Fitness Safari

Fresh fruit will not make you fat. I don't know about you, but my favorite part of any food store is the produce department. I love the rainbow of colors, shapes and sizes on display. The playful misting of the lettuces, the exotic vegetables I've never heard of from parts of the world I've only read about. I can't imagine anyone getting fat by eating a variety of any combination of the foods you find here. So why do people think fruit will make them fat? It's the F-Word - Fructose Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a simple monosaccharide and one  of three dietary monosaccharides, along with glucose and galactose, that are absorbed directly into the bloodstream during digestion. Unlike glucose which can be immediately available to the muscles, however, fructose must first be processed in the liver, giving it the lowest glycemic index of all sugars. Naturally, fructose is fou nd in fruit, many plants and some vegetables, but not in very high concentrations....

Last night when I was finished my bench/pull-up/dip routine, I had some extra energy - and time. I hopped on the treadmill and just started walking. I like walking. Whether it's around the neighborhood with my dog or on a treadmill in the gym, I find that when I'm walking is pretty much the only time my mind is totally free to meander wherever it wants to. I started thinking... Despite the fact that I'm fighting a cold and hadn't slept well in a day or two, I felt really, really great. I wanted to run or even maybe do some HIIT intervals to help ignite my fat burning furnace. But then the voice of my coach echoed in my head, "When on a cut, don't be stupid and do too much." My coach, Andy . Well, maybe those weren't his exact words, but the general idea is spot on. Regardless of how good I feel or how impatient I'm getting with the snail's pace of fat loss I'm experiencing, too much training volume or intensity will only be counterp...

Ever hear the expression, "Too many cooks spoil the broth?"  Put simply it means, when trying to cook something - even something as simple as broth - too many conflicting ideas will ruin it. If you have too many people adding this and that, with no cohesive plan or recipe, your broth will taste more like dishwater than anything palatable when you're done. Training and fitness are the same. I never really put it together until Andy commented on a crazy bench press pyramid routine I tried the other day that I posted on Fitocracy. It's not that he was against the routine, per se, but he did point out that I'm on a pretty strict cut and the volume was way too high and will likely affect recovery and progress at this point. He warned me not to fall prey to the "too many cooks" trap. He's right, of course. But I was frustrated with my RPT bench routine which has stalled at 110 lbs. x 4 reps and was looking to do something different to break through ...

I've been getting dizzy. For the past few days, whenever I sit up too fast from lying down or if I move too quickly, I get that odd out-of-balance feeling and feel like I may fall over - just for a second or two. Curious as to whether this phenomenon was diet or life-threatening-malady related, I did what anyone would do: I Googled it.  "dizzy, low carb diet" yielded the following diagnosis: Orthostatic hypotension, also known as posutral hypotention, orthostasis, and colloquially as head rush or dizzy spell, is a form of hypotension in which a person's blood pressure suddenly falls when the person stands up or stretches. - Wikipedia. I also found a number of forum discussions on various low-carb diet websites discussing this very problem. Some say it's sodium related. Some say it's calorie related. Some say it's fat related...and so on. But the idea that this has something to do with a lack of sodium makes the most sense to me - and it fi...

Yesterday I went to my new gym for my first Saturday workout with a group of men - and one woman - who meet each week to squat, deadlift and bench press. The most helpful of these folks was Jack (#1). Age 77, Jack #1 is a former team USA powerlifter who deadlifts around 440 lbs. Did i mention, he probably weigh 150 lbs soaking wet? He helped me rack and unrack the weights and set up for each person we were working with. He also followed me at the end of each set to ensure I got it racked correctly and safely. Also in the mix was Jack #2 (nicknamed 'the old Russian'). Aged 60-something, in his day, Jack #2 held 14 powerlifting records. I'm not sure if they were state, National or International - I will find out and get back to you. Anyway, the two Jacks were quite helpful and I found it very motivating to work in with them. Since the rack we were using was not adjustable, I had to step outside of it to get ATG in my squats. They all said my form was spot-on and, if any...

Just a quick look back at, well, at my back...to remind me that I am making progress. The cut diet is hard and I'm struggling, but I'm trying to stay positive and stick to it. Every now and again I like to look back to find the motivation I need to stay the course. The harsher flash in the second pic washes out what I believe are my improving back muscles...anyway, here's today's inspiration: January 2011 - 129 lbs of 'skinny fat'  January 2012 - 119 lbs; goodbye 'skinny fat'

This is me Jan 3 - before I started the cut. Ok, I'm on day 7 of my 12-week cut with Andy Morgan and I'm feeling good. Days 1-3 were pretty brutal as I adjusted to the wakeup call of very low calories. My first workout, which fell on Day 3, was absolutely horrid - and it wasn't even fasted. My lack of energy and poor performance was probably related to a number of factors - diet, sleep, stress, etc - but I was weaker than I had been in months. Then, just two days later I headed to the gym for what would end up being my best squat workout to date - this time fasted and on hour 17 with only BCAAs and 200mg caffeine on board.  Those of you who have been following my journey know I only began squatting a couple of months ago due to a knee injury, so my weights aren't all that impressive. At about 119.6 lbs, my back squat on Sunday was 135 x 5 (top set) - still a new record for me. And I went below parallel for each - super low. I also added a third drop set to eac...