R5D51 – Medium and Much Anticipated Photo Update

Medium day, the day when I feel like I can use the 70lb KB to do Clean and Press because I took it easy on Light Day. Medium day = sore back the next day. Either way, almost every person who claims to know anything about Kettlebell training says you are supposed to occasionally use a KB that is heavy for you and difficult to do anything with. That in mind, I tried some C&P with the 70 and almost killed myself in the process. However, I was able to do at least 1, 2 and 3 C&P with it during my 5th and final set. I woke up this morning still able to walk so it didn’t kill me!

One of the questions I have had ever since the beginning of my P90X journey is for photo updates, mostly because people’s reluctance to subscribe to the system is that they think it won’t work. If they are willing to give it a shot, it is usually on the back of seeing someone just like them who has succeeded. I know I am the same, the reason I started with P90X was not only because I had tried P90 with my wife during the summer a couple of years ago and pretty much hated it. It was too easy, it reminded me of a bad 80’s aerobic class. I had a hankering for something that would make me feel manly, like I could rip a phone book apart with my bare hands, something that would help me to return to my former fitness glory. I was fat. I had got down to 252 lbs right before the wedding in 2007 but since then had ballooned back up to 292. During the wedding push we had eaten vegan, tried the raw diet, ate a lot of fruits and veg but just couldn’t stick with it. The problem was cravings for carbs since we had inadvertently gone full carb in our diet. It was a train wreck of a diet but as with most things, if you are really fat, but exercising, you will likely lose some weight. I knew as we started our honeymoon cruise that I was never going to be able to maintain that low number. I had forced myself into that weight, given up everything I wanted and been miserable in the process. The photos from the wedding looked great, but I was setting myself up for failure. When we went toEngland in 2008 I was at my all time high (again) and was one Sticky Toffee Pudding away from 300lbs. Fast forward to now, at 245lbs and I feel like I can still go lower without really trying. Weight loss has become simple and a no brainer for me since giving up grains and going paleo.

So what of the photos? Well, during my first round of P90X I didn’t follow the diet plan, in fact, right up until the third week of round 4 I wasn’t really on a diet as such. I always had reasons I didn’t need to, and as a result, I always had a reason not  to take pictures. The reason: I wasn’t losing any of my stored body fat. I was getting fitter, although during round 2 I was also getting heavier, not lighter. It was a struggle at times to keep up and keep going but once I started in with Insanity, things started to improve a little. It was round 3, I had a new baby as motivation and so I dropped  a few pounds, not that you could really notice since losing 10 lbs when you are 270 is like Justin Bieber, largely irrelevant. I would like to say that I did P90X and was transformed but my journey wasn’t that direct. During round 1 I took bodypart pictures because I still wasn’t proud enough to do a full body shot. I am not sure why, I was in OK shape at the time but still weighing in at a whopping 260lbs. That was the last time I was anywhere near confident enough to share my shape. So I thought since I owe so much to this system I have developed that I would put together some pictures to show my progress. Not just my progress in P90X but my overall progress to where I am now which, I am hoping, is only half way to where I will end up.

Here are the pics… You can figure out which is which.

1991 – around 190lbs

The picture that brought it all home. Summer 08

March 2011 – 245lb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that is where I am and where I came from. I am hoping that from now on I will be able to post more picture updates, it’s good for my confidence, my comfort level and hopefully it will be a good motivator for someone waiting in the wings hoping to step into the game…

R5D50 – P90X+ Interval X Plus

Well, let’s just say that until P90X:MC2 comes out, I don’t think I will be spending much time with Tony. It’s not that it was too hard, far from it, I found it mildly interesting, pretty easy to do even with keeping up with the guys on set and discovered mostly it is rehashed P90X moves with different names. It was good to have something else to do but in comparison to my usual workouts, it was too long, too boring and too easy. I think that even with the advent of MC2 that I will probably be mixing in Asylum workouts before I use MC2 workouts. I just don’t have much faith in Tony that he can produce something radically different than P90X was. If it is, and I hope it is, then more power to him but I have a feeling it will be more of the same. I realize that this P90X+ was really just a stopgap but if it is any indication of what is to come I would rather go to Crossfit.com every day and do what they tell me. At least that way I don’t have to listen to Tony’s poor and borderline inappropriate sense of humour.

 

R5D49 – Light Day and The Return Of Tony – P90X+ Style!!

He's baaaack!

I finished light day and was happy that the workout was, in fact, easy. I think I overdid it a little last week, my back has been feeling off and with the coaching spotting back handsprings I have been overworking myself. So yesterday, Monday, came as a welcome rest. Today has the ring of opportunity and anticipation to it since I managed to score the P90X+ discs. So I am modifying the plan a little. I have 2 variety days that I am going to fill with P90X+ workouts and maybe if I am feeling really good, one of the off days also. The P90X+ workouts are as follows as far as I can tell:

Interval X Plus
Kenpo Cardio Plus
Upper Plus
Total Body Plus
Abs-Core Plus

I am concerned over the Kenpo, it was a dud during P90X and also having a full day of core, but I will give it a shot and tell you what I think. Today will be Interval X Plus if I can remember to take the discs home.

 

R5D48 – Warrior Dash 2011 and Heavy Day

“When the fight begins within himself, a man’s worth something.”

-Robert Browning, 1812-1889

I am up to full speed now with the RKC Rite Of Passage. It’s week 9 of the workout and finally the different days are actually different. The heavy day has 5 rungs of up to 5 reps on each movement looking like this:

C&P left 1
C&P right 1
Pull Up 1
C&P left 2
C&P right 2
Pull Up 2
C&P left 3
C&P right 3
Pull Up 3
C&P left 4
C&P right 4
Pull Up 4
C&P left 5
C&P right 5
Pull Up 5

Plus 25 swings for 6 minutes with 5 seconds rest between sets. That’s just long enough to put the KB down and pick it up again BTW.

The light day is only 5 ladders of 3 rungs, the medium day 5 ladders of 4 rungs. Now that I am up to full speed, the duration is only a month so I have to start looking for what to do with my KB skills once I am done with the RKC. I am certain there are things to move on to after from Pavel, I just haven’t looked yet. Spring and outdoor workouts are right around the corner and the KB is a great tool for working outdoors anywhere. I am also on to day 48 of Round 5 which means that in about 28 days or so I will be around day 76 which is probably long enough for Round 5. I think this will be the last “round” that I do, but I need another way of documenting my progress. Maybe that is thinking too much and I just need to keep going to R6 and beyond. I like the 90 day thing, it prevents me from getting bored and is long enough to see what changes the workouts make to your body. Maybe Insanity2 “The Asylum” will be out in the next month, or P90X2 or whatever he is calling it. If so, I would gladly go back to that with some KB work on alternating days. I will keep my fingers crossed.

I am also registered for Warrior Dash 2011 which is like a tame, watered down version of Tough Guy or Tough Mudder the latter is considered the  toughest race on the planet and so probably a smaller, more friendly race is the place to start. I am actually really looking forward to it, to having something to really train for and to focus my workouts on. I guess in reflection, round 6 will be the Warrior Dash preparation round. Since there is some running involved, I am going to have to start doing sprints and 400m intervals to get my calves back into shape since the only real issue I have with running is calf cramping. Hopefully by the time the race comes around I will have lost a little more weight and be near my ideal fighting weight. I can’t wait!!!

 

R5D44-7 – Off Sick But Trying

For the most part my workouts this week really sucked. I did the bare minimum until today, Friday, since I did nothing yesterday. So today, while feeling somewhat better I decided on the following:

AMRAP

10 x 205lb bench
5x KB Clean with 45lb and 70lb alternating each round
5 pullups

I managed 7 rounds total, 4 with 45lb KB and 3 with the 70lb KB. It was around 20 minutes but I am not too sure of the time since there were some distractions along the way. I feel like crap but it was good to get a decent sweat from working out rather than sitting on the couch shivering. Tomorrow is heavy day which will be a test with 5 rungs on each of the 5 ladders for the first time. At least I then get Sunday off…

Refined Carbs. Why Bother?

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

  • When you eat carbs, your blood sugar goes up. Eat gobs of carb-rich foods (bread, sugar, pasta, rice, etc. — all of which are nutrient poor, relative to meat and veggies), and your blood sugar goes up a lot.
  • In response, your body secretes insulin, a storage hormone, which takes the blood sugar out of your bloodstream and stores it for future use (in the form of glycogen in your liver and muscles), and returning you blood sugar levels to normal.
  • But your glycogen stores fill up quickly. What happens if you keep eating carbs after your tank is full? Your body senses the dangerous excess blood sugar, and pumps out a ton of extra insulin to deal with it. Your glycogen stores are still maxed out, so the extra insulin converts the carb-orific energy into body fat.
  • But now, so much insulin’s kicking around your system that it ends up driving your blood sugar too low — to the point where you experience a “blood sugar crash” (you know, like in the afternoon, after you’ve downed a big turkey sandwich and a sugary coffee drink). Your blood sugar’s low, so your body craves…(drum roll, please)…MORE CARBS. And the cycle starts again.
  • Over time, these cycles of hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia wreak havoc on your metabolism, and can escalate into full-blown insulin resistance — a precursor to a parade of health horribles like diabetes, obesity, heart disease, etc. (We’ve previously discussed this problem — and how it escalates into full-blown insulin resistance and metabolic derangement – here.)

 

R5D44 – Bodyweight Workout (Not Mine)

Today’s workout: throwing around gymnasts.

Don't try this at home...

We worked back handsprings most of the night and so I spent hours on my knees spotting girls who are old enough not to need spot but scared enough to require it. It was a long, difficult workout and I am very relieved that A: I didn’t do a workout before and B: that I am doing the RKC because if not I think I would have given up half way through and told them to go vault while I had a nap!

Verdict: Rewarding but exhausting. There is nothing like a kid getting a new skill for the first time.

This week I start adding rungs to the RKC ladders, and I expect Saturday to be extremely taxing. Good news is that the weather is supposed to be almost 10 degrees and that means I can go out on the deck!!!

After Workout Meal / If You NEED Carbs (2 birds, one stone)

One of the most common questions when talking nutrition and workouts is the post workout meal. One of the most common questions about the Paleo diet as it relates to athletes or recreational workout junkies is how does your body recover without carbs. Well, these questions can be answered simply with the  same answer. Put some starch in your body after you work out.

Simply put, some sweet potato, beets or parsnips, chestnuts or winter squash into your meal plan within an hour after working out to take advantage of the post workout uptake that your body craves. Be wary of fruit however, in general we are talking maybe 2 or 3 pieces a day but in particular after your workout your body will replenish your liver glycogen with fructose rather than your muscle glycogen.  Robb Wolff puts it into perspective like this:

PWO Meal

The idea of a PWO meal containing carbs (and protein) is to take advantage of a period of time in which the muscles are particularly insulin sensitive. We can fly nutrients into the muscle “under the radar” via a mechanism called “non insulin mediated glucose transport”. Amino acids are also taken in during this time and may play a synergistic role in both glycogen repletion but also decreasing inflammation that accompanies hard training. Said another way, you recover from exertion faster. So, what should ya eat? We actually want a starchy carb as our primary carb. Yams and sweet potatoes are great options as they are also highly nutritious. Fruit should be used sparingly in this meal if one is focused on optimized glycogen repletion as fructose refills liver glycogen first, and once liver glycogen is full we up-regulate the lipogenic activity of the liver and start down the road towards fat gain and insulin resistance.

I know James Fitzgerald (OPT) has used a mixture of mashed sweet potato and apple sauce for PWO meal…getting just a bit of hepatic (liver) glycogen repletion with the lions share going to the muscles. Sprinkle some cinnamon on top to enhance insulin sensitivity and you are set. Why do the mixture? Perhaps James will chime in on this but for me a simple answer would be palatability and taste. If you just received an ass-kicking, stuffing food down your pie-hole may not be that appealing. Something yummy could certainly make that easier.

Why not shakes? I’ve not found them to be superior to solid food, I have noticed they make people fat. A new paper just came out comparing milk & cereal (shitty food) to a PWO shake (also shitty food) and the milk+cereal beat the shake with regards to glycogen repletion. Go figure. I’d wager salmon and sweet potatoes would be even better…not likely to see that study!

The PWO window is most potent immediately after a WO and drops off to about 50% efficacy by 30 min, and pretty much back to baseline by an hour. If you train at night, just try to get that meal in immediately after training and keep an eye out for fat gain around the mid-section. If this happens, dial back your carbs.

 

R5D43/44 – We All Struggle Sometimes, That’s Why We Do It.

I had a busy weekend. The brakes on the Jeep weren’t working well last week and as I removed the calipers I found that I had a seized slider pin on each side. That meant that since I couldn’t free them up that I would be purchasing 2 new calipers at $125 a piece. Bolts broke, the shock install that I decided to take on at the same time only got half done due to another bolt issue and eventually after a frustrating weekend spent in a freezing garage I was really not much further along. So Saturday I had a day off, having worked out on Friday it was fine but it meant that I was going to have to do heavy Saturday on Sunday and not take a day off. It worked out OK, Sunday was OK since I am still not doing 5 rungs on 5 ladders yet and even so, I did do one ladder of 5 rungs just to see how it was. The big deal was Friday when I did the Art Of Strength: Providence DVD.

The AOSP DVD reminded me of when I first started doing P90X, it was a world of movements I hadn’t seen before and was dying to try. I was pretty useful at most of them, but was left with a feeling that I could have done a whole lot better. It was pure KB work and some of the movements were pretty challenging but it got me out of the monotony of the RKC and let me see that my future isn’t just swings and snatches and presses but there is a whole world of KB movements that you can do. It was an eye opener, a challenge and a really invigorating experience. I am now on the hunt for more KB movements that I can put together for a workout once the RKC Rite Of Passage is over. It reminded me once again of why I enjoy doing this kind of thing just as much as I used to enjoy going to the gym and throwing big plates around. It’s as much journey of discovery and challenges as it is a hard physical struggle. As long as you are not struggling against boredom it’s fine.

Learn, grow, learn some more, it never stops. I still can’t believe that I am in as good or better shape now on 20-30 minutes a day than I was at 25 in University doing 3 hours a day. Bizarre.

1991 - around 190lbs working out 3 hours a day including 2 hours of aerobics class (yes it's true!)
November 15 2010 - 1 month into Paleo @ 265lb. I'm around 20lbs less now, March 2011.

Vancouver Sun Gets It Right (buried at the back in the Health Section)

The articles in theVancouver Sun this week about the problems with the way we eat sugar are giving me the warm and fuzzies.

“Canada’s Food Guide does not include sugar in any of the recognized food groups, although it does advise Canadians to limit sugar intake.

While the government sets an upper limit for the amount of salt and fat a person should consume each day, there are no such limits on added sugar, as distinct from naturally occurring sugars such as those in fruit.

Yet sugar has replaced fat as our society’s food pariah.

Implied in all the dietary hand-wringing is that sugar consumption is high and rising. The truth may surprise you.

Sugar consumption in Canada has been dropping since the 1960s, from about 33 kilos a year per person to about 24 kilos. But that toplevel data obscures two important trends.

First, we have changed the way we eat sugar. Nearly 90 per cent of the sugar we eat comes to us in packaged, processed foods rather than in home cooking, as was the norm 40 or 50 years ago, according to Sandra Marsden, president of the Canadian Sugar Institute and a registered dietitian. Sugar is the most common food additive, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Second, Statistics Canada’s sugar data does not includes high fructose corn syrup, which we consume in vast quantities in soft drinks.”

Sounds like they are really on to something here… Way to keep up, slowpoke. The problem I run into when talking to people is that they don’t realize that most things they eat are sweetened, and not only that, the things that are refined carbs may as well be sugar due to the way they are processed in the body. Add it all up and the average person is getting up to 50% or more of their calories from sugars or refined carbs and that spells one thing and one thing only: Obesity.

By the way, obscuring data like the falling sugar consumption referenced above is exactly how we got into this mess in the first place thanks to people like Ancel Keys and the China Study cronies.