A question of strength Part 23
The truth about eggs
Q: Are whole eggs okay or should I stick with the whites?
A: Only dorks eat egg whites. You see those diets in the muscle magazines that always list egg whites and oatmeal as ingredients for breakfast. Well, if you eat four Sustanon between meals and 17 Anapolon per hour, then you can eat anything you want!
A man who trains naturally needs whole eggs. What about the health concerns you keep reading about. Well, the studies that showed that eggs raise cholesterol were funded by the cereal manufacturers. And at the time, no distinction was made between the different types of cholesterol, which is why the studies are not conclusive. Eggs can raise cholesterol levels - levels of the good HDL cholesterol.
Another stupid "advanced" exercise
Q: Have you seen any new stupid exercises being promoted in the weight training community?
A: A consistent problem I've observed with strength coach friends is that they are so obsessed with being original that they come up with the dumbest exercises. One of the dumbest "innovations" I've seen are seated good mornings, where the exerciser holds the bar in front of their body while performing the exercise.
In the linked video you can see how Good Mornings are performed correctly in a seated position (bar in the neck): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYGr_OmM-yw
But this "innovative" trainer has decided that the bar should be held in front of the body. Here's the full story: recently, a very qualified colleague of mine - a former Mr. Universe and a trainer with over 20 years of experience - developed a lower back rehab program. This involved the client doing seated Good Mornings to strengthen his back. This was an excellent exercise choice as it allowed the exerciser to build up the back extensors without putting too much strain on the structures of the spine.
My colleague had to leave his studio for a week to attend a seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona. He asked one of his employees to show the client this program. Unfortunately, this moronic employee wanted to show off to the client and said that it would be better to do Good Mornings seated with the bar in front of the collarbones because it was "safer" for the shoulders.
What kind of idiot could come up with such an idea? Someone with a very poor understanding of the biomechanics of the body.
This approach raises many questions. What about the effects of the force of the sword when the torso is parallel to the ground? What kind of stress occurs in the rhomboid muscles and rotator cuff area as the exerciser struggles to hold the bar in front of his shoulder blades?
My colleague's blood pressure went into the red zone when he told this story to a few colleagues over dinner. I laughed so loudly that I had to press my hand on my spleen to stop it from rupturing. All the colleagues present at this dinner recommended to our friend that he should fire his colleague as soon as he got home.
Some of these coaches really think they are on to something. They act as if they have discovered a new planet that should be named after them. Folks, eccentric training and fat-bar training were described back in 1908. I have a fairly extensive library on weight training in several languages and frankly, there's not much new under the sun in this area.
The truth about bar speed
Q: I recently read that you should finish a set when the speed of the bar decreases. Is that true?
A: Statements like that annoy me - they're just stupid.
Name me one athlete who has set a world record this way. Go to any international training camp and see how the Bulgarians, the Turks or the Ukrainians train. Watch them train sets of 3 repetitions of squats. Their spleen shoots out of their left eye on the last repetition. Does the bar move slowly? Yes, it does. Do they intend to move the bar quickly? Most definitely. Intention and speed are not the same thing.
Go back in time and implement this stupid idea in all the power rooms of the world. Do you know what you would see today? A world record bench press of 65 kilos.
Stress reduction for real men
Q: Everyone talks about reducing stress to stay healthy. Do you have any practical tips on how to really achieve this?
A: The first thing to do to reduce stress levels in the real world would be to shoot all the lawyers. From a slightly more practical point of view, I found out some interesting things on this subject when I was coaching an English professional football team.
As it turned out, if the players had a game on Saturday, it took until Wednesday for their sleep patterns to return to normal. In other words, they suffered from a kind of jet lag even when they were playing at home.
I told them to go back to their hotel rooms and turn off all electrical devices to deactivate electromagnetic fields - TVs, alarm clocks, cell phones, etc. - and then make the room as dark as possible. Then they should make the room as dark as possible and wear a sleep mask over their eyes. The next day I felt like they wanted to kiss me. They told me that this was the first time they felt like they had really slept.
We were made to live in caves. It should be pitch black. And cell phones release electromagnetic radiation. Get rid of these things and you will reduce your stress and sleep better. Turning your bedroom into a bat cave will increase the amounts of melatonin and growth hormones you produce during sleep. That alone will make you grow.
Another thing you can do is take a time management course. For example, I only answer emails twice a day. There are lots of little things that can really add up to reduce stress - and that's important.
We experience a hundred times more stress today than our grandparents did. Stress is responsible for up to 90% of all visits to the doctor. With anxiety disorders, sleep problems, depression, stomach ulcers, etc. affecting millions of people, stress could already be considered epidemic.
Stress promotes heart disease, diabetes, mental disorders, sexual dysfunction and digestive problems. It suppresses the immune system and lowers testosterone levels. Stress can lead to muscle loss and fat gain.
Everyone is exposed to stress. Unfortunately, this is the norm and not the exception. As a result, our bodies tend to function on adrenaline and cortisol. This can be great when you're being chased by a lion, but it's not particularly useful when you're simply going about your daily tasks.
So do something to control stress. Improving your sleep and learning good time management are the first steps.
Melatonin... between the legs
Q: What do you think of melatonin supplementation to promote sleep?
A: This often makes sense for people over the age of 31. You don't need a high dosage - 3 mg should be enough - and the best way to deliver melatonin to your body is in the form of a cream. Rub it on the inside of your thighs where the skin is thin. And because the melatonin supplied in this way is not slowly released from the food, you won't wake up groggy the next morning.
I take melatonin with me when I go on long trips and people often wonder why I don't suffer from jet lag. Well, during the first night I stay awake as long as I can and then apply the melatonin cream.
Something else that is good for natural melatonin production is to dim the lights after dark. Your body will produce more melatonin in the dark.
Delusional fat people, calipers and laser guns
Q: How low does your body fat percentage generally need to be for the abs to be visible?
A: The magic number is 9.8%. Well, there are a lot of people who see imaginary abs, but a line doesn't count. The top row of abs can be visible at a body fat percentage of 15%.
If you can see the vertical line in the middle of the rectus abdominis, then your body fat percentage is less than 10%. Now you can see all the lines.
I remember a professional baseball player in Sports Illustrated who claimed to have a body fat percentage of 6%. There was also a picture of him in that article that looked more like 17%. At 6%, you could have seen his pancreas producing insulin.
People like this are either delusional, using bad body fat measurement equipment, or using sloppy testing protocols. All of these electrical body fat measuring devices tend to be inaccurate. If you are good with a caliper, your reading can be as accurate as a Dexa Scan, which is the industry standard today, to within one percentage point.
Scientific studies and my experience show that it takes about 400 subjects before you can accurately use a caliper. You simply need a lot of measurements to become proficient.
By the way, we are currently testing what could be the future of body fat measurement: Laser guns. Basically, a monkey could perform such measurements. The only limiting factor is that the person taking the measurement has to find the right anatomical markers, but it's not that complicated. You point the laser gun and the laser measures the skinfold.
One of the problems with skinfold measurements with a caliper is how tightly you have to squeeze the skinfold. This is especially true when you are dealing with obese people. The people I deal with want to reduce their body fat percentage from 12 to 5%, but some people start with a body fat percentage of 40%. They are morbidly obese.
And here's something else to consider: eating trans fats changes the composition of body fat - it's harder to compress the skinfold - you can ask any experienced tester. If you do a measurement on someone who eats a lot of French fries and chicken nuggets, it's going to feel a lot different.
There's a reason the National Academy of Science's medical division says the only safe level for trans fats is zero: Trans fats change cell structure. Our bodies don't know what to do with these fats.
Neglected arm muscles
Q: My tricep development is poor, no matter how many tricep presses I do. What can I do about it?
A: You need to stimulate every muscle in the triceps. Most people neglect the lateral muscle head of the triceps.
The lateral muscle head of the triceps needs heavier weights to respond. The two exercises that have been shown to produce the strongest recruitment of motor units are dips and close bench presses with elbows out.
The biceps also have a neglected muscle head: the long muscle head. The long muscle head is stimulated by any type of curl where the elbows are behind the torso, which means incline bench curls.
Most people avoid this exercise because they can move less weight in this position. The result of their inability to leave their ego at the locker room? An incomplete arm development.
Lifesavers and the Insulin Load Index
Q: I'm a woman who stores all her body fat around her middle. No fat legs, no fat butt, just belly and love handles. What does this say about my hormonal profile? How should I diet?
A: Based on our biosignature modulation data, you are probably prediabetic. Therefore, you should eat a low-carb diet and use supplements to increase your insulin sensitivity: alpha-lipoic acid, fenugreek and omega-3, to name a few.
Don't eat foods with a glycemic index of over 50, and even more importantly, avoid foods with a high insulin load. Dairy products, for example, have a low glycemic index but a high insulin load, so you should stay away from dairy products. Fat people should not drink milk.
The insulin load index (or glycemic load) is a better barometer than the glycemic index. Carrots, for example, have a high glycemic index, but you would have to eat a whole field of carrots to get the corresponding effect. The insulin load is therefore quite low.
For women, the waist circumference should be 70% of the hip circumference. If the waist circumference is 85% - which makes a big difference - the risk of diabetes is nine times higher.
Dr. Mark Houston of the Hypertension Institute in Nashville has written a paper on this topic that will be published soon. Basically, waist circumference divided by height is key. If you have a large waist circumference compared to your height, then your risk of high blood pressure, dyslipidemia and diabetes increases.
The cortisol cure?
Q: Should we really be concerned about cortisol? If so, how can we lower it?
A: We should be concerned about cortisol - and not just because of its catabolic effects on muscle. Among other things, cortisol overproduction has also been linked to brain aging.
If your cortisol levels are too high for too long, your hypothalamus - the part of the brain that is crucial for memory - will shrink. Incidentally, it has been found that athletes who produce the highest levels of cortisol also have the highest rates of Alzheimer's disease.
As a hormone, cortisol is something of a double-edged sword. You need it for your energy, but if you have too much of it, it breaks down body tissue. Morning is a good time for high cortisol levels - cortisol is basically what wakes you up and energizes you. However, people who have been exposed to stress for too long suffer from low energy in the morning. This can be a sign of low cortisol levels.
Your cortisol levels should be high in the morning and low in the evening. When people are stressed, this tends to reverse: low cortisol levels in the morning and high cortisol levels in the evening. After a while, cortisol levels are low throughout the day and these people suffer from a lack of energy and depression.
It is well documented in the scientific literature that the less cortisol you have and the more anabolic hormones you have, the more progress you will make in the gym.
Can cortisol be controlled? Yes. The post-workout drink is your most basic tool to control cortisol production from your workout.
Anything that reduces the amount of cortisol you produce during the day will make a big difference. Just 7 grams of fish oil per day, for example, was shown in a French study to reduce the amount of stress hormones a person produces. Rhodiola and Siberian ginseng, both known as adaptogens, can also help to reduce cortisol production.
An interesting note: Wales, Ireland and England have the highest rates of depression in the world and also have the highest omega-3 deficiency. Omega-3 fatty acids increase serotonin levels in the brain. Within 2 years, over 600 studies have been published on the subject of omega-3 and depression. This is another good reason to use fish oil.
If you are serious, you can have an Adrenal Stress Index test done. Some people claim that it can take up to a year and a half to offset serious adrenal fatigue, but I've done it in eight weeks - you just have to do the right things.
The basics of overtraining
Q: What do you think about overtraining? Is this a good exercise? What does this exercise actually train? I see it in chest and back programs.
A: This exercise works both the chest and back, as well as part of the serratus. The best way to perform this exercise is on an incline bench where you position yourself as if you were going to perform reverse incline bench presses. This will allow you to benefit from a longer time under tension as you can overload the muscles for a longer period of time.
In addition, you should train pull-ups as the last exercise so that your latissimus is already pre-fatigued, which will make this exercise friendlier for your shoulder joints. So, for example, do pull-ups first, then rowing and finally pull-ups. I like to perform pull-ups with higher repetitions in the range of 20 to 25 repetitions.
You can do pull-ups with a barbell, dumbbell or even a cable pulley.
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-40, https://www.t-nation.com/training/question-of-strength-41
From Charles Poliquin