The Hospital

The last post enclosed this quote:

• Anyone who caught Channel 4’s ‘The Hospital’ will probably never eat carbohydrates again. At one point, the lead doctor in the show – who spends his days fixing gastric bands to supersized patients - belted out an inspired tirade against ‘beige’ foods; crisps, potatoes and bread among other things.

I went in search of the actual program which you can see here. It is quite funny that despite a room full of experts (doctors, surgeons, nutritionists), meeting streams of people who are fat despite dieting and pursuing lots of exercise, they still think it is "calories in vs calories out" and a lack of self discipline that is the problem.

The quote about beige kicks in at 12'30" but even this doctor responsible for this incisive comment seems to believe you can simply restrict calories or increase calories out to lose fat. Hmmm - can these guys prove this approach works? Are they sure that reducing 'calories in' in a complex biological organism will NOT cause a compensatory and involuntary reduction in calories out?

It does sound controversial that a fat person is, at a cellular level, in calorific balance, but they are. If you can't access your fat stores then you can be fat and starving. Starving people will eat. Hunger is a powerful driver. From an evolutionary perspective those that did not respond to this signal died. Simple as.

At 23' comes a really nasty part where the 'experts' just CANNOT believe that at least one of the patients is lying about her diet and exercise (they are accused of lying by the narrator). The whole thing is pushed largely in to the realm of psychology.

Where exercise is found to work there is no conclusion drawn beyond the idea that calories out were increased and so burned off the fat. Such an explanation ignores the consequence of exercise on insulin sensitivity....

The broad advice is to follow our old friend "the balanced diet". N'owt worse than a mistake repeated eh?

Beige

My default Homepage on my home PC is to MSN. I often cast a casual eye over it, but every so often I get drawn in - usually to the health news. Today I got pulled in to this article on aging and nutrition.

As (the few) regular readers will kwow, I am sucked in by confirmation bias! This article is no exception, ticking all the paleo boxes including inferences to AGEs and so forth.

What is significant, and the reason I post, are the two sections copied below. They really go to illustrate the wider and growing awareness of the 'tenets of paleo'.

Anyone who has visited the legendary Arthur De Vany's website will be aware of his caveats about eating 'beige' food. Well this very term cropped up on MSN:

• "Anyone who caught Channel 4’s ‘The Hospital’ will probably never eat carbohydrates again. At one point, the lead doctor in the show – who spends his days fixing gastric bands to supersized patients - belted out an inspired tirade against ‘beige’ foods; crisps, potatoes and bread among other things. Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet, but they do make you put on weight (especially if you do little exercise) so do not overdo it and always go for natural rather than processed sources, which contain more sugar. Too many carbs also make you feel – and appear – drowsy: never a good look."

The MSN article goes on to kick soya:

• "Once hailed as a food with a long list of superpowers, health experts are now questioning whether soya could in fact pose a serious health risk. Research in Japan (a country which should know a thing or too about soya) suggests that high levels of soy-based products can play havoc with your thyroid gland, leading to major weight gain and fatigue. Soya apparently blocks the uptake of the chemical iodine, which keeps your thyroid healthy. And it is not as easy to avoid as you would think; it is estimated that soya is found in 60% of processed foods, including breakfast cereals, cheese, cakes, noodles, soups, and sandwich spreads. Experts recommend limiting intake and eating natural, unprocessed foods to avoid any problems."

I get the 'piss' taken out of me more than most for my paleo philosophy. I have quite a few critics who trot out the old 'balanced diet' shite and think that because they are thin (skinny fat in reality), they must be 'OK'. But, it should not escape us that the 'consensus' is definitely coming round to our way of thinking in all but name.

Let them mock...I am not for turning.

Post-HG Lifestyle

Ever wondered what happens when a hunter-gatherer (HG), stops hunting? Sure you could read the works of Weston Price or Vilhjalmur Stefansson, but I think I have found a better example:

Monday Climbing Focus

Friday evenings finger training didn't materialise. But I was psyched for this session. I like the kill carry work and rope climbing is always challenge which can force you to 'writhe' upwards working much of your torso.

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (25* mins)
1a) Sprint (3x10s)
1b) Tuck Planch (6s, 6s, failure)
1c) Lever (6s, 6s, failure)

2a) Ring Cuts (3x6 each way)
2b) Rope Climb to Cirques (2 'laps')

3a) Kill Carry* (5 minutes of walking with a shouldered punch bag - 35kg)

4a) Fingerboarding

I made three passes through each group of exercises (except '3a' and '4a' of which I completed one pass of each), completing the exercises in one group before moving on to the next.

Rope climbing involved steady climbing both up and down the rope with the legs extended in an L-Sit fashion. The lowering involved Cirques. Such 'locking off' can really 'bone' your elbow joint - so take it steady with these! I felt a slight ache in my right forearm and so eased things as neccessary.

The sprinting and planche/lever work was ably assisted by Captain Kid - estending this phase by some time, but it was a good laugh. I give her a head start on the sprints but will have to look at shortening her advantage!

I can really feel this session. The rope climbing was particularly tough - but this may be due to my increased weight.

Dynamic Workout

So this was one of my first gym workouts with the intention of pushing in to failure on the last rep. I usually walk out of the gym with enough gas to 'escape a predator' but the pistols and rows to failure ensured that I would probably end up as tiger food today - although wit and wisdom might just save me.

Warm Up (5 Mins)
Main (20 Mins)
1a) Row (500m, level 7, 1min 35)

2a) Alternate One-Arm Dumbell Snatch/Assisted Pistol + Dumbell Press (18kg 2x15 - last set to failure, 1x15 + 16kg x 8)
2b) Back Bridge (3x15s)

3a) One Arm Dumbell Rows (15, 10, 10 x 18kg)

I am once again trying to cover too many bases and need to reorganise how I label my routines! As the main workout was pretty taxing, the evening workout will just focus on training the fingers with some supplementary stretch/strength work on the legs.

The main workout is now devoid of planche and lever work as this now features in my Monday session. The leg exercise in this workout now involves planching to failure in less than 20 reps - a la Mike Mentzer (but with a few more sets). I have also dropped 'walking on hands' as this whole routine is pretty shoulder intensive and I want to maintain that focus on intensity!

I couldn't wait for this workout! I was TOTALLY stoked. It lived up to its billing as it was brief, hard and had enough variety to keep me entertained ;)

Climbing Workout (Growth)

My climbing workout has evolved once again - this time, to allow me on occasion to push myself in to physical exhaustion. At the moment I want to intersperse this kind of workout with my Hunt-oriented workouts.

I completed three sets through each group of exercises. Form was maintained throughout. The first two sets were completed to a point of where mentally I felt I could not complete another complete rep. The third and final set was completed to momentary muscular failure.

The negative portion of each exercise was always done under strict control and slower than the positive phase.

Warm Up (5 mins)
Main (20 mins)

1a) Sprint (10s, 10s, 15s)
1b) L-Sit Muscle Ups to Basic Ring Routine to Tuck Lever (6MUs, 4MUs, 3MUs)
1c) Fingerboard Laddering

2a) Ring Splits (6, 6, 5)
2b) Tuck Planche (6s, 6s, 5s)
2c) Deadhang Repeaters (3a:7r:120s on small rungs)

The shorter grouping allowed me to mentally REALLY focus on each exercise - and working on the final sets to a point of failure gave me firm feedback of my level of exertion.

Shoving all the gymnastic stuff in to this workout feels good - and as long as I alternate between my hunt workout (which I might tweak further), I look forwards to how this change of approach will manifest itself.

Certainly I am aching deeply today from this new intensity. I am also hungry for Fridays dabble with resistance. Both are good indicators.

These workouts are often completed fasted. On a Monday I don't eat until 2200hrs - and I manage both the workout above and my Lau Gar session in complete comfort with regards to my appetite. Mentally I feel it gives me an edge.

Variety eh? The spice of life.

Growth - Plan B

So our ancestors were shaped by 'wild' forces. Unpredictable by nature. There was no program to follow, no 'meso-cycle' or 'progression' - just the unpredictable demands of survival married to to and ability to adapt.

I try to keep variety in my workouts. Over the course of a week I hit the basic planes of motion (vertical pull/press, horizontal row/press, leg press), coupled with a few static holds and some sprints. Add in a few big lifts (including those that go above your head, and some carry work and "job's a good-un".

Your body does not really know the difference between many of the exercises used - a Military Press or a HSPU...the body just knows it is having to work and which muscles are required to do that work.

But your body is shrewd. It does not want the overhead of growing bigger with its associated increase in metabolic expense. Its first line of adaption is to increase efficiency - to make better use of what it has. Growth is at best best your body's plan B. Your body will only grow so if it is challenged appropriately - if it HAS to.

Although I have kept away from 'going to failure', in retrospect I think I am too often stopping well short of where the most gains can be made. I like working out in a short and intense fashion, but it is often a kind of aerobic exhaustion that gets me (the traditional 'cardio' idea), as much as anything approaching muscular failure.

Now this has made me pretty lean and mean (IMHO), but I am curious as to whether I could get a bit bigger. In going paleo I have grown some - I sit at about 80kg most of the time from a pre-paleo mode of 77kg, but most of this is probably to do with the increase in muscle in my legs and butt from sprinting.

So in the interests of experimentation, I am going to push a bit harder towards muscular failure and see where that takes me....of course function remains my primary goal!