End o’ the Week

Well, it’s the end of the week. And we were having so much fun! It’s PR Friday, so post your personal records, training updates, or whatever else to the comments.
Here’s a little round up.

1. Choosing not to do things that are optimal for strength, when strength is the goal, is an admission of not wanting to be strong. It also gives me the willies.

2. Alice Cooper is pretty awesome.

3. A lot of people got pretty butt hurt about something having to do with Paleo. It’s funny though, in my carb post, the word paleo was present only once, and it was in a quote where I asked Pendlay if his lifters “ate paleo”. I also don’t remember saying that carb sources should be unhealthy or superfluous. Oh, I know — I don’t remember because it wasn’t fucking there.

4. This website is not a place to maliciously bash other websites or people, specifically CrossFit. I realize that the stereotypical CFer is extremely irritating for many reasons (don’t worry, I agree). However, there are a lot of people involved in CF that are good people. I’ve met most of my good friends through CF, and have been to a lot of places around the country that don’t totally suck. Every now and then I’ll poke fun at the stereotypical crowd, and I don’t mind if you do. Just avoid the malicious bashing so that we stay judicious about it. Maybe this analogy will work: CF may be a culture that is weird to you, but it’s the “radical CFers” that give you the bad taste in your mouth. Don’t lay judgment on all of them because there are a few crazy ones.

5. Personally, I’m pretty weirded out at nutritional zealotry. Actually, I’m weirded out about any zealotry, but that’s neither here nor there. There are plenty of people who survived beyond 90 years old, and even into their 100s, who did not have “optimal diets” (which is a debatable phrase, but we aren’t going there). There are also plenty more people who die much younger and as a direct result of being unhealthy and fat. There are also people who are riddled with cancer without bringing it on themselves (no smoking, no over-fatness, etc.). We could debate these issues all day, but in truth nobody has a comprehensive knowledge to have a good say on the matter over another person (e.g. the bio-chemist lacks the perspective of the evolutionary biologist).

Here is a simple, yet descriptive exercise. Look at what the American government has recommended regarding nutrition over the past 50 years (quick search found this). Next look at the trend of obesity rate in that same time period (the graph on this page alarmed me as a teenager). It can be assumed that a) the increased carbohydrate recommendations, b) the availability of refined sugars, c) hypothetical laziness, d) lack of knowledge of what is actually healthy, and e) a decrease in physical activity of America (did a quick search on data for this, feel free to find it and post in comments) resulted in a really fat country. As a 15 year old, I was shocked at how Americans could be identified at Disney World because of how fat they were. In any case, shifting carbohydrates away from 60 to 75% of the diet to something that has all three macronutrients providing a similar share of the calories is a significant change to the government recommendations. I’ll point out that in my carb post, I suggested eating about the same amount of carbs as the protein.

I’ve been infatuated with asking older adults (more than 60 years old) who are in good health what they’ve done in their life to result in their healthy disposition. You know what the common denominator is? They have all been active throughout their lives. One simply cited cardio, another likes to climb mountains (big ones around the world), some lifted weights, and others were cyclists. I asked the mountain climber, “Was there ever a point in your life in which you weren’t active?” He didn’t hesitate to say no. He also didn’t go on and on about how his diet made him healthy. Nobody did. They are all folks who are in shape and have never allowed their bodies to be out of shape. The point is that they adopted an active lifestyle that was engaging enough to do it for years.

Since I was about 14 years old, I wanted to be a living testament that physical activity, not getting fat, and a moderately healthy diet would stimulate longevity. Staying strong and able into older age will be dependent on the vigor of an individual. What’s the common denominator among healthy 70 and 80 year olds? They still get around. They are still active, and have the strength to get on the go.

Strength alone isn’t enough, but if it’s compounded with invigorating activity and a decent diet over the years, most problems are eliminated. Yes, this website in particular doesn’t cater skinny guys who weigh 150 pounds. Their usefulness, self-esteem, and athletic prowess can increase with significant strength and muscle increases. Yes, instead of drawing out that process to a 3 year ordeal, it can be accomplished in six months of intense non-healthy eating. Again, I will (take the painstaking patience) to point out that I’ve never suggested someone eat brownies and ice cream every day for the rest of their life. Yes, when someone has significantly higher lean body mass, their nutrition demands to not only maintain that mass, but to also recover from hard training, will be different than someone who isn’t. Furthermore, the demands of a 170 pound guy to a 210 pound guy will be different (this example assumes both have low body fat). Lastly, if that 210+ pound guy doesn’t eat a similar amount of carbs to his protein intake, then he will not lift optimally (among other things, but they digress).

Once a guy wants to level out his body weight, he can begin the process of improving his body composition by cleaning up his diet. We say this on the site all the time. It’s just that compared to other websites, we rejoice in having more strength and muscle.

The body responds to stress — or a lack of stress — that is imparted on it. If you don’t exercise/train for years at a time, your body becomes soft and unadapted. Your neuroendocrine system adapts to a state of “not a lot going on”. Instead, regular exercise and training keeps the structures adapted and keeps all of that chemical and hormone stuff optimal. Nowadays, people want to over complicate everything. Just keep it simple. If you feel unhealthy, then figure out why and do something about it.

People say that being a competitive lifter/athlete and healthy are mutually exclusive. That’s not my belief. A competitive athlete has much higher phyiscal demands, thus they’ll have much higher fuel demands. I have this funny feeling that Dean Karnazes and Michael Phelps won’t be dropping dead at a young age.

Train hard, stay active, eat decently, and have fun. Or just shut up and squat.