NUTRITIONAL ALCHEMY: "THE NUTRITION POST" PART II

Alchemy: not science.  Which is liberating.  This is how I’m eating BECAUSE IT WORKS, and it works because I am BENDING REALITY TO MY WILL.  And, because of that, things actually make sense.  Go solipsism.  I wanted to get this down in one spot, because it’s been dribs and drabs all over the place, and even then there’s going to be nuance left behind and things forgotten, but through the chaos I believe I’ve actually identified some sort of system.  For you DnD Nerds, this is sorcery or warlockery rather than wizardry.  

It's absolutely amazing this book exists...and it's totally on my bookshelf

And let me just go on to say: it works.  Here's 25lbs down in 3 months, from 2 Mar to 2 Jun, with ZERO intention or effort in losing fat

*BIG PICTURE STRUCTURE*

Its simple really

* Currently employing a phasic approach to nutrition, stolen by Jamie Lewis’ “Feast, Famine and Ferocity” diet.  There are phases WITHING phases, which I absolutely love, but for the BIG structure: 2 weeks of “Famine”, 4 weeks of “Feast”, 6 week block in general, which fits right in with Dan John’s “everything works for 6 weeks” and Jim Wendler’s 6 week blocks of 5/3/1….and the 6 weeks of Super Squats…and Mass Made Simple.  Folks: 6 weeks HAS significance in the world of training.  It’s the “40 days” you see in the Bible.  We should be attention to why 6 weeks is important.

 

* “Famine” is a period of restricted calories and food in general.  In the most IDEAL Famine, it’s PURE protein shakes (Metabolic Drive shakes with water).  Will flesh that out soon.  During “Feast”, it’s more food, which means fewer shakes are NEEDED, but they’re not restricted for the sake of restriction.  If there is a desire or need for shakes, they can be consumed, but, ideally, more food is eaten instead.

 

* No transition phases: go straight from the Feast into the Famine.  But I’ve taken to ramping up the Feast as I go, vs feasting to the maximal extent.  Details to follow.

 

* As for “phases within phases”, stealing from “Apex Predator”, calories are ideally waved through the week, rather than kept static, to include a “Rampage Day” once a week, and otherwise adding when and subtracting based on training demand.  Moreso during feast than famine.

 

*SOME PRINCIPLES*

And it's never lupus

 

* Protein Leveraging: There’s a LOT of information out there regarding the magical qualities of protein, and many authors have discussed it, to include the aforementioned Jamie Lewis, Mark Bell of Slingshot fame, and of course the good folks at T-Nation/Biotest, with articles like https://forums.t-nation.com/t/the-contrary-diet/282403 with the passage “Turning protein into body fat, however, is an entirely different type of challenge. It takes several biochemical and hormonal steps, and it’s monitored closely by the liver, which metes out amino acids according to the body’s metabolic needs (tissue breakdown, tissue synthesis, catabolism, anabolism, etc.).” as a prime example.  We were off the mark when we said it took more calories to digest celery than it provided, but when it comes to protein, we’re a bit closer there: digesting protein is a thermogenic process in and of itself, which can mean that, though protein might be “4 calories per gram”, when we consume it, we effectively receive 1.4 calories worth of energy, having used the rest just to digest it.  THEN, when we factor in that protein has the effect of SPARING muscle in a deficit and growing it in a surplus AND that protein tends to be a satiating food, I am willing to consider “pure protein” as a “free food” in my nutrition.  Is that scientific?  Who cares: this is alchemy!  What this means as an alchemist is that, irrespective of where I am in a nutrition phase, if I eat pure protein, it’s a non-entity.  This will come into play as I discuss the nutritional phases.  It’s worth appreciating that about the only real “pure protein” FOOD source out there (for my consideration) is egg whites, so that’s my go to for protein leveraging, BUT piedmontese grassfed sirloin or some chicken tenderloins can qualify in a pinch.  I’m legit looking for a rating of “0g fat, 0g carbs, Xg protein” on a nutrition label, fully appreciating that there WILL be trace amounts of carbs and fats and that it IS, in theory, possible to consume enough to violate the intended benefit of protein leveraging…but in practice, SINCE protein is satiating, one tends to reach satiety before overeating is a concern. 

 

* Carnivore/Animal Based: Tying into the above: any FOOD (which is to say, non-Metabolic Drive product) that is consumed is animal.  Since “carnivore” is technically flesh eating, I say “animal” here because I permit myself dairy and eggs, as they are the PRODUCT of animals.  However, I do not permit myself honey, despite the fact it is produced by animals.  Some folks handle it well, but I still need to keep carbs low.  But, if it’s meat, or if it’s dairy or eggs, when I’m eating food: it’s permitted.  It’s worth discussing that I treat dairy more like a dessert or condiment vs a food.  Sour cream and butter are the “sauces” I use for foods, cheese is a topper onto meat OR a dessert (cottage cheese is f—king delicious), I’ll add some cream to coffee primarily just to add fats.  In general, meat and eggs make up the primary, and dairy is “in addition”.

 

* Speaking a bit more to the sauces: I try to avoid increasing the palatability of food in general.  Limited seasonings, sauces, marinades, etc.  I actually take the time to wash these things off of meat if it comes pre-packaged.  The truth is: food is ALREADY delicious, it doesn’t need dressing up, and if it DOES: I’m not gonna eat it.  My body knows what it wants, and it’s going to want those things, and I’m going to eat the things I want.  I’m not going to trick/deceive my body into eating something.  This also prevents overeating.  Considering I’m stupidly lean right now, that doesn’t really seem to be a big concern, but given that I AM stupidly lean, maybe it’s BECAUSE I’m not overeating, because I’m not making an effort to increase the palatability of my food.  I will eat as much as I want, I will no longer limit myself ARTIFICIALLY (walking away from food still hungry) BUT I’m also not going to eat when I’m not hungry simply because the food is yummy.  When I’m done eating: I’m done eating.  If I’m still hungry, I will eat REAL food until I am not.

 

* Ya know what: I’m gonna flesh that out even more (this is really becoming my opus here).  Know what I’m NOT going to do?  Make carnivore pizza, or carnivore brownies, or bake carnivore bread, or do any of that stuff.  I fell for that very trap with keto.  This is fake food.  There’s no need to eat it.  Real food is amazing enough, and there’s enough joy to be had from it that it doesn’t need transformation.  If there is something I’m eating that I’m not enjoying, I’m going to stop eating it: I’m NOT going to process it into something it’s not supposed to be.  If I really want pizza: I’ll have pizza.  Meat needs no apology.

 

* Speaking a bit more to Carnivore: with my work/life structure, I work weekdays and have weekends with the family.  In turn, I tend to have a more shake-based approach to nutrition during the week and, during the weekend, make an effort to stay as Carnivore as possible.  If given the choice between a shake or egg whites: I’ll eat the egg whites.  I seem to just REALLY thrive when I’m eating more and more animals, and it’s just socially healing to EAT meals with family vs drink them.  I also just plain appreciate the challenge of trying to comply to a set of artificial constraints as hard as I can, and forcing myself to “stay carnivore” fosters creativity.  So looking at my dietary structure: Carnivore and Rampage Weekends (holy cow, that sounds pretty cool), Apex Predator/Velocity Diet Weekdays.

 

* Rampage/Carb-Refeed: Over the years, I have found that I have zero issues complying 100% with a no-carb diet.  I can easily just cut them out of my life and be fine.  I don’t have cravings.  BUT, I’ve also found, time and time again, that WHEN I include regularly scheduled cheat meals (not PRECISELY scheduled, but as in “one day this week I’ll have a cheat meal” vs “it’ll happen when it happens”), everything just works “better” for me.  I get leaner, bigger, perform better, etc.  I’ve always gotten my leannest when I included these, and when I EXCLUDED them, I would always be flat and hold a little extra fluff.  To say nothing of the social benefit of being out with good company enjoying good food and good times.  To say nothing of the ability to maintain “metabolic flexibility”, wherein my gut-biome gets semi-regular exposure to a variety of foods/stimulus and doesn’t get too dialed in.  And these days I’m in a place where I DON’T binge eat when given junk food, primarily because my current way of eating actually allows me to thrive and eat to satiety foods I like in general.  So, with THAT preamble established, we have what Jamie Lewis dubbed “The Rampage” in his Apex Predator Diet, what others will call cheat meals, and what some can call refeeding.  Skip Hill also had “Skip Loading”, which he took from “Sh-t loading”, Justin Harris employs carb cycling, as did Shelby Starnes, but with these schools of thought you’re taking individuals that are already carb adapted, so a refeed tends to require a full DAY of high carb meals in order to top off glycogen, as they don’t have near the sensitivity to carbs that I do.  But alongside that, I have to make a concentrated effort to actually EAT CARBS at these refeeds, because I flat out love eating animals, and if given the choice, I’ll binge eat fried chicken before pizza if you give me a “unlimited junk food” option.  And because of all these benefits, there is a Rampage Day irrespective of diet phase: famine or feast. 

 

* Just to give a bit more detail to the Rampage (it honestly is probably worth its own section), before I have my Rampage meal, I make it a policy to have a Metabolic Drive shake.  This allows me to not worry about ensuring I’m getting enough protein in the meal, and can really just lean into the carbs (French fries and pasta are on the menu boys!  Don’t need to chase down the buffalo wings), and will help create a natural governor for the meal.  I’m not terribly concerned about overeating, as it’s somewhat the point, but as I demonstrated with my taking on of the Stellanator, I DO have a prodigious appetite and CAN put away a monstrous amount of food if given the opportunity, and it’s good to have SOME sort of check in place.  Otherwise, I operate off a premise of “am I still INTERESTED in food” when I’m in the Rampage.  Buffets are ideal for Rampages, and after I’ve eaten quite a bit, I’ll cruise the line again and see if anything actually looks GOOD to eat.  If not: the meal is done.  I’m not going to eat just for the sake of eating, nor am I going to eat just for the sake of feeling full/stuffed.  But if I’m enjoying the food: I’ll eat it.  And, typically, once this meal is done, I’m done eating for the day.  This isn’t out of nutritional martyrdom or a punishment or anything like that: I legit tend to eat enough at this meal that I don’t have any hunger for the rest of the day.  Which is why this is ideally a midday meal, OR, even better, a breakfast or brunch, as in the case of the latter I might be able to get in one more meal at the end of the day.  When I ate the Stellanator, it had to be at night, per the challenge, and it threw me off for a full day.

 

* Aside from that Rampage, whenever possible, I endeavor to consume the highest quality foods I can eat.  Grassfed beef, pasture raised eggs/chickens, grassfed dairy, humanely raised animals or wild game, animals that eat their natural diets, etc etc.  If I’m putting it in my body, it should be high quality, and these animals gave their lives for me: I’d like them to have been treated well for that sacrifice.  BUT, I’m also not going to be a nutritional martyr here.  If what I’m served is a grainfed steak, I will be thankful for that food as well.  If it’s a McDonalds burger patty, I will eat it graciously. 

 

*STRUCTURE AND INTENT OF “FAMINE”*

 

Beyond employment opportunities!  

* The most ideal compliance of Famine would be Velocity Diet 1.0: nothing but Metabolic Drive shakes all day.  Jamie prescribes 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight, split between 4-6 shakes, whereas V diet tends to be a bit higher in protein/calorie total.  Still using Flameout for healthy fats, Superfood for nutrients, and a variety of other supplements for general health/performance, but as far as baseline nutrition goes, this is “Famine”.  For me, I try for ONE of these days a week during the 2 days of Famine, and typically it’ll be the day after the Rampage day, functioning effectively as a metabolic reset.  The body responds best to hard, dramatic pivots, so a day of large calorie intake followed by a rapid and sharp drop in food forces it to scramble and come up with a solution. Also, just based off my weekly schedule, my Rampage day is typically Sunday, and on Mondays my wife teleworks and I don’t see her for lunch, so that’s one meal I can make into a shake.  If I’m running late for work or she’s traveling, it’s another shake I can have instead of a meal.

 

* I’m willing to consider “egg whites mixed with Metabolic Drive” to functionally be a shake, as far as the above goes, and have used it as a pivot to meet the Famine structure while still having “meals”.  This is beneficial from the “Family Man” perspective, as I can make egg whites and protein into a few different permutations of “real food”, like oatmeal, soups, muffins, etc.  Egg whites are essentially pure protein, and play into protein leveraging just fine.  I’ll discuss my use of the a bit more in depth here.

 

* Outside of my 1 “high compliance day” per week, in periods of famine, my protein sources are as lean as possible.  I have a freezer full of piedmontese grassfed steak tips, which boast 1.5g of fat for 26g of protein in a 4oz serving, which is bonkers, but I can go even leaner if I’m so inclined by eating their sirloin, which is given a listing of ZERO grams of fat per 4oz serving.  I’ll pair this alongside egg whites, to satisfy my insatiable desire to always eat “steak and eggs” whenever possible while still meeting the intent of the famine.  Other options would include chicken tenderloins, all prepared without cooking oils/butter/etc.  Certain fish is fine as well, you get the point: cuts of animal with as little fat as possible.  This is the protocol for lunches, and if I can work it into our family dinners I’ll do that too, but if I end up eating fattier meats in the evening, it’s not something I worry about.  I make sure not to OVEReat, and tend to do so by having egg whites as my go to sides for my meals.  A LOT of fluffy egg whites can be quite filling alongside some chicken thighs. 

Works for this guy!

 

* All training days during Famine are performed fasted.  I DO have a shake in the middle of the night, but no food upon waking.

 

* As far as intent goes: the Famine is honestly cleansing and preparatory for me.  It’s funny: I never considering myself as one for “fasting”, but this IS a “protein sparring modified fast”, and I actually do feel benefits from that.  When I made the hard pivot from Super Squats style of eating to Velocity Diet, it was amazing how GOOD I felt from NOT eating food and just giving my guts a break, and that’s what tends to happen during the initial period of Famine.  It’s a good break after heavy eating, and it primes me to be able to resume that lifestyle when the time comes.  It allows me to maintain a passion for food by providing the necessary duality/dichotomy of a period of caloric restriction WITH a clear and defined end state.  Knowing that it’s only 2 weeks of Famine makes it so much more sustainable than an indefinite period of dieting, and coming out of the Famine I am lean but also flat and ready to soak up nutrients.

 

*STRUCTURE AND INTENT OF “FEAST”*

 

Oh come on: you'd at least give it a try right?

* I still tend to include a “high compliance” Velocity Diet day during the Feast, and it follows the day after the Rampage Meal, but for the most part this is more about eating to hunger signals than anything else.  I want to create hunger so I can eat to satiate it, and I tend to not have much of it after a Rampage.  I’m willing to break protocol more though, with this being feast, so I might have egg whites upon waking so I’m not training totally fasted, or if there’s a lunch opportunity, I’ll take it.

 

* Meat is fattier during this time, and ideally off the bone.  Chicken drumsticks/wings, ribs, bone in chops, etc.  I also tend to pack a snack of 2 whole eggs, that I eat in the afternoon at work.

 

* I ramp up over these 4 weeks, rather than just shotgun blast at the start and hold firm.  Similar to what Dan John outlines in “Mass Made Simple” by introducing a new addition each week.  Subtle changes, like a half scoop more protein in each shake, extra egg white here and there, more meat at lunch, etc. 

 

* If I’m hungry, I’m going to eat until I’m not.  During Famine, I’ll tolerate hunger until “the next meal”, following a bit more of a structure, but here, if it’s earlier than “lunch time” and I’m hungry: I’ll have lunch.  Often, I find it sorts itself out anyway, and I end up eating less in the later meals.

 

* As far as intent: eating to grow, gain, and support hard heavy training. Simple enough.  This also is a “metabolism builder”.  Justin Harris among other have spoken about how long periods of restricted calories will establish a low-baseline metabolism, which absolutely sucks, as you’re in a state where you cannot eat much food without putting on bodyfat, which limits the ability to take in nutrients.  Having a higher set point allows for greater intake of food, which means more nutritional opportunities. 

 

---

 

Man, this grew huge, and I feel like I have even more to say on the subject, but this is a good enough stopping point for now. I write all this down because, right now, at this moment in time, I’ve never felt or performed better, nor have I been in a better headspace.  I am the lightest, leanest, and strongest I’ve ever been, and I am NOT sacrificing to get here.  I am eating and living EXACTLY how I want, and it’s allowing me to BE exactly WHO and WHAT I want to be.  I’m hoping that laying it all out there can help those in need. 

 

"STRONG AND CONDITIONED" PODCAST

 Hey folks,

I'll resume my post on my Jamie Lewis experience next week, but Lee Hazard of "Strong and Conditioned" featured me on his podcast and I wanted to share it.

Here I discuss my training history, and give some perspective on what I feel is important when it comes to gaining and training.  Enjoy and leave any questions or comments.

MY JAMIE LEWIS EXPERIENCE PART 1: THE APEX PREDATOR DIET INTERVENTION

 If you’re not a fan of Jamie Lewis, originally of “Chaos and Pain” and now “Plague of Strength”, you’re not going to enjoy this piece, but I’m going to lead by saying Jamie has flat out changed my life all for the positive and I owe him a TON, and the least I can do is sing his praise, positively review his material and try to get others to buy from and support him.  So that’s what I’m going to do here.

BACKGROUND

Get settled in: this is a long one

Ancient History Stuff

I am 37 years old, 5’9, 182.3lbs as of my writing this, have been lifting weights since I was 14, competed in powerlifting and strongman since 2010, have a background in martial arts/wrestling, have pulled 601, squatted 502 and benched 342 in a meet, lifted more in the gym, and done lots of nutty things in my time.

More Relevant Background

Prior to starting up Jamie’s diet and program, I had just finished up Super Squats, also a great program for different reasons.  This was an epic run of it, culminating in me squatting 405 for 20 reps and getting fairly jacked

…and also just absolutely destroying my body in the process.  I had actually taken the author’s lead and had done a 6 week run of Super Squats, wherein I contracted RSV between workout 1 and 2 and then proceeded to tear my hamstring in workout 5 and through the rest of the program with use of wrapping my hamstring with a knee wrap and pushing reps to beyond 20, then from there went on to do a 6 week “bulk and power program” of my own creation…resulting in a torn lat, then onto the final week of Super Squats, getting me that 405 squat and such severe elbow pain from low bar squatting 3x a week that I had to hang it up for 4 weeks to recover…plus my right knee and hip were in a BAD way.  

Clearly, a change was needed.

I fell back to my old standby of reading “5/3/1 Forever” and ran the 5/3/1 Krypteia base phase, using front squats and SSB squats liberally as a means to heal my elbow, but there was more that needed doing.

CHANGE 1: THE APEX PREDATOR DIET

Conan approved!

I was not a fan of how I was eating/living while running Super Squats.  Food was consuming (pun unintended) my life.  I was always buying it, cooking it, cleaning up after it, getting it OUT of my body, and then planning/prepping the next meal.  The calorie demands of the program were so high that I’d be eating WHILE COOKING the next meal.  I still recall an evening where I got home from work late and literally ate until I went to sleep.  My wife pointed this out to me where she informed me she would wait until I was done eating for the day to go to bed.  She was a saint to put up with me that way, but it’s absolutely no way to live.  And a big reason this was happening was because I refused to drink the gallon of milk a day that’s typically associated with the program, and the reason I wasn’t doing THAT was because I didn’t want my kid to watch me to that and model their nutrition off of it.  But the example I was setting wasn’t much better.

I’d read about the Apex Predator Diet before, in Jamie’s “Issuance of Insanity”, and was also familiar with the Velocity Diet from Biotest that it borrowed heavily from, thanks to my reading of Dan John.  Previously, I had written them both off due to the extensive use of protein shakes, but when I considered how much I was spending on solid foods at this point to support myself, I realized a shake based diet would honestly be pretty economical.  But the BIG draw was the fact that meal prep time was suddenly going to be slashed dramatically: drink a shake in 20 seconds and move on with life.  Packing for work?  Bag of protein and a shaker bottle.  Dishes?  Shaker bottle.  This was super “high speed/low drag”, which was JUST what I needed.  So upon taking on 5/3/1 Krypteia, I began my foray into a modified approach to the Apex Predator/Velocity Diet.  I abided by Jamie’s recommendation for lean trainees to have 2 lunch time solid meals a week, since I got to meet my wife on those days for lunch, and my weekends were more solid food based, since that was time I got to spend with my family and I wasn’t going to be drinking shakes while we were out having meals together.  I still needed that social healing.  But, effectively, any time I could have a shake instead of a meal, I went with a shake.

OUTCOME OF CHANGE #1

I’ve written about this in my blog already as part of my “complete overhaul” series, but to summarize: this change in and of itself was lifechanging.  I got back SO much of my life and my time with my family by switching the majority of my meals to shakes.  The two biggest offenders were my breakfasts and my pre-bed meals, of which I’ve logged about before, but they were massive and time consuming.  Ultimately, I needed “permission” to stop eating like that, and having the recommendation of someone like Jamie went a long way.  And after jumping straight in, I found out that I could still train just as hard and be just as strong even without the insane morning and nightly rituals.  

As this change only lasted the course of the Krypteia base phase and deload, it was only 4 weeks of living this way.  After Super Squats, I still had some fluff to lose, and 4 weeks of dieting really isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, so I was seeing SOME positive physique changes but nothing significant…and then I started following one of Jamie’s programs (his newly re-released "Feast, Famine and Ferocity" program) and things REALLY got interesting.  That will get covered in part 2.  But let's talk even further about nutrition WHILE I was following Jamie's programs.

That's a beautiful cover for ANY book

I underwent a MAJOR nutritional pivot during Feast, and it’s been one of the most positive things I’ve done for myself in a long time.  I absolutely didn’t meet Jamie’s prescription as far as calories goes, primarily because I’m not going to count calories.  In addition, the shakes were still regular features because they went a long way toward streamlining my life.  HOWEVER, for my solid meals: I went carnivore.  I’d been wanting to try out a carnivore diet for a few years now, after listening first to Shawn Baker and then Paul Saladino and a few other carnivore influencers talk to the approach (and constantly hearing Mark Bell beat the drum for it).  This also matches up a bit more directly with how Jamie laid out the “Apex Predator Diet”, as the solid meals were all meat.  I honestly just wasn’t in a good place psychologically to undertake it, but this protocol was VERY freeing in that regard, so I went full steam ahead…and it’s been amazing.  I’ll probably just have to make it another blog post (a continuation of the overhaul series), but I’m only eating meat, eggs and cheese/dairy, and I attribute that to some of the AMAZING results I’ve gotten (will sum that up at the end).  I still opt for high quality sources (grassfed beef/dairy when possible, pasture raise eggs, etc), and I’m still using supplements to fill in gaps (Superfood, Flameout, several others), but the Feast has been a carnivore Feast.  Conan approved!  

*CARNIVORE FEASTS AND RAMPAGE MEALS*

* This is, of course, the fun stuff.   I’m just gonna post some food porn to give an example of what “carnivore feasting” looking like.

Chicken and egg whites with grassfed sour cream

Double steak, double eggs

Rack of lamb, cut into chops, with egg whites and chicken tenderloin

Dinning out at a pizza and sub shop: ask for bread on the side of for the subs

How to dine out at Panda Express

Dinning out BBQ style

A very standard breakfast

And how about some Rampages?

Cleaning up at the Pizza Buffet

Eating a 5lb cheeseburger in 30 minutes

* I apologize if this seems gratuitous, but I just cannot emphasize enough how freeing and ridiculous it is to be able to just eat and eat and eat and see nothing but results.  The protocol is self-perpetuating: as you see yourself transform, you just keep leaning into it.

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In part 2 I'll cover the actual "Feast, Famine and Ferocity" programs and their results.  Stay tuned!

ON KETCHUP

Anyone who is a parent or who spent time being a child (so humans, who make up the majority of my readership) most likely understands the propensity of children to cover their food in ketchup.  Before I go further, my kid is unique in that they don’t use ketchup but they DO put applesauce on everything, which is honestly pretty similar: some sort of sugary sauce (we get the unsweetened stuff, because apples are sweet enough…but already I digress).  Kids tend to have sensitive taste buds, given that they haven’t had years to burn them all off with coffee, spices, and other gastrointestinal offenses, and they tend to also have simple palates, so it’s a challenge to get them to eat new and different foods.  Often, the compromise is to give them ketchup as a vehicle to bypass the tastebuds.  You put enough ketchup on anything and it’ll….taste like ketchup.  Ketchup will, of course, go on hotdogs (much to the chagrin of “true hotdog fans”, which are bizarre elitists), French fries, cheeseburgers, steak (ok, that’s horrible), pork chops, pretty much all meat, and then make its way onto the veggies and everything else on the table.  But the thing is, there’s an expectation that ONE DAY, we’ll grow out of the ketchup phase, ween ourselves off of it, and start actually eating the food that was cloaked under a veil of ketchup.

I still can't believe they had Chris on a kid's show...

Why the hell and I talking about ketchup so much?  Because many of you trainees out there are approaching your training like a 7 year old at the dinner table with a bottle of ketchup.  At least TRY the new food WITHOUT ketchup before you go and cover it up!

I came about this idea while I was driving this morning.  I just completed my first week of Jamie Lewis’ “Feast” routine, which had me do Klokov presses for the first time in my life.  I was aware of the movement, but simply never did it before.  It looked gimmicky and like something that would destroy my already borked shoulder.

A bad idea well executed

BUT, it was in the program, and like a new food on the table: I ate it.  And I LIKED it!  Holy cow, WHY was I sleeping on this movement?  It’s unique, challenging, and blew up my shoulders in a great way.  

But what could I have done instead?  I could have covered Jamie’s program in ketchup.  “Klokove presses?  I’ll just do behind the neck presses instead: good enough”.  And that might STILL be steak tartare to many people’s plain McDonald’s cheeseburger, who would say “Klokov presses?  I’ll do seated dumbbell overhead press”.  You make the program easier to swallow….but is that why we’re doing it?

To this day I make fun of myself for thinking this was healthy

The more I do new programs and diets, the more I understand WHY I do them: because they FORCE me to try new things, and when I do that, I LEARN new things.  I learned, TODAY, that klokov presses are awesome, and you can bet they’ll feature in future programs now.  My most recent blogposts all speak to the immense value of experimentation with my nutrition and training leading up to this as well.  I’m always picking up SOMETHING from trying a new program or protocol, even if that thing I learn is “that DOESN’T work.”

But SO many trainees will just cover it all in ketchup.  They’ll look at a program and say “That looks YUCKY!  Pass the ketchup!”  TRY IT FIRST!  That’s what every parent yells at their kid before they grab for the ketchup bottle.  Yes: the ketchup is on the table, and we’ll use it if we NEED it, but let’s TRY the new food first and see if we LIKE it before we hide its flavor.  I get messages ALL the time from people that want to change a program or protocol without having ever even tried it before.  “I wanna do sets of 5 for everything else on Super Squats because I grow better on sets of 5”.  Hey: if you REALLY grew better from that, you wouldn’t be looking into Super Squats: you’d keep doing what is working.  It clearly stopped working, so let’s try something NEW on the table.  

Don't debase yourself by eating here

Because those of us that approach each meal with the ketchup bottle in our hand grow up to become weird adults with limited palates.  We can’t go out to eat with our friends because “there’s nothing there for me to eat!”  Dating is a minefield.  And I know it’s embarrassing for these people and they WANT to overcome this, but they’re buried so deep into their habits that it seems impossible.  Training and nutrition (aside from simply flavor based, although really that overlaps nicely here) can be exactly the same.  We’ve seen this struggle with those who worship at the altar of Rippetoe or Pavel and ONLY know sets of 5.  As much as I love 5/3/1, there are dudes that ONLY know those numbers.  And I’m sure if all you ever knew was Deep Water you’d eventually run into limitations too (most likely dying at the age of 30 while attempting to suplex a train, but whatever).

But when we open ourselves up to new experiences WITHOUT modification, justification, normalization, coping: just taking it on AS is, we have an opportunity to learn, grow and EVOLVE.  Our thinking changes, and we increase the size of our toolbox.  So many young trainees want to know how to do their own programming, and they think it’s information that can be gained academically, but there’s a human element to it: you have to find what works FOR YOU.  And this is done by TRYING a bunch of different stuff and finding out.  I’ve square pegged a round hole before, trying SO hard to do the thing “that works” and have it not at all work for me (hello dynamic effort box squats).  But at least I TRIED it, and in doing so found out it didn’t work, and knew that, when it came time to program for myself I should NOT include it.  That’s a part of the process: knowing what NOT to put in the program, so we know what TO put in.

Yeah, just cut that sh*t out

When you look at a new program or protocol, don’t try to make it like your OLD program or protocol.  That completely misses the point.  Don’t try to make it taste like ketchup: try to enjoy its real, true, authentic flavor.  And give it a GENUINE try.  No “front teeth bites”, as we chide my kid about, where we take the absolute smallest measurable bite in human history to meet the requirements of “trying it” without actually tasting it: take a few BIG mouthfuls, let it mill around for a bit, savor the flavor and see if there is SOMETHING in this worth enjoying.   If we truly can’t gag it down, we can go reach for the ketchup bottle to get through THIS meal, but tomorrow is another night at the dinner table, and we’re having liver and onions.

Try it.  You might like it.    

THE STELLANATOR SAGA: HOW TO TAKE DOWN A 5LB CHEESEBURGER IN 30 MINUTES

On 4 May 2023, I took on “The Stellanator Challenge”, detailed here

Allow me to give you some spoilers

And here is the video footage

Those of you following my blog know that I am NOT a competitive eater.  This is the first time I’ve ever taken on such a challenge.  To have absolutely crushed it with 15 minutes to spare is pretty awesome, as I’ve now joined a group of 44 (now 45) other people in history to accomplish this at a restaurant that dates back to 1938.  

I wanted to document how I approached this and really just capture this moment while it’s still fresh in my head.  This should prove a valuable text on the subject of training hard and eating big.

MAKING ROOM AND GENERATING APPETITE

It's amazing how much we could all learn from this one man

My dinning time was set for 1930 on 4 May.  That’s much later than I usually eat dinner, and closer to when I eat my final meal of the day (remember I get up at 0345 to train, so I don’t tend to stay up stupid late).  So I knew I was going to be thrown off my body’s natural rhythm for this challenge, but it ALSO meant I’d have a LOT of time to “generate hunger”, and that became my plan.

I took the day off of work, in part to prep for the challenge, but also because my wife had been out of town for the week and I wanted to take care of all the chores around the house BEFORE she got home so we could just spend time together for the weekend.  I rolled all that into one.

Yes: often combining 2 good ideas results in 1 bad one

My goal for the day was to show up to the challenge exhausted and depleted.  I wanted my body to be PRIMED for a LARGE intake of food.  I needed to be starving and in a state where I was ready to soak up every single nutrient I threw at me, along with having a totally empty stomach.

My plan for training was to take on a 2-a-day lifting session, and in between work in chores while wearing a weighted vest.  My plan for eating was to use JUST enough protein shakes that I could survive the training.  This would keep food mass out of my gut but minimize catabolism.

Apparently, these days I need to clarify what the Hell a protein shake is.  That honestly blows my mind, but here: a protein shake is protein powder in water.  Hence “protein shake”.  If you make a shake that has the majority of calories from peanut butter, avocados, cream/milk and 1 scoop of protein powder: you have a FATS shake: not protein.  If you make a shake where the majority of the calories come from sugar (via honey, maltodextrin, dextrose), oats, rice, etc and 1 scoop of protein powder, you have a CARBS shake.  And really, if it’s more than 500 calories, it's a gainer anyway: not a shake.  I clarify this because people heard I was drinking protein shakes for this and thought it was some 1.5k calorie monstrosity vs 200 calories of protein in water.

Doesn't always have to be protein powder

 

Those following my blog know that I’m currently following Jamie Lewis’/Plague of Strength’s “Feast” Program, and it’s ABSOLUTELY brutal.  It’s also what inspired me to take on this challenge in the first place.  I’ll do a full write-up on THAT soon, but for now know that taking on TWO of those workouts in one day was going to do a fantastic job of absolutely depleting me. 

My schedule that week was already messed up, so I ran “Feast” out of order.  I started the day getting up at 0345, eating some egg whites (already breaking from the plan slightly, but I want to have something in my gut before I train) and hit this Squats and Shrugs workout, which you can view the full video of here

But the big highlight is 10 sets of shrug triples, 6 sets of SSB squat triples, then a SSB deathset where I got in 28x250lbs, then some other work.  On top of this, I got in 300 push ups and 300 bodyweight squats, which is a daily requirement for the program.

Already a brutal start to the day, I had a breakfast of 2.5 scoops of Metabolic Drive protein powder after that session, walked my kid to school, then threw on my 50lb weight vest, took my dog for a walk, brought them inside, and then mowed my front and back lawn with the vest still on, resulting in a total of 5.25 miles covered in nearly 2hr and 15 min.

A weighted vest is almost cheat codes when it comes to conditioning.  You can just throw it on and turn anything into a workout, and as far as generating hunger goes, it’s fantastic at that.  Mowing a lawn while wearing a vest is almost like sled work.  

By this point, I was already pretty exhausted.  I decided to take in another shake, as front loading the nutrition and tapering seemed like the right call.  From there, I decided some low activity activity was in order, so I took care of the grocery shopping for the week, committing the cardinal sin of grocery shopping while hungry.  I ended up buying 6 cartons of egg whites, since I’m on a big carnivore kick these days, and earlier in the morning bought 20lbs of grassfed steak tips from piedmontese.com…so at least now I have a LOT of steak and eggs in the future.  

These guys get it

Once that chore was done, the exhaustion was reaching max capacity, so I decided to grab a nap.  Sleep is a GREAT way to pass time when you’re hungry and when you’re waiting for a future event, and in a case like that day where I had more training ahead of me, it was going to be good to dissipate fatigue.  I grabbed about 40 minutes of rest.

Upon waking, I had what would end up being my final shake of the day before tackling what would be my final workout of the day: the Press and Bench workout of “Feast”.  Full workout here

Big thing to note is I try to open up with EMOM log clean and press and biff it on the second set: I had underestimated just how exhausted I’d be at this point.  I pivoted and went with strict 1 minute rests to get through the workout as quickly as possible, because I was effectively trying to outrun how exhausted I was.  I knew that, the longer I trained, the worse I’d be.  I had zero glycogen in me at this point.  So as you can see in the video, I am blitzing through rest periods.  When it was all done: so was I.  I had originally thought I might get in some heavy bag work or sled work on top of this, but after this workout I knew that all I had left in me was some walking at most.  So I walked to pick up my kid from school and then just called it.

I made my kid dinner, which, once again, sucks when you haven’t really eaten all day, but it DOES help drive the whole “generate hunger” thing.  I was starving at this point and STILL had 2 hours until showtime.   I decided to try to pass the time by watching some TV with my kid, but eventually settled on another nap.  By the time I woke up, it was time to roll, which was awesome, because I was about to eat my arm.

IN TRANSIT

I’m sorry, this is self-indulgent, but I want to remember it.  It was a 20 minute drive to the restaurant and I had picked out the PERFECT song to kick it off: Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise”.  My kid and I jammed out to it, and I asked them what they thought would be another good one.  They picked “Gaston”, from Beauty and the Beast, which was also a great choice, since he talks about eating 5 dozen eggs and I had to eat half a dozen of them to get through the challenge.  After that, I went with Weird Al Yankovich’s “Eat It”, then circled back to “Cheeseburger in Paradise” to finish it out.  It was an awesome time.  We were excited and just having a blast.

EATING WITH “BAD INTENTIONS”

Holy cow I can't believe this photo exists

We get to the restaurant, they have me sign a wavier that was hysterically written, then bring out my burger.  The presentation is grand, the locals gathered around and wanted photos, and it gave it a chance to cool down for a second.  I’m told that I get to decide when the timer starts, and I can break down the burger first before that happens.  I’m given 3 plates, which is great, because you’re not going to actually be able to eat a 3’ tall burger and breaking it down allowed me employ my strategy: eating with bad intentions.

“Bad intentions” comes from Jack Dempsey, one of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, who engaged in one of the most BRUTAL matches of all time against Jess Willard

When describing his approach to boxing, Jack said you had to fight with “bad intentions”.  Jack wasn’t boxing with the intent of winning a boxing match: he was there to HURT the other person.  His intentions were bad.  It wasn’t about winning a sport: it was about FIGHTING and, in fighting, about inflicting MAXIMAL HURT.  In doing so he won matches, sure, but he won BECAUSE he was hurting the other boxer so much he beat them.  Mike Tyson would co-opt this strategy to become one of the most feared heavyweights of all time (irrespective of if you think he was the best, he definitely ranks amongst the most feared, having “won” many of his matches before they even began because the other guy had effectively given up).  

Why am I talking about this?  Because I approached this challenge with bad intentions.  Back when I did MMA and wrestling, I wasn’t good at either, and I’d approach each match with the mindset that I had ALREADY lost: I was just there to make sure the other guy KNEW he was in a fight.  I wasn’t going to win: I was going to send the dude home with the belt AND a broken nose, 2 black eyes and some fractured ribs, while I got to sleep peacefully in my bed defeated but not beaten.

So instead of strategizing how to best win this challenge, I came in just wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.  So I lost $55: whatever.  I was going to FEAST.  I earned it.  So I went after the best parts of the burger first which, in turn, would also go down the fastest, because your stomach has a timer, and it’s all about beating THAT.

I took on the patties first, having to hunt for them through a forest of onions.  I prefer white cheese to yellow, but the patties honestly went down so fast that it wasn’t worth discriminating.  I take on the first 4 in about 4 minutes, hitting a brief snag because I talked in the middle of one, swallowed some air and had to belch to make some room, but otherwise they pretty much vanished.  I was 7 minutes into my 45 and already the “burger” was gone.

It absolutely was!

From there, I went after the eggs.  I have a bottomless appetite for eggs.  That said, I’ve been eating pasture raised eggs for a few years now, and these 99 cent a dozen eggs had minimal flavor to them…but they went down easy enough as a result.  They said there was supposed to be 6.  I could only find 5, but I’m thinking one broke up in transit.

A moment of comedy: my kid asked me if my plan was to go for the bacon next.  I got to respond “Chaos is the plan!”.  Folks: I live this.  It’s not just something I write.

That said, from there, it WAS onto the bacon.  I haven’t had REAL bacon in quite a while, so it was a real treat.  My original plan was to take the bacon, but it between the buns with the peanut butter and make it a sandwich, but I honestly thought I might run out of stomach space before I got through all the bacon, so I decided to tackle it “ala carte” instead.  I inhaled all 12 pieces, but could feel myself slowing down a touch from there.  I now had the bun with peanut butter.

There are a TON of these online

Instead of making the buns into a PB sandwich, I ate them open faced.  I haven’t had “real” peanut butter in like a decade, and by real I mean fake.  The GOOD stuff, with sugar and palm oil mixed in.  It was absolutely delicious, which honestly made this challenge so awesome: I really enjoyed so much of it through out the process.  I wasn’t force feeding myself…until I got through those buns.  There were a few moments where I wished I had some jelly to help break it down a little, but otherwise I really enjoyed it, and the mixed in jalapenos were a nice touch.  But, suddenly, I found out I had about 30 minutes left and all that stood between me and victory was a plateful of onions and some fries.

…oh f**k me, a PLATEFUL of onions.  Suddenly my bad intentions had turned on me.  I like fried onions as much as the next guy, but since this was 6 burgers worth of them, it was like eating a spaghetti dinner of onions with some residual peanut butter mixed in.  But game on: I grabbed my fork and went to town, and the first half of it actually went down pretty smooth.

…but folks, it’s worth keeping in mind I’ve been doing basically carnivore keto for weeks now.  I haven’t had a veggie in a while, let alone a nightshade, let alone a few POUNDS of them.  I could feel the poison building up toward the end there.  I don’t intend to ever do this challenge again, but if somehow I did, I think BBQ sauce would have been a gamechanger here, which they offer at the restaurant.

It was painful getting through the end there, and I was finding my limit, but once again I saw I had a TON of time left, and all I needed to do was get through my order of fries and I’d be set.  A big of comedy here is that the waitress came by and asked if I wanted a refill on my Mountain Dew and I specified "DIET Mountain Dew".  I even pointed out to myself how silly it was to care at that point.

When your burger is even bigger than the meme...

I was beyond “bad intentions” now and was fighting to actually win, so that meant out came the ketchup.  Ideally, I’d go without, but I needed a food lubricant to get to the end.  I kept drowning the fries in ketchup with every bite, and was trying to find ANY space in my guts to get them in.  Each bite was agony, but I could see every fry vanish and knew it meant being closer and closer to winning.  Once I got in the final bite, the most painful part of the challenge started: having to wait for 10 minutes at the table before I could be granted victory.

That 10 minute wait is for obvious reasons: they don’t want you just stuffing yourself and then puking it all up.  For one: that’s disgusting, but it also doesn’t meet the intent of an “eating” challenge if you’re just renting the food.  But man: I HURT for those 10 minutes.  I could feel every single one of those goddamn onions in my gut, and all the ambient smells kept triggering my gag reflex.  The stomach has a timer, and I had reached mine, and now it was letting me know what a bad decision this had been this whole time.  

Imagine how I'd score!

…BUT, those that follow me KNOW that I can endure pretty much anything, and I tapped into that skill and waited out the clock.  When it was over, I graciously accepted my victory, paid for my kid’s fried ice cream, left a 100% tip for that to celebrate my free meal and t-shirt, and drove home VERY slowly, as I was worried that sudden movements and bumps would send all that food out of me.  I safely made it home, sent my kid to bed, and laid on my back for 3 hours until I finally felt at peace enough to sleep.

And I got up at 0445 and still trained.  Because that’s what we do.  It was a 1.65 mile weighted vest walk, followed by 300 push ups and 300 squats in under 9 minutes, and then I fasted for the majority of the day after that.  I didn’t start feeling hungry until about 2100 and, in turn, didn’t eat until that point, and my body has been passing nothing but onions…but I am victorious.

LESSONS LEARNED

The drive home is the other half

* If you wanna eat big, you gotta give your body a reason.  If I just showed up to the challenge on a normal day, I’d have tapped out stupidly early.  I basically trained for 5 hours in a day under a protein sparing modified fast so I could put away 5lbs of food in 30 minutes.  If you’re not pushing the training, you won’t be able to push the eating.

* I LOST 3 lbs the next morning, and still had my abs.  All you folks freaking out about 1 bad meal ruining your progress, please take note.

* Eat the good stuff first!  If you’re looking to gain at least.  Your stomach has a timer, so eating the palatable stuff first will mean more room for the other stuff.  Going about it the other way, trying to save a “dessert” that you earn after eating your veggies just means less net food consumed total.

* Food lubricants.   I’ve brought that up before, but sauces, seasonings, etc, can go a long way to make food go down smooth.  

* Don’t be afraid to get messy!  You can see I eat most of this meal with my hands.  It’s barbaric, and it’s FUN!  Try to work in some handhelds into your nutrition sometime.  Ribs, wings, drumsticks, etc.  Tap into those primal urges!  Embrace your inner berserker.

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Thanks for reading!  It was fun to write.  Feel free to drop a comment or question.

COMPLETE OVERHAUL PART 3: CRACKPOT IDEAS AND WILD THEORIES

I am big on only writing about what I know and what I’ve experienced, so whenever I DON’T do that I like to clarify.  Often, these wild ideas pan out well (like the 6 month gaining block I developed with 5/3/1 BBB Beefcake, Building the Monolith and Deep Water), but not ALL of the are winners.  What I’m going to detail below are spitballing and theories.  Some might work, some might not, but it’s fun to dream.

From the champion of crackpot ideas himself!

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* This one is a quick kill, but if you recall my “strongman on the road” series of posts (http://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2020/10/strongman-on-road-part-i-nutrition.html) you’ll remember the circus tent of food I would need to pack to sustain myself without having to eat garbage the whole time I’m away from home.  Apex Predator/Velocity makes SO much more sense.  Throw a bag or two of protein powder in the suitcase and get in ONE meal a day otherwise.  High speed/low drag.  I could still pack some food too, going with canned chicken breasts and be squared away, or get a couple of rotisserie chickens and be good to go.  That’s definitely my next travel plan.

* Despite the fact that this evolution came about as a result of me being absolutely destroyed from Super Squats, I remain a huge fan of Super Squats IN TOTALITY.  So not just the program, but “the program”: the workout AND the nutrition AND the book.  “High speed/low drag”: shut your brain off, do the squats and drink the milk.  You do it and you get the results and you grow.  It’s also why I liked the Velocity Diet/Apex Predator: Drink the shakes, eat the meal, done.  No counting or thinking.  Well to solve the “how to train” portion of that, I think Dan John’s 10k kettlebell swing challenge is the answer, for a variety of reasons that I’m going to detail below this bullet.

Seriously: Dan talks and I listen...and go buy his "Easy Strength Omnibook" as soon as you're done reading this blog (https://danjohnuniversity.com/bookstore)

* My recent posts on duality (http://mythicalstrength.blogspot.com/2023/02/periodization-via-duality.html) have spoken to the very concept of “undoing” a program after doing it, and 10k swings is precisely that.  With Super Squats, there is minimal hinging.  In fact, if you run the abbreviated version, there is NO hinging.  But there is a LOT of squatting.  With the 10k swing, it’s the opposite: you are doing nothing but hinging.  There’s room for squatting if you want it, but it’s not required.  So if you were to bounce the two against each other, doing 6 weeks of Super Squats and then the 28 days of the 10k swing challenge, there’s a fair chance that, over the course of your training history, you’ll maintain balance.

* Alongside that, Super Squats is laser focused on gaining weight and minimizing exertion outside of the training sphere.  “Don’t run when you can walk, don’t walk when you can stand, etc”.  10k swing is, of course, the opposite: not heavy on the static strength, very conditioning focused.  The Velocity Diet also speaks to being “movement seeking”, so that pairs well there too.  Again: periodization here.  You’ll have an accumulation phase and a GPP phase.

* What’s really neat about 10k swing challenge and the Velocity Diet is BOTH are 28 day challenges, so they map on perfectly with each other there.  The Apex Predator is meant to be a bit more “long term sustainable”, but depending on how lean you are at the end of Super Squats, either can be just dandy.

Looks like it can get you pretty lean!

* If there’s a concern about building/maintaining strength while running the 10k swing challenge, I feel like there’s an avenue to include Dan John’s “Easy Strength” program in there for the strength work.  This maps on well with the 10k swing challenge, as Easy Strength is done 5 days a week, just like 10k swing, and the workouts are supposed to run about 15 minutes long so you have time to do “the stuff that REALLY matters”, which, in this case, would be the swings.  It only gets a little messy because Easy Strength is a 40 day program vs 28, so we lose a little bit of the “shut off the brain” element here.  But still: it seems effective enough.  And Easy Strength is still “squat avoidant”, so you would still be able to heal from Super Squats.

* I write about Super Squats a lot, because it’s what I know, but if you wanted to make this a 100% Dan John run, I feel like “Mass Made Simple” would be a fantastic swap.  His book also lays out exactly what to do and when to do it.  It doesn’t have a 100% prescriptive diet, but Dan’s “eat like an adult” is a solid starting point, and his golden ticket is the peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which is just plain awesome.  You still squat a TON of Dan’s program, but there’s also barbell complexes in it, so you have a chance to maintain your fitness a bit better.

Another book you should go buy after reading this blog

* For myself, I can foresee me eventually coming off of shakes for the majority of my meals, but I still see myself keeping them around as needed.  I could see implementing either alternating days of Apex Predator/Velocity and a more “normal” dietary approach (more solid food on the harder training days/more shakes on the easier), or keeping days consistent and relying on shakes for my breakfast, pre-bed meal, and snacks here and there.  There’s also the chance of modifying the shakes themselves to make them a little more substantial: mixing them with egg whites and nutbutters.  The primary driver here being that I keep losing fat with this approach despite it not being my goal, so if I find myself in a harder phase of training, or simply wanting to maintain, I feel like this would be the more logical approach vs trying to get in a TON of calories in the limited amount of solid meals I’m taking in.

COMPLETE OVERHAUL PART 2: TRAINING

 THE TRAINING

I’ve written extensively on the idea of how training drives nutrition, and this was honestly no exception.  Despite the fact I opened with a discussion on how my nutrition radically changed, it’s worth appreciating that I changed my training FIRST and simply picked this dietary approach to match that training.  I knew I was going to employ a protocol that wasn’t oriented toward gaining size, and that this protocol was going to allow my hybrid diet to function.  Had I stayed with something like Super Squats, I’d have eaten the diet that supports that.  So all that said…

THE SITUATION

Yeah that about sums it up

* As I wrote in the previous section: my body was BROKEN after that final run of Super Squats.  I gave a LOT of myself to get that 20x405, and it was time to heal.  Along with that, looming over my head was my annual 10 mile race that the Mrs and I did.  I had about 6 weeks to go from 20x405 Super Squats shape to 10 mile running shape, and I had ZERO desire to do any running to prep for this.  

* I was VERY good at being big and strong at this point.  My static lifts were high.  My conditioning had fallen apart, primarily because my body was so damaged that, outside of the specific lifts of Super Squats, I couldn’t do much.  My elbows were so shot that chins and dips were non-viable, to say nothing of cleans, most kettlebell work: even burpees were a struggle, as getting on and off the floor was excruciating.  I was also accustomed to resting between sets at this point, having abandoned my typical super/giant set protocol in order to meet the demands of Super Squats.  

THE STRATEGY

When in doubt

* I opened up my copy of 5/3/1 Forever, having written previously about how 6 weeks of a 5/3/1 program would be a great counter to Super Squats.  My goal was to find something that had sets of 5 making up the majority of the work alongside a heavy emphasis on conditioning.  It was all about duality I’d written of previously: many sets of 5 vs one set of 20.  I ended up settling on Krypteia, specifically phase 1.  Jim wrote about how this was the phase used to prep trainees for the later phases of training, and a prep phase was exactly what I was looking for.  Something meant to whip me back into shape.  Other contenders included Fat Loss and Prep and 5x5 FSL, but I dug the inclusion of dips, chins, DB SLDLs and DB squats in Krypteia, along with the time limit restriction.  It seemed like everything I needed: shorter training time, intense compressed volume, low rep sets, chins, dips, and a chance to get some reps in on the lower body stuff.  I DID give some serious consideration to Dan John’s Easy Strength (after having devoured his Omnibook), so I could get in and out of the weightroom and focus more on running, but decided to save that for another time.

* Prior to starting, I deloaded.  This deload coincided with me starting my new diet, and I decided “high speed/low drag” was the theme, so I settled on a week of the following workout: 30 minutes a day, Mon-Fri, 1 round of burpee chins, then run around my block (turned out to be a little over 1/4 mile).  Max rounds in 30 minutes.  I started with bodyweight and sets of 8 on the burpee chins for day 1, and then put on a 10lb weight vest for sets of 7 on day 2.   I’d add 5lbs to the vest each day while taking away a rep from the burpee chins.  On the weekends, I played it by ear and got in whatever I could.  I kept my daily work where possible, but didn’t stress over it.  This definitely had a positive impact: the weighted vest was barely any real load on my body, which meant I had a week of time to let my body bounce back from the thrashing it had been suffering.  Super Squats had it so that every other day I was beating my body to hell, and I could tell it had discovered that pattern.  Giving it just 2 days of break itself was enough to feel it start to really heal up, and by the end of the week my elbow pain was gone.  I still ached in my hips and knee, but it was moving in the right direction.  And getting in that little bit of running helped my body remember how it felt to move through space again.

* Before I discuss Krypteia in depth, if you want, here I am running a full 3 week cycle.  If a picture is worth 1000 words, let this speak for itself.

First workout here, entire playlist below

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfcuGAffLlScb4E9ihdg-HPlNZPGveynX

* As far as “making it mine” went, the big thing I did was try to get each workout done as fast as possible.  Jim laid out the challenge to get it done in under 45 minutes, and I absolutely met that goal (the final deadlift workout came close, at 43 minutes), but had a few workouts that finished in the 20s.  This technically went against Jim’s guidance to not turn these workouts into conditioning workouts, but, again, I needed to undo the damage of Super Squats, and that included getting my conditioning back and getting back to “no break” training.

EXPERIENCES AND LESSONS LEARNED

This is too accurate

* As much as I’m the first to say “it’s assistance work: it doesn’t matter”, I was honestly the mandated assistance protocol of Krypteia that drew me in, and it was exactly what I needed.  Once again, my goal was basically to “undo” Super Squats, so I needed something that had me moving in a totally different direction.  Super Squats had me laser-focused on making 1 big lift get as big as possible: now the big lifts were stagnant and it was ONLY the assistance that was progressing.  And I made it a goal to make them move as hard as possible.  My dips, chins, DB SLDLs with a shrug and KB/DB goblet squats moved right along the whole time, and, in turn: my body healed.  I was able to focus on weaker areas and smaller muscles and not beat myself into the ground with stupidly heavy compounds.  The time limit forced me to keep things light and move quick, and I had to pick intelligent TMs.

* This also marked my first time pulling over 400lbs since I tore those muscles in the program before my final run of Super Squats.  I set a TM that was 20lbs lower than my squat, which is atypical for me, but it was necessary to stay within my limits.  I also used an axle 2 of the 3 weeks, because it forced me to slow down and not jerk the weight off of the floor.  I used a deadlift bar for the final week and it felt solid.  

* Meanwhile, for squats, I rotated between SSB squats on the 3s week, front squats for the 5s and buffalo bar for the 1s.  My body was so wrecked from using the same bar every day for Super Squats that I had to get far away from the Buffalo Bar for a while.  My TM was too high for the SSB to be able to hit the topset, but, otherwise, I made good choices.  Front squats work well for Krypteia because it’s just sets of 5.  Higher reps would be difficult.

* I’d run Krytpeia M-Tues-Thurs-Fri, and on Wed for 2 of the weeks I did a 5 mile run, to prep for the 10 mile race I had with the wife.  The first week, my schedule got compressed and I ran all 4 days in a row and got in some sort of conditioning on the other 3 days that week.

* I honestly really liked Krypteia, and had full intentions of actually seeing it all the way through…until Jamie Lewis released his updated “Feast, Famine and Ferocity Diet” e-book, which completely grabbed me and took me in yet another wild direction…

CHAOS IS THE PLAN…THE PLAN

Jamie must know this about me by now

* Before I discuss further, here’s the link for the book

https://plagueofstrength.com/the-feast-famine-and-ferocity-diet-is-now-updated-and-available-as-an-e-book/

* And here’s the video playlist of me running the program

First video, rest in link below

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnicWt6NqU&list=PLfcuGAffLlSdfWeHmA6BsUctSrdGdaObB

* It boils down to this: Jamie sells something, I buy it.  I am such a fan of everything he puts out that, any chance I have to support him, I take it. Hell, I was running his Apex Predator Diet and it had effectively saved me from myself, so I owed him that much.   I’m also the same with Jim Wendler, Jon Andersen, Brian Alsruhe, etc.  Support those that are making a difference.  So when Jamie released this book, even though I already had a diet and training protocol I was following, I still bought it and read it with zero intention of following it.  Fun fact: that exact same thing happened the first time I read the Super Squats book: I was reading it purely for academic interest…and just like that situation, I finished up Jamie’s book and suddenly scrapped my current plan of Krypteia and had a new plan: the “Famine Workout”.

* Jamie structures the whole protocol where you open with “Famine” and progress to “Feast”.  I don’t want to spoil the book (seriously, buy it), but it’s premised around mankind naturally having “seasons” of activity and nutrition, and modeling that on a microlevel to drive individual progress.  There are lean times, where we’re doing lots of work, and there are fat times, where we feast and celebrate.  This mirrors exactly with stuff Dan John has written about, and coincides with my phasic approach to training and nutrition as well.  It was an excellent fit, and it mapped on to how I was currently eating…for the most part.

There was an adjustment to be sure

* Whereas Jamie’s Apex Predator diet has solid food meals built into it, as does the Velocity Diet, the “Famine” diet was purely protein shakes as a protein sparing modified fast.  I flat out wasn’t going to do that, for the “family man” reasons outlined previously…BUT I did have a few days while running the program that I was actually able to pull that off due to how my schedule shook out.  But the Apex Predator diet was working enough magic while running the program that I was still meeting the intent: I was leaning out while I was training.

* The training itself was such a RADICAL departure of everything I was doing that it was absolutely what I needed.  And Jamie has always been on my wavelength as far as training/nutrition goes.  There’s minimal use of percentages, no calorie counting, and options for lifting 3-4 times a week or 5-6 times a week.  Jamie also has his own version of daily work programmed into it, which I’m a fan of.  Otherwise, you open each day with heavy work and chase it with high reps, which is what I’ve learned works for me in periods of reduced calories.  I’m good for 1-2 big sets, and then after that it’s just pump work.  Always good to get that validation.  

* One of his training days is something called “Dealer’s Choice”, where you train whatever you want for up to 90 minutes, which is honestly one of the smartest things I’ve ever seen in a program.  THINK about how many times people screw up a good program because they want to keep adding and tweaking it, self-included?  I caught myself thinking “I’ll get in my lateral raises on this day, poundstone curls on this day, shrugs on this day”, and then when I got to “Dealer’s Choice” I said “Oh: I’ll just put them all in on THAT day”.  It’s just the perfecting holding bin for bad ideas, and you can just get them all out of your system on that one day and then get on with your life.  I can absolutely see myself carrying that into other training programs.

You know what, knock yourself out...maybe literally

* Part of Jamie’s daily work is a mandatory 2-3 mile walk outside.  He’s very clear that this isn’t a workout: it’s living.  I really dig it.  And forcing myself outside for a walk everyday has been awesome.  However, since I train at o’dark stupid, I don’t always get the “vitamin D” benefit.

* As of my writing this, I have finished out two weeks of the program, and between week 1 and 2, on my squat workout, I went from 4 triples of 405 on the SSB to 3x4 and 1x3, and then went from a 33 rep deathset of 205lbs to 43 reps.  That was nuts.  My dealer’s choice day also saw some great growth.  I am also EXHAUSTED, but I can still turn up amazing performances in the gym.  This second week coincided with me working a solid week of 12 hour shifts at work and sleeping 5 hours a night, so I’m really living the “famine” lifestyle here.

* For the first week, I ran the program VERY close to what was prescribed.  I would superset the ab work with some other work for the sake of time, because these workouts would take a long time.  After running it as written for the first week, I felt like I had gotten enough of a feel for the intent of the program, and allowed myself to start shortening rest times and playing around with super/giantsets in order to make things a little more time efficient.  Thankfully, Jamie is more than ok with experimentation, so it all fits. 

The precedent is there to be jacked AND experimental

* That said, I had to re-arrange the order of the days so that I ran all the lifting back to back and moved the days off to the weekend, as that fit my work schedule better.  Also, on the first week, instead of doing 30 minutes of push ups, squats, etc etc, I ran 10 miles…because it was the week of that 10 mile run I was talking about.  I counted 2 of those as my walk, and called the rest 8 miles of cardio.

* My current plan for Chaos is to run this program for at least 3 weeks, as that fits my dietary schedule.  Once that’s done, I’m looking at taking on the Feast Routine, and will carry forward some lessons learned for diet.  And with that, why don’t we start discussing some theories and ideas?  That’ll be the next post.

SUMMARY

* In order to heal/recover from Super Squats, I had to undo Super Squats.  I’ve written about this regarding duality and periodization.  Since Super Squats was 1 big set of a lot of reps, I looked for a program that was many sets of few reps.  Super Squats had me squatting 3x a week, so I needed a program that was 1x a week.  Super Squats was heavy on core lifts, so I needed something with a heavy focus on assistance.  I also had a 10 mile run to prep for, so I needed something that was focused on getting me fit. 5/3/1 Krypteia fit the bill, and suited my nutritional overhaul as well.

* Alongside the programming, I also changed up what implements I was using for squatting and deadlifting.  Super Squats was laser focused, so I needed to be all over the place.  Balance.

* I had no issue with 5/3/1 Krypteia and I think it’s a solid protocol, but upon reading Jamie Lewis’ “Feast, Famine and Ferocity Diet” e-book, I pivoted, and that’s where I’m currently at, with plans for the future.