Bodybuilding

This is My Journey – Guest Post by Linda McFeeters

December 12, 2010 by Adam 23 Comments

One of the things I LOVE about being part of Strong is the New Skinny is all the incredible people I get to meet. My new friend Linda McFeeters just happened to post on SINS about her training goals and a bunch of weight she lost. I can be pretty impulsive at times and I just reached out to Linda and asked if she wanted to tell her story in a guest post. I just KNEW it was a good one. It was a gut feeling. Linda didn’t disappoint! Here’s an incredibly inspiring story from a strong woman who has seen, heard and felt stuff that ALL of us have at one time or another. Here’s what SHE chose to do with it… -Adam

I never knew I was fat until the first day of kindergarten…

Until kindergarten I was perfect in my little world. I was adored. The very first day of school my little world got blown apart.

I remember what I was wearing. Now, let’s remember it was the 60’s! An a-line dress in a geometric print of orange, yellow, blue and green with a peter pan collar, sewn by my mother, and orange fishnet stockings. All the children sat cross legged on the floor around the piano bench where our teacher sat. A hole sprang up in my stockings….my ‘pudge’ squished out between the bits of fishnet…the hole got bigger and more of the fat on my legs pushed through. Then I could sense it. The heads turning to look. The furtive glances between my new ‘friends’. The giggles hidden behind tiny hands. I stayed inside the cloak room during recess, trying to push my fat back into the stockings to no avail. I hated my fat legs.

I still do.

I learned through the years that to be accepted, and fat (because that is truly what it is although we politely use words like chunky, husky, big girl, large) you better have one hell of a good personality. I learned to be the fun one, the understanding one, the smart one, the kind one. And I learned how to work my way around being the fat girl. But through every year there was always at least one…and sometimes many….who called me names…loudly….in the hall, on the bus, out passing vehicle windows, behind my back and to my face. I never let them see me flinch. That was saved for my heart, my soul…deep inside.

There were years of diets. Fad foods. Needles, ‘vitamins’, pee-sticks, baked white fish and steamed celery. Cabbage and grapefruit. The lists are endless. Many worked for awhile but always the weight would come back on and always more than before. With baby Number 1 I gained 40lbs that never went away. Along came baby number 2 and another 25lbs that never got lost. From that point on it just kept coming back on.higher and higher… Eventually I weighed in at my heaviest ‘known’ weight – 306 lbs.

Walk until I can’t think anymore or can’t move anymore…

At a very low point in my life, and after being diagnosed with severely high blood pressure, I laid on the couch one night, a big glass of wine beside me, my hand dipping back and forth from chip bag to mouth and I thought to myself “I could die like this. This is how I could end up killing myself. If I don’t stop doing this I AM going to die…or … I could get up and walk on that treadmill in the corner…walk until I either can’t think anymore or can’t move anymore”. So I got up and got on that machine. I walked and walked, cried and cried and walked some more. I walked until I couldn’t walk anymore. Eventually I realized that my time spent moving helped clear my head. Made me feel better….happier. Within a few months of that, I started getting up before daylight and walking outside..in the dark..so no one would see me and make fun. As the season changed, daylight came earlier and I found people waving at me as they drove by – not making fun of me. My confidence increased. I met people on my road that I had never spoken to before. As I walked and felt better about myself, I began to watch what I was eating and over the course of the summer I lost 40lbs.

Then I moved houses. And then I stopped walking. The fear of new people in my neighbourhood kept me inside. Again fearful. Again the weight crept up. A year into my new home, for some strange reason that still evades me, I signed up to walk a marathon. A huge public event. No small feat to be taken lightly. I garnered my only friend I had at that time who was ‘into fitness’ to walk with me and to meet up every Sunday to train for the long distance that was in our future. We trained for this from December to March…the worst part of the year here in southern Ontario. We walked through rain, sleet, hard snow, ice, soft fluffy snow….we found every public bathroom there was to find!

I couldn’t find snow pants to fit my size 28 body…

I couldn’t find snow pants to fit my size 28 body so I walked in two pairs of the loosest track pants I could find, with a long raincoat to cover my butt – to spare anyone driving by with all the jiggling and wiggling. I struggled to even stay within eye sight of my fit and thin friend. I kept up a steady stream of self-talk for hours on end to get myself through those days. There were lots of negative thoughts to be pushed away with ‘just one step at a time’ thoughts. There were days that I would come home to stand in a hot shower and cry my heart out. Who was I to think that I could do something like this? I was a loser. I was fat. I was a big fake with none of this so-called self-confidence. Loser. Fat. Ugly. Those words kept playing over and over in my head. I was breaking my own heart. But somewhere inside me, I would not give up. I kept heading out for my training walks eventually getting up to over 55km in one week.

The day of the race came, there were thousands signed up for this…and me. Fat Linda. I walked. I walked and walked. Head down, one foot in front of the other. At the 18 kilometre mark I was looking for a way off the course – but couldn’t find any! What the heck? Shouldn’t there be buses standing by to pick up those who couldn’t finish? If there were, I didn’t see them. And I was not about to approach someone at a drink station, the fat girl, to see how I could get out of this thing. So, on I trudged. I felt every ounce of my weight working against me. I was passed by almost 7000 spandexed bums. I crossed the electronic finish line 5 hours and 25 minutes later. My friends…my crowd…went wild! I cried. I’m crying as I remember this moment.

This was the exact moment that changed my life…

I was never so proud of myself in my life. True, honest pride. Amazement. Self-knowledge. My heart knew I could do it. It only had to prove it to me.
Since then, virtually nothing has stood in my way to be a healthier me. This is what this journey has been about. Not about being ‘thin’. Not about seeing a certain number on the scale. Not about fitting into a certain size. I read everything I could get my hands on about nutrition. I listened to my body. What made it feel good. What made it feel too good. What was the difference? Well anything that is too good – probably is too good to be true. I dropped the ‘too good’s’ from my diet and like an apple falling from a tree, my weight fell … Fat Linda began her journey of disappearance.

As I carried on with my fitness I felt the need to attach myself, yet again, to ‘something’. I needed a goal. One evening I was following one click to another on the internet and I came across a bodybuilding site. I was looking for ‘Motivations’ and along came this story of a woman who went from being obese to being in a bodybuilding competition at the age of 50. I had never even known anything about bodybuilding at the time. Bunch of ‘muscle bound dick heads’ is all I associated bodies like that with! The minute I read that article I knew this was IT! This is what I was going to do!

That would be me someday!

I found a bodybuilding trainer in my area and with all the fake courage I could muster I met her and signed on! Over the next 2 ½ years I gave my all to my coach, my training, my nutrition and I lost, shed, pee’d out….over 150 lbs. I carved a body that I truly never knew existed.

With a laser like focus I did not waiver from my nutrition or my training. I learned to eat, and like, foods that I never ate before. I learned to love the feel of aching muscles. To laugh when my muscles failed me at the end of a gruelling set. To grit my teeth and ‘suck it up’ when all I wanted to do was puke or cry – and sometimes both.

I was too intimidated by ‘fit’ people to workout in a gym, so I built a gym in my home. Nothing got in my way. I had lose skin from losing so much weight and at my age, it was not about to spring back to anything resembling ‘youth’! So I had a full body lift where I was cut completely around my body, the skin pulled up, cut off and re-joined. I had an inner thigh lift as well. Nothing got in my way. I began official competition training 8 weeks after the surgery and 20 weeks out from the competition date. I had all kinds of people tell me that I was ‘too skinny’. I now had people judging me again for the way my body looked. Men stared. Women scowled. And yet, among people who ‘live the lifestyle’, I found acceptance, admiration and support.

When I told people that I was going into a ‘bodybuilding’ competition I had a lot of negative feedback. Everyone thought I would turn into a hulking male-like figure. “You don’t want to look like that!” I could not believe that they didn’t see what I did. The discipline. The drive. The guts. Female bodybuilders do not have to be ‘men with boobs’! I came onstage with no sparkles (and believe me, I live for sparkles!) and no heels – but I was still all about the hair and makeup, lashes and nails. I posed with female flair and hard-ass confidence. That being said, I didn’t not win and I did not expect to. My body will never be completely acceptable in this industry – there has been too much of a lifetime of stretched skin. But I was very successful in being a FEMALE bodybuilder … in bringing every ounce of estrogen that is me into a perceived male dominion. Even within the ‘industry’, female bodybuilding has fewer competitions, less categories, less press. It frustrates me to get excited about an upcoming show only to find out there is no female BB. We need more women willing to kick off their heels and come to the pose-down!

But I’m just the fat chick. Who’s going to listen to me

I am now in training for power lifting. I want to further strengthen my body. I want to build my inner grit along with my outward muscle. I am on a quest to forever challenge my body, my mind and my self belief. I have gone from seeking acceptance to being a role model. And once again, I have signed up for the marathon this year. I have come full circle and am so excited to find out what the next chapter of this fabulous life will bring me!

There is no easy way to go from being obese to being fit. There is no magic. I am not going to tell you anything foolish or foofie! There is only one way to get from being heavy to lifting heavy and that is one day at a time, one pound at a time…one heartbeat at time.

This is what I believe in. This is what I live. This is my journey.

Body Image, Food Addiction and “I’m not good enough…”

November 14, 2010 by Adam 38 Comments

A wise ape once told me that if I wasn’t getting hate mail no one was reading my stuff. Well, people are reading my stuff!

Actually, it really isn’t all that bad. I get about 20 positive responses to what I write for each negative one. It’s funny that we always focus on the negative ones, but that’s another post…

In the last 24 hours I’ve had TWO really positive emails from exceptional and strong women who have struggled with eating disorders and have been inspired by the “Strong is the New Skinny” Message. This makes me feel like we’re actually making a difference out there in the world and creating positive change. It feels good!

Being a guy AND being 1/2 of the “Strong is the New Skinny” team is an interesting thing. I STILL get accused of being a “typical guy” – and worse. And NO ONE believes me when I say I’m NOT a boob guy (I’m NOT!). And, pretty much no matter what we post someone doesn’t like it. But stuff like the two emails I got this weekend tell me that we ARE making a difference and people ARE hearing our message and it’s leading to positive change. And that makes it all worthwhile.

There was a lot of emotion and personal experience behind my original rant that asked “Is Strong the New Skinny?” Why? Because I’ve personally seen what a messed up body image or an eating disorder can do to a woman (not to mention her relationships) and it makes me really mad that our society creates and perpetuates it and that there is a whole medical/pharmaceutical/industrial/consumer complex that feeds off it. Kinda like the Red Court Vampires in a Jim Butcher novel. I ranted about the medical establishment here and I’ll stop for now – even though I could go on and on…

My personal opinion is that the current Paleo Diet and CrossFit culture is about the best we’ve done to date to combat this shit. It needs to be OK for women to be strong, healthy and take an ACTIVE and POSITIVE roll in their health and the way they look. And the SAME goes for MEN too.

I happen to know what a messed up body image and “I’m not good enough” can do to a GUY and it’s not a good thing. It’s similar to what women go through and very different at the same time.

The womens’ body image thing is pretty well defined. I think the male side of things is a bit less known. Probably, because most men want to avoid this:

No guy wants to be a “jackwagon…”

Men Feel Stereotype Pressure Too

Here’s the stuff I grew up with. Granted, Arnold will ALWAYS be my hero, inspiration and THE KING of bodybuilding but, between genetics and drug use, this is just NOT a realistically achievable body for most men:

Now, is this stuff inspiring? HOLY CRAP, YES! But very, very few men will actually achieve this type of development no matter how much work they put in. Even drugs aren’t a guarantee you could get to this level of perfection. Arnold had one in a million genetics on top of everything else that aligned so perfectly that he achieved super-stardom.

Taking this all a step further, I was a HUGE fan of Dorian Yates in the ’90s as well.

As a side note, you can see that Dorian’s development is LIGHT YEARS removed from even Arnold’s hugeness.

Women can argue whether this stuff is attractive to THEM or not but, the fact is, many, MANY young men get drawn in by these images – just as many, MANY young women get drawn into images of super-skinny celebrities like Paris Hilton or whoever else. AND, you can argue that these extreme male bodies are just as unhealthy – mentally and physically – as the extremely skinny female bodies are.

Two Extremes

The two extremes we tend to have – at least in the US – are the “Skinny at Any Cost” thing on one end and the “I’m PERFECT just the way I am, pass the Ben and Jerry’s” mentality on the other. For men, it’s more like “big” or “strong” at any cost vs. “whatever, I don’t care.” I think these extremes – whether male or female – are different sides of the same coin. Why? Because they feed on each other… We’re bombarded with images of BOTH in the media at the same time. Look at the popular womens’ magazines at the checkout counter – “Lose 10lbs in a week” is right next to “Sinful chocolate cake to die for” – in the same freakin’ magazine! It sets up a cycle of dissatisfaction that perpetuates itself.

On one end, you have the “I deserve it” eating. I’ve done this more than a few times. “I had a hard week, trained hard, worked hard, etc. I think I’ll order a pizza…” This is, of course, followed by “Why the hell did I eat that?” “I feel like shit.” and, my favorite “I am SO weak and out of shape! I SUCK!”

This stuff ISN’T new

I’m a big fan of Pema Chodron and Eckhart Tolle. I “kinda, sorta” practice Buddhism but it’s more of an eclectic and pragmatic version. What amazes me is that this whole thing about extreme practices, not feeling good enough and addiction (whether it’s to food or exercise or drugs or sex or whatever…) is AGES OLD. The pathways that this stuff runs through are as old as humanity itself! It’s hard wired into us and, once you see the process and the “mental gymnastics” your ego does to convince you to starve yourself or eat the 30 Kit Kats (my favorite ) or hate yourself or whatever it’s pretty weird to watch. Eckhart Tolle and Pema Chodron both teach that once you SEE what you’re doing you’re conscious and you can change. Yeah, you’ll probably watch yourself DO the stuff for a while, but eventually you learn the ego’s tricks and can keep it in check – most of the time…

Pema Chodron compares it to having a bad rash that we keep scratching at even though we KNOW we’re only making it worse and spreading it. We don’t care because in that moment that we scratch it feels better. Until it feels worse and we want to scratch more…

The “Middle Way”

I think the only thing that saves me – and a lot of others – is actually KNOWING – or having a good idea of what ACTUALLY is healthy and what to actually eat and how to train and how to build a better body. “OK, I messed up this week on my diet and training – now I have to do A, B and C to get back on track…” Sometimes, when I wake up too early I watch those infomercials. You know, the ones with the asinine exercise equipment and screwed up diets and supplements. I usually wonder what it must be like to know so little about training and your body to actually get taken in by that crap. And then I feel bad for the people who – because of the mess that is our food supply – actually think it’s THEM that is messed up as opposed to the terrible food that’s promoted as healthy and the crazy diet plans and exercise stuff.

And, AGAIN, we have a whole big “thing” that feeds off of and profits from our dissatisfaction with ourselves, poor health from bad food and all the other standards “they” show us that we don’t live up to.

I think the “Middle Way” between the two extremes of un-health – starving and crazy diets on one hand and binge eating on the other – is learning everything you can about YOUR body and leaning to train and feed YOURSELF so you can take control and be empowered to make positive change in your own life…

Back in my bodybuilding days I did some INSANE things in the pursuit of a few more pounds of muscle or 1-2% lower bodyfat. It’s funny in retrospect – I knew a TON about training and getting lean and I knew SHIT about health. This is me a while back. I look pretty good, right? When this picture was taken I had a massive sinus infection from too much training, was dehydrated to the point of cramping and was eating jelly candies and drinking grape juice every hour after a week on ZERO carbs. And I won’t even mention the MONTHS of daily ECA (Ephedrine, Caffeine and Aspirin) and starving. I remember being so hungry I was chewing gum constantly and looking forward to more stimulants so I wouldn’t be hungry till my next meal.

Now, I KNOW that stuff wasn’t healthy and I doubt my Fran time was so great either. (Of course, Fran had yet to be born when this pic was snapped – with a FILM camera!) I can remember when I was really dieted down and carb-depleted I was struggling to do seated barbell presses with an empty Olympic bar! LOL Once I recovered I put on a lot of good weight and felt really good, though, and OVERALL, it was a really happy, positive and good experience. It would have been VERY unhealthy to live there though! The point is, I compromised my health to get to this point and was proud when I got there! Skewed priorities maybe?

A side note on the steroid thing…

Something I think is important to point out is the difference between my body in the pic above and the size Dorian and Arnold have. There were NO steroids involved in the condition I got into above – and look at how SMALL I look in comparison to the guys I idolized (idolize?). Yeah, there was SOME pride in the shape I achieved after 6 months of work – but there was a louder voice in my head telling me how SMALL I was and being frustrated that my arms didn’t strain my shirt sleeves when I wore a T-Shirt.

And, I’m not really against steroids either. Any more than some of the surgical stuff women do to look better or feel better about themselves. It’s all about personal choice and perceived risks. But that’s another post too…

The Middle Way – MY PERSONAL VERSION

On a related side note, my CURRENT goal is to beat the above shape by early summer (it’s Mid-November 2010 now). It’s over 10 years later AND THIS TIME I want to be in OUTSTANDING health AND have performance that matches what I look like. No more “mirror athletics” for me. I want the best HEALTH of my life along with the best SHAPE!

What I REALLY want to find is a positive outlet for the “critical voice in the head.” I want to USE the critical voice that’s always there – sometimes louder than others – and let it push me toward positive achievement. AND I want to know when to NOT listen to it and give myself a break and be OK with where I am and with what I’ve achieved to that point. There is always MORE to do and we can ALWAYS DO BETTER. I think the trick is to be ambitious and motivated by your own self-criticism but ALSO know when it’s getting out of hand and not being accurate or positive…

And then there’s this…

Something else I see that makes me nuts – THAT I DO – is train too much. Just like bodybuilding can go unhealthy – and I think it REALLY leans that way to begin with in it’s current state – stuff like CrossFit and Paleo can go bad too. A LOT of people WOD themselves to death and make a mess of their hormonal systems in pursuit of ever lower times and higher rep counts. All good to a point, but when the ego REALLY takes control all sorts of bad stuff happens.

Again, it’s taking things to extremes. Now, I’m not talking about extreme health or extreme performance. I’m talking about taking something healthy in a reasonable “dosage” and taking it WAY to far. Robb Wolf talks A LOT about this and I expanded and commented on some of his stuff here. It happens in just about every physical pursuit…

Please address all hate mail to Wild Gorillaman at…

So, here is MY PERSONAL take on stereotypes, sex appeal and all that stuff. Remember kiddies – this is MY opinion. I get to have mine and you get to have yours. And, guess what? I’m a GUY. And a straight one too – regardless of all the clothes shopping, the cats and what Merle says.

On the one hand, I think we’re HARDWIRED to desire certain traits in the opposite sex. There’s no getting around this. There are certain traits men AND women like to see in each other and that’s the way it is. We can override it to an extent with our intellect, but A LOT of it happens below the level of thought. And we ALL have some kind of “wanting to be desirable” inside. Some more than others, but it’s there. As long as that exists in us as humans – and I think it always will on some level or another – we’re going to respond to certain traits in the opposite sex AND want to create certain perceived positive traits in ourselves. It’s natural and I believe it’s evolutionary. It’s biology 101.

On the other hand, I think once something gets to the point of un-health, the ego is in control and there are problems. This goes the same for the girl dieting till her ribs show as well as my shredded ass in the pic above. Again, we have the issue of technology here. I think modern technology and media can give us WAY TOO MUCH leverage to take our bodies to extremes that they weren’t designed for. And these extremes can be amplified and propagated by the media and set a standard. And then there’s a WHOLE SYSTEM that steps in and fills the void created inside us by the images – and profits greatly as it “fills the void.” And, of course, the void never really gets filled…

There was this really inspiring talk that Becca Borawski posted recently on Facebook:

If you’re struggling with any of the stuff I’ve talked about here – male or female – then the video Becca posted is definitely worth a watch. Even if you just liked reading this post, the video is something I think will really speak to you. What Dr. Brene Brown is talking about here is similar to want I talked about above with Chodron and Tolle – that fundamental “not OK-ness” that goes on and can get nuts when the ego starts to run things out of control.

Changing Role Models

The 21st Century has seen a trend toward focusing on performance. The popularity of UFC events has played a big part in this. CrossFit has too. Whether they realize it or not, people are being exposed to the image of high-performing bodies. If bodybuilder bodies performed there would be more bodybuilder bodies in The Octagon. There really aren’t. There are some VERY muscular guys in the UFC, but you can’t argue with the performance of a guy like GSP who has a relatively achievable body (if not level of performance).

And, on the female side, images like this are replacing the super-skinny images to some extent.

It’s a start…

Yeah, there’s a lot left to do and we have a long way to go. And there are still WAY more negative body images out there for both sexes than positive ones. But it’s a start. Bodies that perform are slowly showing up and replacing the “comic book” extremes for both sexes. It’s a start.

In the meantime, support Strong is the New Skinny on Facebook…

ttys

Adam

MY Perspective on What “Strong is the New Skinny” Means

October 17, 2010 by Adam 28 Comments

Needless to say, Marsha Tieken Christensen and I are overwhelmed and thrilled at the success of “Strong is the New Skinny.” SO many people have gotten behind the movement and support it. The Facebook group has over 5,600 members at the time of this writing and the original “Strong is the New Skinny” blog post has been shared over 2,400 times. And the community is ACTIVE! Lot’s of sharing and encouragement going on every single day!

But THIS has surprised us…

Something has been coming up more and more – and there is a hefty component of pissing and moaning to it. I guess that’s the internet for you and the nature of the Free Speech we are so blessed to have. When I wrote the original post I was really talking about CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES more than anything else and celebrating the fact that we’re moving toward a world where it’s acceptable – and cool – for women to be strong.

There were some mixed reactions to my friend Jen’s post about “Strong is the New Skinny” on her blog. This got me thinking and I wanted to get some of my thoughts on the topic out there.

The SHORT story is:

If a woman is naturally skinny that doesn’t mean she’s anorexic or can’t wear one of Marsha’s shirts any more than any male with a bench press over 300lbs is a steroid-taking meathead.

Here’s Marsha being strong AND Skinny:

And here’s our friend Jen Bolduc being strong AND skinny

I have a personal connection to this movement on at least two levels

I guess, I’m going to need to write a male version of “Strong is the New Skinny.” Something like “Strong is the New Big” or some such. (I’ll probably have to write it right after this so it doesn’t get ripped off LOL). When I was younger I suffered from tremendous pressure to be bigger, stronger and more athletic. I remember force-feeding myself HUGE quantities of food for years and resorting to other some less than healthy practices. My friends and I also piled STUPID amounts of weight on the bar and used less-than-great form to move it around. It’s much less than the “be skinny” pressure for women – but there is HUGE pressure on young men to be strong, muscular, athletic and able to fight.

I remember being at the point I was carrying enough muscle that (and doing ZERO cardio out of fear I’d lose an ounce) I got out of breath going up stairs – and I actually thought that was COOL. I also remember my girlfriend telling me that I “couldn’t be on top anymore” when I was at my heaviest – 225lbs at 5’9″. It’s all funny now, but it was just as dumb as the girls who starve themselves to be more “attractive.” One girlfriend I had would “diet” on tea, cigarettes, popsicles and pickles – and NOTHING else for days at a time. She also told me how, when she was in High School, she and her friends used to have “contests” to see who could lose the most weight. At this point in my life, I would have either gotten her on a good Paleo diet or run for the door – but back then all I knew is I had a “hot” girlfriend with great abs… DUMB!

The other issue I have here is on the other side. I’ve also dated women who were neither strong nor skinny. My passion has always been for training and my attitude for training women has always been “Let’s get you strong and training and eating right and see where your body ‘ends up’.” My attitude about women and their bodies boils down to this: Get strong, get healthy, eat for health and be THE BEST DAMN YOU YOU CAN BE! That is sexy and THAT is “Strong is the New Skinny!”

On some level, I had my good friend Katie (Lively) in mind when I wrote the original “Strong is the New Skinny” post. She was just finishing High School and seriously wanted to get into modeling and acting. She’d apparently been told she needed to lose about 10 pounds and get more portfolio pics done. The fact that I was training her with CrossFit and Kettlebells obviously wasn’t making her any smaller. And, of course this was the same girl who RAN OVER the girls on the other High School Lacrosse teams after less than a year of working with me.

Here’s Lively being strong and not-skinny-enough to be a “model.” And, YES, that’s a 40kg Kettlebell…

And, here she is responding to my “encouragement” to get back to her round of Wall Balls

There’s another great story about a relationship I had here too. A girlfriend had asked me to give her a diet and a workout program – and BEGGED me to push her and help her stay on track – and then proceeded to skip workouts and – as it was admitted to me later – get up in the middle of the night to eat a pint of Ben and Jerry’s or an entire package of Oreos. While I WRACKED MY BRAIN to try and figure out why her diet wasn’t working! After the Oreo admission I was pretty sure I had the answer Now, what’s better is that her “official” story to her friends and family was: “Adam is a diet Nazi who won’t accept me for who I am and wants me to be a 90lb bimbo.”

What “Strong is the New Skinny” IS NOT

Continuing on with my Oreo story from above, can we all PLEASE agree that “Strong is the New Skinny” is IS NOT an excuse to NOT work hard, NOT eat right and NOT do your best to look THE WAY YOU WANT TO LOOK?

And, can we PLEASE agree that “Strong is the New Skinny” IS NOT another weapon to use against anyone who isn’t what WE think they should be?

I mean, really! It’s “Strong is the NEW Skinny” not “Strong is the New Skinny is a New Way to Hate on People with Something We Don’t Have and Want OR Something We Don’t Have and DON’T Want!”

And, can we PLEASE agree that getting strong, might, in some cases also make you more on the “skinny” side than you were when you started? “Strong AND Skinny is the New Skinny” just doesn’t have the same ring to it though

Can’t we all just get along? LOL

This affects men too…

Off topic or not, here are my thoughts on the male side of the body image thing:

Personally, I think the same movement and societal changes that led to “Strong is the New Skinny” have led to the demise of interest in the HUGE bodybuilder bodies that are drug produced. For a lot of young men there’s big pressure to be unrealistically huge and muscular and this leads a good number to steroid use. This DOES NOT mean I’m going to go around saying anyone with a body builder body is wrong or on drugs.

For men, I think there’s more acceptance of “less” muscular bodies that are strong and perform – look at UFC guys like GSP. I think this type of body has made it more “OK” for men to be muscular and athletic as opposed to huge, just like CrossFit has made it more “OK” for women to be muscular, strong and train hard.

George St. Pierre

The POINT is, there is plenty of room for interpretation on healthy, sexy and functional bodies – male and female – and WE as individuals have more control over that interpretation than ever before. Personally, it makes me VERY HAPPY that body images like those in this post are in the media and are showing up more and more.

What the hell is this guy rambling about?!?

OK, I’ve circled the airport long enough. I’m going to land the plane now…

TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” is about women deciding FOR THEMSELVES what they want to look like and who they want to be.

TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” is about women being STRONG and TRAINING HARD and TRAINING “LIKE A GUY.”

TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” is about increasing EVERYONE’S awareness that WE – us as individuals – have a serious level of control over stereotypes and norms and what is accepted and what future generations see. We – each and every one of us – has the ability, tools and OBLIGATION to lead and inspire future generations and create a better world. I recently had a woman – a blogger no less – tell me this could never happen because “men” still control the media and it’s impossible to change the current stereotypes. Well… “Men” may still control the print media to some degree, but there’s this thing called the “internet” that has made it possible to spread all kinds of “crazy” ideas on these things called blogs and there’s this new thing called Facebook that has spread an idea or two here and there. I mean, even a fringe wacko like me can get his crazy ideas out. (A diet with no grains? This guy is insane! He’s not even a Registered Dietitian…) And, in case you’ve had your head stuck in the sand – or someplace else – the “male controlled” print media ain’t doing so hot right now. Just ask Seth Godin…

And finally, TO ME, “Strong is the New Skinny” means women can kick ass with barbells and Kettlebells and tires and sandbags and whatever CrossFit nastiness they can find. And it also means a woman can sit down with a pile of bacon and some red meat and know it’s healthy and feel OK about herself while she does it. Because NOBODY wants to be THIS guy…

ttys

Adam

Is Strong the New Skinny?

August 31, 2010 by Adam 61 Comments

UPDATE: THANK YOU, EVERYONE! Thank you to everyone who has RT’ed or Facebooked or whatever’ed this post. I am absolutely HUMBLED by the response! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Please connect with me if you’d like, wherever you’d like! Adam

P.S. – Marsha says “thanks” too!

I have to thank my friend Marsha (and her boobs) for posting a pic of her new shirt on Facebook and inspiring this post. It got me thinking. Have body images changed that much for women recently? And does it have anything to do with the CrossFit movement and the changes that are going on in fitness? I was pretty inspired recently by this Ice Chamber video my friend Bob Garon posted:

Women kicking ass with kettlebells. Now that’s cool. And those are heavy ‘bells too! Purple is 20kg, Green is 24kg and Yellow is 16kg. No joke…

My challenge to women and the media

I say, MAKE strong the new skinny. Never mind what the status quo is. FUCK THE STATUS QUO! I say, to use Seth Godin’s term, be The Purple Cow. Now, I know women and the term “cow” shouldn’t really be used together, so before I get pummeled I’ll explain. A “Purple Cow” is something remarkable. In a world with more and more advertising “noise” and where there’s someone already filling virtually every need and every niche, a Purple Cow is something that stands out. A brown cow is boring, but a Purple Cow is REMARKABLE.

If you’re a muscular woman, go after mainstream exposure. Let’s take muscular women out of the bodybuilding subculture and put them in the mainstream.

And if you’re a “regular girl” who wants to model, never mind if you’re not “thin” enough. Build the body YOU WANT and shop your portfolio around until someone wants to take a chance on someone who doesn’t look like everyone else. Better yet, read “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuck and fuck the “shop your portfolio around” part. Build your own following online and let the agencies COME TO YOU.

Think it can’t happen? Watch Gary rant and rave in this video and THEN tell me you have no chance of getting the exposure you want or changing what’s considered attractive or acceptable in the mainstream…

What Gary is saying – in between swearing and getting excited – is that we don’t need to deal with gatekeepers anymore. Social media changed all that. Gary’s message: Do what you love, build a following online – through tons of hard work – and let your online presence take you where you want to go. You have the power because of social media now. All it takes is desire and hard work.

I wanna see a girl with some muscles in the Victoria’s Secret catalog in the next few years. What do YOU think? If you agree, pass this blog post around and get busy!

ttys

Adam

Fitness, Health, Money and LIES

July 25, 2010 by Adam 13 Comments

I want to thank my friend Darren Rueb for the two articles he recently posted that got my creative juices flowing this beautiful Sunday morning. I also want to thank Darren for saying a lot of what I said in my anti-establishment rant about fitness, health and the crap we get fed in society a bit more rationally and calmly

I figured I’d keep going on those topics and see if I can say what I meant a little more clearly and with less piss and vinegar. Or, at least less vinegar…

Darren’s first article – Fitness Today: How You Measure Up – is essentially a comment on the fitness standards we see all around us and how some of us can have a bit of an inferiority complex depending which side of the spectrum we look toward. If you assume MOST of us sit in the main part of the bell curve we can feel great or awful about ourselves depending which direction we look toward. I’ll argue that those reading this blog and Darren’s stuff will sit a bit further to the right than most, but the vast majority of us will be in that main distribution. If I recall my stats class stuff at all, the hot computer guy and Arnold are going to represent 0.1% of the population EACH and everyone else will be between them with about 70% in the thickest part of the curve – 35% to the right of the line and 35% to the left.

Thanks to JC for the Fat Guy pic!

I won’t go as far as Stuart McRobert and claim that anyone with a bench press of more than 135lbs is a genetic superman who’s also using steroids, but I absolutely will not downplay the genetics thing for a minute.

Regardless of genetics, however, I believe that LIFESTYLE is the single most important – and most overlooked and downplayed – factor in health, fitness, strength and performance. I think a great disservice that occurs in the fitness mainstream – and the media in general – is the downplaying of the importance of lifestyle in building an outstanding, “0.1%” body.

I can vividly recall Flex magazine running pics of Ronnie Coleman in his police uniform – working a claimed 80 hours a week of SHIFT work in the patrol car – while preparing for the Mr. Olympia. Bullshit. Or the old Muscle Media 2000 running pictures of “Dan Gwartny, MD” who supposedly did 100+ hours a week in the ER – while maintaining 4% bodyfat and working out 6 days a week “to relieve stress and stay energized.” Bullshit. Both of those scenarios are obviously impossible – unfortunately, at the time I was reading that stuff I didn’t know better. Some NEVER know better.

While I’m on this topic, I also recall the urban legend that circulated through the science and engineering circles I hung out in during college. Supposedly, there was some guy who worked a full-time job, had a family AND was going to engineering school full time. Of course, he was also pulling straight A’s. Now, no one ever actually SAW this guy. And no one actually KNEW him. They only knew someone who knew him or knew someone who knew someone who knew him… The fact is that MY senior chemistry classes ran pretty much 9-5 Monday through Friday (OK, Wednesday was a light day) and many nights I NEVER SLEPT because I had so much studying to do. Of course, some part of me felt like a loser because I should have also had a full time job and been 250lbs at 3% bodyfat while pulling straight A’s. “All” I managed was a 3.5 GPA with no job, living at home and little weight training and no sleep. What a loser…

I think the frustration of “the guy in the street” is that he thinks he should be able to have that 0.1% body AND do everything else in his life with no problem. This is the image we’re sold in the media. So many people feel inadequate because they think they’re falling short or not working hard enough. Then, they WORK HARDER at EVERYTHING and get even worse results because they get even more fatigued, more scattered, more cortisol, less clear thinking and on and on. I LIVED THIS FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS.

Seth Godin – who runs THE NUMBER ONE MARKETING BLOG IN THE WORLD – has said over and over again to pick one thing and become the best at it. Here he is saying it in an interview on Technorati.

If you truly are passionate about something, GO DO IT! Don’t believe for a minute that you’re going to be able to do everything all at once. Even Arnold couldn’t do it. He focused on being the best bodybuilder in the world – and succeeded – then he blew up the box office, then he went into politics. He never could have done all 3 at the same time. It would have been impossible. Many have probably tried but we’ll never know, because they never made it…

I think the media likes to promote the “you can have it all” idea for two reasons:

No one likes to think they might have to give up something to get something else
Many, many industries thrive on people being frustrated, misinformed and ready for a quick fix or magic pill

If I wanted to be generous, I might even say that many of the hardworking people who make up the mainstream media actually believe that they CAN have it all. They’re functioning under the same delusion. So the delusion just keeps spreading.

Darren’s other article asks the important question: Fitness vs. Money: What’s More Important?

I think this article and some of Darren’s points follow right along with my point on media conditioning. My current view is that you can – and should – have both health and fitness AND money. I think our current society takes an attitude that you can be healthy OR rich. And if you want to be rich you have to work yourself to death in hopes that “someday” you’ll have enough money to do what you REALLY want to do. If you think this way, read “The Four-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss and see why the thinking is flawed. I bought into this flawed thinking for a long time and I’ve already ranted about it a lot

And, yes, some people are born into money and are able to follow their passion with no worries about paying the bills. But I think that they are few and far between (go back to the Bell Curve above) and that situation comes with it’s own problems.

I’ve read somewhere around 80 self-help/success books to this point and the general consensus is:

Clearly define your values
Live by them
Find what you LOVE to do and figure out how to make money doing it

Tim Ferriss will add to that: Figure out how to make what you LOVE run on autopilot to the greatest extent possible while it’s making you money

ttys

Adam

Is Bodybuilding Relevant Anymore?

July 6, 2010 by Adam 15 Comments

What’s this dude’s Fran time?

I’m not sure what got me thinking about this topic. It might have been seeing old Bill “feels like Deca” Phillips on an early morning infomercial promoting his new book. Or, it might just be that I think too much…

This was originally going to be a somewhat humorous post. I was going to be as objective as possible, but I was planning to poke some fun at the globo-gym style of bodybuilding and training. I felt like I was on the right track when I saw the cover of this month’s Flex Magazine and when I found this Phil Health video where he talks about how he wears a lifting belt during all his training and then proceeds to do overhead presses with about 50% range of motion. (BTW, I’m in no way trying to take anything away from Big Phil. I know what kind of dedication is involved with getting to the level he’s at.)

I continue to be blown away when I realize that people still read stuff like Flex Magazine and swallow all the crap they print. In fact, I’m still shocked when I pass a globo-gym (like the Powerhouse Gym we jog or do log carries past when training at CrossFit USA) and see that there are actually people there. I forget sometimes that the whole world hasn’t seen the CrossFit, Kettlebell and Functional Strength light and abandoned the “weights and cardio” nonsense and the isolation exercises and machines. As Stuart McRobert would say, there’s a new crop of young men (and women) who get sucked into the bodybuilding and fitness world year after year, usually after seeing a magazine cover. (Now it’s more like a blog or YouTube vid.) And this new crop serves an important purpose – to replace the old crop who are dropping out due to no results or becoming disillusioned when they learn the truth about the drugs and the lifestyles.

And, apparently, someone is still interested in this stuff. Last month “bodybuilding” was googled 1,220,000 times. There’s hope too, though – CrossFit was googled 1,500,000 times…

I shouldn’t be completely cutting (pun intended) on bodybuilding. Some of my best memories EVER are from about 12 years ago when I was bodybuilding almost full time. Training at Mike Katz’s World Gym in Branford, CT was great times. This was back when Bill Philips was a bodybuilder and not a self-help wannabe guru, ephedrine was cheap and legal and Hammer Strength machines were getting really popular. Hotskins spandex shorts were also popular – and, yes, I had several pairs…

But, this was all we had. It was all there was. There was no CrossFit. There were no kettlebells that we knew of (Pavel was still in Mother Russia, I believe). There was no MMA or UFC either. At least not as we know it today. If you wanted to be hardcore, you were a bodybuilder. It was extreme, it was counter-culture and it was cool. At least to me.

It’s interesting that, for most of it’s history, bodybuilding was the anti-establishment counter-culture thing. I remember training at a gym that catered to soccer moms in Guilford, CT for a while back in the day. You should have seen the weird looks and comments we got as we piled plates on a bar for deadlifts or squats. Now, CrossFit is the counter culture and even the bodybuilders are somewhat of an “establishment” to be mocked and made out to be less-than.

I think we’ve gone wrong here though…

Bodybuilding – depending on how we define it – might not be all that useless

I started doing some research so I could do an in-depth post here and I was surprised to find some really interesting stuff. Among other places online, I found my way over to a newer forum called Anabolic Society. Like another bodybuilding forum I spent a lot of time on back in the day, this one is full of intelligent, cool guys who love to train. Yes, there is a lot of drug talk and information, but there’s a lot of other stuff too. In the Powerlifting/Strength section there was a ton of good stuff about The Westside Method. And this got me thinking…

There’s a lot of value in the “strength” community. I think, as CrossFitters we have a tendency to dismiss something glossy and ridiculous like mainstream bodybuilding and the mags that cater to it. In fact, we’ll dismiss just about anything mainstream that’s related to health and fitness. But we’re also intelligent enough to know when something has value and adapt it to our own evil purposes – The Paleo Diet, The Zone, Olympic lifting, Strongman, etc. And CrossFit has brought together some of the best and the brightest from so many different disciplines. I think it will continue to do so and this is what attracted me so much to the community – the pragmatism.

The best CrossFit cert I’ve been to yet was the Powerlifting cert taught by none other than Louie Simmons himself. Those guys aren’t CrossFitters. In fact, a lot of their methods are quite bodybuilder-like. They train a body part split, they do isolation exercises to some extent. These guys are powerlifters and powerlifters train in a more traditional “gym rat” sort of a style. And you can’t argue with the results Louie’s guys get. They also do some “CrossFit-esque” constantly varied (or at least regularly varied) movement and there’s some functional training in there too.

Bodybuilding, Powerlifting, Strongman – Let’s call it the “Strength Community”

Let’s forget Flex and Muscle and Fitness for a few minutes (forever?). Let’s talk about some of the GOOD stuff that has come out of the Strength Community over the years…

There actually has been some real training going on in the bodybuilding world. It may not be functional training and there “might” be some evidence of drug use, but you can’t watch Dorian Yates training in his prime and say he isn’t strong or he isn’t working hard. Dorain was a lot of what inspired me to train when I was in my 20s.

And there are all the guys from Arnold’s era and before. These were some STRONG guys. And some still crossed over and competed in World’s Strongest Man competitions. I think Arnold’s day was about the end of the “realistic” bodybuilder bodies though.

This was the cutting-edge of hardcore training at the time. These guys trained hard and were strong. They probably wouldn’t have had a very good Fran or Helen, but that’s another story. Still, they were strength athletes and they were the best at what they did. And I STILL feel inspired when I see a picture of Arnold in his prime…

There is ONE thing Bodybuilders can do better than anyone else

Put your preconceived ideas aside for a minute and just think about this. Does anyone, anywhere have the in-depth, practical knowledge of body and hormone manipulation that the bodybuilding community does? If I was looking to figure out how to use chemistry to enhance my performance I’d go to the bodybuilding underground. Not Flex magazine but the underground and the internet. There are some smart, smart guys out there who will never appear in a newsstand magazine or have a column in one. As a matter of fact, I’m already looking into some stuff in this community that could have some really positive implications with adrenal fatigue. Don’t worry, it’s legal…

My point is, if you want to talk about nutrient repartitioning, blood sugar levels, nutrient timing, practical protein chemistry, insulin sensitivity, carbohydrate tolerance, etc., the bodybuilding community is the place to go.

If you want to talk about performance enhancement though chemistry, these are some of the smartest and most experienced people out there…

Powerlifting and Strongman are making inroads into CrossFit

As more and more CrossFitters – people have come from highly diverse athletic backgrounds – continue to be exposed to things like Powerlifting and Strongman within the CrossFit community, I think boundaries will continue to break down and more and more of the good, useful stuff from these disciplines will start to infiltrate the community. I also think some of the pharmaceutical and supplement stuff will come with it. And that’s not necessarily a completely bad thing.

I’m not mad at you anymore, Bill…

Actually, I should be happy that my anger with Phillips has finally faded. That only took 12 years. How could anyone be mad at someone who has helped so many couch potatoes transform their miserable lives? Well, once upon a time, Bill ran the best hardcore bodybuilding magazine out there. Muscle Media 2000 (MM2K) was awesome. It was a hardcore, hands-on magazine that had tons training, supplement and even steroid information. It was the real deal and totally cutting-edge. They even jumped on The Zone bandwagon early (this was the mid-90s) and regularly interviewed Barry Sears and published diets and info that went against the low-fat hysteria that was rampant at the time. That magazine was years ahead of it’s time.

It was timely that Seth Godin said this on his blog recently. It made me think of the old MM2K:

“If just one player enters the field and works to make people smarter, the competition has a hard time responding with a dumbness offensive. They can obfuscate and run confusing ads, but sooner or later, the inevitability of information spreading works in favor of those that bet on it.”

This is what Muscle Media 2000 did. They educated their audience, brought supplements that actually WORKED to the market and made the whole drug issue common knowledge. Bill’s company, EAS, was the company that ORIGINALLY brought creatine to the market. They also introduced stuff like HMB and CLA to the market. This was revolutionary stuff at the time. Even though there was no internet then, they had the “social media” thing going on pretty well too. I wrote to Bill a few times and got a personal reply every time. He even sent me some free stuff once.

Then, almost overnight, the magazine completely lost its edge. Bill dropped the very people who got him to where he was and started doing a really watered-down mainstream magazine. It collapsed shortly thereafter. T.C. Luoma, the editor-in-chief of the old MM2K actually describes some of the craziness that went on over there behind the scenes in this audio. Incidentally, T.C. is the guy who originally started T-Nation when he lost his job at MM2K.

Realistic physical role models

One of the things Bill became more and more vocal about when he was on track was the craziness inherent in the hardcore bodybuilding lifestyle. And they published some pretty funny articles that detailed the exploits of the steroid-loaded male AND female bodybuilders and those who liked to be around them. He also spoke out frequently against the hypocrisy of the Weider empire, the side-effects and health implications of steroids (they ran both sides of the issue) and excesses of the bodybuilding sub-culture. For a while, Bill was promoting a “new” bodybuilding that was more about supplements, intelligent training and cutting edge nutrition than drugs and excessive practices. They weren’t completely against using drugs – they promoted an intelligent, conservative and educated approach to using them if someone chose to.

Something that apparently has stayed with me all this time is a push for the realistic physique role models that MM2K started. I think Bill saw the writing on the wall and started moving the magazine toward a more realistic and mainstream “bodybuilder.” In the end, he seriously over-shot the mark. But he was on the right track for a while.

One of the guys that got a lot of exposure was Danny Hester:

Danny was in DAMN GOOD shape! And he had an appealing look that was muscular but not freakish. Two other guys who got a lot of press in the old MM2K were Bill’s brother, Shawn Phillips and Joe Lazaro.

Bill's brother, Shawn Phillips, in the mid-90s

As a matter of fact, Shawn Phillips was one of the first adopters of HIIT training. At least the first that I had heard of. I remember he had this program with stair sprints done in intervals. Sounds a lot like CrossFit, huh?

Here are some of the current CrossFit bodies. Achievable, realistic, healthy AND they perform…

Another trend regarding role models that Stuart McRobert promoted in his magazine HARDGAINER was the use of pre-60s era bodybuilders. This was before steroids came into widespread use and these were much healthier and more achievable bodies.

A BIG thank you to www.oldtimestrongman.com for the pics!

I wonder if CrossFit, the Paleo movement and kettlebells will combine with stuff like Strongman and Westside to create a sort of hybrid “bodybuilder” who looks great, performs great, values health and maybe even dabbles with some of the less accepted stuff that goes on in the strength community.

My predictions

Here are my predictions for the coming years in the CrossFit community and Physical Culture in general:

We’ll continue to see people leave mainstream and globo-gym fitness. More so, I think we’ll see people from other disciplines like bodybuilding, powerlifting and strongman adopt CrossFit methods to make their sports and training better. CrossFit methods work.
In the CrossFit community I think we’ll continue to see the drive toward specialization and sub-niches, particularly in the strength disciplines. I think there are going to be some CrossFit strength (Oh! I better brand that!) sub-niches springing up as things like powerlifting and strongman continue to infiltrate CrossFit.
I think the kettlebell community will remain relatively fractionated and unchanged. And most CrossFitters will continue to swing kettlebells ALL WRONG. I, for one, plan to get more Kettlebell Sport into my training this year and see where it takes me.
Within the next year or two, I think there will be more experimentation with supplements, gray-market pharmaceuticals and more in some CrossFit niches. Most notably, these will be the ones with a strength bias and a lineage that traces back to established strength sports.
Paleolithic diet and lifestyle are going to really take off and get big. Owing in part to CrossFit and part to the poor health that’s getting more and more prevalent around us, Paleo is going to get really big and popular. It will be interesting to see how anyone REALLY capitalizes on Paleo since you can’t really sell a supplement to people who eat a primitive diet.
I also think Robb Wolf’s new book – The Paleo Solution – will be one of the main factors in bringing the lifestyle mainstream. His style and attitude are so accessible and “un-guru-like” that I think he’ll break down a lot of barriers without even trying.

ttys

Adam

Back to the Future – Insulin, Glucagon and The Zone

September 8, 2009 by Adam Leave a Comment

“I never thought I was going to end up here.” I’ve been saying that A LOT lately. Today I said it about my diet.

About 10 years ago I was at the peak of my bodybuilding lifestyle. I was weighing EVERYTHING that went into my mouth, training hard, working in a Vitamin World store and spending my entire paycheck on supplements.

In a way, this time (the mid to late 90s) was somewhat of a “Golden Age” for bodybuilding. At least for me. Muscle Media 2000 and EAS were at their peak and they brought decent supplements to the market like creatine, Met-Rx and Phosphagen HP. The ECA stack was THE fat burner to use and you could get Ephedrine in 250 tab bottles for around $25. Herbal ECA was EVERYWHERE – you could get it at CVS for God’s sake. Old Bill “Feels Like Deca” Phillips was still one of the good guys and TC’s writing was as good as ever. Mike Mentzer was still alive and Dorian Yates was Mr. O. When Muscle Media 2000 ran the first Physique Challenge contest I jumped on it and trained my ass off.

These were some of the best days of my life. I felt awesome, my health was outstanding, my mood was always up, I was gaining muscle easily and things were just great. I’ve spent a lot of time analyzing this part of my life because everything seemed to work so well. If it’s repeatable then I want to repeat it. And I’ve already made up my mind that it IS repeatable.

I had the epiphany this morning that I’ve come full circle with my diet. Back in the day it was all about controlling insulin. Timing meals, combining protein, carbs and fat, knowing the Glycemic Index of foods. I read Dan Duchaine’s “Bodyopus” so many times it fell apart and I tried everything he recommended. EVERYTHING. I took all the blood sugar control supplements: vanadyl sulfate, chromium picolinate, alpha lipoic acid. I considered getting some Glucophage from overseas.

The past two weekends I’ve been immersed in CrossFit. I did the CrossFit Running and Endurance Cert in Milford, CT at CrossFit Milford and then I went to Vassalboro, Maine to do my Level 1. I’ve written a lot about how CrossFit is going to change everything in fitness in my articles One More Reason CrossFit and Kettlebells will Rule the World, Kettlebells will Change Everything… and CrossFit will Change Everything… It already is. One theme that kept coming up at both certs was the Zone diet.

The Zone was written about 10 years ago – right about the time I was at my bodybuilding peak. It was pretty influential at the time – if not a bit underground. In fact, I still have a few Muscle Medias with Barry Sears interviews in them. I can vividly remember chowing on Zone and Balance Bars and adding flax oil to everything. I even came up with this concoction that I lived on for about 5 years made out of plain applesauce with whey protein mixed in and Grape Nuts and olive oil over the top – perfect 1/3 ratios of protein, carbs and fat.

So, here I am. It’s over 10 years later and I’ve tried every diet out there. I’ve done Paleolithic, vegetarian, vegan, raw vegan, Weston A. Price style, The Maker’s Diet, cyclic ketogenic, The Warrior Diet and a bunch of variations on all of them. I’ve eaten raw meat, drank RAW cow and goat milk, made my own yogurt and kefir, eaten raw eggs, fasted regularly and made almost daily trips 30 minutes away to get fresh organic produce and meats. I’ve been coached by some of the top people in the world on Paleolithic and raw vegan eating and I’ve read over 60 diet and nutrition books in the past 5 years.

And, what do we come back to? Full circle – controlling insulin with a Zone style diet. Full damn circle.

As far as most high level CrossFit coaches are concerned, Zone-Paleo is the way to go. I could argue some of the finer points of “Paleo” with them but, the fact is, this recommendation hit me like a lightning bolt.

Current nutritional fashion is heading toward a Paleo style diet. When you get deep into that approach you find that most of the major thinkers recommend an “as much as you want” approach to your portions. They also aren’t terribly concerned with nutrient ratios or eating 5-7 small meals per day. The reasoning is sound – 100,000 years ago we would have feasted on an animal we just killed or gathered what we could of fruits and vegetables when they were available. We would have eaten until we were full. Our ancestors probably didn’t weigh their food or worry about the combined glycemic load of their meal.

This approach also makes sense because, if we’re going for a full “back to nature” approach to eating, we SHOULD be allowing our physiology to control when and how much we eat. It makes sense intellectually.

The problem is, it doesn’t work too well. I’m just a few days into eating a full, strict Paleolithic diet IN ZONE PROPORTIONS and I feel AWESOME! And, interestingly enough, a few nights ago I went overboard and ate WAY too much (in Zone proportions) and woke up feeling like crap the next day. I’m assuming this is back to the point of Sears’ statement that too much food in any proportion will cause a large secretion of insulin. Point made, Barry…

So, the point of all this – other than allowing me to take a stroll down memory lane – is that I’m starting to see things come together in the eating realm.

I think there is validity to some of the pure theories out there and we can all marvel at their beauty and elegance. I think the problems start when we cling to a theory and don’t address the issues we see in applying it in the real world.

It reminds me of my more theoretical chemistry and engineering work in college. You’d almost always find that there was some kind of a “constant” added into an equation to make it work. The Ideal Gas Law is a great example. The constant basically adjusts the equation for what goes on in the laboratory because no gas is truly ideal.

No human is ideal either, apparently…

The bottom line:

If you’re eating Zone, try doing it strict Paleo. If you’re eating Paleo, try doing it in strict Zone proportions.

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/blog/zone-paleo-diet-crossfit]

One more reason CrossFit and Kettlebells will rule the world…

July 30, 2009 by Adam 1 Comment

I had a really interesting experience today.

I vaguely know someone who’s in the mainstream fitness and bodybuilding industry and I contacted this person about possibly talking to a friend of mine who is considering fitness modeling as a career choice. Now, my friend is still in High School and is looking into careers for herself. Anyway, mainstream fitness writes me back and says happy to talk to my friend but wants $50. “Can’t work for free.”

Are you fucking kidding me! You want money to talk to a girl in High School who has a few questions! WTF!

One more reason mainstream fitness is dying out and CrossFit and Kettlebells are taking over.

In the meantime, I emailed Becca Borowski, Program Director at CrossFit LA to ask her a question about a certification she had. She emailed me right back with a really nice response. She didn’t even ask me for money! LOL

Or, take my friend Merle McKenzie from CrossFit USA in Berlin, CT. Merle has helped me out so much in the 6 months or so I’ve known him. He’s given me training and business advice, introduced me to people, fed me. Now we have a good relationship where we help each other out.

I also have a good relationship with Ken Blackburn from IKFF. Another great guy who likes helping people out.

Dr. Mark Cheng, RKC Team Leader is the same. Great guy and always happy to help out.

This “New” fitness community that’s forming around Kettlebells and CrossFit truly is “Open Source” like Coach Glassman says. People with a shared passion coming together and learning and sharing and growing – and becoming more and more successful because of it!

This truly is a New Economy Web 2.0 movement. And the Old School, Bricks and Mortar world can’t die out soon enough for me!

Now that I’m thinking about it, about a month ago I had a really shitty experience with the editor of a mainstream online bodybuilding and fitness magazine. This guy was the biggest douche I’ve talked to in a very long time. I had networked to him through a very high profile guy I know who his magazine had interviewed – so I was coming in with a solid reference – and I offered to write some content for the magazine on Kettlebells or CrossFit. The dude basically pissed all over me for a few emails and closed by saying “we’ve done about all we’re going to do on CrossFit and Kettlebells.” Yeah, wouldn’t want to lose space that could go toward another article about biceps curls or some useless supplement you have a 10,000% markup on…

I actually recall feeling violated when the interaction with this guy was over! LOL It really was THAT bad!

These guys are fossils and they don’t even know it yet… It reminds me of the guys who thought the “automobile” was a fad and kept making horse drawn carriages at the turn of the Twentieth Century. “Yeah, that Henry Ford guy is nuts…”

Old school fitness is dying – SEE YA!

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/blog/crossfit-kettlebells-rule-world]

Becoming Outstanding, Part 1

July 7, 2009 by Adam Leave a Comment

There’s a question I ask myself over and over again: “How do you become outstanding?” I ask myself that question about a lot of different topics. For the most part though, I ask myself that question with respect to physical training – martial arts, CrossFit and Kettlebells.

I firmly believe that the right behaviors repeated over time will produce consistent, predictable results. So, for me, the key to “How do you become outstanding?” is to repeat the right behaviors over and over again.

But, what are the “right behaviors?”

This is where the question really is. Obviously, if you do the “right” things over and over you’ll get your result. It’s knowing what those right things are – or figuring out what they are before you run out of time. (“Before you run out of time” can mean many things and will mean different things to different people. It can mean getting too old, running out of money, losing interest in a goal, missing an important peak in the history of the pursuit, etc.)

The time thing is something I continually grapple with. An interesting side note here is that, in looking back at skills and goals I’ve pursed in the past, I can say one thing without reservation. If I had stayed with some of the things I started out at early in life – no matter how poorly I felt I did them at the time – I would have been absolutely outstanding at them now.

This tells me that one thing you need to do to become outstanding at something is to keep doing it and keep learning no matter how bad you think you are or how long you feel it’s taking.

I think – particularly in myself – there’s a “distorted perception” that happens when you want to become really good at something. You sort of lose site of the progress you’re making because you’re so focused on the weaknesses you’re trying to overcome. Progress seems so painfully slow. But, again, even if you make painfully slow progress that progress will add up to great skill eventually.

This brings me to a great concept and a great book I read recently: “The Slight Edge” by Jeff Olson. Jeff’s Slight Edge concept is the “little bits of progress added up over and over” idea defined and built up in awesome detail.

Another illustration of this comes from Stuart McRobert’s classic, Brawn. McRobert espouses over and over in all his writing that little bits of progress repeated over and over again add up to BIG gains. The classic example is the idea of adding just one pound to the bar on your bench press once a week. Not too impressive. BUT, add up those one pound gains over an entire year of consistent training and you’ll have added 50 pounds to your bench press!

By the way, below is a pic of my small discs for loading a barbell with VERY SMALL weight increases. They go as low as 1/16th of a pound! Pictured below are: 1lb, 0.75lb, 0.5lb, 0.25lb, 1/8th lb and 1/16th lb. With these you can literally go on for EVER making tiny gains in strength every workout – if your patience can stand it. And mine never could…

Small Discs for Loading a Barbell

This is exactly what Jeff Olson talks about in “The Slight Edge.” Jeff explains how there are no “quantum leaps” in progress. Progress can LOOK like it came in a quantum leap but what you’re really seeing is the cumulative effect of all the little – sometimes imperceptible – bits of progress that have been made when they finally accumulate to get big enough to be seen.

I’m going to continue to explore this topic, but here’s one rule I believe is valid for becoming outstanding: Focus on making little bits of progress with consistency month after month and year after year.

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/becoming-outstanding-kettlebells-crossfit-martial-arts]

Kettlebells with Change EVERYTHING

July 2, 2009 by Adam 1 Comment

Kettlebells will change everything in fitness and strength training. So will CrossFit. Mixed Martial Arts will forever change the martial arts landscape AND the fitness world. What’s going on here?

Adam Farrah Kettlebell Clean The Bulldog

“Old” fitness is dead. So are traditional martial arts. We’re in Web 2.0 and World 2.0. Everything is changing and growing and evolving. What works is in and what benefits the user rules. In business, cold calling is out and so is interruption marketing. In fitness, it’s the same thing. Glossy magazines promising impossible results from warmed-over routines and useless supplements are struggling and blogs and forums are jumping with activity.

Just like everything else in the 2.0 World, martial arts and fitness are changing and evolving to meet the needs of the user and be more real. The playing field is leveling. Why? Because things are changing too fast for anyone to be “established” for very long. If you have 20 years of experience doing anything now you’re a dinosaur. The playing field levels all the time. Daily. This creates an accessibility for new people coming into things that never really existed before. Things are evolving faster than a traditional power structure can be built around them. This is great stuff! And it’s why a 20 year old with a Mac can run a business out of a Starbuck’s better than GM can run itself anymore.

As the power has shifted away from traditional structures and toward the user and enthusiast, everything has changed. Flex magazine, Muscle and Fitness and the handful of smaller mags are no longer in charge of what we see and hear. The media can’t just broadcast what it wants. People are talking and sharing and finding out what really works and what REAL fitness is.

About 10 years ago, I worked in a Vitamin World store. This was way back at the beginning of that company when they only had two stores in Connecticut. I worked in the Westbrook store. Just about every Friday night, it would be me and the Store Manager, Russ. It was never too busy, so we stocked shelves and got ready for the weekend. Inevitably, one or two of the regulars would come in – bodybuilders – and we’d end up having an impromptu round table discussion. I learned more about training and nutrition and supplements (and steroids) those nights than I ever learned anywhere else. Why? Because real people were getting together and talking about what worked and what didn’t.

Those awesome summer nights I learned so much about the trial and error of training and body and health manipulation. And it stays with me to this day! But it was nothing I could learn from a book or a magazine. Because it was based on REAL people sharing REAL experience. Now, we can do the same thing on the web. And we do. And so does EVERYONE else.

That’s why what works spreads like a virus and what doesn’t work dies off in a few mouse clicks. And THIS is why Kettlebells, CrossFit and MMA are thriving. But how will they change everything? By actually working. By raising the bar. By setting expectations that the old stuff can never compete with.

I was a diehard devotee to bodybuilding and training. I loved it and I still do. But the old “weights and cardio” approach wasn’t really delivering the goods for me anymore. And, frankly, it was boring me to tears. I was getting really stale. Monday is Leg Day. Wednesday is Chest. Friday is… YUCK!

On top of that, I was training in traditional martial arts. I had weights, cardio, martial arts techniques, kata, sparring and stretching. Pretty much impossible to keep up with.

Now I do something different every day. 20 Rep Deadlifts. Long timed sets of Kettlebell Snatches. Kettlebell Get Ups. Rounds of Jiu-Jitsu with my training partners. Tire flips. CrossFIt workouts. Running. Muay Thai. As Coach Glassman says, “specialize in not specializing.” And my body fat is dropping, my testosterone is rising and I FEEL great!

On top of that, I train nearly EVERY DAY! I was never able to do that before!

Now, “success” isn’t determined by how big your muscles are or how many hours you log in the gym every week or how well you perform a choreographed set of movements. Now, fitness is about something REAL. Real strength. Real endurance. Real skill. And the REAL ability to beat a live opponent senseless.

I extrapolate REAL fitness to mean health as well. The old bodybuilding adage of “at least I’ll die huge” stopped working for me in my mid 20s. Now I want to ensure I can train well into my 40s and 50s and beyond. Being in great shape once in my 20s and being a wrecked pile of injuries and illness in my 30s isn’t what I want for myself. I want true, untouchable, real and robust health.

As far as I’m concerned, there is no fitness without health first. People who are “fit” and pound caffeine or live on Zone bars and “meal replacement” shakes aren’t healthy. Or they won’t be healthy for long. You just cannot sustain true health on processed foods and chemicals.

But, we’re learning this too. More and more I run into brave and intelligent people who have figured out how to eat in a way that works for their bodies and their individual – and universal – biology. The information is out there and more and more people are finding it.

To me, Kettlebells, CrossFit and MMA are indicators of the larger trend in our ever flattening world. The user is King and what works rules…

ttys

Adam

Originally posted on my site: [http://deathbywallball.com/blog/kettlebells-crossfit-change-everything]

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