Carb Cycling > Calorie Restriction for Fat Loss, Performance and Longevity

Calorie restriction as a weight loss strategy is a short-term solution at best, and one that has more negatives than positives.

Carb cycling is a sustainable and more effective approach to weight loss and weight management.  In this blog I will explain what it is, how to do it, and lay out several different carb cycling programs so you can choose which one is best for you.

Sticking to a strict low calorie regimen while training hard is both physically and psychologically tough.   Physically, you are hungry, tired, low energy, and if you restrict yourself too long you risk going into a state of overtraining because you haven’t given your body the support it needs to recover.  If that isn’t bad enough, the psychological affects of calorie restriction; hunger, mood swings, decreased desire, impaired cognitive function and focus; are even worse.

Adding to the psychological burden is the fact that calorie restriction doesn’t work for very long.  That has a spirit crushing effect when you are suffering and not seeing positive results.  You begin to question your motivation and yourself.  When you start questioning yourself the next steps are usually a binge that snowballs into a total loss of nutritional discipline and missed training days that cause you to feel fat, sluggish, bloated and “Blah.”

Calorie Restriction Snowball Effect

Physical/Psychological Drain --> Results plateau --> Negative self-talk --> Binge --> Loss of discipline --> Feel “BLAH” --> Feel shitty about yourself --> More negative self-talk --> More Binge --> More “BLAH” --> Feel shittier about yourself --> Repeat

What is Carb Cycling?

Carb cycling is the planned alternation of carbohydrate intake that prevents fat loss plateaus by maintaining high metabolic function and workout performance.  If you plan high carbohydrate days, known as “re-feeds” strategically your body never goes into starvation mode, thyroid function stays high, hunger stays in check, and muscles get glycogen refueling when they need it.

Carb cycling is a high-level nutrition strategy that requires planning.  There are several different carb cycling strategies with varying degrees of difficulty and aggressiveness.  Some of the strategies short term solutions, while others can be used as a long-term lifestyle approach.*

*I have been using a form of carb cycling and intermittent fasting (IF), which I will cover tomorrow in Easy Intermittent Fasting, for the last 4 months.  In that time I have lost 12 lbs of fat, recorded several strength training personal records (PR’s), and had more energy than I can remember without feeling deprived.  Keep in mind I also managed to do this with a baby that is now 3 months old (shout-out to my girlfriend, Lauren). 

Benefits and How it Works

Sugar intake causes your body to make more fat cells, triggers those fat cells to fill up, and impairs cellular fat metabolism making it difficult for your body to utilize what is in those fat cells (Read Myth #4: Eating Fat Makes You Fat for more information on the factors that make you fat).  Keeping blood sugar and insulin levels low is the key to losing and maintaining a healthy weight.  Eating carbs also makes you retain water, three molecules of water per molecule of glucose (Read Guide to Labor Day Cheating).  Too much carb deprivation however, can be difficult and may actually hinder performance.

The basic premise of carb cycling is that fat and protein intake are kept relatively constant while carbohydrate intake is varied. Throughout the cycle carbs are kept low or gradually depleted leading up to a high carbohydrate, “re-feed” period that lasts between 8 and 12 hours.  Typically, fat and protein intake is scaled back on re-feed days unless hypertrophy is the goal.  The bolus of carbs mitigates the need for energy from dietary fat and carbohydrates have a protein sparing affect so less dietary protein is required.

Carb Cycling Strategies

The following are several strategies.  This is not a definitive list of every possible carb cycling plan.

Infrequent Re-feed

Schedule one re-feed every 7-14 days.  The high carb re-feeds on this plan are the biggest because it the low-carb phase is the longest.  This is the most aggressive plan and the one that will result in the fastest fat loss.  Depending on the length of your low-carb phase this may not be sustainable long term.  You may keep a relatively steady low-carb amount through the low-carb phase, but it may help to do a progressive decrease.  A progressive decrease would look something like the following:

• Day 1 Carbs = 60 grams
• Day 2 Carbs = 50 grams
• Day 3 Carbs = 40 grams
• Day 4 Carbs = 30 grams
• Day 5 Carbs = 20 grams
• Day 6 Carbs = 0-20 grams
• Day 7 Re-feed

Frequent Re-feed

Schedule a re-feed every 3-5 days.  This is easiest and most sustainable program to follow.  On this plan you can constantly tweak your ratio of low-carb days to re-feeds.**

Start with a ratio of fat day to re-feed ratio of 3:1.  Ride that ratio for as long as you get results and then experiment with 4:1 and 5:1.  If 3:1 is working there is no need to use a more aggressive plan until you need it.  Don’t use a nuke if a fly swatter will get the job done.

Note: The re-feeds should be a little more moderate than the Infrequent Re-feed plan.

**Personally, I never refer to days as “low-carb” days.  It has a negative connotation and it makes it sound like it is anything other than a normal day.  The re-feed is the deviation from the norm, not the days that are low-carb.  Instead I call them “fat days” because that is where I am getting my energy. 

Strategic Cycling

This is a great approach for serious trainees, endurance athletes and those that travel frequently.  This approach requires the most amount of planning because you are structuring varying carbohydrate intake days at different intervals in synchronization with intense training days, travel or special events.  This is an extremely affective approach for someone who is organized.

To illustrate an example, lets say that I am training multiple energy systems 5 days a week.  Two days a week I train two times a day, one intense strength training session and another steady state aerobic session in the evening.  Also factor in that my best friend is getting married the third Saturday of the month.  My goal is to lose 5 lbs of fat to improve my power-to-weight ratio, but I don’t want to hinder my performance.

In this scenario I would lay out my calendar for the month.  I start by identifying the re-feed days.  The obvious first choices are days that I am training twice in one day because I will want to support my training.  Another obvious re-feed is the day of the wedding because I want to enjoy being social and taking part in the festivities.  That will work out to 9 re-feeds out of 30 days in the month (8 days of “two-a-day” workouts and 1 wedding).  That is a ratio of a little over 3:1 low-carb to re-feed days.

Let’s say for my goals I know I need to be close to a 4:1 ratio to fuel the amount of fat loss I want while keeping my performance high (note: a lot of this is done through trial and error).   I will have to adjust by taking away a couple re-feed days when I train twice in a day.

Keep in mind that low-carb days may vary in the amount of carbs in this plan or any other carb cycing strategy.  Let’s say that as a baseline anything less than 100 grams of carbs is a low-carb day. That baseline varies from person to person based on gender, muscle mass, training intensity, training duration, etc.   That means there is variability from 0 to 100 carbs on your low-carb days.  When I am looking at my training program and I see a particularly taxing workout I may plan for that day to be a low-carb day at the top end of the low-carb scale.  On a low intensity day, for example a 60-90 minute aerobic workout on the ERG machine, I will plan to stay on the lower end of the scale.

Conclusions and Tips

There are infinite different ways to carb cycle.  The best program will take some trial and error.  Generally it is a good idea to periodically do a re-feed lasting several days or even a week if you have been carb cycling for a long period of time.  This will ensure your metabolism stays high long term and you don’t impair thyroid function.  Go into those extended re-feeds with the expectation that you will gain a little body weight.  Look at that as taking a couple steps back so that you can move three steps forward in sustaining a healthy metabolism that makes it easy to burn fat if you ever have to get really lean for something.

In my experience carb cycling works best with some form of Intermittent Fasting (IF).  Register for my blog updates at the bottom of this page to get my upcoming article Easy Intermittent Fasting.

It is important to maintain good food quality during the re-feeds.  “High carb” does not mean “junk food.”  Don’t let carb cycling become an excuse to binge on crappy food.  Treating yourself from time to time is a good thing, but everything in moderation.

3 Sprint Workouts to Ignite Fast Twitch Muscle and Your Metabolism

When you have to catch your meal or run for your life, only the fast survive. Our Paleolithic ancestors evolved to move in ways that ensured their survival.  Based on what we know about their lives and hunting methods we can assume that there was a premium on running fast.

Their hunter-gatherer existence meant that food was often scarce while danger was abundant.   Those that moved the fastest had the best chances for catching dinner, while the slowest had the best chances of being dinner.

In order to move fast our ancestors had to travel light.  They carried only what was necessary for survival and couldn’t afford to have anything slowing them down, especially body fat!

When sprinting means life or death, there is the ultimate premium on power-to-weight ratio.  Under those circumstances body mass must be as functional as possible.  Any excess in adipose tissue, aka body fat, beyond what was needed for basic metabolic functions and emergency energy stores is a hindrance.

If you want to build a primal physique that is lean with dense, explosive muscle you have got to start sprinting.  Sprinting is the ultimate expression of total body power, coordination and grace.  It’s a movement pattern that is hard wired into our primal DNA.  It is also one of my favorite forms of exercise for several reasons.  For starters, it is exercise minimalism at its best.  Literally, no equipment needed and you can do it anywhere.  I also love it because it is such a bang for your buck exercise.  Sprinting is a fat burning monster that builds a killer physique and explosive power.  Obviously it builds great legs, but it is also a great exercise for building chiseled abs and shoulders.

3 Sprint Workouts to Build A Primal Physique

1.  The K.I.S.S. (Keep it simple, stupid)

This workout will develop your top end speed/power output.  It is as simple as it gets, hence the name.  Sprint the straight-aways and walk or slowly jog the curves for active rest.  This works on a football field too if you take extra time walking the width of the field because it will be far shorter than the curved portion of a track.

First, you must understand that you should not start a rep until you have recovered from the previous rep to a point that you can actually sprint at or near your top capacity again.  If you are still breathing hard from the previous rep, rest longer.  Running a bunch of 70% effort reps because you didn’t rest enough is an endurance workout that is training your body to run medium fast by activating slow twitch fibers.  A good rule of thumb is to wait until your heart rate has gone back into the 120’s or lower before sprinting again.

The best neuromuscular and fat burning adaptations come from high intensity reps.  Your goal is to stimulate fast twitch fibers, which have the most potential for power and growth.  Also keep in mind that high intensity reps, meaning those run at a level that is at least 85% of your top speed, stimulate the greatest growth hormone release which is responsible for burning body fat and improving your power-to-weight ratio.

Break the 100 meters up in the following manner:

• First 20 meters is an easy build-up to top speed. Focus on lengthening your stride, picking up your knees and building the speed of your arm swing towards a theoretical top speed.
• 20 to 80 meters is show time baby!  If you did the first part correctly you should be in full stride and at about 70-80% of your theoretical top speed at the 20-meter mark.  At 20 meters you want to step on the gas hard, accelerating to your top speed and then trying to hold on for as long as possible.   This will take you to the 80-meter mark and the end of your realistic acceleration capabilities.
• Between 80 to 100 meters your goal is to hold on to good form, staying relaxed and graceful.  You are still trying to run hard, but you have to be realistic here. Straining to run harder when you are out of gas is how you get hurt. If you are making an ugly face at the finish you are fighting it too hard.
• Do not come to an abrupt stop!  Gradually slow down to a very light jog or walk.

Jog the curve slower than you think or just walk.  This is not a conditioning drill.  You want each sprint to be near your theoretical top speed because that is what creates the adaptations that build power and dense muscle while burning fat.

2.  Rhythm Sprint

Acceleration is crucial for sprinting because the person that can get to their top speed the quickest has a huge advantage.  The importance is magnified in athletic competition, or real life, when the distance of the sprint isn’t pre-determined and the ability of one person to accelerate faster than another may be the difference in the sprint lasting 20 meters or 200 meters.   Let’s say I find myself in the wrong place with a pissed off attack dog bearing down on me and a fence I can jump to safety 40 meters away.  If I can accelerate fast enough to keep my distance from the dog that sprint will last 40 meters to the fence regardless of my actual top speed.  If I don’t accelerate fast enough and the dog bites a chunk out of my ass at 20 meters my top speed is irrelevant and so are the pants I was wearing.  This logic applies big time to football and soccer as well.

Acceleration training is also great for building a lean primal physique because it is the phase of sprinting when fast twitch fibers are firing the hardest and when your body is working the hardest to provide explosive energy, which stimulate the release of positive growth factors.

You will need something to mark off distances like cones or lines on a football field to do this workout.  Mark off 100 yards with markers at each 10-yard increment.  Start each set accelerating as fast as possible until you get to the first marker at 10 yards.  As soon as you hit that marker slow down dramatically without shortening your stride. Your stride length should stay the same while your stride frequency slows down.  When you hit the next marker (20-yards) accelerate again until you get to the 30-mark where you will once again slow down your stride frequency.   Continue that same rhythm until you have finished the 100-yard set.

3.  Abuse of Power

This is workout touches on all phases of sprinting (acceleration, top speed, and power endurance), but tends to favor adaptations in power endurance, which is a relative term in this case.

• Start workout with five 40-yard sprints accelerating hard out of the start.  Rest at least 2 minutes with fast and loose drills.
• Follow that with three 75-yard sprints focusing hard on hitting your top speed and maintaining it as long as possible without tightening up.  Rest at least 3 minutes with fast and loose drills.
• Finish the workout with two 150-yard sprints.  Focus on staying relaxed, even breath rhythm and maintaining good form.  Straining for something that isn’t there will only slow you down more (a metaphor for life).  Rest 5 minutes or longer between sets so you can give each 150 your absolute best.

After you have done this workout several times you can add a little volume.  Start by adding a couple sets of 75-yard sprints.  After that you can add another 150, while taking away one 75-yarder.  I don’t recommend doing more volume than that in one workout.  If you feel you are recovering well from this workout add frequency of sprint workouts to your weekly split rather than more volume per workout.

Start your quest for a primal physique by adding one of these workouts to your weekly routine, preferably not after a leg intensive workout or plyometric training day.  After 2-3 weeks feel free to add a second training day with a different workout.  Respect your body during sprint workouts.  If you start getting tight or feeling twinges in a muscle shut the workout down early.

Building a primal physique with minimalist training is about addition by subtraction.  The unnecessary is discarded to make room for the maximum development of attributes that are necessary.  This approach to training will unlock your athletic potential by tapping into your primal genetics.   It also serves as a metaphor for a very enlightened way to live.

Homemade Italian Red Sauce

Follow Lauren's Instagram for more recipes @myfitkitchen

Italian food is in my blood.  Some of my fondest childhood memories are of me sitting on the kitchen counter watching my 100% Italian mother create delicious traditional Southern Italian food.

My love for cooking was born in my mom’s kitchen acting as her pint sized sous chef climbing the counter top to get herbs and spices from the spice rack.  The recipes used were passed down to her from my grandmother who was born in Naples who had these recipes passed down to her from my great-grandmother.

Each generation put their own style on the original recipes that go back further than anyone in my family can trace.  My mother came up during the low-fat, low cholesterol craze when Americans moved away from traditional ways of eating.  When I was a kid we used low-fat dairy, meat off the bone, and trimmed the fat.

My mark will be to take my mom’s recipes and bring them back to their traditional roots the way my grandmother and great-grandmother used to cook.  Now we know that traditional ways of eating are much healthier in addition to being more flavorful.  In my version of this recipe, for example, I’ve added back the ham hock, which adds a ton of flavor from the natural fats, collagen, and bone marrow.  The result is a red sauce that tastes better and is better for you.

A fresh pot of red sauce was a staple in our kitchen.  It seems like we used red sauce 4 out of 5 nights a week.  It was the blank canvas on which we created our art.  You construct an entire menu for the week around one pot of red sauce, which is exactly what I am going to show you how to do this week.

ENJOY!

Ingredients:

1 ham hock (including bones)

2 cans (28oz each) of organic fire roasted crushed tomatoes

1 can (28oz) water

1 organic red onion

4 large organic carrots

6 cloves of garlic

1 can of organic tomato paste

2 sprigs fresh rosemary

2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp garlic powder

1 tsp red pepper flakes

2 tsp ground black pepper

Directions:

Take the ham hock out of the package and set in the crock-pot.* Finely chop the red onion, carrots and garlic and add to the crock pot with the ham hock.**

Combine the rest of the ingredients in the crock-pot. It’s ok if the tomato paste is in one clump because once the sauce heats up it will mix in with the other ingredients. Put the lid on the crock pot, turn it on LOW and let cook for 6-8 hours and occasionally stir.

*If you do not have a crock pot you may put in a large sauce pan. Although I highly recommend investing in a slow cooker because it is convenient and it offers me piece of mind knowing my stove is not on all day.

**I prefer to use ham hock, but other meat on the bone will work well too. I use the hock because it is the extreme shank end of the leg bone and the associated skin, fat, tendons, and muscle. This is where most of the flavor in the sauce comes from.  The more fat and connective tissue the more flavor you will have.  Chicken, for example, wouldn’t have the same amount of flavor because it is low in fat.

From my kitchen to yours with love,

Lauren

Labor Day Workout Program – Day 1: Circuit

The Labor Day barbecues are one week away and you have a lot of work to do to earn a cheat day.  I can’t promise miracles in 7 days, but if you follow this workout program and the upcoming nutrition articles you will set yourself up for a guilt-free Labor Day. I have created two versions of the workout program.  One program is bodyweight only for those of you without access to equipment or that just love the minimalist approach.  The second program is for those of you with access to a gym.  Feel free to try some of the bodyweight workouts and some of the gym workouts for variety.

I tried to keep the movements and equipment requirements basic because everyone has different situations and levels of fitness.  Obviously, I can’t write a program that is individually tailored for everyone.  This is a loose outline so make adjustments as you need to.  Be solution oriented.

Day 1: Circuit, Tuesday, August 26 –

Bodyweight Workout

10-minute joint mobility and dynamic warm-up

THEN:

50x Jumping Jacks + 20-30 second high plank for 5 rounds (note: increase speed of jumping jacks in each set)

THEN:

Prisoner Squats (hands behind head) 3 sets x 20 reps

Jump Squats 3 x 10

Tuck Jumps 3 x 8

Notes: Take a 30-60 second rest between each set of each exercise.  Perform all three sets of each exercise before moving on to the next exercise.

THEN:

6-Way Circuit: Perform 6 reps of each of the following 6 exercises (6x Pull-ups + 6x Pike Press + 6x Australian Row + 6x Push-up + 6x Walking Lunge + 6x Lateral Lunge)

Do 4-6 rounds non-stop taking only minimal breaks when needed.

Notes: Use band, chair or partner to assist on pull-ups if necessary…Pike press is like a push-up from down dog position…Australian Row is also commonly known as an inverted row or Australian push-up.  This can be done with a suspension trainer if you don’t have a low straight bar. 

THEN:

Burpees 4 rounds (20 seconds work/40 seconds rest)

Gym Workout

10-minute Joint Mobility and Dynamic Warm-up

THEN:

50x Jumping Jacks + 20-30 second physio ball plank for 5 rounds (note: increase speed of jumping jacks in each set…stir the pot on physio ball planks if you are ready for that progression)

THEN:

Back Squats 3 sets x 20 reps @ 75-135#

Jump Squats 3 x 10

Tuck Jumps 3 x 8

Notes: Take a 30-60 second rest between each set of each exercise.  Perform all three sets of each exercise before moving on to the next exercise.

THEN:

7-Way Barbell Circuit: Perform 6 reps of each of the following 6 exercises (6x Deadlift + 6x Bent Row + 6x Front Squat + 6x Push-Press + 6x Back Squat + 6x Pull-ups + 6x Push-ups) @ 75-95#

Do 4 rounds non-stop taking only minimal breaks when needed.

THEN:

Burpees 4 rounds (20 seconds work/40 seconds rest)

Notes: Adjust weights according to your fitness level.  I suggest being conservative the first time through this workout.  You can always add weight the next time. 

# = lbs.

Guide to Labor Day Cheating

Labor Day is all about bidding summer farewell with BBQ and beers, but that is no reason to ruin the summer physique you have sculpted.  If you are strategic you can actually make that Labor Day BBQ binge work in your favor to give you an even better physique than you have today! Life is all about balance.  If you are training your butt off and eating well you are going to get results.  That part is straightforward.  There are however, days like Labor Day when social conventions and celebrations call for a deviation from the norm.  Rather than going without or wasting what should be a fun day with friends obsessing about what you’re putting in your mouth you should learn how to cheat.

Knowing the Rules So That You Can Break Them

Put simply, sugar makes you fat.  It also ages you, makes you retain water, and a host of other bad things.  There is a ton of research and statistics to back me up on this, but I’d rather get on with teaching you how to cheat rather than convincing you that sugar is the issue.  Let’s save the debate until someone sustains a hard body, six-pack, high levels of performance, and health all while eating a lot of sugar.  Until then there is no argument.

There are two things that can stand in the way of you showing off all the chiseled muscle you’ve earned in the gym or out at the park.

1. Adipose tissue (aka body fat)
2. Water retention

The following factors make you fat:

1. Arachidonic acid (AA), converted from Omega 6 fatty acids, makes fat cells divide thereby increasing the total number of fat cells.  Stress, sleep deprivation and obesity generate more AA.
2. Insulin tells your body to increase its number of fat cells.
3. Sugars,
   • increase insulin levels,
   • increase triglyceride production in the liver,
   • trigger fat cells to start making more fat that from sugar in the blood stream that will then fill up the cells like a sponge saturating with water
4. Glucocorticoids stimulate fat cell division.  Our bodies make glucocorticoids all the time, but levels rise during stress and sleep deprivation.
5. Unnatural, trans fats (vegetable oils) distort all cellular function to the point that it stops fat from being able to leave fat cells.

The following factors make you retain water:

The amount of water you retain is changing all the time.  Everything from hormonal changes throughout the month like menstruation, carbohydrate intake, sodium intake, and water intake affect your water retention.  Heck, even flying in an airplane will make you retain water.

1. Hormonal changes, especially menstruation, make you retain more water.  Estrogen and cortisol, the stress hormone, in high levels will tend to cause more water retention.  Men have fluctuations too.  There have been studies that have shown that some men get so attuned with their partner’s menstruation cycle that they actually start retaining more water at the same time of the month.
2. Carbohydrates make you retain water.  For every molecule of glucose stored in places like your muscles and liver, your body holds on to three additional molecules of water.  This what gives your muscles that pumped up feeling after you drink a post-workout shake with a lot of sugar.
3. Contrary to what a lot of people think, a diet low in sodium will actually cause your body to retain more water because it is trying to hold on to the water and sodium it does have.  Table salt affects water retention differently than sea salt or kosher salt.  Salt your foods generously with sea salt, but avoid table salt.
4. Drinking too little water will make you retain water for the same reason as above.

Focusing too much on water retention will be an exercise in frustration, but there are several things you can do to minimize water retention, such as

• Drink more water.  Putting a pinch of sea salt in your water will help balance electrolyte levels.
• Get more sleep, or at least better quality sleep to lower cortisol levels.
• De-stress with exercise or meditation.
• Eat less sugar.
• Use more salt.  It is common for people eating very clean diets with lot of unprocessed foods to actually be low in sodium if they aren’t salting their foods.
• Intermittent fasting (IF) will keep your water retention very low during the fasting periods as long as you are drinking water.  This is the best way to manage water retention.  Register at the bottom of this blog to receive updates on new articles if you are interested in IF.  I will be posting an article summarizing the reasons you should be practicing IF and how to get started.

Do you notice any common themes here? 

1. Minimize sugar intake.
2. Keep blood sugar and insulin levels low (see #1) through diet and exercise.
3. Manage stress.
4. Get good sleep.
5. Drink more water.

How to Cheat for a Better Physique

Now that you know the rules, you are ready to break them. Cheating the right way is very liberating because it makes it easier to be social around your friends that don’t share your nutrition philosophy and allows you to eat some of the foods you miss.  It does however, take planning if you want to minimize damage and actually get some benefit from cheating.

This week I am going to guide you through your Labor Day strategy, laying out a plan that you can follow anytime you have a cheat day on the horizon.  I will explain the methods I employ and how to execute them leading up to a big cheat.

Register at the bottom of this blog or the top of any page on my site to receive my email updates throughout the week so you can follow along and learn how to do this in the future.  I am also including a week of workout programming and a killer Pre-BBQ Workout that you will have you looking your best on Labor Day.

This week I will cover the following and much, much more:

How to Carb Cycle

Easy Intermittent Fasting

Week of Workouts including the Pre-BBQ Beast: 

Labor Day Workout Program - Day 1: Circuit

Labor Day Workout Program - Day 2: Strength

Practical and delicious recipes:

Homemade Italian Red Sauce by Lauren O'Neil 

Cool surprises

Return to Your Lean, Muscular Primal Roots

In the last decade there has been a shift in thinking within the universal mind of the those involved in physical culture.  By "universal mind," I mean the collective thoughts and goals of the community of us that consider exercise a necessary part of our lifestyle. The age of the hypertrophy obsessed bodybuilder and the strength training phobic female has been ushered out in favor of a return to our primal roots.  Today, both men and women are congregating in the middle areas of the spectrum of physical culture where a functional brand of fitness resides.

Let me just say that I hate using the word "functional" to describe this shift because I personally think it has been played out beyond belief and lost much of its original meaning, but it does do a great job of describing a philosophy of physical training that maximizes all the attributes of athleticism and sustainability that the human body has evolved to have in abundance.

Without the optimal balance of movement skill, coordination, strength, speed, power, endurance, body composition, resilience, mental focus and toughness our ancestors would not have made it possible for us to be here today.  Personally, I think we owe it to the generations to come to carry on that tradition of physicality and mind/body connection.  Even if human survival is never again dependent on the direct abilities of the human body the way it was in the past, it is always better to have something you don't need than to need something you don't have.

Over the last decade there has been a shift in the kind of body men and women want to develop through their training.  Men want to be lean, muscular and athletically fit for action (or at least look that way).  No more bodybuilding physiques that are all show and no go.  Women want to feel empowered by building strength, muscle and athleticism.  They have realized that feminine is strong.  They don't want to rely on a man for strength, they want to lift if, carry it, or do it on their own.

The good news is that there is one single exercise that can accomplish all these goals.  It is at the same time one of the most crucial types of movement to human survival and the most underrated forms of exercise.  If you haven't figured it out yet I'm talking about sprinting!

Sprinting has so many benefits that I can’t even begin to cover them all the way I would like in one article.  Whether you are a high performance athlete, a weekend warrior looking to get an edge, or someone who wants to improve body composition, sprinting is something that you absolutely MUST integrate into your program.

It is the most reliable way to increase any athlete’s performance is to improve his or her strength-to-weight ratio.  That is a fancy way of saying minimizing the amount of bodyfat the athelete carries while maximizing functional muscle mass.  Pay attention to the next pro track meet you see on television and you will notice that even the last place finishers in the sprint events looks like a world champion thoroughbred.  They all have great muscular development, especially the posterior chain, with very low bodyfat revealing chiseled abs.

Increased posterior chain development is another HUGE reason to start sprinting.  If you’re like most Americans that sit on your butt all day in front of a computer screen your posterior chain is probably not your best ass-et (pun intended).  This is because the glutes and muscles in the upper back literally “turn off” when you sit down typing on a computer or holding a steering wheel all day because they are lengthened and relaxed for hours on end.

Here is a basic weekly training split that incorporates sprinting.  The reason there is only one day devoted to strength training for legs is because sprinting is such a great leg developer.  Doing another day of leg training would be overkill.

• Monday: Primarily Upper Body: Horizontal Push and Pull Day
• Tuesday: Sprints
• Wednesday: Rest
• Thursday: Primarily Legs (alternate between hip/quad dominant exercises every other week)
• Friday: Primarily Upper Body: Vertical Push and Pull Day
• Saturday: Sprints
• Sunday: Rest

When you are doing your sprint workouts the warm-up is critical to avoid injury, especially if you haven’t been doing any sprinting or plyometric style workouts.  The following is a good general warm-up routine:

Warm-up Exercises

Distance

Sets

Rest Period

Light Jog

400 m

1

2-3 mins

Joint Mobility (Head to toes)

n/a

1

none

Front-to-back Leg Swing (Hip Flexor)

n/a

1

none

Side-to-side Leg Swing (Hips)

n/a

1

none

Backward Lunge into Hamstring

20 m

1

none

Spider Walk

20 m

1

none

Walking March w/ Hamstring Activation

20 m

1

none

Knee Pulls w/ External Hip Rotation

20 m

1

none

High Knees

20 m

2

1 min

Butt Kicks

20 m

2

1 min

Cariocas

20 m

2

1 min

A-Skips

20 m

2

1 min

Strides, Half Speed

50 m

2

2 min

Split your sprint days into an 80% day and a max effort day for the first 3 to 4 weeks doing less volume on your max effort days.  Your sprint distance should be between 50 and 75 yards.  That is about as long as most people can actually accelerate with 75 yards being the absolute elite upper limit of acceleration.  Anything longer than that becomes strength endurance work, which is great, but is best to be saved for down the road after you have at least 8 weeks of shorter sprints under your belt.

Start with 6-10 sprints on the 80% day and 5-7 on the max effort day in your first 3 to 4 weeks depending on where your conditioning is at.  If you haven't been doing any sprinting or plyometric training you should be very conservative.  After the first phase progressive up your volume on the 80% day to as many as 20 sprints, but keep the max number on the max effort day at 10 or less.

If your primary goal is fat loss your rest periods should be between 60-90 seconds.  If your primary goal is strength/speed/muscular development your rest periods should be in the 3 to 4 minute range so that you can fully recover for another 80%, 90%, or max effort sprint.  If conditioning is more of a priority you can shorten your rest periods to as low as 30 seconds.

There is one thing, however, that should always stay the same.  Sprint, not run, as fast as you can.  If your speed starts slowing down too much take a longer break before continuing with your regular rest periods.  If you are still struggling to maintain form or speed call it a day because you're done.  Sprint workouts drain your body in a way that is different from endurance training.  Less is usually more, especially in the beginning.  Your focus in these workouts is max, or near max effort, not volume.

Always conclude your sprint workouts with a cool down including some 50% effort striders, a slow jog, and an active assisted hamstring stretch using a towel, band, or help from a friend.  Remember, be conservative with your volume the first few times you hit the track.  It’s best to ease your way into a sprint routine.  The volume will come with a little time.

A well designed and executed sprint program can be an efficient strategy for fat loss, muscle growth and/or maintainence, increased anaerobic capacity, and a great posterior chain.  It also never hurts to be able to run fast if the need arises.  Remember, it is better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it.  To paraphrase a quote by Arthur Jones:

Every man and woman should have the athletic ability and physical fitness to save his or her own life.

9 Ways to Guarantee You Will Live Longer

spock

There are very few guarantees in life, but if you do the following five things I can guarantee you will live longer than you would have if you didn’t.

1. Make your body resilient by doing regular strength training at least 2-3 times a week.  Our bodies tend to get more brittle and fragile as we age.  If you don’t use it, you will lose it.  Luckily, you can slow that process and damn near hold it to a stand still through the application of proper and consistent strength training.  Strength training increases muscle and bone density and it upregulates growth factors like testosterone and growth hormone that normally decline with age.  The other day I read about a 73 year old grandma who deadlifted 180 lbs!  She talked about how strength training helped her rehabilitate her body and improve her quality of life after an illness she had in her 60’s.  She said she was more fit at 73 than she was at 33.  Absolutely inspiring!  From personal experience, I have a male client that is 75 years old who deadlifted 260 lbs for 5 reps at a bodyweight of only 160 lbs. He’s been training with me 2-3 times a week for almost 3 years and is in better shape than a lot of 20 and 30 year olds I know.
2. Never stop accumulating movement skills, especially tumbling and getting back up.  When we are young we tumble, fall and play all day long.  Our bodies get good at minimizing and absorbing punishment.  As we get older we stop tumbling and playing.  After too long our bodies don’t absorb punishment and bounce back the same way they did when we were young.  Sometimes a bad fall can be the beginning of the end.  I’ll share another personal experience on this one.  When I was a kid my grandmother lived with us.  Despite being a long time smoker she was in pretty good health until she had a bad fall and shattered her hip.  She lost the ability to do some of the most basic things like use the bathroom on her own.  We literally watched her health deteriorate in a matter of months before she died.  It was extremely sad and shocking at how quick her health declined when she lost the ability to move on her own.
3. Get some aerobic exercise lasting at least 30 minutes a few times a week.  This can be as simple as a walking, hiking, or riding your bike to work.  It will get your heart and lungs pumping, improve circulation, help your body detoxify, calm stress, stimulate the pleasure centers of your brain and help you recover from more intense strength training.
4. Eat food that was food 2000 years ago. 
5. Up your food quality at least one notch from where it is today.  The more notches you raise your food quality the longer you will live and the better your quality of life.  This one is the gift that keeps on giving.
6. Brush and floss your teeth daily. Poor dental hygiene is linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD). More systemic inflammation originates from your mouth than anywhere else in your body.  If you don’t like to floss buy a water pick.  I asked my dentist about it and she said that it’s all good as long as you get something between your teeth every day.  I’ll admit something to you.  I have a block against flossing.  For some reason I only do it regularly when I stay in hotel rooms.  Maybe its because I keep my floss in a really visible place in my toiletry bag or because I find myself trying to kill time in hotel rooms that I don’t normally have at home.  Whatever the reason behind my block against flossing, I decided to buy a water pick one day and I instantly became compliant.  It seems like it takes less time and I love the way it makes my teeth feel.
7. Don’t text, or sext, and drive.  Whatever it is can wait.  If that isn’t enough then just try to keep in mind how big of an asshole it makes you look like.
8. Wear your seatbelt.  Odds are that you will get in at least one car crash in your life.  It takes two seconds to increase your chances of surviving by 80%.
9. Look both ways before crossing the street.

So that covers about everything from exercise to getting hit crossing the street.  I can’t guarantee how long you will live, but I do feel comfortable guaranteeing it will be longer than if you didn’t follow these rules.

Live long and prosper!

When is Conventional OK?

strawberry

It’s hard to make a case for supporting conventional farming.  Organic farming is better for your health, the environment and your local economy.  With that said there are times when baby needs a new pair of shoes, or you just don’t have time or access to get the organics you want.  So, when is conventional OK?

Here is my list of the Top 10 conventional foods that are ok to eat regularly:

1.  Coconut

It probably has something to do with the thick shell, but several studies have been unable to detect pesticides in coconut products, including coconut water, coconut oil and coconut milk.  This study from 2008 is a pretty extensive study that was unable to detect any pesticide residue in coconut oil.

The processing of coconut oil is pretty interesting.  I learned a lot from this website.  I recommend getting a virgin, unrefined coconut oil that has had the smallest amount of processing.

Coconut oil is a relatively cheap supplement if you buy online, both organic and conventional.  You will get killed trying to buy this stuff at Whole Foods, especially the way I go through it at my house.  I cook with it, slather it all over my face and body for moisturizer/SPF/insect repellant, and put it in my coffee.

2.  Pineapple

Pineapples are another tropical fruit with a really thick shell that keeps pesticides from seeping into the meat of the fruit that we actually eat.

3.  Onions

Onions are naturally resistant to pests so they don’t need to be sprayed with pesticides.  A mere 0.3% of onions tested were positive for pesticide residue.   Another bonus is that organic onions have the same levels of polyphenols as conventionally grown onions.

4.  Avocado

Avocados are a safe food that comes back with low pesticide residue.  The one thing you do have to be aware of is that both organic and conventional avocado growers use large amounts of copper as a fungicide.  Copper is an essential mineral, but it can be harmful in large doses.  As long as you aren’t eating multiple avocados a day you should be fine.

5.  Honey

The idea of organic honey is way cooler than it is practical. Keep in mind that bees can’t distinguish between conventionally grown flowers and organically grown ones, and that they have a range of five kilometers from their hive you can imagine that it is hard to verify exactly where they are grazing.  Buy local when possible and if you can talk to the bee farmer do your due diligence to find out about where he thinks his bees have been, but don’t sweat the small stuff here.

You can only control the controllables.

6.  Grapefruit

Grapefruit are the only citrus that ranked well in my Hierarchy of Fruit because they have a low glycemic load.  According to the EWG’s Clean 15 List they are also very low in pesticide residue.  Just don’t go messing it up by eating it with table sugar on top!

7.  Asparagus

The difference in price between organic and conventional asparagus is so ridiculous that it is hard for anyone to justify buying organic.  The good news is that asparagus is also one of the cleanest vegetables.

8.  Eggplant

Eggplant are consistently found to have the least amount of pesticide residue.  I can’t find much info on this one, but the facts are facts.

9.  Sweet Potato

Since sweet potatoes are tubers that grow underground farmers don’t usually spray their leaves that grow above ground.  Even if they do, research suggests that it doesn’t get into the part that we eat.  The only thing to be concerned about with sweet potatoes is the fungicide bath that some of them are dunked in after harvest.  Simply peeling the skin will get rid of most of that fungicide.

I still buy organic sweet potatoes if they are available and a reasonable price, but I don’t sweat it if they aren’t.  I'm from Louisiana so sweet potatoes are in my blood, organic or not.

10.  Farmed Oysters, Clams and Mussels

These ocean dwellers, called bivalves, are identical to wild ones.  They aren’t fed any GMO feed or sprayed with any pesticides.  There is no point in searching out organic here.

If you want to find out more about what is on your food this is a great resource you should check out.

What Can PLU Codes Tell You?

PLU-1

Other than helping out grocery store checkers and annoying me when I’m washing produce, are those stickers on my fruit and veggies good for anything?  It turns out that those stickers called PLU codes, or price lookup numbers, can actually be very informative when you are making buying decisions.

Cracking the Code

-       A four-digit PLU code tells you the produce is conventionally grown, meaning conventional chemicals like pesticides were used.

-       A five-digit code starting with a 9 applies to organically grown produce.

-       A five-digit code starting with an 8 identifies the item as genetically modified (GMO), like seedless grapes or watermelon.

This is just one more tool in your bag to help you make better decisions that optimize your SLAPP!

Dirty Dozen: 12 Foods You Should Always Buy Organic

fresh-produce

A grocery budget is like any other budget.  You have to know where to spend and where to save to maximize your dollar, except in this case you also want to optimize your health and fitness. In Why Buy Organic I talked about what you are getting and more importantly what you are not getting when you pay the extra money for organic food.

There isn’t much of a debate left on if organic food is better for you, but you still may be debating whether or not you can afford it.  Since you know I’m a ranking geek I created another hierarchy of the 12 most important foods to buy organic.  I call it my Dirty Dozen.

Hierarchy of Organic Foods

1.  Baby food

Babies are most susceptible to the hormone disrupting affects of pesticides.  There systems haven’t had the necessary time to develop defenses against xenoestrogens and the other nasties associated with conventional food.

2.  Full fat dairy

Raw, organic dairy is always my preference for a multitude of reasons that I talked about in Myth #2: the Milk Myth.  Think about it this way…You wouldn’t take steroids, anti-biotics and drink pesticides if you were breast-feeding would you?  Then why would you put yourself on the other end of it?

3.  Beef

When you eat an animal you are also eating everything that animal has ever eaten which means everything, both bad and good, is compounded.  This compounding affect is called bioconcentration.  The majority of pesticides and herbicides are fat-soluble meaning they accumulate in fat.  Since animals have far more fat than plants you are avoiding more potential poisoning when you eat organic meat.

Bioconcentration works for the positive when you eat organic meat as well.  Plants bioconcentrate nutrients from the soil, meaning a pound of grass, for example, has more nutrients than a pound of dirt in which it grows.  Animals take this a step further.  Their tissues bioconcentrate the nutrients the grass takes from the soil and the nutrients the grasses manufacture.

It’s also important to note that organic, grass-fed beef is high in CLA, an anti-inflammatory omega 3 fatty acid that tells our body to burn fat at a faster rate.  Conventionally raised meat is high in omega 6, an inflammatory fatty acid that has been shown to cause cancer growth when ratios are high in relation to omega 3.

4.  Chicken

For all the same reasons above and more.  It’s been discovered that the fat soluble pesticides in chicken feed transfer really efficiently into chicken tissues we end up eating.  Chickens are fed GMO corn and soy that has been sprayed to hell and back with Round-up, not to mention that arsenic has been found in conventionally raised chicken tissues.

5.  Eggs

Read above.  Fat-soluble pesticides transfer well into the egg yolks.

6.  Leafy Greens

This one comes down to surface area.  Leafy greens are 97% surface area that gets sprayed hard with conventional chemicals.  A good washing isn’t enough to remove all the harmful toxins the vegetables soak up.  Luckily, organic greens aren’t much more expensive than conventional.

7.  Berries

Berries are subjected to some of the heaviest pesticide loads.  If you also consider that berries have the highest concentration of secondary metabolites (e.g. antioxidants, polyphenols, and phytonutrients) that have been shown to be higher in organic berries that have had to fend for themselves you are getting a product that has far more good stuff and far less bad stuff.

8.  Anything you eat regularly or large volume that aren’t on my clean list coming up tomorrow.

9.  Apples

Conventionally grown apples come back time and time again as the produce that absorbs the highest level of pesticides that get transferred to us when we eat them.

10. Cucumbers

When they are in season organic cucumbers aren’t that much more expensive than conventional ones.  Going in-season is always your best bet when you are on a budget.

11.  Grapes

Grapes thin skin pesticides that are sprayed on them to be soaked up at high levels.

12.  Tomatoes

Similar to grapes with the thin skin.  Tomatoes are also very heavily sprayed in some regions.

Three for the road:

• Celery
• Peppers
• Potatoes

Sometimes at the store it can be difficult to be sure exactly what you are getting in the produce section.  Check out my article What Can PLU Codes Tell You to find out what those stickers on your produce mean.