Ignition

I have just picked up a copy of The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle. Normally I would avoid any book that shares its title with a bestseller (especially those that ape the title of 'The God Delusion' or 'The DaVinci Code'), but Coyle's book slipped through the net. On reflection, I am glad it did as the book contains one section that has stuck in my mind.

If you look at the progression of the 100m world record, the list looks like this. If you add in the birth order of the record holder, something pretty interesting happens:

1. Usain Bolt (second of three)
2. Safa Powell (sixth of six)
3. Justin Gatlin (fourth of four)
4. Maurice Greene (fourth of four)
5. Donovan Bailey (third of three)
6. Leroy Burrell (fourth of five)
7. Carl Lewis (third of four)
8. Leroy Burrell (fourth of five)
9. Carl Lewis (third of four)
10. Calvin Smith (sixth of eight)

As you can see, the distribution seems heavily skewed towards those born further down the birth order - and the same pattern apparently exists in the all time top 10 NFL running backs in rushing yardage.

We assume speed is genetic - which to a degree it is, but to be the fastest? Coyle offers motivation to 'keep up' as being the driver behind this phenomenon - something he calls 'ignition'.

The example of 'ignition' is extended - and Coyle goes on to quote a French study which asked 'Is the world run by orphans?'. The subsequent list of artists, scientists and politicians who lost a parent prior to their mid teens (all drawn from those individuals with a half or more page-length entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica), you get a real sense of how primal fears of self-survival drive us on and shape us.

Entcho

Inspired by comments on Chris's blog, I went on the hunt for some hand balancing footage. I eventually found a video featuring Entcho - and it is a must see*.

If you have seen my training routines you will notice much in the way of ring training, handstands and hand walking. I love the playfulness of these exercises as much as I love their effectiveness in developing serious strength. What Entcho displays is both massive strength and an awesome physique. The dude could crack coconuts between his deltoids.

If you fancy a piece of this action for yourself, then you can do worse than consult The York Hand Balancing Course (which is actually a big inspiration to me). It comes from a time when training/fitness/conditioning seemed much simpler, more integrated and less Balkanized than things are in the modern-day fitness industry.

I am sure few modern-day personal trainers would support this kind of activity as part of a strength or hypertrophy training program. But the results of hand-balancing speak for themselves - as Entcho demonstrates.

*A word of warning, it is not often I can forgive crimes against music, and in the grand scheme of things Lounge Muzak (a.k.a. Trouser Jazz), is amongst the worst of audio crimes. When you watch this footage cover your ears or turn the bloody volume off!

Rest

Last week was spent camping down in Oxford with friends. The weather was dire, but some wild swimming in the local lakes provided much welcome escape from the misery of being wet through in clothes!

This weekend we were away in Norwich. I ended up taking a swim in the sea just of Happisburgh. The sea was refreshingly cool on an uncharacteristically hot day! The swim was accompanied by a seal and after 30 minutes in the brine, we (my mate and I, NOT the the seal and I), headed back shoreward for some sport.

I have started and abandoned several posts on training - particularly on reps and sets, and whether to lift fast or slow, or at RM MAX or whatever. The paleo compass points away from such a prescription. The hunt (or being hunted), would provide the necessary workout. The intensity would be dictated by fortune and lady luck.

It is hard for us to expose ourselves to this level of unpredictability and volatility - we naturally fall in to some kind of linear regimentation....or so I thought.

Powerkiting has to be one of the ultimate upper body workouts. Being dragged along a beach by a 3.5m kit is pretty exhilarating. Take off is the second most exciting thing in the world....after the millisecond before landing! You have to really wrestle and fight with the thing. If you get it right you can skid along the beach or jump several feet in the air (I opted for the former).

The wind drops and straight away you are adjusting and compensating. One minute you are trying to 'push the kite to its limits' and the next, as fatigue sets in, it causes you to adjust the flight once more and seek rest. This is fun. The pattern of exertion follows a power law.

I think that here I have found my 'wild prescription' of energy expenditure. Better still it involves play. I have had my eyes on kiteboarding for a few years, but really do not have the time at the moment due to family commitments. However, a powerkite might just be the thing!

Today I was thinking about going to the gym but felt sore in my upper back. Whether it was the swim or the kiting, the fact that I was thinking twice about the workout made me realise that at I probably need a bit more rest than I thought, and that I had, over the weekend, exerted myself slightly more than anticipated.

Light Climbing Workout

The last workout on Monday broke me for a few days. The ensuing DOMS was intense. I wanted to get on the rings and climbing wall today - but it was sunny outside so I adapted!

Unlike most other workouts, I completed one exercise before moving on the next. I had one minute of rest between each and every exercise. The idea was a brief and mildly-intense workout, but not too hard overall.

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (15 mins)

1a) Hand Walking (2x 'for time', 1min rest)

2a) Frog Planche (3x20s, 1min rest)

3a) Pull Ups (2x10, 1min rest)

4a) Tuck Body Lever (3x20s, 1min rest)

5a) One Arm Deadhangs (8x '7s on, 3s rest')

Sugar: The Bitter Truth

Hat tip to Keith for an excellent link here. The comment about energy expenditure's relationship with quality of life is a superb insight.

20-15-10-5

Another extract from Taubes' Good Calories, Bad Calories (page 314), concerning plant based carbohydrate content in a (highly successful) 'reducing diet' as prescribed at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s:

• "...potatoes are nearly 20 percent carbohydrate by weight (the rest is mostly water), so they were known as 20-percent vegetables. Green peas and artichokes are 15-percent vegetables. Onions, carrots, beets and okra are 10-percent vegetables. Most of the green vegetables- including lettuce, cucumbers, spinach, asparagus, broccoli and kale - are 5-percent, which means carbohydrates constitute at most 5 percent of their weight...a one-cup serving of a 5-percent vegetable will yield only twenty to thirty calories..."

Thus we finally have a successful use of the 'traffic light system' of which the mainstream nutritionists are so fond. But, in a paleo sense we only apply it to the plant based food and notwithstanding peas and artichokes, if it is green it means "GO!"

If you reach a plateau in your fat loss, it might be worth cutting right back on fruit and implementing the Plant Traffic Light scheme above - keep it green. Additionally, make sure you are getting enough meat and fat. My general thoughts on nutrition can be found in this (updated), post here.

A Calorie is a Calorie

Just one further point I should make. Some will argue that mention of calories and plants supports the calorie restricted diet model. This is not the case. Over to Taubes again (p339):

• "When Bruce Bistrian and George Blackburn instructed their patients to eat nothing but lean meat, fish and fowl - 650 to 800 calories a day of fat and protein - half of them lost at least forty pounds each. That success rate held true for "thousands of patients" from the 1960s on, Bistrian said....But had they chosen to balance these very low calorie diets of fat and protein wth carbohydrates - say, by adding another 400 calories of "wonderful fruit and vegetables," as Bistrian phrased it- they would then be consuming the kind of semi-starvation diet that inevitably fails: 1,200 calories evenly balanced between protein, fat and carbohydrates."

Starvation diets are baaaaad maaaaan! A diet can become a starvation diet by simple virtue of its macro nutrient composition. An increased carbohydrate content will bring on all the disadvantages of starvation diets - lethargy (and generally reduced energy expenditure), hunger and so forth. In summary (p340),

• "If we add 400 calories of fat and protein to 800 calories of fat and protein, we have a 1,200-calorie high-fat, carbohydrate-restricted diet that will result in considerable weight loss. If we add 400 calories of carbohydrates to the 800 calories of fat and protein, we have a balanced semi-starvation diet of the kind commonly recommended to treat obesity - and we reduce the efficacy by a factor of fifty."

Some might still focus on the fact that each of the diets above are calorie restricted. But this is irrelevant for fat loss on a LC diet, and you can experiment with this yourself as follows.

As long as it is fat and protein (both from an animal source), eat all you can for a period of time - days, months or years. And I mean ALL YOU CAN. Let your hunger be sated. Then:

1. Take off clothing,
2. Go to the mirror,
3. Observe abs.
4. Erm...Fin.

That's it! Keep it meat - tip you hat to the fat - go green.

Static Dynamics

Back to business this week! I have decided to balance up the climbing workout - which is heavily ring based, with the lunchtime gym work, which is bodyweight/floor based (with the odd bit of iron). I have underestimated how taxing the climbing training can be - the rings are brutal on the shoulders and when I go back to them after a week or so of rest, I notice the difference. More rest is required and clearly beneficial.

I have also decided to try to really push that saw-tooth profile. To this end I am trying to reduce the number of sets and increase the intensity. I also aim to reduce rests between exercises. Such intensity has to be balanced out with a reduction in volume.

Wam Up (5 mins)
Main (20 mins)
1a) Rowing (2mins at level 7, 28SPM)

2a) Chair Sit (60s) to Pillar Jumps (3x10)
2b) Handstand (60s) to Alternate One Arm Medicine Ball Throws (2x10)
2c) Lever (15s) to Reverse Press Up/One Arm Dumbell Rows (2x10)
2d) Planche (15s)
2e) RLLs (Straight Leg - 2x5)
2f) Kneel Backs (60s)

The rowing is a great introduction to the warm up. I like the whole 'stretching out' effect. I prefer sprinting but am keen to mix it up!

I 'cycled' through 2a-2f. Each pass took about 10 mins. The OAMBT was done with a 3kg ball, but as with all the exercises with weights, the explosiveness of the movement is way more important to me than the weight. I thrust that ball high as I could EVERY time. The last set of rows was done with dumbells (rather than bodyweight), and again, I pulled with ALL my might.

The evidence of my effort was obvious. Twenty minutes just about broke me. Looking at some photos from the weekend I can see that I have a good handle on my body fat levels. They are pretty stable around 10%. I am also consistently around 81kg - which is about 3kg heavier than I remember being over the past couple of years - so I assume this is muscle. This weight seems to be much more consistent regardless of my exercise, fasting and eating patterns.

My goal now is to push the strength through greater intensity but less time. I want to progress with some of my gymnastic endeavours - but have to me mindful of the risk of injury - especially given my other pursuits and desire to excel at those also!

All the while I need to fight my 'mainstream' tendancy to do too much and get bogged down in the detail and risk injury. Basic movements that hit muscle chains are all you need and, given variations in intensity and profile, will force adaption. It just takes time.

Further, faster, stronger, harder!