The Greatest & Best Diet in the World (Tribute)

Britain's ITV station has been running a two part 'Tonight' special titled "The World's Best Diet". the goal of the diets was to:

• "...see which one generated the greatest benefit to health based on common markers of good health, such as cholesterol levels, liver function tests, and body mass index"

The diets were followed be several fat 'celebrities' and can broadly be categorised thus:

1. Japanese (lots of sushi and vegetables)
2. British (traditional 1950's meat & two veg)
3. Mediterranean (Italian pasta, heavy on fish and vegetables)
4. Indian (vegetarian curries made from rice and vegetables)
5. US (low-carb - meat and vegetables)

You will notice all of them are heavy on the vegetables/plant bits. You will notice that a few of them are heavy on the meat. You will also notice that although two of them feature rice and one of them features pasta, they are all light, in general, on sugar, bread, cereals, pastries, fizzy drinks and other processed foods.

Winner Doesn't Take it All

So which diet won? Which one led to the greatest weight loss. Well the diet that did least well was the Indian, vegetarian diet. The 'shleb following that diet lost 2lbs in six weeks. Ha, ha, ha! the diet that was most effective in terms of weight loss was the US, Low-Carb diet!

....only it didn't win. The 'blurb' on the link above states,

• "Overall, the Mediterranean-STYLE of eating came out best – not only for correcting cholesterol, boosting vitamin D and improving cholesterol profile, but also for helping Darren lose a phenomenal amount of weight, keeping fit in the process. "

In reality the person following the LC diet (Caroline Malone), lost MOST weight - only a bit more, but more nevertheless. The big downside for the LC diet was the fact that Malone's LDL had risen. Some (obese) dietician from the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) opined that her LDL had gone up.

Ooooo scary! Yep, having been told for years that "CHOLESTEROL IS BAD", we are now getting the subtler message that "HDL IS GOOD, LDL IS BAD". Give it a few more years and 'they' will cotton on to the fact that LDL is comprised of two subtypes, one of which is harmful and the other beneficial. Guess which subtype an LC diet raises?

Furthermore we do not know whether Malone's LDL was measure directly (I suspect not), or inferred from the limited Friedwald equation. Both Stephan and Mike Eades have superb posts on this very topic.

But that is not all. "Fatty" from the BNF went on to tell us that the LC is not sustainable...because erm, well it just isn't. In fact her argument as to why the LC diet is NOT sustainable can be summarised thus:

• ""

Hang on a minute, let me bold that for you so you can see the crux of her argument:

• ""

Erm...hang on a minute, let me number the main points for you...

Erm...errrr......

You see, just as the religious have recourse to the Courtiers Reply under which they shelter from the rationalism and logic of atheism, nutritionists and dietitians have their equivalent. LC is the elephant in the room.

The BNF keep repeating negative speculation about LC that is damaging and misleading. I am sure Fatty mentioned a 'lack of energy' from a LC diet (odd that I and other have found intermittent fasting was made possible by an LC diet), and it was most definitely mentioned that LC was 'not sustainable in the long term' because erm, err, erm.... er - no reason!

I am sick of these (frequently obese) 'advisors' appearing in the media to repeat their rather dated ideas about nutrition. If the BNF or British Dietetics Association's advice was any good, few of their advisors would be fat. I would love to see the weight of their staff plotted over time! They didn't follow the science, they pushed their own agenda. Mediterranean diet my arse. Give me some fatty animal flesh and seasonal vegetables any time!

Rant over.

(Posted by Asclepius - Last bodpodded at 10.3% BF and who eats when hungry and until full and never does 'cardio')

Dynamic Workout

Last night I did a quick climbing workout as follows:

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (15 mins)
1a) Laddering
1b) Ring Splits (6, 6, 6, 6)
1c) Basic Ring Routine

2a) Deadhang Repeaters (7s:3s:140)

Today the weather was quite hot and humid. Not really conducive to a lunchtime workout, but as always, a bit of sprinting 'juiced' my body in preparation for further activity. I cannot emphasise enough how sprinting 'breaks open the champagne' within and gets you in the mood to work!

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (30 mins)
1a) Sprint (2x15s, one minute rest between each set)

2a) Pillar Jumps (4x5)
2b) Frog Planch (3x20s)

3a) Wall Walk (4x2)
3b) Tuck Rows to One Arm Lower (4x4)

4a) Tuck Lever (3x20s)

I finished off with some hand walking for time.

Bilateral Deficit (How to Work 13% Harder)

Apart from being a bit of a conversation killer at dinner parties, the bilateral deficit is the phenomenon of a reduction in performance during synchronous bilateral movements when compared to the sum of identical unilateral movements.

Confused? Well let me explain. Given your RM for a lift with one limb (a unilateral movement), you'd expect your RM for two limbs combined (a bilateral movement), to be equal to the sum of each unilateral movement (UL), but this is not the case.

Let's go further with an example. Common sense tells us that if we can curl a 25kg dumbell with one arm, we should be able to curl a 50kg barbell with two arms, right? Sadly not. In practice the RM with the barbell will be around 15% less! Behold the bilateral deficit effect.

You can actually see this phenomena in many other exercises - press ups, chins and pull ups, squats, dips rows and presses.

In this article by Peter Vint he quotes work by Vandervoort et al. who found that,

• "...simultaneous BL leg extension strength was significantly less that the summed UL strengths under isometric and concentric conditions."

Vint addresses work by Secher, Rorsgaard, and Secher who concluded that:

• "...slow-twitch fiber activity was reduced during the simultaneous BL exercises. The results of pharmacological muscular inhibition led to a further rationalization that the UL strength dominance was attributable to a reduction in ST MU activation during the simultaneous BL exercises, despite the fact that the FT fibers were actively firing"

This finding was endorsed by Vandervoort et al. (in the same article), who found that:

• "MU activation was less complete during BL versus UL leg extension",

So what causes this phenomena? There seems to be a bit of disagreement around the underlying cause and little agreement other than muscle unit activation might be 'less complete', activation speed and/or possibly some local neural control mechanism.

The size of the deficit varies between individuals, whether trained or untrained, and, on efficiency of an individual's CNS.

That said, the effect is real and given how much more juice you can squeeze from unilateral movements, they may be the way to go!

Strength Workout

Today I start back cycling through the workouts listed with tags to the right. Beginning at 1 - a strength workout, I made a few adjustments, but it was essentially the same workout.

The aim was four sets of the main sequence (2a-2g):

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (25 mins)
1a) 15s Sprint to Fig Eights (2x30s, one minute rest between each set)

2a) HSPU (3, 3, 2, 2) - assisted on the third rep of the first two sets.
2b) Alternative Leg Pistol (3, 3, 2, 2) - assisted on the third rep of the first two sets.
2c) Tuck Planche (4x5s)
2d) Tuck Lever (4x5s)
2e) Alternate One Arm Lock-Off to Lower (3, 3, 2, 2)
2f) Backbridge (3x20s)

The big development is that I can do more sets of handstand pressups! Four sets of two unassisted is a personal record (IIRC). The same with the pistols - four sets of two unassisted pistols is a personal best.

I don't do HSPUs or Pistols that often, so I guess it is a cross training effect. The Tuck Planche also seems to be a PB - with four sets of 5s in a harder variation.

It was a fantastic day - blue skies all the way. Thus I finished the workout with a bit of handstand work and general sunning!

Overall, I seem to be making gains from variety and novelty. The workouts are all around 30 minutes once or twice a week. I am completely free of injury save for a niggle in my right knee (blogged about earlier), which is getting better by the week.

I still intend to move further from note-taking and measuring. I take more from my workout than a bunch of numbers. Sure, you need a handle on what you are doing. A successful hunt or a successful escape would have been feed back enough, and I want to concentrate on a similarly high level view of where I am physically.

Steady progress in the bodyweight exercises above, for me, ticks this box rather than getting bogged down in the minutae of lbs, shilling and pence.

Sunday Climbing

Father's Day was celebrated with a monster feast of chocolate......which I promptly scoffed! the day was punctuated with a visit to relatives and a picnic in open parkland. The parkland provided space for Captain Kid and I to play various games in and around the trees and clearings.

These games involved various sprints and chasing. Flash was keen to participate but was sidetracked with gymnastic endeavours....namely the handstand.

This evening I managed to sneak off to the garage for a quick workout. Four cycles through the following, with a set of deadhangs to finish.

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (15 mins)
1a) Laddering
1b) Ring Splits (6, 6, 6, 6)
1c) L-Sit Rope Climb to Lock-Off and Lower

2a) Deadhang Repeaters (7s:3s:140)

The Secret of Genius

"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm. "

- Aldous Huxley

One Louder - Statics

I am trying to cut down on volume a wee bit on weeks where I do two training session. Today's workout was based upon static holds that were intense, but keeping the whole workout short - thus I only did three sets of the cycle. I want to focus a bit more on my gymnastics skills (or lack thereof).

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (15 mins)
1a) Chair Sits (3x60s)
1b) Handstands - Wall Assisted (3x60s)
1c) Tuck Lever (3x30s)
1d) RLLs (3x8)
1e) Back Bridge (3x15s)
1f) Frog Planche (3x30s)

The last set was a killer - with my arms beginning to shake! This workout, although brief, was definitely 'one louder'!