Free the Animal

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.

Losing 5 Pounds in a Day

I actually gave you a hint in the title of my previous post, Cold, Wet, Hungry, and Running For Your Life. Also, this is not the first time, and since I wrote fairly extensively on it before, I'm going to cover what I did differently and what I did on ocassions when this didn't work.

In a nutshell, it's the cold water, again. However, the gym has in the last few months managed to keep the water at a steady 40 degrees rather than the 50 it used to be. Let me tell you: huge difference and it took quite a while to adapt to spending minutes at that temperature.

So, the fast began around 1:30 PM, after a pretty big breakfast and lunch.

To the left is self explanatory. To the right is leftover sauerkraut, which was Alexander Valley fresh sauerkraut (not caned), which is simply awesome, even uncooked. I had made this in the crock pot a couple of days earlier, with about 3 pounds of pork sparerib, an onion, and lots of caraway seeds. All the pork was gone, but not all the kraut and broth, so I used it with some uncured, gluten free polish sausage. A great way to treat a leftover, making it a new meal entirely.

Around 7 PM or so, as I'm getting hungry, I head down to the gym. So, I'm about 6 hours or so into the fast at this point. The first thing I did differently was to do some intense intervals on the stationary bike under a bit of resistance. I only did 4, 15 seconds each, but I did them all out and I felt it. Amazing what just one minute of exercise can do.

Then I did the sauna, steam, hot tub routine and then hit the 40 degree water. It's really, really cold, but I mitigate by first tucking my fingers into my armpits. Then, I'm in a sqat, and I do leg kicks about as hard as I can, one leg at a time. Frequently and intense enough, I can actually become somewhat warm, and that's what I do until the cold finally has its way. On this night, I was in somewhere between 10-12 minutes. I was surprised. Longest ever in that cold of water. At 50 degrees, I can stay in far longer and don't have to kick or protect the fingers.

Cold shower, which on full cold feels warm, so I just rinse. I feel super invigorated. After a time, I get that feeling that's like you've been in cold but active for an extended period (such as skiing), and while you're cold to the core, you're warm on the surface. I find that a very pleasant feeling and it persits until I hit the sack a few hours later.

And sometime the next morning when I got around to weighing? 4-5 pounds lighter.

The last time I did that, everything was pretty much the same, except for the intervals. That's an idea that came from this post, the idea being to get a good jump on HG production. At any rate, here's what I know doesn't work, as I've tried it many times: eating anytime soon after the cold water.

Most of my workouts are toward the end of a fast, I always hit the cold plunge (sometimes only for 1-2 minutes), but then I typically eat within a couple of hours. I never get a weight drop like that, so, I speculate that even if there's something to this (which I fully admit is speculative in itself), then it must have something to do with performing it at the beginning of a fast, not the end.

And even in this instance, and the reason I delayed this post is that I had my workout the next day at 1:30, at the 24-hr fasted mark. I then did another 6 minuted in the cold plunge, waited until 3:30 and weighed in: no change.

There's quite a lot of stuff out there about the benefits of cold water therapy (it's a huge list). Mark Sisson did a work-up on it a while back, and here's Stephan's treatment. Both posts contain links to actual scientific studies proving a clear health benefit to episodic bouts with extreme cold. I'm sold on it, myself, and would be even without these curious and welcome rapid weight loss escapades.

I've searched in vain to come up with anything related to using cold water to lose fat. Anyone else?

Also, anyone brave enough to duplicate the experiment? If you don't have access to a gym with a cold plunge, perhaps you could find a cold swimming pool, bathtub, or something. However, I'd say that if it's over 50 deg (10 C) that you're going to have a tough time and would have to greatly extend time in water. It's probably some sort of geometric or exponential function with warmer water.

Cold, Wet, Hungry, and Running For Your Life

So, did any of you come up with some tweaks after yesterday's read? I've receive one email with some good ideas.

That was really a good refresher for me, but I'm not going to tell you what I did yet. The reason is that I still have 9 hours to go on my 30-hr fast, a workout early this afternoon, followed by a "secret" technique, and I'm already down 5 full pounds from where I was when I began the fast.

I want to see where I end up. Then I'll post.

Losing Weight is Pretty Much Like Eating Lard

I'm going to revisit a post from a few months ago; but first, I'm going to highlight a post by Tom Naughton, creator of the documentary film Fat Head, which I mini-reviewed here. Let me just mention that this is probably the best tool available for introducing friends and family to the notion of an evolutionary basis for diet. I have screened it with a number of both and the enthusiasm has been uniformly resounding. It's a Big Fat Deal.

Alright, so here's Tom's clever post on his blog (notice that this blog is featured on his short blogroll amongst very good company; thanks, Tom).

Can Your Own Bologna Kill You?

See, Tom figured something out, and I'll give you a clue:

It’s easy to find the breakdown of lard on the internet. It’s mostly oleic acid, palmitic acid and stearic acid, with several others making up the balance. Add them up, and it turns out that lard is about 38 percent saturated, 11 percent polyunsaturated, and 45 percent monosaturated. (The numbers don’t add up to 100 because some of the trace fats were unclassified.)

[...]

...I finally found a paper in which the researchers stated that they extracted human body fat from the subjects’ buttocks. Since research subjects are often college sophomores, I’m guessing this took place at a fraternity initiation. In any case, I saw pretty much the same list of fatty acids. Add them up, and it turns out that human body fat is about 35 percent saturated, 51 percent monosaturated, and the rest polyunsaturated. In other words, it’s similar to lard.

This reminded me of the post of mine I'll now revisit.

All Diets Are High-Fat Diets

Just as Tom did, I showed how if losing fat is part of your weight loss goal, which unless you're crazy it is, then you're going to be burning through your own fat, making your diet, if successful, a high fat diet.

Let's say you have 50 pounds of excess fat you'd like to lose in order to get down to around 15% body fat or thereabouts. Assuming you'll be successful, what does that imply? It means, necessarily, that you're going to metabolize 50 pounds of your own fat in order to accomplish your objective. So, even if you do this by means of a "low-fat" diet, it's still high-fat, as you've got 50 pounds or 175,000 calories worth of fat to burn through. If you do it in six months, that's almost 1,000 calories of fat per day. Presuming a basal metabolism of 2,500 calories, and what you do eat is 20% fat (a "low-fat diet"), then you'd be eating 300 calories of fat and 1,200 calories of protein and carbs combined, for a total consumption of 1,500 calories. The remaining 1,000 would be coming from your own fat, released into your bloodstream and metabolized. Out of the total 2,500, 1,300, or about 50%, are calories from fat.

But Tom actually went a step further and got the breakdown of fat composition, as shown above. It makes the irony of the whole thing only that much sweeter, or ought I to say: fattier.

So let's tie it together: if one is attempting to lose weight, presumably mostly from fat and not lean tissue, then they will of necessity be on a high fat diet, 35% of which, minimum, will be saturated fat from their own body (plus whatever saturated fat they eat). At 1 pound of weight loss per week, that's 3,500 fat calories, 1,225 from saturated fat, which is 135 grams of "artery clogging saturated fat" (so called).

As I concluded in the former post: "When finally you've explained, and they've understood, you can then ask them how come they're not afraid of clogging their own arteries with all the fat they intend to be releasing into their own bloodstream."

"Quick, Get Me Some Sugar Before I Start Burning Fat."

As ridiculous as it sounds, that's what it boils down to for millions upon millions stuck in the sugar crack-house.

"Hypoglycemia" has to be the most overused, misunderstood condition in existence, perhaps with the exception of "I got the flu" (most of what people identify as "flu" is simple food poisoning).

I had an interesting experience over the weekend, when I took part in a fairly rigorous hike, about 4.6 miles round trip, but with three miles of that on an average 15% grade. To make it more interesting, we were camped up top, so it was first about 3/4 mile on pretty flat terrain, then the descent for 1.5 miles. It was steady, as though along a canyon wall, not a switchback trail.

I took along about 3/4 of a pint bottle of water, no food. Others had their hydration packs and other supplies. Three of us reached the bottom 10 minutes ahead of the group of four behind us. I wasn't thirsty, so I didn't take on water. Once the other four arrived, out came the Cliff Bars, nuts, fruit, and other things. I was offered, but politely declined. What those hikers did, but probably didn't realize they did, was to foreclose on their body's ability to get any fat burn going for the rest of the hike. Even if you're skinny, it's still a good idea to keep your body familiar with the process.

We all left at the same time, and it was immediate ascent. I started out on a slow, even pace, gradually increasing it. As I began to break a good sweat, I removed my shirt. Instead of wiping sweat (coolant) away, I spread it with my bare hands over my face, torso, and arms. I did this two or three times with surprising results in terms of a bit of an energy boost. Being able to cool is a huge advantage. At no time was I even slightly hungry, or even thirsty until the very end when I took in about 8 ounces. Nor did I need to stop for rest. The climb was grueling in the sense that the grade was so steady, with nary a flattening.

I outpaced one hiker by 20 minutes, and the rest of them by 30. The rest of them were among those who had to have their mid-hike "energy," and I heard that along the climb, one got "hypoglycemic" and had to chew on an orange. I kept my mouth shut, but it's more likely that this hiker simply never wanders out of sugar-burning mode, and since she never does, her body knows just how to scream bloody murder when she even gets close.

I think it's very appropriate to challenge yourself on short hikes like that. I once tried to do Half Dome in Yosemite while in ketosis some years back. That's about 12 miles or so, round trip, ascending from about 4,000 to 9,000 feet and back. Very tough, and I got leg cramping and had to turn back about 3/4 in. A year later I made it handily on white-bread bologna & mayo sandwiches and water.

Oh, yea, and I did it all in my Vibrams, of course (this hike; they weren't invented when I did Half Dome).

A Little Heads Up For Beginners

I've been receiving emails for the last couple of weeks from people new to my blog, and in general, people either not dieting at all, or those on the SAD (standard American diet). Many are just starting out to give this Life Way, as described by Art de Vany, a try ("lifesyle" implies a simple preference among choices; while you can certainly choose against this way of life, you can't choose to avoid the consequences of a less optimal way, or, perhaps more aptly: you can't choose to avoid losing the benefits).

Some have already posted spectacular weight gains in only a week or two. My brother in Texas reports 9 pounds in the first two weeks, for instance. To save a bit of time in replying to emails, let me give a few brief things to look out for, so that you don't get discouraged. Expect these things to happen, and if they don't, great. If they do, you saw 'em coming.

1. Ever heard of "hitting the wall?" It's a term long-distance and marathon runners use to describe glycogen (stored carbohydrate) depletion. When that happens, your body has to convert to lipolysis (fat burning). This is where you want to be -- not all the time, but evolution suggests that our primitive ancestors spent much time in this state. When you re-adapt yourself to it, you'll be used to it and you'll find that you rarely drag ass any more. Energy is far more stable. However, getting through that wall the first time, especially if you've been a big carb muncher, can be tough on some. You might experience days on end of lethargy. Persist. You'll see soon enough.
2. And, so given #1, I recommend just getting it over with. This is one area where Atkins has a real benefit with its two-week induction of near zero carbohydrate. It makes the unpleasantness of getting used to being a steady fat burner quick. Add in a couple sessions per week of high-intensity resistance training of about 30 minutes, and you'll get rid of that glycogen and get your body adapted to lipolysis all the quicker.
3. You might experience constipation. People will tell you to take psyllium husks and such, but my advice it to up the fat content. It's quite lubricative. I recommend the latter, because I don't think you should get yourself relying on an unnatural substance. Your body will adapt soon enough. 
4. Most of the initial weight loss is water. Stored glycogen requires water. For every gram of glycogen, you retain 1.6 grams of water. As you expend the glycogen, you release water. Once you start having to relieve every hour for a couple of days, you'll know you're on the right track. And, you'll know you were a big carb muncher, if you didn't know already.
5. So, you're going to see an initial big weight drop, then it's going to slow. Don't get discouraged. 

Now, hopefully you are going to begin some type of weight-resistance training. Intensity is the key, and intensity and endurance are inversely related. The more intense, the less you can endure (time, reps, etc.). Somebody emailed me this morning about starting out at the gym with a trainer. Good idea; but naturally, they signed him up for hour-long sessions. I think that's a serious mistake for a beginner. I have built 20 pounds of lean mass over the last year, and as an example, couldn't bench 100 pounds. Now I warm up (10 reps) at 135, get pumping with 185 (5 reps), and top off at 205 for 2-3, but not to failure. Then I bring it back down. I have never spent more than 30 minutes in a session, and I've never gone to the gym more than twice per week.

Intensity and endurance are inversely related. Intensity is the key for hGH release which protects lean mass, promotes fat burning, and expresses insulin sensitivity. I just don't think you can be as intense as you need to be when you know you've got an hour. I have little to no rest between sets. My trainer stages 3-4 exercises at once, so I can go from set to set in a rotation. I am totally and completely spent in 30 minutes. Again: the key is intensity, and to achieve that, it's got to be brief. So, why would you want to exercise for an hour when you can do far better for yourself by only exercising for 30 minutes?

Finally, if you get the intensity where it should be, you are going to gain weight over some period of time of days or weeks. Expect it. Embrace it. Eat the real food I've been talking about, hit the weights intermittently and intensely, and let your body do the rest. Weight gain is normal. You're building muscle, which is more dense than fat. I've posted weight gains of as much as 5 pounds in a week, and that's with two 30-hour fasts included! Don't obsess. Over time, you'll see that you'll have burst of loss to the downside, and burst of gain to the upside. Eat right, and you'll have more downward bursts over time, and the weight will come off. When it does, it's fat, and the way you know this is because of the weight gains and the strength increases. The result: a leaner you. Remember: it's not about weight, it's about your percentage of body fat to lean mass.

And be careful out there. You do yourself no good if you injure yourself right from the start. So, when I say intense, give yourself a few workouts to get used to that, and increase the intensity gradually. It's not a race. It's a Life Way.

"Cold Shower"

That's funny. Turns out the top search term on the blog over the last few days has been for "cold shower." I suppose it's because of this, a bit of "Richard-Lab." Now, that's actually a bit of a longish post, but I'd say one of my more important ones, because rather than an assemblage of good work by others (for which I'm eternally grateful and will always acknowledge), this is original work. The rest of this isn't going to be fully comprehensible unless you go ahead and take the 5 to read it.

Well, that was just over a week ago. I was unable to attempt a duplication last Monday due the holiday, with the gym closed by 3pm. And, out of the overnight 4.5 pounds of fat loss, I retained 1.5 pounds of it. However, even though I didn't do the cold plunge on Monday, I did do a fast and ended up back at 195ish. Then, Thursday, I ate a huge breakfast at around 10am. 1/2 pound burger, four eggs (cooked in butter), 4 strips of bacon, and fruit. I slathered the eggs with a good tablespoon of butter to boost the fat.

I went to the gym around 7pm, and this time, after the heat stress outlined in the linked post, I did a full 10 minutes in the cold plunge. Interestingly, the violent shiver came in at 4 minutes or so, but I developed an interesting technique. The shivers come in waves and utilize lots of energy. If you're out of glycogen, that's being fueled by gluconeogenesis. You've already got the hGH surging, owing to your evolutionary adaptive mechanism of protecting lean mass in times of lean times. Makes sense, doesn't it, marketing hype for "energy" and "gainer" products notwithstanding? At any rate, I felt I might get out at 4 minutes, but then, with each wave of shiver, I'd go to a full body flex; and I mean intensely so. The result? A wave of actual warmth that would last for a good 20-30 seconds. Now, since that wasn't being fueled by all those grains or sugary energy drinks, I hadn't eaten anything in 10 hours, was low to nonexistent in glycogen to begin with (I almost always am), growth hormone is protecting lean mass, and low insulin is permitting fat to exit cells, where did the energy come from? Fat.

The logic in unassailable, and I'll add another thing: every professional body builder in the world knows all this. They carb load so they can work out hours per day. I work out 1 hour per week.

Weird thing is that after discovering and employing this technique of body flexing with each onset of shivering, I could have stayed in even beyond the 10 minutes I stayed in the 55ish degree water. But I got out, took a cold shower -- for the purpose of extending the fat burn -- cleaned up and went home. However, 10 or 11pm came along and I was hungry again. Real hungry. I try to listen to my body, so I did a cheat. I ate some food, but not a lot. I went to bed, slept fine, and as usual, had no hunger upon waking. But unlike so many other experiences with fasting, hunger came on with a rage pretty early and stayed with me all day, until the workout. And then, for the first time ever, the workout didn't kill hunger 5 minutes in. Not even 25 minutes in. It was a real drag from start to finish and I nearly stopped it. Instead, I rallied in the last few minutes and finished it out. The one plus is I didn't have to cut the weight at all. 205 on the bench, just like I'd worked up to some weeks ago. I'd been having very explosive workouts, so this was a decent lesson for me in limits.

There are times when you really ought to back off. And that's what I'm going to do. Tomorrow, I'm going to work out in a relatively fed state for the first time in a long time. The weight? Well, I added a couple more pounds to the loss; that is, 193. So, 6.5 pound loss in about a week, no loss of strength. 6.5 pounds of fat loss in about 8 days or so is asking a bit much, I suppose. On the other hand, I was stuck at 210 for a couple of months, then at 200 for a couple of months. Now, it seems my body is ready again to give up the fat. I hope I blow through 190, then 180 on my journey to an estimated 175 to achieve 10% BF.

I think there's a very large unexplored area in terms of cold. Think about it. We evolved over millions of years with no central heating or efficient layers of clothing. Certainly, nobody wants to live in a state of chronic cold -- especially exacerbated by insufficient caloric intake. That said, we do have the ability to think these things through and experiment with ourselves. I've got 15-20 pounds of fat loss to go to reach the goal of <10% body fat, along with the concurrent goal to not only preserve, but to build lean mass along the way. If the cold can help me get there, I'm going to use it.

But maybe a bit more prudently going forward. It appears to be an extremely powerful tool.

Setback?

I just came from the gym and if you're following along, I just reported how I was tossing 2 pounds per workout, twice per week. All my workouts except one since the new year have been fasting workouts, i.e., at the tail end of a 30-hr fast. It took a couple of fasts to get going, but then the last four times have been -2 each time save last Friday where it was -1.5, so I was down to 212.5.

I weigh myself twice per week under the same conditions -- right at the end of my workout after I've stripped down. That cuts down on the normal water swings. But today, 28 hours into a fast and after a hard workout, I had gained a pound: 213.5. Setback? Well, I can think of three explanations. The simplest is that this kind of thing is never linear. I never expected the 4 pounds per week to hold up. Just like the stock market makes a surprising run in one direction or another, eventually there's correction one way or another. So, this could simply be the average attenuating somewhat. Four pounds per week is quite a rapid run and probably not sustainable for very long.

The other explanation is that the higher fat content I'm eating is having an effect, but given what I've been learning and reporting in the last couple of posts (and my carb intake is way low), that seems unlikely -- though I suppose not impossible. Or, it could be in conjunction with the foregoing and my body is simply readjusting to a new hormonal mix and stimuli.

But I think the most likely hypothesis, and thus my favorite, is that whatever fat I lost since last Friday was exceeded by lean gain in the amount of one pound. Here's why, but first let me tell you why having a personal trainer is beneficial.

Everyone has known a guy who couldn't seem to build any upper body mass. Flat chest; skinny arms. He works that chest and arms, yet they never get bigger. Know why? It's because he's ignoring his legs. They seem fine to him. He wants pecs, tris, and bis. But what causes muscles to grow? Well, to get them to grow bigger than they are, you do need to shred them by exercising them to failure, and the "shredding" is signaled by the burn, which is lactic acid ("acid burn"). This actually causes micro tears in the muscle fiber. Your body repairs these, of course, but to get your body to repair them better then they were, i.e., bigger and stronger, you need a hormonal signal. Guess what? GH: growth hormone.

How do you stimulate its release? You do it by exercising your largest muscles, i.e., your legs. So, this is why my trainer has me shred my legs every workout (different exercises), but my upper body gets it only once per week: chest, triceps and abs one day; biceps, back/lats, and shoulders the next. It's the legs, the big muscles that stimulate the GH response, and the GH works all over the body, not just in the legs.

So, back to my hypothesis. Three workouts ago, last Tuesday, my trainer up and doubled my leg routing. Yep; twice the workout. This weekend I probably felt the sorest I have ever felt, but I noticed my legs seemed larger, particularly the hamstrings.

Setback, or does that sound plausible?

Well, it's now almost 30 hours since I ate, but after such a workout I'm not yet hungry (quite the opposite -- I have no appetite right now). But it will be raging in another couple of hours. We're going out. I'll snap a pitcure of my birthday dinner. Can you guess?