We've Moved!!!!!!

This blog has moved to www.formfromfunction.com
.
Yeah I have my very own website; this blog is that special!! Hopefully you were sitting down for that. Now that the shock has subsided, go to www.formfromfunction.com, bookmark it, and check back often. 

I made the title of this "we've moved," even though it's just me, 1 "person," incredibly unique and special being that I am of course, because it sounds so much more professional.

The Squat: Starting at the Begining with the Goblet Squat

Squatting is hands down the most effective exercise you can do for reaching your fitness goals. Whether you're a woman looking to be slim with a smoking ass, or a guy looking to pack on ripped muscle or set some powerlifting records, the squat is the king of exercises. I can't say much more than that in praise of a movement.

Squatting does a body good

Unfortunately it's also the most butchered exercise I see in the gym (I'm definitely not alone in stating that), and many people are so turned off by injuries or poor results from their mutilated version of squatting that they'll never try it again. Seeing this often makes me cry myself to sleep, since it's leaving so much on the table. This post is about forgetting everything you think you know about squatting and starting at the beginning.

The root of the problem for many people is not understanding how the body moves when you squat. What I mean is, most people doing "that thing they call squatting but definitely isn't even close" view the movement in their head as a hinging and folding movement, where its as simple as folding at the hips the same way you fold at the knees. The fact is though, your legs are not stuck like stilts under your torso. Rather, the torso is slung between the legs. It helps me to visualize a G.I.JOE action figure's hip joint in picturing this (Barbie would probably work too if you need to glam the visualization up a little).

My Mother wouldn't let me play with these; she said it would make me into a violent person. Massive Failure? Or secretly perfect reverse psychology by a mastermind? I'll never know.

ahh naked Barbie ... This brings back fond childhood memories, even though this one still has it's head

The correct movement involves the torso sinking BETWEEN the legs. You don't fold and unfold like an accordion; you sink between your legs when you squat. The knees go out to the sides, along with the transfer of force from the ground, and the torso hinges forward at the hip joint by sinking down between the legs. All of the weight is on your heals, to the extent that you could lift your toes without shifting balance at all.

We do this naturally and perfectly as young children

Incidentally, I see many more female's squatting correctly at the commercial gyms, likely because their wider hips makes the movement feel more natural, at least until a moronic boyfriend tries to coach them and ruins how they squat.

Jill Mills.

Enter the Goblet Squat

This is a genius creation of an exercise, from a familiar name, Dan John. I still use these myself sometimes, even after constantly working on my form and practicing squatting heavy as much as twice daily, along with coaching from world class, record holding powerlifters. It just might be a good enough exercise for you too.  The beautiful thing about the goblet squat is you almost can't do it wrong. The movement corrects your form as you do it, and when you do move on to other variations of the squat, including back squats, the movement pattern is ingrained.

You don't need to do this movement thousands of times before moving on to other variations, but a month of using these and then beginning to incorporate the Front Squat and then finally Back Squat, all the while still using Goblet Squats as a warm up and movement refresher, will completely change for the better how you squat.




Because the load is positioned at the chest on the front side of the body, there is a natural tendency to correctly stay back on the heels and go deeper into the squat when using the goblet variation. You also have the added benefit of being forced to keep the knees out at the bottom of the squat and prevent knee caving. A well-executed Goblet Squat teaches you to open up the groin and push the knees out. It also teaches you to stay tall and lengthen your thoracic spine when squatting.

 

How To Goblet Squat

I won't try to rewrite Dan's creation. Here are his words on performing the Goblet Squat edited down from an article he wrote:

"Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell and hold it against your chest. With a kettlebell, hold the horns, but with a dumbbell just hold it vertical by the one end, like you're holding a goblet against your chest. Hence the name, 'goblet squats.'

"[Now] imagine being on a California beach when a swimsuit model walks by. When an athlete does this, he immediately puffs up the chest, which tightens the lower back and locks the whole upper body. The lats naturally spread a bit and the shoulders come back a little.

"Lower yourself down with the weight cradled against your chest, with the goal of having your elbows – which are pointed downward because you're cradling the bell [close to your chest] – slide past the inside of your knees. It's okay to have the elbows push the knees out as you descend. Let the body teach the body what to do. Try to keep your brain out of it! Over-thinking a movement often leads to problems. Allow the elbows to glide down by touching the inner knees and good things will happen.

"Where do you place your feet? Do three consecutive vertical jumps, then look down. This is roughly where you want to place your feet every time you squat. The toes should be out a little. You don't want to go east and west, but you want some toe-out.

"The mistake most trainees make is that they try to move too quickly for complex movements before getting the form down. But greatness resides in those who have the patience to master the patterns first, then add complexity later." [1][2]

Watch this video for a quick demonstration and explanation by Dan from his "Everything's Over My Head" DVD:

Note in the video above the application Dan makes to one of the most difficult squat variations, the overhead squat. The same principal of movement pattern programming applies to all of the more technical squat variations.


Here are the bullet points to note:

• Begin the movement by hinging your hips back and sitting back into the squat
• Keep your weight balanced on your heels
• Keep your chest up and your head facing forward
• Don't let your knees ride forward past your toes
• Keep the dumbbell clinched and tight to your chest

Another great visualization, usually used for back squats, but helpful if you find your knees coming too far forward, is to visualize and mimic the movement pattern of sitting on the toilet, just picture yourself in your toilet sitting visualizations (in searching for squat exercise images, Google somehow pointed me to this mildly disturbing image of a failed public toilet squat; it's not what you're probably expecting, yet it's most likely worse).

Progressing With The Goblet Squat

As I mentioned previously, I see a lot of value in the goblet squat to continuously reinforce and correct squat form. It can also be a challenging movement. Check out this video of Goblet Squats with a 120 lbs for 21 paused repetitions:

Here's a video demonstrating it's value for mobility as well:

Coming Soon: Barbell Squatting

I intend to devote a good many blogs to the details of squatting and it's variations. It may be partially because of my well outside of normal leverages and some current flexibility issues (I'm working on it!!), but I always feel like I can improve my form on my Squat, and at my current 500 lb max, I still know I have a long way to go before I can say I have anything close to perfect form in the squat. That's not a bad thing. It means I have a lot of room to grow and a lot of effort to put in, which to me just means I have a lot of rewards to look forward towards in progress.

If you're impatient to continue with or begin other variations of squatting, be assured I'm working on those articles as we speak. If that's not enough, here's a basic video on proper back squat form, from Pauline Nordine. I find she's easy to... umm... pay attention to, and the information is basic and solid. Swedish girls do in fact do it best:

References: 

1. John, Dan. "The New Plan For Powerful Legs." Men's Health Magazine, 7 Aug. 2007. Web.
2. John, Dan. "Goblet Squats 101." T NATION, 3 Mar. 2011. Web.
   

High Protein Diets and Healing (and Spiders)

It's well accepted that increased protein intake is necessary for wound healing for tissue regeneration and repair.[1] Research studies have shown protein deficiency to contribute to poor healing rates with reduced collagen formation and wound dehiscence (when a wound breaks open along a surgical suture). High exudate (fluids that filter from the circulatory system into a wound or area of inflammation) loss can result in a deficit of as much as 100g of protein in just a single one day. This needs to be replaced with a high protein diet.[2] Protein depletion delays wound healing by prolonging the inflammatory phase and by inhibiting wound remodeling and healing.[3][4] In a study of 108 human patients with wounds, individuals with either low serum protein or serum albumin had significantly weaker wounds than those with higher protein values.[5] Protein deficiencies increase morbidity and mortality in the surgical/trauma patient. Increasing protein intake helps to optimize healing and immune function, and prevent post-surgical complications.[6][7]

What about real world first hand examples? One of my best friends, Curt, recently went on a high protein, low carb diet. The background is, last September he was bit on the shoulder by a Brown Recluse spider, and had no idea when it happened. The wound slowly got larger and, tough SOB that he is, he ignored it for a few weeks before getting it checked out.

If your spider bite looks like this, you might want to have it checked out

Eventually he figured maybe he should have a Doctor look at the growing hole in his body, and he had wound surgery in November, only for the surgery to fail 2 weeks later. It has been a painful and debilitating process for him that's been ongoing over 7 months, but recently he got back into the gym and started dieting full throttle to get back in shape after being laid up for over half a year.

November 10th, 2011; after wound surgery

Here's the story in his own words, along with a bunch of gory photos to drive the point home:

"So after surgery failed and wound treatment started back in December it measured 7.5 cm x 6.5 cm with a depth of 2 cm. 

Thanksgiving day, 2011, in the ER after the surgically sutured wound ripped open again

December 7th, 2011

From there I started the wound vac and wound care three times a week, and measurements were done once a week with no significant changes for well over a month.

After about a month the depth of the wound had healed to around 1.25 cm deep. Now mind you, during the months of November through the end of January I had been eating whatever I wanted (mostly pizza, fried chicken strips and loads of cookies) with the occasional protein shake. 

Just before the skin graft in early January, 2012

Seeing no real results from the wound vac and treatments, my surgeon (aka. Dr. Fuckhead) decided having a skin graph would do the job. January 18th I had the surgery and was told I would rapidly heal. January 23rd, the following Monday, I went in for the first wound care and found out that the skin graph had failed. The surgeon sent me home with no answers as to what to do from there.


Two days later I took it upon myself to check in to a advanced wound care facility. The measurements on January 25th were 7 cm x 6 cm with a depth of around 1 cm. A biopsy was taken and they found that I had a Mersa infection and I was put on the proper antibiotics. Two weeks after taking the antibiotics and having once a week wound care it measured 6 cm x 5 cm with the depth about 0.75 cm, and it continued at the same pace of healing for the next 4 weeks.

February 20th, 2012

At this time I still wasn't dieting but had started to exercise daily. March 9 the wound measured 3 cm x 2 cm with no measurable depth. The following Monday, March 12th, I started a diet of basically nothing but protein shakes. I found I needed a low fat/carb refuel meal every third day to keep my energy up since I had began to go to the gym twice a day. I kept this up for two weeks. The measurements of my wound after those first two weeks of dieting changed dramatically; it measured 1.5 cm x 0.75 cm.

 

March 29th, 2012; a few weeks after starting a high protein, low carb diet

The next week, keeping on my diet slightly modified with more meals with high protein and minimum carbs, the wound measured 0.5 cm x 0.25 cm. This is my fourth week on my diet and my wound has healed down to a small scab almost ready to flake off. I'm amazed how much this high protein diet helped with wound healing. [Jonathan is a genius and my hero!!]"

Ok, so I added in that last little sentence, but here's a first hand demonstration of how a high protein diet affects your body. I think this is fascinating and thought people would benefit from seeing this, and I appreciate Curt letting me post this. This is an extreme and visual demonstration of the effects of increased nitrogen balance through higher protein intake.

Thanks to drastically upping his protein, Curt and this guy have a lot in common now.

References:

1. Douglas MacKay, and Alan L. Miller. Nutritional Support for Wound Healing. Alternative Medicine Review 8.4 (2003): 359-77
2. Russell L. The importance of patients' nutritional status in wound healing. Br J Nurs. 2001 Mar;10(6 Suppl):S42, S44-9. Review. PubMed PMID: 12070399.
3. Ruberg RL. Role of nutrition in wound healing. Surg Clin North Am 1984;64:705-714
4. Haydock DA, Flint MH, Hyde KF, et al. The efficacy of subcutaneous goretex implants in monitoring wound healing response in experimental protein deficiency. Connect Tissue Res 1988;17:159-169.
5. Lindstedt E, Sandblom P. Wound healing in man: tensile strength of healing wounds in some patient groups. Ann Surg 1975;181:842- 846.
6. Correia M, Waitzberg DL. The impact of malnutrition on morbidity, mortality, length of hospital stay and costs evaluated through a multivariate model analysis. Clin Nutr 2003;22:235-239.
7. Himes D. Protein-calorie malnutrition and involuntary weight loss: the role of aggressive nutritional intervention in wound healing. Ostomy Wound Manage 1999;45:46-51, 54-55.

If You Want To Get Good At Something, Do It Every Day

Finally a training article! I mentioned before that there's a huge synergy in resistance training, especially relatively heavy weight training, and the diet, so I figured I owed some kind of training article that referenced a workout plan I could stand behind with personal experience.

The title of this blog is a quote from one of my favorite coaches, Dan John. There's something beautiful about finding simplicity in a complicated objective. There's a simple formula for achieving your goals: Hard work + consistent work. I'll take the liberty of adding to Dan's maxim:

If you want to achieve something, work hard at it every day. 

In the spirit of that, here are some simple workout plans from Dan John. While I don't follow exactly any of these programs currently, they are perfect for someone transitioning from your usual magazine promoted training programs, like the traditional body-part split training that 99% of gym goer's have been doing and getting disappointing results from for decades. The principals of these workouts do relate exactly to how I train now.

Keep in mind that these programs have real value, but as I see it these are temporary programs and the perfect stepping stone to the more advanced training I'll present in the future. Give yourself a little time to quickly warm up and perform some dynamic (not static) stretches before these workouts.

Compound movements are for everyone, including her...

and her

Program 1

This is, like the other programs presented here, an unconventional workout by modern "fitness" magazine standards, but that's a poor standard to judge a workout by. Concentrate on getting your form perfect and learning to strain. This is a learning and adaptation phase.

Do these workouts with a day's rest in between. You can do Workout A on Monday, Workout B on Wednesday, and Workout C on Friday, or keep it going every other day. The reason I don't advise the daily or even twice daily schedule I'm fond of for myself is because the higher repetitions here require more recovery.

1. Dumbbell Curl and Press (Advanced: Barbell Clean and Press)
• Workout A: 3 sets of 5 reps, with 90 seconds rest
• Workout B: 5 sets of 5 reps, with 90 seconds rest
• Workout C: 3 sets of 5 reps, with 90 seconds rest
2. Goblet Squat (Advanced: Front Squat or Back Squat)
   
• Workout A: 5 sets of 10 reps, with 3 minutes rest
• Workout B: 2 sets of 10 reps, with 3 minutes rest
• Workout C: 5 sets of 10 reps, with 3 minutes rest
3. Chest-Supported Row or T-Bar Row (Advanced: Pendlay Row)
• Workout A: 5 sets of 5 reps, with 90 seconds rest
• Workout B: 3 sets of 5 reps, with 90 seconds rest
• Workout C: 5 sets of 5 reps, with 90 seconds rest
4. Pullup (Use varying grip widths)
• Workout A: As many sets as it takes to do 25 reps (rest as needed)
• Workout B: As many sets as it takes to do 15 reps (rest as needed)
• Workout C: As many sets as it takes to do 12 reps (rest as needed)
5. Bench Press (use varying grip widths)
• Workout A: 3 sets of 5 reps, with 3 minutes rest
• Workout B: 5 sets of 5 reps, with 3 minutes rest
• Workout C: 2 sets of 5 reps, with 3 minutes rest
6. Farmer’s Walk with dumbells or trap bar (Go as far as you can without dropping weights)
• Workout A: 1 set
• Workout B: 2 sets, with 90 seconds rest
• Workout C: 1 set

Ironically this program made it into Men's Health between their trillion useless ab articles. Here's the article in Men's Health that went along with this work out. It's worth a read.

Program 2

This is the "Southwood Program" from Dan John [2]. It's an incredibly simple but effective program to be performed in it's entirety three days a week:

• Power clean - do 3 sets of 8-6-4 descending reps with increasing weight
• Military press - do 3 sets of 8-6-4 descending reps with increasing weight
• Front squat - do 3 sets of 8-6-4 descending reps with increasing weight
• Bench press - do 3 sets of 8-6-4 descending reps with increasing weight

You don't miss a single bodypart and it's simple to learn. It also focuses solely on our biggest bang for the buck compound exercises and allows for enough reps to learn the movements.

Program 3

Don't have time right now to go to the gym more than twice a week? Try Dan's "King of Less Training Programs"[2]:

Day One

• Bench press - 4 sets with no less than ten reps until the last set.
• Squat - 4 sets with no less than ten reps until the last set, which will be 30 reps (ideally with your bodyweight)

Day Two

• Overhead Press - 4 sets with no less than ten reps until the last set.
• Deadlift - 4 sets with 5 reps (over time as you get stronger work down to 2 reps with maximum weight)

The rules: 

• For guys, only 45 and 25 lb plates, for women no smaller than 10 lb weights!
• No less than ten reps on every set of bench, overhead press and squat until the last set when you do as many as possible.
• No less than five reps on every deadlift. Over time as you get stronger work down to 2 reps with maximum weight over the 4 sets.

So, the bench press the workout was sets of ten and keep adding weight, until the last set where you grind out as many as possible. Here's a bench example of Dan's from 1993 when he did this same basic program:

• 135 x 10
• 225 x 10
• 315 x 10
• 365 x "as many"

 That's it. It's the minimalist's minimal workout.

A Brief Look At My Current Training

Currently, my training is similar to the programs above, with a similar exercise and set template, but with 1-3 reps on all of the big compound movements, done almost every day and sometimes twice a day. I also do a lot of variations of these lifts (like zercher squats, front squats, reverse bench presses, push presses, curl to press, etc...), and add in some heavy pulling sometimes (like Pendlay Rows) and strongman workouts (tire flips, sled drags, stone work, etc..). I also throw in random assistance exercises (for example pullups every time I walk by the pullup bar, band pull-aparts, high rep curls, dragon flags, ab wheel roll-outs etc...). Some days are bodyweight only days to refresh me and get blood flowing to all of my muscles without loading my spine with a lot of weight. I promise more information in the future on exactly how my training has evolved and how it works so well for me. (Want to skip ahead? Go to Chaos and Pain. This site is NSFW with very graphic images)

References:

1. John, Dan. "Rule's For Big Gains." Men's Health. 21 Nov. 2011. Web.
2. John, Dan. "40 Years of Insight." danjohn.net. Dan John, 06 Aug. 2011. Web. 

Awesomeness By the Forkfull: The Foundation Diet

I'm going to keep rolling with the food side of the equation but just bare in mind that there's a majorly synergistic relationship to the eating lifestyle I'm promoting and strength training ... I'm talking synergy, as in two or more things functioning together to produce a result not independently obtainable. For now, if you're doing something physical on a regular basis you're on the right track, but the next blog will be a cut and dry phase 1 workout plan.

You can trust me, I have abs ... and absurdly small nipples, a sure sign of trustworthiness

In the spirit of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid, or Occam's Razor for people that aren't impressed enough by my abs and need me to write intelligently) I want to outline the foundation of the eating lifestyle that can help you reach your goals. This is the base of the diet regardless of the individual. In the future we'll talk about modifications and options specific to your individual goals, lifestyle and personality that build on this diet. While this is the strictest phase of this diet, mastering it is essential to effect long lasting changes that will turn your body into an efficient, shredded, elite machine.

My masterpiece of a food chart, half stolen from a Paleo site + way too much time cutting and pasting images. In order of priority, it's vegetables, protein sources, fats, and a minimal amount of fruits.

 

The Good

In this Foundation Phase, we're limiting our food choices to 3 things:

• High Proteins 
• Moderately High Fats 
• Unlimited Vegetables

Basically, this phase is a Paleo diet without much fruit, or an Atkins or Keto diet with loads of Vegetables. That's it. Simple, but not particularly easy at first. We're not measuring portions or spending half our day doing macronutrient calculations. Our goal is to make this a long term approach that works with your lifestyle while giving the results you need, so we want to keep it simple and do-able, and this is where it starts. When you're in this phase of eating, you just pick foods that have a minimum of carbohydrates and eat unlimited vegetables.

How bad can a diet be when bacon is a guilt-free food??

For the majority of this phase, you'll be in a state of ketosis. What's ketosis? "Ketones, to put it briefly, are compounds created by the body when it burns fat stores for energy. When you consume a diet very low in carbohydrates, the body responds to the significantly lowered levels of blood sugar by flipping the switch to another power source. The body converts fatty acids in the liver to ketones. Ketones, then, become the main energy source as long as blood sugar levels remain low." [1]

The point of this phase is not to massively under-eat. However these macronutrient ratios will leave you satisfied with a lower amount of calories than "empty calories" from processed carbohydrate based foods. It's pretty difficult to overeat to a large margin in this phase. The high protein content will help maintain muscle mass through periods of under-eating.[2] Additionally, the structure of this diet with a high protein content changes the results of overeating. In a recent study on overeating comparing high protein to low protein diets, the researcher's findings where that while both groups gained weight, the low protein overeating group LOST muscle mass, while the normal and high protein overeating groups actually gained significant amounts of muscle mass. Additionally, the amount of energy used at rest was significantly higher with normal and high protein intakes.[3] Other studies reinforce that last finding, with one study demonstrating that postprandial (after meal) thermogenesis was increased 100% on a high-protein/low-fat diet versus a high-carbohydrate/low-fat diet in healthy subjects.[4][5]

 

The Bad

Fruits, for the most part, are off limits in this phase of dieting. I'll go in depth with explanations in a future blog dedicated to the negative aspects of fructose despite it's low glycemic index (GI=19), but for now, refer to the first photo in this blog for references. Remember this diet structure is both a foundation for future eating and the first phase to kick off long term change in your diet, so while there are valuable nutrients in fruits, if you're loading up on vegetables like you should be then you're not missing anything.

 

The Ugly

For the most part we want to stay away from grain based foods, and especially eliminate any and all processed carbohydrates and sugars. It's interesting to note, in animal based studies, when they need to start the test subject in an obese state, researchers will just put the subject on a sugar and fat diet for a few weeks. Take a look at the macronutrients on popular foods and tell me you don't suddenly feel like a laboratory rat in an obesity study. But just as simple as it is to transform yourself into a fat blob, it's just as simple (not necessarily always easy, but simple) to change how you eat to become a lean powerhouse of awesomeness.

A major benefit of eliminating carbohydrates is the control we take over insulin response to blood glucose. One cross over study of moderately overweight young men reported that after exercise resting energy expenditure declined by 10.5% on the high-glycemic diet compared with 4.6% on the low-glycemic diet, indicating that low-glycemic diets influence body weight and resting energy expenditure independently of caloric intake.[6] Beyond that the health benefits are far reaching, including avoiding insulin resistance leading to diabetes. In another recent 2 year long study, researchers concluded that a low-carbohydrate diet is associated with favorable changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors.[7] There's also studies indicating the benefits of lower carbohydrate diets to breast cancer prevention.[8] [9]

There is a growing body of evidence linking sugar consumption as the likely dietary cause of several chronic ailments widely considered to be diseases of Western lifestyles such as heart disease, hypertension and many common cancers.[10]

 

The Big Picture

The Foundation Phase lasts for 2 to 4 weeks before we start building on it, depending on where you're starting from and how your body and mind responds to it. This takes some honest assessment and reassessment. I'll detail the assessment process before going into the next phase, but the purpose of it is to maintain the primary objective of this diet, which above all else is to effect permanent changes in what we put in our bodies and what they give back, without it consuming us or interfering with our enjoyment of life.

This is the foundation of our eating because this is how we want eat the majority of the time, and when we deviate from these restrictions for educated reasons, our body retains the benefits of our foundation diet. This phase of the diet is home, and while we might go out here and there, this is where we come back to, so mastery of it and adaptation to it is of paramount importance.

 

Taking the First Steps

Depending on your current knowledge base, you may need to put some effort into learning the macronutrients in common foods. Here are two links that are easy references, and valuable even for the knowledgeable dietician:

• http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/nutrient.htm 
• http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Another point that I should emphasis is that whole food sources of these nutrients is best, but in the real world you may need to compromise. I can't work full time and keep up with my responsibilities in life while maintaining the diet that makes me feel and look the best without relying heavily on protein shakes. It becomes an equation of relativity, continually making better and more educated choices in what and how you eat.

 

Tips and Tricks:

A Simpler Transition: I've found that the first couple of days are often the hardest, and I crave sugary cereals pretty bad. One thing that helped me and some others I advised to try it is to kick off your new eating lifestyle with what's called a protein sparing modified fast. It's simpler than it sounds. For anywhere from part of the first day to a couple days, you only ingest carbless (or very low carb) protein shakes. Personally I would do this the first day until I really start craving any whole foods, then start adding in salads with oil and lemon dressing. Then the next day I'll start adding more acceptable foods as I cut back a little on the protein shakes. You can stretch this out over a longer period of time. For me it takes away the decision making process until my body starts to adapt to it's new fuel source. I find a casein or blended protein shake works best for this and controls hunger better.

Guilt Free Gorging: Don't get overwhelmed at this point. This phase is temporary but will give you some quick results. If you feel like it's too much to adapt to all at once, you can plan a cheat meal one day a week. Plan this meal to fall with in the 5 hours window after an especially heavy RESISTANCE training session, and enjoy yourself guilt free, knowing the excess macro-nutrients are being sucked up by your muscles. Limit yourself to a couple hours tops of guilt free gorging. Eventually this will become a staple of your diet, but it's more effective when you reach a lower level of leanness, so use it only as necessary for now. You can also take advantage of this strategy for social engagements. Also, if you're starting out lean or as a "hard gainer" with a priority towards muscle growth over fat loss, you can plan these "cheat meals" more frequently. Not sure if you're a hard gainer? Just compare yourself to what I looked like 10 years ago:

The wife-beater shirt says "I'm tough" but the glasses say "I'm a poet"

In future blogs on diet I'll start going into your option for using carbohydrates to your advantage, but it's important to master this phase of the diet and also let your body adapt to this kind of eating. If you implement these changes now, and follow this blog as it progresses, by the time we've delved deeper into how to make educated choices in the timing and type of carbohydrates you eat, you're body will also be ready to take full advantage of these strategies.

For more details and resources on some more of the physical benefits of this diet before I write in depth on this, you can find a months worth of reading with a quick google search, but here are a couple of links with some interesting reading:

• http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/1/1/2
• http://www.marksdailyapple.com/your-brain-and-the-primal-blueprint/#more-20796

Refrences:

1. Ketosis In A Low Carb Diet, http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-ketosis/#axzz1qTO1dHxl
2. Matthew P. Harber, Simon Schenk, Ariel L. Barkan and Jeffrey F. Horowitz. Effects of Dietary Carbohydrate Restriction with High Protein Intake on Protein Metabolism and the Somatotropic Axis. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 90, No. 9 5175-5181. 
3. George A. Bray, Steven R. Smith, Lilian de Jonge, Hui Xie, Jennifer Rood, Corby K. Martin, Marlene Most, Courtney Brock, Susan Mancuso, Leanne M. Redman. Effect of Dietary Protein Content on Weight Gain, Energy Expenditure, and Body Composition During Overeating. JAMA. 2012;307(1):47-55. 
4. Veldhorst MA, Westerterp-Plantenga MS, Westerterp KR. Gluconeogenesis and energy expenditure after a high-protein, carbohydrate-free diet. Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Sep;90(3):519-26. Epub 2009 Jul 29. PubMed PMID: 19640952.
5. Carol Johnston, PhD et al. Postprandial Thermogenesis Is Increased 100% on a High-Protein, Low-Fat Diet versus a High-Carbohydrate, Low-Fat Diet in Healthy, Young Women http://www.jacn.org/content/21/1/55.full   
6. Agus MS, Swain JF, Larson CL et al. Dietary composition and physiological adaptation to energy restriction. Am J Clin Nutr 2000;71:901-907
7. Gary D. Foster, PhD et al. Weight and Metabolic Outcomes After 2 Years on a Low-Carbohydrate Versus Low-Fat Diet: A Randomized Trial. Ann Intern Med. 2010;153:147-157.
8. Intermittent, Low-Carbohydrate Diets More Successful Than Standard Dieting, Present Possible Intervention for Breast Cancer Prevention, http://www.sabcs.org/PressReleases/Documents/Harvie.pdf
9. Starch Intake May Influence Risk for Breast Cancer Recurrence, http://www.sabcs.org/PressReleases/Documents/Emond.pdf
10. Is Sugar Toxic,  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Sugar-t.html?_r=3

My Magnum Opus

I wanted to give a brief update for those of you who've started reading this and are waiting for the content I've promised. I've got about 15 articles half written. I started writing this blog for friends who ask me the same diet and training questions and the "average" gym goers who're intelligent and dedicated, and I intend for this to be a resource I can share that will cut through all the misinformation, half-truths, and sheer information overload available to us these days. I'm also trying to keep it simple and progressive. The problem for me is that this project has changed from a blog to a reference piece of huge scope, and to organize it to that level just isn't something I have the time resources for right now. So now I'm taking a step back and will write one or two more very general blogs that cover the major points, and from there start getting into the finer details and sharing the things I've learned through study and my own hard work in an organic but less organized progression. Stay with me and by the end of this week we'll be rolling. Subscribe or check in soon.

My Current Diet, And A Brief Overview Of It's Evolution (or, "Where's My Shirt??")

Edit: You should probably just skip to the last list in this post if you're looking for something remotely useful, but my egocentric head tells me maybe some people will get a little inspiration and/or confidence in my approach from seeing my dieting evolution through the years.

My diet over the past few years has been an ever evolving approach. It began in 2007 with a low carb approach that had me shredded in months. It was simple, not terribly effective at building muscle, and not overly extreme, but it stripped the fat off me in short order and had me really seeing all of my abs for the first time, despite being a lifelong bean pole. I started dieting because just as I was getting highly motivated to make some transformations in the gym, I broke my wrist and couldn't train hard, so I decided I'd do what I could and one of those things was diet. I had already been training using a conventional (and ineffective for me) body part split for some time, with excruciatingly slow progress. And since I unabashedly love to post photos of myself, and gave up shirts before I even gave up empty carbs, here is a shirtless photo timeline to tell the magical story of my diet:

The year was 2007, and I learned the horrors of diet ... not how difficult a good diet was, but just how bad for me and my physique a bad diet was:

Earlier in 2007, trying to look sexy sans diet. Tanning and a good twisting pose only does so much. 

At a concert, minutes before snapping my wrist in a mosh pit. Shockingly, I'm the one who's shirtless.

I knew something was wrong even though I wasn't a Doctor; call it solid intuition

The phycological effects of breaking my wrist where obviously far reaching, but got me on my first diet for a lack of anything else to do physically.

And a little later that year afer the cast came off ... I realized processed carbs are the devil in a delicious but dangerously evil package

I couldn't stop now, not after that revelation. It honestly wasn't that bad of an adjustment, because I made choices that worked for me. This detail is something I plan on writing about a lot more in the future, as I feel it made "dieting" a livable lifestyle choice as opposed to a painful short cut to an end. Anyways, I found my new diet not only motivated me in a positive reinforcement way based on my results, but I also had clearer drive both in the gym and in other aspects of my life. So 2008 saw me experimenting with healthy low glycemic carbs in the morning and massive cheat meals that I had to work for in the couple hour window after a hard gym session. If I started gaining a little more fat than I liked I'd make a little better choices in my cheat meals. It was a consistent and livable approach to dieting, and served to both maintain my leanness and start to grow a little more. Honestly I think the quick results from 2007 could also be attributed to having some difficulty in finding convenient food choices that fit my self imposed restrictions, there by lowering my caloric intake. At this point I was still attempting to get the majority of my calories and protein through whole food choices, which I still believe is best, but also very difficult when you try to bring the calories up to gain muscle, if that's your goal. OK, I've gone 5 minutes typing without posting a shirtless photo of myself, so here's 2008 in photos:

    

   

In 2009 life got the best of me and fitness was the last thing I thought of. It wasn't all bad; I had bought a horse named Rooster and he kept me sane. By 2010 I was back on track. I knew this because suddenly I couldn't find any shirts again:

I look back at these next two photos in horror. Why was I wearing a shirt? Is there some dark memory I'm suppressing? Why didn't I take it off the first chance I got? I'm hesitant to dwell on this for fear some repressed memory that explains this inconceivable situation comes to the surface and emotionally cripples me (But my arms look decent so I'm posting it):

 I also found the joy of keeping exercise fun, like practicing explosive polymetrics by setting up a video with my friends where I get to drop kick one of them. Poor Duane, but he took it like a champ, especially considering we took 20-something completely unnecessary takes:

Now that I've turned this diet post into an all about me post I guess I should share something useful: 

In general here are the things I learned dieting over the years:

• You can't diet if you don't know the nutrient make  up of the food you eat, so start reading
• You need go-to foods that meet your criteria and are convenient.
• There is a balance to things and the rewards of a full ketogenic diet don't justify the unpleasantness of it long term for me
• Protein is necessary. Scratch that HIGH protein is necessary for the kind of body and strength I want, but fats are almost as important, especially in the absence of carbs. Additionally studies show (I don't have time to reference this now but will in the future) that high fats enhance the complete utilization of nitrogenous (protein) foods in building muscle tissue. This is very often overlooked today but nothing new as this information has been around for almost a century.
• Carbs are bad, but fat+carbs and processed carbs are the real villains
• High protein, high fat, lower carb diets make my brain just plain work better and improve my focus, drive and energy, but only after an adjustment period the length of which is determined by how much of a carb-aholic you started as.
• Nutrient timing is a valuable way to satisfy cravings and improve the effectiveness of your diet.
• There is real value in learning and choosing your own approach to dieting. It becomes self-denial as opposed to a restriction imposed by a dietitian or a program in a book you read. There's convenience to following a predesigned strict program, but making choices based on an understanding of the consequences completely changes the psychology of dieting. I wholeheartedly believe this is a necessary component of making the changes to the way you eat permanent, as well as individualized to your personality and goals. This point has value in many aspects of fitness and life.
• Most importantly: the diet you chose and evolve into needs to be livable for you individually. This is a broad topic that I will expound on much further, as it's the only way I see to make long term changes. From finding ways to satisfy your cravings to finding go-to foods on the road, this is key for me.

Recent Gym PR's

I promise I'll get to the how and why and all that good stuff soon. I have a busy night ahead of me with a friend's stag party and then off to the casino for another friend's birthday party. Debauchery is so exhausting.

I just wanted to get out of the way where my lifts are at currently. Here are some of my recent max lifts at the gym at a body weight around 190 over the past month. I'm 6' 2" with a short torso and long gorilla arms and stilts for legs. I also injured a muscle in my lower back January 20th. My physical therapist called it a muscle herniation, where the myofacial tissue tears and the muscle pops through. While it looked hideous, it wasn't incredibly painful, and it healed fairly quickly, but slowed my progress for a month or two. Here are the videos starting with most recent first:

March 22nd, 2012 - 295 lb Reverse Grip Bench Press:

When I can't chew solid food anymore, and you notice I look a little different, this will be why. Other than the risk of rearranging my face, reverse-gripping feels so much better on my shoulders. I definitely have more in me but my triceps and tendonitis where giving me some trouble. Incidentally all of my current problems like elbow and patella tendonitis are most certainly caused by my complete lack of any flexibility work. While becoming Gumby would be counter productive to my goals and hurt my strength, my current level of inflexibility is well beyond that line and needs immediate attention on my part.

March 20th, 2012 - 585 lb Deadlift From 18":

 The camera angle's horrible, but I'm pulling from the bottom pin on a power rack, a couple inches below my knees. With my height (6' 2") and long legs I feel the carry over to pulling from the floor is very good as long as the rack pull is from below my knees. It was an unfamiliar start position, and the bar didn't flex resting on pins the way it normally does with the plates on the ground, so it took me a couple tries to find my groove, but then the weight went up relatively easy.

March 16th, 2012 - 495 lb Zercher From Pins:

Hit a PR on Zercher Squats this day. It was oddly similar to my last relationship: hurt like hell and not quite as fulfilling as I thought it'd be. In all seriousness you do get a little more used to the pain of holding the bar like this with practice. I find the discomfort makes me pull harder and more aggressively. It's my go to lift when I'm pissed off and need to let it out on the iron. To me, this lift feels like a mix between a deficit deadlift and a front squat, and I find it a valuable exercise with good carry over to other similar more conventional lifts.

March 13th, 2012 - 545 lb Deadlift:

This was my 2nd time pulling since back injury January 20th. My lower back strength is slowly getting better. Body weight is in the low 190's here.

March 9th, 2012 - 495 lbs x2 Deadlift:

This was my first time deadlifting in almost two months after tearing the myofacial fiber in a lower back muscle. I was actually a little scared even though I felt fully recovered. I ended up not pushing it past 495 lbs, but it felt easy for a double and I definitely felt I could do more.

March 6th, 2012 - 495 lb Back Squat (a couple inches high): 

After failing with this weight 2 days before, I figured I'd give this 495 lb squat PR another try. Ended up doing it, and pretty easily, but very sloppy and a bit high. I've been trying to save my svelte narrow hips by squatting a little more narrow but my leverages work much better with a wider stance like this. This was pretty much the extent of my workout, with maybe 50 or 60 pullups throughout my squat warm ups and sets to stretch my back and get a little upper body work in. I'm weighing about 192 lbs here.

\

February 17th. 2012 - Testing My Back With Squat Partials:
4 weeks after tearing the myofacial tissue in my lumbar lower back, my trusted chiropractor gave me the go ahead to start working up to some heavier weights again. He said "slowly start working up in weight and see how I feel;" I heard "do a quick warm up and see if I'm invisible again yet"...

My next post will be a little more detail about my history of training and where I started, and then I'll start going through the list of training and diet topics I have. 

The Boring Introduction

My name is Jonathan, and this blog is about all things wonderful in life: mainly me, lifting, and Blueberry Morning cereal.

Or maybe I'll just write about the things that people ask me about or things that I wish I had known about sooner, and hopefully it'll be useful to some people. I also plan on using this forum to log my strength training and progress towards fitness and powerlifting goals. And seriously, Blueberry Morning cereal is incredible.

I've spent a lot of time lately answering questions from friends and acquaintances on my diet and strength training. I love sharing the things I've learned through trial and a shit load of errors. I'd like for this blog to become a resource for people that want to know my training and diet methods and a forum to share my thoughts with friends and like minded individuals. My physical training is an ever evolving system, and it allows fine tuning for individuals, which is important because while the majority of my core tenets I believe apply to everyone, some things need to be individualized to your specific goals and genetic make up, and I will try to keep that distinction clear.

I'm completely contrarian by nature. It's not that I need to be an individual so much as I'm not satisfied with average, and neither should you. I'm constantly curious, ever doubtful, and devoted to improving myself on all levels including physically. The direction of my physical efforts is to become as strong as possible and look damn good while I'm dong it. I could say I want to be the best I can be, and there's some truth in that overused phrase, but that's a crappy goal ... I want to be the best ever at whatever I devote my time and energy to. We all have limitations, but those limitations are rarely fixed, and I enjoy moving them. It is entirely possible; I've seen countless examples in my own life.

A common look for me: with a mouthful of good eats

If there's a core manifesto to this blog, it's to log my journey in strength training as it evolves more and more into a livable and healthy system of extreme hard-core training. The results I continue to see are continuous muscle mass increases and increasing strength levels, along with body fat levels that never leave the single digits. I'm not happy unless I can go to the beach, look like a Greek god, and pick up at least four massively obese chicks while I'm there ... I mean literally pick them up. With my current deadlift numbers I figure I'm good for 2 or 3 right now; maybe I'd have to do some physical training and dieting with the 3rd one to get her down in weight a little. 

Picking up girls for Strongmen: Derek Poundstone

Now the important part: the answer to every difficult question you've ever had. This is a big secret, and I picked it up from picking the minds of world class athletes like Derek Poundstone and a who's who list of record holding powerlifter's and strongmen. Drum-roll ... write this down:

Work harder and longer!

It's four words but don't underestimate their power. You'll see as I continue posting that most of the details of my somewhat contrarian training methods fall back on this core tenet. Forget everything you've learned about training; this is the answer. No exceptions. It is the definition of success. It is difficult some times, but incredibly effective. Follow this mantra and I guarantee you will be a better person for it. 

Here's another quick one-liner of advice that could save you a lot of wasted time in reaching your goals. This is a fact; there are no holes in it. It is completely indisputable. Again don't underestimate the simplicity of this:

You can't out train a shitty diet!

If you think about those two things in the context of your physical goals, you'll see it really narrows down your choices for executing a path to where you want to be. 

My next couple blogs will be all about little ol' slightly narcissistic me. I want to get out of the way my current personal records in the gym with some video from the last few months in my major lifts and a quick overview of my most recent training program and diet. I also just really want an excuse to post a bunch of half naked photos of myself to show where my body fat and muscularity is at right now... of course solely for record keeping purposes. I'll also post a photo timeline of sorts of the past 10 years so you can get an idea of where I started from.

From there we'll get into the science and anecdotal evidence behind how I train and how you can adapt it to yourself, along with continued updates on how my training is progressing following a program built around those tenets.

Souces:

• Me and my lifetime of having to learn everything the hard way
• "The harder I work the luckier I get" is a quote from Samuel Goldwyn and a favorite of Dennis Leary