The halfway mark is approaching. So far, I would have to consider the brodyssey a success, based on strictly nominal progress observations.
Generally, I am feeling a growing habit of achievement forming. I feel dissatisfied if, at the end of the day, I haven't accomplished as much as I have in my most productive of days. Consequently, with that habit comes a sense of purpose, of self-realization, that only the most devoted of people recognize. This is not indicative of how important my goals are, they are self-serving and egoist at best, they are indicative of the kind of satisfaction that comes with setting a goal and meeting it. It's like taking out a line of credit on your self-esteem. You put your ego on the line by giving yourself a chance to fail, but if you make your payment every day, it grows and grows and grows.
Another pattern I am noticing is a stronger connection with my needs. What I mean by this is that I have started listening to what my body and mind need/want, and therefore my problems/issues (like procrastination, lethargy, hyperactivity) can be solved more easily and efficiently.
This is due perhaps to the amount of attention I am paying to those parts of myself, as in organic, whole foods, high fat, complete nutrient profile, etc. For example, I noticed yesterday that my blood sugar was running low. I knew because of my symptoms (disinclination to work, foul mood, procrastination) combined with my recent meals (almost devoid of foods processed in the blood stream as sugar) so I had some peaches and was almost immediately better.
It may due also to the fact that, through improvement, I am understanding and mastering myself. For example, I have begun to recognize what my average mood/mindset is like from a detached objective viewpoint, and when it is erratic or unpredictable, I have a better, clearer approach to the solution. Instead of thinking from that place, however imbalanced it may be, I can correct it and return to my normal, balanced thinking. (Spend time with your bros and your best guy friends. Few things can improve your mood and mindset more quickly than the positive feedback loop you join when you pal around with other men.)
Specifically, although I refuse to weigh myself or take measurements until the end, I am noticing differences in my body. My shoulders are appearing broader, the definition of my quadriceps is more extreme, my size large shirts are fitting a bit better. I am noticing increases in strength. My rear delt flys workout weight is more than what I thought my 1RM was. My deadlift workout weight is quickly approaching my 1RM. Chin-ups with weight added are feeling easier than ever. Almost across the board, I am noticing more weight being easier with proper form.
Although my abdominal definition only appears marginally better, I feel tighter and fitter. I don't have to think about what I eat anymore. I understand what I should and shouldn't, and then listen to my body after that. It is easier to stop eating when I'm full, and I don't start again until I'm hungry. I am noticing a pattern of eating very little in the morning, but being hungry frequently in the evening. This is similar to the predator eating described by J. Stanton, and to the intermittent fasting program adopted by the Hodge twins.
I am very nearly through "Hemingway's Boat." I am becoming addicted to reading daily. I should finish it tomorrow, and the review will be posted on this blog a few days after.
My writing is kicking off. The first ten or so days of the brodyssey, I struggled to get my daily amount done, sometimes writing my quota of words in other places beside my book, such as a journal or other piece of work for other responsibilities. But I just recently finished the complete outline of the story, and although it may change quite a bit before it finishes, I feel newly inspired, and the words are just ready to flow out. With the outline finished, and me knowing exactly what's going to happen every step of the way, I feel as though the book is more than halfway completed. I wouldn't have finished this biggest step without this challenge and forcing myself to work on it every day.
The supplementation is becoming comfortable and functional. More on this in later posts.
There is a lot of change happening. And it is leading to new dreams and goals and further changes. I am feeling stirred in the direction of other life-altering moves. As these feelings coalesce, I'll report them to you. But the positive, intangible benefit of passionate pursuit of improvement is as powerful as I anticipated.
Tomorrow: The Writing Challenge
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Monday, January 13, 2014
Day 13 - The Big Ass Book Challenge
In "A Song of Fire and Ice," the acclaimed Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin, Jon Snow asks Tyrion Lannister why he reads so much. He responds:
"I have a realistic grasp of my own strengths and weaknesses. My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind… and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” Tyrion tapped the leather cover of the book. “That’s why I read so much, Jon Snow.”
There are hundreds of known benefits to regular reading, some of them more obvious than others. The person who reads more has a better GPA in school, a higher intelligence, more knowledge, a bigger vocabulary, is a better writer, has a better memory, is more creative, and his mind stays sharper longer as he ages. Studies even suggest that it reduces stress, promotes tranquility, and aids in prioritization.
It only makes sense that in a self-improvement journey, I should devote the same kind of effort and commitment to improving my mind as I do my body. The simplest, and yet most powerful challenge I could give myself is simply to chew my way through a very large book. This challenge is described perfectly by the modern philospher, Roosh V, on his YouTube page.
Roosh is a man that recognized faults and shortcomings in himself at a young age, and then devoted himself, inexorably, to solving them. The primary vehicle for his transformation was his desire to become adept at, and develop the necessary skills to, communicate with women in a way to inspire attraction and create the type of relationship he wanted. Since then, he has authored multiple books on the study and process of attracting women, changing the lives of thousands of men around the world. This transformation has spilled over into other parts of his life, however, as he has created a website that has become a mecca for the modern man to find inspiration, motivation and education for their masculinity, to become unapologetic about who they are, and how best to comfortably and happily live out their lives as men, check it out here.
One of the great pieces of advice that Roosh drops on his YouTube channel is the Big Ass Book challenge, in which he challenges guys to read a big-ass book (over 500 pages) in 15 days.
I jumped on it, but I changed it up a bit. My challenge is 30 days, so I'm doing two.
Roosh suggest that you grab a nonfiction book, preferably historical or biographical with a strong masculine theme or focus. He wants you to better yourself, directly, not just by reading, but from WHAT you are reading.
I've always been a big reader of nonfiction. I've read history, religion, philosophy, biography, mythology, science, fitness, nutrition, etc. and I've never really been able to dive successfully into fiction. I've read some. I've read the Bond novels, the Sherlock stories, and a few of the classics, but the few dozen I've read have been paltry compared to all I'd like to read.
So for my first book, I did exactly what Roosh suggested. I chose a biography called "Hemingway's Boat." It examines the latter life of Ernest Hemingway, legend, man's man and Nobel-prize winning author, and allegorically juxtaposes it with his relationship with his boat, the fishing ship Pilar.
I chose this book for multiple reasons besides it being exactly the kind that Roosh suggested. It will be an excellent segue into fiction, it will inspire future reading, it will help me conduct a study of successful masculine author, as I would one day like to be, and it will directly help me become a better author.
For my second Big Ass Book, I stepped away from Roosh's suggestions (as is my prerogative since I'm going above and beyond) I will be reading the complete collection of Hemingway's short stories. This will hopefully get me started on a new lifetime habit of digesting fiction.
This challenge will be difficult to measure insofar as to keep quantitative records of progress other than simply finishing the books, so instead I will be writing a short review of both. One upon the completion of each.
Tomorrow: Week 2 update
"I have a realistic grasp of my own strengths and weaknesses. My mind is my weapon. My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind… and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” Tyrion tapped the leather cover of the book. “That’s why I read so much, Jon Snow.”
There are hundreds of known benefits to regular reading, some of them more obvious than others. The person who reads more has a better GPA in school, a higher intelligence, more knowledge, a bigger vocabulary, is a better writer, has a better memory, is more creative, and his mind stays sharper longer as he ages. Studies even suggest that it reduces stress, promotes tranquility, and aids in prioritization.
It only makes sense that in a self-improvement journey, I should devote the same kind of effort and commitment to improving my mind as I do my body. The simplest, and yet most powerful challenge I could give myself is simply to chew my way through a very large book. This challenge is described perfectly by the modern philospher, Roosh V, on his YouTube page.
Roosh is a man that recognized faults and shortcomings in himself at a young age, and then devoted himself, inexorably, to solving them. The primary vehicle for his transformation was his desire to become adept at, and develop the necessary skills to, communicate with women in a way to inspire attraction and create the type of relationship he wanted. Since then, he has authored multiple books on the study and process of attracting women, changing the lives of thousands of men around the world. This transformation has spilled over into other parts of his life, however, as he has created a website that has become a mecca for the modern man to find inspiration, motivation and education for their masculinity, to become unapologetic about who they are, and how best to comfortably and happily live out their lives as men, check it out here.
One of the great pieces of advice that Roosh drops on his YouTube channel is the Big Ass Book challenge, in which he challenges guys to read a big-ass book (over 500 pages) in 15 days.
I jumped on it, but I changed it up a bit. My challenge is 30 days, so I'm doing two.
Roosh suggest that you grab a nonfiction book, preferably historical or biographical with a strong masculine theme or focus. He wants you to better yourself, directly, not just by reading, but from WHAT you are reading.
I've always been a big reader of nonfiction. I've read history, religion, philosophy, biography, mythology, science, fitness, nutrition, etc. and I've never really been able to dive successfully into fiction. I've read some. I've read the Bond novels, the Sherlock stories, and a few of the classics, but the few dozen I've read have been paltry compared to all I'd like to read.
So for my first book, I did exactly what Roosh suggested. I chose a biography called "Hemingway's Boat." It examines the latter life of Ernest Hemingway, legend, man's man and Nobel-prize winning author, and allegorically juxtaposes it with his relationship with his boat, the fishing ship Pilar.
I chose this book for multiple reasons besides it being exactly the kind that Roosh suggested. It will be an excellent segue into fiction, it will inspire future reading, it will help me conduct a study of successful masculine author, as I would one day like to be, and it will directly help me become a better author.
For my second Big Ass Book, I stepped away from Roosh's suggestions (as is my prerogative since I'm going above and beyond) I will be reading the complete collection of Hemingway's short stories. This will hopefully get me started on a new lifetime habit of digesting fiction.
This challenge will be difficult to measure insofar as to keep quantitative records of progress other than simply finishing the books, so instead I will be writing a short review of both. One upon the completion of each.
Tomorrow: Week 2 update
Sunday, January 12, 2014
Day 12 - Hypertrophy Specific Training and My Personal Plan
Since Ridgely determined that HST had the greatest potential to cause hypertrophy (due to its allowing the nervous system to recover between lifts) I decided to commit 6 weeks (4 of which being the brodyssey) to completing a full 3 cycles.
The interesting thing that sets HST apart from my experience, is that it postulates that only 1-2 sets of a lift (with appropriate weight and repetitions) are necessary to cause a hypertrophic response, and any sets in addition to the "effective sets" only burn calories while causing unnecessary and useless stress to the muscle.
According to Bryan Haycock's recommendations, the progressive loading of the lifts increase in weight steadily but quickly and decrease in reps steadily but slowly. This "strategic deconditioning" is purposeful, as studies suggest the muscles respond to an increase in load, even if exposure to the load is reduced. Therefore, it is easy, in a cyclical pattern, to continuously increase load on muscle over the course of multiple cycles.
In addition, giving 48 hours to repair the muscle, and the nervous system muscular activation pathways, it is efficient to work the full body once every other day, 1-2 sets per lift, 1-2 lifts per muscle group. This should provide ample muscular stimulation with minimal time/energy cost, according to Haycock's hypothesis.
My HST plan I prepared for myself is simple, and looks a lot like this:
First 3 workouts are 11 rep sets, and I started with 50% of my 1RM.
The second 3 are 8 reps, and the final 3 are 5.
Every workout, I will add 10 pounds to the load of the bigger, compound exercises, like squat and deadlift, and I will add 2.5-5 for smaller, isolated exercises like curls and lateral raises.
After completing 9 workouts, (which I will finish my first cycle of, this upcoming Wednesday, Day 15 of the brodyssey) I will then return to the rep scheme of the beginning, but only drop half of the added weight load. By doing so, I will ensure that the load will continuously increase until the end of my six week trial.
So far, I have noticed a definite increase in strength, with the loads decreasing in perceived difficulty as the weights increase. I speculate that I have already increased the 1RM for my deadlift and squat, and may even pass the weight of my original 1RM as a 5 rep lift during my third cycle.
More appropriate to the goal, I have also noticed a pump-like swelling of the musculature that never seems to dissipate. It began around the 3rd workout and persists to today.
Based on judgements so far, I am convinced that I will see positive movement toward my goal with this program.
Updates to come.
Tomorrow: The Big Ass Book Challenge - Roosh V and Hemingway
The interesting thing that sets HST apart from my experience, is that it postulates that only 1-2 sets of a lift (with appropriate weight and repetitions) are necessary to cause a hypertrophic response, and any sets in addition to the "effective sets" only burn calories while causing unnecessary and useless stress to the muscle.
According to Bryan Haycock's recommendations, the progressive loading of the lifts increase in weight steadily but quickly and decrease in reps steadily but slowly. This "strategic deconditioning" is purposeful, as studies suggest the muscles respond to an increase in load, even if exposure to the load is reduced. Therefore, it is easy, in a cyclical pattern, to continuously increase load on muscle over the course of multiple cycles.
In addition, giving 48 hours to repair the muscle, and the nervous system muscular activation pathways, it is efficient to work the full body once every other day, 1-2 sets per lift, 1-2 lifts per muscle group. This should provide ample muscular stimulation with minimal time/energy cost, according to Haycock's hypothesis.
My HST plan I prepared for myself is simple, and looks a lot like this:
First 3 workouts are 11 rep sets, and I started with 50% of my 1RM.
The second 3 are 8 reps, and the final 3 are 5.
Every workout, I will add 10 pounds to the load of the bigger, compound exercises, like squat and deadlift, and I will add 2.5-5 for smaller, isolated exercises like curls and lateral raises.
After completing 9 workouts, (which I will finish my first cycle of, this upcoming Wednesday, Day 15 of the brodyssey) I will then return to the rep scheme of the beginning, but only drop half of the added weight load. By doing so, I will ensure that the load will continuously increase until the end of my six week trial.
So far, I have noticed a definite increase in strength, with the loads decreasing in perceived difficulty as the weights increase. I speculate that I have already increased the 1RM for my deadlift and squat, and may even pass the weight of my original 1RM as a 5 rep lift during my third cycle.
More appropriate to the goal, I have also noticed a pump-like swelling of the musculature that never seems to dissipate. It began around the 3rd workout and persists to today.
Based on judgements so far, I am convinced that I will see positive movement toward my goal with this program.
Updates to come.
Tomorrow: The Big Ass Book Challenge - Roosh V and Hemingway
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Day 11 - Targeting Hypertrophy
In the time since I've become serious about this little hobby of mine, I have tried dozens and dozens of prescribed workout programs. After a couple years of devoting a lot of time and energy and money into it, you find yourself approaching a bit of a plateau.
I did have some wild success with a few programs. Leo Costa's "Big Beyond Belief" in particular helped grow at such a rate that I developed stretch marks across my chest and shoulders. However, the degree of success I found, was not what I could plainly see by people in the real world.
This observation of radical growth in size and strength seemed to be at odds with the facts and theories presented to me everywhere. On one hand, "experts," scientists, and bros that are big in the gym are all reporting the same story to me: according to every resource available to me in person, there is a strict cap on the rate and limit that someone can grow naturally, and anything past that must be steroid-induced.
I can see individuals, granted that they are movie stars, professional athletes and people of privilege, grow extremely fast, much faster than my own progress of anyone I have met in person. Mark Wahlberg, in preparation for Pain and Gain added 40 pounds of muscle in just three months. Did he use steroids? Henry Cavill added 30 to play Superman in Man of Steel, perhaps the most radical example is Christian Bale's radical transformation in just half a year between his malnourished state in The Machinist and his bulky, athletic shape in Batman Begins. He added 100 pounds.
On the contrary, when I spoke with the "authorities" near me, I found completely different stories. Supposedly, the body can only healthily add one pound of muscle (maybe 2-3) a month, according to the trainers at Gold's Gym. YouTube famous Hodge Twins concur at around 1-2 pounds. The few bodybuilders, (nobody with any international degree of success) I can reach out to, barely gave me the time of day, since I'm such a noob who wants the "easy way," and instead just told me that it took them decades or longer to get there.
I've averaged at around 2-3 pounds a month since I started building myself. (The mean of change, counting the weight at lean periods after cutting cycles) And if that is, truly, the fastest way I can build myself without taking a performance-enhancing drug, then so be it. I will continue. I won't stop until my physique rivals Calum Von Moger with the leanness of Lazar Angelov.
But I'm not convinced that it IS the fastest I can grow. My theory is that there are enlightened individuals in the world that only share their secrets when there are exclusively ridiculous amounts of money, fame or prestige involved, like the invitation-only accessible gym where the bodies behind 300 and Man of Steel were built. (This sounds a lot like the babbling of a conspiracy theorist, doesn't it?)
But I don't have that access, or that type of money or fame, (yet!!) so I have to rely on the only tool I have: my functioning brain.
I have decided to measure growth and progress of multiple programs in six week periods, keep track of which ones work and by how much, compare and contrast them, and work them over until I get it down to a simple formula. What similarity lies between all of the periods of growth? What is different?
I have completed such cycles of Big Beyond Belief, Huge In A Hurry, Body Beast, German Volume Training, Chaos and Pain, and Blueprint. For the brodyssey, I needed to do something special, however. I wanted to do something different, something that challenges my own beliefs and assumptions about weight training, and will teach me new tricks and concepts.
I went to scholarly articles concerning muscle growth so that my attempt will be founded by science. There aren't many studies conducted to determine optimal hypertrophy stimulation, but there was one that stood out. Charles T. Ridgely, M.S., a physicist that has been devoting a lot of his time and energy to all forms of science, particularly bodybuilding, has written an article called Mechanical Model for Analyzing Adaption to Training. In this article, Ridgely applies his understanding of the mechanical motor unit to popular training programs to determine which would produce the best hypertrophic result.
The article, while unable to conclusively report a superiority among the programs, (High Intensity Training, German Volume Training or Hypertrophy Specific Training) did report that Hypertrophy Specific Training (or HST, created by Bryan Haycock) had the greatest potential for producing hypertrophy.
So I picked that one. Tomorrow, I'll break it down for you.
I did have some wild success with a few programs. Leo Costa's "Big Beyond Belief" in particular helped grow at such a rate that I developed stretch marks across my chest and shoulders. However, the degree of success I found, was not what I could plainly see by people in the real world.
This observation of radical growth in size and strength seemed to be at odds with the facts and theories presented to me everywhere. On one hand, "experts," scientists, and bros that are big in the gym are all reporting the same story to me: according to every resource available to me in person, there is a strict cap on the rate and limit that someone can grow naturally, and anything past that must be steroid-induced.
I can see individuals, granted that they are movie stars, professional athletes and people of privilege, grow extremely fast, much faster than my own progress of anyone I have met in person. Mark Wahlberg, in preparation for Pain and Gain added 40 pounds of muscle in just three months. Did he use steroids? Henry Cavill added 30 to play Superman in Man of Steel, perhaps the most radical example is Christian Bale's radical transformation in just half a year between his malnourished state in The Machinist and his bulky, athletic shape in Batman Begins. He added 100 pounds.
On the contrary, when I spoke with the "authorities" near me, I found completely different stories. Supposedly, the body can only healthily add one pound of muscle (maybe 2-3) a month, according to the trainers at Gold's Gym. YouTube famous Hodge Twins concur at around 1-2 pounds. The few bodybuilders, (nobody with any international degree of success) I can reach out to, barely gave me the time of day, since I'm such a noob who wants the "easy way," and instead just told me that it took them decades or longer to get there.
I've averaged at around 2-3 pounds a month since I started building myself. (The mean of change, counting the weight at lean periods after cutting cycles) And if that is, truly, the fastest way I can build myself without taking a performance-enhancing drug, then so be it. I will continue. I won't stop until my physique rivals Calum Von Moger with the leanness of Lazar Angelov.
But I'm not convinced that it IS the fastest I can grow. My theory is that there are enlightened individuals in the world that only share their secrets when there are exclusively ridiculous amounts of money, fame or prestige involved, like the invitation-only accessible gym where the bodies behind 300 and Man of Steel were built. (This sounds a lot like the babbling of a conspiracy theorist, doesn't it?)
But I don't have that access, or that type of money or fame, (yet!!) so I have to rely on the only tool I have: my functioning brain.
I have decided to measure growth and progress of multiple programs in six week periods, keep track of which ones work and by how much, compare and contrast them, and work them over until I get it down to a simple formula. What similarity lies between all of the periods of growth? What is different?
I have completed such cycles of Big Beyond Belief, Huge In A Hurry, Body Beast, German Volume Training, Chaos and Pain, and Blueprint. For the brodyssey, I needed to do something special, however. I wanted to do something different, something that challenges my own beliefs and assumptions about weight training, and will teach me new tricks and concepts.
I went to scholarly articles concerning muscle growth so that my attempt will be founded by science. There aren't many studies conducted to determine optimal hypertrophy stimulation, but there was one that stood out. Charles T. Ridgely, M.S., a physicist that has been devoting a lot of his time and energy to all forms of science, particularly bodybuilding, has written an article called Mechanical Model for Analyzing Adaption to Training. In this article, Ridgely applies his understanding of the mechanical motor unit to popular training programs to determine which would produce the best hypertrophic result.
The article, while unable to conclusively report a superiority among the programs, (High Intensity Training, German Volume Training or Hypertrophy Specific Training) did report that Hypertrophy Specific Training (or HST, created by Bryan Haycock) had the greatest potential for producing hypertrophy.
So I picked that one. Tomorrow, I'll break it down for you.
Friday, January 10, 2014
Day 10 - The Science of Building Muscle
I want to go ahead and get this hard bit out of the way, before anyone has anything smart to say about it, or start debating about which method is best, blah di blah. The scientific community DOESN'T FUCKING KNOW the best way to build muscle.
This is a hard truth to swallow, particularly for someone that is trying to break into the world of weight training.
There are a few things that we DO know. We know that there are two forms of hypertrophy (muscle growth), myofibrillar, and sarcoplasmic. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is an increase in the number of contractile proteins increase in number; this directly makes the muscle stronger, and although it does increase the size of the muscle very little, the size growth is minimal. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in the sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cells, growing the cells themselves. This is the kind of muscle growth that bodybuilders aim for primarily as it is what grows the muscle the most, and the fastest.
We have a pretty good grasp of myofibrillar hypertrophy (hereafter referred to as MH) in comparison to sarcoplasmic (hereafter referred to as SH). MH increases with the progressive increasing of stress on the muscle, causing the muscle to need to produce more force. The general consensus, and the prevailing practice, is to load the lifting weight between 60 and 90% of the 1RM (one-rep maximum) and lifting in a rep range of 1-6 repetitions for multiple sets.
Some lifters swear by this method as being the best for developing an ideal body concerning aesthetics as well as functionality. Jamie Lewis' Chaos and Pain program has multiple facets, of multiple kinds of lifts, of multiple manners of lifting, but has a strong foundation in lifting very heavy for sets of low repetitions, and although we know that this is primarily a different kind of muscle development than what would produce the biggest kind of muscle, Jamie is powerfully built, inordinately lean, and, expectedly, very very strong.
Which leads me to my next point: for every kind of method of producing SH (read: larger muscles), there are people that tout it that LOOK JACKED AND AMAZING. It's hard to look someone built like Jamie in the eye and tell him, "umm, actually sir, according to studies, low rep ranges produce primarily myofibrillar hypertrophy," first of all because he'd punch you in the throat, and secondly because he's probably bigger than you.
So my job, in searching out the best way to increase my muscle mass (and strength also, I want to experience an increase in both kinds of hypertrophy, but the mystery of SH is the source of the ignorance) is primarily to experiment. I need to just get in the gym, continuously activate my muscles, and try out every kind of program under the sun to test how my body reacts to each one.
One theory for increasing mass is that it is not the severity of the stress put on the targeted muscle group, but the duration of the stress. The best example for this kind of lifting pattern is what is known as German Volume Training, or GVT.
GVT, famous for it's 100 reps-per-day plan, is simple. You pick a different lift, (in most cases, one per day since the volume is so high) and you perform 10 sets of 10 reps with the same weight. This is designed to keep your muscle operating under the same intensity of stress for the longest possible duration.
The thing about GVT is that, although I could find it recommended EVERYWHERE as the "best" program to build massive amounts of lean muscle in the shortest amount of time, I could find absolutely NO empirical results from a person saying that they grew any faster than with any other program, nor could I find any scholarly article that has produced positive results with that kind of lifting.
Possible criticisms that may lead to its inefficacy may be the infrequency of activation per muscle group. In this pattern, sometimes, an individual muscle may only be activated once a week. Some studies suggest that a muscle is fully repaired and ready to be activated again after 48 hours, and others say that, with proper rest and nutrition, they can perform again in as few as six hours, and begin to atrophy after 48.
It also may be that the reps are so high and the weight so (relatively) low that this program crosses the nigh-imperceptible line into aerobic and cardiovascular exercise. That kind of workout, although proven to be good for your heart health, and burns quite a few calories (if you're into that sort of thing) does very little, if any, good for your body composition change or metabolism.
Again, this program, being without anecdotal proof or clinical evidence, still has hundreds upon hundreds of supporters and trainers using this method to try and add slabs of LBM onto bodies of lifters.
So if it's not a heavy-ass weight for few reps, nor is it light-ass weight for many reps, then how DO you build bigger muscle tissue?
To be continued...
This is a hard truth to swallow, particularly for someone that is trying to break into the world of weight training.
There are a few things that we DO know. We know that there are two forms of hypertrophy (muscle growth), myofibrillar, and sarcoplasmic. Myofibrillar hypertrophy is an increase in the number of contractile proteins increase in number; this directly makes the muscle stronger, and although it does increase the size of the muscle very little, the size growth is minimal. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in the sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cells, growing the cells themselves. This is the kind of muscle growth that bodybuilders aim for primarily as it is what grows the muscle the most, and the fastest.
We have a pretty good grasp of myofibrillar hypertrophy (hereafter referred to as MH) in comparison to sarcoplasmic (hereafter referred to as SH). MH increases with the progressive increasing of stress on the muscle, causing the muscle to need to produce more force. The general consensus, and the prevailing practice, is to load the lifting weight between 60 and 90% of the 1RM (one-rep maximum) and lifting in a rep range of 1-6 repetitions for multiple sets.
Some lifters swear by this method as being the best for developing an ideal body concerning aesthetics as well as functionality. Jamie Lewis' Chaos and Pain program has multiple facets, of multiple kinds of lifts, of multiple manners of lifting, but has a strong foundation in lifting very heavy for sets of low repetitions, and although we know that this is primarily a different kind of muscle development than what would produce the biggest kind of muscle, Jamie is powerfully built, inordinately lean, and, expectedly, very very strong.
Which leads me to my next point: for every kind of method of producing SH (read: larger muscles), there are people that tout it that LOOK JACKED AND AMAZING. It's hard to look someone built like Jamie in the eye and tell him, "umm, actually sir, according to studies, low rep ranges produce primarily myofibrillar hypertrophy," first of all because he'd punch you in the throat, and secondly because he's probably bigger than you.
So my job, in searching out the best way to increase my muscle mass (and strength also, I want to experience an increase in both kinds of hypertrophy, but the mystery of SH is the source of the ignorance) is primarily to experiment. I need to just get in the gym, continuously activate my muscles, and try out every kind of program under the sun to test how my body reacts to each one.
One theory for increasing mass is that it is not the severity of the stress put on the targeted muscle group, but the duration of the stress. The best example for this kind of lifting pattern is what is known as German Volume Training, or GVT.
GVT, famous for it's 100 reps-per-day plan, is simple. You pick a different lift, (in most cases, one per day since the volume is so high) and you perform 10 sets of 10 reps with the same weight. This is designed to keep your muscle operating under the same intensity of stress for the longest possible duration.
The thing about GVT is that, although I could find it recommended EVERYWHERE as the "best" program to build massive amounts of lean muscle in the shortest amount of time, I could find absolutely NO empirical results from a person saying that they grew any faster than with any other program, nor could I find any scholarly article that has produced positive results with that kind of lifting.
Possible criticisms that may lead to its inefficacy may be the infrequency of activation per muscle group. In this pattern, sometimes, an individual muscle may only be activated once a week. Some studies suggest that a muscle is fully repaired and ready to be activated again after 48 hours, and others say that, with proper rest and nutrition, they can perform again in as few as six hours, and begin to atrophy after 48.
It also may be that the reps are so high and the weight so (relatively) low that this program crosses the nigh-imperceptible line into aerobic and cardiovascular exercise. That kind of workout, although proven to be good for your heart health, and burns quite a few calories (if you're into that sort of thing) does very little, if any, good for your body composition change or metabolism.
Again, this program, being without anecdotal proof or clinical evidence, still has hundreds upon hundreds of supporters and trainers using this method to try and add slabs of LBM onto bodies of lifters.
So if it's not a heavy-ass weight for few reps, nor is it light-ass weight for many reps, then how DO you build bigger muscle tissue?
To be continued...
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Day 9 - Why Stew-roids? Part 2
For the brodyssey, I needed a diet that would a) get me in the happy place as far as my nutrition is concerned. I need huge amounts of protein and huger amounts of fat, with only a minimum amount of carbohydrate through good vegetables to keep my body nutritioned and energetic. That would b) be a challenging change to my norm, c) bring with it other good habits and benefits into my lifestyle.
Nothing jumps into your head, does it? Yeah, me neither.
But when I read Jamie Lewis' blog about stew being the reason that the western world gets their asses kicked at weight lifting events, I... laughed.
And he expected that, he needed to add, "no, I'm not joking," to the sentence in which he reveals his theory. I read it, because the guy is funny as shit and teaches me things, but admittedly, I skimmed it over and kept on reading through his other posts.
But the idea stewed in my brain for a while, (see what I did there?) and I found myself returning to feed my curiosity.
As Jamie explains, the process of stewing cooks the fat off the meat and into the surrounding broth, which is either absorbed back into the meat or can be drank with the meal, thus keeping more of the nutrition and fat of the meat than in any other form of cooking. Also, since the stew needs thickeners and flavors, you will consume many more vegetables eating meals of stew than not.
The more I thought about it, the more and more excited I became about it. It met all of my criteria; I would have absolute control over the macros that went in to my body, I would be solving my dilemma with AP and AD (apex predator and atkins diet, respectively) by increasing my vegetable intake and ensuring a complete nutrient profile, I would be following Tom Naughton's advice and eating enough saturated fat for my brain and endocrine system, AND I would have the added benefit of saving a buttload of cash on food as well as LEARNING THE BASICS OF COOKING.
This was obviously going to be the strict diet that I followed on the brodyssey because of the multitudinous benefits peripheral to just nutrition.
I admittedly got kind of excited building a little nest in the kitchen of my apartment, which, honestly, hadn't gotten a lot of use in the half a year or so that I lived there.
I bought the basics, a slow-cooker, a ladle, a cutting board, a knife, and a plethora of my favorite spices. When it came time to select foods, I got really high-fat meats, several pounds at a time, of beef or lamb/mutton, and then vegetables that naturally cooked sweetly like onions or peppers, and a few thickeners like sweet potatoes or rutabagas.
As of today, on day 9, I have not made the same stew twice. I am currently eating a spicy stew with roasted chipotle peppers and tony chachere's cajun seasoned beef, and the day before I had a sweet stew in which I cooked the sweet potatoes with ginger, cinnamon and a bit of honey.
Until day 30, I will at eat, AT LEAST 2 of my 3 daily meals as nothing but stew, and the other meal, if I'm out of the house will fit my macros at 40-40-20, p-f-c.
Jamie's stew blogs have recipes from all over the world. I'll be working my way through those. And I bought a stew cookbook, "Real Stew" by Clifford A Wright.
So far, I've become a much more confident cook, and the amount of fat in my diet is keeping me so satisfied that I am rarely ever hungry.
More updates to come.
Tomorrow: breaking down the science of hypertrophy - muscle building
Nothing jumps into your head, does it? Yeah, me neither.
But when I read Jamie Lewis' blog about stew being the reason that the western world gets their asses kicked at weight lifting events, I... laughed.
And he expected that, he needed to add, "no, I'm not joking," to the sentence in which he reveals his theory. I read it, because the guy is funny as shit and teaches me things, but admittedly, I skimmed it over and kept on reading through his other posts.
But the idea stewed in my brain for a while, (see what I did there?) and I found myself returning to feed my curiosity.
As Jamie explains, the process of stewing cooks the fat off the meat and into the surrounding broth, which is either absorbed back into the meat or can be drank with the meal, thus keeping more of the nutrition and fat of the meat than in any other form of cooking. Also, since the stew needs thickeners and flavors, you will consume many more vegetables eating meals of stew than not.
The more I thought about it, the more and more excited I became about it. It met all of my criteria; I would have absolute control over the macros that went in to my body, I would be solving my dilemma with AP and AD (apex predator and atkins diet, respectively) by increasing my vegetable intake and ensuring a complete nutrient profile, I would be following Tom Naughton's advice and eating enough saturated fat for my brain and endocrine system, AND I would have the added benefit of saving a buttload of cash on food as well as LEARNING THE BASICS OF COOKING.
This was obviously going to be the strict diet that I followed on the brodyssey because of the multitudinous benefits peripheral to just nutrition.
I admittedly got kind of excited building a little nest in the kitchen of my apartment, which, honestly, hadn't gotten a lot of use in the half a year or so that I lived there.
I bought the basics, a slow-cooker, a ladle, a cutting board, a knife, and a plethora of my favorite spices. When it came time to select foods, I got really high-fat meats, several pounds at a time, of beef or lamb/mutton, and then vegetables that naturally cooked sweetly like onions or peppers, and a few thickeners like sweet potatoes or rutabagas.
As of today, on day 9, I have not made the same stew twice. I am currently eating a spicy stew with roasted chipotle peppers and tony chachere's cajun seasoned beef, and the day before I had a sweet stew in which I cooked the sweet potatoes with ginger, cinnamon and a bit of honey.
Until day 30, I will at eat, AT LEAST 2 of my 3 daily meals as nothing but stew, and the other meal, if I'm out of the house will fit my macros at 40-40-20, p-f-c.
Jamie's stew blogs have recipes from all over the world. I'll be working my way through those. And I bought a stew cookbook, "Real Stew" by Clifford A Wright.
So far, I've become a much more confident cook, and the amount of fat in my diet is keeping me so satisfied that I am rarely ever hungry.
More updates to come.
Tomorrow: breaking down the science of hypertrophy - muscle building
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Day 8 - Why Stew-roids? Part 1
Since developing a working understanding of the way the body processes foods and stores fat (which is more than most professionals and fad dieters by far) I found a new challenge to tackle: how to eat well for my goals. My goals being increase lean muscle mass as much as possible without adding an appreciable amount of fat, preferably none at all. It is said that the body is operating always in one of three states, anabolic (building), homeostasis (maintenance), or catabolic (breaking down). When you are in an anabolic state, the state in which muscle is built, your body is also building everything else, bone density, organ tissue, and even fat. And therein lies the problem.
My first attempt to incorporate this information came in the form of counting calories. About this experience, I have both good news and bad news. The good news is that the process of counting calories is thousands of times easier than most people expect it to be. Just the phrase, "counting calories," strikes fear and anxiety into the hearts of dieters, but in fact, I found it to be extraordinarily simple. You keep the calories low, do some basic elementary-level math, and drink a lot of water to stifle cravings.
The bad news is that counting calories to ensure your body is operating in a calorie deficit keeps your body in a catabolic state, which can be a good thing for people who have a LOT of fat to lose, but it still dangerous because in this state, the body not only consumes stored fat, but also muscle tissue, bone mass, and organ tissue. Also, some studies suggest that operating under a calorie deficit for too long will promote the "starvation response" in the body, which causes excess fat storage to prepare for future bouts of deficits.
So, yes, I did lose some fat, but I also got irritable, had a few symptoms of hormonal imbalance, and lost some of my precious muscle density and size, which, for me, is absolutely unacceptable.
Observations from that experiment led me to conclude that, in order to remain healthy, I need to operate within a calorie surplus at least half the time. From a scientific perspective, and in line with a lot of current theories, is the idea that the body flourishes in a roller-coaster pattern of calorie intake. For example, two weeks of a surplus, followed by two weeks of a deficit, will essentially boil down to two steps forward, one step back, and leave you with more muscle and less fat than when you started. This makes intuitive sense, but there have been few conclusive pieces of evidence. It warrants experimentation in the future.
My specific goals, hypertrophy (muscle growth0 with no fat, demand my body to be in an anabolic state, which under scrutiny adds up, since every extra pound of muscle added to the body increases the basal metabolic rate by up to 50 kilocalories at rest.
The real dilemma then, is the ideal diet composition, not quantity. This is understandable since during the paleolithic era, there is evidence that humans ate up 12,000 kilocalories (Calories) a day of just meat and berries, and they were ripped up, athletic, mastadon-wrestling people.
My next try-out was Jamie Lewis' (I talk about this dude a lot, right? You'd think he was my hero of something.) Apex Predator Diet. He continued the paleolithic rationale another step forward, and speculated that not only were we eating the foods available to us during that era, but that we were eating foods specific to our place on the food chain, which is right at the very fucking top.
This diet is cyclically ketogenic, which means you spend several days in ketosis, taking in 30g of carbohydrates a day or less, and then have a carbohydrate re-feed, lovingly dubbed "the rampage" that lasts three hours to replenish the body's stores of nutrients and energy and to boost the metabolism. Besides a simple ketosis-inducing meal, Jamie recommends that we eat meat mostly off the bone and organic, ensuring its healthfulness and similarity to the way we ate in that time period. He, of course, has allotted several protein shakes a day since the guy spends like four hours a day in the gym, just wrecking shit.
This diet was, by far, the most fun eating program I have ever tried. I responded very well in my workouts and programs, getting big when I wanted to, and leaning out when I wanted to, but, since at that time, I was working on the road mostly, I ate in restaurants 2-3 times a day, and no matter how manly you are, you can only handle wingstop so many times before you get ready for a change, I had begun to neglect a complete nutrient profile. I was at the whim of the road and whatever bumfuck Texas town I happened to be in. I certainly could have made this diet a lifestyle if I prepared my own food more of the time, but I hadn't yet.
And then it came time to start the Brodyssey, and I had to try something extreme, that would not only meet my nutrition and fitness goals, but also keep me healthy, and change my life for the positive.
And then I heard about Stew-roids.
My first attempt to incorporate this information came in the form of counting calories. About this experience, I have both good news and bad news. The good news is that the process of counting calories is thousands of times easier than most people expect it to be. Just the phrase, "counting calories," strikes fear and anxiety into the hearts of dieters, but in fact, I found it to be extraordinarily simple. You keep the calories low, do some basic elementary-level math, and drink a lot of water to stifle cravings.
The bad news is that counting calories to ensure your body is operating in a calorie deficit keeps your body in a catabolic state, which can be a good thing for people who have a LOT of fat to lose, but it still dangerous because in this state, the body not only consumes stored fat, but also muscle tissue, bone mass, and organ tissue. Also, some studies suggest that operating under a calorie deficit for too long will promote the "starvation response" in the body, which causes excess fat storage to prepare for future bouts of deficits.
So, yes, I did lose some fat, but I also got irritable, had a few symptoms of hormonal imbalance, and lost some of my precious muscle density and size, which, for me, is absolutely unacceptable.
Observations from that experiment led me to conclude that, in order to remain healthy, I need to operate within a calorie surplus at least half the time. From a scientific perspective, and in line with a lot of current theories, is the idea that the body flourishes in a roller-coaster pattern of calorie intake. For example, two weeks of a surplus, followed by two weeks of a deficit, will essentially boil down to two steps forward, one step back, and leave you with more muscle and less fat than when you started. This makes intuitive sense, but there have been few conclusive pieces of evidence. It warrants experimentation in the future.
My specific goals, hypertrophy (muscle growth0 with no fat, demand my body to be in an anabolic state, which under scrutiny adds up, since every extra pound of muscle added to the body increases the basal metabolic rate by up to 50 kilocalories at rest.
The real dilemma then, is the ideal diet composition, not quantity. This is understandable since during the paleolithic era, there is evidence that humans ate up 12,000 kilocalories (Calories) a day of just meat and berries, and they were ripped up, athletic, mastadon-wrestling people.
My next try-out was Jamie Lewis' (I talk about this dude a lot, right? You'd think he was my hero of something.) Apex Predator Diet. He continued the paleolithic rationale another step forward, and speculated that not only were we eating the foods available to us during that era, but that we were eating foods specific to our place on the food chain, which is right at the very fucking top.
This diet is cyclically ketogenic, which means you spend several days in ketosis, taking in 30g of carbohydrates a day or less, and then have a carbohydrate re-feed, lovingly dubbed "the rampage" that lasts three hours to replenish the body's stores of nutrients and energy and to boost the metabolism. Besides a simple ketosis-inducing meal, Jamie recommends that we eat meat mostly off the bone and organic, ensuring its healthfulness and similarity to the way we ate in that time period. He, of course, has allotted several protein shakes a day since the guy spends like four hours a day in the gym, just wrecking shit.
This diet was, by far, the most fun eating program I have ever tried. I responded very well in my workouts and programs, getting big when I wanted to, and leaning out when I wanted to, but, since at that time, I was working on the road mostly, I ate in restaurants 2-3 times a day, and no matter how manly you are, you can only handle wingstop so many times before you get ready for a change, I had begun to neglect a complete nutrient profile. I was at the whim of the road and whatever bumfuck Texas town I happened to be in. I certainly could have made this diet a lifestyle if I prepared my own food more of the time, but I hadn't yet.
And then it came time to start the Brodyssey, and I had to try something extreme, that would not only meet my nutrition and fitness goals, but also keep me healthy, and change my life for the positive.
And then I heard about Stew-roids.
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