Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
Experimentation with a low glycemic high fiber diet and how it relates to making strength gains
I've drastically cut my carbohydrate intake. Breakfast is usually oatmeal with two ham egg cheese McMuffins or two steak egg cheese McMuffins at McDonald's or Dunkin' Donuts. The oatmeal is made with with water no milk. Milk has carbs. The muffins are low glycemic and don't induce massive amounts of insulin to pour into my blood stream, so I don't suffer from the resulting hypoglycemic sugar comas.
Snacks between lunch and dinner are low glycemic as well. I like to eat apples or oatmeal bars high in fiber like Clif bars. Again the only purpose is to thwart the huge sugar rushes that you would get from eating candy bars or pastries. The Clif bars are only 40 or 50 cents more expensive than a Snickers bar.
Lunch involves salads or vegetables with significant amounts of animal proteins like beef or chicken. After the salad, I'll eat one chocolate chip cookie to fool my body into thinking I just ate a huge bowl of carbohydrates when all I did was stuff my gut with fibers. The cookie induces a serotonin drip into my brain in a slow and steady manner.
Again more snacks before dinner.
Dinner involves more animal proteins. Again I stuff my gut with significant fiber intake in the form of vegetables. I only do this because my job requires that I stay awake long hours and I don't want to take in the huge amounts of carbohydrates and have to suffer the resultant sugar crash/coma. But if you want to sleep at night anyways, you might as well stuff your gut with high glycemic foods like pastas or breads and try to induce that sugar coma in your body to make you go to sleep. The resulting influx of insulin into your bloodstream is also supposed to help with the formation of insulin growth hormone when production levels of it are highest when you sleep at night. Again I'll finish the meal off with a cookie or a quarter slice of pie to trick my body into thinking I got my sugar fix.
As an aside, your protein intake would be cut drastically if you didn't do any heavy lifting at the gym, but if you don't work out heavy at the gym then what are you reading this blog for?
So how does this relate to strength training?
No sugar comas/crashes means more muscle growth. When you go into a sugar coma, your body is literally eating itself away to fuel your brain. When you eat that cookie or candy bar, your brain triggers a serotonin drip and a state of euphoria. After ten minutes when your body has created a huge influx of insulin into your bloodstream to shuttle all that excess sugar into your muscles in the form of glycogen, and when those fill up the insulin begins to shuttle the excess sugar into your body's fat deposits in the form of fat.
The problem with that is all the sugar is taken out of your bloodstream and now your brain is requiring a fuel source but there's no sugar in your bloodstream so it triggers hunger pains and starts eating away at your muscles to use the glycogen stored in them. Your body is literally eating itself to fuel your brain that means you're losing muscle and consequently you will lose strength.
With the adoption of a low glycemic high fiber diet, I stay alert more throughout the day and into the night. Also it seems, and this is purely anecdotal, my strength gains have been more consistent.
Of course, it took about two months of eating like this to get used to it. At first I felt kind of weak because I had programmed my body into thinking it needed those sugar crashes to survive pretty much all my life, and it was like weening an addict off his drug when I starting eating low glycemic foods. Now I've gotten used to the more stabilized lower blood sugar levels and I feel more alert and stronger.
Finally, pre-workout I'm doing Clif bars. They sell them at the gym, and they digest slowly so I have stable blood sugar levels while I'm working out but still give me enough energy to complete the training session.
Snacks between lunch and dinner are low glycemic as well. I like to eat apples or oatmeal bars high in fiber like Clif bars. Again the only purpose is to thwart the huge sugar rushes that you would get from eating candy bars or pastries. The Clif bars are only 40 or 50 cents more expensive than a Snickers bar.
Lunch involves salads or vegetables with significant amounts of animal proteins like beef or chicken. After the salad, I'll eat one chocolate chip cookie to fool my body into thinking I just ate a huge bowl of carbohydrates when all I did was stuff my gut with fibers. The cookie induces a serotonin drip into my brain in a slow and steady manner.
Again more snacks before dinner.
Dinner involves more animal proteins. Again I stuff my gut with significant fiber intake in the form of vegetables. I only do this because my job requires that I stay awake long hours and I don't want to take in the huge amounts of carbohydrates and have to suffer the resultant sugar crash/coma. But if you want to sleep at night anyways, you might as well stuff your gut with high glycemic foods like pastas or breads and try to induce that sugar coma in your body to make you go to sleep. The resulting influx of insulin into your bloodstream is also supposed to help with the formation of insulin growth hormone when production levels of it are highest when you sleep at night. Again I'll finish the meal off with a cookie or a quarter slice of pie to trick my body into thinking I got my sugar fix.
As an aside, your protein intake would be cut drastically if you didn't do any heavy lifting at the gym, but if you don't work out heavy at the gym then what are you reading this blog for?
So how does this relate to strength training?
No sugar comas/crashes means more muscle growth. When you go into a sugar coma, your body is literally eating itself away to fuel your brain. When you eat that cookie or candy bar, your brain triggers a serotonin drip and a state of euphoria. After ten minutes when your body has created a huge influx of insulin into your bloodstream to shuttle all that excess sugar into your muscles in the form of glycogen, and when those fill up the insulin begins to shuttle the excess sugar into your body's fat deposits in the form of fat.
The problem with that is all the sugar is taken out of your bloodstream and now your brain is requiring a fuel source but there's no sugar in your bloodstream so it triggers hunger pains and starts eating away at your muscles to use the glycogen stored in them. Your body is literally eating itself to fuel your brain that means you're losing muscle and consequently you will lose strength.
With the adoption of a low glycemic high fiber diet, I stay alert more throughout the day and into the night. Also it seems, and this is purely anecdotal, my strength gains have been more consistent.
Of course, it took about two months of eating like this to get used to it. At first I felt kind of weak because I had programmed my body into thinking it needed those sugar crashes to survive pretty much all my life, and it was like weening an addict off his drug when I starting eating low glycemic foods. Now I've gotten used to the more stabilized lower blood sugar levels and I feel more alert and stronger.
Finally, pre-workout I'm doing Clif bars. They sell them at the gym, and they digest slowly so I have stable blood sugar levels while I'm working out but still give me enough energy to complete the training session.
Workout Frequency: listening to your body
I've pretty much experimented with all workout frequencies. Each has its pros and cons.
1. Three times a week with forty eight hours rest in between and a longer duration 72 hour rest at the end of the week.
Pros: More muscle growth. The more you're beating up your muscles means more muscle growth. You workout to break your muscle fibers down and then you rest to rehabilitate your muscles with significant protein intake.
It's simple logic. When you workout three times a week, you're forcing your body to heal itself three times. It's a numbers game. More breakdown and recovery patterns means more chances for the body to heal itself and gain more muscle.
Cons: Central nervous system fatigue. Your central nervous system will start to go haywire if you continue to bang on your muscles three times a week. Everyday movements like walking or reaching out with your hand in addition to the movements you perform in your second and third workouts will become jerky and lack fluidity.
Joint soreness and lactic acid buildup. Three times in a row workouts will lead to joint stiffness, and lactic acid burning sensations around the joints and in the muscles.
Overall sense of gloominess and negativity that infuses itself into your daily life and in your workouts. All the joint soreness and muscles pains might make you start hating life and resent your strength training workouts.
2. Two workouts in a row with forty eight hours rest in between with a longer duration rest 72 hour rest at the end.
Pros: Again more chances to gain muscle through a stimulus training and recovery pattern. The forty eight hours rest between workouts lends itself to muscle development, and the 72 hour rest after the two workouts in a row gives your central nervous system ample time to recover and hopefully allow you to bang out a personal best record in your lifts for your next workout.
Cons: Again joint stiffness, central nervous system fatigue and lactic acid buildup. You're going to be sore if you workout again after forty eight hours rest.
3. Workout and then rest for seventy two hours and then workout again.
Pros: With 72 hours rest between each workout, lactic acid burning sensations, joint stiffness and joint pains tend to burn themselves out and leave you fully recovered for your next workout.
Since the 72 hours rest between workouts allows you to fully recover and bleed out all the soreness, it might also make you take on a happier disposition and overall outlook on life.
I've also found I consistently gain on my deadlifts after 72 hours rest.
Cons: Upper body strength tends to suffer after constantly taking 72 hours rest more so in the accessory movements rather than in the lift I'm trying to gain in. My military presses, bicep curls and pec flyes get weaker after multiple 72 hour rest and workout patterns. In my bench press the lift I'm trying to grow stronger, my strength tends to vacillate and lack thorough consistency and progression.
Probably the best time for you to schedule your workouts is to use yourself as the barometer rather than reading and following some rigid workout workout schedule. If you feel especially sore and miserable, just don't workout and give yourself that extra day to rest. Maybe you'll feel better about beating your muscles up for your next training session.
As a side note, I've tried working out with twenty four hours rest between workouts and it went terribly. I was achy and weak and quit after ten minutes.
1. Three times a week with forty eight hours rest in between and a longer duration 72 hour rest at the end of the week.
Pros: More muscle growth. The more you're beating up your muscles means more muscle growth. You workout to break your muscle fibers down and then you rest to rehabilitate your muscles with significant protein intake.
It's simple logic. When you workout three times a week, you're forcing your body to heal itself three times. It's a numbers game. More breakdown and recovery patterns means more chances for the body to heal itself and gain more muscle.
Cons: Central nervous system fatigue. Your central nervous system will start to go haywire if you continue to bang on your muscles three times a week. Everyday movements like walking or reaching out with your hand in addition to the movements you perform in your second and third workouts will become jerky and lack fluidity.
Joint soreness and lactic acid buildup. Three times in a row workouts will lead to joint stiffness, and lactic acid burning sensations around the joints and in the muscles.
Overall sense of gloominess and negativity that infuses itself into your daily life and in your workouts. All the joint soreness and muscles pains might make you start hating life and resent your strength training workouts.
2. Two workouts in a row with forty eight hours rest in between with a longer duration rest 72 hour rest at the end.
Pros: Again more chances to gain muscle through a stimulus training and recovery pattern. The forty eight hours rest between workouts lends itself to muscle development, and the 72 hour rest after the two workouts in a row gives your central nervous system ample time to recover and hopefully allow you to bang out a personal best record in your lifts for your next workout.
Cons: Again joint stiffness, central nervous system fatigue and lactic acid buildup. You're going to be sore if you workout again after forty eight hours rest.
3. Workout and then rest for seventy two hours and then workout again.
Pros: With 72 hours rest between each workout, lactic acid burning sensations, joint stiffness and joint pains tend to burn themselves out and leave you fully recovered for your next workout.
Since the 72 hours rest between workouts allows you to fully recover and bleed out all the soreness, it might also make you take on a happier disposition and overall outlook on life.
I've also found I consistently gain on my deadlifts after 72 hours rest.
Cons: Upper body strength tends to suffer after constantly taking 72 hours rest more so in the accessory movements rather than in the lift I'm trying to gain in. My military presses, bicep curls and pec flyes get weaker after multiple 72 hour rest and workout patterns. In my bench press the lift I'm trying to grow stronger, my strength tends to vacillate and lack thorough consistency and progression.
Probably the best time for you to schedule your workouts is to use yourself as the barometer rather than reading and following some rigid workout workout schedule. If you feel especially sore and miserable, just don't workout and give yourself that extra day to rest. Maybe you'll feel better about beating your muscles up for your next training session.
As a side note, I've tried working out with twenty four hours rest between workouts and it went terribly. I was achy and weak and quit after ten minutes.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Knee wraps
So I went ahead and bought some knee wraps from Walmart, Gold's Gym brand for $10. The knee sleeves I bought stretched out after one workout, so I had to get the wraps and they keep my knee joint nice and stable when I'm in the hole doing ATG squats. Here's two world class powerlifters talking knee wraps.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
The importance of humility in a successful strength training program
The bar will always be there. Long after your soul drifts off into the ether, that bar will be at the gym waiting for someone else to pick it up. That's why you have to respect it.
I'm not talking about putting incense candles around it and kneeling down before it and start praying to it like it's some deity. But realize the bar is made out of hardened almost unbreakable steel. You're made out of fragile carbon based molecules in the form of bones, skin and muscle.
So what am I getting at?
I recently had to start wearing latex knee sleeves to stabilize my knees while I'm in the hole doing ATG pause squats. Since my right leg is longer than my left, that puts me out of alignment when I'm bottomed out. This puts a great deal of stress on my right knee because it has the tendency to drift inward. Imagine putting a three hundred pound weight on a structure like that, and the likelihood that a stress fracture will occur will be highly probable over an extended period of time. But I was always too stubborn to admit it.
I've already been doing deadlifts with straps because my gym doesn't allow talc. I recently kicked out $170 for a pair of adidas adipower weightlifting shoes that stabilize my feet while I'm lifting. My recent addition of the knee sleeves helps to prevent my knees from drifting inward which helps reduce stress and pain.
But with each little piece of assistance equipment I add to my lifts is an admission of my weakness. It's one more crack in the facade of me pretending that I'm a tough guy. Maybe later down the road I'll come in the gym with a full body wrap like I've been mummified. Every joint on my body would be fully stabilized.
But you know what? Whatever it takes to allow me to do ATG squats is what I'll do because I have to admit I'm addicted to the testosterone spikes I get after I workout. When I stopped lifting for those three months, I felt listless and weak. I'm forty two years old, and the process of aging hit me like a ton of bricks when I stopped lifting. Now that I'm back, the vitality of the testosterone flowing through my body feels
like I've been recharged, so whatever it takes - knee sleeves, powerlifting shoes, full body mummy latex rubber suits or whatever - I'll keep on doing it.
Barbell, I humble myself to you.
I'm not talking about putting incense candles around it and kneeling down before it and start praying to it like it's some deity. But realize the bar is made out of hardened almost unbreakable steel. You're made out of fragile carbon based molecules in the form of bones, skin and muscle.
So what am I getting at?
I recently had to start wearing latex knee sleeves to stabilize my knees while I'm in the hole doing ATG pause squats. Since my right leg is longer than my left, that puts me out of alignment when I'm bottomed out. This puts a great deal of stress on my right knee because it has the tendency to drift inward. Imagine putting a three hundred pound weight on a structure like that, and the likelihood that a stress fracture will occur will be highly probable over an extended period of time. But I was always too stubborn to admit it.
I've already been doing deadlifts with straps because my gym doesn't allow talc. I recently kicked out $170 for a pair of adidas adipower weightlifting shoes that stabilize my feet while I'm lifting. My recent addition of the knee sleeves helps to prevent my knees from drifting inward which helps reduce stress and pain.
But with each little piece of assistance equipment I add to my lifts is an admission of my weakness. It's one more crack in the facade of me pretending that I'm a tough guy. Maybe later down the road I'll come in the gym with a full body wrap like I've been mummified. Every joint on my body would be fully stabilized.
But you know what? Whatever it takes to allow me to do ATG squats is what I'll do because I have to admit I'm addicted to the testosterone spikes I get after I workout. When I stopped lifting for those three months, I felt listless and weak. I'm forty two years old, and the process of aging hit me like a ton of bricks when I stopped lifting. Now that I'm back, the vitality of the testosterone flowing through my body feels
like I've been recharged, so whatever it takes - knee sleeves, powerlifting shoes, full body mummy latex rubber suits or whatever - I'll keep on doing it.
Barbell, I humble myself to you.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Squat variation
Maybe this could help with building the legs up without the regular wear and tear on your spine that squatting tends to promote because you the weight on the back of your neck would be less than the weight when squatting.
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