“So you wanna do the splits hey?”

That’s what my friend - dance instructor Kate Miller - said when I asked her to take on the daunting task of turning my un-bendy make-believe-bodybuilder-self into a pliable image of grace. Okay, I’m exaggerating. A lot. But I haven’t been able to do the splits since I was a kid and I thought it would be kinda cool to once again “assume the position”.

Here’s what Kate suggested. (more…)

	My doctor gave me ‘roids. I think. ‘Cept I’m not getting jacked… why, why, why…?Cows still baby moos? Tips on how to bring up your lagging calves (I should be so lucky…) Dieting you can live with - yep, it’s all about you! - FINALLY! (and of COURSE you can eat at bedtime!) Issue 11 >>
	How to track progress; should I spend my hard earned cash on supplements; tuna and mercury - is it safe?Issue 10 >>
	Another reason for creatine on a cut; functional training may not be that functional; meathead-friendly bodyfat-cut math (with an online calculator so you don’t have to think!)Issue 9 >>
	Training with antagonist pairs; managing maintenance; and the downside of eating raw eggs (in case “because it’s icky” wasn’t enough for you)Issue 8 >>
	Palm oil in peanut butter a problem? Knees diving in during squats? Colleagues asking you how to diet and it’s driving you nuts?Issue 7 >>
	Dropping water weight in a flash - three days before a powerlifting contest, no sauna suit. Also, creatine and caffeine together or not - exploring the available literature.Issue 6 >>
	Allergic to exercise? Also, insulin resistance and glycogen replenishment.Issue 5 >>
	Bringing up a lagging chest - block training vs alterations to Baby Got Back; incorporating loaded passive stretches.Issue 4 >>
	Men, women - do they need to train differently? A discussion with an aspiring personal trainer.Issue 3 >>
	‘The number one most important variable to fat loss success’ and ‘Sugar and it’s role in the body in relation to exercise.Issue 2 >>
	‘Feminine Fat Loss’, ‘Fish oil, flax oil?’ and ‘Help - I’m cutting and I’m freaking HUNGRY!!!”Issue 1 >>

Me me me me! - All of my wannabebig stuff. Click for updates - they’ll show up here before I get around to the individual posts.

Okay - I get asked for this a LOT.

My cutting diet is the same as my bulking diet: I carb cycle.

All meals are protein and fat EXCEPT the one before and the one or two after I train - those are protein and carb.

Note that there are conflicting thoughts on whether or not fat and carb should be in the same meal, and why (or why not). My own reasons are comfort-driven: carbs are yummy, but they make me hungry. Since I don’t really NEED starchy carbs outside the training window, I leave ‘em out of all other meals.

I find I have a better workout if I’ve had SOME starchy carbohydrate before training, so I have a small serving of carb an hour or two before I train. If it’s more than an hour before, I’ll use slower food - sweet potato, meat and broccoli with a little butter. If it’s closer to when I train, I stick with faster carb and protein - maybe oats and cottage cheese - but I’ll avoid going higher in fiber and fat.

On the other hand, you want the post-workout meal to get to work right away, so it’s prudent to keep fat and fiber out of that meal.

Read What a bodybuilder eats… for food selection ideas.

This is how I design a diet: (more…)

How often do we hear this one? You’d think weight loss would be simple to achieve – it SOUNDS so simple.

Until you try to do it.

We have all read the articles that tell us how losing a few pounds of fat will improve our health in any of a number of ways, but they never seem to go far enough – HOW do we get it off, AND keep it off?
There are a few pieces to this puzzle that need to be addressed in wading through the information overload on this topic. One of them is the concept of weight loss vs. fat loss. The other is the relative advantages of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise.

So let’s start wading… (more…)

I got into a discussion that resulted in the following broad-stroke summary of how the process of fat loss evolves over time - or at least, my current understanding of this process.

In the early stages, while you have a lot of fat to spare, it’s really not all that difficult to get weight off: eat a little less, move a little more, you’ll see a drop.  But as the body leans out, there’s an increasing need for strategy - and a decreasing need for calorie-burning workouts as your attention shifts toward maintaining muscle size by lifting heavy and short.  (more…)

If you just don’t know how to start, or you’re between plans and don’t know what to do next… use this whole-body plan three times a week and follow with a little steady-state cardio. You’ll find this workout efficient and effective - and it won’t bore you to tears!

And nary a kickback in sight. (more…)

High Intensity Interval Foreplay

- How to get yourself excited for the main event.

MariAnne Anderson, BSc, MSc(B),
with thanks to Tyron Piteau, B.H.K., R.K., C.H.E.K. Practitioner Level 2
http://www.makersbody.com

Have you ever stood by the microwave, watching a trickle of electronic seconds count down the arrival of improperly warmed food; wondering how much time you’ve wasted watching timers steal individual seconds from your life? Well, I feel the same way about the timer on the treadmill.

In the world of physique enhancement, high intensity interval training (HIIT) is gaining popularity over the old-school “twice-a-day, steady-state” cardio sessions that once dominated pre-contest prep.

Not only is HIIT less boring than watching your life being stolen from you one unpleasant second at a time, interval training is more effective at targeting subcutaneous fat stores while sparing lean mass – something that gains significance the deeper you are into your cut.

Although many athletes use sprint intervals as part of our conditioning, it’s a relative newcomer to “mainstream” fitness; outside of bodybuilding or athletics, not THAT many people do it, and fewer still really know how to prepare for an activity that switches rapidly from eccentric to concentric contraction. Perhaps more for this than for any other type of activity, proper warmup and stretching is key to both optimal performance and injury prevention. (more…)

I’m fiddling with an interesting cardio protocol I read about earlier this year. In a nutshell, it’s 8-second sprints with 12-second recovery periods. I’m nicknaming it “8 seconds of glory” and you build up to doing these 20-second cycles for 15 minutes in total. I started with three. I’m at eight right now. Trust me, by the 6th minute, you hate your life.

Method:
Set up on an upright or recumbent bike (I prefer recumbent for the quad pump, plus it’s easier on my back but either is fine) and start pedaling at a tension that you COULD keep up for at least 20 minutes. Start watching the clock.

1. When it hits the 20-second mark, pedal like mad for 8 seconds
   Then pedal as slowly as you like for 12 seconds.
2. Repeat as many times as you can. I would suggest 3 minutes if you’re in reasonable shape. Build it up to as many as 10 minutes of these little intervals.
3. Cool down for the rest of your 20-minute session. In other words, if you warmed up for a minute, then did 3 minutes of intervals (ie 9 complete 20-second cycles), you have used up 4 minutes - spin it out at a moderate intensity for 16 more minutes. As you do more intervals, your cool-down gets shorter, until you are doing 10 minutes of each. At this point, increase the tension on the bicycle to make the interval work harder rather than doing more and more intervals, k?

Observations:
It’s clearly a variant of HIIT, and one of the problems inherent in HIIT was demonstrated by Romijn, Coyle, Sidossis, Zhang and Wolfe: 5 minutes after high intensity cardio there’s an overshoot of blood FFA levels, probably from a removal of the inhibition of release. This is because anything over about 8 seconds involves going beyond ATP for energy, and that means lactate.

I’ll explain where I’m going with this: (more…)

Okay, so I wanted to call this “the Skinny on Fats” – but it’s SOooooo cheesy! (Okay, and it’s been done. A lot.)

Undaunted, I tossed around some other possibilities:

‘Grease – The Untold Story,” Rejected. Too “Olivia Newton-John.”

Continuing, I tried “Hey Fatty” – but it somehow just didn’t convey my usual academic style.

So I’ll settle on “Mmmmm fat!” (more…)