THINGS I LIKE RIGHT NOW

 

 

This is definitely a new style post for me, but I’m going to engage in enough solipsism to assume I’m important enough to have an opinion worth listening to and share some things I’m really digging at this exact moment in my life.  Ideally I’ll raise awareness of products or ideas that folks aren’t aware of or just never took the time to really take onto consideration.  I want to note that I am not sponsored by any of these companies (I TECHNICALLY have a limited sponsorship with one of them, but I never actually share my code with anyone to be able to receive any compensation): these are simply products that I’ve appreciating right now.

 

Without further ado…

 

 

NUTRITION

 

* “Nuts N More” Peanut/Almond Spread. 

I am more than certain that they tried to call name these "Deez" at one point

Website here (https://nuts-n-more.com/collections/online-store).  I am an absolute peanut butter fiend, and can and WILL eat it everyday if given the opportunity.  I ate the exact same lunch for all 4 years of high school: 2 PBJs, a tin of fruit cocktail, a protein bar and a bottle of water.  And I looked forward to those PBJs EVERY day.  These days, every night, before bed, I have peanut or almond butter spread across 4 stalks of celery and 2 slices of keto friendly bread (info on that to come later).  On the bread, I opt for plain ‘ol natural PB/almond butter, but on the celery, I use the Nuts N More spread.

 

So what the hell is it?  It’s really just souped up PB/Almond butter.  It has a protein supplement mixed in along with an artificial sweetener and flax, so that it has a slightly better protein to carb to fat ratio compared to traditional stuff and a better balance of Omega 3s to 6s.  It also comes in a variety of flavors that suit a variety of tastes.  I haven’t found anything I like more than the cinnamon raisin almond butter, but my wife is a big fan of the birthday cake peanut butter.  You’re bound to find a flavor you like.  Some are no stir, while some are gonna need some stirring to be less soupy, and they even sell convenient travel packs that you can just rip open and suck out the contents.  Perfect for bringing along to competition or throwing into a travel bag.  I’ve even gotten creative with it and used it to “frost” some muffins my kid was eating to turn into slightly more good for you cupcakes.  The stuff really goes well on just about anything.

 

* Egg Whites International Drinkable Egg Whites.

Not gonna lie: I LOVE when the box for these comes to the door

Website here (https://www.eggwhitesint.com/product-category/liquid-egg-whites/)  I got turned onto these from Jon Andersen’s Deep Water thrive/badass book and have effectively replaced all milk in my diet with egg whites.  I use it to make protein shakes and was using it with breakfast cereal when I was doing carb up meals before training deep into a weight cut.  These aren’t just the egg whites in a carton you buy at a grocery store: they’re pre-cooked, which eliminates smell, taste, and slime.  It tastes like nothing and takes on the flavor of whatever you mix it with.  It’s pure protein with trace carbs and no fat, so makes macros super simple, for those of you that count.  Make sure to call up the company: you get much better deals over the phone vs online.

 

* Piedmontese Beef.  

r/nattyorjuice just exploded

Website here (https://www.piedmontese.com/)  For the unaware, Piedmontese cattle are the cows born without the myostatin gene, so they are “double muscled”.  This means that they produce incredibly lean, stupidly high in protein meat.  The nutrition on them is insane.  I get grassfed, as I’m doing some sort of pseudo Mountain Dog/Deep Water approach to nutrition these days, but they’re all solid products, and they get delivered right to your door. 

 

* Biotest’s “Flameout”

Yes, every supplement they sell DOES look this goofy

Found here (https://biotest.t-nation.com/products/flameout)  I’m using a lot of Biotest products these days, and the jury is out on some of them, but this one was like night and day as soon as I used it.  I’ve been using fish oil since around 2007, back when the advise on dosage was “keep taking it until you get oily stool and then take 1 less”, and I’ve always opted for the cheap stuff at Costco/Sam’s Club.  I took a gamble on Flameout, and used half the dosage, since I still have a ton of the cheap stuff left, and within days some very persistent elbow pain that I ALWAYS get in the winter due to having to shovel snow just vanished, and I’ve been able to beat my joints up way more than usual.  I’m still keeping half a dose each day while I work through my cheap stuff, but once that’s sorted out this will definitely become my go to for fish oil.

 

* Natural Ovens “Keto Friendly Bread”  

Sold in 2 packs, because you'll tear through them quick

Website here (https://www.naturalovens.com/18oz-keto-bread/80653/)  I get this at my local Costco, and it may be available at yours.  If not, there are other companies out there making keto friendly bread too: use your google machines.  I’m not a keto dieter, but I DO like to keep carbs low so I can keep my dietary fats high (reference the Nuts n More), and the Keto Friendly bread has re-opened a chapter of my life I thought had long since closed.  I can once again pack sandwiches for work, eat toast at breakfast, use breadcrumbs, etc etc.  This stuff tends to go stale quickly, which, if nothing else, speaks to the freshness of ingredients, but it ALSO toasts up rather well, which will hide staleness, so feel free to use that.

 

* Mr Tortilla 1 carb tortillas  

My inner San Diegan exploded when I saw these

Website here (https://mrtortilla.com/products/1-carb)  This was something a facebook add got me on that I was pleasantly surprised with.  I tried the whole gain flavor and first, and it was pretty underwhelmed, but the Pico de Gallo is money.  For those of you that aren’t “taco cultured”, these are STREET taco tortillas, which means they are SMALL.  Like 4” diameter.  It makes the 1 carb claim a little more believable.  HOWEVER, you can use these to make some really baller mini-quesadillas, which are awesome, and, of course, all the street tacos you desire.  Just another awesome way to bring things that use to be “low carb off limits” back into the fold.

 

TRAINING

* Rows/Shrugs Against Bands  

Amazingly NOT found in this book...but it's still a great read

For my birthday this year, I treated myself to a new power rack after 13 years with my old TDS 2x2.  I got a Titan T-3 (2x3) rack that finally allowed me to set up against bands without a circus act.  I also got some strap safeties, which allowed me to be willing to pull stuff on a rack without fear of warping my equipment.  With that, I took to doing axle rows and axle shrugs against bands, and they are amazing.  I never cared for either movement before because they were a total pain in the butt to set up, but with bands I don’t even use any straight weight on the axle: I can just use a stronger band if I need to increase tension.  This cuts set-up time down immensely while also turning the movement into something REALLY gnarly, as the load gets “heavier” the closer you get to lockout, as bands, of course, tend to do.  I’ve found that, for the rows, I do better to NOT have straps, and can get a better mind muscle connection with the axle in my hands, but for the shrugs, straps are the absolute right call.  

 

* Daily Work  

Hey, it had Chris Farley in it: it gets a pass

I’m tempted to write an entire entry on this at some point, but what this boils down to is, during periods of weight gain, I like to implement “daily work” to build up more volume and drive more growth.  Typically my daily work is stuff that I’d rather include in my lifting sessions but tend to cut out due to time constraints: all those things you SHOULD be doing.  For me, this is direct ab work, reverse hypers, direct tricep work, rear delt work, GHRs, and then chins and dips.  So for the past few months I’ve had a requirement that, every day, I need to do at least

 

20 standing ab wheels
30 GHRs
40 bodyweight reverse hypers
50 chins (any grip)
50 dips
50 band pull aparts
25 band pushdowns

 

Now, if any of these movements are already in the day’s training, I no longer need to do them as part of my daily work, but these are simply minimum requirements.  I can exceed them if I so desire (I often do on the chins, just because I can bust out a set whenever I walk through my garage), but at a minimum, this needs to get done along with any other training I do.

 

The trick is to keep things VERY sub-max.  I find keeping it all bodyweight work to help there.  You don’t want this to tax your recovery: you just want it to add volume on top of whatever else it is that you’re doing.  And believe me: when you do it everyday for months at a time, it adds up.  Watch for signs of lacking recovery, aches and pains though: you don’t want this to interrupt your REAL training.

 

* Front Squat/Burpee Juarez Valley 

Huh...maybe shoulda used THIS for the shrug photo...

This is a workout I came up with that I’ve been using for the past 3 weeks that I’m a big fan of.  I feel like it hits just about everything: size, strength, and conditioning.  “Juarez Valley” comes from Josh Bryant’s “Jailhouse Strong”, and is a training protocol where we go for a max-ish amount of reps at the start of the workout, then the next set is 1 rep, next set is 1 less than the first set, then a set of 2, etc etc, until we eventually meet in the middle of the valley.  For example, if the topset is a set of 10, you’d go

10
1
9
2
8
3
7
4
6
5

 

In between sets, inmates would walk the length of their jail cell, so like 8-12 paces. 

 

What I’ve taken to doing is to do front squats (originally it was a set of 10), and in between each set, I’ll do 5 six count burpees.  A bit more strenuous than that walk, and it calls in the rest of the body to play. 

 

What I really dig about this workout is how much can be changed in the pursuit of progress.  I can keep everything the same and try to beat my previous time, or I can add a rep to the topset (what I’ve been doing) which adds more SETS to the whole program, or I can add weight to the front squat, or I could change the movement in the middle by adding reps or make it something entirely different.  Very adaptable, and very gnarly.  It’s constant work.

 

* Slingshot Stripsets.  I did a video on youtube recently showing this off

 

 

But this is a solid idea for those of you with limited dumbbells/weights during these COVID times.  I have 2 different slingshot-esque products: a blue “reactive” slingshot, and a “Catapult” from Metal.  The former provides less assistance than the latter and so, once I reach failure on a set of DB presses, I throw on the slingshot, rep until failure, take it off, throw on the catapult and then do the same.  It’s an excellent way to really milk a set of DBs for all that they’re worth, especially when you consider the cost of a slingshot compared to a new set of DBs.  There are SO many resistance levels available out there right now that you could easily build up a stash of these and run it completely into the ground.  If you wanna make it even sillier, you can start off by having a resistance band in each hand with the band looped against your back and have ADDED resistance that you gradually take away before adding in the assistance of the slingshot.  And then, of course, you can play around with the incline, use lower weights, drop down to push ups, etc etc.  Again: lots of ways to make a limited amount of weight go a long way.

 

 

This is already a bit on the long side, so I’ll cut it here, but hopefully you got to learn about something new from this.