Jeff Erno

Last Year in Super Slow Training & WoW

2011-12-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

I don't bother posting workouts regularly anymore. I usually post them on www.bodybyscience.net and now track using www.fitocracy.com instead. This week I wanted to post and debunk(at least for me) the concept that workouts need to vary every 4-6 weeks or so in order to continue gains. This was in part inspired by Diana Hsieh's post of her progress using SuperSlow.

The workout below and compared to a year ago were done, unless otherwise noted, in SuperSlow fashion with 10 second ups and 10 seconds down. This keeps the comparison apples to apples. The complete workout chart for the last 13 months is attached. There are some slight variation in the workout(negatives thrown in here and there) that affect the results from week to week sometimes, but overall you can get a good feeling of the progress I have made over the course of 1 year.

Workout of the Week("B" workout ~30 minutes):

MedX Pullover: Up 4# and 2 reps
Cable PullDown: Full Stack. Up a rep
Push Ups: Up 1 rep
MedX Row: Up 2 reps
MedX Chest Press: no change
Chin Up: 3 then 8 20 second negatives
Push Up: Did non slow concentric then 10 second negatives then negatives only.
MedX Leg Extension: Up 2# and 1 rep
MedX Leg Curl: Up 2# and 4 reps
MedX Leg Press: Up 1 rep. Did 3 negatives

Good improvement over the previous workout that was done ~ 2 weeks earlier.

As for the year, here is a summary of the attached charts as good as I could estimate:

MedX Pullover: Up 26%(64#)
Push Ups: Up 7 reps
MedX Row: Up 5%(10#) and 3 reps
MedX Chest Press: Up 20%(44#) and 1 rep
Chin Up: Have gone from assistance to being weighted 25#
TruSquat: Up 65# and 4 reps
MedX Leg Curl: Up 10%(18#) and 4 reps
MedX Leg Extension: Up 11%(18#) and 4 reps
MedX Leg Press: Up 30%(120#) and 1 rep

To me this is awesome improvement. I was not starting as a novice, but had been doing first some Devany style pyramid training(#$%^arounditis?) ~4 years ago and had been doing SuperSlow training on my own and at Ultimate Exercise for about 2 years after that. This is the complete opposite of what we are typically told about muscle confusion, etc. At least for me, I am able to make continued gains week over week doing nearly the same exact 2 routines alternating. I strongly suspect that the stall people see when their 4-6 weeks are up is the easy neural adaptations maxing out and the real improvement can begin. I have no idea.

My trainer, who also trains people in non SuperSlow as well, says that many clients are pushing the same weight for same reps as last year. My wife and I are the exception. There are 2 reasons for this, I think. 1) We work really hard. 2) We don't do it too much. Even with a trainer I don't think everyone works hard. I think it has to pretty much suck and you dread going a little bit to get the adaptations you desire. Seeing a little "white buffalo in the sky" post workout, so to speak. People just aren't willing to do that even if they pay someone. The second point would be more important if the first were true. Working really hard and not taking the time to recover could short circuit results, but I doubt that is the case for the majority of trainees, at least where I lift.

I am also starting to use myfitnesspal to track what I eat. If I get the bug I might post about that some. Quite enlightening.

jeff

Workout of the Week 6/18

2011-06-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

Worked out this time with Sherry at Ultimate Exercise.

Workout(~20 minutes):

MedX Leg Press
MedX Overhead Press: Hadn't done this in a while. Felt light at first even though weight was increased over last time. Pop pin set extender
SuperSlow Pull Down: Pop pin. Muscles pretty much fried by this point
Abs on SuperSlow Pull Over
MedX Seated Row: Felt like a ton of weight.
MedX Chest Press:

Increased weight on all exercises due to the longer time between workign out at McGuff's facility.

Sherry also put my Dad through a workout. It was his first HIT style lifting and he was game for it, going to failure and really pushing for the intensity. Go Dad!

Workout of the Week 6/10

2011-06-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

7 days recovery since last workout. Worked out at 7:30am so the fast was less than usual.

Workout(25 mins):
-TruSquat: Up 3 reps
-MedX Leg Abductor
-MedX Leg Press: Up 3 reps
-MedX Leg Curl
-MedX Leg Extention
-Ball/Wall Sit: Up 12 seconds
-Pull Ups
-MedX Chest Press: Up 6#
-MedX Seated Row: Up A rep and 2#
-SuperSlow Push Up: Did these with hands slightly elevated so could go really deep.
-Negative Pull Ups: Mixture of 20 second, 15 second and 10 second negatives

Looked at progress chart over the last 6 months. When I started I could do 8 chest press reps at 240#. Today I did 6 reps at 280#. Nice increase for someone who was already well trained by the time I started. Happy about progress on that since it is usually my weakest. The program is working!

Had some ground chuck with eggs and half a sweet potato a little while after.

Workout of the week plus food log

2011-06-04T04:15:00.001-07:00

Worked out 18 hours fasted at Doug's one on one fitness in Greenville. Back to the upper body first scenario with some twists. 9 days recover from previous HIT workout. Worked out lightly one other fashion in between.

Workout(~30min):
-MedX Pullover: Up 2 reps
-Super Slow Hindu Push Ups: Got 5, barely
-Nautilus Pull Up: Up 2 rep with 10# less assist.
-MedX Chest Press: Up 4#
-MedX Compound Row: Up 1 rep
-Hindu Pushups round 2
-Negative pull ups: 10 second negatives with 25# weight added. Some static holds on last 3.
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only, 25 reps. Good burn.
-MedX Leg Abductor: Up in weight
-MedX Leg Adductor
-MedX Leg Press: Up 2 reps

Good progress, as usual. 184# and 6.6% body fat according to the tanita scale, which I still think is optimistic. Probably a touch over 8 art this point.

For anyone interested, here is a log of food consumption over the last week or so:

Wednesday 5/25
-breakfast: nothing
-HIT workout:11am
-lunch: noon. 12oz steak with vegetables. 2 onion rings
-dinner: 10oz salmon. 6oz grass feed ground Chuck burger. large cooked spinach. handful of potatoes. some macadamia nuts

Thursday 5/26
-breakfast: nothing
-lunch: noon. Thai massamun beef curry with extra meat. Half serving white rice. Chicken lettuce wraps. spicy salad with beef.
-dinner: 2 big servings salad with chicken salad and crab salad, pecans, and apple.

Friday 5/27
-breakfast: nothing. coffee with very small amount of heavy cream
-lunch: nothing
-dinner: 2 low carb 6 dollar burgers with half medium sweet potato fries. 8pm

Saturday 5/28
-breakfast: everything omelet. potatoes. pineapple. Bacon. Sausage. Corned beef hash
-rest of the day: had mixed nuts, new ribs, broccoli salad, pulled pork and lots of light beer

Sunday: went to water country USA with kids
-breakfast: nothing but a small decaf coffee.
-lunch: nothing
-dinner: grouper with broccoli and small potato au gratin. salad with chicken, mango & avocado. popcorn

Monday
-workout: squat up to 275# singles. incline bench up to165#. bent row up to 145#. barbell curls up to 70#. tricep extensions up to 85#. super slow over head press on hammer strength, 2x45#.
-breakfast: 1.25 hours after workout. bison chili with 2 eggs and sweet potato and fage yogurt. smoothy from berries and kefir.
-lunch: nothing
-dinner: seared tuna with greens, avocado, some peach and pablano peppers. ribeye and shrimp with tossed salad

Tuesday
-breakfast: Venti decaf coffee, black
-lunch: nothing
-dinner: 12oz liver and onions, small chicken thigh, 6oz swordfish. salad..

Wednesday
-breakfast: decaf black coffee
-lunch: fajitas with small amount of rice and refried beans. No chips or tortillas. water
-dinner: 2.25 grass feed beef burgers. brutal sprouts with onion. half a sweet potato. half an apple

Thursday
-breakfast: decaf black coffee
-lunch: beef curry with vegetables and a small amount of white rice. lettuce wraps with chicken.
-dinner: 10 ounces grilled salmon with salad. few pieces of watermelon. 7 macadamia nuts.

Friday
-breakfast: decaf black coffee
-workout: Hit workout. Upper body emphasis.
-lunch: 2pm, post workout. Small green apple. 2 pieces grilled chicken thighs. Milk with 2 raw eggs and protein powder.
-dinner: 1.5 thick pork chops. Salad. Mashed sweet potato. Popcorn later. Glass of white wine.

WoW 5/25

2011-05-25T17:08:00.000-07:00

5 days recovery since last workout. A little short of the usual week of rest since I have a work training this week at the usual time. Worked out fasted for 18 hours.

Workout(25 mins):
-TruSquat: Up 10#. Still got 9 reps
-MedX Leg Abductor
-Goblet squats: super slow.
-MedX Leg Curl
-MedX Leg Extention
-MedX Leg Press: Level in reps despite doing after gob squats, curls and extension first
-Pull Ups: Body weight only. Up almost 2 reps
-MedX Chest Press: Up 4# and 1 rep
-MedX Seated Row
-Push Up Negatives
-Negative Pull Ups: mostly 15 second negatives with holds at various spots

Noted the improvements I remembered. Great workout. Good to know I can gain after short recovery, but I won't be making a habit of it. Next workout in 9 days at the usual Friday time slot.

Weight 184#, down 2# in past week and 4# in the last 2 weeks. Not trying hard to lose, just stopped the forced feeding. Didn't work anyway as shown by fairly rapid loss. If it was lean I doubt it would have dropped so quickly, especially while gaining on workout. Over eating to gain is over for me.

Daughter's Birthday & WoW

2011-05-20T11:35:00.000-07:00

My daughter turned 8 today at 2:15pm eastern time. Hard to believe I know have a beautiful 8 year old girl. I still remember when she was little bigger than my forearm. Amazing.

1 weeks since the previous HIT workout and 3 weeks since doing this "B" workout with an upper body emphasis. Trying to be good, only doing a single, light training almost 4 days ago. Based on my previous results I cannot stand 3x/wk of working out in a high intensity. 1-2 times is my max to keep the progress rolling.

Worked out fasted around 18 hours and no plan to eat until after work when we all go out for a birthday dinner, Lauren's choice. Improvements I remember him stating are noted.

Workout(~30min):
-MedX Pullover: Up a rep.
-Super Slow Push Ups: 7, but honestly the 7th wasn't all that slow.
-Nautilus Pull Up: Up 1 rep with 10# less assist.
-MedX Chest Press: Up 2 reps
-MedX Compound Row: Up 1 rep
-Nautilus Dip: Up a rep.
-Negative pull ups: 10 second negatives with 25# weight added.
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only, 25 reps. Good burn.
-MedX Leg Abductor
-MedX Leg Adductor
-MedX Leg Press: Up 2 0r3 reps over previous "B" workout. Got 10 so I am "rewarded" by a weight increase next time. Lovely.

Excellent, continued progress. On the road to recovery after my latest over training lesson. 186# on the scale. Tanita body fat estimator says ~8% body fat. I think it is slightly higher than that, but all good.

WoW and Overtraining Lesson

2011-05-15T12:10:00.001-07:00

Worked out at Doug's 1-on-1 Fitness for workout of the week. Was 18 hrs or so fasted and hadn't worked out in over 2 weeks due to a business trip / vacation that kept me away from home in Las Vegas and Napa, California.

Workout(25 mins):
-TruSquat: Up 4 reps
-MedX Leg Abductor
-MedX Leg Press: Up a rep
-MedX Leg Curl
-MedX Leg Extention
-Pull Ups: Body weight only. Up a rep.
-MedX Chest Press: Up 2 reps at more weight
-MedX Seated Row: Up a rep
-Push Up Negatives
-Negative Pull Ups

Excellent progress. I write this 2 days later and am still pleasantly sore. Probably progressed on the others, but I didn't get a comment from Doug on those. He said the extra week seemed to help, which makes perfect sense.

I have been lazy and hadn't recorded my training in about a month. On my previous workout I had regression for the first time in almost 2 years. Lost a rep on several exercises. Doug said "did you leave a rep in Florida?" Reason? Working out too much. I fell into old habits of going to the regular gym for sessions of starting strength style lifting between my weekly HIT sessions. While in Florida the week before I worked out every day a little bit. 2 days before my appointment I beat myself up on squats, bench press and bent rows. The result was I got weaker rather than stronger, as predicted by HIT theory. I took 2 weeks off of lifting and am back on track with the overtraining lesson learned again.

On a positive note I finished my tennis season on a high note. After losing 4 singles matches in a row I won my doubles match yesterday. My serve finally came back as I remembered not to let the toss fall to far before hitting. Also returned and played at the net well. In spite of training the day before I felt like a jack rabbit, running many shots down I had no business getting to. Played great and enjoyed it.

One other note. While on vacation we went hiking, biking, and canoeing almost every day. It was amazing how activities like that feel like a walk in the park. 10 miles into our biking my wife commented that it was easier than the first 5 minutes of HIT training. HIT is so intense and difficult that many things others consider as exercise feels rather easy.

HIT Workout 4/6

2011-04-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

2 weeks since previous HIT workout and 3 weeks since doing this "B" workout with an upper body emphasis. In between I went to the gym on my own twice and did 20 minute workouts in a Starting Strength style with a push, a pull, and something lower body focused(dead lift or squat).

Played tennis the night before and skipped dinner, so the workout was done right around the 24 hour mark of a fast. Fasting after skipping dinner is quite easy, easier than going dinner to dinner. BCAA's again(15g) before and after the workout.

Workout(~30min):
-MedX Pullover: Up in weight.
-Super Slow Push Ups: 6. Last was slow this time, so slight improvement. Over 2 minutes doing push ups in slo mo is quite challenging.
-Nautilus Pull Up: Up 2 reps
-MedX Chest Press: Up in weight. 4 negatives.
-MedX Compound Row: Up 2 reps. Felt light.
-Nautilus Dip: Up a rep.
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only, 20 reps. Good burn.
-MedX Leg Abductor:
-MedX Leg Adductor:
-MedX Leg Press: Up 3 reps over previous "B" workout.
-Nautilus Ab Crunch
-Ab Negatives on some other machine.

Had lunch about an hour afterward of 2 Hardee's lettuce wrapped "Six Dollar" burgers(hold the mayo). Could have easily eaten a third.

BCAAs Again, WeighTrainer Predictions and WoW

2011-03-23T15:25:00.000-07:00

Last week I tried using BCAAs as suggested by Doug McGuff on a recent blog post. I took 15g 30 minutes before, 15g an hour after and another 15g at dinner time. It appears to have helped, but I can never be sure if it was the BCAAs or some other thing.

On the basis of another post, I went on line to look up my muscular potential. According to the site I could weigh up to 218# at 10% body fat. I just don't see that happening. I would be lucky in the next 5 years to get to 200#, but we will see. I think there is a bias in the calculation since it used drug free champion body builders, who were better at picking their parents at that regard.

Workout(At 1:30pm, 30min duration and fasted 18 hours):

Tru Squat: 3 extra reps at the same weight. Included 3 assisted reps/negatives.
MedX Leg Abductor:
MedX Leg Adductor
MedX Leg Press
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Extension: 2 extra reps
Nautilus Assist Pull Up
MedX Chest Press: Up 2 reps at an extra 4#
MedX Compound Row: Up a rep
Push Ups: Negative only. Pushed up myself on 6(up 1) then struggled to get up with my elbows for 3 more
Negative Pull Ups: 7, 15 second negatives including a 5 second hold in the middle.

Totally awesome results. Almost every exercise felt light to begin with and I could definitely feel more stamina to continue. Very, very difficult, but exciting to have really good progress. I sense the BCAAs had a positive impact. I played 4 hours of mostly singles tennis(I lost for the 4th time in a row) and my legs felt fatigued up until last night, so I feared I would not perform well. To my surprise the exact opposite happened.

After the workout I had a lettuce wrapped burger from Hardee's on my way back to work. I enjoyed it a lost since it had no sauce and thus was much less messy.

jeff

BCAAs & High Intensity Workout 3/16

2011-03-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

Did my workout this week at 1:30pm rather than early. I shifted to Wednesdays so I didn't have to play tennis wore out from the workout. Fasted all day until the workout.

Workout(~30min):
-MedX Pullover:
-Push Ups: Got 6 super slow pushups (up 2 reps). I can't believe I got that many. The last was far from SuperSlow, but somehow I got it to the top.
-Nautilus Pull Up:  Up 2 reps
-MedX Chest Press: Ended with 3 assisted reps with negatives
-MedX Compound Row:
-Nautilus Dip: Up a rep.
-Pull Up 10 Second Negatives: 25# plate attached by a belt. Did 8, up 2 from last time.
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only, 20 reps. Good burn.
-MedX Leg Abductor:
-MedX Leg Adductor:
-MedX Leg Press: Up 2 reps.

Pretty amazing progress. I only mentioned the progress I remember being explicitly told by the trainer. Last workout of this type was 3 weeks or so ago and I was up across the board and gang busters. The good gains could partially be due to the time of day. I felt stronger than early in the morning. I also had 2 weeks from last HIT workout.

I did other short, not to failure workouts in between as well, which may also help. Maybe 4 in that time period. Those workouts are an upper body push, an upper body pull, and a lower body exercise in a circuit for a total of no more than 15 minutes. Weights are always very heavy and reps low, and the cadence relatively slow due to high weights. If I get 5 reps I increase the weight for the next time. Only 4-5 rounds are done. I leave the gym feeling great. One thing to note there is that I am now up to 475#(5 reps on the first round) on the hammer strength dead lift apparatus. It is easy to load and gives a good workout. I have no idea how 475# translates to a barbell, but the progression is there, with 1-2 reps picked up each workout I don't add weight and have added weight regularly.

On advice from my buddy Kevin, leangains blog and now Dr. McGuff's latest post I started tinkering with branch chain amino acids. I took 15g in powder for 30 minutes prior to the workout, 1 hour after and at dinner time. I also ate a ton during the day and had a big breakfast the next morning. I woke up hungry, which was a bit unusual. We will see how this goes. My guess is that the difference will be unnoticeable, but we will see. The stuff is watermelon flavored, but I got a deal on it.

Anyone out there take BCAA's? Notice any difference? Any particular advice to share?

jeff

The Paleo (a.k.a. Caveman) Diet as seen on ABC's Nightline

2011-03-06T08:38:00.000-08:00

Doug McGuff MD T21C 2010

2011-03-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

Glucometer and HIT Workout 3/2

2011-03-02T11:45:00.001-08:00

2 days ago I purchased a Blood Glucose meter and have been using it to see my fasting blood glucose and how the my body responds to the foods I eat. Since I eat pretty clear I expect little strangeness, but I wonder how the occasional cheat, like some popcorn with dinner on Friday nights.

So far my waking BG is around 95-100(I am not sure how accurate these things are or whether I need to calibrate it). I did an all day fast Monday and it was 91 by the 23hr mark on the fast. After a fairly healthy wine dinner the BG dropped to the lower 80s, which was interesting. On a recommendation from Dr. Davis(Heart Scan Blog) I tried testing my BG every 20 minutes to get a response curve. I found I peak out at around the hour mark and I have yet to have it go up over 110. Yet to test on a true "cheat", but I will try that later.

After a bit of a break(12 days or so) I did my first HIT workout at Doug's 1 on 1 training in Greenville.
Workout(30min):

Tru Squat: Included 3 assisted reps/negatives.
MedX Leg Abductor:
MedX Leg Adductor
MedX Leg Press
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Extension
Wall/Ball Static Hold
Nautilus Assist Pull Up
MedX Chest Press: Also did 3-4 negatives/assisted reps.
MedX Compound Row:
Push Ups: Negative only. Pushed up myself on 5 then struggled to get up with my elbows.
Negative Pull Ups: 8, 12 second negatives

I was up in weight or time under load on all except leg extension.

I did my BG before and after the workout, which was interesting. Waking: 99. 30 minutes before the workout 105. 5 minutes after the workout: 110. It went up, which I believe makes sense. I always experience some stress knowing what's coming and I think that is cortisol related. As for the workout it is not a surprise that glucose spilled into the blood in response to the heavy training. Reporting more on twitter for anyone who is interested.

Ultimate Exercise HIT Workout 2/18

2011-02-18T16:16:00.000-08:00

Went back to Ultimate Exercise for a change and had Mark as my trainer.

Workout(~20 minutes):

Leg Press: Up in weight and Time Under Load(TUL)
Overhead Press: Up in weight and TUL. Pop pin set extender.
Pulldown: Up in weight and TUL. Pop pin set extender, which I miraculously got 3 extra reps. I was fried by the time this was done.
Pull over: Up in TUL if I remember right.
Seated Row: Felt so heavy I am surprised I even got one rep. The pull down had me fried. Mark lowered the weight so I could go for over a minute.
Chest press: About level in TUL, if I remember right. Might have been a bit lower.

Going up in weight and TUL was good progress on this workout. Was brutal, as I expect training at UE.

HIT Workout 2/8

2011-02-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

6am at Doug's 1-on-1 in Greenville. Brought a water bottle with me this time, which compressed the overall time. This type of training has be breathing a lot, so my mouth gets dry and uncomfortable. The water helps but slows me down unless I have a bottle with me.

Workout(~25min):
-MedX Pullover: Up a rep and weight
-Push Ups: Got 4 super slow pushups. Very proud of this progress as I didn't expect to get it until summer at least. Only 3 more to go for world record. :-)
-Nautilus Pull Up: Up in weight, I think.
-MedX Chest Press: Ended with 3 assisted reps with negatives
-MedX Compound Row: Up in weight
-Nautilus Dip: Up a rep.
-Pull Up 10 Second Negatives: Weighted this time. 25# plate attached by a belt. Did 6. On last one I could just barely control speed.
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only. Did until good burn, probably 18 reps.
-MedX Leg Abductor: Felt heavy. Up in weight.
-MedX Leg Adductor:
-MedX Leg Press: Up a rep.

I didn't remember all the details, but overall a really good, difficult workout. I had a huge, Jeff versus food, breakfast around an hour afterward including some starchy tubers.

Going snow boarding for the first time tomorrow. I plan on spending more time on my butt than on the board, but we will see.

High Intensity Workout 2/1

2011-02-01T16:57:00.000-08:00

Worked out at Doug's 1-on-1 Fitness at 6am. Started a little late and ended early, so the workout was a bit faster paced than the last few. I worked hard, but didn't check to see progress much unless the trainer told me something specific.

Workout(25min):

Tru Squat: Truly an awful machine.
MedX Leg Abductor:
MedX Leg Adductor
MedX Leg Press:
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Extension
Nautilus Assist Pull Up: Weight was added, but I don't know how much.
MedX Chest Press: Felt light. Higher weight. Also did 3 negatives.
MedX Compound Row: Up in weight.
Push Ups: 10 seconds down and 2 seconds up. Got 6(more than last time) plus did 3 more negatives.
Negative Pull Ups: Did a personal record of 9, super slow negatives. Will be adding the weight belt next time I think.

Had a breakfast of grass finished chuck, onions, 2 eggs, some fingerling potatoes, and a protein shake. Took me a good 2 hours before I felt normal again. The rest of the day I felt awesome. As I write this at the end of the day I am starting to tighten up a tad.

I have been working out an additional time or 2 during the week. On those days I do a few movements in a not to failure and controlled, but usually not superslow cadence. Here is a summary of the last 2.

Thursday last week: Did a circuit of Hammer Strength Pulldown, Incline Bench Press, and Hammer Strength Deadlift. I did 5 rounds of low rep sets(5 reps or so) with little rest in between, but I wasn't rushing. Finished by floating around in the pool with my kids.

Saturday: Bench press, Hammer Strength Seated Row, Back Squat, Incline Bench Press, Hammer Strength Pulldown, Bent Row, overhead press, and barbell curls. All were controlled pace, but not really slow and avoiding failure. I also did a single set of superslow style leg press finishing short of complete failure. Also swam with my monkeys afterward and hung out in the hot tub and steam room.

So far it appears that I am handling the extra workload quite well, with no slowing down of progress on my main measurable workout. If I see a slip I will back off immediately. I also look forward to going to the gym, but I have no angst if I don't go. If I skip I know I will be getting the usual weekly beatdown at my HIT session.

High Intensity Workout 1/25/2011

2011-01-27T04:53:00.000-08:00

6am at Doug's 1-on-1 in Greenville.

Workout(~30min):
-MedX Pullover: Up a rep
-Push Ups:
-Nautilus Pull Up: Up a rep
-MedX Chest Press: Up a rep. Ended with 3 assisted reps with negatives
-MedX Compound Row: Up a rep.
-Nautilus Dip: Up a rep.
-Pull Up Negatives: 5 second static hold at the top then 5 second negative. Did 8, or so.
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only. Did until good burn, probably 15 reps.
-MedX Leg Abductor: Up a rep.
-MedX Leg Adductor: Up a rep.
-MedX Leg Press: Up a rep.

Good workout. Improved on nearly everything. Still a bit tight 2 days later. Ate a large breakfast about an hour afterward.

Pushups are funny. I can bang out 30 or so with no problem at "regular" pace. Superslow I am struggling to get 3. I use this now as a way to challenge people with slower training. I dare them to try and get 3 at a 10/10 pace. If I progress well I maybe can get 4 by summer, but even that I doubt. From what I have heard the world record is 7.

High Intensity Workout 1/18/2011

2011-01-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

Worked out at Doug's 1-on-1 Fitness at 6am. Was 2 weeks from last workout due to icy roads in Greenville last week.

Workout(30min):

Tru Squat: Up a rep
MedX Leg Abductor: Felt light. Did 2 more reps at higher weight.
MedX Leg Adductor
MedX Leg Press: Felt light. 2 more reps.
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Extension
Static Wall Sit
Nautilus Assist Pull Up: 2 extra reps
MedX Chest Press: Felt light. 2 extra reps at higher weight. Also did 3 negatives.
MedX Compound Row
Push Ups: 10 seconds down and 2 seconds up. Got 3 plus did 4-5 more negatives.
Negative Pull Ups: Slight variation this time. 5 seconds to mid way, hold for 5, then 5 seconds the rest of the way down. Did something like 8 of these. Totally fried and breathing heavy after.

Much of the exercises felt light and the performance showed. Could be many different things, but one thing I did during the high intensity workout interval was to workout in a non HIT style on my own in between 3-4 times. I did more "alactic" workouts with a focus on higher weights and lower, sometimes single reps and no failure. This might be strengthening in a different way and making the HIT workout progress better. Who knows?

WoW 1/4 Plus NED

2011-01-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

Just posting to capture my latest workout at "Doug's 1 on 1".

Workout(~30min):
-MedX Pullover
-Push Ups: 10 seconds down and 10 up
-Nautilus Pull Up
-MedX Chest Press: Ended with 3 assisted reps with negatives
-MedX Compound Row
-Nautilus Dip
-Pull Up Negatives: 8, I think, with body weight only
-Wall/ball squats: body weight only
-MedX Leg Abductor
-MedX Leg Adductor
-MedX Leg Press

Improved on everything at least a little bit.

Started reading Art Devany's "New Evolution Diet". So far it is quite good. I will write a full account of my thoughts when I finish.

Last Workout of 2010

2010-12-28T07:23:00.000-08:00

Since I was off this week I took the extra time to head to Seneca to work out at Ultimate Exercise. I hadn't been back in a while(6 weeks maybe?) so Ed thought it best to not get fancy but to gauge progress over that time. I think that was a good idea. Twas a good work out, with a Big 5 plus a couple of extras.

Workout(~15 minutes):

MedX Row(with SuperSlow fall off cam): Up in weight(10#)
MedX Chest Press plus: Up in weight(6#). Also did flys on same machine.
MedX Leg Press: Up in weight(20#)
SuperSlow Pull Down plus: Up in time under load(TUL). Also did a few reps of close grip pulls.
MedX Overhead Press: I hadn't done this movement in a while. Up in TUL by 20 seconds or so. Ed added a pop pin here, but I could barely move the thing once done with main pressing.
Calf Raise on Leg Press: Up in weight

As usual, Ed made it awful. Overall nice progress over that period. Nothing major, just steady improvement.

WoW 12/21

2010-12-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

First day of winter, the shortest day of the year, and my son's 4th birthday. Worked out at 6am with more of an upper body focus. Unlike last few times it was upper body first.

Workout(~30 minutes):

MedX Pull Over
Push Ups: 10 down, hold for 1 then 10 up. I got 3 reps before I couldn't push up anymore.
Nautilus Assist Pull Ups
MedX Chest Press: Included 2 assisted reps with 10 second negative. After the push ups I could really feel it in my pecs.
MedX Seated Row
Nautilus Assist Dip: Was pretty fried so I got only 3, I think.
Pull Up Negatives: Tried to pull myself on on the first 2 and got assistance from trainer. The did 5 or 6 negative only on a 10 count.
Ball/Wall Squat: Just body weight and is used as a warm up. Did several deep squats.
MedX Leg Adductor: Several more reps than last time. I think this is partially since I didn't do a TruSquat before and I am still new to the exercise and am getting a novice effect.
MedX Leg Abductor: Many more reps.
MedX Leg Press: 2 more reps than last time and included one assisted rep with long negative

2 Funny As Heck Parenting Videos

2010-12-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

Quick Post of Last 2 Workouts

2010-12-15T05:21:00.000-08:00

Last Week(~30 minutes):

TruSquat
MedX Leg Abduction
MedX Leg Adduction
MedX Leg Press
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Extension
Nautilus Weight Assist Pull Up
MedX Chest Press
MedX Seated Row
Push Up: Slow reps until failure then several negative only
Negative Pull Ups

Went up in Squat, but down in Leg Press. Improved on all others in some way. The work load is higher than previous HIT workouts and I sense I am adjusting. Was tight and sore for a couple of days after, but didn't feel like I was run over by a truck.

This week(~30 minutes):

TruSquat: Up 2 1/2 reps at same weight.
MedX Leg Abduction
MedX Leg Adduction
MedX Leg Press: Up 2 reps at same weight.
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Extension
MedX Pull Over: Different than SuperSlow machine at UE. More range of motion. Tough.
MedX Chest Press
MedX Seated Row
Push Up: Slow reps until failure
Nautilus Assist Pull Ups
Pull Up Negatives
Push Ups (3) with non-SuperSlow concentric and 10 second negatives. Finished with 2 negatives only.

Overall the workouts are higher volume, but 30 minutes a week seems doable so far. I was pleased to see progress on both the squat and leg press as it suggests I am not overdoing it. I don't remember the details on the other exercises, but all felt like some sort of improvement.

Workout of the Week 12/1/2010

2010-12-05T13:17:00.000-08:00

We "cheated on" the Ultimate Exercise gang and instead worked out at a much closer facility in Greenville. Much too busy with our moving into our new home in SC. Trying to get my wife to take a break for longer than 30 minutes was a non starter.

I stumbled upon the place a few weeks ago while going out for dinner and noticed the MedX and Nautilus machines and followed up with a phone call. It turns out the trainer is SuperSlow certified so we bought a month's worth of sessions. It is much closer and easier for us, especially with the 2 munch-kins.

Workout(~30 minutes):

Ball/Wall Squat Warm up
TruSquat: Tough machine. I saw one of these at Greg Anderson's place, but didn't get a chance to use it there.
MedX Leg Press: Did these with a larger range of motion. More like a deep squat.
MedX Leg Extension
MedX Leg Curl
MedX Leg Abduction
MedX Leg Adduction
Nautilus Weight Assist Pull Up
MedX Chest Press: Did these with a larger range of motion than usual. Felt it a bit more in my chest than triceps.
MedX Seated Row: This machine did not have the SuperSlow modifications with the fall off cam like at UE. More consistently difficult the whole way rather than hard then easy.
Push Up: 10 second down, hold for a bit, 10 seconds up. After 3 I couldn't push up anymore so I did 3 more negatives. Was hard to even get up at all with knees down. Ended up just using my elbows.
Negative Pull Ups: Climbed up and did 6 or 7 slow negatives.

The workout was really, really tough. Quite a bit of carpet time afterward. As you can see, the volume is a bit more than usual and the exercises were different either in range of motion or in machine. I am writing this on Sunday and I finally don't feel sore anymore. Mixing it up made for a totally different experience.

Pre Thanksgiving Workout of the Week

2010-11-24T07:24:00.000-08:00

Worked out at Ultimate Exercise in the morning due to plant closing at work. Was fasted around 18 hours. Worked out with Ed and Doug, who came in to see our workouts. See this link for Doug's latest post where my workout is mentioned.

Workout(~20 minutes):

Pull Over with Abs: Another one of Ed's designs. Actually had weights hanging off my ankles. Looked like a torture session for sure.
Seated Row: Up in weight and time. Pop pin and with Ed pushing on the last 10 seconds to increase the load.
Chest Press: Up in weight. Pop pin. Also did flys on the same machine.
Leg Press: Feet at top of foot pad. Up in weight. Pop pin.
Pull down: Did them differently this time, so no good comparison. Pulled straight down but then pushed out rather than back up along the same path. Made it really difficult, even with a lower weight than usual.
Overhead Press: Down in time at same weight. No big surprise as this was the last exercise. To show something interesting, Doug increased the weight to the entire stack and both Ed and Doug helped me lift it. I was able to somewhat control the drop, showing how strong you can be in eccentric, even when toast.

One thing that happens to me each time I do leg press after doing upper body is that my arms throb, feeling they feel like they are going to burst. Doug explained that this was due to the lower body venous return. The blood is coming back so hard due to the high intensity lower body movement that there is a back pressure on the upper body, resulting in the pump back to the arms. Very strange but interesting.

Very good, very tough workout as usual. A bit longer than usual due to the set extenders on most exercises. I am writing this 2 days after and am still feeling pleasantly sore. I mentioned that in an email to Ed, and he responded by sending me a link to Curves Fitness Centers as an alternative. Nice.

Crock Pot Thoughts and Workout of the Week

2010-11-11T06:40:00.001-08:00

As we work out in a neighboring town 50 minutes or so away and we work out at 6pm most times it is hard to get home at 7:30pm, cook, clean and get our kids ready for sleep. Most times we had been eating out, with the excuse that we are living in an apartment so it's ok. Eating out, unfortunately, doesn't save us much time and it certainly costs more and is generally less healthy than I would make at home. A few weeks ago we decided to pull the 30 year old crock pot out and see if that saves time. Not only did it save time after our workout but it also was way yummier, more food, and certainly better since I control the ingredients.

The preparations are so easy and fast(~15 minutes) and they can be done anytime up to 24 hours before dinner. I usually prepare this in the morning before I leave for work. Here is my recipe:

Get crock pot going, empty, at high setting.
On the stovetop heat on medium high a cast iron or stainless steel large pan. Don't use non-stick as you won't get the fond development.
Brown a 2-3# chuck roast(grass fed/finished preferably and seasoned) on each side for a couple of minutes. While that is browning, rough chop a medium or large onion. I use left over animal fat to brown in most time.
When brown, transfer the meat to the crock pot and immediately add the onions. Add salt and pepper and cook until softened. Feel free to add in some whole garlic cloves or mushrooms as well.
Open a bottle of red wine and deglaze the pan with about a cup full with onions still in it. Not only does this dissolve the fond, making it yummier, but it will also make the pan easier to clean.
Pour Contents of the pan into the crock pot atop the meat.
Add a handful or two of carrots.
Cover and turn crock pot to low and let it cook all day. If you work from home and are fasting(like my wife does) you will be tortured by the smell coming from the kitchen.

I usually pair this up with a sweet potato(mashed) and some brussel sprouts. I have a good recipe for the sprouts too. If anyone cares I will post it next week. Oh, I drink a small glass of the red wine with it as well. :-)

Workout(~15 minutes):

Chest Press: Level in weight and level in time under load(TUL). Felt heavy right off the bat. A little disappointing. Pop pin.
Seated Row: Up in weight and slightly down in time. Pop pin.
Leg Press & Calf Press: Up in TUL. Calf press done with whole stack. Pop pin.
Overhead Press: Up in TUL. Pop pin.
Pull Over: Up in TUL

Good tough workout. With the pop pin on 4 of 5 exercises it was quite a bit of volume. Even more so than usual. Each exercise was nearing 2 minute mark before pop pin and at least one(row) was well over 2 minutes. I will get 12 days recovery until the next workout, so little worries about overtraining.

I fasted ~30 hours before the workout and had the crock pot chuck roast for dinner.

Workout of the Week and Possible Tweaks?

2010-11-04T02:50:00.000-07:00

Workout went great. I was toast after the first 3 exercises, but I went up in time on everything(nearly) and up in time and load on the dreaded superslow pull down. On leg press I went up over 30 seconds. On pull down nearly as much. Still progressing each and every week.

Workout:

Leg Press: Feet at top of the push plate. Up 30 seconds + in time under load(TUL).
Overhead Press: Up in TUL. Pop pin.
Pulldown: Up in weight and TUL. Pop pin.
Pull over abs: Can’t judge time since I did it differently again. I think the one today was the best ab method yet. It was a static hold at place where upper arms were parallel with the floor while doing knee raises. 3 reps and my abs were on fire. I don’t know who figured this one out, but I can guess.
Seated Row: Felt really heavy after the pull down. Up in TUL.
Chest press: After the overhead press first I could really feel it on my chest muscles. Up in TUL.

I say this every time, but this was the worst workout ever. Miserable. Really out of breath afterward. An hour later I felt great and was looking forward to a nice dinner of pot roast from the crock pot.

I am curious what would happen if I did a Big 3 only for a few weeks or stopped at positive failure, but I leave it to my “tormentors” to decide if that is best. I have a good horse and plan on continuing to ride it. I have a couple of weeks coming up where I will have 12 and 9 days of recovery, so keeping the current volume and intensifiers up for a bit longer is fine by me. I chatted online in the comments at www.bodybyscience.net with Doug and Ed Garbe and it sounds like some tweaks are in order. The progress has been good, but trying some less volume or other might be interesting. More to come on that.

Workout of the Week

2010-10-28T06:08:00.001-07:00

Workout(~15 minutes):

Seated Row: Up in weight and up a lot in time under load(TUL). Almost 3 minutes under load including Sherry pushing for the last 10 miserable seconds. Felt light from the get go.
Chest Press: Up slightly in TUL. Also did flys.
Leg Press: Up in weight and up a lot in TUL. Almost 3 minutes again. Also did calf isolation exercise on same machine. Weight felt light once again.
Pull Down: Same weight, down in time. Hard to figure a comparison since Sherry had me do this exercise differently. Before pop pin I did only the lower half of the range of movement. I suspect that is the harder half since the pull down is camless and I am weaker with hands near the chest, which would explain the lower TUL. Then after pop pin did only the upper half. Not a fun double failure.
Overhead Press: Up slightly in TUL. More pop pin action. I could barely lift half the weight once the pin popped. Awful.

Less fasted than usual as I met a collegaue in from out of town for breakfast. Skipped lunch and worked out at 6pm just a bit hungry. Had homemade meatballs and sausage in a red sauce from the crock pot once we got home.

Paleo in the media

2010-10-26T06:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.projo.com/lifebeat/content/thrive_caveman_diet_10-25-10_17KCSGN_v20.12c59b6.html

My friend sent me this article from the Providence Journal. The detractor comments at the end are humorous. "Healthy grains and starches may limit calories in the long run", as if that is all that matters. Nice to see some additional main stream press on the subject.

Coffee Experiment Concluded

2010-10-24T05:27:00.000-07:00

Experiment review: I went 6 weeks without any coffee, decaf or otherwise. Since that time period was over I tried to add a small amount of coffee back in intermittently to see what affect, if any, it had. I also had not had any tea or ice tea.

At this point I have all the information I think I am going to get to determine whether coffee is something I will be doing in the future. The results are in 2 major categories, sleep and bathroom stuff. I am going to be as tasteful as I can, but if the scatological bothers you in any way, don't read further.

Sleep: Within 4 days of stopping decaf in the morning I slept better than I had in years. I woke up at night hardly at all and woke up feeling refreshed much more often than not. In the recent, coffee drinking past, I awoke each night once or twice. When I added a single cup of caffeinated coffee I sleep very poorly for 2 nights in a row. When I added a single cup of decaf I slept worse than with no coffee, but better than if it was fully caffeinated.
Number 2: While not perfect, bathroom cleanliness improved also within about a week of stopping coffee. This was not consistent, but the baseline, so to speak, was better overall. Things were a bit drier and more well formed, requiring less clean up afterward. I can't believe I am writing this. Once I added the single cup of decaf back things reverted to the wetter, messier state fairly quickly and cleared up after a couple of days dropping the coffee. Different foods I eat, nuts particularly, tend to make things even worse, but I could only tell that once I removed the baseline problem causer of the coffee. I am not sure if it is the caffeine or other substances in the coffee, but either way the problem is worse with it. It is a bean, after all.

My overall conclusion is that drinking coffee on a daily basis is a mistake for me. Even decaf in small doses daily bothers my sleep and bathroom situation enough to not make it worth it. As a result, I will be almost entirely coffee free in the coming future. I may have a cup of espresso or dry cappuccino from time to time as a treat in small doses when I know I will have the opportunity to sleep in. I may not even do that.

The hardest part is Sunday morning(now), when I used to have 2-3 cappuccinos while we lounge around and relax. I enjoyed the taste and miss it.

Workout of the Week: New Trainer, Same Tough Workout, and Doug Sighting?

2010-10-22T04:44:00.001-07:00

Another long fast due to late tennis Tuesday night. Worked out at about the 29 hour mark of the fast. This week we had the new trainer, Mark.

Workout(~15 minutes):

Pullover: No ab stuff
Seated Row
Chest Press
Pull Down: pop pin
Overhead Press: pop pin
Leg Press: Feet at the top

Improved on everything. Up in weight on Seated row, chest press and I think leg press. Up in time and weight on the row and up in time on all the rest that weight wasn't increased. Very tough.

Felt fine the next day until around dinner time, when I started to feel tight, a bit sore and more lethargic. It is strange. After the workout my body is tired, but I have trouble sleeping. Almost like I am wired. I usually sleep poorly and thursday night was no exception. The second day I sleep better and that is when the fatigue and soreness is more noticeable.

I think we passed Doug McGuff on the way to the workout, but I am not sure. If so then it appears he might be taking "SuperSlow" out of the weight room. We passed him as he was going ~10mph below the speed limit.

Personal Trainers are Confused

2010-10-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Excellent Article from Drew Baye. A must read for those wanting results safely.

Personal Trainers are Confused http://baye.com/personal-trainers-are-confused/

Workout of the Week and Non-Paleo Day

2010-10-16T05:52:00.000-07:00

Went to Atlanta for a brief family vacation and drove through Seneca, SC on the way for our weekly workout. We went in the early afternoon and Thursday, so Ed was still around. I had both Ed and Sherry training me in my workout.

Workout "D"(20 minutes):
-Chest Press: Ed had me do the last couple of reps in the middle range and had me do 2 pop pins. The first pop pin I couldn't raise it. The second was only 100 pounds and I could do a couple miserable reps. Up in time under load. I am still sore nearly 2 days later.
-Seated Row: Up in weight and time under load. Included a pop pin and a heavy negative at the end with Ed pushing the arm.
-Leg Press: Up way up in weight and almost achieved previous time. Might have got there, but Ed again had me do low reps to get me to fail early. Another pop pin as well. I was wobbly when done.
-Overhead Press: Seat was adjusted so had to judge progress with previous. Down in time, which isn't a surprise with the chest press brutality. Another pop pin.
-Pullover with Abs: Up in time. Heavy negative at end.

I feel like I write this every time, but it was one of the hardest workouts ever. 2 days later and just feeling like I am getting to baseline. Still a bit sore in several places. Had an expensive, but good Rodizio meal heavy on the meat about 2 hours after. Total fast around 22 hours.

Yesterday had a very non-Paleo day. The picture is one such example at "The Varsity" across from my old dorm room at Gerogia Tech. Back om the Paleo wagon today.

Long Drive

2010-10-09T11:58:00.001-07:00

Workout of the Week 10/7

2010-10-07T05:43:00.001-07:00

Had a fairly active week. I hit some tennis with my wife on Thursday, the day after working out. I felt lethargic, but did it anyway. Probably a mistake. Golf on friday. Singles tennis on Saturday morning. A short hike on Sunday afternoon. The doubles tennis on Tuesday. Since I got home late tuesday I skipped dinner, leading to another 30+ hour fast before my weekly beat down with Sherry at Ultimate Exercise.

Workout "C"(~15 minutes):

Overhead Press: Up a touch in time under load(TUL). Pop pin.
Pull Down: Up in load. Pop pin.
Leg Press: Up almost 20 seconds in TUL.
Pull Over Ab Crunches: No comparison. Did a little different method.
Seated Row: Up in TUL.
Chest Press: Up in TUL.

Overall good results. Went to Longhorn Steakhouse for dinner afterward.

The Paleo Solution

2010-10-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

About a week ago I finished reading "The Paleo Solution" by Robb Wolf. I got the book since I am one of the "six listeners" of his fantastic podcast. Maybe I am listener number 13 or so. I will go with that since 13 is my lucky number. It was really, really good. I highly recommend reading it to anyone interested in understanding more about what constitutes a healthy diet. I have researched this type of stuff, on and off, for over 2 1/2 years and I picked up a bunch of things I didn't know or couldn't communicate effectively.

One of the things Robb notes in his book is that he is not a "linear" thinker and see the world as a bunch of separate things that are connected rather than a well organized hierarchy of knowledge. This is a great observation for most people, especially smart people like Robb. I tend to agree and thus have a hard time writing posts sometimes. I kind of know what I want to say, but it is hard to organize it into a nice, clear post. With that in mind I will review the book in more of a stream of consciousness style as a series of bullets and thoughts.

Overall the book is written in a casual, informal style. I, as the reader, was called buttercup several times. This made the reading a lot of fun and I laughed out loud to myself several times.
Robb starts out with a biography prologue where he goes into his past. This is highly relevant since he has dabbled with many other methods of eating and found them lacking until he found Paleo. Robb isn't someone who is just "naturally" lean and muscular as he is now. He became scrawny, skinny-fat, and sick after eating vegetarian. He tried it and it didn't work, making it concrete rather than some vague notion. All this after he was a champion power lifter in one of the largest states in the country. A major backslide for someone so accomplished athletically.
Robb is a trainer of others. Thousands of others. He is not a pure academic but rather a practitioner. If he didn't have success with training others in ways that actually worked I wouldn't be writing this since his book wouldn't exist. To me this lends much more credence to what he suggests. This isn't a single person, self experiment but a large scale group test of his theories. Quite compelling to me.
Robb is very much against gluten. It makes him sick and he thinks it makes others sick as well to a lesser degree. I have been even more trying to avoid gluten as a result and feel a bit better for it. Much of this comes from the idea that gut permeability and flora are major keys to our overall health. I have been taking this more and more seriously. I have some auto-immune issues run in my family that I wish to avoid and am happy to limit some foods as a result. Nightshades would be particularly tough to give up, however.
The section on success cases I found interesting, but not convincing. Like on a resume, anyone can find 3 references of people who like them. I am sure the low fat crowd has success cases too. Always a possibility for selection or survival bias here. I doubt that is the case, but throwing it out there.
Robb takes down the usual arguments as they come. He has heard them all and has answers for them. From whole grains to fiber to fat his arguments are compelling. Anyone who switches and wants to discuss it with friends, family, or doctors will need to be armed and the book does just that.
All throughout the book Robb reminds the reader that all the geek science(pseudo-science :-) ) in the book need not be understood to get the benefits. What does matter is that you do it. He suggests a strict 30 days of Paleo to see if it helps. I think this is a good one. Easing into it makes less sense to me as well. Only if you cold turkey go after it and feel the benefits can you then see if adding things back is worth it. Genius.
Measurements: Robb gives really good guidelines about how to measure before and after starting down the Paleo road. These are really helpful and should make a big difference to compliance and to convincing Doctors you are on the right track, if you care about such a thing. Waist to hip ratio as being key was a new one for me and made perfect sense.
I found the fat issue confusing. I feel this in the podcasts and in the book. On one hand the issue of fat being healthy is covered and covered very clearly. On the other hand 9 out of every 10 times meat is mentioned it is described as "lean meats". I don't get this. Why is animal fat bad? Why would I go lean? I can see why with modern CAFO meats, but with a properly raised or wild animal why would I, or a distant ancestor, not have eaten the fat? One thing I thought was good was a discussion on approximately how much fat should be in the diet. His recommendation is different than some other high fat Paleo opinions where fat is in upwards of 80% of calories. I think that artificially going beyond what is available through high fat dairy may work but it takes on an extra risk in that it is beyond our evolutionary experience. Evolutionarily the high fat doesn't ring true and Robb's general suggestions seemed reasonable.
Overall, the technical details were written in a way that was understandable by me, a layman in terms of biochemistry. I really appreciated this. My guess is that this comes from years of discussing with clients.
Most of the book discusses reversing obesity and other issues. My guess is that avoid derangement is a bit simpler and could allow more of the less damaging carbs like sweet potatoes than he recommends.
As is with his podcast as well he puts a serious emphasis on sleep. Since listening to his podcasts I have been addressing this with removal of coffee to great results. I think he is onto something with this if my experience is any indication. I hear few others discuss this matter in detail. As I got a comment from Rick recently, he thinks that sleep is more important than diet or exercise. Something to think on for sure. I think that there are strong interactions between diet, exercise and sleep in a possibly feed forward way. Diet affects sleep which affects exercise benefits which further effects sleeps, etc.
The exercise portion of the book is fine. What he describes is a strength and anaerobic type of short duration exercise along with some long very low intensity stuff like walking, etc. It is more along the lines of the Primal Blueprint in that regard with out as much of the reenactment. I think that there may be better ways of going about adding very intense exercise safely, but that is secondary to the overall message.

Overall I loved the book even if he was preaching to one of the converted. I highly recommend that you buy the book, read it, and get copies for your loved ones.

jeff

Workout of the Week 9/29

2010-09-30T05:55:00.001-07:00

Workout at Ultimate Exercise with Sherry(~15 minutes):

Seated Row: Up in weight AND time under load(TUL)
Chest Press: Up quite a bit in TUL. Followed with "flys and verticals".
Leg Press: Up quite a bit in TUL. Might have been up in weight as well, I can't recall. Feet at bottom of the plate and followed with calf raises on same machine.
Pull Down: Up in TUL. Pop pin included.
Overhead Press: Up in TUL. Pop pin included. Somewhow, with Sherry pushing me, I got one big rep and 3-4 half reps. I was about to start crying.

Was fasted ~29 hours prior to the workout as tuesday night tennis ends too late to think about cooking and cleaning.

One of the best workout performances so far. I had yet to have increased across the board in TUL as well as weight on at least one exercise. Usually I am toasted by the time I get to the second upper body push/pull. I can think of several reasons why this workout might have been better than usual:

Post workout carbs: I had a potato and half a sweet potato last week after my workout. Might help get a jump start on recovery that extends to a slightly better overcompensation by the end of the week.
Better sleep: Stopping coffee has been i general helping my sleep. It is more consistently good. Only exception was Sunday night when a single, small cup of coffee blew my sleep that night.
Fish Oil: I have been taking more fish oil than usual lately after reading up on it some. It has been suggested it helps with recovery.
TULs: Overall TULs have been coming down as weights increase. This might be slightly easier to recovery from. I have heard some keep TULs as low as 45-60 seconds so they can workout 2x/wk for that very reason.
Reasonable activity: Been playing tennis 2-3 times in between workouts. It is doubles, so not very strenuous other than the odd lob or drop shot run down. It tends to make me feel slightly better and I sense it might help with recovery but I can't see how based on reading books like Body By Science.

Who knows? I am open to the idea it is none of the above and just the way things worked out for some reason. That is probably it. Easy to get fooled by seeing a trend that might not exist.

Workout of the Week and Notes

2010-09-23T04:23:00.000-07:00

Played 3 hours of doubles tennis the previous night and got home late, too late to eat. As a result the fast was back to being very long. Other than a small bug in my water and a Corona Light beer after playing it was a 30+ hour fast. It is amazing how much easier it is to fast that long when you start at lunch instead of dinner. I didn't wake up very hungry and had awesome energy all day in spite of the lack of food intake. One nice thing is the lack of stress about eating. It isn't convenient to eat so I don't, it is that simple and easy.

Workout this week was the "A" workout at Ultimate Exercise and Sherry was the trainer. Took about 15 minutes and it was really tough as usual. Improved on everything but pull down. In this workout I don't worry about the pull down and overhead press performance much. Very little is left on the table after the row and chest press failures and set extenders.

Workout:

Pull Over: Basic pull over with knee lift for extra ab work. Up in weight.
Seated Row: Up in weight.
Chest Press: Up in weight. Included fly's and "verticals", which are small movements of a fly nature near full extension.
Pull Down: Down slightly in time under load. Pop pin in effect.
Overhead Press: Up in time somehow. I felt like I was going to cry when I hit failure and then did 2 reps after the pop pin dropped out.
Leg Press: Feet in upper end of plate. Up in weight. Failed at 97 seconds and Sherry wanted 2 minutes so she dropped the weight and I did another 30 seconds. Miserable.

Had Outback about a half hour after finishing. A big steak(and some my wife couldn't finish of hers), a potato, raw tuna, some chicken wings and brocolli. After getting home I had some milk with some protein powder, a very small amount of ice cream, and an apple. I normally have no dairy at all, but I allow a small amount of it post workout, which is once per week. Finally I was satisfied. Hunger is the best sauce for sure as it all tasted amazing.

A few other interesting notes:

My wife had been having problems with her right side failing before her left side on pushing movements. After taking 2 weeks of recovery a couple of weeks ago this appears to have disappeared while she improved on all movements. The extra recovery time seemed to have done the trick. The workouts did not cause the injury, we think it was her position at the work at home desk. We improved her position there too, so that might have helped as well.
I spoke with a colleague about Hunter-gatherer diets and High Intensity Training. I do that far less often these days, but there was a clear opportunity since the person had a fitness book on their desk of the calorie balance / high cardio variety and I couldn't resist suggesting an alternative. I dropped off the free intro and first training session card from UE. I made it very clear that this isn't a fun workout but the results are great, the workout is as safe as it gets, and it is very efficient. We will see if she tries it out.
Omega 6/Omega 3 ratios: There was some interesting discussions about the O-3 content of foods, particularly beef, on a google group I subscribe to. I took a look into the information myself in nutrition data. Some surprising things discovered there. I suspect that people are being a bit reductionistic on the O-3 stuff since that is the primary thing that we all know about. There is more to meat than the ratio of PUFAs, but assuming you want to balance the ration better you might want to investigate this some. My conclusion is that getting to 1:1 will be highly unlikely unless fatty fish is eaten fairly frequently, especially if you eat a lot of pork or chicken, which are particulaly high in PUFAs and have a undesireable ratio.
Coffee free experiment still going good. At nearly the 3 week point now and have noticed improvements in sleep quality/consistency and other things that I will need to think on to discuss in good taste.

Workout of the Week 9/15

2010-09-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

No workout last week. The intestinal bug went through our family and it hit my wife 2 days before the scheduled workout. Decided to skip a week. I am far enough down the HIT road now that I have lost the "training angst". Gone are the days when I fretted about missing 2 days let alone 2 weeks.

Workout "D"(~15 minutes):

Chest Press: With pop pin. Up in weight.
Seated Row: With pop pin. Up in weight.
Leg Press: With pop pin. Up in weight.
Overhead Press: Up in time under load.
Pull Over: With crunches. Slightly down in time under load.

Tough as usual. Sherry guided us through a killer workout. Nice to know that we can skip a week(or 2?) and come back stronger. Love it.

Coffee experiment going very well so far. At the 12 day point thus far. More detailed update coming.

Coffee Experiment

2010-09-03T04:53:00.001-07:00

Starting today I am beginning an experiment to not drink coffee, even decaf. I came to this conclusion after drinking a single cup of regular Monday and sleeping poorly for the next 3 nights. A discussion on OEvolve brought up other potential improvements to inconveniences I have. As was pointed out, coffee is more than just caffiene, so the other stuff in my decaf might be problematic. Also, decaf isn't totally caffiene free.

Another side benefit is that it will force me to give up the last, lone staple dairy in my diet. I drink a small amount of milk in my daily dry cappucinnos.

I hate to give up coffee since I enjoy it so much, but sleep and other improvements are definitely worth giving it a try. It should be fairly easy as I am not addicted.

Workout of the Week 9/1 Plus Protein Update

2010-09-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

Another weekly workout at Ultimate Exercise with Sherry after a long fast(30 hours). That is likely to become the pattern due to tennis on Tuesdays and a desire to not be below baseline by the weekend means a workout Wednesday night. Not much comparison to previous time since the last time I did the "C" Workout it was turned into a negatives beat down administered by Ed Garbe and the times under load are meaningless.

Workout "C"(~15 minutes):

Leg Press: Feet on upper part of the push plate. Up 10# over last time I did a similar workout. After failure Sherry dropped the weight and I did a few more reps at a lower setting.
Overhead Press: Usual failure plus pop pin extender.
Pull Down: Usual failure plus pop pin extender.
Pull Over Abs
Seated Row
Chest Press

Hard as he%$, as usual. Had dinner at a nearby Mexican place. Chicken mole plus mixed fajitas, hold the rice, beans, tortillas, and chips. Tasted awesome after the long fast and hard work.

After trying to up my protein for the last few weeks I have given up on it. I noticed no significant difference whether I eat more or less. Recovery wasn't affected at all, with my number of days below baseline remaining at about 2 days either way. My performance during workouts was tracking about the same as before, with nice steady improvements in weight and/or time under load. Nothing out of the ordinary. I didn't gain any noticeable mass, which would have been nice, but it really doesn't seem in the cards. I am cool with that. It was worth a try. I will still try and eat a bit more than usual/average in the 24 hours after I work out, but I will not fret about getting extra calories or protein on board the rest of the week. I also plan on returning to fasting 2-3 times per week including the long fast pre-workout.

Workout of the Week 8/25

2010-08-26T04:26:00.001-07:00

Extra long fast prior to the workout. I played tennis tuesday night and finished around 9:15pm. I wasn't hungry and it was too late to make food, so I went to bed without eating. I like to fast all day before my workout, so it ended up being 28 hours or so fasting prior to the workout and around 30 hours total before eating again. Starting at lunch made the fast fairly easy. The hard part of the fast at around 17 hours occurred in the middle of the night and I woke up with only a slight hungry feeling.

Workout "B"(~15 minutes):

Med-X Compound Row: Weight increase of 20#. Still slightly over 2 minutes under load.
Med-X Chest Press: Modest weight increase. Did flys as well.
Med-X Leg Press: 40# weight increase. Time under load was over 90 seconds but under 2 minutes. Also did calf press immediately after.
SuperSlow Pulldown: Slight increase in time under load. Pop pin was in effect again. I got one hard, slow pull on it after popping the pin.
Med-X Overhead Press: Slight increase in time under load. Pop pin. After the pop I couldn't get a single rep.

Minimized time between exercises. One right after the other. Was toast afterwards.

Very pleased witht he progress/results after only a 6 day recovery. Moved workout to Wednesday to accomodate family schedules better and allow for more recovery prior to the weekend and that led to a shorter recovery period this week.

As mentioned above, I started playing tennis again. This is for recreation and social purposes, not exercise. The difference in playing slightly after a HIT workout and after more recovery is amazing. I played on Saturday(1.5 days recovery) and felt like I was dogging it. Easily winded and lazy somewhat. I played 2 sets of tennis and felt fairly sluggish on the court. Played again on Tuesday and felt amazing. 3 sets of tennis after 5 days recovery felt like a walk in the park and I played a more challenging match against a few of the better players at the club.

My tennis game is pretty rusty right now. Saturday was particularly bad, with terrible serving and the rest of my game not a whole lot better. Tuesday was significantly better. Serve was greatly improved(using some of Marc VanDamm's advice from a while ago) and the rest of the game improved to passable levels. I even had 2 or 3 aces and several unreturnable serves. More time on court should remove the rest of the rust. I still have yet to hold serve, but that will come.

Workout of the Week 8/19

2010-08-20T04:53:00.001-07:00

Workout "A"(20 minutes):
-SuperSlow Pullover with Abs: Up in weight and time under load(TUL).
-Med-X Compound Row: Up in weight 20# and only slightly down in time under load(TUL). Still over 2 minutes.
-Med-X Chest Press: Up in weight and TUL. Also did flys.
-SuperSlow Pull Down: Same weight, up in TUL. Pop pin set extender.
-Med-X Overhead Press: Same weight, down in time. Upper body fried by this point. Also pop pin.
-Med-X Leg Press: Feet at top of push plate. Up in weight and TUL.

Worked out 23 hours fasted. A bit less time between exercises led to a really good huff and puff for a good 30 minutes afterward. Good to see continued progression.

Had a protein shake made with 2 raw eggs, coconut milk, a touch of half and half, and 2 scoops of protein powder about 45 minutes afterward then dinner about 2 hours later. Dinner was a bit over half a pound of grass fed ground beef with onion, tomato, green beans, salsa, and FAGE yogurt. Tasted awesome.

Date Night Workout of the Week

2010-08-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Another long fast(24 hours) before a workout on a date night. Sherry from Ultimate Exercise has a daughter who lives nearby and has been watching our kids while we get out workout on and have dinner as a couple, not parents for a change.

Workout "D" was another doozy worked up by Ed and Sherry. Lots of pop pin action.

Workout(~15 minutes):

Med-X Overhead Press: pop pin
Med-X Seated Row: Jacked the weight up and I still was nearly 3 minutes under load, then the pin was popped and I did more reps and a static hold with Sherry pushing.
Med-X Leg Press & Calf Press: Pop Pin on Leg Press. Really got the last bit of strength out that way.
Med-X Chest Press: Pop pin
SuperSlow Pullover with Ab Crunch. Only exercise to not have a pop pin

Went to a Brazilian Rodizo afterward and ate a lot of meat.

Next week is back to workout "A", so we will see how things are progressing after a 4 week period.

Interview with Greg Anderson of Ideal Exercise

2010-08-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

This is a good interview with Greg. My wife and I trained with Greg and Ann Marie Anderson in February and he mentions that without name dropping. His intelligence and personality show through very well. Worth listening to. Greg is one of those guys who I wish had more outlets for his thoughts on training and general philosophy.

.

Workout of the Week: Negatives

2010-08-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Another long fast followed by a difficult Ultimate Exercise workout. Sherry was out so we had Ed this time. Ed used it as an opportunity for me to do mostly negatives. For all exercises but the Abdominal crunches on the pullover machine the weights were reduced and Ed pushed on the weight stack, etc to add a bunch more weight.

Workout(~15 minutes):
-Leg Press
-Overhead Press
-Pulldown
-Abdominal Crunches on Pullover machine
-Seated Row
-Chest press

The negatives were really interesting. It was a bit intimidating the extra weight. The speed of fatigue is much higher. Instead of the negative being almost a break in the effort it was much harder. Usually by the 3rd rep I was toast and couldn't advance the weight any further. By the time I completed the 3rd exercise I was pretty worn out, but it was good to complete the rest. Easily one of the toughest workouts so far.

Went to dinner on a date night in downtown Greenville afterward.

Greyhound Fitness Workout -- Doug McGuff, M.D.

2010-07-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

Dad's Diagnosis 3: Essential Tremor

2010-07-30T09:03:00.001-07:00

A while back I wrote a post about my Dad and some struggles he has had with some leg, hand, and arm shaking. It is an interesting story and one I am looking for some possible guidance on for him. First the history.

The shakes began around 2-3 years ago. It started relatively small, but had gradually gotten a bit more noticable. Due to this and some other reasons he had given up golf eventhough most would sell their soul for his low single digit handicap(without playing he could probably break 80 at will). His first doctor's visit on the subject led to a diagnosis that he had "Benign Fasiculation Syndrome" or BFS. As it was labeled benign he essentailly just lived with it.

About a year later he visited another doctor to get a second opinion. This time the neurologist, after 10 minutes(!) of observation and a quick discussion, had a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease(or PD). This was obviously unsettling and he tried the medication that was perscribed but dropped it shortly after due to side effects that weren't worth it.

The symptoms have stayed about the same lately, or possibly they have gotten better. It is hard to tell for both him and his family since it is difficult to tell whether he is just getting more annoyed and suspecting it is getting worse or if we are getting used it it more so it seems like it has gotten better! No hard data to work with, just feelings really. After a discussion with my wife(a registered nurse) he decided to get a third opinion. This neurologist spent almost an hour with him observing him and going into a extensive discussion of his symptoms. His opinion was that what he has is "Essential Tremor"(or ET) not PD. The reasoning, while not totally solid, is that he shows no symptoms that are classic and very common PD symptoms and has some things that are not indicitive of PD at all. For example, if he has a drink or two(self medication!) the shakes subside. In PD this is not supposed to happen. He also has no visible walking gate effects and his speech affected in any way, which are apparently very common in PD patients.

So now 3 different doctors and 3 different diagnoses. To me this shows how complex all this is. It also potentially shows the vast difference in quality from doctor to doctor. Getting cut and dry answers for something as complex as the human animal/machine is at times tricky, messy and unclear. My guess is that the lines between ET, PD, and BFS aren't clearly defined. I would guess that there is also some overlap in symptoms that muddy the waters some.

He is going to try and take a drug that has proven effective for Restless Leg Syndrome(or RLS) called Requip. According to the doctor it has a long track record of clinical use so their is some level of confidence that the long term effects won't be too bad. The actual track record is a little over 10 years, which to me isn't that long to have any high confidence.

My Dad and I are very similar in that we prefer to avoid any medicines for things other than acute situations. Since going Paleo around 2 years ago he is a very young looking and acting dude in his upper 60s. Golf has been replaced by surfing the waters of Florida whenever the waves are agreeable. I am very keen on finding something dietary or alternative for him to try.

Does anyone know of anything that may help with ET? Other neuological issues like epilepsy have been controlled or cured with ketogenic diets, but I am not sure if that is something worth trying.
Is it possible that some of this is autoimmune related? If so, are their some foods to definitely avoid? Going even more extreme by dropping all dairy, legumes(they enjoy their beans a few times a week) and possibly even nightshades would be a possibility if there is some indication that it is autoimmune related.
Is there any suggestion of exercise methods? I had seen something online that strengthening the muscles may alleviate some of the shaking. He is currently doing push ups, curls, sit ups and walking with sprints a few times a week. He is hesitant to step up the weights since it seems to exacerbate the shakes for a period of time immediately after training. If there is some strong indication I would push for him to do some serious strength training.
Anyone know someone taking Requip? Any sense for effectiveness and side effects worth passing on?
Last and least...any other medications worth considering?

Any links to studies or general thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Not looking for any medical advice over the interwebs. Just looking for leads to allow me to dig further with some efficiency.

Workout of the Week 07/30/2010

2010-07-30T08:26:00.001-07:00

Was on a business trip for the earlier part of the week. Ended up eating a fairly early dinner on wednesday night and fasted until a 6pm workout at Ultimate Exercise. Nearly a 24 hour fasted workout. Did my B workout as follows:

Med-X Compound Row: More weight and more time compared to last time. I am continuing to get stronger in a hurry on this one. I shouldn't write this since Ed Garbe reads it, but the weight actually felt fairly light starting off. Almost 3 minutes on this one again. Nice, deep inroad.
Med-X Chest Press Plus: Usual press plus fly exercises.
Med-X Leg Press + Calves: Feet at the bottom of the foot pad this week and a higher weight than last. Went right into calve exercises once done. Tough having the leg press in the middle of the routine.
SuperSlow Pull Down: Back to some pop pin action. After the popped pin dropped the weight substantially I could still barely move the weight. A rep maybe 2 then a slow negative failure. Very, very tough.
Med-X Overhead Press: Pop pin again. Really squeezed the last of what I had left.

Sherry really got a lot out of me again as I was fried when done. On each exercise I got an extra rep or so that I wouldn't have believed I could do.

Ended up getting some decent BBQ about an hour later, so the whole fast was nearly 26 hours. Felt fairly easy as I was busy all day and the hunger was only a slight nagging feeling.

Can't really compare most exercises until I do my A workout again in a few weeks. If the row is any indication then I am getting nice and strong. Next week, same time...

Workout of the Week 7/22/2010

2010-07-23T08:15:00.001-07:00

Evening workout again yesterday and an extra long fast. By the time it was my turn it was around the 22 hour point. So busy at work and so little hunger I barely noticed. Since we are full time at UE now I am on a rotating workout schedule. This was the A workout and Sherry was the trainer.

Workout(15 minutes):
-Ab Crunches on Pullover machine. Lift knees as pulling down. Wasn't too bad until the 3rd slow rep, then you could really feel it in the abs.
-Med-X compound row: Upped the weight quite a bit and I still was on the machine a while.
-Med-X Chest Press plus added fly
-SuperSlow Pulldown: Pop pin again. The weight was dropped after failure by 60 percent and I could barely move the thing. I got maybe 2 uncomfortable reps.
-Med-X Overhead Press: Arms felt like jelly before this. Did several small reps at strong point. Was almost in free fall while Sherry tried to get me to hold a ten count.
-Med-X Leg Press: Feet near top of plate.

Very tough workout. One of the toughest yet. I was on the carpet trying to catch my breath afterward. It was hard to get up afterward.

A Day of Protein & Other Thoughts

2010-07-19T17:51:00.000-07:00

After my last post I decided to try and consume more protein today and see where I came on on the day.

Breakfast: 1/4# of ground buffalo(36g), 2 eggs(12g), 1 slice of bacon(5g) and some smoothie made with some protein powder and egg whites I shared with my family(~10g and that is probably generous). Total 63g. The burger patty is unusual. I never do that.
Lunch: I was busy and almost forgot to eat since I wasn't hungry in the slightest. 1 can of kipper snacks and 1 tin of sardines around 1pm. Total 40g.
Dinner: 2 links of Johnsonville sweet italian sausage(30g). 1/4# ground buffalo(36g). Total 66g. I still wasn't hungry. I had to force myself to eat.
After dinner protein shake(30g). I almost never do this, and even when I do I don't make it a double with 2 scoops of whey protein.

Sidebar: The Johnsonvilles were an unusual foray into grocery store meat. We do this less than once a week these days.

The grand total? 193g assuming 9g/ounce, which is generous. Almost exactly my body weight in grams. In other words, I had to drink liquid protein and force myself to eat to even get to 1g/# of body weight. Based on this I would guess I get more like 100g/day(a little over 0.5g/#). I figure this because 1)I rarely eat more than 2 meals in a day, 2) At least once a week I eat only 1 meal per day, 3) I rarely drink protein shakes and 4) breakfast, when I eat it, is more eggs than meat and thus lower in protein overall.

I wonder if this could explain why some of us struggle to gain muscle mass. It is just really, really hard for some of us to eat as much protein as may be required. I struggled to get to 1g/# let alone 1.5g/#!

Another thought I forgot to add in my previous post. Robb Wolf suggested that some of us may not digest our food as well and thus may not be integrating all of the protein they eat. Their yield may be less due to weaker stomach acids, etc and the extra 0.5g/# might be required to make up for it in some people. He even suggested a supplement you take when you eat that increases hydrochloric acid concentration in the stomach. I don't want to go there but it is interesting.

One that note I have revisited a thought a friend in Seal Beach, California told me once about the Germans he visited. They didn't drink with meals. It stood out in my mind since I thought they might enjoy a beer with dinner or lunch as I usually do. The explanation they gave was that the liquid diluted the stomach juices, which makes sense to me. For over 2 weeks I have not had a drink with meals and wait around 30-60 minutes afterward to have a drink. I drink water/coffee/etc when I an not eating. There is some sense to this evolutionary wise.

It might do absolutely nothing, but my plan is to try and get my protein intake up to 1g/# and to continue avoid drinking at meal time. I will do this by buying a few extra pounds of ground buffalo or local grass fed beef and try to eat an extra 1/4# patty a meal(1/2#/day or ~70g). That will boost me to right around the target amount in a somewhat natural way. If my hunger today is any indication I will struggle to want to eat it. I will continue to do a long fast on workout of the week day and try to do 2 large meals per day with a daily 14-16 hours without eating.

15 Modern Coveniences that are bad for your health

2010-07-19T13:40:00.001-07:00

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/preventive-care/modern-inconveniences1.htm#mkcpgn=kaw1

Note that the standard american diet made #1. Some other interesting ones as well but I haven't made it through all the list yet.

Protein Requirements

2010-07-18T15:25:00.000-07:00

I was listening to a Robb Wolf podcast last week. He suggested 1.5g of protein per pound of body weight. Doing a little math it appears to be quite a lot of food, meat in particular. At my current body weight of ~190#, I would need to eat something like 2+# of meat a day! 1oz of meat = ~8-9g of protein. 1.5*190/8.5 = 33oz. Wow. I thought I eat a lot of meat, but I don't eat anywhere near that amount. I figure I am close to 1#, not 2#!

Does anyone have some sense of how important this is for health and muscle gain? I have heard conflicting information as usual. Some say fat is more important since hormones are made from fat. Others say extra protein will go to fat via gluconeogenesis. Others say the protein will be detrimental for health. Others, as Wolf, say that the extra protein is required for health and gains in the gym. Any thoughts on weaving through this minefield?

Current stats:

6' 1"
~9% body fat
Cracked the "overweight" limit of 25 on the BMI. A life goal achieved.

Workout of the Week and Terra Plana Shoes

2010-07-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

Worked out with Sherry at Ultimate Exercise. 22 hours fasted and with 12 days recovery since last high intensity session.

Workout(~15 minutes):

Med X Leg Press: Up in weight and time under load.
MedX Compound Row: Up in weight and time. Almost 3 minutes on this machine with a 10 second failure hold while Sherry added extra weight by pushing.
MedX Chest Press: Up in weight and time.
SuperSlow Pull Down: Up in weight.
MedX Overhead Press: Up in weight
Abdominal Exercises on Pullover machine: ???

Great workout with excellent metabolic effect. Went to Mellow Mushroom near Clemson for a "build your own" salad afterward.

One other note. I got a pair of brown suede Terra Plana "Aqua" shoes. They are shoes with the "vivo barefoot" technology. Very nice. They look good and just like a regular shoe. The sole is thin and flexible so I can feel the ground similar to Vibram FiveFingers. It is nice to roll how I like without having my feet be a fairly consistent topic for discussion.

Pulse Gym Workout

2010-07-01T15:12:00.001-07:00

My buddy Kevin had a great idea when I told him I was probably going to miss a weekly workout. He suggested I join him at the Pulse Gym in Greenwich, CT where he does his high intensity training. I took him up on it today, going into the office of the hedge fund he works at and working out at the end of the day. Workout was done at 4:30pm, right after Kevin did his session.

Workout:
-MedX Leg Extension: Negative only with heavy weight and with Chris personally adding more weight.
-SuperSlow Pulldown: Slow Mo style. Kevin's most hated exercise.
-MedX Back Extension: Slo Mo plus added personal resistance on last 2 negatives
-MedX Arm Cross: Negatives only and limited range of motion due to left shoulder.
-MedX Overhead Press: Negatives only. Very high weight.
-MedX Leg Press: Slo Mo plus 1 or 2 assisted reps with negatives.
-Eccentrix Negative Chin Up: 4 negatives with 225 kg max readout.

Took 20 minutes. Chris was a great guy and gave an awesome workout. My first workout so heavy on the negatives. Awesome.

10 days or so recovery and back to Ultimate Exercise with "Evil" Ed Garbe. Looking forward to it.

For those HIT readers out there, Chris had a question regarding training clients with pacemakers. The wire goes through or along the clavicle and the clients doctor was worried about the safety of training in a high intensity fashion with a pacemaker. Any advice from those who train some older folks?

Biggest Loser Contestant Allegations

2010-06-29T17:27:00.000-07:00

I wonder if this is true.

Wrong

2010-06-29T11:48:00.001-07:00

Wrong

Check out this article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100629/hl_time/08599199864400

I am going to go out and get the book shortly. Take a second and realize how wrong, often, medical advice is. 1 chance in 12, if he is right, get harmed from the medical advice? Iatrogenesis!

This guy offers essentially evolutionary, ancestral reasoning. "We don't know what is right, but the older it is the more likely it is to be good advice". I like his thoughts that world is very complex and messy and therefore requires respect for that complexity. Simple solutions are very likely wrong as a result as they don't take into account the multi-multi factoral reality we live in. Reductionism. I think a lot of good reasoning stems from the acknowlegement of that complexity.

The problem is deeply episemological. How do we know what we know? Whom do we rely on for advice? We can't know it all so what is the best default course of action?

(Hat Tip: Brother Dan)

Dinner to Remember

2010-06-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

We are in NJ staying with our good friends Kevin and Maureen while we wait until our temporary apartment is ready to move into. Decided to have a adults night out and got a babysitter for the kids and went to a really good restaurant in Ramsey, NJ called "Cafe Panace".

Really, really good food. We are all Paleo, so we skipped the bread and ordered real food style meals. We started with oysters, tuna tartare, and a caprese style dish made with added butter. I had the calves liver with vegetables(no rice) and the others had chicken, grouper, and soft shelled crab. All really good and decent sized meals. This is where it gets interesting...

The waiter came back and asked if we wanted desert. Most of us were already having a low calorie day where we only had one meal until dinner. I said "actually, we were thinking of having more entrees". I ordered us 2 more appetizers(mussels in a curry broth, absolutely amazing) and 2 more entrees(sirloin). At that he said "I want to party with you guys". Once done(I finished some from each of the ladies) we ordered 3 desserts which we enjoyed. The waiter then brought us over 3 more desserts! The last 2 were especially good. One was a watermelon sorbet in a honeydew soup. The other was a peach bread pudding. Obviously this was a bit of a cheat meal for us Paleo types.

So the 4 of us ate the equivalent of a table of 6 with big appetites. 6 starters, 6 entrees, and 6 desserts. The waiter shook our hands afterward and told us in his 16 years of being a waiter that there was only 1 other time someone had ordered a second entree.

Workout of the Week 6/23

2010-06-24T04:30:00.001-07:00

Did what is most likely my last high intensity workout in NY. The movers were finishing up loading the trailer and we went to the YMCA for our 30 minutes of training. For once I did my workout without being fasted except for the 4 hours since lunch. This might have helped since I was up in weight and time under load on each exercise and quite large time improvements on the 2 that I didn't increase weight. Did a 'little 6' since only 6 days of revery since last time. It had been 6 weeks since I did a little 6, which also might have helped show progress. The Big 5s or so since then strengthening the isolated muscles some as well.

Little 6(15 minutes):
-Tricep Extension: Up in weight and time.
-Back Extension: Up in weight and time
-Bicep Curl: Up in weight and time.
-Leg Extension: Up a lot in time.
-Deltoid Raise: Up in weight and time
-Calf Raise: Up a lot in time.

Awesome progress. Best performance since starting this style training.

Next workout will be back at Ultimate Exercise in about 2 weeks. Until then tennis, some sprints and maybe some not to failure pull ups and push ups at our friends(Kevin the Objectivist, Paleo HIT man) place in NJ.

Learning to run barefoot

2010-06-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

If you are interested in barefoot running, take a look at this post from Matt Metzgar. I am 100% in agreement with his analysis. Vibram FiveFingers are fantastic, but if you really want to learn how to run properly then your best bet is to run completely bare and on a hard surface, not a soft one. In my opinion this is not something to ease into slowly but rather jump in with both feet(pun intended). If you run on a hard surface bare you won't land with your heel at all due to discomfort and the proper form will come fairly naturally.

Workout of the Week 6/17 & Training Thoughts

2010-06-18T06:36:00.000-07:00

Worked out fasted at lunch at my local YMCA along with my wife. Classic Big 5 with different order. Exercise comparisons are versus the last time I did a similar order.

Overhead Press: Up 10#, down 14 seconds. Felt very heavy but still got almost 90 seconds.
Row: Same weight, up 22 seconds.
Leg Press: Up 5#, down 22 seconds. Was pretty fried by this point.
Chest Press: Up 5#, down 6 seconds.
Pull Down: No previous record to compare.

It was good to mix up the order of exercises. I could feel a pleasant soreness or tightness this morning when I woke up. The shoulders got hit more due to starting with them rather than doing it after chest press. The fatigue from chest might cause early failure in the exercise that might not get to those muscles. Switching alternates this and I see this as a good thing. Another good thing is that it keeps me from obsessively looking at progress on a week by week basis, which may fool you from randomness. Looking a comparisons of 4 weeks back will filter out some of the noise of the weekly variation while preserving the signal, so to speak.

Excellent progress as usual. Well over 1 year after starting and I still make regular progress. This reminds me of a discussion I had with my Jeet Kune Do instructor George, who I bought a copy of Body By Science for as a parting thank you gift. He stated that he quickly adapts to whatever exercise he is doing and hates weight lifting even though he knows it is beneficial to him. My theory on this(probably previous readings coming up from my subconscious) is that most weight lifting has too large of a skill component to it. Someone who is athletically gifted like George learns very fast, so plateau's quickly on the skill portion of the training. Since the skill based lifting is not an excellent muscle stimulus, the real strength increases are extremely slow. Combine both and what you get is an apparent plateau! Add to it that most train too often to reap the benefits of the stimulus and what you get is stalled progress. This is where the beauty of high intensity training shines. The skill component of the training is near zero, so there is little, if anything to learn neuromuscular-wise. The training itself is a potent stimulus for strength. The frequency, out of the box, is enough to allow nearly all to progress from the get go!

Cholesterol

2010-06-13T07:28:00.000-07:00

2 interesting bits of information related to cholesterol lately.

Wife: My wife had a annual physical and had her cholesterol checked. She was worried from last time only due to her relatively low HDL level. Due to her diet she knew triglycerides would not be an issue. Her results:

HDL: 68, up from 33.
Triglycerides: 61, a bit lower from last time.
Vitamin D level: 63.

One other thing that was interesting was that the doctor didn't even tell her her total or LDL levels. I am sure they were within the recommended guidelines but we also sensed that she didn't think they were as relevant as the other info above. Looks like some progress as to current understanding of cholesterol and what it means.

Friend: A friend of ours had his blood results from a physical as well. In this case, the doctor didn't even tell him his cholesterol levels. Instead he just sent him a perscription for a statin and said to come back in 3 months. Unreal.

Sold

2010-06-12T02:41:00.000-07:00

Our home is sold. Closing on 6/25 and moving to South Carolina around 7/7.

Always a bit stressful to move and sell a home, particularly in a buyer's market so it was good to get our place sold before waiting too long. Our buyer got a nice deal on our place and we will miss our home, but onward and upward we go.

Last 2 Workouts

2010-06-12T02:27:00.000-07:00

Catching up again on workout posts.

6/2 at Ultimate Exercise with Sherry.

MedX Compound Row: Up 10# if I remember right. This was done with the pop pin, so extra reps at lower weight after failure at working weight. This took a good long while and wore me out.
MedX Chest Press: Up 10# and still over 2 minutes under load. Followed this up with chest flys done on the same machine. The MedX machine moves the hands closer together as you extend your arms. Sherry had me grab higher on the lever of the machine and do smaller motions near the extension position, working the chest in a squeezing motion.
SuperSlow PullDown: Same weight as before and for lower time. Also done with pop pin, but I had little left for that after the row.
MedX Overhead Press: Up in weight a bit and down in time. Pop pin again.
MedX Leg Press: Up 20# and well over 2 minutes still. Done in "J rep" fashion, with the first half of the time doing reps only in the bottom of the movement and the last half of time only done at the top, more extended, portion of the movement. Very tough.

I was on the carpet after this one. Felt fairly worn out and below baseline for a good 3 days. Delayed next workout for 8 days rather than 7. Did some sprints on day 4 of recovery.

6/10 YMCA workout.

Chest Press: Up 5#, down only 1 second. Quite happy about that.
Pull Down: Up in weight by 1.5 numbers on the machine(over 10%). Down 8 seconds.
Leg Press: Same weight. Up a second or so.
Overhead Press: Same weight as last time, but did this as second push motion. Still got almost 90 seconds.
Row: Felt wiped after the pull down. Kept weight same as last time and went for over 60 seconds.
Back Extension: Up 10#, down 12 seconds. Finally below 90 seconds.

Random Thoughts

2010-06-01T18:07:00.000-07:00

In an airport heading off to a house hunting trip in the south. The security line was short and I have some time to kill. Here it goes...

I have noticed a similar thing before, but the level of obesity in an airport is far less than at an amusement park...

Heard a Beatles song during dinner tonight. I forget how good they were...

Woman in front of me at Starbucks orders a Venti non-fat hazelnut latte. No fat, all the sugar. Great...

I am beginning to see a lot of children far fatter than their parents. To me this is likely due to something in the diet messing up the works of a growing body versus a grown one, otherwise the parents would be just as heavy. The steady stream of sugary foods I saw fed to children at ana musement park recently is shocking. Soda, fried food, breads, candy...

Another trend is eyeglasses. I see lots of children wearing them. It could be they care more or are more well off, but I sense there is more to it than that...

One misconception I have heard from experts is that we haven't evolved to sprint. The "logic" is that we could never outrun the lion. To me this is faulty. An individual need only outrun the others in their species, not the predator. Natural selection isn't prey outrunning the predators, but rather individuals surviving at the expense of their compatriots. I think while we may have done persistence hunting that doesn't mean that we never ran as fast as we could to either be better at catching prey or escaping enemies...

Another recent one I heard along similar lines is that training to failure isn't evolutionary either. In the past people didn't work so hard to fail in lifting on a regular basis since it puts you out of commission for a longer period. Anyone who has done BBS style training knows how draining it can be. Maybe some feel like training again 48 hours later, but not this guy. In some sense this makes sense, but the key is "regular basis". Maybe not once every 7-10 days, but I would strongly doubt that our ancesters had the luxury to always stop before fully fatigued. This is kind of like stopping eating before full. Seems like nonsense to me...

In both cases I think the answer is likely a power law. Lots of low level activity and rest. Less but a decent amount of medium level activity, meaning not to failure lifting or excessive speed. Infrequent failure lifts and sprinting full speed for short duration. What defines us mostly, I suspect, is the higher intensity end of that spectrum. Devany speaks a lot about this...

Reading the "His Dark Materials" series from Philip Pullman. Very good. Each book in the series is getting better. Good brain candy...

New Body by Science Q&A Book

2010-05-28T10:16:00.000-07:00

Not sure if everyone knows, but Doug McGuff and John Little have a follow on book to the great "Body by Science".

Here is the summary from Amazon:

"Following publication of BODY BY SCIENCE, the public’s interest in Dr. Doug McGuff’s and John Little’s evidence-based approach to exercise has increased dramatically, with the result that hundreds of questions have been posed and answered at the authors’ various seminars, within magazine articles and on their website (www.bodybyscience.net). Such question-and-answer sessions provide an opportunity for the authors to expand on key points and principles within their book, as well as address important topics that were not included in BODY BY SCIENCE (such as rehabilitation issues, various training protocols, and long term health and safety issues). THE BODY BY SCIENCE QUESTION-AND-ANSWER BOOK is a companion volume to BODY BY SCIENCE that sheds additional light on the authors’ rational, science-based approach to strength training, bodybuilding, and total fitness. Within the pages of this new book you will learn:

-Why (and how) strength training is the best way to rehabilitate most common injuries (from rotator cuff issues and knee replacements to lower back pain and arthritis).

-Why bodybuilding is not what it seems.

-Why athletics may not be the best route to health and fitness

-The truth about VO2 Max testing and REAL cardiovascular health.

-The realities of nutrition and the “insulin problem.”

-How to optimize your workouts and ensure that your training facility is set up to maximize your progress.

Plus answers to many more important questions on various aspects of health, fitness and strength."

I have been digging into it since I got it in the mail yesterday. It is jam packed with good stuff. One item in particular I am interested in hearing more about is the "Muscle-Metabolic Mismatch", which has to do with the different timescales for muscle recovery and for metabolic adaptations. I have experienced this myself since starting the BBS program. I am with out a doubt stronger and a bit more muscular, but I feel less fit. Looking to find a way to work both, if that is even possible. Only about a quarter of the way through. Great stuff.

The link to buy the book is here.

Last 3 Workouts

2010-05-28T10:05:00.001-07:00

Been slacking keeping my blog up to date with workouts. Here is a data
dump.

5/10: Short recovery(5 days) from Ultimate Excerise Workout. Did a
'Little 6', which I hadn't done in a while.
* Bicep Curl: Up 5#, down 16 seconds.
* Back Extension: Up 50#, down 29 seconds. Still over 2 minutes.
* Tricep Extension: Up 5#, down 26 seconds.
* Leg Extension: Same Weight, down 16 seconds. :(
* Deltoid Raise: Up 5#, down 17 seconds. Still over 90 seconds.
* Calf Raise: Up 10#, down 8 seconds.

5/19: Big 5 plus Back Extension. Went up in weight on every exercise
except chest press.
* Chest Press: Up 3 seconds.
* Compound Row: Up 5#, down 22 seconds.
* Leg Press: Up 5#, down 14 seconds.
* Overhead Press: Up 5#, down 9 seconds
* Pull Down: No comparison as I did Max Pyramid last time.
* Back Extension: Up 10#, down 21 seconds.

5/28: Big 3. Found out I will be working out back at Ultimate Exercise
on Wednesday, so backed off on the volume. I also had an active week,
with a few not-to-failure workouts(more on that later).
* Chest Press: Up 5#, down 16 seconds.
* Pull Down: Up '0.5', down 13 seconds. Still almost 90 seconds.
* Leg Press: Level in weight and time. Felt tough. Sprints and
tennis might have affected recovery.

Workout of the Week 5/5

2010-05-07T15:37:00.000-07:00

I was in Greenville, SC so I took the opportunity to work out at Ultimate Exercise. No fasting since I had a working lunch.

The workout featured some new methods of torture I hadn't done before or even heard of. Sherry fitted some of the machines with a "pop pin" for the normal weight and left the standard pin in a lower weight amount. When you fail on the normal weight, the stack bottoms out, activating the pop pin, which then pops out of the stack leaving the weight as pinned at the lower setting. The you go to failure again with the lower weight. This extends the set and makes it even tougher. Very difficult.

Workout(around 20 minutes but I blocked most of it out):
-Compound Row: Pop pin. First failure was up 10# and 10 seconds!
-Chest Press: Pop pin. Was pretty well fried by the time I was done with the lower weight failure.
-Pull Down: Static hold with pop pin. Very hard. Lots of shaking.
-Overhead Press: Pop pin. Sherry had to help me lift the lighter weight after the pop. Due to earlier exertion I had lower time under load.
-Leg Press: Max Pyramid style. Absolutely miserable. I told Sherry after the fourth "set" that I can't believe I drove 50 minutes and pay good $ for this!
-Abs on pull over machine.

Ed Garbe and Sherry really cooked up a doozy on this one. It was one of the hardest workouts ever. Definitely top 3.

Apparently not everyone who trains in a one on one style works hard at it. I don't get this. If you are not going to listen and attempt to do what an expert says, why pay them and waste your time? When the trainers get someone who pushes it to the limit they really enjoy it. I am glad somebody had a good time!

Had dinner with an old colleague in downtown Greenville 2 hours after. Good times.

Reader Question & Workout of the Week 4/27/2010

2010-04-27T11:49:00.001-07:00

Reader AT22 asked a question in a previous post regarding how you know when you are below baseline, recovered, etc. Good question as it is not always obvious. Here is what usually happens to me over the week:

Day 1(Workout day): I usually leave the gym breathing very heavy and it takes a good 20 minutes or so to feel like my breathing is back to normal. Doing the max pyramid protocol I usually have trouble lifting my arms or driving. For the rest of the day it is fairly clear I am below baseline since I feel very fatigued.
Day 2: I usually wake up a little tight, but usually not too sore. Tightness usually fades within 30 minutes of waking. The day is spent feeling more or less fatigued. Strangely enough I usually feel a little worse, fatigue wise, on day 2 than I did right after the workout on day 1. Not sure if that is common. I suspect that there is an adrenaline like response keeping me up more on day 1, but I have no idea.
Day 3: Fatigue starts to fade but still feel fairly tired. Definitelty not inclined to train again. Tightness and/or soreness less than day 2.
Day 4: I usually feel back to normal, or back to baseline. No longer fatigued. Any soreness is gone. Don't feel particularly energetic, but not as inclined to just relax.
Days 5-6: By this time I usually feel like a million bucks. I have the feeling of being a "wound spring" or feeling like I am ready to "jump out of my skin". The feeling is very distinctive, almost like crackling. Sometimes this comes on day 6 and sometimes day 5, but it always comes. In my experience over the last year this is the critical time. The inclination would be to train on these days, but it is too soon. Waiting the extra day or two(at least) is better.
Day 7: Workout day again. By now I have had 1-2 days below baseline, 2 days at baseline, and 3-4 days above baseline. Still feeling like a wound spring I am ready to attack the workout. It is go time!

I hope that helps. It is very subjective, but the inclination to train when you just feel back to baseline is very strong and it is better if you can wait out the extra couple of days. From experience this is not easy. If you are used to training 5-6 days a week like I was you will be itching to get back to the gym. When I went back too soon my progress either halted or I back tracked. Thank goodness I got some timely advice from Doug McGuff(and I wasn't too much of a knucklehead) or I would have beat myself into the ground. You may need to try it out for yourself, but if you can avoid making the same mistakes it will be worth it. A good rule of thumb would be to work out at least 2-3 days after you get that great, crackling feeling or 5 days after you no longer feel fatigued.

One difference might be gender. My workout partner is my wife and she has a different experience. She seems to feel recovered faster than I do. I think dudes, due to their greater muscle mass, can inflict more inroad than the ladies, but I am no expert. I am no hulk, but I have a lot more muscle than my wife. She isn't able to judge her recovery as well as I can as well. It definitely shows on her progress, however. Like me she had a difficult time dropping the extra workouts during the week. She did so recently for other reasons and guess what? Steady, excellent progress. :-) Without me it might be tough for her to judge. The time and progress are then a better judge. No progress then there is no reason except lack of rest. No excuse for not making progress, it has to be too short of a recovery.

Workout(16 minutes):

Back Extension: Up 10# and 43 seconds
Overhead Press: Up 5#, down 10 seconds
Pull Down: Up '0.5', down 12 seconds
Leg Press: Up 5#, down 22 seconds.
Chest Press: Up 2 seconds(essentially flat)
Compound Row: Max Pyramid style

I worked out a bit early(6 days recovery) due to scheduling issues. Nice continuing progress. Major surprise on the back extension. I felt like the energizer bunny. Fasted before and had a big lunch shortly after. I don't usually eat right afterward, but a little variation won't kill me and might even help. Who knows?

Next workout in 9 days time with (Evil) Ed Garbe at Ultimate Exercise. I am scared...

Workout of the Week 4/21

2010-04-21T06:51:00.001-07:00

Due to a later starting meeting we worked out this morning rather than
at lunch. Did a Big 5, but replaced the usual super slow method with a
max pyramid on the pull down.

Big 5(~13 minutes):
* Chest Press: Level weight, up 5 seconds
* Compound Row: Level weight, up 8 seconds.
* Leg Press: Up 5# and up 10 seconds.
* Overhead Press: Level weight, up 3 seconds.
* Pull Down: Started a bit over half my usual weight. Did 6, 20
second "reps" on the way up and then came back down to the starting
weight. Brutal protocol. Overall this took 5 minutes. I could barely
scratch my nose afterward.

Waiting around 3 hours until eating "breakfast" around lunch time.

Workout of the Week 4/14

2010-04-14T17:05:00.000-07:00

Worked out fasted at lunch with my wife. I did a Big 5 plus Back Extension(what Greg Anderson calls a "hands free dead lift"). John Little posted recently on a new "Max Pyramid" protocol he has been using to good effect. After watching the movies and reading the method I was a little scared but tried it out today on the Leg Press.

Workout(15 minutes):

Overhead Press: Full range of motion. Shoulder feeling much better. The workouts have almost been therapy. Used my previous weight but did this as my first push, so I went extra long.
Pull Down: First pull went extra long.
Leg Press: Max Pyramid style. Started at around half my usual super slow weight and progressed up in weight by 10# per 20 second static hold until I did 5 of them. On the highest weight I was still way below my usual weight and was fried. Then back down the weights until the starting. On the way down I got no more than 10 seconds per hold and the last was less than 5. Very very challenging.
Chest Press
Seated Row
Back Extension: Up in weight by a lot and still nearly 2 minutes under load.

Due to one dude on the chest press I switched the order I had been doing recently to put the overhead press and pull down first. As a result I did not bother with comparisons from last time since they would have been mostly meaningless. Only one worth mentioning was the Back Extension.

I had wobbly legs for about 45 minutes after the workout and I felt a huge metabolic effect. The Max Pyramid is brutal and I could definitely see using this from time to time.

One more workout in NY next week then I am off to see "Evil" Ed Garbe at Ultimate Exercise for quite a bit more of the Max Pyramid.

Ian Shooting Hoops

2010-04-11T09:21:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZpEJC22y4Q - Apr 11, 2010 12:11 PM

Form not too bad for a 3 year old.

Dairy and Weight Gain/Loss

2010-04-11T04:50:00.001-07:00

I had a post brewing on this but Diana Hsieh beat me to it. I too believe that dairy should be limited to a serving or two of high fat cream or butter. Way too easy to pack in the calories. There may also be some insulin issues, but I doubt they matter much.

http://www.dianahsieh.com/blog/2010/04/dairy-and-weight-gainloss.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+noodlefood+%28NoodleFood%29

When people fail to lose or gain on a "paleo" diet it is usually one of the following:
-too much dairy
-too much fruit
-too many nuts/nut butters
-hidden carbs in fried foods and salad dressings

Some of the above are due to hormonal responses and others are simply too much calorie take in. My feeling is if you stick with meat and veggies it is far easier to get to a good body composition. It is much harder to overconsume on meat & veg and hormonal response to food is more optimal. No one binges on meat like they do on nuts, fruit or dairy.

Thoughts?

Workout of the Week

2010-04-07T17:13:00.001-07:00

WOW was with Sherry at Ultimate Exercise. It is hard to judge yet who is meaner, Ed Garbe or Sherry.

-MedX Leg Press
-MedX Compound Row
-MedX Chest Press
-SuperSlow Pull Down
-MedX Overhead Press
-MedX PullOver(ab crunch style)
-Tricep Pushdown(on SuperSlow pulldown machine)

Up in weight or time on each exercise. It is now around 48 hours later and I am just feeling back to baseline.

Ancestral Health Symposium

2010-03-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

Ultimate Exercise III

2010-03-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Had another workout with Ed at Ultimate Exercise this morning. I had a late dinner the previous night and worked out at 7am, so I was less fasted than usual. It was 10 days since previous workout. Ed had me mix things up a little bit, moving the leg press late in the game and adding an ab crunch and calf press on leg press machine. Every exercise squeezed everything I had out of the movement, with shorter reps in the strong zone while nearly exhausted, static hold after failure, and negative failure at the end. Very tough. Ed is kind of mean that way.

Workout(~15 minutes):

MedX Compound Row
MedX Chest Press
SuperSlow Pull Down
MedX Overhead Press
Ab Crunch
MedX Leg Press
Calf Extension

Weights and times less relevant since the plan was mixed up. My records are also kept at UE, so I am going to leave it to Ed whether I am over-training or not making progress. The plan is to eventually go to 4 separate workout plans, all of which will be whole body routines with a little extra emphasis in some areas which change each time. Progress measured by comparing workouts from 4 workouts earlier(workout A versus workout A done the last time).

Had a small snack of sausage and 2 hard boiled eggs around an hour and a half afterward.

Modern Paleo Guest Post

2010-03-22T09:39:00.001-07:00

I posted as a guest on Modern Paleo. Check it out!

http://blog.modernpaleo.com/2010/03/modern-paleo-journey.html

Moving

2010-03-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

After some deliberation my family and I have decided to relocate to Greenville, South Carolina. I had an opportunity that I couldn't refuse and some of the work I have expertise in was in decline for the last 2 years.

I am hoping SC is a nice health improvement healthwise as well. There is a Whole Foods in town. We have found numerous local farms that sell a variety of meats, eggs and dairy. The better overall weather should allow more sunshine exposure and more outdoor activities. Also, Ultimate Exercise is a short drive away, which should keep the injury free strength advances coming for a long time to come.

Workwise I will be getting back to my Computer Aided Design roots, which will be fun and challenging in the new location. I am looking forward to it.

Lots of stress and anxiety to come over the next few months. We need to sell a house, move, buy a house, and find schools for our kids. I hope to be somewhat settle by September, but we will see.

Workout of the Week 3/12

2010-03-15T15:21:00.001-07:00

Worked out at noon, fasted at Ultimate Exercise under the guidance of Ed Garbe and Sherry. Absolutely brutal workout. Did a Big 5:
-MedX Leg Press: Up 60# and got nearly the same time as last time. Felt light right off the rip and Ed upped it 50#. Still was over 3 minutes under load including Ed trying to get me to fail early with half reps at the lower end of the movement.
-MedX Compound Row: Up 10# at nearly the same time.
-MedX Chest Press: Up 10# at nearly the same time.
-SuperSlow Pulldown: Same weight. Up a bit in TUL
-MedX Overhead Press: Down 40# but did full range of motion. Was pretty wiped by the time I got here.

Ed had me do some shorter reps and static holds once I got near failure. Great workout. 3 days later I am finally back to baseline. Working out in another 7 days with Ed again at UE.

jeff

Karen's Ideal Exercise Workout

2010-03-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

She was going to guest post on her experience but is really busy. Here are the pictures at least. You can see Greg Anderson in a couple of the pictures and behind Karen in the overhead picture you can just make out the chromed out machines I used for my second workout there.

Workout of the Week 3/6 and Medifast Update

2010-03-06T11:09:00.001-08:00

Worked out fasted, as usual, a little later than usual since we were late getting our 3 year old son a slot in the kid play/babysit room. Moved the leg press to the end since the machine was occupied after the compound/seated row. The leg press was the only one I didn't improve on, so overall a pretty good workout.

Big 5(12 minutes):

Chest Press: Up 5#, down 11 seconds.
Seated Row: Up 5#, down 6 seconds.
Overhead Press: Same weight, up 2 seconds.
Pull Down: Same weight, up 5 seconds.
Leg Press: Same weight, down 6 seconds.

My brother, who I blogged about here, has had tremendous success using the medifast diet to lose a bunch of body fat. He has gone from nearly 240# to less than 200# since december. More importantly, his waist has gone from 40" to around 32" and body fat(via caliper measurements) has gone from 26% to around 14%. Doing the math suggests only 5# of the 40#+ was in lean mass. Obviously leaner in appearance. Huge improvement in less than 3 months. I saw him at the weight room with his wife, both doing a Big 5, "Body By Science" style. He originally held off since the medifast plan suggests not to do any exercise for a while, but he appears to be back doing it. He wants to get to 180-185# and around 10% body fat and I am pretty sure he is going to get there with this method. The real trick will be transitioning off the meal plan to something sustainable for life.

Next workout is at Ultimate Exercise. It will be my third and my wife's first workout there. Looking forward to it in a masochistic way, if that makes sense.

Seattle Trip Including Health Blogger Meet Up

2010-03-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Overall a great trip to Seattle, Washington.

The main purpose of my trip was to present a quick talk on work I did last year related to a facial reconstructon program my company has been working on for the FBI for the last 10+ years. I wrote some code to make the user process more productive and the American Academy of Forensic Science was kind enough to let me present my work.

While I was here I took the opportunity to do several other personal things. The night after I arrived I went to Ideal Exercise and had an awesome high intensity workout, which I wrote about in previous 2 posts.

On wednesday I got caught up with an old colleague who moved to Seattle a few years ago.

Thursday my wife finally arrived after snow delays and a night at a Detroit airport. We went to dinner late to BOKA, a nice local restaurant.

Friday we caught up with college friends who we hadn't seen in 15 or so years. It was great catching up and talking about the old days at SUNY Buffalo.

Saturday was packed. Fasted until yet another Ideal Exercise session for me and one for my wife. I then took the Anderson's out for lunch at Jak's, a really fantastic restaurant.

For dinner I had organized a get together with two of what I see as the top health bloggers Stephan (wholehealthsource.blogspot.com) and Brent (epistemocrat.blogspot.com). I feel indebted to both of them in a good way. They have been instrumental in my understanding of health issues that will pay dividends to me and my family and friends for decades to come. I treated them to sushi at Umi Sake, where we tried some of the more bizairre dishes and had a bottle of homemade apple wine that Stephan had made. We have had disappointing homemade wines in the past and this wine was surprisingly good. I also had sake, which I enjoyed. Afterward we went on an underground tour and learned all about Seattle's raunchy and scandalous history. Meeting Stephan and Brent was a major thrill for me and I am honored they agreed to spend their valuable time with my wife and I.

Sunday we decided to take a ferry to Bainbridge Island. We had a wine tasting at Eleven, a local winery, which was quite good. Learned a bit about Washington wines in general.. There was a cyclist event going on and the cyclists rode the ferry with us. I am sad to say that there were remarkably few lean cyclists. I conclude that mostly steady state, low intensity, long duration exercise doesn't create lean, muscular people. The high carb fueling probably doesn't help either. Whatever it is they are doing isn't working.

One other stop on Sunday was to Recreation Equipment Inc (REI) where I bought a pair of the near Vibram FiveFinger Treks. They fit great with Injinji socks and look less unique than the other models. They will be my new every day, business casual shoe.

I had seafood(mostly salmon) at least one meal per day and we didn't eat more than 2 meals in any day. The biggest meal we ate was Sunday night where after skipping lunch and walking all over the place we took a break from seafood and had Brazillian Rodizio, which was fantastic.

Great trip seeing old friends and making new friends. Sad to leave but looking forward to seeing my children, who I miss greatly.

Ideal Exercise II

2010-02-27T16:01:00.001-08:00

As a glutton for punishment and since I enjoyed my time with the Anderson's, we carved out time in our Seattle vacation for yet another workout for me and the first workout with a top notch trainer for my wife. I will leave her workout details for another post but it was much tougher than what she had done before on our own.

Worked out fasted and with 4 days recover from last workout on tuesday.
-10 degree chest fly: Pre-exhaust for bench. Was concerned about my shoulder and Greg assured me it would be fine or we would stop. He was right.
-Leverage Bench Press: Less weight, but more time under load than Tuesday.
-Leverage Leg Press: Killer machine that is chromed out and a bit like hammer strength. Having leg press in middle made for a strong metabolic effect.
-Compound Row: Neat machine with no chest pad. Lower back doing a isometric hold of sorts while rowing.
-Overhead Press: Happy for no shoulder pain. Stopped shorter than usual like before, which made it really hard.

Overall around 10 minutes. Brutal as before. Afterward took them and a new trainer for brunch at Jak's, a good local steak and burger joint. Beer, beef, eggs and even a bit of their speciality potato pancakes. Oh, and some drinks....some of us more than others.

Guest post coming from Karen about her experience along with pictures.

Ideal Exercise and Workout of the Week

2010-02-24T21:29:00.000-08:00

I got to Seattle late on Monday night and after a day of setting up a booth for a conference I went to Ideal Exercise, home of Greg and Ann-Marie Anderson for a high intensity training session. Their place was almost like a museum for equipment, with various vintages of Nautilus machines all in nice working order. One particular machine that jumped out at me was a squat machine based on a 4 bar linkage. Awesome, collector's item stuff.

Talking to Greg was a bit like speaking to several people rolled into one. He is part philosopher, part physiologist, part strength and conditioning coach, and an all around good guy. Ann-Marie was great to talk to as well. I had the honor of spending a couple of hours, after my 12 minutes or so of discomfort, to hang out with them and drink a couple of beers. I learned a bunch of stuff from them and think I was still only running at around 65% comprehension. Here are a few good nuggets to pass on:

Greg had me stop my reps shorter of full extension than I usually do. Even with good machines the end can be easier and this change definitely made the exercise more difficult overall. The leg press was particularly difficult and I almost fell down while getting off the machine my legs were so fatigued.
Ann-Marie explained how negatives perform more micro trauma but having the separate fiber bundles stick and damage each other while the movement continues. At least that was how I remembered it.
The sets I performed were a bit beyond positive failure. Greg extended my sets by having me continue to push for a few seconds or by doing a partial rep. I could feel the difference with the metabolic response. It will be interesting to see how this affects progress and recovery. I will try this back home as well and carefully watch for overtraining. At the very least it was a great way to mix it up.
We discussed the issues related with having too few compound movements and spliting routines. The advice I got from them confirmed what I had suspected from my training in that the metabolic response from more single joint movements is less and leaves me feeling lacking something. I will continue to avoid splitting my routines except for some times I need to workout on reduced recovery.
Greg has been writing against aerobics and for proper strength training for over 15 years. Check out this article on high intenstity strength training and aerobics from the mid 90s that Greg wrote.

Anyone out there in the Seattle area should take advantage of such great knowledge and train with the Andersons if you can. It might be tough since they are pretty booked and have many clients for over 15 years, which they honor with a plaque on the wall of their gym. As I told them when I left, my visit with them made my trip worth while and I was only in town for less than 24 hours at that point.

Workout of the Week:

Nautilus Leg Press: Brutal. That is all I can say.
Nautilus Pull Over: First time I have ever done that exercise.
Nautilus Torso Arm: Kind of a variant of a pull down.
Bench Press: Interesting, hammer strength like plate load setup. The load variation is related to where the plates are moving in the arcs around the pivot point. Pretty clever.
Lateral Raise

I have no idea how long the entire training took, but I am pretty sure it was less than 12 minutes. It might even have been less than 10 minutes. I went from machine to machine with less than 30 seconds between exercises. All times under load were almost 2 mintues or a bit over except the lateral raise. I was fried when done, shaking while enjoying my budweiser and my breathing took around 25 minutes before I felt normal.

Was going to train again on Sunday but my wife has her heart set on a visit to Vancouver. Next time.

Today's workout

2010-02-20T13:52:00.001-08:00

I went to the gym and did a few things, all in about 25 minutes. I did a little 6 high intensity session with little time between exercises. I didn't measure time and mostly guessed at weights. Just hard work for a good 15 minutes. After that I did chest press, seated row and leg press in an alactic, single rep fashion. I kept increasing the weight until it was super hard then did 4-5 hard reps, one at a time. I was happy that after all the rest of the stuff I could one rep the entire leg press stack. Workout was very light as compared to my usual lately. Just some nice effort on a fast morning.

Next workout is in Seattle, where I am going on a business trip. I made an appointment with Ideal Exercise where I will do a workout(brutal I am sure) on Greg Anderson's nautilus equipment.

Links

2010-02-20T13:36:00.000-08:00

A few links to mention today, including a couple containing movies:

Epigenetics: This post from Mark's Daily Apple is a must see. Take the 15 or so minutes to watch both movie segments contained in the posts. You, your children, and your potential grandchildren will thank you. Watch and you will see what I mean. We have heard about "gene expression" before and it is a complicated term. These movies bring it down to the concrete for laymen like me.
Barefoot Running: Matt Metzgar had a great post with a movie on barefoot running. In a few short minutes the subject went from possibly damaging heel striking to proper forefoot running. I, personally, don't think you need a special coach to learn how to run properly. Start slow and run with totally bare feet on pavement and you will quickly learn to not strike the heel. The change can be quick and profound.
Free the Animal: This post was a particularly good one from Richard. One takeaway I have is that it is amazing to me how quickly things get factionalized(is that a word?). Two groups who are 95% on the same track bad mouthing each other is so common and I just don't get it. Ford versus Chevy. Mac versus PC. Zero Carb versus Low carb versus very low carb. To an outsider they all seem very similar but they rip each other to shreds over the remaining 5%. Unreal. I see the same thing with Objectivists(2 camps at least 99% the same to me) and Objectivists versus Libertarians(95% or so). Can't we all just get along?
Fight Science: I fell into a trap on this one. The link in the post goes to a Hulu movie showing scientific tests of self defense methods. It all made sense to me while watching, but there is a problem. The intended target doesn't sit still for the punishment. They will move and evade and lessen the attack, but that isn't taken into account for the test. I should know better as this is exactly what a lot of bad science has done. We test steady state on a treadmill since it is easy to set up in a lab, but it leads to misleading results. Similar stuff happens with lab rats in diet intervention tests.

Workout of the Week 2/13

2010-02-15T07:37:00.000-08:00

9am at our local YMCA fasted for 14 hours or so.

Big 5(10 minutes):

Chest Press: Same weight, up 13 seconds.
Seated Row: Same weight, up 14 seconds.
Leg Press: Same weight, up 10 seconds.
Overhead Press: Up 5#, down 25 seconds(under 90 seconds again). Full range of movement again. The shoulder has improved quite a bit recently.
Pull Down: Up half a plate, same time.

Surprisingly good results. I didn't sleep well all week mostly due to my 3 year old keeping me up 3-4 times per night. I also had a 2 minute shorter workout. I lucked out and the machines were all free right when I needed them. The delay between exercises was less than 20 seconds and many times it was less than 10 seconds. With all that I had one of the better improvement weeks. Nice metabolic work as well with the short delays.

Continued the fast for another 3 hours then had a big fritatta with leftover grass fed beef roast, bacon, leftover brussel sprouts and some fruit. Tasted amazing. Went to dinner to a friend's house for a chinese new year celebration. Other than the obligatory dumplings the food was quite healthy and delicious albeit somewhat salty.

Devany in action

2010-02-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

Good news story and article showing Art Devany, the father of Evolutionary Fitness in action from a local Utah news source. Dude is in pretty amazing shape.

Hat tip: Richard

Key Links Updated

2010-02-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note that I updated the Key Links on the right of my blog. I had a beginner's workout that is outdated with my current thoughts on exercise. I have replaced it with 4 videos of a Big 5 workout from Dr. Doug McGuff that is the bulk of what I do for my weekly training. The videos not only show the 5 movements but show how the workout has a strong global metabolic effect that is a much better alternative to aerobics(jogging, etc.) Due to it's high intensity and low joint loads I believe that this is the best workout for anyone, particularly for beginners.

Workout of the Week 2/6

2010-02-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

Worked out fasted this morning, as usual. Decided to up the weight on all exercises as I was over or nearly 90 seconds on each for a few weeks. Nice improvement particularly on overhead press as I can finally do a full range of movement with no pain.

Big 5(12 minutes):

Chest Press: Up 5#, down 9 seconds
Seated Row: Up 5#, down 15 seconds
Leg Press: Up 5#, down 11 seconds
Overhead Press: Up 5#, up 16 seconds
Pull Down: Up '0.5', down 8 seconds

Other than the overhead press I will leave all the same for next week. Overhead press goes up another 5#.

About 2 hours later had lunch at the Circus Cafe with my family. I had a bowl of clam and chicken chowder and a spinach salad with grilled chicken on it. I also finished my wife's burger. Not too much to eat, but satisfying.

Workout of the Week 1/30

2010-02-06T04:43:00.000-08:00

Another catch up on reporting.

Big 5( 12 minutes ):

Chest Press: Down 4 seconds.
Seated Row: Down 11 seconds.
Leg Press: Up 6 seconds.
Overhead Press: Up 4 seconds.
Pulldown: Up 8 seconds.

Did lots of travelling this week and had less than 5 hours of sleep on 2 days which I believe affected recovery. Still progressed on 3 of 5 so not too bad.

Also working out today, a week later on a big 5. We will see how it goes.

Workout of the Week 1/22

2010-02-06T04:38:00.000-08:00

Been slacking in reporting my workouts. Actually, I have just been very busy. Catching up on one from 2 weeks ago or so.

Little 6(14 minutes):

Bicep Curls: Up 2 seconds
Leg Curl: Up 19 seconds.
Tricep Extension: Down 8 seconds.
Leg Extension: Up 8 seconds.
Deltoid Raise: Up 10#, down 20 seconds. Still almost 2 minutes.
Calf Raise: Up 18 seconds.

Exercise and Update

2010-02-04T13:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a light exercise on a day with low intake. I had a lunch meeting at which it would have been strange to not eat so I didn't continue to fast through dinner. I wave my freak flag high but avoid doing so too much at work, particularly around upper managers.

Being the beginning of the month it was checking in time for Andy's "Biggest Gainer" challenge. I had been a bit fatter than I would like so I dropped the raw milk and protein shakes and it has paid off. I dropped a couple of pounds of fat and might have gained a little muscle to boot. With 5mm on chest, 12mm on abs and 15mm on thigh I am now around 10.5 percent body fat, a 1.5 percent drop in around 2 weeks. The mass gain, if any, was due to less than an hour of lifting over that same time period, nearly all Body by Science style. By mirror I can tell the lower fat as more cuts and veins showing.

While I was at the gym for caliper check I did a 20 minute circuit. 5 rounds of the following with no grinding reps and nowhere near failure:
-Deadlift
-Pull Ups
-Dips
-Chest Press(machine)
-Bent Row

Left feeling awesome after an ice cold shower. Made "meatzza" for dinner. Came out really good.

Brief Update

2010-01-21T10:25:00.001-08:00

Brief Update

I went to the fitness center here at work for a quick bit to stay active on a fasting day(24hr). I measured my weight and I was a bit over 185#, around 2# lower than last week when I decided to stop overeating and drinking milk. Might be day to day variation, but I doubt it. I would be surprised if I am not down to 180# by Valentine's day.

At the gym I did, body weight dead lifts, pull ups, dips, chest press and seated row in a circuit. All sets were 3 quality reps with no grinding and I did 10 circuits in around 20 minutes. Nice, light activity. I haven't been able to go to Jeet Kune Do class so I have been substituting with activity like this instead.

The Default

2010-01-20T15:02:00.001-08:00

I was today participating in a thread on a google group in which Dr. Kurt Harris's recent post on "Candy Cigarettes" was discussed. One particular comment got me thinking. The person said that if cooking almonds to make pancakes was unhealthy then someone should make the claim and prove it. Another way of putting it is "I will eat what I want unless you prove to me it is wrong". I find this point of view misguided on several fronts:
-No one is going to prove it as there is no money in it.
-The starting point is wrong. The default should be our best understanding of the past. The "new" that needs hypothesis testing is the neolithic foods and exercise patterns.
-I have no desire to prove anything except to myself to satisy my judgements of the information available.

A good example would be to want to feed a tiger lettuce and carrots for whatever theoretical reason then asking me to prove meat is better! This is obviously wrong in the same way the pancakes are.

The bottom line is that humans, like all other animals and plants, are products of evolution for a fairly specific environment. Moving far from that environment should be treated with extreme caution and with all the burden of proof. The default is the past. I should not need to prove eating animals and plants are good for me. Starving every now and then is probably good. Doing infrequent, high intensity effort is also normal. The person claiming to eat grain, jog for 45 minutes, and eat all day long in small meals are the ones who have to prove something to me and I will be quite skeptical.

Workout of the Week 1/18

2010-01-19T09:05:00.001-08:00

Workout was late afternoon yesterday after 10 days recovery from workout at Ultimate Exercise. Only activity in between was treadmill tabatas and a short bit of "not to failure"(not even a grind it out rep) pull ups, dips, and front squats to stay active on a fast day. I don't think it makes sense to fast and sit around as the signals are wrong.

Great workout. Only strangeness was to move the Leg Press to the end since the machine was occupied at first and we had limited time. Decided to leave weights alone and drive up time under load to over 2 minutes before weight increase. I like the better metabolic effect and feel the inroad is a bit better.

Big 5(12 mins):
-Chest Press: same weight up 17s
-Seated Row: same weight up 29s
-Overhead Press: new baseline
-Pull Down: sameweight up 17s
-Leg Press: up 5# down 24s

I have a sense that 10 days is a more optimal recovery pattern for me between high intensity training sessions. I may try to add a not to failure session and sprints in between to keep metabolic conditioning up while maximizing recovery. My friend Kevin(kjsmithco.blogspot.com) had a similar experience, totally killing after 10 days instead of 7. 7 days is better than 3 but might not be optimal for everyone. Experimentation further will tell if it works better for me in the long run. It is hard to stay out of the gym, however...

Dream Mystery Solved?

2010-01-13T18:58:00.001-08:00

About 4 months ago I began, out of the blue, to remember my dreams. In the past I almost never remembered, maybe twice a year or so and only when I had an especially strange dream and something in my day reminded me of it. Very rare.

Since then I was racking my brain trying to figure out what it was. We got a new comforter about that time which allowed my wife to sleep a bit further away. I thought that this might be allowing better sleep to the point where my dreams were more vivid and memorable. I had been feeling I was sleeping better. Only other thought was caffeine as I think I cut back more recently, but I couldn't remember.

Today I got an email that I believes solves the mystery. Monica(I need to link her website when I get to a computer), another member of OEvolve, stated that once she started Iodine supplementation she began, like me, remembering her dreams. Iodine!? I had forgotten that I began augmenting with Iodine about that time and simply never made the connection. Apparently this is a fairly common effect of Iodine supplementation/augemntation.

Augmenting is a term I got from Doug McGuff. I like it since it isn't to get supernormal levels of iodine to get a super healthy effect. I am convinced I don't get enough so I add it to get me back to normal, just like Vitamin D3. Due to not getting enough in our diet and consumption of competing halides(flouride and bromide, for example) it can leave us with Thyroid issues. I believe some diet product are heavy in these halides. (I think I understand this but check my math)

I see Iodine and maintaining gut flora with some probiotics as 2 important augmentations outside of D3 and Omega3. It is nice that the Iodine had another fascinating and nice benefit of dream memory.

I am no Doctor and this is not medical advice. Just passing on some interesting effects from my experimentation.

Ian's 3 year appointment

2010-01-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

My son turned 3 last month. He is a joy and is getting easier to care for as he becomes more and more independent. He is pretty much potty trained now, making my last child out of diapers. It is very nice to be free of the mess and cost of that stage. My only diaper time will be when I am a grandparent, arguably the best gig on earth.

As is customary we had a well baby checkup for him which my wife, a nurse, took him to. Our doctor is pretty decent but is deep in conventional wisdom. A couple of things were of interest.

He pushed my wife hard for flu vaccination. She refused. My son has a history of breathing issues in the winter.
We asked for Vitamin D testing and he refused, saying it is not the normal procedure. The logic here is telling. First he said that it would take a blood draw, which children don't tolerate well. From my understanding this is BS. I believe this can be done these days with a finger prick with a drop of blood on a piece of paper. My guess is that he is just not up on the latest information on this. Also, and this is the best part, he said that they only take the blood for cholesterol(!) and other things if there is a history in the family. In other words, this isn't health care, it's sick care. To validate that a healthy person does not have low levels of vitamin D, which I am fairly certain is associated with all sorts of chronic ailments, is not done. It isn't worth it to them.

If Ian showed up with a cold or other ailment already he would have been happy to treat. For something preventative for a completely normal child is just not part of the normal procedure.

Biggest Gainer Stats and Body Fat Update

2010-01-12T11:19:00.001-08:00

Biggest Gainer Stats and Body Fat Update

My friend Andy(http://milesas.blogspot.com) is hosting a "biggest gainer" contest and I thought I would join in. I got a bit of a surprise when I had my caliper check today. It was the first time I had calpier meansurements done in months. I didn't remember the last time, actually and had to look it up. I just don't sweat it too much anymore. If my pants fit in the waist and I can see my abs with my shirt off I figure I am fine.

Caliper measurements in parentheses are from 3/2009:
Chest- 6mm(5mm)
Ab- 14mm(9mm)
Thigh- 16mm(13mm)

That is a bit of a gain across the board and a body fat increase from 9%(which was already up from 8%) to a bit shy of 12%. I am slightly up in lean mass, but not enough to justify a 4% body fat gain!

The main changes I have made since then have been an increase in dairy products(see previous post). Along with the FAGE I have been drinking raw milk and some organic half and half and eating more cheese than when I was more "pure EF" and at my leanest. I think it is time for a switch. I am going to drop the dairy except for a foam on my morning coffee drink and check again for the next "biggest gainer" weigh in.

While at the gym I did a tabata on the treadmill(6.8mph and 12 degree incline) and a few other light exercises. The tabata in this way is very very difficult if you haven't tried it. One other thing I did was test my deadlift. I was surprised that I was able to do 315# without much difficulty after doing several reps at slightly lower weights. My previous best was 315# doing a sumo dead lift, which is easier. My standard deadlift I tried previous was more like #305 and I couldn’t budge it. Good strength gain on an exercise I almost never do anymore and I work out a fraction of the time I used to.

Random Thoughts

2010-01-09T20:41:00.001-08:00

...Doug McGuff's diet DVD had some very interesting information vitamin D that is observational but strongly suggests a cause-effect relationship. Apparently many disease rates are higher as lattitude is farther from the equator. In addition, the darker skinned people have a similar trend but with slighter higher rates overall. To me this is a good example of where observational data can glean some cause-effect...

...I am reading Atlas Shrugged again this year and doing it this time in a reading group. This is very helpful since I miss things or don't understand everything and my co-readers fill in where I miss. I do a bit of the same in return. It is a nice way to read important books. I generally agree with Objectivist thought but have problems being objective. The world is way too complex to be fully objective. Facts are often conflicting, leaving it for the reader to sort it all out and their rarely is time to get all the facts anyway before you need to act. Far messier in reality than the ideal. I think I need to do the same with Taleb's books later this year as well...

...A friend in Greenville was having trouble deciding whether to send his son to kindergarten a year early since he just missed the cutoff date. I bought him a copy of "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell which has a chapter suggesting that isn't such a great idea. I hope it helps him decide...

...it is 5 degrees F in NY right now. It has been cold for days. My stay in Greenville was chilly. There was ice and accidents in Hotlanta this week. The global warming crowd has some splaining to do...

...I am flying over northern NJ right now. Our friends are one of the millions of lights I see...

...along with the vitamin D item above I think much of this can be abstracted to a relatively simple thought. Animals evolve specifically to their environment. Any significant deviation from that environment should be done with extreme caution with that environment(or best guess) as the default. This goes for diet, sunlight, exercise, stress, sleep and who knows what else. You can't feed a tiger bread and expect it to thrive. Why do we think humans can thrive with our modern junk?...

...this was a good way to pass the time on a boring, late flight!