carpenter and a lover of meat. "You had me at meat tornado." -Ron Swanson

Using tools and building stuff also ups your utility factor. People that are useful are good. People that are useless for no other reason other than that they are lazy are bad and should be shuttled off to a deserted island and left to their own useless devices. That way they can all be useless together and die because everyone is too lazy to microwave a goddam burrito. I think I just learned something about myself.

7. Thinking About Things You Hate

Thinking about things you hate makes you angry. Right now you're saying, "No shit, Troy. What's your point?" My point is that properly directed, that anger can really help you in the gym and out on the field, court, road, ocean, whatever. When we get angry we experience a rise in heart rate and blood pressure. There is also and increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol. I.e. the hormone that makes you angry increases and the hormone that prevents you from dealing with said anger decreases.

Why? Our bodies evolved to handle stress. And that stress usually came as a saber tooth tiger staring us down and wanting to make us dinner. That early hunter's body is doing the exact same thing as a modern day man's body that is experiencing road rage. The only difference was that the hunter wasn't going to sit down with the tiger and talk about feelings, and why he wanted to eat him, and let's just all coexist and blah blah blah. That hunter high tailed it out of there. Or stayed and fought, and won, and had Kitten Surprise for dinner.

Same thing happens in the gym. Think about how shitty traffic was that day or the old guy at the bank who took forever because he wanted a two dollar bill because it's his grandson's birthday you know and he's got to send him a card with that oh so rare bill from the U.S. Treasury. Is your urge to kill rising? Good, go lift some weights or run a race or kill some wild game. It'll be good for you.

8. Caffeine and Other Stimulants

I'm not really sure where I would be without caffeine. Nope, check that. I know where I'd be. Probably in a gutter somewhere crying myself to sleep. Or just asleep. Caffeine is by far the most used drug in America. It's also by far the most used drug by me. Caffeine's effects on the body are numerous. When ingested it blocks the release of adenosine which is a neurotransmitter that produces a calming effect on the body. This in turn causes the adrenal glands to release adrenaline. We all know what adrenaline does. With enough of that stuff in your veins you can lift turned-over cars off of (or on to, whatever, I don't judge) newborn babies.

The only downside to caffeine is that once a tolerance is built up it no longer has the same effects. So instead of one cup of coffee to get me going I now need the whole damn pot. And a few huffs of ammonia. But that's another post all together.

Another stimulant that I've enjoyed recently is ephedra. Or ephedrine. Whichever one is still available. Ephedrine's effects are much like caffeine. Increased alertness, increased heart rate, all that jazz. The good part is that it's like taking caffeine for the first time every time. I'm wired, amped and ready to go go gadget BEAST MODE.

If you do a bit of googleing on either of these supplements you'll find that in a lot of studies they don't actually increase performance over a placebo. But the subjects do report increased alertness. Hmm. Maybe the authors of said study are looking at the wrong kinds of things. I know that caffeine and ephedrine aren't going to increase my maximal leg extension. Nor will it let me go further past exhaustion on my 80% 1RM lat pull down test. I don't lift (and I'm guessing no one does) like I'm in a study. I lift to get bigger and stronger. I do what I want, when I want, however I want. And stimulants are the prod that gets me out of the chair and into the gym.

9. Doing Things You Hate

Some things I hate to do: getting up early, drive long distances alone, soft tissue work, help people move, cook, and clean. I'm sure that there are things that you hate to do in the gym or in practice for your sport. More likely than not it's in the doing of said thing that will make you better. I'm not a huge fan of doing high rep sets but I know they are great for building muscle and strength endurance, so I do them. I'm not a fan of conditioning work but I do enough to stay in moderately good shape.

Anyone can do the things they like to do. When we do things we hate or are afraid of mental toughness is built. If you can say, "Fuck it, I hate squatting but I'm going to take that bar to pound town." once, you can do it again. And again. And soon enough you may still hate to squat but you won't think twice about doing it because you know that squatting makes you strong, rich, smart, resistant to edge weapons and irresistible to the opposite sex.

10. Winning

They say a true competitor is someone who hates to lose more than they like to win. Very true. If someone challenges me to something I have to beat them. It's why I grew my beard for five months in college. It's why I call out a seven year-old's nonsense rules when playing catch with a roll out ball. And it's why I'll push that seven year-old to the ground if they even think about beating me in a foot race.

Let me ask you a question. What's got two thumbs and dominated Twister at the 2011 Circle of Friends Winter Trip?

This guy.

Were most of the competitors under 12? Yes. Were most of them female? Yes. Did they like the fact that I was dominating the game due to my size, strength, reaction time, and strategic advantage? Probably not. Should they get better for next time? Yes. It's simple as that.

"You don't like it? Get better." -Jeff Voris, my college football coach to us after we got our asses handed to us.

I once read a story about Brian Cox, who played middle linebacker for the Jets, Bears, and Dolphins, who when challenged by his kids to race to the top of the stairs would push them down and run up the stairs leaving them in a crying mess at the bottom. I'm sure he didn't take much pleasure in it, he just had to win. That's a true competitor. To steal a page from Charlie Sheen, "Winning!"

Sources:

http://www.overcaffeinated.org/effects-of-caffeine-on-the-body.php

Wednesday

2011-07-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

Fat Bar Bench: 265x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/2.5

Log Press: x10,8,7,6

Chest Supported Row: 3x10 @ 70s
w/
DB Side Laterals: 4x10

Face Pulls: 3x12
w/
Db Skull Crushers: 3x10

Fat Bar Curls: 3x10

Decent session tonight. I knew the bench was going to be tough. I'm going to give 265 a ride again next week. If I get all my reps I'll move up 5 lbs. If not I'll drop it back some. The triples are always the ones that get me. I do fine on the first two reps and then I need to breath and lose my tightness. I think I just need to be able to keep my air in my stomach while I breath. Another thing to work on.

I apologize for the lack of cool material like articles and non training update posts. I've busy the last few weekends and NX Level is hopping from morning to night. I've got a few articles in the hopper that just need a few finishing touches and a few floating around the ol' noggin. Soon my pretties, soon.

Song of the Day:

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live." -Henry David Thoreau

Tuesday

2011-07-05T19:51:00.000-07:00

Squat: 135x5, 225x4, 315x3, 355x2, 395x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Front Squat: 135x10, 185x8, 205x8, 225x8

Front Elevated Split Squat: 2x10 per leg

Squatted superultramega raw tonight. I forgot my belt at NX Level so I had to do without. I surprised myself a little bit. Only the last triple was above a 7 on my rate of perceived exertion scale, AKA, RPE. Front squats actually felt pretty good considering I haven't done them in a coon's age. I can definitely feel that my abdomen got some work without the belt. This is good though. Gives me confidence moving forward. I'll be battling 400+ next week. It'll be the first time touching more than four bills in a few months. No choice but to get it on. Raw is War.

I also had a little motivation from my training partner tonight.

Not at the table, Saxon.

Song of the Day:

"Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me." -Charles F. Kettering

Weekend of Freedom Recap

2011-07-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend. I let Freedom ring loud and strong. Liberties were celebrated and Freedoms were taken advantage of. Saturday started off with some doing the piss out of some errands. Then I went over to Lance's and celebrated the formation of this great land with the grilling of meats. I got to play grill master and kind of surprised myself. I didn't think I knew my way around a grill that well. I guess it's either sink or swim, and I swam it into the ground. The other part of my contribution to the party was vodka soaked Gummi worms. The worms themselves were ok to good. But the strained "juice" that reconstituted into a huge jell-o shot in the fridge was dy-no-mite.

Sunday was a great day. Lance, Katie- Lance's girlfriend- her sister Kristin, Eric, and myself went to New London, WI to do river float. This is where you get a tube, they bus you a few miles upriver, and you float back. Great day in the sun drinking a few beers and getting the shit beaten out of our legs on the rocks in the river bed. This will probably become an Independence Day tradition. The best part is that the only rules on the river are 1. Clean up after yourself and 2. Don't trespass. Other than that it's anything goes. You can stop mid river, set up shop, and get blind drunk and then float the rest of the way. Some people definitely took full advantage of that.

Monday Lance and I brought Eric back to Chicago. The end of the weekend was definitely bitter-sweet. Lance's truck, Big Red, started pissing oil on the way back. That trip was probably the last hurrah for the old girl. R.I.P Big Red, 1995-2011. Mourn ya til I join ya.

I also trained on Monday. It wasn't anything special. I purposely put a training day on Sunday/Monday to keep myself from going overboard on Saturdays. Whoops. After this coming weekend I will be refocusing on the meet in November and the social life will take a back seat of sorts. I'm actually looking forward to it in a way.

Song of the Day:

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.” -Henry David Thoreau

Wednesday and Friday and America's Birthday

2011-07-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Wedenesday:

Fat Bar Bench: 255x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Log Press: 3x10

Side Laterals: 3x10
w/
Face Pulls

Gun Show

Friday:

Dead Lift: 465x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

RDLs: 308x10x3

Pendlay Rows: 220x10x2

Shrugs: 405x10x3

Shoulder felt a lot better on Wednesday than it did last week. My technique felt a little off though. I've lost a little weight and I think that has a lot to do with it. Other than that it's business as usual.

Dead lifts felt fast and smooth tonight. If I keep upping it ten pounds per week I think I could probably carry it into the 525ish range. RDLs were tough and by the time I got to rows I was beat. Ephedrine and heat will do that to you.

I'm pretty jacked for this weekend as I usually get excited for patriotic holidays. BBQ tomorrow afternoon. River float with some beers and buds on Sunday. Then on Monday I'm going to commit as many petty crimes and exploit as many liberties and freedoms as I can think of within the confines of my property. Ripping tags off mattresses, setting off fireworks, not going to church, saying whatever I want as long as it doesn't incite a riot, maybe get drunk, break noise ordinances, print my own currency, disturb the shit out of the peace, dig holes without looking for gas lines, maybe fake steal something from Kirk my upstairs neighbor, and probably pursue a little happiness in the process. Who knows. The possibilities are endless. It's what the Founding Father's would have wanted. Plus, it's my property. I should be able to do whatever the hell I want as long as it puts no one else in danger. That's what the Founding Fathers would want me to do.

Tuesday

2011-06-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

Squat: 375x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Close Stance, Yam-Bag-To-Carpet Squats: 275x10x3

Front Foot Elv. Split Squats: 3x10 each leg

Cold Tub x 10 minutes

Awesome session today. No PRs but the 375 felt like 135 the whole way through. My mobility felt great and there were no aches or pains. I think it was a combo of the ephedrine and the playlist of nothing but Mastadon, Lamb of God, and Dethklok. Those three bands melt faces.

Hopefully the cold tub will help keep some of the soreness I've been having after Tuesdays at bay. I didn't use ice but I'm not sure if I would've been able to handle it if I had. Time for food.

Song of the Day:

"Rock and Roll: music for the neck downward." -Keith Richards

The Freakin' Weekend

2011-06-27T04:54:00.000-07:00

Friday I drove up to Wausau for the Circle of Friends' annual golf outing fundraiser. I was stationed at hole #4 in the Bacardi Tent. It was my job to sling drinks and I think I did a pretty good job. It's always a lot of fun and it's great to see people rally around a great cause. The only bad part of the trip was the drive home. Oshkosh has decided to do all of their road construction right now. Not only are a lot of on/off ramps closed, but so is an entire stretch of highway 45. I spent about 30 minutes driving aimlessly in Oshkosh before I finally found my way to the highway. I don't like Oshkosh.

Saturday morning I trained. It went ok. It was hot.

Deadlift: 455x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

RDLs: 315x10x2

Shrugs: 405x10x3

Saturday some friends and I went and celebrated the marriage of our good friend Dave Pick and his lovely bride Maggie McGinn. The wedding was held at the McGinn family farm. The weather was beautiful, the food was great, and the bar was open. I took full advantage and I'll leave it at that.

Sunday Jake had a strongman show at Bradford Beach in Milwaukee. He competed against heavyweight amateurs and a few other lightweight pros. And he smoked them all. He took first place and pocketed a good chunk of change in the process. Congrats Jake.

Late afternoon Sunday I was having a wrestling match in my head over whether or not I was going to train. The "go train" wrestler won out and I labored out to the garage. It was a lackluster session to say the least. Probably because my sweat at this point was about 38% vodka. I probably got nothing out of it, but oh well I got through it.

Press: 155x1/2/3/1/2/3

BTNPP: 135x8x2

Pendlay Rows: 225x8x2

Gun Show

I then took the dog for a jog and he got tired before I did. Win.

Song of the Day:

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” -Nietzsche

Wednesday

2011-06-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

Fat Bar Bench: 245x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 175x10, 195x10

DB Incline: 3x10, 2x15

Face Pulls: 3x15
w/
Side Laterals: 3x10

Gun Show

Felt some junkiness in my right shoulder tonight so I didn't push the assistance stuff too hard. I think I'm a bit impinged and I've probably got a pretty gnarly knot up in there. Other than that everything felt ok. The bench didn't move quit as fast as I had hoped but I'm not too concerned. Yet. If next weeks 255 feels crappy I'll have to relook at some stuff. Namely my diet.

Song of the Day:

"When one jumps over the edge, one is bound to land somewhere." -D.H. Lawrence

Tuesday

2011-06-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

Squats: 355x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 245x10x3

Split Squats: 5x10

RDLs: 225x15x2

I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

Song of the Day:

"The middle of the road is where the white line is/ and that's the worst place to drive." -Robert Frost

New England Weekend

2011-06-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend myself, my aunt Patti and uncle Matt, my other uncle Mike and my two cousins Alyssa and Hannah were treated to an all expenses paid trip- courtesy of Grandma Donna- to New England where Mike, Alyssa, and Hannah live. It was a great weekend filled with whale watching, softball and baseball, awesome New England/Bostonian food, and family that I haven't seen in quite some time.

The last time I saw my cousins Alyssa and Hannah was 14 years ago. I was twelve, Alyssa was six, and Hannah had just been born. I remember trying to hold Hannah and all she did was cry. Being as I was a too cool for school twelve year-old and Alyssa only being six I don't think we interacted much. How the times have changed. In the 14 years since we last saw each other they've grown into two beautiful, smart, intrepid young women.

Alyssa is an International Relations major at Tufts University. She recently went on a trip to Pakistan and India and met with and interviewed officials from both countries nuclear arms programs. After undergrad she plans to go to medical school. To put it into perspective my nineteenth year of life was spent getting into trouble with the law twice for underage drinking and growing out my hair. That girl is wicked smaht, as they say in New England.

Hannah is going to be going into her freshman year of high school in the fall and is now the reigning jock of the family. We got to watch her play in a softball tournament this past weekend and her team "mercy-ruled" a couple of other teams. This is where Hannah's team was beating the other team so badly that the other coach got down on his knees and begged Hannah's coach for mercy. It was quite a scene.

One of the highlights of the weekend was going whale watching. Our tour guide was scientist named Leah who was doing research on the whales in the region. If you ever get the chance to go on one I highly recommend it. Seeing the animals up close is impressive to say the least. We also got lucky and got to see a super pod of Atlantic White Fin Dolphins. There were a couple hundred animals in the super pod and they looked like they were having a good time out in the ocean jumping around and riding the wake of the boat. It's going to be a dark day for humanity when those things develop opposable thumbs.

The best part of being on a whale watching tour is seeing the entire boat turn into a group of eager third graders. We all want to be the first one to spot a whale. We all want to get a great picture. We all want Leah to see that we did a good job. And when some animals are finally spotted things get kind of crazy.

"Lookoverthereablowhole!Yousaid"blowhole"!Ohyeahawesome!Isthatahumpbackwhale?Coolthetailcameoutofthewaterhe'sgoingdown!Waitarethosedolphins?ThoseAREdolphins!YEAHDOLPHINS!They'replayingwiththeboat!Iwannapetone!Iwannarideone!Thatwouldbesocool!There'sanotherwhaleoverthere!YESmorewhales!What'shisname?Sedge?HISEDGE!Areyouhungry?Ibethe'sreallyhungry!He'sgoingdownagain?HemustbeREALLYhungry!

And that was just Grandma Donna and Patti. But seriously, it is pretty exhilarating to see the animals in the wild.

Sunday we all watched the Brewers get embarrassed by the Red Sox at Fenway. The Brewers gave up six runs in the first and by then it was over. I kept talking about the train making a turn to Comeback City but apparently that stop had been removed from the schedule. After the game we got some pasta and dessert at a small restaurant in the North End. (If you've never driven in Boston I don't recommend it. I'm pretty sure the road system was designed by a four year-old with a crayon taped to his hand. He scribbled all over some blank wall and another guy nodded and said, "It's just crazy enough to work. All right boys, let's make it happen!" I'm glad all I had to do was sit back and take in the scenery.) I also had my first cannoli and it was beyond delicious. It's well known I have a massive sweet tooth and I was not disappointed. A nice big sugar bomb to round out the weekend was just what I needed. After dessert we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. A bittersweet end to a great weekend. Thank you Grandma, Patti, Matt, Mike, Alyssa, and Hannah.

Wednesday

2011-06-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

Fat Bar Bench: 235x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 175x10x2

DB Incline: 4x10

Face Pulls: 3x15
w/
DB Side Laterals: 3x12

Skull Crushers: 3x12
w/
Band Tri Pushdown: 3x20

Pretty good session tonight. All of the above plus warm up only took me 90 minutes. I think there is something off structurally with my upper body. Towards the end I could feel my right side just kind of deflate while my left side was still working. I think it has to do with the fact that my collar bone sits a bit higher on my right side at my AC joint (where your neck meets your chest). Not entirely sure why that would be, it's just a hunch. I've also always noticed that my left side is a bit more developed than my right. Not a big deal because there has never been a strength discrepancy. If I ever start bodybuilding, which I won't, then I'll worry about it.

Song of the Day:

"I am getting so far out one day I won't come back at all." -William S. Burroughs

Tuesday

2011-06-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Squats: 335x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3, 225x10x3

Split Squats: 3x10

RDLs: 2x15

Awesome session today. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, I'm outside at West Allis Barbell, shirt's off (sun's out, guns out), and the clanging of iron weights is ringing in my ears. That's livin' man. L-i-v-i-n, livin'. My legs feel pretty thrashed right now. Definitely got some wobbly knee going on. It's a good feeling though and one I haven't felt in a while. With that said, I've still got some hip mobility issues to work out mainly in the hip flexors. Specifically, my illiopsoases. Just need some extra soft tissue work and stretching. Story of my life.

Song of the Day:

“These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” -William James

Badass Flags In Honor of Flag Day

2011-06-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

The Gadsen Flag

The Gadsen Flag was designed by and is named after Christopher Gadsen, an American general and statesman from the Revolutionary War days. Its roots can be traced back to Ben Franklin's satirical cartoons from the 1750's. It is also the motivation for the Metallica song Don't Tread On Me. Any time you are the impetus for a metal song you've done something right. Unless you're Hitler or something like that.

The only thing I don't like about the flag is that the Tea Party has adopted it as their symbol. I think the Tea Party would gain a little bit more traction in America if they didn't have complete nutjobs like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as the stars of the Party. Those bitches is crazy.

It's symbolism is obvious. The rattlesnake represents the original thirteen colonies which were populated with rattlesnakes. The legend, DONT TREAD ON ME, was a message to the British that we were not to be fucked with. The rattlesnake doesn't provoke attacks and even sends a warning when would be harm doers get too close. But once shit hits the fan that rattlesnake will fight like hell, never surrender, and die in the process if need be. Long story short, the rattlesnake won. America, bitches.

The Come and Take It Flag

Here's the lowdown. In 1831 some Mexican officials gave a small bronze cannon to the colony of San Antonio. It was then transported to Gonzales, Texas. When the Texas Revolution began in 1835 the same Mexican officials that gave Texas the cannon ordered them to give it back. The Texans then sent a message to the Mexican government with the same message that is emblazoned on the flag. Mexico got all huffy and tried to do just that. This resulted in a monumental fail the size of...well, Texas. The best part is that the Mexicans were driven back and defeated by the very cannon that they had given away. Stupid idiots.

The Bedford Flag

I'm not going to lie. I'm not really sure what is going on with this flag. According to some traditions it was the first battle flag to fly in the American Revolution. It was fashioned by the Bedford Minutemen and may have flown at Concord, Massachusetts when the first shots were fired. The motto, Vince Aut Morire, means Conquer or Die. That's pretty badass. There is also an armored hand with a sword coming out of a cloud of bubbles. Okay. And the fabric looks like it came off of some unfortunate couch that my grandparents might have owned at some point. Like ten pounds of badass stuffed onto a five pound flag. Either way, I like it.

The flag of Black Bart Roberts

This flag is a flag that is near and dear to my heart. I deemed it badass enough to have it tattooed on my left arm. This flag was flown by a pirate named Black Bart Roberts. He is widely regarded as the most successful pirate in history. Estimates say he captured over 470 vessels in his days as a pirate. He was such kick ass pirate that when he died in 1722 the Golden Age of Piracy came to an end. Like a true pirate he was buried at sea wrapped in his ships sail.

The flag shows him and a skeleton who represents Death holding an hourglass together. This was a message to any enemies that them meeting Death at the hands of Black Bart was only a matter of time. He also flew a flag of him standing on the skulls of a Barbadian and a Martinquian. Those guys must've really pissed him off. As you can tell from the picture Black Bart was a bit of a dandy. I always find that kind of bizarre. Here's a guy who makes his living killing and stealing and plundering and he's all about matching his ascot to his jacket? Whatever. His flag still rules.

The Betsy Ross Flag

Old Glory herself. This flag was commissioned by Big George Washington himself. He is the Father of America and he needed a blanket to wrap his new born in so he had Betsy Ross stitch a little something together. The stars represent all of the new formed states in a round table type setting. The vertical lines are the original thirteen colonies. Everyone knows that. A little fun fact about the current 50 star flag. It was designed in 1957 by a 17 year-old kid named Bob Heft for his history class. He got a B-minus. That's the best we can do? We should rearrange the stars into a big middle finger or something. Let everyone know what's up. We are America after all.

I'd salute it.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag /wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_and_take_it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_Flag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bart_Roberts

http://www.marcleepson.com/flagbiography/29facts.html

Sunday

2011-06-12T19:15:00.000-07:00

Military Press: 3x10 @ 110

BTNPP: 2x8 @ 130

Shrugs: 3x12

Calf Raises: 3x10

Fat Grip Curls: 3x10

Great weekend this weekend. We celebrated my friend Dave's bachelor party in Milwaukee on Saturday night and some of us had a pretty wild time. Bars, Brewer game, bars, off the deep end hilarity. It would be unfair to the parties involved to share any details. Let's just say some of us lost a little dignity out there. And it's never coming back.

Song of the Day:

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." -Albert Einstein

Friday

2011-06-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Deadlift: 425x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

RDLs: 3x10 @ 275

Chins: 3x10

I know I should be appreciative of days like Friday. Anytime during the summer when I don't sweat constantly and feel like the chaffing on my adductors is going to start a fire is surely a good day. But shit, it was cold for being June 10th. I just wish Big Momma Nature would pick a season and stick with it. Screw this La Nina stuff.

Anyways, trained at West Allis Barbell. I need to get a good power bar. Right now I'm using my Olympic bar for deadlifts and it's kind of a hassle. The bar is designed to hold bumper plates, not iron. With the iron weights there is about 1-3 mm of play between the bar collar and the weights. This means shit get kind of shaky once we're air born. It also means that the weights don't sit vertical like they should when the bar is on the ground. It's not a big deal right now as all it means is that I need to adjust the weights between sets, but when I start creeping into 500 lb+ territory it could be a liability. Daddy don't need no blown out knees.

Song of the Day:

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." -Aleister Crowley

I'll drink to that.

Tuesday and Thursday

2011-06-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Tuesday:

Squat: 315x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Split Squat: 3x10 each leg

Abs

Thursday:

Bench: 225x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

DB Incline: 3x10

Face Pulls: 3x15
w/
DB Lateral Raise: 3x12

Skull Crushers: 3x12
w/
Tricep Push Downs: 3x20

Prowler

So here's the plan. I've picked starting weights for the three lifts that I will perform for my next meet. 225 for bench, 315 for squat, and 405 for deadlift. Each lift will be performed once per week with the 1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3 rep scheme. Each week I will add 20 pounds to the squat and 10 pounds to the bench and deadlift. When I get to a point with each lift where I cannot move the weight up I will figure the halfway point from where I started and where I'm at. I will then drop the weight to the weight and continue progressing up while only making five or ten pound jumps depending on the lift.

Example: bench starting weight is 225. I get to 295 and can no longer progress up. I will then drop the working weight to 260 (halfway between 225 and 295) and continue moving up in five pound jumps each week. Once I max out that progression line then it will be time to switch things up. It's super scientific and advanced, I know. It just has to work.

All of my accessory for right now will be body builderish in nature. I'm thinking this plan will take about 2-3 months to run its course. I like the set up because it is going to give me a break from working with near maximal weights all the time and I'll only be training each lift once per week. It's got a nice little progression plan to it and there won't be any missed weights to mess with my head. With this plan I'll also be better able to put on some needed quality mass. I'm excited to see how it all plays out.

Song of the Day:

"No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path." -Buddha

Sunday

2011-06-05T17:28:00.000-07:00

Deadlift: 405x1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3

Calf Raises: 4x10
w/
Barbell Curls: 4x10

Shrugs: up to 455x5, 315x20

Conditioning: not easy, not too hard

Well, my foray into high frequency training has come to an end. In the past twelve weeks I've trained five times per week, most of them coming on week days. In the beginning things were going awesome. I was getting stronger. I wasn't putting on any scale weight, but I think I was leaning out a little bit. And I was really enjoying the training. Then a little past halfway things started to turn sour. I was sore all the time. I was tired all the time. My training weights were going down. I never got injured, but I could feel it coming a few times.

I think this was a great lesson in having the ability to recognize when you need to shake things up. I can't remember exactly who but a famous strength coach once said, "Everything works...for six weeks." I didn't change protocols because I set my sights on going twelve weeks with it and I did. Had I had the option I would have dropped one or two training days half way through. My body became adapted to the stressors I was giving it and my progress stopped. Ultimately I think I would have done a lot better on this program had I done a few things differently.

Used lighter weights.
Planned a progression of weights to be used.
Utilized better recovery methods.

Those three things I feel would have helped a lot. The biggest one of all being the last one. In a perfect world I'd be able to sleep in, eat, train, eat, take a nap, eat, do some active recovery, get a massage, eat, go to bed, repeat. Of course, this was not the case. Many Olympic lifters train with a much higher frequency than I did, but they also have made lifting the highest priority in their lives and are either subsidized by the government of the country they live in or have structured their lives to resemble that model. I didn't do that. I'm not an Olympic athlete. I work, I have a life outside of training, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I love to train, but I'm not married to it.

I'm going to take things easy next week while I draft up my next training plan. I'm not 100% on how it's going to look but I've got a pretty good idea. It's going to have a progression based on where my maxes are at and it's going to be more powerlifting based. That much I know.

For right now I'm on a big Beastie Boys kick. Well, I'm a 6.7 on the Richter scale!

Song of the Day:

“The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it, therefore, while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose” -Plutarch

Last Few

2011-06-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Having Monday off has me really screwed up this week. I have no idea what day it is. I might just start making days up. Today is Blorsday. Happy Blorsday. On with the show.

Tuesday:
Clean: 286x1, 220x10

BTNPP: 175x8x3

Today:
Snatch: 198x1

Squat: 315x2x3, 365x2x2
w/
DB Press: 60x5x5

The cleans on Tuesday were OK. I was happy that I was able to finish the 220x10. I'm also pretty sure I caught all of them with the right side of my clavicle. Squats today were kept light, deep and fast. I'm still sore from Monday so I didn't push it too hard. Plus I want to deadlift on Friday. This week is the last week of my five days per week training. I'll recap and throw out some plans for the future in a future post. Imagine that.

Song of the Day:

“It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet,than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.” -Epicurus

Memorial Day Training

2011-05-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

First and foremost I want to thank all the troops past and present who made this day, and all the days before and after it, possible. Who knows where this country would be if it weren't for the gumption, gusto, and get-shit-done attitude of our service men and women from the Revolutionary War to our present day conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. We as individuals may or may not agree with the conflict itself but the support of our troops in said conflict should come without question. To sacrifice youth, family, and sometimes lives is something that we should not take for granted. So thank you service men and women. Keep kicking ass.

Squat: 425x3x3, 345x10

Bench: 250x5x3

Skull Crushers: 3x10
w/
Curls: 3x10

Band Pull Aparts: 3x20
w/
Pushups: 3x15

Song of the Day:

“Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.” -General George S. Patton

Memorial Day Weekend Is Here!

2011-05-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

I trained today and yesterday. Nothing too exciting happened. Today was light snatches, high rep squats, and moderate to heavy btnpp. I also attempted to run a bit and it went ok. I did see a deer in the back parking lot at work while doing it which was probably the highlight of that little adventure.

Anywho, this weekend is Memorial Day Weekend in case you hadn't heard. I'll be celebrating the start of summer by drinking some beers, seeing some friends in Chicago, and grilling dead animals over an open flame. As always, many thanks go out to all of our service men and women, past and present who make it all possible. For a fun way to learn about America's awesome service men and women I would suggest giving http://www.badassoftheweek.com/ a look see. Here's on to start with. Have a safe and happy holiday!

I'd also encourage you to listen to the song below. The lyrics are on the youtube page.

Song of the Day:

"Those things which are precious are saved only by sacrifice." -David Kenyon Webster