http://www.t-nation.com/category.jsp?categoryID=37 T-Nation: Shugart's Hammer en-us Thu, 23 May 2013 13:56:54 GMT Thu, 23 May 2013 13:56:54 GMT http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss T-Nation via P-APP-12 webmaster@biotest.net webmaster@biotest.net 37 60 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=5504535

Running Makes You Fat
Sandra is running on the treadmill when I arrive at the gym. She's covered in sweat and her running form is starting to deteriorate.

"Man," I think, "she must've been running a long time already."

My lifting workout takes about an hour, and as I'm getting some foam rolling in afterward, I glance over at the treadmill section.

Sandra is still running.

And here's the thing: I see her doing this every time I go to that gym. I think maybe she came with the gym. Maybe she has a cot in the back.

I admire her dedication, but the fact is that Sandra doesn't look all that great. She's on the skinny-fat side, and every weekend she looks a little more broken down. And truthfully, she's added some body fat in the year I've been going there.

As I'm leaving the gym, Sandra finally gets off the treadmill... and limps painfully over to a stair climber and starts it up.

I don't know Sandra very well, but I can guess what's going on here. She's fighting a mental battle with herself. She's cardio'ing her atrophied butt off, but she's not looking any better. In fact, she's looking worse.

She's stuck in the cardio mindset. "You have to do cardio of course. And when it stops working, you have to do more cardio, and when that stops working..." You get the idea. In other words, once you get efficient at it, you're only maintaining, if you're lucky. As Charles Staley said, "Jogging: The more you do the less it does for you."

If only Sandra would believe that lifting weights would give her the body she wanted, with very little, if any, traditional cardio required.

The Study

A 2006 study backs this up. In the study, 12,568 runners were tracked for 9 years. The majority of the runners gained body fat and increase waist circumference during that time period, even if they never quit running. Especially the men.

The runners who gained the most fat around their waists were the ones who decreased their milage, mainly due to the inevitable running injuries.

But get this: even runners who maintained or mildly increased their milage got fatter!

The only runners who didn't get fatter were the ones who significantly increased their milage, most by 3 times as much running per week.

In other words, unless you get to near-marathoner level, running makes you fatter. And if you ever have to quit or cut back due to work or injury, your endurance-exercise adapted body will quickly pack on body fat and your waist size will dramatically increase.

Think Conditioning, Not Cardio

If running is your sport, then this isn't for you. You've chosen your sport, and you probably don't care how it makes you look and you probably don't care about being strong or building muscle. I'm not here to convince you to drop it.

But if you're a regular person who suffers from the myopic belief that "you gotta do cardio to lose fat" then I'm here to tell you that you're wrong. The more cardio you "have" to do, the crappier your diet probably is. With the right food and supplements, weight training is all you need. (And yes, studies have also shown that weight training-only is just as beneficial to heart health as endurance work.)

Even experienced lifters panic and turn to cardio. If you enjoy catabolism (muscle loss), increased anxiety, and increased cravings, then traditional cardio is a good choice. For the rest of us sane folks, here's an alternative with none of those drawbacks:

1) First, fix your diet. No, it's not as good as you think it is. Do better.

2) Perform 10 minutes or so of intense conditioning work after your weight training or in another session. Choices include sled work, Prowler, battle ropes, sprints, kettlebell swings, jump rope, and things of that nature.



One of my favorites is to do kettlebell swings, ab work during rest periods, then more kettlebell swings, repeated. It will feel like a very long 10 minutes! If I do this as a separate training session or an otherwise "off" day, I'll have a serving of MAG-10 around the workout.

Are You a Runner or a Lifter?

Sandra probably lost weight when she first starting running. But her body quickly adapted, and with no weight training she's stuck in a downward spiral. TNation readers are smarter than that, but we sometimes forget, panic, and turn to cardio. It's an easy trap to fall into, but also one that's easy to avoid.

Fine-tune your diet and use conditioning work if you need it. Just remember, running is a sport, not the best way to lose fat and keep it off.






Reference

Williams, P. Wood. The Effects of Changing Exercise Levels on Weight and Age-Related Weight Gain. International Journal of Obesity. 2006. 30)3), 543-551.












]]> Mon, 13 May 2013 21:07:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=5504535 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=5499620 You're Capable of More


"Three more," Christian Thibaudeau tells me in the Biotest Training Lab.

I can't imagine doing three more reps. The Prowler pushes, the Dead-Squats, the lunges... all with virtually no rest at the end of an hour of other brutal training techniques.

The oxygen debt is kicking in hard, I feel like I'm drowning, my legs are quivering, my hands won't even grip right anymore, and my muscles are sizzling like a steak left out on the grill. I pause for a breath, dig deep, and bang out three more reps.

Thibaudeau isn't a rah-rah kinda coach. No motivational speeches, no "you wussy!" middle-school coach insults. He just evaluates your condition on the fly and instructs, often knowing more about your abilities than even you do. He knew exactly how many reps I had left in me, even if I didn't.

The Smartest Kid in Special Ed

Ask anyone who considers himself a hard trainer if he gives it everything he's got in the gym and he'll say, "You bet I do!" You've said it, I've said it, we've all said it. So how come we miraculously discover that we have more in the tank when someone, like a good coach, pushes us?

Since 1998, TNation has been providing its readers with solid training programs. But one thing has always bugged me. How do we know if those who adopt these programs are really training hard enough to benefit from them?

Just like the self-defined "clean eater," the self-defined hard trainer is probably falling short. Either he has no idea what hard training really is, or he's convinced himself that he's a bad-ass in the effort department. Perhaps he's the hardest training guy at Planet Fitness, which is like being the smartest kid in special ed.

Can we really trust someone when they say, "This program didn't work for me." Maybe they didn't work for the program.

I had two people do the V-Diet at my old Texas gym. Both told me the workouts weren't challenging enough. I volunteered to put them through a workout to make sure they were doing it correctly. Result: one guy couldn't finish it and the other guy finished it but almost threw up.

Magically, the "unchallenging" workout became too tough for them when I made them actually follow the workout and put down their cell phones.

What's the Solution?

First, practice a little honesty and introspection. Are you really following your TNation workout of choice? Or are you substituting exercises, extending recommended rest periods, ignoring tempo cues, and generally phoning it in like a bored porn star?

Second, train with a real coach or a motivating partner. Find out what your upper limit really is. Chances are, it's higher than you think. Like me, you may discover that you do have three more reps in you, or you're capable of using more weight or adopting a higher frequency of training. Even John Meadows trains with Dave Tate because he knows he'll be pushed.

The lesson here is easy: You're capable of more than you think. Go find out how much.



]]> Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:45:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=5499620 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4213661 The Power of Uni-Tasking
Jonathan

Jonathan sits in an empty room facing a disabled laptop.

The room is in a small office he rents. There is no furniture except for a simple table and a chair. The walls are empty. There are no windows.

The computer is equally sparse. It has no ability to connect to the Internet, no music player, no games. It has been wiped clean of everything except for Word.

Jonathan Franzen is considered by many to be the greatest living American novelist. Yet every day he battles with himself to get words onto the screen.


Franzen struggles with a wandering mind and the urge to multi-task, to do many things at once. The barren office and handicapped computer is his way of getting rid of the clutter, both physical and mental, and focus.

That's called uni-tasking, and we're slowly losing our ability to do it into today's complex, multi-layered world.

"Bertha"

Bertha has been training at Gold's Gym for 45 minutes so far today. If I were telling you this in person I'd be tempted to add sarcastic air-quotes to that. "Training." That would be more like it.

Bertha (I don't know her real name, but since she's overweight I'm giving her a big-girl name) has done leg extensions, leg curls, and an ab machine so far. What Bertha hasn't done is hang up her cell phone. She doesn't even stop talking during a set.

Bertha doesn't want to be in the gym. She's "escaping" and trying to keep her mind off the task at hand. She's multi-tasking not to be efficient, but to get her mind off her workout. This leads Bertha to commit the worst of all gym sins: going through the motions of training with no effort, no intensity, and no focus.

The Freedom of Focus

Franzen and Bertha represent two extremes: one uni-tasks and has great success; the other multi-tasks and -- judging by her always-flabby body -- fails.

It's tough to uni-task these days. I often find myself doing four or five things at once: working on multiple articles at one time, answering emails, updating my Twitter page and getting caught up in other tweets, taking and making calls, planning workouts, reading studies and blogs, experimenting in the kitchen, etc etc.

And what I find is that when I overdo the multi-tasking, very few tasks actually get gone. Or, things get done but they're not as good as they could have been.

My new productivity goal is to get better at uni-tasking. Pick a project and get it done... without starting two more projects at the same time, or reading articles, or checking email. And this goal carries over to the gym too.

I'd never be a Bertha, but I could do better at focusing on the task at hand -- not just the workout, but the set and even the rep. Like Franzen, I have a restless mind.

But when I analyze my best workouts, I know that they involve hyper-focus, getting lost in my iPod and bearing down on every rep of every exercise. The rest of the gym disappears. And so does my worries and a big chunk of my life stress.

Listen, we have to multi-task in today's hustle and bustle life, and part of me thrives on it, but there's a time and a place for uni-tasking. There is freedom in focus. We could all learn to better "be here now" as yogi Ram Das put it.

The gym is your place to shut the world out for a while, let those cleansing and sanity-renewing endorphins flow, to purge and release, to sweat and feel your body getting stronger and leaner.

In other words, get in there and uni-task. Go workout... and nothing else. Leave the iPhone in the car, block out the rest of the gym with your own music if you need to, and dig deep. Meditate.

Be there, and nowhere else.


]]> Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:52:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4213661 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=2156143 Why I "Hate" Fat People

"Why do you hate fat people so much, Chris?"

It's a question I get often. And of course, the truth is that I do not hate fat people. In fact, helping fat people is a big part of my job and my passion in this field.

I used to be fat, and I know how the world simply changes when the fat is gone. It goes far beyond the numbers on a scale, and I want all overweight people to experience that.

But...

I hate laziness. I hate excuse-making. I hate rationalization and self-bullshitting. I hate willful ignorance. I hate watching people piss away their potential. I hate it when people blame everyone but themselves. I hate mental weakness.

And that pretty much describes most fat people.

Yet at the same time, I'll bend over backward to help those who truly want to change. I've been there. And here is a much nicer place.

Then I read stuff like this below and think, "Hmmm, maybe I really do hate fat people." Because, as you'll see, this isn't a "live and let live" topic. Fat people affect all of us. Check this out:

[Info from MSM Money]

1. If there were no fat people, it would be cheap to fly. It takes a lot of jet-fuel these days to haul all those enormous asses around.

2. Fat people cost employers 45 billion per year. And fat people take more sick days and are less productive. You're less likely to get a raise if your employer is losing money on his fat employees. (Can't fire them though, that's "fatism.")

3. Fat people jack up everyone's insurance rates and health care costs. Who do you think has to pay for those double-wide wheelchairs?

4. If no one in America were fat, every household would pocket an extra $4,270 a year.

Of course, there's a lot of money to be made on fat people too. I'm cool with that as long as this is somehow helping them drop the lard: exercise machines, gym memberships, fat loss supplements, diet and nutrition books, etc.

But as much as I love capitalism, it irks me to see the booming market that revolves around supporting and catering to fat people: extra sturdy toilet seats, super-sized furniture, "reaching tools" for the bathroom (yes, that's exactly what you think it is).

Think I'm kidding? Check these out:

http://www.bigjohntoiletseat.c...
http://www.oversizesolutions.c...
http://www.amplestuff.com

How about this? If you can't wipe your own ass or reach down to clip your toenails or sit on a toilet without pulverizing it, lose some fucking weight! Too fat to fit into an airplane seat? Well then, you don't get to fly! Problem solved.

I believe that when we cater to weak or lazy people we encourage them to be weaker and lazier. It's why the welfare system failed and created generations of dependents.

Now our grocery stores have to provide electric carts for "disabled" people. Well, "disabled" better mean you're missing your fucking legs and/or you're 107 years old. Hey, guess who needs to be increasing their NEPA by walking? Yeah, you, ya 300 pound lazy schmuck!

Oh, and guess who pays for the $2000 electric scooter? I do, through higher food costs. Gee, thanks. Between that and the fat truck driver (overweight drivers cause vehicles to use more gas -- 18 gallons a year at least), my chicken breasts and broccoli cost more.

I say we program the electric scooters to stop working whenever junk food or sugared-colas are added to the cart. Better yet, we program them to tip over.

And we don't give our kids fat sensitivity training. No, we teach them to point and make "eeeeeew" noises when they see fat people.

We make it hard to be fat, not easier. If we treated babies like fatties, they'd never learn to walk.

66% of the US population is now overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. It costs us all money. If they want our help, we give it to them. We share our training, diet, and supplement knowledge. Gladly.

But if they're lazy, if they make excuses, blame others, or embrace their ignorance, then let them stay fat and die. And hey, we have products for that too:

http://www.oversizecasket.com/...


]]> Sun, 31 Mar 2013 04:37:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=2156143 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4302706 Be Assertive, Get Ripped
Mike has a decision to make. He has three choices. Only one is correct.

The situation: Mike's officemate has walked over to his desk and handed him a piece of birthday cake. It's always someone's birthday in the office. Cake is policy. But Mike is trying to get lean for summer and has tightened his diet.

Choice 1: Mike can get aggressive: "No, you waddling whale, I don't want cake. If I ate cake I might look like you someday. Then I'd have to harpoon myself and donate my carcass to starving Japanese orphans!"

Choice 2: Mike can be passive and eat the cake "out of politeness."

Choice 3: Mike can say, "None for me, but thanks" and smile. When his officemate persists -- and she will -- he can say, "No, thanks" again, smile again, and look her in the eyes. Firm, but polite.

In the spectrum of communication, there are three levels:

1. Aggressive
2. Assertive
3. Passive

Aggressiveness works, but it also makes you a flaming asshole.


Back off with that bagel, fat-pants!
Passiveness is "nicer" but it's also a big fat FAIL.

The correct choice is assertiveness.

Psychologist Terese Katz came up with the idea of applying assertiveness training to dieters. And she's right on the money. This type of behavior training is normally used to help people stop acting like doormats, or stop being assholes. (Sadly, most assholes, being assholes, have no idea that they're assholes. It's part of the whole assholipathy mental disorder.)

One study showed that at least 50% of dieters feel pressured by others to eat. Dr. Suzette Edwards uses the term "assertive dieting." I like that. I've always found that the best solution is to be friendly and excited about what you're doing, not ashamed of it. "No thanks, I'm eating this homemade hummus I brought instead. I've sworn off sweets and flour-containing foods. I'm feeling great and getting leaner. Here, try my hummus..."

See, friendly and fun, yet firm in your refusal. And 9 times out of 10, they'll start asking you about your diet and admire you for your decision. Oddly, this usually comes right after they attempt to wreck your plan. People are weird.

Lesson: Don't be a jerk. But don't be a meek mouse either.

Be proud. Stand firm. Be assertive. -- Chris

]]> Thu, 21 Mar 2013 12:31:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4302706 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4268759 Are "They" Trying to Kill Us?
"There are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids, but not essential carbohydrates. The actual dietary requirement for carbs in the diet is zero. Let's say we put all T-Nation readers on an island for a year. We give half of them nothing but protein and fats for that year. The other half gets all carbohydrates -- no protein, no fat. That group, the carb-only group, would be dead in a year. The other group will do just fine."

That's from my first interview with Dr. Jonny Bowden, who's one of my go-to guys for common sense, bullshit-free nutrition advice.

I'm bringing it up not to preach about the benefits of a lower-carb or higher-fat diet, but to illustrate a social and political point.

Isn't it kinda weird that "they" tell you to get most of your calories from carbs when carbs are the one macronutrient you could actually live entirely without?

And isn't it weird that the macronutrient that you'd literally die without -- fat -- is the main macronutrient they tell you to avoid?

Doesn't matter if you're a high-carb dieter or a "paleo" guy, you gotta admit... that's pretty odd.

And now the new enemy is salt. Certain politicians have actually proposed legislation and outright bans on salt which, you guessed it, you would die without.

Now this isn't to say you should avoid all carbs or eat kosher salt by the handful while re-watching your Walking Dead DVDs, but it goes to show you just how out of whack "they" are when it comes to food, health, and fitness.

(And oh yeah, earlier this month they decided that you actually don't need much Vitamin D. They are, as usual, dead wrong.)

Who are "they"? The usual enemies of good nutrition: many lobotomized dieticians, many drug-dealing doctors, most laughable fitness magazines, all government agencies it seems -- including the Department of Agriculture, responsible for the food pyramid farce -- and just about every "health expert" who has a column for Yahoo News or your local newspaper.

So, let's summarize:

* If it's an essential nutrient for survival, avoid it.

* If your body doesn't need it, make it the foundation of every meal.

* If it's clearly harmless, limit it.

* If it's obviously harmful, have 6 servings per day. Minimal.

* If you're deficient in it, don't supplement with it because you're probably too stupid to do it right. Instead, go to your doctor and get six prescription drugs to cover the symptoms of the deficiency.

All that makes me wonder if this is simply bad info or a clever method of population control. Maybe they're trying to kill us? Sometimes it's just hard to tell the difference between ignorance or malevolence.

Dr. Bowden's advice? He says that when you see a dietician coming, run the other way.

My advice? Join the resistance.
]]> Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:45:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4268759 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=5480915 Be Offensive


You're not imagining it.

When you decide to better yourself, you'll be surrounded by people trying to stop you.

Action offends the inactive.

Oh, they'll usually be polite about it. Offering you foods that work against your nutrition plan, often presented as gifts or treats. Expressing false worry about your supplement usage, your food choices, and the number of days you go to the gym. They'll find plausible reasons for you to cheat on your diet or skip a workout. They'll get mad at you for how your healthy choices are affecting their lives.

If anger doesn't work, they'll bribe, they'll mock, and they'll carefully plant negative seeds.

All because you've decided to be better, to be more.

It's the story of the crabs in the bucket. Put a bunch of crabs in a bucket and some will try to crawl out and avoid becoming dinner. The rest won't try to escape, but they'll reach up and pull you down.

When you set a new goal, physical or otherwise, you have unintentionally pointed out other people's weaknesses. Their faults. The dreams they've long given up. They sit around and want and you have royally pissed them off by doing.

Piss them off anyway. Offend them anyway. Crawl out of the bucket and find new friends and better relationships.

Remember, action offends the inactive. And that's not your problem.








]]> Thu, 20 Dec 2012 23:53:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=5480915 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4284250 Get Bloody, Fatboy
The Gauntlet of Negative Influence

I could smell it before I even opened the door to my truck. From the left, a mixture of pizza and baking bread. From the right, Mexican food and burgers. I opened the door and could hear people ordering at the drive-thru's: chicken strips, fries, tacos, sugary drinks the size of beer kegs...

My location?

Gym parking lot.

When I first joined this gym five years ago, there was one fast-food restaurant nearby. Now there are four within a stone's throw, and at least a half-dozen more within sight.

I'm not tempted by fast food or the reheated residue they serve at places like Chili's or The Olive Garden. Transfat-soaked flour just isn't appetizing anymore, thanks in part to the taste and craving changes the V-Diet gave me.

But I bet for a lot of people who go to my gym, those smells are overpowering. They have to practically run a gauntlet of negative influence in order to get into the gym.

People who struggle with body fat often suffer from physical and psychological addictions to unhealthy, body-wrecking foods. The book, The End of Overeating, digs deeply into this topic. It's really shocking. Food manufacturers make no secret of how they combine certain ingredients and chemicals to illicit the maximal addictive response from customers.

Think of it this way: Real food is like a coca plant. Fairly benign. Fast food and most boxed foods you get at the grocery store are like crack cocaine: a gross bastardization and weaponization of the original material, a crime against nature.

That's why I often refer to the V-Diet and the Pulse Fast protocol as "food rehab." People go into drug rehab to remove themselves from a toxic environment, to mentally and physically kick an addiction to a harmful substance that's hijacked their brain chemistry and their daily behaviors.

Junk food can be placed into that same category: It's bad for you, you know it's bad for you, but you can't seem to stay away from it. Sound familiar?

The drug addict or alcoholic can't just "cut back" on his substance of choice. He can't use drugs in moderation. And neither can the junk food addict. He or she needs rehab dietary rehab.

Time to Get Bloody

It's not easy, and you don't get to live in a swank resort/treatment center like a Hollywood starlet or an aging rock star. You still have to go through your daily routine, your usual gauntlet of negative influences -- home, work, social life... family, friends, peers, coworkers. That's going to take a strict plan like the V-Diet or Pulse Fast, but it's also going to require that you make a firm decision to change.

There no namby-pamby in the rehab game, no half-assed efforts or reluctant promises. This is a back alley brawl and you don't enter into that kind of fight unless you're ready to get bloody.

Hyperbole? Not really. I've been there, and many successful V-Life readers have been there. They'll tell you: if you don't enter into this with the right attitude, then you're going to get your ass kicked.

If you're not ready to run the gauntlet, stay home. -- Chris
]]> Wed, 21 Nov 2012 21:30:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4284250 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4113158 No More Meds: The Food-Like Effect
Robb Wolf sent me an advanced copy of his book, The Paleo Solution.

I'm skimming it now, and one bit has already stuck in my mind. Robb is telling the story of one of his clients, a 61 year old woman named Sally. Sally was overweight, had low thyroid, high blood pressure, gall bladder issues, and suffered from depression.

Robb eased her into a no-grain, low-sugar diet and a workout program. Within two months she was off her thyroid meds, her gall bladder issues and symptoms of depression had disappeared, and she'd dropped four pants sizes.

Now, here's the kicker: When Sally told her doc about what she'd been doing, he replied, "Well, it must be something else. Food can't do all that!"

Face. Palm.

Amazing, isn't it? Many of today's doctors seek only to cover the symptoms with drugs rather than fix the problem with food. And most problems are fixable, or at least preventable, with food. (My guess is that they've given up on people: "Well, this person isn't going to lose weight and exercise, so I may as well just drug 'em." Or, maybe the docs are just ignorant? There's precious little nutrition taught in med school. How about this one: They have to become drug pushers to pay off those income-eating insurance premiums they're forced to buy because of our lawsuit-happy society.)

Often we hear about how a certain super-food has "drug-like effects!" I get it. But if you really think about, if you understand how powerful a crap-free diet really is, then you'll see where that terminology is back-assward.

No, dummy, the food doesn't have "drug-like effects." It has food-like effects. That's what good food does.

And the same goes for any drug that tries to mimic what healthy food choices can do naturally. Those drugs -- assuming they actually work without causing a plethora of deleterious side effects that require even more pharmaceutical voodoo to treat -- have food-like effects.

And when we can capture and concentrate the good stuff in food and put it in convenient supplement form, then that's even better. Think about Flameout, the fatty acid supplement made by Biotest. If dozens of diseases and conditions are caused by, or exacerbated by, bodily inflammation -- and they are -- and if fish oil can "put out" those destructive flames -- which it can -- then most people could forgo their future dependence on prescription drugs.

It's true, the so-called "diseases of civilization" that can wreck our bodies aren't caused by a drug-deficiency, as some doctors seem to believe. You don't catch Type II diabetes because your body lacks Avandia or Januvia. You get diabetes because of the crappy foods you choose to put into your mouth.

To quote Robb Wolf's book, "I get it. Bread, pasta, and cookies are yummy. They are also likely killing you."

So, it's up to you. Healthy food now or an overflowing medicine cabinet you can't afford later?

It's not your doctor's call. It's not your government's call.

It's your call. -- Chris

]]> Sat, 17 Nov 2012 15:25:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4113158 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=3118156 Seek Discomfort
The other day I was perusing some old pics of Arnold when I came across the one above. Something about it struck me as odd, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Then it hit me... Look at his feet.

Probably not too comfortable propped up on that metal bar. But Arnold did it anyway because it was probably the only way to perform those elevated triceps dips. There was no padded machine for that exercise, so he had to "make do."

Arnold was also known to use trees as pull-up bars in his youth, and he once broke into his local gym to train in the winter, writing later in his biography that the barbells were so cold that his hands froze to them as he began to sweat.

Now, compare that to today's average gym member. Everything has to be padded and clean and convenient. If conditions aren't perfect, they won't train at all. No bar pad? Can't squat then. Raining outside? Good enough reason to skip today's workout.

Since I cut my teeth in dirty school and garage facilities, I've never had a problem with discomfort in the gym. I had to make do in the early days. Bent bars, improper equipment, holes in the floor, no AC, you name it. I once trained in a gym so ratty that none of the dumbbells matched. Se we had to bench with, say, an 85 pound dumbbell in one hand and an 80 in the other, then switch hands on the next set.

It was uncomfortable. We didn't have pretty, perfect equipment. We had to jury-rig and made-do and get ugly.

But we actually felt pretty privileged because we'd read about how old-school strongmen didn't even have power racks. If they wanted to squat, they'd have to turn the bar up on one end, then basically let it fall across their shoulders to get it into squat position. Hell, at least we had a squat rack, rickety and rusty though it was.

I train in a nice gym these days, but part of me actually misses the crappy made-do gyms of the past. Then again, it's nice to have bathroom facilities. Wanna hear how we used to go into the corner of the old gyms and piss into Gatorade bottles? Didn't think so.

Discomfort is a good thing. It toughens you up, and it's often a sign of good things to come. For example, discomfort in the gym when trying a new exercise leads to new muscle growth.

Discomfort can be physical and psychological. Trying barbell good mornings for the first time is physically uncomfortable. The bar hurts. You have to bend at the waist and activate muscles you may not have used much before. And the next day you're sore from your hams all the way into your lower back.

It's also psychologically uncomfortable. You have to stick your butt out and bend over. It can look almost sexual. Some people are so uncomfortable sticking their asses out at the rest of the gym that they simply won't perform the exercise, no matter how effective it is for them.

But with both types of discomfort, there are rewards: a well-developed, strong posterior chain -- better hamstrings, better glutes, a strong and stable low back...if you can face the discomfort.

You know I'm about to make an analogy about how lessons we learn in the gym transfer over to "real life," right? Well, here it comes.

Just about every time I've felt discomfort creeping into my life and I've decided to experience it and face it, good things have happened. Whether it's something big (taking a risk with my career) or something small (having the balls to go up and talk to a beautiful woman) 99% of the time it lead to something positive (better income, more sex, etc.) But it was uncomfortable at first.

By avoiding discomfort you miss out on some of the best things in life. There's an old saying about critics that goes like this, "If you want to avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." The same can be said of discomfort:

If you want to avoid discomfort, do nothing, experience nothing, be nothing.

You won't be uncomfortable. But you won't really be alive either.

Seek discomfort. Do front squats. Talk to that girl.

Take risks.

Live.

]]> Fri, 02 Nov 2012 05:23:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=3118156 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4376456 Choose Life Over Cardio
Vertical climb: 2000 feet
Steepest grade: 68%
Number of ties: 2744
Air: Thin. Very thin for this Texan.

It's called the Manitou Incline, originally built as a cable car system to carry materials to build pipelines on Pikes Peak. Now all that's left are the wooden ties, which look like irregular steps all the way up the mountain.

Visualize doing step-ups for a mile. A mile up.


Took about an hour to reach the top. Quads? On fire. Glutes? Exhausted. Calves? Murdered. Heart rate? Through the roof the whole time.

Dear StairMill at the gym: screw you.

I once worked with a guy on his training plan who played strenuous pick-up basketball for 6 hours a week. After I outlined his weight training program, he asked me, "Chris, what about cardio? What do I need to do for that?"

He had a disconnect between the 6 hours of running up and down a court he did weekly and "doing cardio." Apparently, you're not "doing cardio" unless you're at the gym, wearing a Bodybugg, and riding a fancy machine that doesn't go anywhere.

Maybe it's good to have a disconnect like this. Don't "do cardio" if you can help it. Instead, do stuff. Experience life. Move around a lot.

If you're worried that going for a strenuous hike (or skiing, surfing, biking, etc.) is going to negatively affect muscle gains in the gym, well, have a shot of MAG-10 or eat a FINiBAR pre-event. If you're still worried, then consider relaxing a little, perhaps getting a life.

If you have the option, choose life over cardio.

-- Chris

PS: I now have a new blog HERE. Check it out. ]]> Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:38:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4376456 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4320837 V-Life Private Forum & More!
We're working on assimilating Velocity Life into T NATION.

You'll still find all the V-Life forums in the FORUMS section at the TNATION main page: http://www.t-nation.com

This blog will be there too.

And finally, V-Life regulars will be getting their own private group, sort of like the T-Cell Alpha group. This will be a semi-private discussion forum where only certain folks will be allowed in. Everyone can read it, only a few can post there. You can see it under GROUPS here (though it's empty as I type this):

http://tnation.t-nation.com/...&s=forumsNavTop

If you'd like to be invited into the private group, I'll have to tap you in. So, who wants in?

If you're a V-Life regular who enjoys the feel and philosophy here, just reply below and say "Tap me, Chris!"

Wait, no, don't say that. That's weird. But you get the idea.

Thanks!

]]> Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:22:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4320837 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4276080 Abs: The New Status Symbol?
Money expert Dave Ramsey has a catchphrase for his radio show that I've always liked. It goes something like this:

"...the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice."

I like that. Some of the most successful, wealthiest people I know live modestly, drive paid-off cars over five years old, and prefer Timex to Rolex.

Some of the brokest folks I know are just the opposite. The bank owns their new cars and Visa owns their fancy timepieces. They are walking facades of wealth, big houses built on foundations of particle board.


One of the predicted consumer trends for 2012 is further investment in personal health rather than the mindless pursuit and accumulation of more "stuff." People are, supposedly, going to spend more money on getting healthy, losing fat, and keeping fit.

So, instead of decorating a chubby, pre-diabetic body with jewelry and sliding it into shiny 2011 convertibles, they're going to spend their cash on gyms, better food, exercise equipment, and supplements.

Man, let's hope so.

I think your body is, in many ways, your ultimate "status symbol" anyway. Studies show that we're judged on our bodies. Fat people are thought to be lazy and lacking in self-control. Fit people are judged to be disciplined and more intelligent than the overweight. Fair or not, these snap judgments dictate the way people treat you, from your boss to that hot barista you'd like to see naked.

Fact: How you take care of your body tells us more about you than the objects you've purchased with your credit card.

With the world getting fatter, the fit are going to stand out even more. Muscular, lean, and athletic will become a rarity. Maybe the new status symbols will be lack of dependence on prescription drugs, a non-protruding belly, or the rare ability to take the stairs without getting gassed.


You won't have to tactlessly and tackily stick your pink, conflict-free diamond ring into people's faces; you'll just have to walk into the room. Stepping out of your 2005 Honda looking healthy and functional will carry more status and illicit more respect than struggling to get your plus-sized ass out of a limited-edition Z06 Corvette.

The whole "status" thing is a bit stomach-turning to begin with, but sociologists tell us that we can't escape it; it's just built into our genes.

Okay, fine.

But let's choose to display our status not with baubles on loan but with a body that reflects hard work, wise decisions, and engaged living.

What do you think? -- Chris





PS: Rants (and more) in 140 characters or less. Follow me on Twitter.
]]> Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:24:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4276080 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4242894 End the Trend
The Tug

The woman at the restaurant did it.

The college guy at the Apple store did it.

The lady working at the bank did it.

I used to do it too. A lot.

I call it the tug. This is when an overweight person habitually, perhaps unconsciously, tugs at his or her shirt, trying to adjust it so that the body fat underneath doesn't show up so badly.

The cynical side of me thinks, "Yeah, dude, that's really going to help. Now that your T-shirt isn't clinging so much to your gut and love handles, I totally can't see that you're a good 65 pounds overweight!"


The other side of me, the side that remembers very well the psychological torment of being overweight, understands and empathizes.

The tug doesn't help at all, of course. It only shows that the person is self-conscious... and he should be.

That's right, I'm glad to see the tug. More fat people should be tuggers.

A Disturbing Trend

You see, I don't go for this emerging attitude that fatness, sluggishness, and the early onset of easily-preventable disease is the "new normal." I want fat people to be aware that they are fat -- just like I was -- so they'll do something about it -- just like I did.

I know they're miserable. I know they hate feeling heavy, immobile, unattractive, and depressed. Please, be self-conscious, be uncomfortable, and then you'll want to change. You'll be happier, healthier, and I won't have to pay for all the health care you'll soon need.

Now, at this point, you either think I'm being harsh or you're scratching your head and thinking, "Well, no duh, Chris! Who in their right mind wants overweight people to stay that way? There is no opposing viewpoint to yours, Don Quixote!"

Actually, there is.

I read an article recently calling for the fashion industry to use models more representative of the typical American female. Okay, I get it. Perhaps 17-year old anorexics who live on Tic-Tacs and cigarettes shouldn't be offered up as the ideal female physique. I can get behind that. Drink a protein shake and pick up a barbell, Pancake Ass!

But that wasn't the writer's point.

The writer noted that the average female is 5'3" and 165 pounds. Why don't models look like that, the writer asked.

Well, because fashion designers want the clothes to look good. And the "average" female today is overweight. And overweight doesn't look all that great.



Remember, the new average in North America is fat. Most people, according to the latest stats, are either overweight or obese. And don't give me that, "Oh that's just because BMI doesn't take into account lean muscle mass..." Right. Go to Wal-Mart; look around. Not exactly a bunch of bodybuilders and 5' 11" female athletes walking around, are there?

Watch for this trend: Instead of promoting healthier eating habits and more exercise, you're going to start seeing a push toward making fat people feel better about themselves.

The problem?

Diabetes doesn't give a fuck about your self-esteem.

Those people you'd like to date, the ones who look right through you like you're invisible? They don't give a fuck about whether or not you feel okay with your weight. To them, you're just unattractive. Why? Because our genes program us to not be attracted to a diseased individual (bad for breeding), and being fat leads to a buffet of diseases and disorders.

And it doesn't matter if the fashion fops start using "normal" sized models. You're going to feel bad and die younger whether the bitches are a size 2 or a size 14.

Harsh? Maybe.

Boo-hoo.

Are You Ready?

The TNATION lifestyle isn't about coddling your fragile feelings or pampering your self-esteem. We're here for those who want to buck the trend of rampant chubbiness and preventable disease and make a change -- for those that want to get healthy, get lean, build some muscle, and perform like an athlete.

That's who I want to help, whether it's the 12% body fat guy looking to get single-digit shredded, or the 200 pound woman ready to flip her life upside down and start fresh.

If you are offended by what I've written here, then you should not be here.

You are not ready.

-- Chris



]]> Sat, 28 Apr 2012 07:31:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4242894 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4341644 The Story of the 3 Numbers

What story is your diet telling you?

And what's the best way to hear that story?

The foods you put into your body tell you a story. The wrong foods tell you the story of excess body fat, discomfort, mental anguish, and ultimately, disease.

Put the right foods into your body and you'll soon be told a better story -- a better story that turns into a good story, a good story that becomes a great story.

If you don't like the current story, then something is wrong with your diet. Training can certainly make your story better, but make no mistake: whether your story has a happy ending or a sad ending is determined by your diet. And you determine your diet.

Are you hearing the story your body is telling you? If not -- or if you hear it but can't seem to follow the plot -- then take out the tape measure and wrap it around the fattest part of your belly area. Now do it again a couple of inches below that measurement, then a couple of inches above it.

Those three measurements, for the average male, will make his story clear and easy to follow.

If the largest belly measurement is 40 inches or more, your story is going to be a short one, and tragic. The closer you get to 40 inches the sadder the story will become. Think medications, disability, and social invisibility. Health begins to deteriorate at about 37 inches, and even a waist size of 34 to 36 inches doubles the risk of diabetes.

If you're creeping over 37 inches, please don't tell yourself that it's just because of your massive core musculature. The story your body tells you is true. Don't try to turn it into fiction.

The bathroom scale tells a convoluted story, full of twists and misdirection. The mirror tells a true story, but our eyes and our minds sometimes skip important chapters.

The tape measure tells the real story, whether you want to hear it or not. Listen to those three numbers closely. Are they moving up or down?

Finally, remember that you are ultimately the author of your story. You write it with the foods you choose and the life you lead.

What's your story? Get a tape measure, and listen.

]]> Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:36:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4341644 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4439913 You Don't Know What You Want!
Vanilla World

In the world of flavors, vanilla rules.

From ice cream to protein powder, vanilla outsells them all.

If Biotest put out a survey asking our customers to suggest a new flavor, we'd get all manner of impassioned recommendations. Cookie dough, rocky road, mint chocolate chip, peanut butter, ham sandwich...

Forum arguments would break out. Customers would demand the new flavors, beg for them, offer bribes, or threaten us with a prison shanking if we didn't produce tropical-pineapple Metabolic Drive Low Carb.


Then, when Biotest took heed of their passionate pleas and came out with new flavors... they'd buy vanilla.

As a flavor fan myself, I don't completely understand it. But I've studied the market enough (and listened to Biotest bossman Tim Patterson enough) to understand the truth of it: people buy vanilla and chocolate. Mostly vanilla.

This may simply have something to do with the versatility of the flavor, whether you're talking ice cream or protein supplements. But I think we can learn something else here.

Opinion polls are tricky. What people say they want and what they'll actually invest in are often two different things. There's all sorts of psychology going on under the surface. With voting, sometimes they'll tell a friend, coworker or pollster the answer they think he or she wants to hear -- or the popular or politically correct answer -- then go into the voting booth and pull a very different lever.

Back to product marketing, Henry Ford once said that if he'd asked people what they wanted, they would've asked for a faster horse. Ford, of course, gave them the automobile instead. I'm glad he didn't listen to the customers.

So, does the customer really know what he wants? Would he actually buy what he says he wants?

Clear the Clutter

It's interesting, and not just when talking marketing and bidness. Let's expand it beyond protein shake flavors.

What do you want? What do you REALLY want?

Remember, what people say they want is different that what they actually want. Do you really want a Porsche? Or do you just think it will "stick it to" the people who pissed you off over the years? Maybe what you really want is respect?


Porsche: Because cheerleaders wouldn't date you and now you have one and they can suck it.
My friend Hunter cut through the BS recently when he ordered his V-Diet package. He didn't say much about improving his health or wanting to feel better etc. Nope, he just came right out and said, "I want a woman." Hunter knows that to get one, he needs to make his outside as awesome as his inside. Good for him.

The point is this: When you know what you really want, you're more likely to get it. You've removed the clutter. You can see it more clearly.

Ask yourself, what do I want? Then pause, reflect, and ask it again: What do I really want?

Now the BS is cleared away. Now you can go get it.

-- Chris

]]> Tue, 27 Sep 2011 23:48:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4439913 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4129727 Why Your Self-Esteem Is Killing You
I feel bad for women.

For one thing, they have to put up with us. That's gotta suck, even with our awesome spider-killing kung-fu.

They've also been taunted for decades with 97-pound teenaged models in the fashion industry. Man, when weighing in the triple digits is a bad thing, and when you're inadvertently told that your "beauty" is over after the age of 22, well, it would be easy to take a punch to the ol' self-esteem.

There's been a backlash of sorts against this kind of thing. Many women have decided not to let a handful of gay men in the fashion industry decide what they should look like and how they should feel about themselves. Good for them.

But, as with most well-intentioned things, this may have gone a little too far. Now we have "fat acceptance" and "big is beautiful" groups. And if you even suggest that perhaps being overweight is bad for them, or you dare to make them buy two airplane seats when they can no longer fit into one, they'll call you a "fatist."

I guess I'm somewhat glad that the "big is beautiful" crowd can feel good about themselves. I'm glad they don't have a "negative body image" or low self-esteem.

But guess what? Diabetes doesn't care. Nope, diabetes and all the other diseases and conditions caused by excess body fat are going to get you anyway if you're fat, whether you feel pretty or not.

Sorry, but that's just the facts, ma'am.

And the same goes for men. I'm glad that extra 50 pounds helps you bench press more by shortening the range of motion the barbell has to travel. I'm glad you get a self-esteem boost from that.

But congestive heart failure and certain forms of cancer don't care. Neither does erectile dysfunction, which is usually associated with being too fat. Death doesn't care about your bench press. (And by the way, neither does that woman at the bar, who sees only your pre-diabetic belly, not your bench press numbers.)


I kinda doubt very many overweight people actually have the high self-esteems they want the world to believe they have. Honestly, I think it's a flimsy facade, and I think that facade will crumble sooner rather than later.

And when it does, TNation is here to help. Most of us here have been there, we've worn that suffocating fat suit, and when someone wants to get rid of theirs and truly change, then we're here for them.

Big isn't beautiful. Fat isn't strong. Death knows this. Do you?

]]> Wed, 15 Aug 2012 16:54:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4129727 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4399905 The 10% Problem: Power Law Theory
The vast majority of people categorized as homeless are only without a place to live for one or two days. What we think of as "homeless" -- the image of the disheveled, alcoholic and/or mentally disturbed bum sleeping under newspapers in an alley -- makes up only 10% of the homeless population.


As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his excellent book, What the Dog Saw, for years we treated homelessness as a problem that had to be managed. That's a mistake. Social problems shouldn't be managed; they should be ended.

By focusing efforts and money on that chronically homeless 10%, as many cities like Denver are doing, the homeless problem is much closer to being solved. It's controversial, but it works. It goes against many of our principles, but it's effective.

It's called power law theory and it can be applied to many situations. For example, 5 to 10% of poorly maintained cars on the streets today cause the majority of auto pollution. Instead of focusing on all cars and drivers (which usually involves long lines, tests, and taxes in some states) spend money on targeting those 5 to 10% of problem cars, which can be done very easily and inexpensively with a radar gun-like device. Problem solved.

Need another example? Police brutality in LA seemed like a major problem with a bell curve-like distribution: most cops were "bad" it was assumed, just look at all those caught-on-tape beatings.

Turns out it wasn't a bell curve distribution; it was more of a power-law distribution with a hockey-stick shaped curve: only a few cops on the extreme end were bad, and those rare few accounted for the majority of the abuse.

The solution? Come down on that small percentage and the police brutality problem would be over. What that means in the real world for LA is firing 44 of the worst offenders. Only 44 bad cops out of around 10,000 officers were giving the LAPD a bad name.

Cut out that cancer and the problem no longer needs to be "managed" because it's pretty much been ended.

The 10% Problem and Physical Transformation

So, to solve or greatly improve the homeless problem, we have to stop spreading out our efforts and focus on the worst 10%. The "cure" to police brutality is firing 44 assholes, not making 10,000 officers take anger management classes when they should out patrolling the streets. Reducing car pollution means cracking down on 5 to 10% of drivers, not making 100% of drivers pay useless government fees.

Fascinating stuff, isn't it?

In our fields of interests -- training, nutrition, and supplementation -- the 10% rule and power law theory also come into play.

Whether you're struggling to lose body fat or struggling to gain muscle or strength, it's probably only about 10% of your actions that are causing the problems.

In my 12 years in this field, I've observed that most people's 10% problem falls into the diet category. The other 90% -- training, recovery, supplementation etc. -- is okay. In fact, when things aren't going according to plan, when fat loss stagnates or muscle/strength gains come to a stop, most folks are more likely to ramp up other areas. They'd rather train harder than tackle that 10% of their diet that's truly holding back their progress.


With the homeless issue, it's "easier" to buy some cots and fund a soup kitchen than it is to make the hard decisions and actually fix the problem. With fat loss, adding more and more cardio, or even more and more supplements, when the real problem is a small percentage of your dietary choices is managing your body fat problem, not ending it. To end it, you have to cut the crap once and for all from your diet and stop bullshitting yourself about "planned cheat meals" and the like.

That's just a small example. The 10% problem could be applied to every physique or athletic goal, and I hope you'll think about it in the context of your own goals.

Gladwell points out that power law theory is upsetting to many people. It's difficult to un-think what we've always done and re-think the issue with a focus on solving it, not managing it. You have to take your feelings and emotions, your wants and your preferences, out of the equation.

So, the choice is yours. Manage your problems... or end them. -- Chris


]]> Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:55:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4399905 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=3325976 Work Through, Not Around
It's not about the work-around. It's about the work-through.

Let me explain.

Part of my work day involves answering V-Diet questions. Thing is, I could paraphrase 90% of those questions like this:

"Hey Chris, I know you said to do it this way, but I want to do it another way to make it easier on myself. Can I?"

Everyone is looking for the work-around.

They want to work around the tough or unfamiliar exercises, or the set/rep protocols. They want to work around drinking nothing but protein shakes and water. They want to work around eating only one solid meal per week. They want to work around the required supplements.

And 9 times out of 10, these are the people who fail the V-Diet.

Who succeeds? The people who work through.

Not good at that exercise? Work through it. Suck it up. Get good at it.

Don't like the monotony of drinking shakes all day long? Work through it. Don't be such a princess.

Oh, you don't "prefer" the taste of Superfood? Not quite like an Oreo Blizzard at Dairy Queen? Then stay fat and die young. God forbid you have to do something you'd prefer not to do in order to reach your goal.

The world does not revolve around you. There are people on this planet starving to death and you're whining like a spoiled brat about having to drink five nutritional protein shakes every day?

Boo fucking hoo. Get over yourself.

Maybe your pre-school soccer league should have kept score so you could've learned about accountability, reward, and hard work. Life does not give you a shiny trophy just for showing up.

Working through difficulties carves you into a strong person. Doing things that are painful make you less susceptible to pain.

Calluses are good.

Scars give you character.

Grit your teeth and juggernaut through those walls life builds up in front of you. Don't look for the work-around. Go through.


]]> Tue, 31 May 2011 20:38:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=3325976 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4091998 Eating Hell
If I wanted to sabotage my worst enemy, I'd give him a subscription to popular "health" magazines like EatingWell. Then, with my enemy handily sluggish, docile, and functionally crippled, I'd strike.

Take that, Sun Tzu.

What's wrong with EatingWell? Well, either they're bloomin' idiots or they have a hidden agenda, and that's often difficult to discern. (I have the same issue with most government officials: Are they malevolent or just moronic? So hard to tell.)

To be fair, perhaps EatingWell is just catering to their advertisers. You can't exactly tell people the truth about junk carbs, grains, and sugar when your advertisers are selling mostly junk carbs, grains, and sugars. Whatever the case, here's the latest example of their criminally bad advice.

In an article released on Yahoo News, EatingWell deputy editor Nicci Micco tells us that HFCS is no more harmful to your health than sugar. Odd, because numerous studies have shown that not to be the case. In fact, just last week a new study out of Princeton concluded that HFCS causes more fat gain than a calorically equal amount of regular sugar, especially fat gain in the abdomen. It also caused a rise in triglycerides.


Children of the Corn Syrup

Two notes here:

1) It was sugar causing a rise in blood fats, not dietary fats. Gee, could natural sources of fat from meat and eggs actually be okay? And maybe it's sugar, its mutant cousin HFCS, and processed junk food that's been causing these problems all along? Nah... couldn't be!

2) The test subjects were consuming the same number of calories, yet the fat gain was higher in the HFCS eaters. So much for "a calorie is a calorie."

Professor Bart Hoebel noted: "When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."

But perhaps we can't blame the (innocently ignorant? willfully misleading? criminally negligent?) health magazine editors. After all, the Corn Refiner's Association has spent millions trying to convince people that HFCS is the same as sugar. You know, as if that would be a positive thing.

And you can go to the Corn Refiner's Association website and see quotes from the American Dietetic Association, the FDA, and the American Medical Association. And surely you can trust these folks... right?

Wrong.

The EatingWell editors also quote the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a "health advocacy" group who also believes that HFCS is the same as sugar. Who's the CSPI? They're the "food police," the people that pressured fast food makers in the 1980's to reduce "unhealthy" saturated fats and replace them with (are you ready for this?)... trans-fats. Today of course they're speaking out against trans-fat, a problem they kinda played a role in creating. Funny that.

But I'm sure they're right about HFCS.

Uh huh.

What an incestuous mess, eh? With fat-loss and health advice coming from these keystone cops of nutrition, it's no wonder most people are overweight and confused.

By the way, the latest issue of EatingHell has an apple on the cover, but open the pages and you'll see recipes calling for flour, sugar, pasta, fruit juice, and chocolate chips.



Don't worry though, the recipes also call for low-fat ingredients, and many are proudly meatless so you can avoid that evil saturated fat.

Trust the experts, kiddies. They're never wrong. -- Chris

]]> Tue, 31 May 2011 12:03:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4091998 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4100948 What's in Chris's Shopping Bag?
Just got back from the health food store. Let's see what I picked up:



Almond Milk: Drinking regular cow's milk makes a lot of people bloated (low-level allergenic reactions most likely) and body-fat retentive (sugar, carbs), not to mention there's at least one study showing that it lowers lowers testosterone levels. Yikes.

Almond milk has none of these drawbacks; it's nearly carb-free and very low in calories, even lower than skim milk. (It's not a good protein source however.) Great for recipes calling for milk or just by the glass with a steamin' hot low carb muffin.

I buy the Almond Breeze brand, just make sure it's unsweetened. Comes in plain, vanilla, and chocolate. I get mine for $1.69 a container, but some health food stores sell it for twice that, so shop around.

Liquid Vitamin D: Because you're nuts for not supplementing with D3! Here's my full article on it.

Coconut Flour: I prefer almond flour, but I have a recipe sitting around for coconut-flour donuts that's calling my name. Coconut flour is tougher to use than almond flour. You can't swap it out on a 1:1 ratio for regular flour as you can with almond flour. Also, it absorbs moisture like crazy, making it tricky to use in some recipes. Still, good stuff for occasional use.

Unsweetened Coconut Flakes: If you've visited the new recipe forum, you'll see how coconut flakes can be used in cookies, bon-bons, and a variety of low-carb baked good. Hard to find the no-sugar-added kind outside of a health food store though, so I always stock up when I'm there.

PB2: First, a mia culpa. A V-Life reader asked me about this stuff a year ago. I took one look at the label, saw the added sugar, and poo-poo'ed it.

I hate it when natural peanut butter makers toss in "natural" sugar and other stuff and then try to pass it off as healthy. The truth is, your PB label should say "peanuts, salt" and that's it. (And don't let them fool you, "evaporated cane juice" is sugar too.)

Upon closer inspection though, PB2 has some advantages. It's basically powdered peanut butter. Almost all the fat has been removed so it's very low calorie. You add water to it, stir, and bam!, you have peanut butter that's pretty tasty, even with all the fat gone.

But yes, they add a smidge of sugar during the manufacturing process it seems, but it must be a very tiny amount because it only has 1g of sugar per serving, the same as most standard natural nut butters. And it even has fewer total carbs than my normal brand of no-sugar-added PB. So, no worries there.

I use PB2 for cooking a lot. Toss a tablespoon into any of my almond flour recipes and you can easily make peanut butter pancakes, cookies, and muffins. It's also great in a Metabolic Drive chocolate shake. Can you say Reese's Peanut Butter cup flavor?

It has 45 calories per serving instead of 200, so while we're not skeered of most dietary fats here at V-Life, this stuff does allow us to volumize our meals i.e. eat a lot of flavorful food and get full on fewer calories.

About $5 a jar, but worth it.

Thai Kitchen Curries: Just a tablespoon of this stuff over your bland chicken breasts and you get an explosion of flavor for only 15 calories and no added junk in the ingredient list. Just chilies, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, shallot, lime and other good stuff. I always get two jars: one green curry, one red.

Spectrum Coconut Oil Spray: It's like Pam but with none of the crappy canola oil. Remember, coconut oil is a "good" saturated fat and great for medium to high heat applications. $5 a can.

Any cool new finds at your favorite health food store? Let us know below. -- Chris
]]> Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:06:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4100948 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4452197
You can find it HERE.

If you're a fan of the Hammer, you'll see more of the same in the Lab, just in a different format.

Hope to see you in the Lab!

Chris
]]> Tue, 05 Apr 2011 23:38:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4452197 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4359083 2/16/11 ]]> Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:33:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4359083 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4380175 The No-Caffeine Energy Booster

Given the natural circadian rhythm of the human body, 2 or 3PM often means naptime. Add a big lunch and a postprandial crash and you'll be fighting to stay awake by early afternoon.

Most people fix this with caffeine, but caffeine is better used tactically: morning or pre-workout only. Otherwise, you'll just adapt to it and it won't be there when you really need it.

Here's a better fix, something I think of as my no-caffeine energy shot:

1 serving MAG-10 with orange flavoring
1 serving of Power Drive
2 serving of Superfood

The fast "hit" of MAG-10 can perk you up all by itself, and Power Drive increases cognition and concentration. But why Superfood?

Dr. Lonnie Lowery notes that some foods that have methylxanthine ingredients which increase what's called energetic arousal. Berries and green tea -- both found in abundance in Superfood -- have cognitive and neuronal/motor benefits in both young learning animals and in ageing studies.

"In fact," Dr. Lowery said, "blueberry, spinach, and strawberry dried extracts have even been shown to reverse, not just prevent, neural declines. I think that these reasons are probably behind the sense of energy, elevated mood, and cognition being reported by those using Superfood."

This concoction also makes for a great "enhanced pulse" when using something like the Pulse Fast protocol. Give it a shot.

-- Chris
]]> Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:34:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4380175 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4447130 Good Gone Bad
Andy heard that it's not good to mix carbs and fats together in the same meal. Now he's so scared of doing it that he worries about taking his fish oil capsules with his oatmeal.

Larry lives a low-carb lifestyle, but is now so afraid of insulin bumps that he refuses to use proper peri-workout nutrition, carb cycling, or even take carb-free amino acids: things that would only improve his physique.

Scott knows that big basic compound movements should be the cornerstone of his training programs. But he's so dead-set against isolation work that he suffers from imbalances and gaps in his strength development, which could be fixed with some "small" movements.


Macronutrient manipulation, carb control, compound exercises: none of these are bad ideas, but they're often taken too far.

Think of the person who reads about how mass-produced beef contains some questionable substances, then becomes a vegetarian. That's throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The solution is to simply choose better, grass-finished beef, not invite a whole new set of problems by becoming a misguided vegetarian.

There's dedicated and there's fanatical. There's being on a diet and there's being an anorexic. There's sticking to a set of beliefs about diet and training, and there's being close-minded to all new approaches.

Sometimes it's a fine line. Sometimes it's not. But it's always a line to be aware of.

Don't let a good idea go bad.

-- Chris


]]> Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:59:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4447130 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4432118 Stomp the Right Bug

John missed his scheduled workout today and $10 disappeared from his bank account.

Steven missed his workout too. His "free" gym membership is now going to cost him $100 this month.

And that's just what they signed up for.

It's part of a new trend in gyms: don't check in as often as you told them you would and you pay for it. Literally.

I joked about a gym like that almost a decade ago. I said it would add extra incentive to get couch spuds onto the StairMills. I was kidding. These gyms aren't. And apparently they're pretty successful.

It seems silly, but hey, newbies and those who haven't yet made the shift need all the motivation they can get.

But somewhere along the way, you don't need punished for not going to the gym. Missing a workout, for you, is punishment. In fact, it's kinda hard to keep some folks OUT of the gym.

What happened? How does lazy newb turn into gym fixture?

I call it the shift. It can happen quickly or slowly. But when it does, it's a thing of beauty. You go from trudging through your workout to totally getting off on it. Soon, you can't wait to get in there.

How do you experience the shift if you're not there yet?

Well, usually it's just a matter of time. You just have to do it until it doesn't suck.

Until it kicks in for you though, it's a matter of choosing the right training style. Do whatever gets the blood flowing to your naughty bits. In other words, do what excites you.

Like powerlifting? Then by all means, shave your noggin and go heavy or go home. CrossFit appeal to you? Go for it. Sure beats the couch.


Bodybuilding, Olympic lifting, complexes, kettlebells, strongman, half-marathons, Advanced Combat Yoga... doesn't matter. All you're looking for is the right bug to start with. Pick any bug you like and wait for it to bite. Once you're bitten, you'll shift.

Or you can give me $10 every time you miss a workout or eat a doughnut.

I'm here for ya, man.

-- Chris


]]> Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:42:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4432118 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4422459 Get the Ball
"Get the ball."

That's what Kenneth Faried, the best rebounder in the history of college hoops, says goes through his mind when he sees a loose ball.

I'm not sure what the ESPN Radio interviewer was expecting Kenneth to say when he asked him that question. Did he think this young man had a detailed, mathematical formula he used to rebound? Was he looking for some trick? Perhaps a top-secret shoe lacing system that adds two inches to the vertical jump?

Nope. Faried just thinks "get the ball." And then he does it very well.

The best performers in just about any field have the same strategy. They do much more than they plan. It's not that they don't think before they act; they just think quickly, go with their guts, and don't spend time overanalyzing and obsessing on the details.

Procrastination is often used as an excuse not to get started. "Oh, I'll start dieting for summer soon. But first I really need to research some more and order this book and buy a food scale..."

Bullshit. That guy or gal is just putting things off and rationalizing it with the "research and planning" excuse. It makes them feel better about their current eating atrocities. It's a comforting self-lie they choose to believe.

What else do the most successful performers in any field do? They act quickly, then they adjust their plans as they go along. They know that getting started on the plan is the most important task. It may not be a "perfect" plan executed at the "perfect" time (and there's never a perfect time) but it can be course-corrected on the fly.

Momentum is created. Things get accomplished. Goals are reached.

...all while the other guy is "planning."

When it comes to training and diet, ditch the overly-complex plan. Just get the ball and come down with elbows flying. -- Chris
]]> Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:00:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4422459 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4415745 Dealing with Bullies

It started with a hit.

Seventh grade football practice, day one. The guy who lined up against JP was confident. After all, he was facing the fat kid. The kid he'd been picking on since kindergarten. Crybaby JP, the favorite target of every playground bully.

First came the command of the quarterback. "Hut hut!" Then came the hit.

JP shot out of his three-point stance like a juggernaut. The other kid flew into the air and came down hard.

Right then, at that very moment, JP's life changed.

Turned out there was some power and strength behind the baby fat. Later, hours in the weight room and a healthy injection of puberty turned JP into a top lineman by high school. He got a girlfriend. He got a letter jacket. And no one ever bullied JP again.

Sorry, PC Police, but sometimes the best solution is violence. It's true with bullies, and it's true with things like diet and training.

Toxic, fattening foods, stubborn body fat that won't seem to go away, plateaus in strength and muscular size... all bullies. And you're not going to beat them by sitting down with a nice mediator and talking about your feelings. Hugging it out ain't gonna work. Nope, sometimes you just have to smash them.

Dietary violence? How about the 100 Gram Carb Cure, the V-Diet, or the Pulse Fast?

Training violence? Pick any TNation program and go after it like a fat kid body-slamming a bully.

Mediation is for pussies.

-- Chris
]]> Wed, 19 Sep 2012 16:29:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4415745 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4409535 Beware the Sip Test
In the early 80's, Pepsi and Coke went to war.

Coke had always outsold Pepsi, and Pepsi was newly determined to break out of its perpetual #2 ranking. Enter the Pepsi Challenge.


Pepsi started up a huge marketing campaign which revolved around what's called a "sip test." At every mall and grocery store in the country, Pepsi would ask you to try a sip of Coke and a sip of Pepsi from unmarked cups. Sure enough, most people, even dedicated Coke drinkers, chose Pepsi. The commercials rolled and Pepsi proclaimed itself the undisputed best-tasting cola.

Long story short, Coke shit the bed, changed its #1 selling formula, and called it New Coke.

It was an unmitigated disaster.

Coke drinkers rebelled and Coca-Cola quickly came out with Classic Coke, sweeping the whole goof-up under the rug. Coke remained the #1 selling soft drink.

But wait, if most people prefer Pepsi in blind taste tests, why is Coke unshakable? Massive advertising? Maybe. But it really comes down to this simple fact:

In a sip tests, humans prefer sweeter flavors. But those get cloying after a few swallows and they then prefer less sweet. In other words, people may prefer a sip of Pepsi, but they prefer a can of Coke.

When it comes to choosing training programs, the avid gym-goer has to avoid the pitfalls of the sip test.

He may prefer one workout from Program X, but it's Program Y that will give him the best results over several weeks or months.

For example, I think CrossFit may have a sip test problem. Are the workouts fun and challenging? Sure. Are those workouts the smartest long-term route for certain goals like building muscle? Probably not.

When you're choosing your next training plan, enjoy your sip, but go ahead and drink the whole can to truly evaluate what works best for your body. After a six-pack or two, you'll know what really works and what just tastes good at the moment. -- Chris


]]> Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:44:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4409535 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4354846 Hit Your Goals and Keep on Goin': The Gus Pacho Effect
When we launched V-Diet 3.0, we told you the story of Gus Pacho.


At 37 years old, Gus dropped 21 pounds and 5 full inches from his waist in just 28 days of V-Dieting. That kick-started a jaw-dropping body transformation for Gus.

Riding the momentum of the V-Diet, Gus ended up losing 40 total pounds plus nine inches from his belly measurement after just three months.

But he isn't finished yet. Let's catch up with Gus, then find out what he's doing next.


Chris Shugart: Be honest, Gus. You've rebounded, haven't you? You're fat and sloppy now, right?

Gus Pacho: No big rebound for me, thanks! I actually kept my body weight around 180 pounds. I wanted to make sure my body was used to being lean and staying at a leaner body fat level. Before the V-Diet I stayed bulked up for years; now was my chance to keep it lean 'n mean.

Shugart: How have you stayed lean? Obsessively counting every single calorie?

Gus: Nope, no calorie counting. I just made sure that I kept my calories clean and reasonable.

I kept my protein high (200 plus grams per day) and carbs moderate (100-150 grams per day) along with a ton of vegetables. I kept the fat intake limited to my Flameout, coconut oil, omega-3 eggs, and lean steaks.

Eating clean like this became a habit for me. Besides, I always feel best when eating my planned foods. Before I'd eat loosely at the occasional family party and such, but usually paid for it with bad digestion and food-coma hangovers.

Those occasions made me realize that I can't go buckwild on re-feed days anymore. The fat gain and lack of energy never justifies cheat meals at this stage of the game for me.

Shugart: What was the toughest part of the V-Diet for you?

Gus: The toughest part was two weeks into the V-Diet. I thought I'd gotten used to not eating solid food and just chugging the shakes. Then New Year's Eve rolled around and I had both my family and friends bringing food and drinks over.

I had all these delicious smells in my house and the cravings hit big time. I felt like giving in just a little bit. Instead I left the house to do some extra NEPA to get my head focused, even though I already completed my scheduled workouts and NEPA for that day.

Shugart: Resisting a craving is all about proximity, isn't it? Most of the time it's best to just change the environment until the craving passes, and it usually does surprisingly fast. Just get out of there!

Now, I think what surprised a lot of people, maybe even you, was that you had to drop a lot more scale weight than expected to get abs-on-display lean.

Gus: Aw man, I had no idea that I'd have to drop to 170 pounds to be truly ripped!

I was surprised because every time I saw those old transformation contests back in the 90's, everyone who won seemed to just drop 10 to 20 pounds and end up at 5% body fat. I dropped close to 40 pounds and ended up at 8%. And Coach Thibaudeau still said I needed to drop 15 more pounds on top of that to be contest-ready. Damn! I had no idea how much fat I was truly carrying.

I guess the moral of the story here is to really try to figure out if you're actually gaining muscle and not just fat. Don't bullshit yourself and be absolutely honest.

I started out at 120 pounds and kept pushing for more and more scale weight no matter what it looked like. If the scale went up, then I was gaining muscle in my mind. But the mirror told a different story. I was just fat!

Shugart: What advice do you have for those about to embark on their own body-transformation journeys?

Gus: Be pissed off at yourself. Wanting to change is not enough motivation. You gotta be angry!

I remember being so pissed off after doing my starting measurements and finding out my waist was almost 40 inches. That was enough for me. Find that trigger and keep focused on that, especially when temptations kick in.

Pinching more than an inch on my fat gut when I was tempted always reminded me of what I was doing it all for. Always stay focused on your goal and cross that finish line no matter what.


Shugart: Good thing you nipped that belly fat in the bud. Studies show that once your belly measures 37 inches, your health markers start to deteriorate. After 40 inches you're pretty much inviting disease into your life.

Now, most people who've made great body transformations notice that they develop cravings for healthier foods along the way, while at the same time losing their desires for the stuff that got them into trouble to begin with. Eating consistently clean puts them back in control of food. Did the taste and craving changes "stick" for you?

Gus: You bet. I have no problem eating my salads and veggies or other clean foods. I find that I can eat like this consistently for long stretches of time with no problems. It's the other people I work with who seem to have a problem with the way I eat.

Shugart: What do you mean?

Gus: They can't believe I can turn down pizza, burgers, and bagels in order to eat my steak and veggies. I always explain to them that I see progress when I eat clean and have more energy than they get from their Red Bull and coffee!

They see it as a sacrifice to eat clean all the time, but I enjoy what I eat and know what it takes to really look and feel great.

Shugart: Very cool. What's next for you? What are your current goals?

Gus: I've been having some great progress following the Anaconda Protocol. I felt like I had a lot of weak points to bring up and that the IBB program would be the tool to help me out. It's been working out great, and now I have some of the muscular fullness that I've been wanting to develop.

My current goal right now is to maintain my muscle mass while I train for half-marathon in October while tightening up to 175 pounds. I'm holding a real tight 185 and want to be in the best shape of my life on my 40th birthday.

Also, I tried out a Pulse Fast and I'm liking the results. I've dropped 5 pounds quickly with no lack in energy, and I felt really strong in my workout. Kinda felt buzzed and focused so I figured it was the Power Drive. Great results!

Overall though, I want to live the next decade in the best shape of my life and see how far I can take my muscular body weight. Training is a huge part of my life and always will be.

Shugart: Sounds great, Gus. Pop into the forums and keep us posted!

Gus: You bet.


]]> Fri, 04 Mar 2011 22:28:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4354846 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4384326 V-Diet Smashes Fat-Loss Plateau
by Chris Shugart
My gym is filled with two types of people: hardcore lifters and softcore wieners.

The hardcore folks lift like maniacs, sweat like beasts, and diet so strictly that they won't even chew a stick of gum if it has an errant calorie.

The softcore wieners lift like ballerinas, never break a sweat, and are just flat-out sissies when it comes to their diets.

Now, ready for the shocker? Most of the hardcore people are women in their 30's and 40's. Most of the softies are men in their 20's.


Maybe all that estrogen in the water has caught up to them, I don't know. All I know is that women are the "new hardcore" in most gyms I visit these days.

Kelli Keyes is one of those women. This 34-year old mother of two (ages 5 and 3) got sick of the way her body looked and took control. She started training, got some initial results, then hit a plateau. Testosterone contributor Craig Weller suggested the V-Diet. Here's what happened.


Chris Shugart: Tell us your story, Kelli.

Kelli Keyes: Well, I lost motivation to exercise and eat healthy when I was pregnant with my first child. Weight loss has been a struggle since then.

I started to work out with Barefoot Fitness two years ago and started seeing results. For quite a while it was just a matter of the right workouts and slowly improving my diet. I broke it down very simply and got into the habit of eating mostly protein, veggies, and quality fat along with my peri-workout drinks.

Shugart: So far, so good. What happened?

Kelli: Diminishing returns! Those gradual improvements started to slow and the tweaks became smaller and smaller. I still wasn't where I wanted to be.

Shugart: Most people who make a successful body transformation experience a breaking point -- an event that makes them get mad, get serious, and get to work. Did you have one of those?

Kelli: One day I looked at myself in a swimsuit and noticed that my thighs were a bit "dimply." Even with training and a better diet, I still wasn't there yet. It was frustrating. I wanted to really do something about it and make it happen fast. Craig had mentioned the V-Diet in the past so I asked him for info on it and made the decision to do it.

Shugart: Why the "crazy" V-Diet?

Kelli: I knew it would be the fastest way to get the results I wanted. Also, I wanted to be able to show people that it's possible. I know that there are a lot of women out there who look and feel like I did in that first picture, and I want them to know that they can also get to where I am in my current picture.


Shugart: Tell us about your V-Diet experience. Did you gnaw your arm off or go postal at a Krispy Kreme?

Kelli: No, the V-Diet has been a great experience for me! I highly recommend it. The easiest part was not worrying about what I was going to eat for meals. It's super convenient and the Velocity Diet site lays it all out there for you. You know exactly how much of everything to have and when.

Shugart: What was the toughest part?

Kelli: I thought the hardest part would be feeling hungry, but I was wrong. I didn't really feel hungry. I was fatigued the first week though. That was a little rough since my work schedule requires me to get up around 4:30 AM. After about the first week and a half that subsided and I felt great!

The really hard part was probably getting others to understand that the V-Diet isn't one of those starvation fad diets. When your husband tells people you're only eating one solid meal a week, that sounds bad, and it can be hard to explain to a layperson who probably thinks Lean Cuisines are health food.

It's nothing like one of those fad diets though. The V-Diet provides more nutrition than most people normally get from their regular daily meals. It just happens to be in mostly liquid form.

Plus, the positive changes it brings about in insulin management, lipid profiles, and more efficient fat metabolism will have long term benefits beyond what a month's nutrient intake will have on your body.

Shugart: So what were your final results?

Kelli: Well, last summer my body fat was 25%. I went to 20.3% with exercising and watching what I ate. Measuring with DEXA scans, the V-Diet brought me down to 14.9%. My waist, always a problem area for me, is now 29 inches. I lost 7 pounds of fat (which is 28.7% of the fat I started with) and gained 4 pounds of muscle. All in just 28 days!

Shugart: The V-Diet is known to help most people break negative food-related habits and sort of "detox" the taste buds: healthier foods taste better while cravings for physique-destructive foods are reduced or even lost. Did you experience any of that?

Kelli: I've definitely gained more mindful, healthier eating habits. My cravings have changed from cheesecake to protein shakes. I want my shakes every day now. I also don't want to give up my spoonful of nut butter for bedtime snack.

It surprised me how during my HSMs (Healthy Solids Meals) I didn't want to shovel my food in. That's how I figured it would be, but it wasn't like that at all. I enjoyed my meals but looked forward to my shakes.

Shugart: Cool. What's next for you?

Kelli: I want to continue helping others achieve their goals with diet and exercise, especially now that I have firsthand experience with using the V-Diet when it's called for. It's awesome to watch other people's bodies transform and know that I'm helping them change their lives.

For myself, nutritionally, I'll continue to have at least two shakes a day and HSMs the rest of the time. I plan to maintain what the V-Diet has done for me and help others do the same.

Note: For more info on the V-Diet, click HERE.

Are you a V-Diet success story? Contact Chris at CS@TNation.com.



]]> Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:33:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4384326 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4196745 The 100 Gram Carb Cure

"Eat about 100 grams of carbs per day."

If I had only one sentence in which to give someone advice on how to lose fat rapidly, that would be it.

Why?

Well, because it works very, very well for one thing. But also because that 100 gram figure is the magic number. Follow that rule and most people will naturally control calories and choose more filling foods. They'll also have to dump or greatly reduce bread products, pastas, juices, soft drinks, fast food, junk food, and milk -- the very things that are most porking-up our country right now.

In other words, there's a powerful auto-regulatory effect with the 100 gram guideline. Take care of that and most everything else falls into place.

As a side effect, someone following the 100 gram rule would start learning to read labels, serving sizes, and ingredient lists -- healthful skills that last a lifetime. They wouldn't be so easily fooled by bullshit "low-fat!" and "contains whole grains!" labels. In fact, they'd probably get so sick of packaged food deception and restaurant antics that they'd (gasp!) start cooking for themselves.

Holy self-reliance, Batman!

Practically speaking, 100 grams of carbs is pretty easy to pull off. It's not super low (many low-carb diets start you at just 20g). You won't experience any mental fogginess or lack of energy at 100 grams, and you won't have to live on bacon and cheese. One-hundred grams will allow berries, a little fruit, and a some starchier vegetables.

Does the 100g eater suffer and feel deprived? Does THIS look like deprivation to you?

One-hundred daily grams of carbs would also allow a weight trainer to take care of his para-workout nutrition needs. He'd "spend" most of those allotted carbs around his workout period (Surge products, FINiBARs, etc.) and keep carbs low the rest of the day. Perfect for fat loss and muscle retention, or even lean mass gains as many V-Dieters can tell you.

Why not just throw out a calorie number instead of a carb number?

Well, sure, eat just 1200 calories of anything in a day and you'll lose weight. But you'll also lose muscle, wreck your metabolism in the long term, perform poorly in the gym, squander your long-term health, send your hormone levels into tailspins, and risk programming in bad dietary habits ("Twinkie Diet," anyone?). It's also unsustainable and leads to fat regain and rebound.


You're paid not to be fat. Tip 1: Don't get fat. Tip 2: Foot-long subs not helping.
Oh, and one more little-bitty thing: the portion-controlled, higher-carb, "just eat smaller amounts of junky foods" diet plan has the highest failure rate of any fat-loss strategy ever developed in history.

Yeah, there's that.

I want people to shift their macronutrient ratios permanently, not just drop 20 pounds then gain it back -- with Sears credit card-like interest -- a few months later. They need higher protein, higher fats (everything but trans, pretty much), and a lower, controlled carb intake. That's the key to getting lean, staying lean, and living longer.

But how do you say all this in one simple sentence?

Like this: "Eat about 100 grams of carbs per day."

-- Chris
]]> Sat, 26 Feb 2011 19:53:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4196745 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4333173 Habituating Hardcore

You walk into a dark room and can't see. After a minute, you can see just fine.

You notice the sound of a ceiling fan when you first turn it on, but soon you can't hear it anymore. You only notice the sound when it's turned off.

You notice the odor of the garbage can, but if you stay in the room a while you'll no longer notice it.

If you never wear a watch and then you start wearing one, you'll feel it on your arm and be aware of its presence. But after a while, you'll stop feeling it and even forget you have it on.

These are examples of something called habituation. Expose an animal, including a human animal, to a repeated stimulus and soon it will no longer respond to that stimulus. Habituation can be a mental thing or involve neural adaptation in sensory nerves.

Cool, geeky stuff, huh? Now let's apply habituation to training and diet.

Do Too Much, Sometimes

Lift weights when you never have before and the new stimulation will cause a response: you'll get stronger and build muscle. But if you keep exposing your body to the exact same stimulus -- the same training program, the same weights, etc. -- then the response will diminish as you habituate.

Not good. Time to adopt a new plan, add weight, or switch up sets, reps, splits, tempos, or exercise choice. New stimulus, new response. That's a good thing.

How else can we manipulate the habituation phenomenon to our advantage? Every once in a while, do something very hard. Do something that's "a little too much." Push it a bit too far. In other words, habituate hardcore. Reset the bar. Force new physiological and even psychological responses.

Push a Prowler, do 10 sets of sprints, do a strip set of leg presses, play a game of Metabolic Fetch. In other words, shock the system. Keep the new stimuli coming. Teach your body that what it thought was hardcore wasn't hardcore at all. This will help you dodge adaptation, which is spelled S T A G N A T I O N in the body-transformation world.

Double-Edge Diet

Dietary habituation can also be a double-edged sword. Eat something that's toxic to your body (a new stimulus) and you'll feel bad or get sick (response), but keep doing it and your body may get used to it... you'll no longer respond in a healthy manner.

I believe that people habituate when it comes to junk foods, fast foods, and packaged foods. Those foods still do plenty of damage to our bodies, but we no longer feel sick from eating them. Our natural response is blunted with repeat exposure. In fact, we may feel temporarily sick if we don't eat them. (Fast food and heroin have a lot in common in that regard.)

But habituation can also have a positive effect. Many TNATION programs -- The V-Diet, the Pulse Fast, the Pulse Feast -- "shock" the body with new stimuli: protein shakes instead of lunch at Wendy's, metabolic hits of MAG-10 instead of breakfast and lunch, large anabolic meals after a day of "priming."

Bad habits (eating mindlessly, stress eating, food addictions) are replaced by physique-supportive habits (mindful eating, increased body awareness, re-sensitization of instinct, food rehab).

The Lesson Here?

Make hardcore a habit. Take control of habituation and you'll take control of your body, telling it exactly what you want it to do: build muscle, lose fat, perform optimally.

The tools are here. All you have to do is pick them up and go to work. -- Chris



PS: Rants (and more) in 140 characters or less. Follow me on Twitter.
]]> Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:07:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4333173 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4229176 The Dreaded Spinach Binge!
I'm going to smack Dr. Mike Roussell right up beside his shiny dome.


Then I'm going to call him something mildly derogatory, preferably with alliteration. I'm thinking "Milkshake Mike." Then I'll dance around him and sing that song by Kelis, implying that Milkshake Mike brings all the boys to the yard.

That'll show him.

No, no, I'm kidding. Mike and I actually just co-wrote an article, an expansion of my 100 Gram Carb Cure blog. Should be a good one.

But Mike did something I found a little odd. In his part of the article, he provided a daily menu that described the foods you can eat on our 100 gram plan. I was giving the article one last edit when I noticed something: Mike had listed very specific serving sizes for the vegetables on the sample menu.

Now, Mike knows his stuff and I understand what he was doing, but then I had a thought: Are we really worried that a person who's reading a fat loss article is going to eat too many green veggies?

I'm guessing that overeating spinach isn't their problem. Oh my, we don't want a fat guy to eat too much broccoli, now do we?!


One field of spinach = one serving.
I'm being facetious, but to me at least, I think that if you're carrying around more than 20 pounds of excess adipose tissue, then the serving sizes of vegetables are the least of your worries. Heck, eat all the veggies you want. Eat pounds of spinach! It's not going to hurt you one bit, and it'll keep you full.

Fruit restrictions? Yes, those are necessary, at least at first. Our article is about the vast benefits of restricting carbs to about 100g per day, so yeah, fruit carbs can add up, as can a few "outliers": potatoes, avocados, nuts, etc.

But even then, as a diet coach, I'm not too worried. Hey, if an overweight person is reaching for an apple and not a candy bar or a drive-through burrito, then that's a win, regardless of the carb count of an apple.

Sure, sure, as the educated dieticians will tell you, you can technically get fat on too many calories of any food since "a calorie is a calorie." But I just don't see people getting fat on apples and spinach here on Planet Reality (which, in case you didn't know, is in a completely different galaxy than Planet Dietician.)


Planet Dietician?
I often get emails from people who've "fallen off the V-Diet wagon." They shamefully admit that they went monkey-nuts crazy and ate a bunch of chicken breasts and a pile of celery.

Now, true, that's not part of the strict 28-day, mostly-liquid portion of the diet plan, but if overeating chicken and veggies has become a "cheat" to the person... yep, another check in the win column.

Anyway, Mike and I hope you learn a lot from our upcoming article. Mike has a ton to offer as a rising nutrition guru and I'm looking forward to working with him more... even if I did edit out his vegetable serving sizes. -- Chris


PS: Rants (and more) in 140 characters or less. Follow me on Twitter.

]]> Sat, 12 Feb 2011 20:15:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4229176 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4344232 Resist the Resistance
Not too long ago, on a long drive to Arizona, my then-girlfriend Danielle said she was going to try Intermittent Fasting (I.F.)

What? A hippie-dippy fast for an athletic girl who lifts weights?

A minor argument ensued.

I'd already read about I.F. and dismissed it. I was an eat-six-times-a-day, weight-training musclehead. The very idea of not having a mouthful of chicken or tuna at any time during the day was just nuts.

But I thought about it and thought about it. I researched. I began to see the potential benefits. I started thinking about ways to improve upon the old idea with modern science and supplementation. Then I tried it, tweaked it, and tried it again, and again, and dozens more times.

I talked to Tim Patterson about it and mentioned it to Christian Thibaudeau (who was already doing a version of it.) We called Dr. Tim Ziegenfuss and he dug into the scientific research for us. The experiments continued. Christian used it on professional bodybuilders; I introduced the idea to Figure competitors in my gym.

The idea eventually became the Pulse Fast, and today the Pulse Fast is spreading through the body transformation community like wildfire... but first I had to get annoyed by my future wife trying a "silly" thing like Intermittent Fasting.

It seems to be the natural human response: "I already know what I think. Don't make me think about it again! Don't make me change!"

I think I've had that kneejerk reaction to every good idea I've ever heard. There's an innate bias toward keeping things the same, an internal stubbornness to maintain any type of homeostasis.

Tell me that a certain leg exercise is better for me than the one I prefer? I'm going to resist. Automatically.

Tell me that I should be eating a certain food that I don't currently eat? Tell me that I shouldn't be eating a food that I like to eat? Either way, my natural instinct is to push you away.

Even if what you say makes sense. Even if you're clearly right and I'm clearly wrong. The new idea may be obviously better... but I'm going to fight you on it at first.


Oh stop it. I'm just saying that maybe you should lower your carb intake a little.
I do it. You do it. We all do it.

But maybe we shouldn't.

I've learned to expect that shield to go up when I'm presented with a new idea. I feel that natural resistance occurring, I embrace it, then I make myself open up to the new idea. That doesn't mean I blindly accept the idea; it means I resist the urge to push it away and instead accept it so I can examine it more closely.

The V-Diet came about by resisting then exploring the idea of protein-sparing modified fasts. The Pulse Fast came about by opening myself up to the idea of Intermittent Fasting. The 100 Gram Carb Cure was born from my experiments with both high and low-carb diets and finding the perfect balance.

All of these things have improved my life. There are things out there right now that can improve your life, improve you -- your body, your physical health, your mental health, maybe even your soul. If you learn to resist the resistance.

And Danielle, if you have any more "silly" ideas, I'm all ears.


]]> Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:52:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4344232 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4316157 Rainbows and Kittens!
"You're okay. Just suck it up."

I must have heard that a thousand times growing up in small-town Texas. Fall down, rip the skin off my knee and that's what I'd hear. Get hurt playing football and I'd hear it again from the coach: Get up. You're okay. Suck it up.

Hurt happens. Not much you can do. You just grind it out and wait for the pain to subside. Then you clean yourself up and get back on the bike or back into the game.


Just suck it up, kid. You're embarrassing yourself. And girls are watching.
Not many folks seem to know the "suck it up" rule. Take dieting for example. There are going to be suck-it-up moments. There's a food in front of you that you can't eat if you want to meet your goals. There's going to be hunger when it's not time to eat yet. There are going to be cravings, at least in the beginning. That's supposed to happen. It's a diet. If it were easy, 63% of Americans wouldn't be fat.

The problem is, people can't seem to suck it up these days.

Maybe it's that entitlement mentality that's so prevalent today. You know, the world must be perfect, it must revolve around me, and I should be able to get anything I want without really working for it or making any sacrifices.

Well, princess, I guess I missed that memo about life being fair and easy. Or maybe I'm just a cold-hearted tyrant because when I was a kid they required us to actually win before we got a trophy. Yep, it was a cruel, cruel world back in the day.

(On a related note, you kids get off my lawn! And get a haircut!)

The study of high achievers teaches us a lot about this. We know that the most successful people, the real game-changers, seldom had the world handed to them on a silver platter. They struggled. They failed, learned from that failure, and moved on. They fell down a lot.

The expectation of those "suck it up" moments can increase your odds of meeting your goals. Going into a new diet or training program knowing that it's not going to be all sunshine and kittens can steel your will.

And when you hit those rough patches -- and you will hit those rough patches -- you'll suck it up and get right back into the game.

The rainbows and kittens come later.

]]> Fri, 04 Feb 2011 04:42:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4316157 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4252472 The Magic of 21
In the realm of psychology and human behavior, the number 21 is magical.


I first noticed this when I was getting my psychology degree. The number 21 showed up everywhere. Twenty-one is the Fibonacci sequence of the human mind, particularly when it comes to breaking bad habits or engraining new ones.

In short, and with some leeway in either direction, it takes about 21 days to permanently change a behavior. We can break that down into two categories:

1. If you can do one thing every day for 21 days, you'll very likely keep doing it.

2. If you stop doing one thing for 21 days, you very likely won't do it again.

Now, that "thing" and resulting behavior can be positive or negative. You can engrain a good habit or a bad habit, for example. You could "lose" a productive behavior and replace it with a nonproductive one, or vice-versa.

Chasing Rabbits
Very often, we try to change too many things at once. That can work, but it can also be overwhelming. If you say, "I'm going to go to the gym 7 days per week, go on a liquid detox diet, learn to speak Thai, and quit smoking and cussin'... and I'm going to do it all at once!" then you're probably not going to achieve any of those things.

Chase two rabbits and both will escape, as my favorite fortune-cookie wisdom goes. Chase five rabbits and, well, someone ain't getting a rabbit for the stewpot.

But, if you say, "For the next 21 days I'm going to dump the skim milk and drink only almond milk. This will help me drop some sugary carbs and maybe get rid of this constant bloat."

So, for about three weeks you're going to NOT do one thing: drink cow's milk.

And you're going to DO one thing: drink unsweetened almond milk.

If you're really smart about it, you'll mark this off on a calendar. Draw a bold slash through the next 21 days on a calendar. Then, every day you meet your behavioral goal, draw another line through that day making it an X.


This is how Arnold used to count his sets during training, by the way. It's psychologically very powerful and satisfying.

The Challenge
Call it a New Year's resolution if you must, or just call it a little experiment in kaizen, the Japanese concept of constant and never-ending improvement. But I'm going to challenge you to join me on a 21-day challenge:

For 21 days, either start doing something or stop doing something. Or, as with the milk example, stop one negative thing and replace it with something more positive.

Remember, just one thing. You only have to catch a single fat rabbit here. Got it?

Also, your "thing" has to be specific. You can't say, "I'm going to try to be a better person." That's one limp and impotent promise.

Instead make it specific: "I'm going to stop complaining. No one likes to be around a complainer and I'm not going to do it for 21 days." (Or you could choose criticizing, getting snappy with your loved ones, etc.)

Your "thing" could also involve training, diet, or supplementation, but again, keep it specific. "Nothing flour-containing will pass my lips for 21 days." "I'm going to do the 100 Gram Carb Cure for 21 days." "No beer for 21 days." "I'm going to take Elite Mineral Support for 21 days straight." "Stretching, every day, no excuses, for three weeks."

It's up to you. Do one specific thing. Or, don't do one thing.

Use this thread to make your promise and get it out there, then keep us posted.

Take advantage of the magic of 21! -- Chris


]]> Sat, 10 Dec 2011 16:40:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4252472 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4297306 The No-Choice Strategy for Success
David didn't have time to exercise three days per week as I instructed.

And we're not even talking about go-to-the-gym-exercise. We're talking about going for a simple walk. Given his age, lifestyle, and recent heart attack, that's all he needed to do. But nope, he "didn't have time."


I spoke with David again a few days later. This time I changed my strategy. "David, you have to walk every day," I told him. "Sometimes a short stroll, sometimes a long, fast walk. Every day. Rain or shine. Wake up and do it before work, do it at lunch, or do it in the dark before bed. Treadmill or pavement. Doesn't matter, but you have to do it daily. Christmas day too."

David never missed a walk after that.

Why? How can someone not have time to exercise three days a week yet manage to fit in daily exercise just fine?

The answer: David had the time to begin with, just as most people do. Hey, if you have time to watch TV and spy on your ex on Facebook, you have time to train.

So what's going on here? Psychology, that's what. When I suggested that David exercise three times per week, he started mentally flipping through his weekly schedule. Sure enough, every day seemed packed. There was always something going on. Tuesday might work, but not Monday. Work was too crazy on Monday. And Sunday he was off work but very busy with other things...

I'd given David options: pick three days out of seven to exercise. And that was a mistake. A big one. So I removed the options; I took away his choice... and it worked.

Lesson: If you give yourself too many options you're actually less likely to achieve your task.

If you say, "I'm going to try to eat more vegetables" your chances of succeeding are right up there with Obama winning the Mr. Olympia contest. But if you say, "I'm going to eat one pound of extra veggies per day, every day. I'll use frozen bags of vegetables to make it easy..." then your chance of success skyrockets. Seven bags of frozen vegetables in your freezer removes most of the choice. And the decision to do it "every day" means that you've removed your options.

The V-Diet uses this little psychological trick. NEPA (Non-Exercise Physical Activity) must be done daily. Just about all the meal choices and food options have been removed (you just drink protein shakes most of the time.) The workout program is written for you; you don't have to come up with one yourself. The supplements are pre-chosen for you and can be ordered in a package with just a click or two. You don't have to think about it much -- and that means you're more likely to succeed.

One squat rack and one pull-up bar in the gym is better than having fifteen leg machines and twelve back machines. A strict daily carb count, such as 100 grams, is better than deciding to "choose healthier foods" -- a decision that's poisoned with choices and wiggle room... and doomed to fail.


It's counterintuitive, but it works. Reduce choices. Remove the options. Super strict beats having abundant alternatives.

Try this strategy when you advise others about training and nutrition. Give them tight advice, not weak generalizations. Use this strategy on yourself too. You will find that you'll excel with boundaries rather than languishing with overwhelming, and often debilitating, choices.

No choice is often the best choice when it comes to self-improvement. -- Chris


PS: Tips, rants, and pontifications... in 140 characters or less. Follow me on Twitter.
]]> Tue, 18 Jan 2011 15:39:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4297306 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=2009408 March 13, 2008

The Grind

The Grind is a term I came up with while coaching our Physique Clinic participants and V-Dieters. Basically, the Grind is that time in your physique transformation where you just put your head down and grind it out.

It's often the time between the initial fast "newbie" results and the final results. Changes are occurring in your body, but you may not see them from week to week.

Mentally, the Grind is also where some of that new program and new diet enthusiasm wears off and it all becomes routine, even boring. There's nothing left to do or say really; you just work the plan, day to day to day.

But toward the end of the Grind, what'll happen is that you'll glance back at your "befores" and realize you've made some major changes. Other people will begin to notice. And that positive feedback will reignite the enthusiasm. And that will cause you to kick the training up a notch, leading to more results.

I think the Grind applies to life in general too, not just to losing fat and gaining muscle. There are simply times when we have to put aside all distractions (even the good ones), put our heads down, grit our teeth, and grind it out. At the end of the Grind lies an achievement, something great, or some reward or pay-off. But the Grind always comes first.

Thing is, most people won't make this sacrifice; they won't even begin the Grind, much less finish it. And that's why most people don't succeed. The Grind is often what separates the great from the average.

It's as simple as that sometimes.

]]> Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:31:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=2009408 http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4291175 Do-Something: No More Off Days!
Here's my current training split:

Monday: Upper Body

Tuesday: Lower Body

Wednesday: Do Something

Thursday: Upper Body

Friday: Lower Body

Weekend: Do Something

What's a "do-something" day? It's a day where I do...well, something workout-wise. But it's unplanned. Or rather, it's planned about 5 minutes before I start doing it.

Past do-something days have included: Neural Charge training, 20 minutes on the StairMill, eccentric-less training using Blast Straps, 3 mile run, metabolic medicine ball work, clubbell or kettlebell swings, Prowler pushes, and bodyweight circuits. Preferably, do-something days are done outside.


You get the idea. It's basically something physical that doesn't involve regular weight training, or at least heavy weight training.

I used to think of this as "cardio day," but it's much more than that. It's my day to try new things, work different energy systems, facilitate recovery, break a sweat, and just have some physical fun.

My colleague Christian Thibaudeau says that he no longer believes in off days. I agree. Sure, Saturday or Sunday may be "off-off", but I think we should strive to do something on most otherwise off days.

It's rejuvenating, it can prevent overuse injuries from doing the same things all the time, and it allows you to try new styles of training without interfering with your "money" workouts at the gym.

And how about this: The next time you're feeling banged up from your regular gym work, have a do-something week. You'll go back to the gym stronger, more focused, and feeling energized.

There's a psychological component here too. If you have what I call an "all or nothing personality" type, off days can turn into unplanned off weeks, off months, and off years. Go all-in instead. Tell yourself that you have to do something every day, even if that just means a long walk on Sunday or extra ab work while watching TV.

So, on your next scheduled off day, break the rut. Have some fun, go outside, move, sweat a little. Have a do-something day and get something done.


Note: This one originally appeared in the V-Life LiveSpill. Join me there daily for tips, rants, recipes, and live Q &A!

]]> Thu, 13 Jan 2011 01:48:00 GMT http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=4291175