So my father spent about a week with me here in Central Texas, which gave me a chance to film a short video of he and I drinking beer from a special glass that…well…just watch the video and see for yourself:

JC...extra studly.

This is a first for me and I sure hope you enjoy it. I wanted to add a certain level of insight that a dialogue can allow for that a long-winded article doesn’t. JC’s blog, JCDFitness, is a voice of common sense for younger guys starting off on their fitness adventure.  On top of that, JC is the dude who designed my new banner, which I think is pretty bad ass.  I wanted to dig into JC’s brain for some perspective on a variety of topics.

JC, I found out about you on Lyle McDonald’s forum. At the time, you had a blog that showed “food porn” and had a small following through the forum. How and why did you move from a small blog to your current mythbusting/advice dispensing blog?

I am almost embarrassed to say that is how I got started with this blogging thing.  Oh well.  I decided to create a new website/blog for two reasons.  Reason number one is because I was running out of ideas for fitness food porn and I was sick of coming up with different meal ideas.  I typically like to eat the same stuff every single day, so I am sure you can see how this would pose a major headache.

Reason number two is that I really wanted to write about fitness.  I was out with a friend one day and we had a long talk about how to get his training and diet back in order.  He basically told me “all I want to do is look great naked.” In my head I was like “that’s easy!”  So I basically poured everything I could think of into him for the next couple of hours.  He then encouraged me to begin turning my thoughts and ideas regarding my no BS approach to looking great naked into blog posts.  So yea, that’s how it all began.

Eating the same stuff everyday sounds a lot like Clarence Bass and his idea of uniform eating. I eat this

Clarence's Abs

JC's Abs

way too and don’t find it boring, though I do change up a few items every few months. I’ve mentioned this before, but your ab shot reminds me of the famous Bass ab shot. Walk me through a typical training day as far as eating/timing/rational for what you’re doing.

-Wake up at 9:00-9:30 and drink a shake, cup of coffee with cream and make a giant bowl of oats.  I usually eat a piece of fruit if I have some available.
-Train from 10:30-11:30.

-Post workout I eat around 200g worth of carbs, 60-70g of protein from shakes and trace amounts from carb sources.  This meal is usually a giant bowl of rice and brown sugar, potatoes or milk and cereal.  Sometimes its a combination of all three(not in the same bowl though, heh)

-Before work I will usually eat whatever.  This whatever can be a few chicken breasts in between a few slices of white bread slathered in barbecue sauce or some cottage cheese and a few healthy spoonfuls of peanut butter.  This is highly dependent on if I have done my grocery shopping.

-I work from 3:30-midnight and either do not eat or snack on free popcorn during my breaks and lunch.

-When I get home I will typically consume 5-6 eggs and fill in the rest of my carb sources with cereal, fruit or leftover pizza.

-My meal frequency does change on ocassion.  Some days it’s been as little as 2 meals and others as many as 5.

Speaking of meal frequency, I know you’ve done intermittent fasting in the past. If I recall correctly, it helped knock out some food phobias you had but it’s not something you actively do anymore. If I have this correct, what became the tipping point that told you “I don’t have this habit anymore”? In other words, what got rid of the food phobia? I know for me, I IF’d until I realized that I wasn’t going to lose mass if I had a late breakfast and that food isn’t as acute as drugs (as some might have us believe).

I IF’d for about a year, yea.  I used to tout an unhealthy obsession with clean/unclean food.  Eating a pizza meant I was inferior and worthless.  It meant that my diet was ruined for the month.  I used IF as a way to alter the way I viewed food.  It used to be good and bad choices, now all I see is energy sources.  As far as I see it cake and oatmeal are one in the same.  Cake tastes better though.

The tipping point that really broke the ghastly habit of eating on the clock was when I finally realized that I was maintaining and even gaining muscle mass fasting 16 hours a day and consuming only 2-3 meals in an 8 hour window.

I no longer follow a strict IF pattern and just eat whenever I feel the need.  However I no longer obsess about losing my muscles when I don’t have time to eat breakfast.

This is something I’ve become concerned with: I like eating paleo most of the time though I sometimes find myself concerned that even imbibing a little bit is going to fuck everything up…very Lyle McDonald “bag of cookies” story pertaining to health. I rationally overcome this, but it does creep in from time to time.

I wrote about this partially in my “The Dream” article. That said, since you both train and correspond with clients who have eating issues, how do you go about helping them to break these issues? Do you have them go cold turkey or meet them in the middle?

Yea, I really enjoyed “The Dream” as well as the healthy debate in the comment section.  This is such a good question, I am glad you asked.  I particularly like working with those who have struggled as I have.  I feel the best way to go about doing anything(successfully anyway) is to fully commit and ease into it.  It also helps to have a guide/coach to walk you through the process.

I usually tell people to start with a caloric goal, usually their maintenance intake.  Make sure they hit that goal on a consistent basis and get used to planning their intake accordingly.  I then insert ice cream, pizza and other “junk” into their diet on occasion and almost make it regular for a period of time.  If they trust me and control their calories, they soon find out there is no negative effect on their body composition whilst dieting/maintaining.  All of their preconceived notions about clean/unclean food BS is shattered.

So I guess you could say I meet them in the middle.  I will never forget the first day I deliberately fasted until 4pm to devour a 1500 kcal meal of steak and potatoes and then another 1500kcals before bedtime.  Talk about relief!

So since you build things that are generally considered “cheat food” into your caloric needs, what does it look like for you to “cheat?” Just exceeding caloric intake or just eating to enjoy the flavor of the food absent of health concerns?

I don’t generally deem free meals as cheating because I don’t particularly like the label “cheat food.”  It reminds me of my OCD bodybuilding obsession from my previous life.  In general if I am sick and tired of counting calories, I will eat a few meals where I do not count whatsoever.  This can be a meal I make at home, a meal out or a local barbecue/gathering.  I basically put myself in a situation where I cannot keep track of kcals.  These free meals usually include moderate amounts of alcohol (particularly beer) and good company.

About the health issue; I do not worry about 3-4 unhealthy meals per month as I eat plenty of fruit and whole foods. I figure that the health benefits from EFA’s and the micro nutrients present in fruit greatly outweigh the pizza I consume on occasion.

Last question, and it has 2 parts: what is your greatest strength as a coach and, if that magically vanished, what would be the thing you have to work hardest to improve, so that it’s your new “greatest strength?”

I feel my greatest strength is my objective approach and outlook.  Most of my clientele currently consists of guys my age(22) or a few years younger.  I have this habit of calling them young guys but only in the sense that most of them are newbies to all of this.   I feel that my strength lies in my experience.  I have been where they are currently, it was just when I was 14 instead of 20.  Therefore I can be the guide they need to ensure they don’t step in the potholes I did when I was battling the learning curve.

Now if that strength magically vanished like Spidey’s powers did in the sequel, I would probably go into hiding for a while or just grab a pen name and only write about fitness/training.

Athletes, especially those whose training is more than a gentle passtime, will injure themselves. Sprains, strains, pulls, or if you’re full of reckless abandon, deep gashes will occur. This article will deal with sprains, strains, and pulls (ssp’s from here on in), specifically what works, what doesn’t, and tricks to increase the speed of recovery.As I sit here writing this, I’m recovering from an injury. In modifying my training to specific vertical leaping power, I added sprints as per a new training scheme specific to vertical leaping ability. During my last sprint, I pulled my hamstring a little bit. In spite of this, I was able to perform my box squat workout without aggravation. Afterward, I went about recovering the muscle.

First, you RICE

1. The old gym mantra of “Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation” is still first-line treatment for pulls and sprains. Here’s the thing: you have to do it! So often clients of mine bang on about how they hurt themselves away from the gym and they don’t do anything about it. Even after I tell them about RICE, they response with “I forgot” the next time they hurt themselves! This is paramount: get the injury iced and wrapped!
2. Really, RICE the injury immediately. Don’t screw around with this. It’s worth saying twice!
3. For compression wrap, I like using knee wraps for powerlifting and duct tape to seal the thing from unraveling. Get your leg above your heart, watch some entertaining programs, and rest.

Second, heat and the stick.

1. Once the swelling has reduced to a nice stiffness, you start adding heat. While ben gay works in a pinch, I really prefer  blue heat. It doesn’t have the retirement home scent quite as much while providing superior warming and sweating. I highly recommend this.
2. While light stretching is helpful here, I prefer the active release of using a foam roller or the stick to work out the tight muscle. If you have distance runner friends, I suspect they have 3 or 4 of these lying around the house. They seem to be given out like candy at running events. It’s a nice tool that you can keep in your hamper, like I do.

Finally, review how you fucked up

1. This is the part where you figure out how you goofed and not to do it again. I hadn’t had to sprint that distance in nearly a decade; a basketball court isn’t 60 yards long. As I’ve noted before, coaches sometimes, or often, forget to heed our own advice; I should have started slower, either shorter sprints or less 60 yarders at 90% perceived effort. I’m fortunate this is quite minor and I’ll be back in under a week for more (less) sprints.

So that’s the primer for SSP’s. The sooner you get the ice and compression going, the faster the turnaround. Learn from your mistake and get back to training!

Readers: is there anything you’ve found to be effective that I didn’t cover?

I know  a few of my readers have recently been exposed to the work of Dr. Doug McGuff, specifically of the Body By Science fame. I’ve known Doug for about 4 years and known of him for about 8; he’s incredibly intelligent and dedicated to improving the health and fitness of his clientel and beyond. He’s to be commended. Prior to BBS, many of us knew of Doug through his “Ultimate Exercise Bulletin 1,” especially if you were from the early days of Superslow/HIT. We were (and still are) a certain type of crazy, as I’ve demonstrated.

The man in the video I’m going to post is named Doug Holland. Doug owns a training facility in Shriveport, Louisiana called “Intelligent Exercise” and he’s quite a role model for me. Doug is a champion powerlifter, successful business man and crazy in the best way possible. Not only does he put his money where his mouth is, namely train hard and brief, but he’s given me great practical advice for my own facility. Here’s a video of him getting a kill BBS-style workout in under 10 minutes.

My mother’s death has sparked a huge upheaval in my motivation…a focus unlike I’ve felt before. Very much a “this is the worst that can happen?” point of view, I find myself exploring things I found myself saying that I’d “get to that eventually.” As great as this such a sudden surge of interests is, it can lead to a quagmire of indecision and poor focus. Here’s what I’m doing to manage it all.

The curious thing about this motivation is how it is squarely tied to spiritual and cerebral pursuits. Having so long focused on just my body, moving toward intense mental gymnastics is something that is extremely new to me.  Specifically, this article is about juggling all of my efforts into one week of productive studying/practice while still attending to work and home responsibilities. How am I doing? Pretty well, considering. Am I perfect? Not by any means, and I don’t want this to come across as such. However, I’ve found a few things that are working for me, both generally and specifically, to help increase consistency and reward for effort.

General Considerations

Considering my tendency to want to relax when I’m at home, here are the “groundwork” processes I set up before starting any study session:

1. Scheduling. The method I like using is the “Autopilot” schedule I found on Study Hacks. By setting the activities for a specific time each week, namely the ones that I’m most concerned about, I can better work other activities into my life without too much juggling. For instance, I’m going to CLEP out of Management at University and test into Mensa this summer. So I schedule my sessions of Dual N Back and CLEP studying at the same times every week. I also try to keep the activities complementary; doing the cognitive training, taking a short nap, and then starting on CLEP studying really helps the process along. These, my workouts, and my evening meditation at the zendo are all scheduled, thus not a consideration for removal. So if you asked me what I will be doing Tuesday, I’ll only mention the things that aren’t automatic for that day.
2. Stimulation. Specifically, espresso and ammonia. While it might seem strange to use smelling salts as a study aid, for me it is the quickest short term refocuser I know. While the caffeine will keep me at a nice buzz, the ammonia clears my head should I start to drift off in thought. I feel it’s a great tool, more so than just for max effort squats.
3. Binaural Noise. I use the Soundmind binaural beat program to keep attention up during things like blogging or writing for school (as mentioned, built into the autopilot). I’ve found it does in fact improve my concentration and the 20 minute long program lets me take breaks in a nice interval so that I keep fresh.

That’s the base of everything: a plan, adrenaline, and brainwave manipulation. What about the specifics?

For Intelligence Training

• As I mentioned above, I’ve been using the Dual N Back test to increase my fluid intelligence. This is the same test researchers use at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor to improve fluid intelligence. Doing this test literally takes the brain to fatigue, so I’m slowing building up to 30 straight minutes of testing: 20 with the Dual N Back and 10 with the PASAT test and other cognitive games.
• Nootropics are used during practice to maximize brain performance, specifically piracetam, choline, and ALCAR. As opposed to something like adderall, where the flood of dopamine lets you think everything you do is great, these supplements merely maximize your stage performance. I’m also experimenting with vinpocetine and huperzine A, but the trio listed really supercharges my brain without anything illicit.

For CLEP Studying

• Active reading. Specifically Ryan Holiday’s tips on “Reading ‘Above’ Your Level.” Just being turned on to post-it highlighters drastically improved my ability to digest really boring shit, specifically the management crap required to pass the test.
• Cliff Notes. No explanation needed, and it is actually a better study tool than the official CLEP study guide for management and marketing.
• Flash Cards.  After I plow through the notes, I test myself with the flash cards found here. Crowd sourcing, in this case, has proven extremely accurate…and useful.

For Everything Else

• I’ll be spending next summer in Latin America, so I’m learning Spanish with the work of Michel Thomas. I typically listen 1/2 to 1 hour a day at my leisure. I bounce what I learn off my girlfriend, who is fluent. This is more leisure than work, as I can do it on my couch, thus is something I float into the autopilot.
• My workouts are built into the autopilot; I change what I do every 6 weeks, usually a few days off and a couple small tweaks. Keeps me fresh and injury free.
• I’m a trainer, so I really can’t bring work home with me. Winner winner chicken dinner.

As a former procrastinator, I’ve found that being able to do what I’m doing doesn’t require a huge amount of time, just attention to what you’re working on. As soon as these are finished, I’ll rest and let whatever bubbles up in my attention and desire to take hold. I’ll schedule and work it the same way I’m working these goals. Rinse and repeat.

Hey you, reader! What are you tips for increasing the productivity of personal improvement activities?

Just a couple more videos showing the Eccentric Edge piece for vertical press/pull work.

The last video is a bit dark throughout but still gives you an idea after having seen the other videos…you do miss my power clean to get the lever up high enough, though.

I have attempted to explain this apparatus a few times to friends or on various message boards with poor results, so we finally took a video.

Unless you’re brutally strong (like Mark is) you don’t need 2 people. Either of us could have moved the weight; it would have been a sizeable deadlift, but it is possible to overload the negative with only one training partner. This is one of the many things we do at my studio; for you “power law” folk, this is as intense as it gets.

I love sleep. Really. I get more than enough and nap like an 80 year old man, which is to say daily. My mother thought I had mono when I was in high school because I slept so much. This post isn’t about sleep.

Hibernation is something I find very interesting from a hormonal/metabolic standpoint. Intermittent living, if you will. And while there have been articles written recently, specifically Graham Robb’s “The Big Sleep”, there is no actual evidence for humans hibernating, unless you count what an 18th century traveller reports as evidence. If you do, I hear there are humans who grow to be 12 feet tall near the southern tip of South America. I digress.

For me, during the summer I want to eat. A lot. My attention turns toward wanting to put on loads of muscle tissue via a superior hormonal environment and that comes with extra food intake. But in the winter, I want to get lean, see my abs, see veins on my abs. This seems very backwards, especially if you consider what Frank Forenchich says about heat blunting our appetite. I can’t tie this to activity, as I’m not especially the outdoorsy type and tend to play more basketball during the late fall/winter/early spring period, as Texas winters mean the afternoon is just right for the sport while summers steam your face off. To my point, it seems to make sense that we’d fatten up to get ready for winter, even if we’re not hibernating. Occam’s Razor is often very, very wrong, however.

So my question to you, my readers, is this: What is your ebb and flow of season appetite? Do you notice something similar to what I’ve experienced?

Most fitness programs are the same and only differ in how they apply the basic elements of fitness and health:

1. To get stronger/gain more muscle, you have to lift more weight or do more work.
2. To lose fat, you will have to lower calories or burn more than you take in.
3. To get better at an activity, you will have to practice the activity.

Unless you’re a genetically abnormal individual, this holds for everyone…you are not special. Once you accept that, the notion of health and fitness becomes pretty boring or thousand-yard stare inducing. You don’t get something for nothing and will have to work for any changes or improvements you make. This is where framing or “the dream” comes into play.

To create an emotional commitment to a program, create a mythology. Once the mythology is in place, with a nice story likely filled with narrative fallacy, one is better able to commit to the endeavor about to be embarked upon. Examples:

• The Atkins Diet:  take carbohydrates intake down to nearly zero, focus on protein and fat consumption, which increases satiety and improves insulin sensitivity. You can still overeat but, because of the protein, it becomes a chore and you tend to lose weight. Boring, right? Since this was clearly a PR problem, the diehards changed the name to “Paleo” in honor of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Now where there was once science there is a story: human beings roamed, picked, and killed for thousands of years and we’re nearly genetically identical. The image of roaming the outdoors lean, tanned, and warm sounds fantastic when you’re hunched over your monitor, overfat, in some 68* office building. Add in the notion that if you occasionally fast you don’t need to worry  about calories; our ancestors didn’t eat all the time because kills weren’t regular. So by not eating for a combined 48 to 72 hours each week, you can eat whatever you want. That amount of not eating adds up to 6 to 7 thousand calories per week, which is nearly 2lbs of fat loss based on the maths. But calories don’t matter, remember?
• The Mediterranean Diet: take a look at the peoples of the countries that border the Mediterranean north shore. They’re lean, tan, don’t wear socks with their loafers, and seemingly eat endless pasta…what is their secret? The answer, supposedly, is that in addition to eating pasta, breads, and salads, they eat more fat in the form of monounsaturated extra virgin olive oil, fattier cuts of meat, and cheese. In addition, they enjoy red wine on a regular basis. So that’s the story, the reality of this is tenuous at best. Americans will see this and think “I’ve already got bread and pasta, I just need to add olive oil and wine!” First, there is no “one” Mediterranean Diet, as pointed out by Scott at Fitness Spotlight. Second,  fattier cuts of meat are used , usually in the form of pork fat, for cooking and flavor. Finally, not only are the portions smaller, but the calorie-bomb dressing is considered a condiment, not a soup. So once you remove the story, it comes down to this: eating smaller portions, with more veggies, and higher fat meats mean your lipids improve and you are satisfied with less total calories. Less total calories. And don’t even get me started on the lower stress lifestyle.
• The Zone Diet: the problem isn’t the foods, it’s the ratio of the macronutrients in the foods. By moving closer to the “magic” ratio of 30% protein, 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat, your body will become a fat burning furnace and you won’t have to worry about how much you eat, only what percentages you ingest. Never mind that there is a complicated system of tracking your food intake that basically sticks everyone to around 1200 calories…it’s all about the ratio. The reality of it is that if a person is eating around these ratios, they’re going to keep their blood sugar fairly stable, eat enough fat and protein to sate fairly quickly and cover essential fatty/amino acid requirements, and increase fiber by encouraging less refined carb sources. Them’s the facts: less crappy food, more sating protein and fat, thus lowering your food intake. Reducing calories. Sense a trend here?

Look, I love a great story, only I’m not going to bullshit clients into thinking that the latest miracle diet is going to solve their waistline woes. It is just the newest, or most recently recycled, way to package lower calories. It’s no different than those fucking ab devices that sell on late night television. They slip the diet in the back door of the advert,but that is what is going to get you that “slim sexy stomach you’ve always wanted.”

So what do I tell my clients? How do I get them to lose weight? Simple:

1. I give them the rant I just gave you, so they start to recognize the bullshit they’re being force-fed. I also tell them they are at fault for their weight, just as much as they’re at fault for their earned degree.
2. I move them toward eating more real food. Not only does it taste better, but food in its natural packaging tends to sate way better because of the reasons listed above: more fiber, more protein, more bulk. This isn’t for any “paleo diet” reasons: we’re a melting pot, so a paleo diet for someone from Tibet is different than a paleo diet for someone from Samoa. I have a 67 year old client who recently was complaining that she was “too full” on her diet while losing weight. I had her increase her protein intake from meat…that’s it. That’s a complaint most individuals looking to lose fat would like to have.
3. I manage emotional issues with eating. I give them Lyle’s talk about cookies, namely 2 won’t ruin your diet…unless you think they did and thus eat a whole bag, runing your diet. I move them closer to Berardi’s 90% adherance policy, which gives them freedom to enjoy social engagements without guilting themselves into a binge or a hermitage.
4. I tell them to buy cookbooks and relearn how to cook. I’ve reviewed Gourmet Nutrition on here before, but I’m also a fan of  “Two Dudes One Pan” because of the simplicity of every dish. You’ll eat less and it will taste better.

So that’s it: the dream of a magic diet, the story that keeps you hooked, the notion that your body isn’t smarter than you…I hope I broke it down enough to get you to step back from what you are doing and see if you’re not following a little bit of lore.

A funny thing happens after a parent dies, especially when you feel it happened much, much too soon: you become Type-A with your hair on fire. Well, maybe not you, but in my case it was a nice reminder that death is very real and you have no idea how much you value your health until you lose it. My mother, throughout her chemo treatments, said to me, “I miss working out so, so much.” So since she has died, I’ve been applying much of those “I’d like to do that someday” sentiments in my life, and this includes my workouts.

Training for me began as a necessity for sport: I needed to get bigger for varsity basketball. As I moved past that stage of life, I began to train purely for gross body development: bigger, stronger, more attractive to the ladies. I had a very small understanding of how much deeper training could be taken, as being wrapped up in the hormonal insanity that is being in your early 20’s doesn’t usually allow for these understandings to be anything more than superficial. This was about the armor and how attractive I could make it. I grew up a bit, realized that the joy of training was about how I felt in the process and shortly after. How can I make that part deeper and richer?

I’ve spoken of Ken Wilber and Integral Life Practice (ILP) briefly; this includes, among other things, recognizing that there are at least 3 bodies to our physical being: gross, subtle, and causal. More importantly, all can be trained and help improve the training of each other (i.e. a meditator who takes up weight training improves in both faster than one just doing only one or the other).  With this in mind, my training looks a bit like this:

• Gross: Weight Training 3 days a week
• Subtle: Qigong/super joints/mobility work 1 or 2 times per week.
• Causal: Meditation at a zendo 1 time per week and binaural beat meditation at home 3 to 5 times  a week.

The specifics of each portion are as follows:

1. Weights are the bread and butter of what I do, though the workouts have taken on a more meditative element. Part of this lies in my training style currently, which is pure “Doggcrapp” or “DC” training. The training requires intense focus, taking each muscle to concentric failure before taking 10 to 15 deep belly breathes, and repeating the process 2 more times. What has happened as a result of the meditation I’m also doing is that this breathing practice allows for an opening up… I’m able to rest in awareness, much more than I had ever been able to in past training efforts. The whole process seems less dire, in spite of what I feel is a more purposeful effort. While not exactly the protocol prescribed by Shawn Phillips in his “Focus Intensity Training,” or “F.I.T.”, it is trending in that direction.
2. Qigong/Super Joints/mobility work is a more recent addition. I like the Qigong for the flowing movements and the emphasis on body control, though the mobility work I perform prior to training functions in a similar manner. You don’t need to have it approved by a lineage master to reap the benefits.
3. I’ve added 1 hour per week of zazen at my local zendo (Ordinary Mind) in addition to 15 to 30 minutes of meditation at home 3 to 5 times a week. I use binaural beats (specifically, Soundmind) to help access brain states faster, leading to a subjectively better meditation experience.  As noted above the meditation practice has helped my training, allowing me to become better at both the “attack” and “release” portion of my training. It also gives me something else to focus on throughout the week, so I don’t put as much identity in just my strength training.

This might sound a little woo-woo for some people, but it might not be all that foreign. In the past I had used visualization prior to my workout to help focus my effort; I also stressed the mind-muscle connection, so as not to think about lifting as just schlepping weight around. Put in that context, the additional practices are merely expansions of things I were already doing.

So, how do you cross train? What are you doing that has indirectly improved your training?