Free the Animal

MovNat at Wildfitness

I've mentioned MovNat before: here, here and here, but here's a new MoveNat video done at Wildfitness that really demonstrates the beauty, fun and playfulness of this sort of movement. Be sure and click the HQ button once the video begins for the high quality version.

Thinking Through It

It began yesterday, when I was thrust into yet another battle with "conventional wisdom," only somewhat against myself. For the first time in quite a wile, I ended up last Friday with a sciatic nerve flare up. How did that happen? Well, it's probably related to the much heavier dead lifts and squats I'm doing. But I can say there was no specific lift or event that gave the slightest clue.

Anyway, it was pretty uncomfortable over the weekend and I took it easy. Sitting in any position but a contorted one with my right big toe touching my left ear was painful. Monday came around, and I moved my workout to Tuesday afternoon (the 'yesterday' from above). I took a long walk in the morning and noticed something. Whereas, I could hardly move my right leg forward without a lot of pain upon getting out of bed, once I was three minutes into the walk I had total relief. Then, when I got back I sat at my stand-up computer bench on a barstool. Pain returned. I stood the rest of the day and felt good. But, pain was still there various times. The relationship was pretty clear: the more activity, the less pain. Sitting and even laying in bed was more painful.

So: should I work out, or not? I recalled that in a number of cases where my back was a bit tired or sore -- and other muscles or joints as well -- a workout was exactly what I needed.

So, while the conventional wisdom is take drugs, take it easy, lay in bed, I decided to move around, but in a sensible way.

So I went to the gym.

I told my trainer what I wanted to do and he agreed. We went back to an old-style mostly isolation routine, full body. First I did chest flys on a machine, then lat pull downs, some push ups, dips (triceps) machine, more pushups, some curls and a shoulder exercise I can't describe. Funny thing is this: back when we began doing the high volume compound stuff (linked above) my trainer said it would be instructive to go back and do the isolation periodically as a measure of progress.

Well, I had told my trainer of the nerve issue and said I wanted to do a light & easy workout, mainly for the activity. It turns out, however, that light and easy was actually more weight in every exercise than I was doing intensely just a couple of months ago. It was so easy, in fact, that I barely broke a sweat.

For legs, we did some extensions and then did the incline leg press with only about 160 on it, and I did a bunch of very, very slow reps with a wide, high stance in order to get into a very deep squat. This was basically a weighted stretching exercise and it felt good.

My sciatic is far better today, and I think I'm on the road to a near-term recovery. If anyone has experience with this or knows anything about it from a training and conditioning perspective, I'd love to hear your comments.

Extreme Athleticism and Endurance

If any of you would like to follow along with the summer climbing season on Everest, the FirstAscent Team and their blog is the place to go. Here's why:

I've got that same machined aluminum MacBook Pro in the 15" and 2.66 gig version. I've owned dozens of computers over time, but this just smokes anything and everything, including the desktops I've owned. The only thing remotely comparable is the previous generation MacBook Pro I owned.

I will never, ever go back to PCs.

Workout Today

I don't post a lot about the specifics of my workouts. Why? Well, whereas all the diet & fasting stuff was very accessible and could be put into practice quickly -- with quick results to verify, repeat, verify, and so on -- workouts never struck me like that. I'm a neophyte (still) but that's changing.

Also, I have a trainer and he's proven himself to be unconventional and actually willing to listen to me. Right off the bat, he said all I need is two 30-minute session per week of high intensity. That told me he had a lot right. Now, he often sports my Free the Animal T-shirt. That's pretty cool.

There's a new book out there I may have mentioned. It's by reader and sometimes commenter Dr. Doug McGuff, Body by Science, which is soon coming up in my reading stack. In the meantime, workout guru extraordinaire, Keith Norris, has reviewed it in multiple parts here, here, and here. [Added later: Chris Highcock interviewed Dr. McGuff here, and here's another interview on video.]

There's a bit of a coincidence. When I first began this journey two years ago, I went to the bookstore to pick up a book on working out. I was already a bit familiar with Art DeVany's power law (endurance and intensity are inversely related, i.e., the more intense, the less you can endure, and it's the intensity that drive the gene expression you want). So, it was only natural that John Little's book appealed to me: Max Contraction Training : The Scientifically Proven Program for Building Muscle Mass in Minimum Time. I read it cover to cover. Essentially, it relies on the power law principle and takes it to the end point: the highest intensity would be muscle failure in under 1 second. How to do that? Well, that's the problem. You need one and possibly even two trainers and spotters to help get HUGE weight into a maximum contraction situation, where you then hold to muscle failure. You aim for enough weight to hold three seconds, then increase weight until you can do less than a second. John had some interesting photos, such as a normal woman on an old-style peck deck holding a contraction against a bunch of plates with two guys standing on them; so, hundreds of pounds.

The punch line: John Little collaborated with Doug McGuff on this new book.

At the same time, my trainer wanted to do pretty intense, but it was mostly isolation. I was making gains, so I just shut up. Fast forward to a couple of months ago where I broached the subject of moving to compound exercises and big volume. Man, what a difference. I just love it. Rather than three boring, often excruciating sets of 10, it's now 5, maybe 10 sets, and most are only 2-3 reps, because the weight is so much. On squats, my form has improved to where I can easily do several sets of 4-5 reps at my body weight: 185. Once I am very confident of form, I'll start increasing it.

So, last Saturday I ran into my trainer here at my condos. He was training another resident in our workout facility. I invited him up, then thought of lending him John Little's book. And, so, he had a big surprise for me today.

The first was lat pulldowns. Fortunately, he had the pulldown straps that go across your elbows. It's amazing how much more you can do when you don't have to hold a grip. So, whereas 120-130 is a lot, I was able to warm up at 150, then a couple of reps at 220, and then a whole bunch of negatives at 300 pounds -- where we would have to use both of our full body's weight to get into full contraction and hold. 300 is max on the machine, and I could hold a few seconds in a full contraction, ease to half and hold a couple of seconds. We did that about 4-5 times and it was simply awesome. I'll never do boring reps upon reps again.

Next was a sitting chest press that's configured in a way that makes it easy for Mike to help me press it into a full extension. First was a warm up at 150, then to 220 to test an extension, ease, and hold at half extension. No sweat, so we maxed out that machine at 300 as well. What a delight! There's something just really cool about holding against 300 pounds.

Next was off to do some free squats, mainly to warm up and practice form. Did 4-5 sets of 4-5 reps at 135 going to 185.

To round out the 30-minute workout, we went to a lay down leg press machine. Just went right to the max, which I think was 300, again, and pressed to half extension and hold. I did two or three of those, holding for about 10 seconds each time, quads quivering like crazy.

I've just gotta say that I'm really loving this. Whole New World. But, be careful out there. Frankly, I have no idea of when I'd have been ready both physically and mentally to take on this sort of thing, and I don't begrudge at all almost two years of isolation conditioning. There's a fear factor, too, and you should not be attempting anything like this without assistance from someone who knows what they're doing; but more importantly, until you're sure you're up to it. You'll know when you're up to it.

You'll feel strong.

A Morning Video Juxtaposition

The first video is about food, the second about conditioning. The first video is about a sustainable, delicious, easy, fun, anti-inflammatory, and gene expressing way of eating that will shed fat, promote lean mass, and get rid of that awful "carb face" most of you start getting at age 40, or even before for the most serious carb junkies. The second video is about lazy, fake, fool yourself "conditioning" that, even beyond being a scam fraud, will once again reinforce the false notion that getting in shape requires inhuman drudgery rather than fun.

Carb face? I'll demonstrate. To the left is me, 2 1/2 years ago, age 45, on a trip to Europe. And to the right, age 48, just a month or so ago in Puerto Vallara.

What I did do is replace my cauliflower brain with a real brain (watch the video) and ate mostly in a way that Methuselah has outlined, and for exactly the same reasons.

What I didn't do was pretend to work out, like the folks pretending to jump rope using the "Jump Snap" and twirling their wrists.

As one commenter pointed out, "Why not just use two hair brushes and save the money?" That video is courtesy of the folks at Windy City Crossfit. What a laughable sad state of affairs.

Oh, and by the way? I have not one single time in the last two years worked out for more than an hour...per week. In fact, I'm down to about 50 minutes per week and on my way to 40, in two 20-minute sessions.

More intensity = less time = better results.

Human Animals in Portugal

Reader Rory Hodgson passed along this beautifully done Parkour video this morning. There's a ton of skill, here, but done also with tremendous grace and agility.

The Paleo Principle

So what happens when you go to the gym for your workout and bi-weekly weigh in, and you discover you've gained 4-5 pounds in just a few days?

First, you forget that the scale means everything. It means something, of course, but it's merely one of many numbers. There are other important numbers:

• waist circumference
• chest circumference
• chest, arm, and leg circumference
• how much fat you can pinch in various places
• how much weight you are lifting, pushing, or pulling in various exercises
• how do your pants fit? 

Shall I go on?

As you may have gathered, this was my experience today. Yep, it's hard not to feel some measure of discouragement, but be careful: you may actually be chastising yourself over...PROGRESS.

See, in the mundane world of carb faces, added weight means that 75-90% of it is fat (piling on fat also stimulates some new lean growth to carry around the extra tonnage). And even in the realm of advanced paleo diet and fitness, fat stores fluctuate. But so does water retention and just plain old metabolic dynamics.

This is a good time to check your premises, by which I mean to assess the principles you're operating from. The true and fundamental appeal of the paleo approach is that we are attempting to operate pre-neolithic, i.e., in a manner our bodies and minds evolved to optimize, which is the role of natural selection. Keep in mind that prior to the advent of the neolithic 10,000 years ago, that man had evolved to the epitome of fitness within his environment, which of course can vary depending upon your genetic lineage (dark, yellow, red, white,  and the general corresponding latitudinal regions, et cetera).

Let me make it more simple: we're allowing our inner animal to flourish.

So, that raises two questions:

1. do animals in nature have weight fluctuations up & down?

2. If yes, is that odd only when it's an increase, or is it necessarily odd at all?

The point I'm getting at is that if you are pretty paleo in diet, are hitting the gym for brief and intense exercise 1-3 times per week, and are episodically skipping 1-3 meals in a row 1-3 times per week, then you're living the life of the animal and you CAN NOT FAIL.

Listen: it's going to take just about 100% of people about 100 times longer to get the washboard abs than they would prefer. They say that Rome wasn't built in a day. Well, what if it took 20 years to destroy Rome? Should we be too fretful that it takes 2-3 years to rebuild it?

My own downward slide began in 1992. It peaked in 2006, 14 years later at 230 pounds. I'm now in the 180s and within real reach of my goal of 10% BF, which I shall achieve. But that too is a number. I have already achieved everything necessary; so, it's just icing on the cake.

So, what happened in my case? I suspect two things, and it's probably some of both. Since that allergy attack of the weekend, I have been constantly thirsty. That ended this morning, but the last couple of days I have consumed at least a gallon of water each day. I just could not drink enough. It was weird, but I just listened to my body. So, there may be some water retention issues with that much going in.

Second, my workouts have changed dramatically. As an example, I did only three exercises today: incline bench press, dumb bell bent-over rows, and back squats (not on the Smith). I used to do a dozen exercises, most isolation movements, and at three sets of ten repetitions each. Now, reps are rarely more than 5, and I don't even count sets. I just keep piling on weight. It's far less structured, and I love it.

On the bench, I worked up to and managed a couple of reps at 185, then a couple negatives over 200. I hadn't tried the incline in a long while, as I always had trouble with stability, even at 135. It's comforting to go back and smack off 8 reps at 135, wondering what the hell your stability issues was about, before.

The rows were interesting, too. I haven't done them for years, and I recall only getting up to 40 pounds. Today, warmup was at 50, and then I did multiple sets at 80, and 80 is one damn big dumb bell.

Oh how I love back squats. This, along with dead lifts and bar bell bent-over rows, is truly the king of exercise. When I had asked my trainer about doing them quite some months ago, we went over to the Smith machine, which turned out to be a mistake. My lower back just didn't feel comfortable, which I now know was improper foot position. But if you do them just free, you don't have to worry about that, and I have yet to have the slightest back problem.

For the last 2-3 sessions, we worked mainly on technique, as it's a curiously graceful exercise in terms of what you've got to do with balance. So, after a couple of sessions, I was up to about 115 pounds. Well, today, he let me lose and I did multiple sets of 5 reps at 215. I was blown away. I have no idea of what a practical goal would be.

Maybe I'll email Keith on that.

I love it, and so the weight gain, whether water, the big weights I'm hitting, or a little of both, there's no discouragement here.

Lifting Heavy Stuff

This is a great comment by Michael Bender on my post of yesterday.

~~~

Hi Richard,

Awesome progress.

I would like to second the previous comment regarding sprinting. Additionally, in keeping with the primal theme, I would like to share some guidelines gleaned from experience and copious reading on functional training. I have used the guidelines for a long time and they have served me well.

1. lift heavy objects from the ground, the deadlift in all of its many and varied forms is the KING of exercises.

2. Press heavy objects overhead. Military press (STANDING, not seated), or handstand pushups are examples.

3. Pullups/rows - there is something very primal about being able to move your bodyweight through space. Ropeclimbing is great. Rows from rings also work.

4. Anything that involves hip extenstion - sprints, squats, deadlifts, kettlebell/dumbell/sandbag swings or snatches, you name it, just do it.

5. Throw heavy objects. This is self explanatory...and just plain fun. I use bags of sand in the back yard.

6. Carry heavy objects. Same as above, but not as much fun. Overhead, or farmer's walk or for a real kick try a slosh-pipe (10ftx6in PVC pipe half filled with water).

7. Heavy, multi-joint movements are the best for developing functional muscle. Isolation exercises are in large part a waste of energy. Biceps and triceps will develop naturally and symetrically from the big pushes and pulls. The heavy, multi-joint movements will take care of the big stuff AND the small stuff.

8. Avoid "mirror muscles". Most guys do a lot of bench presses and arm curls because that is what they can see in the mirror. The mark of an athlete, the ultimate in functional muscle, is a fully developed muscular back, shoulders and hips and tight torso. Man-boobs (from benching) are not natural, or necessary. Neither are big arms dangling from puny shoulders. They have no precedent in nature and they aren't functional.

9. Muscles will adapt to the stresses of exercise very quicly, but tendon and ligaments take much longer. If you are over 40, much, much, much longer. Most injuries occur in the tendons and ligaments. Just because your mind and muscles are willing doesn't mean that you are ready for a big increase in weight or intensity. That is what is meant by "start slowly". These connective tissues can take 6-12 months or more to adapt. Be aware.

10. Anything that moves your body through space incorporates a kinestic awareness that is physically and mentally challenging and is in most cases the preferred movement pattern when compared with weight moving around a stationairy body.

I hope readers find these guidelines helpful.

~~~

We sure do, Michael, and I thank you for taking the time to share them. I would note for the benefit of readers that for most of those exercises, if you don't understand what they are, you can use Google typically to find diagrams and even videos.

Erwan Le Corre & MoveNat - Reprise

I was delighted yesterday to receive an email from Erwan, alerting me to the fact that he and his methods have been featured in a substantial article in Men's Health Magazine. I first blogged about Erwan a couple of months back. Before linking up the article, here's a bit of review. When the video comes up, absolutely do click on the "HD" button for a way better experience.

Now, here's the link to the magazine article.

When Zuqueto finally steps back, thick fists on his hips, chest heaving in fatigue and frustration, the man hops down from the pole. His name is Erwan Le Corre, a 37-year-old Frenchman who may rank as one of the most all-around physically fit men on the planet. His last name sounds exactly like the French phrase for "the body" -- le corps -- and his appearance lives up to the advance billing: If he grew out his sun-bleached hair and traded the board shorts for a loincloth, he'd be a perfect twin for Tarzan. Le Corre isn't just strong and fast and explosive and nimble; he's an athlete whose opponents are everything he sees and whose arena is anywhere he happens to be standing.

Enjoy. I certainly did.

Sprinting

Still trying to get to the lingering emails and comments I've not replied to. They will all be handled today as my head is now above water.

Well, I had hoped to maintain or even lose fat on my vacation, but it was not to be. I gained 3 pounds. I ate pretty Paleo the whole time, excepting a few sessions with a few corn tortilla chips with salsa and/or guacamole (I usually felt awful for several hours after -- I've simply lost my tolerance for them, just as you can build and then lose tolerance for alcohol, nicotine, caffein). Speaking of alcohol, that was another issue, most likely. I consumed it daily in immoderate amounts of spirits over a long period of time (afternoon to late evening), though never enough to become noticeably intoxicated. The other thing is that I didn't fast until beginning the trip home on Sunday, where I had breakfast in Puerto Vallarta, then went trough the process of enjoying the last few hours on the beach, getting to the airport, flying to LA, driving 1 1/2 hours down to Vista, spending the night, then getting up in the morning for the 7 hour drive back home. I finally ate Monday evening and accounting for the two hour time gain on the way back, the fast was just shy of 36 hours.

Traveling is an excellent opportunity to fast.

I also didn't work out in the standard fashion. Instead, I sprinted barefoot on the beach for three sessions during the week. I was impressed with the results, especially when I consider how little time of actual exercise is involved. Once again: high intensity wins the day. Here's what I learned:

• For the first session, I did two sprints, all out for about 20 seconds each (about as much as I could take). Running on moist and slightly packed beach sand is quite different from running on grass or a paved surface. In each, I exploded off the line with full intensity, and quickly developed quite a tightness / cramping in my quadriceps, especially the left; and in exactly the same way I used to get it in HS playing soccer -- a sport that requires explosive bursts. So, the explosive off-the-line bursts limited what I could do that first time. 

• Also, I was trying to do long strides and I quickly found that a long stride seemed to equal less intensity. Think about it. A sprint is mostly push, little if any pull. If you get your foot way forward, you can't push until the weight of your body gets over the point of pivot. So, more time equals less intensity. I shortened my stride substantially in sessions two and three and got way more intensity out of it, with full-body results that were quite noticeable. I suspect that for world class sprinters, the name of the game is to develop a lot of intensity with a long stride. Of course, part of why they use spiked shoes is to give them the ability to pull with their foot until their body weight going forward gives them the leverage to instantly shift to push.

• Though I want to be able to develop the ability to explode off the line with full intensity, I let that go for now in sessions two and three. As such, I was able to get in four sprints in each of those sessions instead of two. So, a bit of a tradeoff; no benefit from the initial explosion, but double the sprint time. What I did was begin with a jog and immediately and steadily accelerated to all out, in a time compressed to maybe three seconds, at most. You want to very quickly get to full intensity. So, rather than 1-2 strides to full speed off the line, it was maybe 6-7 strides. 

I was really blown away by the results. I've sprinted now and then in the mornings, walking the dogs, out on a paved surface. However, I never felt any particular result I could identify. This is perhaps because I was doing my two intense sessions at the gym anyway, so it would have been difficult to attribute any results to the sprinting. However, I didn't do any workouts this vacation week and I can definitely say that the sprinting essentially gave me the same feeling, i.e., that wonderful substantial muscle tightness for the next two days, and not just in the legs, but over my entire body. In essence, I felt as though I'd gotten a good workout of my arms, chest, back and shoulders.

Quite amazing. I'm now firmly sold on sprinting as part of my weekly routine.

Later: Having thought about Keith's comment setting me straight on the push/pull issue, I have to conclude he's right. If you watch sprinting, bodies tend to be erect / vertical, so it has to be more of a pull than a push once off the line.

Girls Can Too

They can get real strong, can endure. They can kick ass.

Here, take a look at the short video from the 2008 Crossfit Games. Near as I can tell, those are 45 pound plates on a 45 pound bar, so 135 pounds altogether. And those pull-ups can be excruciating, I can tell you. Put them both together in a timed competition and that's really something.

I got that from Chris at FitnessFail who does a good job contrasting the model "look" verses the healthy and fit look, as displayed by the women in that video. As regards Miranda Kerr and Marissa Miller:

OK, does anyone actually think the latter two are attractive? Am I really this out of touch with what most people are into? With both of the above women, I see insanely thin people with no body (besides cleavage) and no muscle definition.

They’re nearly certainly what I’d call “skinny fat” I.e they’re overly thin, but the have no muscle to them and are still a bit soft. I’m sure this would be more apparent if the blemishes were not airbrushed out. The both have arms that look like skin over bones…. Again, maybe my own taste is different because I like athletes but in the model look I see frail looking women here, not something to aspire toward.

Yea, the only real change I see happening is acceptance of "full figured women." I should have taken a clip, but on one website I visited yesterday there was actually a lingerie ad with a picture of a very, very fat woman (but smooth & plump). So, you get skinny fat and just big & fat, now.

Correction: One commenter corrected me by saying those plates are 25 each, and then Dave in Ohio said they're 10. Looks like he's right. Still quite impressive.

Quick Workout Note

Beginning last week, my trainer and I have decided to switch things up. Instead of predominantly lifting weights twice per week, I'm now doing weights once and the other workout is a crossfit styled routing, always different.

So far, I've had two workouts, and we're talking about lots of pull-ups, push-ups, kettlebell swings, and just now, TRX suspension straps, and various other variations of various varieties. Quite a different routine.

I like it. And I shall report. Right here.

This may end up delaying my photo update a few weeks, perhaps to middle or late February (I had intended it for my birthday next week, as I turn 48). Presently, I'm down about 5 pounds net from my last shoot, and so far as I can tell, there's not a lot of visual difference. I'm thinking this just might do the trick, as I become more adapted to the routine. We'll see.

Bea & I are headed up to the cabin in a few hours. I intend a barrage of posts over the weekend. Then, Monday morning, part one of a BIG 2-part surprise, so stay tuned.

Oprah's Recipe For Failure -- And My Solution For Success

Well, she's done it again. If she even succeeds in getting the 40 or so pounds off she gained since her last failed "success," how long until we see another week-long series instructing hundreds of thousands of women on the path to weight loss and fitness failure, peppered with appearances by others who have failed?

My gosh, already. When is she going to fire that Bob Greene?

Alright, let's dig in a bit. First, watch the 5-minute video about how she's changing everything for this year, "Oprah's New Year, New Plan." I watch that, and I can find only about one thing right in the whole deal: time for herself on her own schedule. Duh!

The rest of it is a huge recipe for failure, misery, and probably both. Why is it ultimately destined for failure, for both her and anyone else? It's not sustainable. Hunger will always win in the end, and in the simplest terms possible: she and Greene have done everything possible to stimulate even more hunger and haven't done the things necessary to take hunger almost completely out of the equation. Most human beings would go stark raving mad on this regime -- from the awful diet to the boring, grueling workout schedule and routine grind.

Oprah: Sorry to say, but your new plan is dumb. What's more, You are sending thousands of women (and men) who look up to you as an authority down the same dismal road of repentance for past sins through boring, dry, unexciting food and daily assembly-line workout toil that will do little but make everyone even more bored, hungry, and quite possibly suicidal.

In short, this is a guaranteed failure zone for all but very few who are into punishing themselves endlessly. So here's the short list of everything that's wrong, along with what you need to do to get it right:

The Meal Plans

The meal plans are just awful. Filled with low-and-non-fat everything, completely lacking in variety, and just plain boring. If you click though the days of the week, it's endless egg whites, chicken breasts, salmon. Over and over. You should eat in a sustainable manner. About the only positive is that the food is mostly real food. 

The amount of protein looks close, more is better, and you need way more fat. Greene will tell you otherwise, but in my opinion he's making his living towing the party line; you know, the one where 65% of the American population is now fat or obese, and it's their fault, not that of the "authorities" and their puppet "experts" like Greene who continue to herald the low-fat catechism (since it's been so damn successful over the last 20 years & all).

And this 5-meal per day deal is total crap. How many omnivores in nature eat five times per day, regularly, like clockwork? You know what that's a recipe for? Obsession. Everything becomes about food and that next meal. You never give your system a break from the onslaught, insulin remains always elevated, the wham-bam that's going to keep you hungry and irritable.

The Exercise Plans

What you have here is a lot of low-impact, low-resistance, high-rep, boring stuff that's going to get you nowhere -- except that you plan to do it 6 days per week and give yourself a whole day off! Yippee!

We've got 30 minutes per day of low impact "cardio," and something you call "resistance training," but with weights so small that it pails in comparison to the "resistance training" you get daily anyway moving your own body around. And, you're going to do a body part per day? Yea, that's functional. Way to stimulate GH production there, Oprah. Looks like you're into light weight with lots of repetitions. It's wrong; it will get you nowhere.

In the end, just as with your diet, you are doing everything possible to stimulate more hunger, and sooner or later, you'll give into it. In total, if you're doing your "resistance training" for 30 minutes in addition to your cardio, then that's six hours spent per week getting, really, no more benefit that you could get just walking a hour per day outside, in nature.

A Better Plan -- The Anti-Greene Plan

I suppose I shouldn't pick on Bob so much. After all, who am I? Well, who I am is someone who has the luxury of being brutally honest. The root problem is that the whole weight loss industry is run like a religion. And, like a religion, operates by making you feel guilty for your own nature; and when you feel guilty, you are susceptible to all manner of suggestion (like purchasing ineffective products and services and punishing yourself with boring diets and hunger-inducing workouts).

You need to drop the guilt, first and foremost. You've been lied to. You've been told to eat in a manner and exercise in a manner that sets up hormonal cascades guaranteed to leave you forever ravenous. You can't even believe you've gained this weight, and why? Because you can look back and recall that you were hungry all the time. Weren't you?

Well, I'll leave original sin to the religious, but you are simply not responsible for feeling hungry, and you can hardly be expected, long term, to ignore and deny those feelings. Hunger always wins.

What you need is a proper diet that satisfies you, and you need an activity and exercise regimen that promotes the release of growth hormone. How to do?

1. Try to eat as much as a gram of protein per day per pound of body weight, so about 200 grams. That's a lot and 150 would probably be fine on the low end. Eat a variety of meats, fatty cuts too. Be intermittent, as though the food is seasonal, just like hunting. Protein is king for satiety. Eat as much protein as you want, as often as you want.
2. Eat more fat. In fact, 50% to 65% of your energy should be coming from fat, natural fat: lard, butter, tallow, schmalz, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil. Stay away from all others to reduce pro-inflammatory omega 6 fats, and take about 5 grams of fish oil per day in order to further get your omega 6 and 3 ratio to a natural, near 1:1 as possible (the average diet is 15:1 and higher of n-6 to n-3). Eat as much of these fats as you want, as often as you want.
3. Natural carbohydrate only: veggies, fruits, nuts. As much as you want of veggies (except potato), try to stick with berries for fruit as much as possible, and modestly. Keep it intermittent. No processed food at all. No neolithic foods like grains, corn, legumes, dairy. Cutting them out will reduce or eliminate many inflammatory markers.
4. Get lots of sleep. Sleep promotes GH release.
5. Eat 2-3 times per day on days you eat, or, eat once some days, three times others, two times still others, and nothing now and then. This models nature and begins turning on dormant genes that want to you be lean and young.
6. Begin rehabilitating your broken hunger mechanism with two fasts per week of 24-30 hours each: water, or unsweetened coffee or tea only. Once you get used to this (3-4 fasts), then arrange it so you're doing your workout at at least 22 hours into the fast. Do animals hunt on full bellies? Don't eat until at least an hour after completing a workout. Fasting also promotes GH release. So does high-intensity activity. Working out fasted tips the balance in your favor.
7. Don't use any artificial sweeteners or eat anything with artificial sweeteners. Abstaining from them for a time will reset your taste to a natural one. Before refined sugar and selective breeding of very sweet fruits, sweetness was not something we got in nature that much. Constantly subjecting your body to it has adverse effects and can actually cause an insulin response even if there's no calories to digest.
8. Drop the cardio completely (walk outside if you like, as much as you want) and then do full-body resistance workouts twice per week, 30 minutes each, and you go all in every time. Intensity is the key. For an hour per week 2 X 30, you can get intense. Six hours, you're not going to be intense and it's not going to do you any good at all -- it will probably hurt, i.e., chronic cardio.
9. This will take a while to figure out, but you want to select a weight for each exercise that you could maybe do 12-15 reps, then do three sets of 8-10 reps (or whatever you can get on the 3rd). Don't rest in-between sets very much. Do 2-3 exercises at once so you can move from set to set to set.
10. Do full body every time, and focus on legs, chest, back, and shoulders. Forget arms and abs. These others, especially legs, are the bigger muscles that will stimulate GH release when loaded significantly. Do legs a lot. Lot's of squats, presses, lunges. Keep it all very intense.

And there you have it: ten simple, fun, natural, sustainable-for-life steps that will work for good, guaranteed. I have my own results to prove it (including excellent blood work -- case you're wondering about all the fat), heart scan shows little risk for heart disease for a 47 year old, and many others have attained lasting success through these methods.

Odds & Ends: Admin Note, A Question, and Food Porn

I have some pressing business maters to attend to, so I'm probably not getting to Part 3 of the vitamin supplements series today. Maybe tonight, but no promises. Plus, I'm glad I waited to do some additional digging. Right now, I' trying to decide what I think about the vitamin A in cod liver oil. There's ongoing turmoil right now and lots of smart people I trust are on both sides of the issue.

As to the admin note my blog host, TypePad, tells me the issue with how the blog displays in IE6 should be resolved. Please let me know if you still have the issue (but make sure to do a hard page reload, first).

Now for a question.

"I am trying to set a goal for muscle gain...I have no idea what to expect...my body comp is the same as the last set of pics I sent you...any idea what I can expect from 2, 30 minute workouts a week?"

Presuming those workouts are going to be weights and other forms of high-intensity training, and you set up the conditions properly, you could probably expect to add on 5% or more lean mass. As to the setup, remember what they say: "muscle is built in the kitchen and not the gym." You've got to get sufficient protein. For muscle building, I believe the standard is about 1.25 grams per pound of lean body mass. Since you're already pretty lean, I'd just go with 1 gram per pound of weight.

Next is to put the growth hormone elements in your favor. Food is the raw material, but GH is the construction contractor. The three primary elements that stimulate GH release are fasting (to preserve lean tissue in times of scarcity), high intensity exercise, and sleep.

So, try to always work out in some degree of fasted state, even if 6-8 hours, and then go at least an hour afterwards before eating. Also, don't waste time on small muscles like your arms. They'll get plenty of work in compound movements. It's loading the big muscles that promote GH release. Legs, Back, Chest, Shoulder deck. Especially the legs. Want big pecs? Work your big leg muscles hard.

(Note: If anyone like Keith Norris or Chis Highcock have anything to contradict or add, blast away. They know far more about this stuff than I.)

Next, some food pics. Low & slow, again. This time, with New York Steaks. 250 degrees in the oven, with a temperature probe, out of the oven at 130 degrees internal to rest until the temperature peaks (136 in this case), then rub down the top with a stick of butter and place under the high broiler for about 2 minutes, or until sizzling. Turn over, rub down with butter and do the other side.

If you can reduce some beef stock or make demi-glace without the roux, bonus. Here's my result.

This first is just out of the oven. Not very appealing. Just wait!

As you can see below, the butter & broiler are essential.

The sauce is a straight demi-glace, nothing added except a dollop of leaf lard, a pat of butter, and the drippings from the pan after the broiler.

The Final Result.

Once again, low & slow comes through to deliver pink (or red, as you prefer) from coast to coast and everything in between, uniformly. This is actually medium, not medium rare as I prefer. Next time I'll pull it at 125.

Oh, one more note. The strip of fat was delicious, not chewy, bitter, or gristly like it sometimes gets on the grill. My first thought in describing it (my wife noted it as well) was "sweet." Seriously: sweet. I ate 2/3 of the strip and the doggies happily went for the rest, then licked our plates clean.

A Dozen Training Ideas

In only three minutes. It's all brief, and very intense. Remember: endurance and intensity are inversely related. The more intense, the briefer. Watch this and you'll soon understand why so many fool themselves about "working out" doing slow, boring "cardio." Very few of them could handle a minute of this, much less three or more. Right here is real cardio, modeled after the way nature intended you to get it: all in, but briefly.

That's from Chris, and the facility is Mountain Athlete in Jackson, Wyoming.