Workout of the Day:
Deadlift
3-3-3-3-3-3-3
Post loads to comments. Compare to May 23rd
Helen – Dan’s first weighted workout as Rx’d (Damn that’s heavy!)
Deadlift Arm Position Lecture Clip…[mov][wmv]
Dr. Eades – A Cautionary Tale of Muscles Fore and Aft
Deadlifts- woo-hoo!!
And here comes another long post from the Kyle. I read this article some time ago and it stuck with me because 1) it flew in the face of everything I’d ever heard, read or seen (everyone may disagree about macronutrients but all seemed to agree on the importance of fiber) and 2) it made sense.
Now to the dilemma, which nicely illustrates my first issue with the black box approach. When presented with new info like this that challenges the status quo but seems logical, the black box approach says to try it out for yourself. If you feel better keep doing it, if you don’t, then stop. Who cares of the mechanisms are at play, the point is that it works.
So how do you apply that to something like fiber intake? How do you judge if it has ‘worked’ or not. If you increase your fiber intake and manifest the symptoms (craps-a-plenty)? Smoking is not a great analogy because you immediately feel terrible and also quickly diminish your performance, but fiber intake is not so obvious.
By way of example, Dr. Sears says to eat egg whites but avoid the arachidonic acid of the yolks, Drs. Eades say to avoid eggs all together because of the high levels of cholesterol and Gary Taubes says dietary cholesterol has little to nothing to do with blood levels of cholesterol (and the related heart disease risks). So who do you believe? They’re all smarter than me; highly recommended by people smarter than me and empirically shown to produce good results. How do I black box this? Eat eggs and see if I develop heart disease?
The Eades say to avoid eggs because of the cholesterol? I’m shocked. Any reference for that Kyle?
Just flicked through PPLP, there’s a couple of references to the different health benefits of various things found in eggs, and 3 or 4 recipies for egg-based meals.
Open up page 108 and you’ll see they state “The vast bulk of the choleterol in your blood (about 80%, in fact) is produced by your own liver. Only about 20 percent bears any relation to the cholesterol you eat. In fact, the body can sense how much you eat and step up or slow down its production of this critical substance according to your need”.
And for a black box angle, I’ve been eating 5-7 eggs per day for about 18 months now, and I appear to still be largely alive.
Alive? Indeed you are sir, indeed you are. Ok, so I may not be accurately representing the Eades’ views (in fairness I was going on memory since I’m at work) but the two points remain sources of frustration for me.
You see, diet is by far my biggest opportunity for improvement and has been for some time, which means I’ve read more than the average bear on diet related topics (as have you, of course). My frustration is that many of these eating plans are very, very similar but differ on the details. Sometimes at polar ends of the spectrum.
Some would argue, ‘then don’t focus on the details’; which is certainly logical, but some of the details could have potentially large consequences. Robb Wolf might say, pick any one of them and tinker, seeing what works best for you. Again, good advice as individual variances may account for huge differences in optimal diets.
But back to the second problem—how to tinker (basically apply the black box). Some stuff (e.g. macro nutrient ratios, supplements, etc.) have noticeable and observable effect. Some other stuff (e.g. arterial plaques, insulin insensitivity, brain plaques/tangles) are not. So it seems you have to rely on studies/expert opinion for those. But what do you do when the experts disagree?
Will, if you don’t mind me asking about your copious egg consumption – is that just the egg whites you’re eating or the whole egg? I’m very much enjoying my daily omelette at lunchtime and am making it with 1 egg + 2 egg whites, would I better off whacking the 3 eggs in or stick to the egg whites, I’m going for knocking off a bit of weight at the mo, carrying a two stone weight around your belly makes pull-ups “interesting”!
Kyle – If you’re really concerned about the extreme nitty-gritty like that, then the only answer is getting some extensive blood work done, making whatever dietary changes you’re wondering about, then repeating it some time later (2 months?) and seeing what’s changed.
It doesn’t seem unreasonable to assume that any dietary approach that makes people strong, lean, athletic, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed is at odds with long term health though.
Shane – I eat the yolks, that’s where all the nutrients live! Whether or not you should eat them depends on what sort of dietary plan you’re following.
So what sort of dietary plan ARE you following?
I laid out my own personal nutritional biases here a while back: http://crossfit.ie/2008/04/23/wed-apr-23rd/
The Zone is all explained in issue 21 of the crossfit journal: http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/cfjissue21_May04.pdf
And you can read more about the Paleo diet over at: http://www.thepaleodiet.com
Ok, so how’s this for timing. Today’s article written by Dr. Eades–I like his stuff, makes sense, including the article. Well I also happen to be reading the metabolic diet book pimped by PM’s resident biochemist and would you believe I just hit the chapter explaining how important fiber is.
Both diets are successfully used by CFers and PLers so I should surmise from that the fiber is not the deciding factor and it doesn’t matter who’s advice I take? Does this count as chasing the mice in the room? I’d say most things I’m not too worked up about but there are some biggies like saturated fat. I’d hate to get on in years and realize that I got that one wrong.
Honestly I’m not looking for answers because I don’t think there are any. I’m just having a bit of a winge (is that how you spell/use it)?
Will – yep Colm guided me to your topic on nutrition and it was a great read, I also downloaded the CFJ 21 and have been pretty much using that as my eating guide at the moment. Can’t honestly say I’m at the stage of weighing my food, but have cut out sugar, carbs and dairy and am concentrating on eating nice and clean, lots of fish, fillet steak, omelettes, fruit and veg, with some nuts and seeds thrown in for good measure. Definitely feel a lot better but the ol fat is slow enough to move, it’s been comfortable for far too long me thinks!
As for the Paleo diet, hmmmm I’m not so sure I agree with some of it’s assumptions, assuming neolithic man would only pick the lean meat is a bit of a stretch, but other than that I see it being very similar to the zone diet. Think the zone appeals to the scientist in me a bit more with the way it maps things out. Well the least I can do is give it a good 6 – 8 weeks of keeping the diet super clean and seeing how things go, no point judging anything on a week or two. Thanks for the reply, I’m sure you shall get very sick of me picking your brain!
Amy – 30,35,40,45,47.5(2)
Kyle – 130,140,147.5,145,140
Robbie – 60,65,75,80,85,90
Scott – 30,40,40,50,60
Shane H – 90,98,100,105,107.5
Shane 0 – 60,65,75,80,85,87.5,90
Tabata Push Ups
Colm – 23,15,8,7,7,4
Kyle – 26,19,12,7,7,7
Robbie – 21,12,5,3,1,1
Scott – 21,7,2,0,0,0
Shane H – 10,6,4,3,2,2
Shane O – 14,5,4,2,0,0
Shane – I’ll rant on about nutrition and fitness more or less endlessly!
You’re right that hunter gatherer societies eat pretty much every part of the animal, rather than just the lean cuts. Cordain’s thing is that the fat profile of improperly reared meat is extremely different to what it would be in the wild though.
Animals that have been fed a grain-heavy diet will tend to have proportionally higher amount of omega-6:omega-3 fats, less monounsaturates and more saturates than their grass-eating cousins. This is more of an issue for the American market, where feedlots are the norm, but I’m pretty sure most of the meat sold in Irish supermarkets is grain-finished, and even a month or two of eating that crap is enough to significantly alter the fat profile of the meat, as well as murder the stockpiles of fun stuff like alpha lipoic acid and coenzyme Q-10 that people are mysteriously deficient in these days.
So if you can track down a good quality butcher, I wouldn’t worry about sticking to lean cuts. The guy I go to operates out of a van, but he swears the only non-grass thing his cows ever eat is the occasional daisy or dandelion
Sounds like you’re on the right track anyway, just stick with it! I used to wander around at 17-odd stone back in the day, and it does take a while before you notice any difference at first, but rest assured that things start to take on a a bit of momentum very quickly.
deadlifts 90, 100, 110, 120, 125, 127.5, 130 (1), 127.5
bench press 3 reps 60, 70, 75, 75, 80
max rep pull-ups and dips 11, 6, 7 and 10, 10, 11
Hey I did that workout too!
Ruairi: 125, 130, 135, 140, 140(f)