It is a never-ending source of stupefaction to me how marginally aware people are of what they should be eating to look and feel better, and how little effort they invest into getting that part of their life handled. Sure, when you’re a 20-something youngster your metabolism is still revving like a Ferrari FXX engine and you can get away with frequently feasting on pizza and beer without getting too fat. All ya’ll college undergrads know what I’m sayin’.

Certainly, this does nothing to encourage healthy eating patterns as we grow older (and hopefully a tad wiser). It’s only after they no longer fit in their favorite clothes that people might start thinking about what goes into their mouths.

And when I talk about “eating healthy” I don’t solely mean how it affects your appearance.

From a body composition standpoint there probably isn’t much difference between eating factory farmed or grass-fed meat. Protein is protein. But what about organ health, life energy or hormonal changes – things we can’t measure with body fat calipers – over the long term?

If you’re getting all riled up when talking heads on TV announce the next supposed influenza pandemic has spread from a tiny village somewhere in Japan all the way to your neighbourhood and rush to the ER to get vaccinated because you’re convinced you’ll drop dead within the next 48 hours without receiving an injection, then I guarantee your immune system is fucked. As is your ability to function like a rational human being by applying critical thinking in the midst of a collective frenzy but that’s another rant for another day.

Now I’m not a doctor or anything and the following does not constitute medical advice. But if you’re lifting heavy, eating mostly “good stuff” and keeping stress down at manageable levels then you can laugh at the gullible schmucks who let mass hysteria affect their judgment by waiting hours in lines for 27 different vaccinations that ultimately only benefited the pharma industry’s bottom line as was the case with H1N1.

The human body is marvelous in the sense that it will take care of you if you take good care of it. Your immune system will be ready to lay waste to any intruding virus with the wrath of Frank Castle as long as you look after it.

Thus, I impel you to be a beacon of intellectual light in your circle of influence. Become the person who invests in his health and gains at least a basic understanding of what food is, how it’s manufactured, what it contains etc. so that you no longer need to take silly advice from overweight friends or colleagues who are eagerly dishing out ”health tips” based on hearsay.

Disclaimer: I’ve nothing to gain by recommending or not recommending a certain book. All opinions are unbiased and these reviews simply stem from the fact I like to read a lot and write down my thoughts. Yes, I’m geeky like that.

Background

“Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the bestseller Everything Is Illuminated, named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and the winner of numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize.”

“Healthy eating” is a myth. Food today is far from healthy in the sense we understand the word – natural, nutritious, vital. No hidden ingredients. No monkey business. You know. Healthy.

I’ve previously written about the big lies surrounding the food industry here.

As an avid animal meat eater I wanted to refrain from delving into Eating Animals for as long as possible. I knew I’d have to question my views on eating meat if I read it. But I also knew that even though the truth stings, we can’t close our eyes and look the other way.

They say ignorance is a bliss. I don’t agree. I believe by choosing to remain ignorant, you give away your power and ultimately control over your life.

The Good

* Eating Animals forces you think hard about the choices we make every time we visit a grocery store. Chicken or pork is no longer a piece of flesh you buy in a package. It’s a living, breathing organism that mostly suffers through its short lifespan before it ends up on our plates.

* Industrial agriculture has an inclination to silence anyone who questions their methods. They’ll say studies that feature evidence threatening their ulterior motives (making more money) have been falsified, exaggerated or taken out of context. Meanwhile they fund research projects that showcase favorable outcomes for their agenda. If nobody knows about what’s going on, they can put whatever they want in our food and keep getting richer.

Apparently, being crooked is not a privilege reserved solely to politicians anymore.

Luckily, the evidence in this book – along with references to impartial scientific research – can no longer be swept under the rug.

* Bill Niman and Frank Reese are few of the “good farmers” left in the business. Their stories illustrate that ethical farming can and does work.

The Bad

* Although the factory farming system in it’s current state is severely flawed, I can’t agree with Safran Foer’s views on becoming a vegetarian/vegan to rectify things. I believe humans were made to eat animal meat and switching to a plant-based diet will not be a practical option for many people, myself included.

No amount of anti-meat information will lead to me suffering from pangs of guilt whilst I’m eating a steak after training.

The Verdict

Read this book. It’ll open your eyes by pulling back the curtain on what’s really going on in the food business beyond what you could imagine.

Key Takeaways

1. “Food companies, like cigarette companies [...], will say and do whatever works to sell products.”

The food industry is driven by greed. Maximize output by injecting animals with hormones and antibiotics so that they grow up faster and stay alive until they can be killed and sold; minimize input by automatizing every aspect of the production procedure. Gutenberg would have been proud of this business model.

Lower costs, bigger profits. Doesn’t matter if the end product is low quality. In the end the animals will be dead anyway. Consumers won’t know the difference.

2. “Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected.

8 percent of birds become infected with salmonella (down from several years ago, when at least one in four birds was infected, which still occurs on some farms). Seventy to 90 percent are infected with another potentially deadly pathogen, campylobacter.”

Can you say holy crap?!

3. “Down in the blood pit they say that the smell of blood makes you aggressive. And it does. You get an attitude that if that hog kicks at me, I’m going to get even. You’re already going to kill the hog, but that’s not enough. It has to suffer. . . .

You go in hard, push hard, blow the windpipe, make it drown in its own blood. Split its nose. A live hog would be running around the pit. It would just be looking up at me and I’d be sticking, and I would just take my knife and — eerk — cut its eye out while it was just sitting there. And this hog would just scream.

One time I took my knife — it’s sharp enough — and I sliced off the end of a hog’s nose, just like a piece of bologna. The hog went crazy for a few seconds. Then it just sat there looking kind of stupid. So I took a handful of salt brine and ground it into his nose. Now that hog really went nuts, pushing its nose all over the place. I still had a bunch of salt left on my hand — I was wearing a rubber glove — and I stuck the salt right up the hog’s ass. The poor hog didn’t know whether to shit or go blind. . . .

I wasn’t the only guy doing this kind of stuff. One guy I work with actually chases hogs into the scalding tank. And everybody — hog drivers, shacklers, utility men — uses lead pipes on hogs. Everybody knows it, all of it.

The above citation is from an interview with a slaughterhouse worker. Some of the examples in this book, ranging from brutally torturing animals in ways that would land you in jail in no time if you ever did that to your pet dog to how animals in factory farms often have to lay down in their own shit because there’s nowhere else to go in their small stalls, made me realize how seriously fucked up the current system is.

There has to be a better way to do things.

4. Americans now eat 150 times as much chicken as they did 80 years ago. How will industrial agriculture react if China and India – with their combined population exceeding 2.5 billion – take up eating habits of the Westerners?

Will the meat being produced in 2050 possess even a fraction of its already diminished nutritional value?

5. In the end, consumers still have all the power to change things around. No business model is sustainable if nobody buys your products. We’ve got to demand meat that is not only of higher quality but also better circumstances for the animals, and stop tossing our money on inferior products.

Consequently, food producers will have to meet this new demand by supplying us with more high quality meat unless they want to lose money – and being the greedy bastards they are, this won’t be the case. Hence, the production volume of quality meat goes up, price per unit comes down and more people can afford buying the good stuff.

See, I didn’t study economics at the uni for nothing.

Yes, but this book is about American factory farms. In Finland things are far different.

Ahh… naivity, my friend. The old myth stating how magnificently pure, fresh and unadulterated our food in Finland is has been rehashed for so long it’ll probably never die.

Visit this site to gain a better understanding of what’s REALLY going on – pics and vids included.

Tutkimus suomalaisesta eläintuotannosta

After having stopped training for a couple of years, he noticed he was getting out of shape and didn’t want to end up fat and ugly at 40 (his words, not mine). Working long hours at his job while no longer possessing the humming metabolism of an 18-year-old – coupled with lack of strenuous physical activity – had lead to adding fat onto his formerly slim, although not very muscular frame.

When I asked him about his goals, he told me the following:

- Build muscle

- Burn fat

- Get stronger

- Learn about nutrition: how to eat properly and have a healthy lifestyle

So basically he repeated what every client of mine wants to achieve. The good thing was Tair already knew how to do the big barbell lifts since this is a prerequisite for online coaching clients. All we needed to do on that front was tweaking his technique and he was good to go.

This allowed us to dial in the nutrition part for a body recomp with muscle gain as the main objective in the relatively short amount of time I was given to produce results (13 weeks).

Weight: 72.3kg -> 76.4kg (+4.1kg)

Waist: 80cm -> 77.5cm (-2.5cm)

Deadlift: 55kg x5 -> 125kg x5

Squat: 30kg x5 -> 90kg x4

Bench Press: 50kg x5 -> 80kg x4

Because of his 2-year hiatus from lifting weights (and training in general), I had him start very light so that he could hone his technique and get back into the groove, which would allow him to make solid progress on a weekly basis. One mistake I often notice beginners and those coming back after a layoff do is that they start too heavy, plateau quickly and then lose motivation.

Furthermore, the rather impressive jump up in numbers was not merely a consequence of gaining back lost strength.

For reference, his best numbers previously when he used to train on his own were 90kg on the deadlift and 60kg on the squat for reps, both of which he clearly blew right past within the 3 months we worked together.

Strength gains across the board on all other exercises as well.

As this project was a decent example of simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss accompanied by new PR’s, I decided to ask Tair about his experience for those of you interested.

Q1. What was your fitness/training/nutrition background like before working with me?

“I have been trying to keep going to the gym for many years now. First, around 8 years ago when I was about 22 years old. I remember the longest time I went to the gym more or less regularily was around 10 months.

Later on, I stopped as I had not seen any major results. I had unbalanced lifestyle and that is why I think it had negatively affected my fitness results. Working out was not something new to me. I used to swim for couple of years, went to Karate for several years, played football and already knew various fitness exercises.”

Q2. What was your main concern about hiring me?

“I do not think I had any concerns to hire a professional. I remember I finally realized I am getting older and fattier than I used to be. Hence, I decided to find someone to help me train more efficiently with greater results.

It was a coincidence that my friend Valentin [Editor's note: our mutual friend who is responsible for the awesome design on this site] has been involved with http://fivehourfitness.com. I checked the website, read about page and fully agreed – my life is ending one minute at a time, so if I don’t change my lifestyle now, I will probably never get to it.”

Q3. What did you find as a result of buying my services?

“Besides the knowledge I got about the fitness, I understood that getting stronger, loosing fat, and gaining muscles is all about self-discipline. I also understood that it is not enough just going to the gym. It is more than that: It is your lifestyle, your diet, your sleep, your mindset and your priorities.”

Q4. What specific feature did you like most about working with me?

“The most I liked about your service is the distance :) I will try to explain. When training in the gym with a professional, you have less chances to get off the track. However, when having a remote assistance you get only the crucial knowledge but everything else you do on your own, and that’s the most beneficial part of your service. Only when you are alone, you can really test your motivation, think of the training details and learn by mistakes.

Moreover, with remote assistance you go through provided information and find the answers, in contrast to repeating the in-gym personal trainer as a monkey. After all, fitness is a lifestyle and we have to learn to live with it.”

Q5. What would be three other benefits of my service?

“a) Quick results in a short time – Looks like you have gone through many training programs and absorbed lots of fitness information. I think you got the best training program by focusing on the core exercises. I am extremely happy I started doing Squats, Deadlifts and Chin ups instead of hundreds of other machinery exercises I used to do in the past. The “Fat bastards guide to getting lean” is an awesome program that I already recommended to some friends.

b) Attitude – I really liked your attitude towards clients. Initially it may appear a bit rude, but later on you find it motivating. Still remember the “kick your ass” clause in the pre-agreement phase :) Things like “fat bastards”, “you are weak”, “the truth about abs” etc. is an honest feedback, which really motivates. Keep going this way!

c) Site information – Your website is excellent. You are doing a great job publishing so much information on fitness, nutrition, lifestyle, etc. That was one of the main reasons I used your services. I bet, whenever someone sees this much information and activity from the service provider, he starts to trust and believes the person behind it is an expert.”

Q6. Would you recommend me to your closest friends? If so, why?

“I would recommend by the same reasons I mentioned in 5th answer.”

Q7. Please name and elaborate on three significant lessons you learned during our project.

“Lesson 1 – Lifestyle – I learned that to look good and being strong it is not enough going to the gym regularly. I learned its everything, including what you eat, how you sleep and how you live. Practically, one needs to change his lifestyle to achieve greater results.

Lesson 2 – Goals – I learned it is important to set the goals, which may look unrealistic in the beginning. Not having the goals in fitness is the same as in life. No goals, no achievement. Therefore, at every training it is important to aim bigger weights, longer distances, better results.

Lesson 3 – Step back can be a step forward – I learned that sometimes it is important to take a step back so that later you can go even further. Hence, deloads, week off, etc. are a good thing :)”

Word.

Muscle was gained, fat was lost, strength increased nicely and the world is a better place as a result. I’m really looking forward to continuing working with Tair over the next few months now that a solid base has been built.

There.

I said it.

As much as you’re itching to barge into my room and rip my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles posters off the wall for being a chauvinistic asshole, consider that the above is the exact same message women are being fed non-stop everywhere.

Whether it’s a celebrity trainer declaring “No woman should lift weights heavier than 3 pounds!” or your Pilates instructor saying “There’s no better way to tone those mucles and shed bodyfat than the control, the grace, the elegance, the precision of the exercise. A bicep curl is a bicep curl – but a Pilates bicep curl starts by engaging your core first, creating stability in your Being before anything else moves. That’s the power of Pilates.”, women are being labeled as weak individuals who – for their own benefit – are best kept inside this invisible bubble consisting of cushy exercises, gently wrapped up with absurd nonsense.

You know, she might just get too strong and muscular if she deadlifted her weight for reps, so let’s put her on the treadmill instead. There ya go girl, have a granola bar and a Gatorade while you’re at it.

A female client once mentioned in passing how she’d “die to get Kate Moss’ body”. I immediately dropkicked her in the face and made her do push-up/burpees until she passed out.* That’ll teach her to never utter such bollocks in my presence ever again.

This is Kate Moss...

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for the enhancement of female physiques. After all, summer’s around the corner and nothing fills me with more bliss than trim babes with big, round glutes in short skirts filling the city landscape. I know. I’m such a hopeless romantic.

Ever since getting tickets to a Taylor Swift concert, I haven’t flooded my apartment with tears of joy until bumping into this article written by food writer, former powerlifter and resident badass Dana McMahan on strength training and its effects on female physiology. Whether a guy or gal, I prompt you to check it out. FYI, here’s an interview I did with Dana last year when she was still competing.

I thought Dana’s article was brilliant. What I didn’t expect though, was the sheer number of women in the comments section crying about how they’ll get bigger if they even as much as look at a weight.

One comment in particular caught my attention (I’m paraphrasing here because I was too busy pouring battery acid into my eyes to remember the exact quote): “I bought a kettlebell, I think it was 8 lbs. I followed a routine in a women’s health mag for 2 weeks and I got BULKY. I had muscle definition and my jeans felt snug. I was supposed to get toned but I got more muscle instead.”

Okay, sista! Let’s cut the crap, pronto. Muscle doesn’t magically appear out of thin air. You need to be eating like it’s your fuckin’ job in order to put on muscle. And it’s not like you’re going to be gaining muscle like Arnold, especially if you’re in a calorie deficit (!), simply because there’s this little hormone called testosterone female bodies generally don’t produce in abundance – which is kind of a big deal in this whole “getting big & bulky” thing.

I remember reading somewhere that a pound of fat tissue takes up 25% more space than a pound of muscle tissue. You don’t need to be Miss Marple to conclude that gaining five pounds of muscle and losing the same amount of fat will, in fact, make your body appear LEANER even though bodyweight stays the same.

... and this is cleansing for the mind, body and soul.

I feel it’s extemely disrespectful towards people who are busting ass in the gym to be throwing out ignorant comments like that one above. I have a female client who wants to compete in figure. There’s nothing she wants more than to put on quality mass as fast as possible. But even if she’s constantly getting stronger and eating like a horse, those gains are excruciatingly slow to come by. If I can help her add 5 kilograms of lean body mass without an increase in waist circumference within a year, I’d consider that to be a tremendous success.

If you’re telling me you followed a shitty program in a women’s mag fooling around with an eight pound kettlebell for two weeks, and somehow managed to build any noticeable muscle, I call bullshit. Women are lugging more weight in their handbags all day long than they’re using when they “exercise”. Hell, moms lift their little kids up and down countless times every day, yet that doesn’t do anything for their appearance.

So I urge you to say weightlifting turns women into muscle-bound shemales once more and I swear I’ll hang myself in a Thai hotel room closet wearing nothing but bondage gear and women’s lingerie, David Carradine style.

Here’s Jen Comas Keck of Girls Gone Strong pulling 315 pounds (140+ kg) off the floor. Should I ever break up with Jessica Alba**, this would be the type of girl I’d let date me.

If anything, this should encourage you to put down that paperweight you’re “lifting” for 200 reps and move some serious iron around.

* Relax. I’m kidding. Or am I?

** And by “breaking up” I mean stop stalking her.

Pets Who Want to Kill Themselves, Anybody Can Be Cool… But Awesome Takes Practice and Lesbian Sadomasochism: Safety Manual.

You know, all the classics.

Disclaimer: I’ve nothing to gain by recommending or not recommending a certain book. All opinions are unbiased and these reviews simply stem from the fact I like to read a lot and write down my thoughts. Yes, I’m geeky like that.

Background

“Jamie Hale is Sports Conditioning Coach, outdoor enthusiast, fitness and nutrition consultant. He has contributed to numerous exercise and sports publications (nationally and internationally). He has authored six books. Jamie is a member of the World Marital Arts Hall of Fame in recognition of his conditioning work with Martial Artists.”

(sidenote: “World Marital Arts Hall of Fame”. Is that an euphemism for being a jedi ninja of sexual techniques? Getting inducted would be the pinnacle of my life. Hmm… I wonder what it would take a fella to get there..? *runs to bookstore to buy a copy of Kama Sutra*)

I had previously heard the name “Jamie Hale” in passing among the likes of respected nutrition writers Lyle McDonald and Alan Aragon, so I had a feeling he’s probably a pretty legit dude.

Hale’s book Should I Eat the Yolk? promises to give science-based answers to many myths surrounding exercise and nutrition, for instance:

1. Do high-protein diets increase the risk of coronary heart disease?

2. Will heavy weight training make me bulky?

3. Are exercise machines safer than free weights?

4. Is that a BOSU ball Kim Kardashian has stuffed into her evening dress?

The Good

* Really. Solid. Information.

I found myself secretly hoping Hale would make a few misinformed declarations on the more controversial topics (high-fructose corn syrup, slow rep tempo, kettlebells vs. barbells) so that I could scratch him off as yet another bullshit fitness guru/master marketer in a haste to make a million while feeding false knowledge to the unwitting reader.

Instead, I was a bit amazed how he kept his facts straight and managed to present the information in an easily graspable manner without needing to resort to confusing scientific lingo.

Plus, I learned a few new things which in my mind certainly outweigh the few bucks I spent on the book.

* Broadness. I counted 102 different myths Hale took under the microscope. How many other books can give an answer to as many relevant questions concerning health and fitness?

* References. It’s nice to see someone in the fitness industry actually backing their opinions up with a decent amount of references to science journals and other esteemed books on the topic. Which is generally not the case in this business where making a quick buck off of oblivious suckers is a common practice.

The Bad

* It’s too short! (and I’m not talking about my manhood)

I realize I’m being nitpicky here but I finished the book in about two hours. So, maybe add some more stuff in the next edition, Jamie?

The Verdict

Should I Eat the Yolk? is one of the best books I’ve read on fitness and nutrition. And I’ve devoured quite a few of them.

Do yourself a favor by cancelling your subscription to Men’s Health, Cosmopolitan, OMFG, Girls and Corpses* or wherever it is you get your fitness information from. Save that money and go buy this book.

Key Takeaways

1. Mainstream fitness advice is mostly awful.

2. Lift heavy things.

3. There are no magic foods. Calories in vs. calories out matters.

4. Consumers fall for the hype behind a product/diet. Rarely is there any relevant scientific research to support their claims.

5. Do your own research. View everything with a dose of healthy skepticism.

* I’ll let you keep reading Playboy though. For mental health it’s important to spend some quality time ogling naked smart women.

Moreover, most training plans I’ve seen do not contain enough full body movements, heavily emphasize pressing over pulling (a great way to cause postural imbalances) and too much clutter and junk volume in general. Adding a 6th set of cable flyes into the plan requires a more reasonable purpose than “my trainer looks buff and he said four sets will not cause enough muscular fatigue, yo”.

Here’s what this typically looks like on paper:

Workout 1 – Upper Body

1. Bench press

2. Incline bench press

3. Seated DB press

4. Lat pulldown

5. Cable or DB flyes

6. Various exercises for biceps and triceps from at least 3 different angles

7. 1000 crunches on a BOSU ball

Workout 2 – Lower body

1. Half squats in the Smith machine (because deep squats with free weights are “dangerous for your knees”)

2. Knee extension machine

3. Leg curl machine

4. Abductor/adductor machines

5. Seated DB shrugs

6. Lunges until you puke or die (whichever comes first)

So what’s wrong with that approach, you may ask. Oh, nothing. Just like there’s nothing wrong with eating a bowl of anthrax for breakfast.

It’s plain retarded.

First of all, the majority of these exercises are performed on machines. And contrary to what the manager might tell you during your first visit to his facility – right after showing you the vending machine, informing that Monday is pizza night and before pushing that 2-year contract with a no-release clause under your nose – they’re not “safer” than free weights. It merely indicates he and his staff are too lazy to learn the basic barbell and bodyweight movements. Demonstrating to a clueless beginner how the pec deck machine works requires way less effort.

Quick! Someone pull out a can of pepper spray and maze my eyeballs. I can't watch this BS anymore.

Second, there’s very little functional carryover to daily activities when you’re sitting on a padded surface moving a weight in a fixed range of motion. Spending more time on the leg press doesn’t give you trimmer thighs or make you a better athlete. It just makes you good at pushing weight away from you with your feet at an incline.

Now, before any of youse is gonna get a sissy fit and start calling me names (I have feelings too, ya know), let me state that I don’t hate machines quite as much as some of the more reputable strength & conditioning coaches out there.

But. Here’s the deal. Unless you’re a bodybuilder* looking to bring up weak parts in his physique, machine training and isolation exercises should be the least of your worries. Get off your ass and jump, sprint, play a lot more often than you currently do. Get stronger on the basic barbell exercises and become proficient at moving your own body through space.

* If you’re a bodybuilder and somehow happened to stumble here, chances are you know what you’re doing and there are a thousand better sites online for your purposes than this one

You’re already sitting 40 hours per week at your office job and some 20 hours more watching nonsense a la American Idol or House. Because we’re BFF’s and I could never forget that summer we spent braiding each other’s hair while lip syncing to Quit Playing Games With My Heart back in 1997, I’ll do you a favor by revealing the plot I obtained from writers of one popular TV show so you can scratch at least one of them off that list entailing 37 different series you need to be TiVoing every week.

Here’s the template for every episode of House. Evil Dr. House tells woman doctor she’s stupid. Woman doctor cries because House is a grumpy meanie. A patient gets brought in because he/she has weird symptoms. Nobody knows what’s happening and patient is about to die. (How could this be? They’ve all got shiny fucking diplomas from med school!!) House finds the cure and saves patient’s ass. House is now a grumpy hero. Woman doctor thinks House is the biggest, baddest mofo this side of Bill Kazmaier and can’t resist the urge to perform an upper respiratory job on him simply because he’s such a hunky, well-endowed specimen hung like a horse—

Um… no, I think that last sequence was from some other movie I’ve NOT seen and never will. Yes, that’s it. I heard about it. I knew eating all these chocolate Easter eggs while browsing for pics of hot chicks on Google would get me all confused!

Moreover, a beginner has no business performing DB flyes or lateral raises before he has learned to perform 20 perfect bodyweight push-ups and 10 dips. I’m constantly left speechless upon seeing and hearing accounts of guys wanting to start with an advanced body part split (“because that’s what Jay Cutler was doing in the newest Flex magazine!”) when they’re not even at the level of controlling their own bodyweight yet. Learn to walk before you try to run.

In Never Let Go by Dan John, he proposes that one’s training be built around the following 9 components or what he calls “The Big List”:

1. Horizontal Push (Bench Press, Push-Up)

2. Horizontal Pull (Rows and variations)

3. Vertical Push (Military Press and variations)

4. Vertical Pull (Pull-up, Pulldown)

5. Explosive Full Body (Swings/snatches/cleans/jerks)

6. Quad-dominant Lower Body (Squat)

7. Posterior Chain (Deadlift)

8. Anterior Chain (Medicine Ball Ab Throw)

9. Rotational/Torque

This sentiment mirrors how I view training and design programs which is the exact opposite of what 99% of trainers in the industry do. Coincidentally (well, not really) it’s also what the most revered S&C coaches seem to be doing. I can’t believe where I’d be without books and articles by all the Rippetoes, Cresseys, Gentilcores etc. that have had a profound impact on molding my training philosophy.

Which begs the question are the people responsible for teaching up-and-coming personal trainers at weekend courses really qualified for their jobs when the majority of trainers can’t engineer their way out of a paper bag, let alone create a program that will get results for their clients. It has been my observation that most personal training certifications are as useful as a used tampon. Getting certified doesn’t mean someone is an “exercise professional” and it sure as hell is no guarantee of anything. Obtaining a cert is merely the first step for entering this field. That’s when the learning really begins.

Which is a topic that probably warrants its own article but for now, let’s look at how to construct a training plan based on the 9 movements touched upon a few paragraphs above. Here’s an example of an upper/lower split with 3 or 4 training sessions per week.

Workout A – Upper Body 1

1. Horizontal Push – Bench Press

2. Horizontal Pull – Barbell Row

Workout B – Lower Body 1

1. Quad-dominant Lower Body – Squat

2. Anterior Chain – Medicine Ball Ab Throw

3. Rotational – Half Turkish Get-Ups

Workout C – Upper Body 2

1. Vertical Push – Military Press

2. Vertical Pull – Pull-up

Workout D – Lower Body 2

1. Explosive Full Body – Power Clean/Hang Clean

2. Posterior Chain  – Deadlift

3. Anterior Chain – 1 Arm Farmer’s Walks

Notice how every session is built around a big barbell exercise (bench, squat, military, deadlift – I know, very Wendleresque) with an equal amount of pressing and pulling. Add isolation exercises and body part specialization to the template as you see fit (arms, calves, back, neck & trap work etc.).

Think movements first. Muscles second.

I have also been told Tawny Kitaen was an 80′s stunner who appeared in several music videos for Whitesnake and went on to date lead singer David Coverdale – a feat that is damn hard to comprehend if you’ve seen her pictures after a plastic surgery gone horribly wrong.

On that account, I refuse to accept assertions of watching talk shows while training to be an enjoyable, beneficial pastime. That’s like saying you’re being productive when you’re CC’ing funny Youtube videos around the office.

(Seriously. This guy is hilarious. I don’t care what you say.)

And since we’re already talking about Oprah… apparently her book club has over 2 million members which – seeing how they’ve got lists like ”Books foodies will love” – is as perplexing as the plot in a David Lynch movie to me.

(What the hell is a “foodie” anyway? Is it some chic expression used to describe a fat female who can’t control her urge of chowing down every food item in sight? Somebody please enlighten me on this.)

I’ve decided to start my own book club, too.

If a black woman from rural Mississippi is capable of amassing a net worth of 2.7 billion dollars via discussing literature, self-improvement and spirituality on TV, and thereupon can get millions of females so emotionally riled up that websites crash and books are being sold out as they devotedly follow her recommendations, I believe I have a fair shot at replicating her success.

Now all I gotta do is piss off a bunch of women by telling them what they’re doing right now for their fitness and health is not very optimal – stop that excess running for fuck’s sake! – which, as any straight guy would attest to, shouldn’t be too big of a challenge, get them all worked up about finding a better solution for reaching their goals (grab a barbell, load it up and lift it; now lift it again; again), lure them into giving me their credit card info and laugh all the way to the bank as I’m making my first billion in the process.

Suh-weet! This is gonna be easier than I thought.

In this series I’m gonna be reviewing books related to strength training, nutrition, fitness and possibly other works worthy of extended scrutiny or out of personal interest.

I have a feeling it’s going to be hot.

How hot?

Well, imagine Nicole Scherzinger in camiknickers spoon-feeding a beef vindaloo to Spice Girls in a sauna in Bangkok. That’s half as hot as this entry.

Disclaimer: I’ve nothing to gain by recommending or not recommending a certain book. All opinions are unbiased and these reviews simply stem from the fact I like to read a lot and write down my thoughts. Yes, I’m geeky like that.

Background

“Dan John is the Head Strength Coach and Head Track and Field Coach at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, Utah. He’s an All-American discus thrower and has also competed at the highest levels in Olympic Lifting, Highland Games and the Weight Pentathlon.”

I believe I first came across Dan John’s teachings on T-Nation where he has had a multitude of articles published. These same articles also build the foundation for the book Never Let Go.

Dave Tate, Alwyn Cosgrove, Mike Boyle and a number of more or less well-known strength & conditioning coaches speak highly of John, so I decided to check out what the man has to say about life and lifting.

The Good

* Never Let Go is a lot more than a book on lifting weights. It challenges you to think whether your training and eating practices are really as superb as you think. On top of that, you’ll get exposed to nuggets of wisdom on life throughout the opus.

* If you don’t know where to start as a novice to strength training, the book contains many templates and suggestions on how to set up a program. There are other books that explain technique, programming and what other factors go into a progressive strength training program much better than this one but you can’t screw up by choosing the 5×5 or One Lift A Day workouts presented here.

* I like a conversational style when reading a book. John’s writing style is pretty entertaining. This is a nice break from perusing scientific literature full of facts and figures.

* Bonus points for poking fun at mainstream fitness recommendations.

The Bad

* While the stories are definitely an interesting read, the book lacks clear structure as it is more or less a series of John’s articles, and hence a certain inter-connectedness between chapters is missing. Consequently, reading about the Velocity Diet or the Litvinov Workout for the fifth time tends to get repetitive. At 400+ pages Never Let Go could have easily been condensed by a hundred pages without losing its basic points the author keeps repeatedly hammering home.

* I generally detest overhype. Especially in fitness. Even if the Velocity Diet worked like a charm for John, I do have my suspicions that the goal of promoting the V-Diet is getting more and more people to buy supplements and other products from T-Nation (a “bodybuilding site” quite infamous for its shamelessly inaccurate claims regarding their products on sale; a quick Google search will confirm this realization should it be of interest to you).

The Verdict

I don’t value the commonplace tendency of rating a book by giving it stars or thumbs up/down very much. In my mind, any book can be classified into following three categories:

1. It’s so bad/boring/erroneous that you don’t even want to finish it.

2. You read it once through and forget about it instantly.

3. It encourages free thinking in the reader, so that upon finishing the book he’s left with fresh insights for immediate application and will want to come back to learn more from it in the future, be it in 3 weeks or 20 years.

Never Let Go belongs in the latter group. It’s a resource out of which a trainee can gain an understanding of basic strength training exercises and how to plug these exercises into an effective training model.

Moreover, when infomercials featuring the newest whiz-bang-boom gadget promise you their product will make you look great nekkid in 6 minutes per day by hitting the muscles from 27 different angles, burning fat three times faster via a built-in device sending electronic signals onto the targeted spot in the body (no other product on the market can achieve this!) and activating IIB muscle fibers by a 10-fold in comparison to “normal” gym machines, it’s simply refreshing to get your hands on a guide that emphasizes hard work, basic full-body movements and discipline over a longer period of time in pursuit of your goals.

Key Takeaways

1. If it’s important, do it every day. If it’s not important, don’t do it all.

2. Choose simplicity over complexity in training.

3. Think movements, not muscle.

4. Implement hard conditioning into your routine – sled dragging, sprints, barbell complexes etc.

5. Constantly strive to add weight to the bar, and move it faster.

The more time you spend distinguishing fitness facts from fallacies, the clearer it becomes that a majority of those giving nutrition advice in the lay press are clueless posers. I’m repeatedly amazed how these “gurus” somehow manage to sneak their way through in a jungle full of misinformation by making ridiculous claims without any scientific support to back them up, and get heralded as visionaries in spite of leading people astray with their woo-woo practices.

I am, of course, referring to snake oil salesmen and saleswomen who exploit the system and make a fortune out of other people’s misery by telling us that losing an ounce of fat or getting stronger is impossible without this, that or the other supplement, or by declaring how a low-carb diet is superior to all other nutritional plans, irregardless of the person’s goals, activity levels and body composition.

In addition, as you leaf through the morning newspaper before rushing off to work, you can ever so often count on crossing paths with an article where the “fat loss expert” advices against certain foods or food groups – such as eggs, red meat, saturated fat etc. – because they’re “bad for you”.

Recently, a lot of fuss has been made about fruits and how they supposedly can make you fat.

On the assumption this statement turns out to be true, our parents will have been wrong all along in making us eat apples and bananas during our tender pre-teen years, and thus a 3rd grader’s preferred diet consisting of Big Macs, pizza and candy would have been more appropriate. I profoundly argued (to no avail) this was the case back in the day and, should science support this claim, I’m more than willing to invest a few hours of my weekend diving head first into scientific reports and books in return for the apparent satisfaction one-upping my parents almost two decades later will bestow upon the 9-year-old within me.

Beware of the evil fruit.

Without further ado, I’m gonna wipe clean my round, thick professor glasses, put on a tweed jacket with ill-matching grey flannel trousers, light up a fine Cuban cigar and start combing through science journals in my basement library. Class is in session. Like The Blackeyed Peas so eloquently put it: Let’s get retarde — ahem, a tad nerdy.

Why Is Everybody Crapping Their Pants Over Fruit?

To answer that question, we first need to gain a basic understanding of what biological and chemical activities take place inside the body when exercising. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna get too technical here because I like simple.

Food is fuel for the human body. It’s the substance that keeps us going throughout the day. If you eat like shit, you’ll feel like shit too, and are probably not on top of your game when it’s time to hit the weights.

Without energy there’s no movement – or life for that matter. Let’s apply this insight into athletic training.

“[F]or movement that lasts longer than a few seconds, ATP [adenosine triphosphate] must be further manufactured through the immediate breakdown of carbohydrate (in forms of glycogen and glucose inside of muscle tissues)”. (1)

Heavy strength training and short bouts of high-intensity anaerobic training – such as sprints or barbell complexes – require the degradation of carbohydrate (this process is called “glycolysis”) to further produce ATP so that increased activity can continue.

When you’re done with the session, your glycogen stores (stored carbs) will be depleted and the body craves food to replenish the glycogen that you burned during your workout.

So what happens to the carbohydrates when you sit down for a mighty post-workout feast and cram more food down your throat than a small Ethiopian village has seen in a month?

During a refill, dietary carbs are broken down into glucose in a process called “glycogenesis”, wherein glycogen is manifactured for restoring the used up stores in the muscles and liver. Now here’s something you might find interesting… every cell in the body can metabolize glucose, but only the liver can metabolize fructose.

So whereas fructose from fruits restores liver glycogen, it’ll not restore muscle glycogen unlike glucose which gets soaked up into the muscles.

“[T]he final products of carbohydrate digestion in the alimentary tract are almost entirely glucose, fructose, and galactose—with glucose representing, on average, about 80 per cent of these.

After absorption from the intestinal tract, much of the fructose and almost all the galactose are rapidly converted into glucose in the liver. Therefore, little fructose and galactose are present in the circulating blood.” (2)

Some studies have suggested that 60 grams or more of fructose a day - since it has to be metabolized by the liver – can stimulate de novo lipogenesis (the primary route by which dietary carbohydrate is converted into fat in the liver). (3)

So people get worked up about the fact all carbohydrates are not processed identically by the body, and fear that once liver glycogen stores become full, any excess fructose will be converted to body fat.

Is The Fear Warranted?

Mom was right, as usual. Oranges, peaches, apples and pears are nature’s candy and do not lead to fat gain when consumed in moderation.

“The issue of dietary fructose and health is linked to the quantity consumed, which is the same issue for any macro- or micro nutrients. It has been considered that moderate fructose consumption of ≤50g/day or ~10% of energy has no deleterious effect on lipid and glucose control and of ≤100g/day does not influence body weight.” (4)

A piece of fruit generally contains 6-7 grams of fructose. Doing the math, crossing that 100g threshold would require an intake of ca. 15 pieces of fruit per day.

Moreover, peer-reviewed studies show no evidence of fructose consumption increasing health risk at typical intake levels.

“[N]o fully relevant data have been presented to account for a direct link between dietary fructose intake and health risk markers such as obesity, triglyceride accumulation and insulin resistance in humans.”

What seems so self-evident on paper gets lost in a sea of complex, often contradicting and mostly useless information presented to us. People need to realize MODERATION is the key to pretty much everything in life.

How much you eat is at least as important as what you eat.

Small amounts of alcohol have been shown to be beneficial for health. But since when was that sixth vodka shot a good idea? An all-you-can-eat buffet at the local pizza joint sounds fun, smells fun and is fun… until it’s time to get outta there and you realize the only thing separating you from a stuffed pig at the Christmas table is a missing mouth gag.

You can’t simply take a single arbitrary food or food group and banish it for good without taking the amount of overall calories consumed and burned into equation.

It has given me quite a few chuckles lately how people freak out when they read about fructose’s alleged dangers, yet two months later fruit has made its way back onto their dining table the same way Napoleon escaped his exile and reclaimed emperor status. Only this time it’s some other poor nutrient that has been expelled to Elba.

A final nail in the coffin of fructophobes from Alan Aragon, tying together the notion of a balanced diet and overall energy intake:

“In conclusion, aggregate data analyses of controlled feeding trials do not support a body weight-increasing effect of fructose in isocaloric exchange for other sources of carbohydrate in the diet. However, evidence indicates that added fructose providing excess energy at extreme levels of intake may have a body weight-increasing effect over the short term, although confounding from excess energy cannot be excluded.” (5)

In layman’s lingo, fruit is as likely to stimulate fat gain as Rosie O’Donnell is boners.

Not gonna happen.

Final Thoughts

Most people already know what they should be doing to improve their health.

But like RMS Titanic, they either deliberately or unconsciously ignore the path straight ahead on their way to their destination, too busy looking left and right for shortcuts in the form of magic supplements, fad diets and revolutionary techniques, straying off course and finally crashing into a huge iceberg in front of them that they easily could have avoided if only they had the insight, wisdom and patience to trust their built-in navigator to steer them safe in a storm of misinformation.

Instead, they become overwhelmed by lucrative promises announcing rapid fat loss/faster metabolism/enhanced attractiveness and get sucked deeper into the ocean with the sharks until the only thing noticeably trimmer is the content of their wallet.

The idea that fruit somehow is causing fat gain is bizarre. Many a laughable claim has come to my attention but I’ve never heard anyone getting fat by eating 10 apples as they’re channel surfing through late night TV.

Here’s a snippet that instantly resonated with me when I first came across it (I can’t remember whom I stole it from but nevertheless, kudos to him as this was an eye opener for me).

“Mainstream media is 5 years behind research studies… research studies are 10 years behind what people are already doing for health and results.”

Every time you trust the mainstream media for guidance, you’re potentially setting yourself back by 15 years in comparison to what industry pioneers are doing to generate results.

How’s that for a mindfuck?

References:

(1) ACSM’s Resources for the Personal Trainer 3rd ed. p.135

(2) Guyton, Arthur C. and John E. Hall: Textbook of Medical Physiology 11. ed p. 830

(3) Hale, Jamie: Should I Eat the Yolk? p.14-15

(4) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2991323/

(5) Alan Aragon’s Research Review (online): January 2012 p.11-12

If anything we have regressed. People have become so out of tune concerning nutrition that they need guidance from others as to what consitutes “healthy” food, an alarming trend clearly evidenced by the recent decision of Walmart to add a label on their products indicating what you should put in your mouth and what not.

“The label, ‘Great For You’ will be placed on the front of various food products, urging customers to go for the healthy option, rather than the foods without the ‘Great For You’ icon. According to Walmart, the label will be seen on Market-side items, Walmart Great Value products, and also fruits, vegetables, and nutritious food choices, hopefully resulting in healthier eating by shoppers.” (1)

This news is saying a lot because most people would probably call the U.S. the idiot and obesity capital of the world. And you can bet your sweet ass that when America resorts to actions like this one the rest of the Western nations will follow suit.

As a consequence people rely more and more on “authorities” to dictate to them what they should be doing, in opposition to everyone educating themselves up to the point where they can make sound, intelligent decisions based on facts they’ve gathered like a human being with an inkling of cognitive prowess should.

Nevermind that following the advice of self-proclaimed gurus or government officials can be as fucked up as Edward Scissorhands masturbating to a porn flick featuring a crew of Thai shemales, talking seagulls and Leslie Nielsen as Dracula.

Those saying that high protein diets cause renal failure look dumb. Those who said high fat diets make you fat look even dumber. Those who still tout frequent meals for “stoking the metabolic fire” look like Timmy from South Park.

Amidst all the confusing information out there I thought it would be appropriate to give you a glimpse into the ridiculous claims surrounding the fitness industry that have been trumpeted as dietary rules strictly to be obeyed in the past, only to later have been debunked and offering a few good chuckles in hindsight.

At this point I’m gonna quote a rather sarcastic article from Alan Aragon’s Research Review (sign up if ya haven’t already) where he talks about what has been tagged “clean” and “bad” for you in recent years to further illustrate the point.

“1980’s Clean: Fat is evil stuff, fat-free anything is best, so go ahead and splurge on fat-free cookies, fat-free cinnamon rolls, and fat-free dressings. Carbohydrates are king, whole grain foods are the best thing you can eat. Wheaties in the morning means you’re serious about your ealth. Fruits and vegetables are good for you.

1990’s Clean: Low-fat is okay, since now there are neutral fats (unsaturated) and deadly fats (saturated). Avoid cholesterol-containing foods, and remember that yolks are only good for making tempera paint. Avoid red meat, that stuff will surely stop your clock from ticking. Skinless chicken breast and water-packed tuna or bust.

Upping your protein might help if you’re an athlete, but regular folks on high-protein diets might get osteoporosis and malfunctioning kidneys. Grain-based foods are still okay, so are other starchy foods. However, some of them have a high glycemic index (GI), which can spike insulin and wreak havoc on health and body composition.

High-GI food must be vigilantly avoided – except postworkout, where they must be immediately consumed in large amounts. Postworkout dextrose should be a staple for all in pursuit of athletic goals. Beans and legumes are superfoods because of their low GI.

Multiple small meals around the clock is a sure way to stoke the metabolic fire while controlling appetite. Fruits and vegetables are still good for you, but the ones with a high-GI should be avoided (except postworkout).

2000’s Clean: Saturated fat and cholesterol are no longer the bad guys, trans fats are the killers. People are violating Paleolithic ancestral dietary patterns by consuming a disproportionately high amount of omega-6 fatty acids, and not enough omega-3 fatty acids. Fish oil is apparently the cure for all of the world’s diseases, granted no one wants to just die from those fishy burps all day long.

It turns out carbohydrate in general is bad for your health, whole grain goodness is one big government conspiracy, and simple sugar can kill you. Fructose in particular is poison to the body, and is more worthy of lacing the tips of arrows than being consumed. Protein is king, it’s infallible. The more meat the better – as long as it’s organic, free-range, and grass-fed.

Grains, dairy, legumes, added salt, added sugar, and alcoholic beverages are the downfall of the human species because they are Neolithic foods that violate our evolutionary biology. Soy is a particularly evil legume, despite its staple consumption in Eastern countries with excellent health profiles. Supplemental BCAA gets a pass for being non-Paleolithic; that stuff will make or break your physique goals, so the rules of evolutionary correctness don’t apply to it.

Don’t think you’re doing your health a favor by forsaking sugar, then replacing it with aspartame or sucralose, you have to go with stevia or erythritol. Vegetables are still good for you, except for nightshades such as white potato, which contain inflammatory alkaloids (sweet potatoes are fine because they’re not from the nightshade family). Fruits are still good for you, except for ones that contain a lot of fructose, so stick to berries just to be safe.” (2)

What can we learn from all this?

Dig up the facts, question everything, apply your own logic and experiment like crazy. Draw conclusions first and foremost from your own experience and from those who you deem carry any merit. Discard everything else.

Blindly following what others are saying makes you a clueless sheep. Stop giving away your power and gain back your ability to apply critical thinking to dodge the heaps of bullshit constantly being thrown at you.

Fortunately, we can all agree Salma Hayek's boobs are wicked

References:

(1) http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/241364.php

(2) Alan Aragon’s Research Review (online) – February 2011 p. 12-13

I guess I truly got lucky in that department since a track & field stadium was located in the ‘hood as well… which meant running steep, long-ass stairs up in the rafters while Eye of the Tiger was turned on repeat on my Creative MuVo mp3 player (ah, the memories!).

Ever since that summer hills and stairs have become a staple in my training, save for the time I spent in Berlin where the Allied Forces had apparently bombed currywurst-munching krauts and their entire infrastructure to the ground in World War II, thus leaving the whole place as flat as Heidi Montag prior to a gazillion boob jobs.

This past week I realized I’ve been too much of a pussy considering I’ve been comfortably avoiding hard conditioning outside ever since winter took over like Osama eluded the Yanks after 9/11 in a million dollar mansion in Pakistan, and headed over to a hill to rectify the situation.

Snow and coldness are a rather pathetic excuse for postponing an activity you know is good for you. Check out this article and this article for some hill sprints 101.

Below are 7 more reasons why it’s time to get back on track, find your sprinting mojo again and become a tad more awesome by the day.

1. Simplicity. Find a hill/set of stairs. Run up, walk down. Repeat until you no longer perform well.

2. They give you a helluva workout. Calves, quads, glutes, hams, abs. All get smoked.

3. Minimal time commitment. 10-20 minutes is all you really need for an effective session.

4. They make you a better athlete. Sprinting builds explosiveness and lung power.

5. No equipment needed.

6. Rocky ran stairs in Rocky II before beating Apollo Creed. ‘Nuff said.

7. They help you get lean. 2-3 short, intense sprinting sessions per week will beat the shit out of the adipose, much like Chris Brown did out of Rihanna.

I’ll be seeing you at the hill this week, buddy.

(Look at Stallone exploding up at 1:55! Marvelous.)