Video Friday - CrossFit Philly
June 29, 2007
This past weekend when I was at the Perform Better Seminar in Providence I was able to spend some time with Pamela MacElree of KettlebellAthletics.com and CrossFitPhilly.com. Pam is great - very smart and passionate about what she does. Personally I have never gotten into the kettlebells or crossfit but after talking with Pam I have a lot of really good ideas that I can apply to my training (I even picked up a kettlebell - more on that next week). Today’s video is of Pam and another CrossFit Philly member doing some crazy metabolic work. For another incredible display of fitness check out are recent post at The Dos Blog.
On a semi-related note…Pam’s business partner is Jason Brown. Jason is very well known in the kettlebell world (he even has a movement named after him). But more importantly Jason contributed a whole kettlebell ebook that he had previously created (and successfully sold) to Lift Strong. So if you are looking for kettlebell information and haven’t supported cancer research lately head over to LiftStrong.com and make a difference.
Reader Questions - Afterburn and Muscle Milk
June 28, 2007
Q: I was listening to Max-Out Radio and you talked about someone doing three full body workouts per week and three intervals per week to get the “afterburn effect”. Can you clarify for me what the intervals are? Are they weight sessions or aerobic workouts?
A: Sure. Intervals can be done with traditional cardiovascular exercises (running, biking, etc) or they can be done with weights or bodyweight (bodyweight squats, thrusters, kettlebell swings, etc). The key to an interval session is as you pointed out achieving the Afterburn Effect. The most simple way to do this is to set up periods of intense exercise followed by periods of rest. Here are two examples
- Thrusters for 20sec - Rest for 10sec. Repeat 8 times (This is Tabata protocol)
- Bike sprints for 30 sec - Rest for 60sec. Repeat 6-8 times
Alwyn Cosgrove is the probably the worlds leading expert on maximizing afterburn and EPOC (the technical term for afterburn). If you are really interested in maximizing afterburn check out his manual Afterburn Training Volumes 1 and 2.
Q: I am trying to decide on a protein powder supplement and I came across your review of Cytosport Muscle Milk and EAS Max Milk. Are the powder versions of these products comprised of the same ingredients as the RTD’S ? I was leaning towards the Muscle Milk but your concern about glycocyamine has me rethinking my decision. Do you recommend I only use this product every other day ? And do you think the Muscle Milk is a better product than the EAS Max Milk ?
A: The two products are pretty much the same. I would guess that EAS realized how wildly popular Muscle Milk was and thus created Max Milk just like it. If I remember correctly Muscle Milk no long contains glycocyamine. this is probably due to the increased consumer awareness brought about by an article I wrote for Bodybuilding.com and an article David Barr wrote for T-Nation.
I personally don’t use either product but the Muscle Milk RTDs (ready-to-drink) are probably the best in that product class and I usually have some around for when I am traveling. Whether you use it every other day or everyday is personal preference. Since glycocyamine is no longer in the formulation there isn’t a reason not to use it on a regular basis if that is the product you choose.
Jason Ferruggia Interview - Stop Making Muscle Building Mistakes!!
June 27, 2007
I was able to grab a couple minutes of T-Nation contributor and Fitness Bad Boy Jason Ferruggia’s time and ask him some questions about building muscle. Here’s the interview below.
MR: Jason, your transformation was pretty incredible going from 147lbs to 231lbs. How much trial and error did you think you went through training wise until you found what really worked?
JF: Oh man, Mike, I can’t even begin to tell you. I tried so many different methods and systems it was unbelievable. I actually started out as a beginner on a six day a week high volume body part split. This was back in the 80’s so I think I was just looking in the magazines at whatever Shawn Ray or Aaron Baker or Gary Strydom were doing and just copy it exactly. Obviously that didn’t work out too well.
I entered high school weighing less than 100 pounds and after four years of training my ass off and growing almost a foot taller, I only weighed 147 pounds at graduation. So obviously, all my experimentation during high school didn’t work out to well either.
During those four years I was still doing whatever I could find in the magazines and even ordered some courses like Cybergenics and some other stuff that was popular at the time. I think the first training books I had were the Arnold Encyclopedia and one of Dr. Hatfields. I tried everything I read in both of those.
My experimentation during college was quite extensive and quite varied. I finally stumbled upon the HIT movement and Mike Mentzer and Arthur Jones. It was like a beacon of light and I adopted that training philosophy immediately. And for the first time I started to really grow, which isn’t shocking since I was so grossly overtrained. But as anyone who has had a similar experience can tell you, those gains don’t last too long either.
I could be here all day telling you about all the crazy stuff I did but I think it’s pretty safe to say that I was in the game and wasted an inordinate amount of time and money for a good ten years before I really figured out what really worked.
MR: It is one thing to find something that works for you personally but you routinely pack 20lbs of muscle on the frames of your clients in spans of only 3 months. How do you get results like when other people seemingly struggle endlessly to get bigger?
JF: At this point I have been training people for 14 years. During ten of those years I worked with clients for an average of ten hours per day; and twelve hours per day every summer. Now since I was always a C math student I can’t tell you how many hours that is right off the top of my head but, take it from me, it’s a friggin lot.
When you have that much experience doing anything you are bound to become somewhat proficient at it and just develop a knack for it and for reading people and recognizing commonalities.
Most people are making the same mistakes in their training and nutrition and some even have a faulty belief system that is holding them back. I address each of these issues and we’re off and running.
Training is not rocket science not matter how many people try to turn it into that. But figuring it all out isn’t simple either.
MR: Everyone nowadays is always worried about getting fat when “bulking up” what are some strategies that you use to ensure that you put on more muscle than fat? Or do you even care?
JF: Well, first of all, a lot of people that worry about that have a fear that is completely unfounded. If you are an athlete, under twenty years old or both, this is not that great of a concern unless you are eating deep fried chocolate donuts and dipping them in butter six times a day.
I have worked with plenty of guys who could eat whatever they wanted to and could still stay lean. In that case you have no excuse for not being able to pack on twenty pounds in a couple months.
If you have trouble staying lean there are a few adjustments you need to make. First off, you need to make smarter food choices. Eat lean proteins like chicken, fish, eggs, lean red meat and cottage cheese instead of burgers, hot dogs and pork chops. Next, be sure to keep your carb sources clean as well. This means fruits and veggies are at the top of the list followed by oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa, and sweet potatoes. By now everyone knows the benefits of eating good fats like fish oil so I won’t bore people to death with that.
If just eating clean is not enough then we move onto more advanced strategies like carb cycling and calorie cycling. This takes some time to explain but to make it really simple for everyone, you should eat more calories and carbs on training days than you do on non training days. Bottom line. Training days are higher calorie days, off days are lower calorie days; pretty simple. Of course it’s more complicated than that but that’s the gist of it.
MR: What are the biggest mistakes you see people make when trying to pack on muscle? Is it usually related to nutrition or training?
JF: It’s hard to say if it’s one or the other because they do go hand in hand. But if I had to pick I would say it’s gotta be training. It doesn’t matter how great your diet is, if your training sucks, you’re not gonna make progress.
But, you know what, Mike? I’m not even going to cover the training mistakes that people make because looking at that is missing the bigger picture. You know what the biggest mistake people make really is? The one thing that everyone seems to do these days, especially with all of the conflicting information that is out there?
It is a lack of consistency and a lack of belief in what you are doing. There is so much information out there these days that people don’t know who or what to believe. And because of this they are confused. They are constantly reading something different and always in search of the next best thing. They do a workout for a week or two and then read so and so’s new article about changing your tempo every rep or some brand new way to fire up the CNS or some nonsense and they try that system. A week or two later they decide that is not working so they switch to something else. And so on and so on.
If you are always changing programs and training philosophies how can you ever make progress? You can’t; it’s that simple. If you don’t believe in what you are doing you will never, ever be successful. That is a universal principle that applies to everything in life. It has to apply to your training if you ever want to make real progress. You can use the crappiest training program in the world but if you are consistent, have the balls to train the way you really should and really and truly believe in what you are doing, you will get results.
Pick a training program, system or philosophy and stick with it; believe in what you are doing and train your ass off. You can’t fail if you do that.
MR: Okay so tell us a little about your new course on muscle building. What makes this stand out from other products?
JF: Well, first of all I tried to make it more of an entertaining read than a lot of the stuff out there so I included a lot of stories and personal anecdotes that people could relate to. The topics of sets and reps and proteins and carbs can be kind of boring so I try to spice it up a little bit.
Aside from that, I have tried to make it as simple to understand as possible while still including information that will help anyone from a raw beginner to an advanced lifter. I have had guys who have trained for over twenty years tell me that they learned quite a bit from reading Muscle Gaining Secrets, which makes me very happy to hear. If I can do that while not alienating beginners, then I know I achieved the goal I set out to accomplish.
I have included some unique methods of periodization which have rarely been covered. I detail every single mistake that people make in their training and show how these can be avoided. And of course, a book from me wouldn’t be complete without getting politically incorrect and calling bullshit where I see it. I definitely expose a lot of the gimmicks and nonsense that is out there and do my best to help people save time and money and avoid making all the same mistakes that I did.
MR: Jason, thanks for talking the time to sit down and talk with us. The information you gave out in this interview alone is enough to put 5-10lbs on somebody’s frame.
Note: Yesterday was the first day Muscle Gaining Secrets was available to the general public. Jason is running a celebratory promotion and giving away 14 Bonus ebooks until this Friday (June 29th)
Check it out at http://www.FerruggiasMuscleSecrets.com
If you are trying to lose fat then DO NOT Read this
June 26, 2007
I get a lot of fitness products sent to me to review. A good number of them are so crappy that I never make it through them and thus never tell you about them or recommend that you invest in them. This week was different.
I received a copy of Jason Ferruggia’s “Muscle Gaining Secrets” and promptly sat down and devoured the whole thing. Awesome. Many people in the fitness industry claim to be No B.S. but when it comes down to it they are full of you know what. Jason is different. Why? Because he walks the walk and helps other do the same. C’mon this guy went from 145lbs to 231lbs! That’s serious muscle. Let me tell you a little more about the manual.
It covers the whole a wide range of topics regarding putting on muscle from exercise selection to tempo to training to failure to rep speed and a whole lot more. It is written extremely well with tons of personal stories that will rekindle the fire inside of you that you once had the first time you laid your hands on a barbell – I know it did for me. So how do you know if it is for you?
- Do you want to be bigger and stronger?
- Does the idea of packing on 20lbs of muscle seem daunting and almost impossible?
- Have you tried seemingly every training method out there but people still ask you if you lift weights? (That’s a morale killer isn’t it?)
If you answered yes to any or all of those questions then you need this manual, PEROID. Jayson routinely helps people pack on 20lbs of muscle (not fat) in record times not to mention the fact that some of his clients eagerly pay him $200 an hour for his services!
In an effort to give you an incredible value for your investment (BTW it was a successful effort) Jay is throwing in 10 Special Reports, Mass Building Routines, and Cookbooks.
Remember if you answered yes to the questions above CLICK HERE and check out Jason’s manual. You won’t regret it (but you will regret passing on it).
-Mike
Low Glycemic Index vs. Glycemic Load
June 25, 2007
In Your Naked Nutrition Guide I talk a lot about carbohydrate choices and how it is important to select certain carbohydrates at certain times of the day. A lot of this is based on the glycemic index. The glycemic index is basically a rating system that rates how fast a carbohydrates causes a rise in your blood sugar levels. However, as I point out in the manual, the glycemic index in itself has several flaws. This is why for the past 25 years (ever since the glycemic index came about) there hasn’t been a convincing amount of scientific literature extolling its benefits. The problem is that glycemic index only takes in to account type of carbohydrates.
Glycemic Load is a different story. Glycemic Load is determined by multiplying the glycemic index of a carbohydrate by the amount of the carbohydrate that is consumed. Glycemic load takes into account both type and amount. Fortunately just about all fruits and vegetables are low glycemic load carbohydrates (they have a low glycemic index and it is hard to eat a large amount of them). That is what you need to focus on - fruits, vegetables, and eating whole foods.
This “glycemic story” has started to really get interesting this past year as there is a growing body of scientific evidence that has shown that overweight people with insulin resistance respond better to a lower glycemic load diet but people without insulin resistance do just as well with a higher glycemic load/carbohydrates diet.
How does this translate in to real world application? Here are some rough generalizations that will serve you pretty well in applying the concepts I’ve described above.
Insulin Resistance = overweight. Especially with increased fat distribution around the abdominal region
Low Glycemic Load = vegetables and fruits. Especially green vegetables
High Glycemic Load = starches - pasta, potato, rice, etc
Application: If you are overweight (especially with abdominal fat) then eat mainly (if not completely) vegetables (lots of greens) and fruit. If you are leaner then your body will respond better to larger amounts of starches but still follow Naked Nutrition Pillar #6
Save starch containing foods until after a workout or for breakfast
For a more indepth look at this nutritional strategy and other strategies that will completely transform your body check out Your Naked Nutrition Guide.
-
Naked Nutrition Network 2.0
-
Subscribe To Mike's Blog RSS Feed
