The Whole30 Experiment

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Lose the whey protein, lose the gains?

 

I feel like I have been dieting for years.  3 meals, 4, 5 meals, 5 meals and post workout meal, 6 six meals and then a prebed meal to keep the body anabolic while sleeping.  Pretty much my body hovers around the same weight.  I would say around 191-194.  That was only in the past three years.  Prior to my intro to weight lifting and the slow carb diet, my weight hovered in the 205 to 209 range.

I can effectively say I love the slow carb diet, but eating beans day in and day out can get tough.  I have loved the cheat day ever since I first tried body for life.  But I’m not always sure the cheat day loves me.  I lost a lot of weight, but I’m married with children.  It is hard to maintain a weight loss plan like that without your spouse of board.  Especially if she is cooking all your dinners.

So my wife is really into Les Mills classes and the gym she resides at is suddenly experimenting with Whole30.  Since she is rolling down this path, I’m pretty much rolling down the path as well.  I’m especially fine with it if I can plan meals for performance.

What is Whole30?

It is a modified Paleo elimination diet.

  • Eat “moderate” meat, seafood, and eggs
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Healthy Fats
  • No Sugar or artificial sweeteners (Sugar is in everything!)
  • No Dairy
  • No Grains
  • No Legumes (Yes no beans or peanuts)
  • No Alcohol, even in cooking ingredients
  • No carrageenan, MSG, or Sulfites (This makes eating bacon tough)
  • No Cheating

 

Here is a link to the full rules.

 

The difficult parts for me.

  • Whey protein and Protein Bars are gone

When I’m trying to make post workout meals and meal 4 easy, I love these alternatives.  At the same time, I tend to overeat and it is possible these were not helping my cause.  At the same time, I also think whey protein added to the Slow Carb Diet did not do me any favors either.

  • No cheat day

I have been using Cheat days since Body For Life.  As long as I’m crushing it six days a week, cheat days don’t seem to cause me any problems other than bloat.  That would last until about the next Wednesday and then I’d be back at my pre cheat weight.  I would possibly be even lower.  This is a nice way to control cravings through the week.

  • Black Coffee

This is probably the easiest one because I have been actively moving towards black coffee for a while now.  My estimation is the coffee is one of the healthiest foods I intake on a daily basis.  The problem lies in the crap I add to coffee.

I have added a product I found on Amazon called Nutpods.  There are an almond milk food without all the extra additives and really takes the edge off of coffee.

 

What I like about the program

I am in love with any diet program where I only have to count protein grams.  I hate counting calories and want to believe in the theory of effortless weight loss.  As a casual observer of my diet on Whole30, I noticed with the extra potatoes and veggies downed daily, I’m hitting the 75-120 carbs a day.  Most of my calories or coming from things like Extra Virgin Olive Oil, bacon grease, eggs, and meat.  Thought the guidelines are against it, my post workout meal sometimes includes a banana.  Not a big fan of fruit otherwise.

I noticed my weight does drop.  Even compared to when I’m doing a general low carb diet, my weight really drops on this diet.  I’m two week in and I’ve lost six pounds.  Which is fine as I’m not expecting to drop 10 pounds a week.  If I hit 10 pounds for the month and maintain my musculature, I’ll be pretty happy.

 

After 30 days? 

Well that is my major concern.  I’ve seen plenty of crash diets and a pretty burn shortly thereafter.  I have a couple scenarios in my head.

  1. I just move back to my old diet and gain all that weight back.  Slow Carbish, occasional cheats, a cheat day, lots of protein shakes.
  2. Slowly add in food week by week to see if it affects weight loss.  Being that my dad is half Japanese, I grew up eating a ton of rice.  My body feels great on rice, and love sushi, and I hate that even if I went to paleo, rice is generally frowned upon.  This would probably be the first food I reintroduced, even if it was limited to the post workout meal.
  3. Immediately transition to a modified Paleo diet with rice and white potatoes.  One thing Shanna and I noticed is that we lose weight, even if eating more than one white potato a day.  And our energy levels are staying pretty high without a crash.  So if we are not having negative consequences, then it is dumb to take it out simply because of the question, “is this Paleo?”
  4. Continue with Whole30 as the standard at home meal template at least until weight stabilizes for both of us.  Possibly taking a cheat meal once a week so we can more easily begin to socialize with friends again.  I also like a stiff drink once a week and this would occasionally give me that freedom.

 

Scenario 4 is the current plan.  But you know what they say about plans and getting hit.

Explosive Leg Training for OCR Wall Jumps

Bob Leave a comment

During the typical obstacle course run, there will be a wall. You will probably need to climb, jump, pull yourself over that wall. Or go around it and do some burpees. But you paid your money and you are at least going to try and jump over them right? That’s where this routine comes in.

Explosive Leg Training
We are saying explosive because this routine is intended to help you powerfully jump for one movement. We aren’t hopping and you need to jump high enough to reach the top of the platform with your hands. Or you have to try again.

Mix these exercises in with your training schedule and watch yourself gets some ups!

Start with a benchmark
Before starting, test yourself to see how high you can jump. Stand next to a wall and jump as high as you can. Mark it off and repeat 2 more times. Take the best jump and then move on to your workout.
I recommend rechecking every two weeks.

Squats
Start with this strength building exercise before you wear yourself down on the rest of these exercises. This article convinced me that squats will help build up your leg and overall body strength. So my intention is to be at full strength for this exercise and then run into the other components of a routine to assist in jumping higher.

Thrusters
We are using these for full range of motion. On this exercise. Don’t start too heavy, make sure you can perform the exercise correctly before moving up. This is to help us explode upwards when we are tired.

Squat Jump
You can do these with just your bodyweight, a weighted vest, or dumbbells in your hand. Lower yourself into the squat position, then jump as high as you can off of the balls of your feet. Make sure you land back on the balls of your feet as you come back down and back down into the squat position. Don’t rush to the next jump, reset your positioning before making the next jump.
I picked this exercise because you are trying to jump as high as possible, as hard as possible. Aim for 20-25 reps divided among the sets you need to keep yourself moving.

Box Jumps
I like these simply because we are practicing jumping onto an object. Be it a bench or an actual box. Make sure you fully stand up straight before hopping back down. Depending on the number of reps and if it’s part of a circuit you can wear yourself out quickly.

Sample Workout
Squats 3 sets of 6 – 8 Reps
Thrusters 5 sets of 8 – 10 Reps
Squat Jump 5 sets of 10 Reps
Box Jumps 5 Sets of 10 Reps
Jump Rope 100 Reps

Warrior Dash Fisherman’s Catch

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In preparation for the Kansas City Warrior Dash, I’m preparing for each obstacle ahead of time.  This post focuses on The Fisherman’s Catch.

The Fisherman’s Catch is a series of rings, similar to monkey bars where you swing from ring to ring.  Below you to catch you is a cargo net with water.  If you let go of the rings, the net catches you but you will end up pretty soaked as the cargo net sinks in.

I needed a video to envision it, so here is a team that had previously done the challenge.

When I did Conquer the Gauntlet, they had a similar challenge.  I pretty much failed.  My technique was terrible, grip strength was off, and I thought swinging like a monkey was the way to do it.

The recommendation from the Warrior Dash website is the following:

  • PULL-UPS
  • BACK LEG RAISES
  • ONE-LEGGED CLOCK WITH ARMS

One of the three exercises will actually benefit you trying to get past the obstacle without using your feet.  Which is the upper body pulling monster pull-ups.  The other two exercises are promoting balance.  This tells me, Warrior Dash assumes most people will fail this obstacle and will maybe hold on with one hand while having a foot on the cargo net.

Honestly I knew what a pull-up was but needed to look up the other two.  Here is a demo of all three.

Pull-Up (As well as an excellent demo on how to do your first pull-up)

Back Leg Raises

One-Legged Clock with Arms

Pull-Up Variation

Another variation I intend to throw into my training bag is towel pull-ups.  This exercise mimics close grip pullups but also forces your hands to adapt to an uneven surface for gripping.

  1. Throw a towel over a pull up bar with the middle of the towel hanging on the pull up bar.
  2. From a dead hang (arms all the way extended) pull yourself up.  Make sure to move your head to the side so it doesn’t hit the bar.
  3. Once your shoulder touches the bar, hold yourself for 1 second.
  4. Lower yourself back down to a dead hang.
  5. That is 1 rep.
  6. Repeat step one until desired reps are reached!

Then if you can find a gym and you can find rings set up like this rig, I would definitely recommend practicing the movement!

Got another exercise recommendation for the Fisherman’s Catch?  Let us know in the comments below!

2017 Mud Runs

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Looking forward to 2017, I’m trying to map out upcoming races as well as a training plan to hit each of the races.  I’m focused on Missouri so unfortunately there are not as many opportunities for Mudruns year round but Chicago is relatively close.  Ultimately, I would prefer to not gasp for air while running and use maximum effort to prevent falling into water during my obstacles.  Otherwise, I would just go do a 10k somewhere.

The first upcoming obstacle race is Warrior Dash coming in April.  I have not tried this one before but it sounds like a fun race.  Their page encourages wearing kilts, Viking helmets, and drinking beer.  Three things I can get behind.

The race has 12 obstacles that I intend to conquer!  You can check out pictures of them here but I’m listing the names below.

The Obstacles

  1. Fisherman’s Catch
  2. Alcatraz
  3. Warrior Summit
  4. Pipeline
  5. Chaotic Cargo
  6. Shocktop Unfiltered
  7. Trenches
  8. Mud Mounds
  9. Risky Business
  10. Warrior Roast
  11. Goliath
  12. Muddy Mayhem

I’m going to go through each of these and come up with a training plan to knock it out the park.

After this I’m thinking about a Conquer The Gauntlet, Spartan, and Tough Mudder.

In the meantime, I am going to do a 5 minute burpee challenge.

Got a workout goal for 2017?  Let us know if the comments below!

Obstacle Course Race Training Preparation

Bob Leave a comment

Training for any fitness even can be complicated.  Even more so when considering the crosstraining requirements of an obstacle course race.  Do we train for distance only?  Train for obstacles only?  Will deadlifts, squats, and bench press prepare me for what I’m actually going to do on race day?

Training Specificity

In order to prepare correctly, you need to go through a process of training the body for the exercises you expect to perform on race day.  If you were going to an Olympic lifting meet, then you would expect to practice Olympic lifts.  So to prepare for obstacle course racing you should expect to train what you are going to do on an obstacle course.

This means you should expect to train for two things.

  1. Racing
  2. Obstacles

Common Race Lengths

Obstacle Course races typically are 1 mile up to 1/2 marathon distances.  The 5k distance tends to be the most common race length.  This means your running training needs to prepare based on the race you sign up for.  Once you find your race distance, your training plan is dictated by the race.  Then either find or create a running plan that will get you run ready by day of the race.

There are deviations from the standard race protocol though in that obstacles are interspersed between the beginning and end of the race.  This means you can add additional training measures to your runs.

Obstacles and lines are inevitable on your race.  Unless you plan on just running by all of the obstacles you do not necessarily have to be able to run the entire distance straight.  You will benefit from the additional conditioning but you will also have a chance to run a set distance and have a recovery breath.

  1. The obstacles you hit will tax your conditioning in ways you cannot prepare for simply by running every day.  Mix in designated stops through your runs and perform an exercise such as 10 burpees, pullups, pushups, or strap on a weight vest and start for a set distance before dropping the weight vest.
  2. Metabolic and HIIT training sessions may appear more beneficial for your race day since there will be a lot of go, stop, go conditions.
  3. If you decide not add anything extra to your runs, you might prepare for a slightly further race to account for the extra time and conditioning needed for the obstacles.

When looking at running plans, do consider the risk of injury as a way to entirely slow down your progress in preparation for a race.  A common recommendation is simply increasing mileage week over week by 10% a week.  So let’s say you run 1 mile three times a week for a total of 3 miles a week.  Next week, you can increase your total mileage by 3 * .1 = 0.3 miles to your total weekly runs.  Consider this slow increase when mapping out a running plan.  For example if you are at the bottom of the barrel and a mile three times a week is your baseline and want to run a 4 miler, consider how far in advance you need to train and increase distance in order to be able to comfortably run a 4 mile race.

The Obstacle Part of Obstacle Race

If you didn’t want to swing from a monkey bar or climb a rope, why did you sign up for an obstacle race anyway?

Unless you plan on running around every obstacle, you probably should perform some training to prepare yourself for the unique challenges an obstacle course race will throw at you.  Here are some of the broad categories of obstacle you can expect to encounter.

Grip Strength Obstacles

These obstacles will tax your upper body and especially your forearms as you grip something and try to move across or up an obstacle.  Some of the common obstacles you will face involve climbing ropes, scaling rock climbing walls, or swinging from various monkey bar style obstacles.

Spend a good chunk of your time practicing things that could increase your grip and pull up strength.  Monkey bars and ropes are the norm and you don’t want to just walk/burpee your way by them.  Spend time at the end of your workouts doing deadhangs from a pull up bar, practice hanging from a rope attachment, or practice rock climbing.  Maybe even take your kid to the park and use those monkey bars while your kid shows you how it’s done.

Fun Pullup Protocol.

Pullups are your best friend.  Here is a routine you can use if short on time and want to blast your upper body.

  • Start with 1 pullup.  Wait 1 minute.
  • Do 2 pullups.  Wait 1 minute.
  • Do 3 pullups.
  • Repeat until you can no longer do pullups.
  • Then work your way backwards.  For example, let’s you failed at 3 pullups.  Your next set is 2 pullups followed by 1 pullup.  Good Luck!

Can’t do a single pullup?  Jessie Graff from American Ninja warrior will show you some exercises to get you there.

There is a good chance you will try to climb up at least one rope obstacle.  When fresh, you may be able to free climb without feet.  What happens when you just jumped a wall and followed up it up with the monkey bars?  How appealing is maxed out forearm before you start climbing?  Check out this video for a rope climbing technique lesson.

Jumping Obstacles

Stare down a series of 8 foot walls as you figure out how to scale these simply by running on jumping. Someone decided to light a log on fire and just like Jack, you are going to jump over that log instead of going around it.  Jump out of the water on to a muddy piece of ground and do your best to pull your self out with nowhere for your hands to grip.  These are all some of the fun and muddy challenges you run into traversing the many obstacle course races you might sign up for.

Strength train for these jumping and wall obstacles. I would not hope to rely on someone else to get over a wall.  Add jumping, squats, and deadlifts to your routine.

Squat Jumps

This is an explosive jumping exercise to work your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and glutes.

I like this breakdown from stack.com

How To Perform Jump Squats

  • Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-width and your arms at your sides.
  • Squat down to your desired depth, keeping your back straight and core tight.
  • Explosively extend your hips, knees and ankles to jump up. Swing your arms up to generate extra momentum (if you’re using your body weight or a weight vest; this won’t be possible if you’re using dumbbells or a barbell).
  • Land softly with bent knees, and your knees aligned with your hips and ankles. Make sure they never collapse inward.
  • Immediately explode up into your next jump.

Add this move to your routine for either reps or time.

Balance Obstacles

Just to balance you out, you might get to walk over a narrow log and fall into some mud or water.  Maybe it is a short pole off the ground that needs walking over.  These balance type obstacles ensure you get your muddy shoes some more play.  Find a balance beam, stand on one leg, close your eyes and walk in a straight line.  Do things that throw off your balance and try to master them.

Finally focus on your weak points.  Some people find they are better at grip strength obstacles and other simply as endurance based sports.  Customize your training to not only improve your strengths but to bring up your weaknesses.

Did I miss something or have an exercise you would recommend?  Mention it below in the comments!