Beck hit 200.8 pounds in bodyweight ten days ago. He contracted a cold that I attributed to the radical change in weather in his Northern Virginia neighborhood. His preferred cardio mode of choice is outdoor power-walking up and down the steep hills in his suburban neighborhood. What often happens in the east in mid-November is one day it is fall-like and the next day it is winter-like: the problem for the outdoor walker/jogger is the frigid air.
Here is a Purposefully Primitive tip: wear a scarf wrapped around your mouth if you are doing outdoor cardio in cold air. Sucking frigid air into warm lungs in an accelerated fashion while exercising causes problems; all of which can be avoided by wrapping the scarf around the mouth.
Beck ended up catching a cold and needed to cut back on his cardio. He needed to up his calories to fight the cold. I took all of this as a sign that we needed to "solidify gains."
The human body has a bodyweight regulating mechanism in the master endocrine system; the hypothalamus gland tries to maintain a constant bodyweight and works like a 'body fat thermostat.' Hormones and enzymes are required to mobilize and oxidize stored body fat. Beck's endocrine system had changed its metabolic set-point: when we started this journey he was a biscuit shy of 230 pounds. After losing 35 pounds of body fat and adding 5 pounds of muscle we had created a new homeostasis.
Homeostasis is bodily status quo. Beck's downward bodyweight has sent his hypothalamus gland into a freefall. Now it was time to stop trying to shave off fat. Instead the game plan is to have him seek to maintain his 200-205 pound bodyweight between now and January 1st 2009. The idea is to allow the body to solidify the resetting of his bodyweight set-point. Experience has shown that this takes 4-6 weeks.
Once the new homeostasis is firmly established, once his self-regulating bodyweight control set-points solidifies for a protracted period at the 200-205 pound level, then we will be able to "hit it" once again and whittle him down to his ultimate goal: a 170 pound bodyweight.
This approach is timely in that rather than attempting to bang our collective head against the weight-loss wall over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, his new goal will be much more humane and sensible: just don't go food crazy; stay at the 200-205 pound range from now until the beginning of January.
Create an entrenched metabolic reality - then we'll get serious again come the New Year.
This approach ties into an old time concept used since the 1960s called 'softening up for gains.' This approach was first codified by muscle scribe John McCallum: the strategy recognizes that humans are not robots and progress is not like a bullet shot straight up into the air. Factually, the best we can hope for is ten steps forward, two steps back. By recognizing reality and syncing up Beck's retrenchment with the oncoming Holidays, we soften up for gains, create a new homeostasis status quo and position him perfectly for the winter campaign beginning in the New Year.
In the interim, Beck will place the Lion's share of emphasis on his weight training. Because he is not cutting calories, this is an ideal time to add muscle and become stronger. He will cut his winter cardio back (note I did not say he would cut his cardio out - cardio is critical to keep the metabolism from turning sluggish) to three times a week for 30 minutes per session. He'll walk outside; weather permitting, with the scarf. Otherwise he will resort to using the dreaded cardio machines. Deep winter is the only time we Purposeful Primitives use these hateful devices. Beck loves his current weight training split: it blasts one or two muscles per session and allows seven full days of rest before blasting those same muscles yet again. His food intake is purposefully loosened up a tad; normally verboten nutrients are allowed into his diet during this six week time period. Again there is a method to this madness; increasing the height of his caloric ceiling makes it easier to 'get underneath' when it is time to head the other direction. Loosening up the food selections provides us with foods to cut out when its time to crack back in the opposite direction.
The success of the entire strategy depends on Beck not going "hog wild" and ballooning back up to 215-225 pounds.
Yes we allow some looseness, yes we cut back on the cardio, but the softening-up-for-gains approach is not a license to go completely food berserk. He will check his bodyweight daily and when he exceeds the 205 weight limit it is incumbent on him to cut back the calories and get back down into the acceptable 201-204 pound range. I am expecting to see him make significant strength gains between now and January 1st - all of which is kind of amazing considering this is a soon-to-be 60 year old man coming off decades of inactivity....
Anyone wanting to become a 'phone-train' client of Marty Gallagher can contact him at MGSO@embarqmail.com.
Knowing what to do when gains inevitably grind to a halt is the key to fitness success
The Purposeful Primitive approach is rooted in decades of empirical experience gleaned from working with elite athletes. I have taken this direct knowledge (and direct knowledge trumps reflected knowledge every single time) and modified the methods of the elite to make them user friendly for regular folks on their own more modest fitness quests.
The goal of the Purposefully Primitive system is simple: we seek to favorably reconfigure the human body. What constitutes a favorably reconfigured body? If you add a significant amount of muscle and melt off a significant amount of body fat (within a specified time frame) you create a favorable reconfiguration. Systems exist that can and will build muscle and strength. Systems exist that can and will mobilize and melt off stored body fat. The seasoned elite athlete understands that every effective system, albeit training or nutrition, no matter how sophisticated or effective, at some point ceases producing results.
The Soft Machine is a remarkably adaptive mechanism; given time it will figure out how to neutralize any and every training and nutritional system. The human body is hardwired with a primordial mission statement: achieve homeostasis. The body seeks normality. Unfortunately normality is not conducive to building muscle or oxidizing body fat.
Only when subjected to "abnormal" circumstance will the body build new muscle and mobilize body fat to use as energy. Hypertrophy is the cellular equivalent of a nuclear explosion. Hypertrophy is not a gradual process. Hypertrophy is a sudden event; like flipping a light switch or squeezing a trigger. Body fat can only be mobilized and used for energy when the body senses it is operating at a caloric deficit. This is a razor-edged proposition in that if the body senses starvation (as opposed to a mild caloric deficit) it will cannibalize muscle tissue in an effort to preserve precious body fat - body fat is the last line of defense against death by starvation.
These are inconvenient biological facts. When the Soft Machine successfully re-establishes homeostasis, physiologic normality, muscle gain and fat loss cease.
The only way progress can be stimulated anew is to discard the neutralized training and eating template and institute a radical departure to what the body perceives as the current status quo.
Coincidently two of my phone clients each achieved homeostasis in the same week: Jim Vee hit a predictable peak in week seven while Beck hit his peak in week ten. Both men, one 54 the other 59, lost 25 pounds of body fat and added 5 pounds of muscle using an identical training and nutritional template. In both cases each man had gone as far as they could go using our ultra basic, entry level, Purposefully Primitive approach. It was time for some sweeping, across-the-board changes. The Soft Machine in a state of homeostasis has no problem neutralizing minor changes to the status quo. This is why changes need to offer significant contrast to the current regimen. Here are the dramatic contrasts we instituted for both men in the resistance training portion of the Purposefully Primitive training paradigm...
Status Quo (thesis) New Prescription (antithesis)
Train twice a week Train three times per week
Entire body worked each session Shift to a split routine
Multiple low rep sets A single high rep set
No "assistance" exercises Add assistance exercises
Muscles attacked twice weekly Muscles attacked once weekly
Paused reps "Touch-and-go" reps
Both men had made fabulous progress using our PP entry level "Thesis." This was mathematically demonstrated by each man's dramatic increases in poundage handling ability and muscle gain. As every Old School Purposefully Primitive trainee knows, all resistance, cardio and nutritional regimens, no matter how sophisticated or advanced eventually run out of steam: not that we discard a program that has proven effective - we simply hang the proven-effective approach on a hanger and place it in our "fitness closet" for future use, after the body has "forgotten" it. Here are the specifics of the antithesis resistance prescription I worked up for each man...
Monday - legs/shoulders
Back squat work up to one all out set of 15 reps
Leg curl super-set with calf raise
Seated or single leg calf raise three alternating super-sets of 15-30 reps
Overhead press 2-3 sets of 15 reps
Wednesday - chest/triceps
Bench press - moderate grip work up to one set of 15 reps
Bench press - narrow grip work up to one set of 15 reps
Bench press - wide grip work up to one set of 15 reps
Tricep extensions 2 sets of 15 reps
Tricep pushdowns 2 sets of 15 reps
Friday - back/biceps
Deadlift work up to one all out set of 8 reps
High pull to belt work up to one all out set of 8 reps
High pull to pecs work up to one all out set of 8 reps
Barbell row 2-3 set of 12-15 reps
Curls 4 sets of 15 reps
Thesis-antithesis-synthesis: Hegel had it right; every system that develops critical mass becomes a thesis and this thesis-status quo eventually gives rise to a contrasting system that becomes the antithesis. Eventually the antithesis that once seemed so radical and different becomes the new thesis and the whole cycle commences anew...I have prescribed the resistance training antithesis and we'll keep you posted as to the effectiveness of this radical progress inducer....
Anyone wanting to become a 'phone-train' client of Marty Gallagher can contact him at MGSO@embarqmail.com.
Or... "How I lost 25 pounds of fat and added 5 pounds of muscle in 7 weeks by talking to some guy on the phone!"
Followers of this column are aware of Beck's ongoing tale of transformation. Unbeknownst to readers, another of my Purposefully Primitive "phone train" clients was undergoing his own dramatic transformational odyssey simultaneous to Beck. Jim Vee contacted me a few months back and engaged my over-the-phone personal trainer services. I set him up using a virtually identical training and nutrition template to the one I had put Beck on a few weeks earlier. Jim was a few years younger then Beck, 54. Both were the same height, 5 foot 10 inches. Jim Vee started the program off a weighing 206 while Beck commenced weighing 227. Both were out of shape and serious about getting back into shape. Both were determined to shed pounds and add muscle. Interestingly both men hit identical benchmarks last week...
➢ In week ten Beck registered a 25 pound fat loss and a five pound muscle gain
➢ In week seven Jim registered a 25 pound fat loss and a five pound muscle gain
Beck started off on our Purposefully Primitive program weighing 227. This past week he tipped the bathroom scale at 207. Jim Vee started his program weighing 206 and this past week he weighed 186. The training and nutritional protocol for each was identical...
➢ Resistance training: three exercises were performed exclusively three times a week: squat, bench press and Sumo deadlift. By purposefully limiting the exercise menu, each man became quickly proficient at each of the three core lifts. Both started off with high-rep, no weight squats. Once they were able to perform the 'no weight' flatfooted squat while maintaining an upright torso, keeping the hips under the shoulders at all times, we proceeded to the 'plate squat.' Weeks later I eventually transitioned each to barbell back squatting. Both men had experience bench pressing though they had to 'unlearn' some bad bench habits. Dumbbell bench presses were done using a 'stretch and pause' start and a complete lockout. The Sumo deadlift was taught as a 'reverse squat.' Both used a kettlebell (initially) before transitioning to the barbell Sumo deadlift. I actually cut back on their weight training after four weeks: dropping the middle day and reducing weekly weight sessions from thrice weekly to twice weekly.
➢ Cardio exercise: each man used outdoor 'power walking' as their lone cardio mode. Both obtained heart rate monitors and logged results. Outdoor walking is a vastly underrated aerobic mode. Overweight individuals can easily generate 80-90% of their age-related heart rate maximum by simple power walking - so why would an out-of-shape untrained person resort to jogging, running or some other high impact, potentially injurious form of cardio? Walking outdoors is an invigorating experience for those who've never tried it. Ever wonder why they now install TVs in fancy cardio machines? To take your mind off the drudgery of aerobic exercise done in a gym while using a machine. Both men fell in love with early morning outdoor cardio. Beck got to a point where he was burning 1,000 calories in his extended walking sessions; Jim Vee was able to rip through 500 calories in 31 minutes. Intense power walking amplifies a sluggish metabolism, bestows endurance and inhaling fresh, highly oxygenated outdoor air infuses the walker with what the Russians call Zdorovye, roughly translated as 'vitality.'
➢ Nutrition: The first order of business was to assure both men that starvation-style eating is NOT the way of the Purposeful Primitive. We train hard and eat lots of healing, regenerating, nourishing calories. Meal timing is important. We suggest the trainee either subscribe to the bodybuilder-inspired multiple-meal plan wherein small meals are eaten at equidistant intervals throughout the day OR subscribe to my friend Ori Hofmekler's Warrior Diet approach wherein one large meal is eaten at day's end - other than a post-resistance training 'recovery meal.' Both Jim and Beck selected the Warrior Diet approach. I didn't get too mental about their nutrition; initially I had each man 'clean up' their food selections. Past that there is a natural, predictable process that occurs when an individual actually makes tangible gains: the deeper they get into the process, the more gains they reap, the more they seek to clean up their eating - without my prodding. I call this 'creeping incrementalism.' Real results spur self-discipline.
Each man developed an ever increasing physical momentum the deeper we got into the process. As the weeks slipped by, as each man saw the irrefutable physical changes, they naturally exerted more effort in the gym, during their walks and they ate with ever greater discrimination - all of which further amplified results. Jim Vee shed 25 pounds of fat and added 5 pounds of muscle in 49 days. It took Beck 70 days.
On day one of week one Beck was able to perform 2 sets of 10 in the no-weight squat and finished with one tough set of 10 reps holding a 25 pound plate. These were deep pause squats: on day 64 Beck barbell-squatted an ultra-deep set of 5 reps with 125 pounds. On week one, day one Beck deadlifted a 54 pound kettlebell for 10 reps and pulled 135 for 5 tough reps in the Sumo deadlift. 70 days later he deadlifted 205 for three easy reps.
On day one of week one Jim Vee hit a set of 30 reps, then 20 and finally 16 reps in the 'no-weight' pause squat: on day 45 JV blasted up two sets of 8 reps with 140 pounds in the barbell back squat. In week one on day one Jim sumo deadlifted a 54 pound kettlebell for three sets of ten reps: on day 46 he deadlifted 225 for a triple.
It's one thing to lose body weight - it's quite another to lose body fat while adding muscle in the process. Both men continue to roll on. I am all about "teaching people to fish" instead of continually "selling them fish." These two men now understand the 'system' and at this juncture each man has successfully been taught how to fish.
Anyone wanting to become a 'phone-train' client of Marty Gallagher can contact him at MGSO@embarqmail.com. He limits phone clients and currently has only one spot available.
Beck hit a 211 pound bodyweight at the end week nine. When we started this process, the out-of-shape 59 year old weighed a portly 227. Our mutually agreed to goal was to whittle him down to a 199 bodyweight by the time his 60th birthday rolled around on December 30th 2008. The subtler specifics of this goal were positively daunting: he would lose 35 pounds of body fat while simultaneously adding 5 to 8 pounds of muscle. On the down side he was physically out of condition; on the upside, psychologically he was extremely motivated. He had a life situation conducive to success: he had the time and inclination to train and his wife was an excellent cook always urging him to eat healthy. I felt strongly that he had the moxy and determination and Beck could and would attain the goal. So off we went.
Anyone can lose bodyweight. Simply stop eating! The trick is to lose body fat while simultaneously adding muscle mass.
Bodyweight loss can be accomplished by starvation dieting. The problem with the calorie slashing approach to weight loss is that the human body has primordial hardwiring that dates back to caveman times and when the body senses it is starving (as it does when subjected to a sudden and precipitous drop in calories) it goes into "starvation mode" and seeks to preserve its precious body fat - body fat is the last line of defense against starvation. When starvation times hit, regardless if it is real or induced, the human body will actually cannibalize muscle tissue in order to preserve precious body fat. This is called metabolic shutdown.
Fad diets work (for losing bodyweight) because they are calorie restrictive. Cloaked in nutrient slogans, the reason the cabbage soup diet, the Hollywood diet, the ice cream diet or the avocado diet work is - not because there is something miraculous about eating cabbage or ice cream or avocado - but because you are eating far fewer calories than you did before taking up the fad diet. Ditto with the massively advertized prepackaged diet food plans wherein makers send you meals through the mail. On the glitzy commercials (using celebrities and sport stars) they glibly talk about being able to eat cheeseburgers, pizza and chocolate cake using their frozen foods because of the "breakthrough miracle of carbohydrate regulation" - Bullsh@t! These meal plans work (sort of) because they limit calories, pure and simple. Fat diets cause individuals to lose more muscle than fat.
This is why people who have lost massive amounts of bodyweight using a calories restrictive approach end up looking haggard, saggy, weak and still obese.
The optimal way to lose weight is to melt off body fat while preserving or adding muscle. This can only be accomplished by slowly and methodically peeling off the pounds over a protracted period. By keeping weight loss to a rate of 1-pound per hundred pounds of bodyweight per week, (a 150 pound person would look to shed 1.5 pounds per week) body composition can be favorably manipulated. This approach requires a multileveled and methodical approach...
*The trainee needs to engage in a progressive resistance program. Weight training is "underpinned" by consuming a goodly amount of lean protein. The combination of hypertrophy-inducing weight training and ample amino acid intake ensures the dieter retains or adds muscle during the weight loss regimen.
*Cardio exercise is critical. Aerobic activity amplifies the human metabolism, the rate at which the body consumes calories. Cardio improves digestion; cardio builds and strengthens the internal organs and burns calories. Sedentary obese people have inadvertently shut down their metabolism. Aerobic activity reawakens sluggish metabolisms.
*Nutrition is critical. All calories are not created equal: certain calories are preferentially partitioned towards fueling body movement and building new muscle tissue. Other calories are preferentially partitioned into the construction of body fat. Eight ounces of shrimp are virtually impossible to end up stored as body fat while eight ounces of pecan pie are virtually assured of ending up as stored body fat.
Our Purposefully Primitive body renovation approach is based on the subtle and studied interplay between resistance training, cardiovascular training and nutrition. We are continually monitoring and tweaking the protocols and procedures as the process unfolds. Always have a game plan and always set the game plan into a timeframe. Weight training combined with a steady intake of lean protein ensures muscle is added. Continual cardio and attention to nutrition ensures stored body fat is mobilized and oxidized. In Beck's case we lost a week to travel and then injury. Still, in eight "full weeks," Beck has lost approximately twenty pounds of fat and "added back" five pounds of muscle resulting in a 15-pound net/net bathroom scale loss.
This week starts a new phase. Individuals new to our three-pronged Purposefully Primitive philosophy obtain results easily for the first few months. When a person is initially subjected to our comprehensive exercise approach, the gains pile up remarkably fast. Decades of empirical experience have shown that the real work begins when the initial gains start to fade in around day 60. In some ways, for Beck everything leading up to this point has been a requisite preliminary. It has all been exercise foreplay needed to get Beck into basic shape to handle the "real work." After nine weeks he is no longer an old guy seeking to regain some degree of condition - now he is a middle-aged man ready, willing and able to take on some serious training invoking a much more disciplined and sophisticated approach towards nutrition. Let the real work commence!
Anyone interested in phone-training with Marty can contact him at MGSO@EMBARQMAIL.COM
I was thrilled to see that this week Beck dropped another two pounds of body fat. He now tips the beam at 212. He has methodically and consistently added poundage or reps to all his training lifts. Simultaneously he has been tearing up his cardio regimen, hitting every predetermined weekly goal. For the eighth consecutive week Beck has made progress on every front. I am real big on "keeping score" on a weekly basis: hit the small incremental weekly goals and the big overall goal takes care of itself. Way back when we started this process he told me he would be "thrilled" if he could drop 30 pounds of fat and add 10 pounds of muscle in fifteen weeks. Not coincidentally the end of the 15 week period would coincide with his 60th birthday. At the end of week eight we have lost 19 pounds of fat and added 5 pounds of muscle, so we're actually ahead of schedule.
One huge change to his training regimen made at the end of week seven was dropping his weight training sessions from three per week down to two per week. This is something I will often do when a trainee is making staggering progress. As is often the case, when newcomers are subjected to my Purposefully Primitive regimen I often reduce weight training sessions from three (the industry standard bare minimum) to two session per week. Fitness instructors and insiders freak out. "This is completely unorthodox and counterintuitive: how can a person make progress only weight training twice a week? This seems impossible!" Personal Trainers nationwide routinely recommend 4, 5 even 6 weight sessions per week using a huge menu of training exercises. Here I am dropping from three sessions to two using three exercises. This is mainstream fitness heresy!
The less-is-better rationale all relates back to the original plan and the individual's goal. The goal of the resistance element of the Purposefully Primitive philosophy is simple: build and strengthen muscle. That's it. We seek to strengthen target muscles simultaneously using key exercises that force groups of muscles to work together to complete the assigned muscular task. Make a muscle quantifiably stronger and that muscle is forced to grow. That is a physiological fact. Being a Purposeful Primitive, when it comes to muscle building we believe in doing fewer things better. We do the same workout every session: we squat, we bench press, we deadlift. Since the end of week four Beck added some light, end-of-workout curls and tricep pushdowns. That's it : five exercises done three times a week. For seven straight weeks he made rep or poundage progress in every exercise in every session. He was showing signs of fatigue.
His training poundage in the squat, bench press and deadlift had gone up so radically, so dramatically, so consistently that, while improvement came easy, recovering from one session to the next became problematic. Young people recover from draining physical tasks far quicker than older individuals engaged in identical tasks. My solution is one that I've used for decades: eliminate the middle training day. Each week we have predetermined weekly goals: if the trainee achieves the specified weekly poundage or rep goal - what difference does it make if he achieves the target improvement using two instead of three sessions? By lifting on Monday and Friday instead of Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Beck indicated that he felt far more rested and recovered. He rolled into Monday and Friday's weight sessions "fired up instead of dragging ass." He now weight trains twice a week for 30 to 40 minutes. That's it.
His trusty heart rate monitor indicated that in week eight Beck oxidized 600 + calories in his two weight training sessions and 2,200 calories in six weekly power-walk sessions. Last week we instituted a cardio training procedure where he would forget about aerobic session duration and simply walk for as long as it took to burn off 500 calories. Keep in mind that as a 212 pound, 59 year old man, his caloric expenditure rate is far greater than say a 120 pound athletic woman. Beck powers along using a brisk power-walk pace that (for him) burns calories at a nice 12 to 15 calorie-per-minute clip. Nutritionally Beck has followed the Warrior Diet strategy since day one. He eats little during the day. If he feels famished he'll "day binge" on fruit. At night he eats lots of great tasting, nutritious food. His wife is a chemist and a terrific amateur gourmet cook and on the weekends he'll have some wine and not feel guilty about it - if you are "good" six-and-a-half days a week, have some pizza and beer or wine and pasta on a Friday or Saturday night - have it and have it guilt free. Just get back on the proverbial wagon the next day. So far, I could not be more pleased with Beck and his progress. Our goal is for him to weigh 199 by January 1, 2009. He will drop 35 pounds of fat and added 8-10 pounds of solid muscle. Having a renovated body will be a great way for a 60 year old to roll into 2009.
Want to train personally with Marty? Email him at: mgso@embarqmail.com
Beck showed up at my door this past Tuesday visibly thinner. He had ventured up from Northern Virginia for his second visit. Today we would cardio walk and weight train.
He indicated that he was completely fired up about the process and how our seven week journey had revitalized him. The best thing, he said, was how much he enjoyed the workouts, "I love my outdoor cardio walks; the heart rate monitor provides me with a consistent benchmark and allows me to have a frame of reference. The weight training is a complete blast; by concentrating on a relatively few number of exercises you can get really good at the few you do. Everyone is telling me how much better I look!"
He grabbed his still ample (yet smaller) gut and said, "Now if I could only get rid of this!" He laughed.
I gave him another of my endless analogies. "Your gut is the equivalent of America's Strategic Oil Reserve. Your body's biggest reservoir of fat resides in your stomach. Fat is fuel - food energy that the body stores away for starvation times. Your body will drain down all its other fat deposits before he turns its attention to drawing down gut fat. That is why your limbs and face look so much leaner and trimmer. You've lost fifteen pounds of body fat and that fat has been drawn from your legs, arms and glutes. This is why your face looks so much thinner. In the next few weeks the body will start mobilizing gut fat. We've still got a ways to go."
We started off with a fairly intense cardio walk at the farm. In contrast to his first visit in week I when I had to stop every five minutes to let him regain his breath, this time he was able to walk ahead of me and we only stopped four times in fifty minutes and those were at my command. I showed him a few tricks to make "walking harder." Most people walk with their arms hanging limply at their sides. They use very little leg drive. By pumping the arms hard and really digging with the legs - almost like an ice skater - the heart rate can be elevated 10-20 beats per minute.
Beck ate up the hills and using our new walk techniques was able to register a 165 heart rate cresting one steep hill. His heart rate was dropping 20 beats in a minute (a good thing) after cresting the hills and at session's end he registered 79% of his age-related heart rate for our 47 minute session. He indicated that in his previous life this would have exhausted him and now it invigorated him.
We headed back to my garage gym to hit the weights. The idea was to hone and refine his techniques. In the squat I broke his form down completely: he was stiff and inconsistent and was attempting to rebound out of the bottom position. I showed him how to push the hips back while descending and how to "allow" the poundage to push him downward to the deepest point - all the while maintaining a vertical torso. At rock bottom he would push erect "on the heels" while keeping his hips under his shoulders at all times. I also showed him how to keep his knees forced out on both descent and ascent.
I opened up his stance to allow his gut room to descend between his thighs. 65 pounds was kicking his glutes; which was great. By cranking him way back on the poundage, by insisting that he use an extreme range of motion, by teaching him how to maintain a vertical torso throughout the lift, a relatively light poundage was taxing his thighs so dramatically that his legs were shaking with effort while coming erect on the final reps of a 5-rep set.
"That was incredible!" He commented after three sets of five reps with the light poundage. "My thighs are blasted to smithereens! It was as if no other muscles were being worked."
Beck was experiencing precision muscle targeting. His dumbbell bench presses needed no corrections. He was extremely strong in this lift (remember this is a 59 year old man who'd done nothing physical as recently as two months ago) and he handled a pair of 50 pounders for three sets of ten reps, quite impressive! We moved on to the sumo deadlift ("Think of it as a reverse squat.") and he was able to crush 135 x 5 and 165 x 5 reps using nice technique. By incorporating what we had learned a few minutes earlier in the squat, i.e., vertical torso, knees forced out while rising and lowering, head looking up, push off the rear of the foot, and using those same techniques on the sumo deadlift, Beck was able to harness his power quite effectively.
After his workout he was drenched in sweat. He had hit his scheduled target body weight of 214 two days prior and I remarked that he was likely 212 pounds now. I gave him a triple serving of Parrillo's 50-50 Plus, a post-workout Smart Bomb shake, and sent him on his way. He left elated, invigorated and reenergized. Our goal is for him to achieve a 199 pound bodyweight by January 1st whilst adding 10 pounds of solid muscle. He appears locked onto this goal like a cruise missile heading towards a target.
Want to train personally with Marty? Email him at: mgso@embarqmail.com
Those who have been following Beck's transformational saga know that the 59 year old badly sprained an ankle and bruised his tailbone on Thursday, September 4th. This necessitated an "in-flight" course correction: cardio walking was eliminated and all squatting and deadlifting curtailed. Injuries happen, and though Beck's injury was completely unrelated to training, (he missed a step coming off a curb) savvy trainers don't quit training - they devise a way to train around the injury.
Because Beck's twisted ankle prevented lower body work, we "doubled up" on the upper body and substituted seated exercises for standing ones. Curls, tricep pushdowns and lat pulldowns replaced squats and deadlifts. I told him that because his cardio walking was out of the question and because his regular weight routine was derailed, in order to stay on our weight loss schedule he needed to cut back on his caloric intake in order to compensate.
Most trainers are completely ignorant of the ultra-basic Energy Balance Equation - which, put simply, means if daily caloric intake exceeds daily caloric expenditure then guess what: no weight loss is possible. Because his cardio was curtailed he needed to compensate for "un-burned" calories. Since he was burning between 300-500 calories per cardio walking session, Beck needed to reduce his caloric intake between 300 and 500 calories per day. His weight goal for this week was to weigh in Monday at 216 pounds.
His strength level continued improving at a rapid rate despite the injury. This was evidenced by his ability to dumbbell bench press a pair of 55s for two sets of five reps. Beck indicated that his ankle was completely healed so we will recommence squatting and deadlifting in Week VII. He hit a cardio session towards the end of week six and commented how (relatively) out of shape he felt compared to his pre-accident cardio condition. I told him not to worry about this and pointed out a Purposefully Primitive Truth: cardio conditioning is the easiest and fastest to obtain and the quickest to flee.
When an untrained individual begins training, improvement in cardio comes rapidly. When the trainee ceases cardio training for whatever reason, their cardio condition recedes just as quickly. Strength is the hardest and slowest to obtain yet once obtained can be retained for a long time even if the trainee quits completely.
Beck will be able to reacquire 90% of his previous cardio condition within his first full week of training. Below are his comments on how week six unfolded...BTW - at the Monday morning weigh-in that ended week six he weighed 216.2 pounds!
Marty,
Here's my week 6 update. The weights went well: the last set of curls and tricep pushdowns were tough and I backed off the curls when my form broke down. DB bench press went smoothly all three days. I lost a lot of cardio progress; my asthma was kicking in but still I improved each day. Decided to handle hills as intervals, i.e., go as fast and far as possible until a full recovery stop was required. I would then rest until I felt recovered (regardless of pulse rate) before continuing. Set-backs generally occurred on steep hills; which was quite logical. I guess the 10 days off cardio kicked my butt cardio wise. My ankle is totally recovered. Nutrition has not been perfect due to a few biz lunches and my quarterly trip to Annapolis with a Navy bud. I have been losing steadily and expect to make target weight on Monday morning. Right now I can't eat "badly" even if I want to - If I eat junk it makes me sick. Chips and salsa are my biggest temptation. I only had a few at lunch last week. Also went with the veggie omelet, no cheese this morning instead of my usual chili and cheese omelet. My good buddy quizzed me on what I'm doing - on account of I am visibly improving - so I filled him in and suggested he buy your book!
Best weekly weight performances
Dumbbell Bench Press 1x5 with a pair of 50s; 2x5 w/ 55s
Incline Curls 2x10 with a pair of 27.5; 1x7 w/27.5
Tricep Pushdowns 3x10 with 50 pounds
Lat Pulldown 3x10 with 100 pounds
After returning from his 1,200 mile auto trip, the 59 year old Beck had the misfortune to step off a curb and fall, severely twisting his ankle. He was lucky it did not break. He landed hard on his tailbone and that could have had catastrophic consequences. His bodyweight goal for Week V was to whittle down to 218 pounds. He started off the week (having just returned from his trip) weighing 222.4 and by the weeks end, he managed to drop to 219.4, a three pound loss.
Pretty dang excellent considering his twisted ankle put a real damper on his training.
He contacted me on Monday. Cardio was out of the question and squats and deadlifts were out of the question. I suggested he concentrate on his bench press (no ankle pressure) and add seated curls alternated with tricep pushdowns. In addition he would perform seated shrugs and seated lat pulldowns for some upper back work. It was decided that he should crank back on his overall calorie intake. Being unable to power-walk and being unable to generate those high heart rates he was routinely experiencing after performing squats/deadlifts, it was only logical that he compensate by reducing his caloric intake to offset his enforced lack of activity. His three pound weight drop was fabulous and attributable to having the discipline to cut back on the food when the natural tendency would be to eat more. He commented...
Not a lot of exercise results to report due to travel days and the injury. However, I lifted today and it felt great! I still cannot squat due to ankle pain and substituted some leg presses. I also tried the exercise bike instead of walking. The nutrition is definitely working. Weighed in this morning at 219.4 and expect to hit 218 in the next day or two! I am still right on track and right back on schedule in spite of travel, injuries and assorted setbacks. Ankle is feeling much better. I should be able to resume squats on Tuesday. I tweaked my left hamstring a bit during deadlifts. You were right on in having me take a few days off - I was really tired from the trip and needed the break. Your coaching allowed me to psychologically take a break as well. So, kudos to you!
Often the smartest thing a trainee can do is take a break from training. Certain "tells" and clues start to surface: continual exhaustion, tiredness, mental fuzziness and a telltale lack of enthusiasm for training.
Taking a few days of complete rest can revitalize and reenergize a person. After 2-3 days of rest, the trainee will suddenly feel a tremendous urge to recommence cardio and lifting. When they do begin to train, poundage soars, reps soar and cardio personal records fall effortlessly.
I've seen this phenomenon happen repeatedly: I often have to force a trainee to take a break and often encounter resistance, "I don't want to stop - all my gains will disappear!" Because I have been monitoring their lack of progress and sensing their general fatigue, I can spot the telltale signs of over-training before they can. After coming back from an enforced layoff, trainees are amazed at how rejuvenated, rested and alert they feel. Elite athletes take time off before a major competition. They seek to make sure that they are completely rested and healed from the intense training they've subjected themselves to.
I have applied this "purposeful layoff" strategy to Beck and this coming week when he is able to recommence hard training I expect personal records to fall like dry leaves in late autumn.
One thing Personal Trainers rarely take into account is life. How often have I heard or witnessed the classical totalitarian PT telling clients about to go on vacation, "I need you to find a gym while you're gone. I need you avoid bad foods. I need you to stay perfect while vacationing - I don't want you to undo all the hard work I've put into you!" My favorite tale of lunacy was when a PT insisted that if a particular client "was really committed" they would pack cans of tuna on a trip to Paris. The Hitlerian PT thought he'd hit upon an idea that was pure genius: if before going out to lunch or dinner with friends and family the client would gobble down delicious can of cold tuna the client "Wouldn't be tempted by the all that rich food."
To make a bad story worse, the poor intimidated client actually followed this lunatic advice. While friends and family were having Parisian culinary experiences of a lifetime the poor client refused to indulge, tortured by the smells and aromas of the world's finest food, stoically refusing to eat anything other than salad. How pathetic. If PT Hitler had half a lick of sense he could have suggested to his browbeaten client eat a wonderful piece of grilled fish along with some fabulous sautéed fiber vegetables. How about some magnificent shellfish or perhaps a perfectly prepared steroid-free steak - or a delicious portion of grilled free-range chicken? Needless to say within a year the beleaguered client and El Supremo parted ways: after 12 months of haranguing and harassment, after zero gains for $100 per hour, the client fled.
Beck had finished his third week of training using my Purposefully Primitive approach. He had to drive to Detroit for a wedding: something like eighteen hours each direction. He contacted me ahead of time half expecting I would chide him about what he should and shouldn't do while away. Much to his surprise I told him to enjoy himself and not worry about training or eating or perfection. We are humans, not robots, I related, and the physical renovation process is a process not an event. When we realize that fitness is a long journey and an extended process we can allow for the little detours and potholes life throws at us. Perfection is fleeting and reality is ever present.
So relax and have fun and dance with the bride and have a few cocktails and eat drink and be merry...we'll jump back into the fitness fray with both feet upon your return. Interestingly Beck had, in three weeks time, developed an addiction to our little 30 minute stripped-down weight routine and the early morning outdoor nature power-walks. He craved a lifting session, he wanted to train, and found a gym nearby while he was in Detroit. "I really felt like training so I found a local gym and hit it. You really put out when you show up at a strange location."
At the wedding he had a great time and despite seven beers and five glasses of wine spread over nine hours, despite eating different and varied foods not on "the diet," despite a 1,200 mile round trip, despite "hard partying" and 22 hours in a car, upon his return home he weighed 222.2 pounds. His lowest weight over the past three weeks was 221.8 so he was amazed. How'd that happen? How come he didn't balloon up ten pounds during his four day trip?
After three weeks of 'clean' eating, when he consumed 'dirty' food his body rejected it. The now strange nutrients ran through his digestive track faster than a NASCAR driver running a lap at Daytona. If he were to stay eating the bad stuff the body would "remember" how to process all those nutrients. I address this metabolic phenomenon in an essay entitled, Holiday Hedonism on page 421 of The Purposeful Primitive. Rested, ready and raring to go, Beck is ready to shift into a "power phase." The first four weeks were a "conditioning phase" that is now over. He will be dropping the reps and up the training poundage while extending the length of the cardio sessions. Stay tuned.
Beck Ends Week III: On Track on All Fronts
Beck ended week III weighing in on Monday - we always weigh in on Monday to include any weekend binges. He weighed in at 224.5, exactly on track. He had dropped as low as 222.6 during the week at which point I suggested he increase protein calories. I did not want him to make the rookie mistake of losing too much weight too fast. Our preordained goal was to whittle off two pounds per week for ten straight weeks. Experience has shown that for a 200 pound man to lose at a faster rate, causes muscle tissue to be lost during the process.
Have you ever wondered why the obese crash dieter ends up (still) fat and flabby - still skinny-fat despite losing 40 to 100 pounds of bodyweight? The crash dieter has lost as much or more muscle as fat. Elite bodybuilders, the world's most effective dieters, have discovered that slow, steady reductions in body weight allow the dieter to lose fat while "sparing" muscle tissue. In three weeks Beck has lost six pounds; our overall plan was to par off 20 pounds in 10 weeks. This does not take into account a five to eight pound "muscle acquisition" that will occur during the ten week timeframe. Put differently, over the ten week period, Beck will actually lose 25 pounds of body fat while adding five pounds of muscle resulting in the bathroom digital scale registering a 20 pound reduction in body weight.
Weight training: Being Purposeful Primitives, we believe in doing fewer things better. His thrice weekly training regimen consists of three exercises: the plate squat, the pause bench press and the Sumo deadlift. In the plate squat (grasp a barbell plate to the chest) Beck hit three sets of 12 reps holding a 35 pound plate. He squat down deep, all the way down, he pauses a beat before pushing upward. The critical technical point is to not allow the hips to rise during the difficult upward push. In the bench press Beck made three sets of 12 in the paused dumbbell bench press with a pair of 35s and in the Sumo deadlift shifted from a 56 pound kettlebell to a 135 pound barbell. He successfully managed two sets of five reps in the deadlift. Over the next few weeks we will push that up to three sets of 12 reps with 135. He hit every preordained weight training rep and poundage goal.
Cardiovascular Training: Being an overweight 59 year old, brisk walking around his neighborhood is more than enough to goose Beck's heart rate to 70% +. So why make him jog or run or engage in other aerobic modes? Beck was able to walk six times for 30 minutes and generated a six-session blended average of 74%. For the second week in a row Beck generated a higher heart rate (77.2%) during his three 30-minute weight workouts than while walking. Beck walks for 30 minutes in the morning before breakfast, as this timing tactic accelerates fat-burning. He hit every preordained cardio goal.
Nutrition: As we mentioned last week, Beck's "significant other" is an expert cook. Beck had a great eating week. This was evidenced by the fact that I actually had to advise him to eat more lean protein midweek because he was losing weight too fast. By increasing lean protein intake muscle is feed instead of starved. Our goal is to lose body fat not body weight. I would give him an A+ on this week's eating. Best of all, when I quizzed him he indicated that the process was "effortless." The weight training was fun and challenging, the cardio invigorating and the foods consumed delicious.
Onward!
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