While there are many people who strive for athletic performance, it’s more like that the the average person just wants to look good naked. That approximately translates to more muscle and less fat (and ladies, you get ‘curves’ by having more muscle as well).

After the miracle period of beginner gains, we face a fundamental dilemmas. To get more muscle, the body has to be in an anabolic state with a surplus of nutrients. To lose fat, the body needs to be in an energy deficit.

In other words, at any period of time, the body can’t simultaneously lose fat and gain muscle.

Hence, bodybuilders over the years have practiced bulking and cutting cycles. They eat more and push bodyweight up, hoping to net as much muscle gain as possible while accepting some fat gain. They then strip off the fat with a dieting phase while trying to maintain the newly built muscle.

Sounds fine in theory, but we’re assuming that you actually build some muscle during the bulks, and hang on to all of it during the cuts. Unfortunately…

We can only build muscle so quickly

And the rate of gains is dismal compared to what people expect. More importantly, eating more isn’t going to increase this rate by very much at all.

So what is the solution?

The only real solution is to get a great coach right from the start. Someone who takes responsibility for one’s diet and training and ensures that the beginner trainee doesn’t stray off course. I’m not referring to a personal trainer here, who has a transactional relationship with the client. An example of this is more akin to the relationship between a high school football coach and his players.

Of course, rarely is one fortunate enough to land in that scenario, and ultimately, we have to take things into our own hands.

The next best solution is to actively seek out someone who can provide the right kind of advice and support. This oftentimes means hiring a personal trainer or nutritional consultant. An example would be Martin Berkhan of Leangains.com, who has a proven track record with turning people from fat to fit.

The first problem is that such an approach costs money, which many beginners don’t have. The next problem is that by definition, a beginner trainee cannot judge if a trainer is good or not.

Another solution is to take it very slow, building muscle and losing fat at the same time. But that takes a lot of micro-management, and is certainly not for the beginner.

Ultimately, it’s going to come down to committing to a single goal. That means practicing cycles where you cut and bulk to pre-determined body fat levels. Lyle McDonald discusses this in his article, ‘General Philosophies of Muscle Mass Gain‘

Personal Preference

With the numerous benefits associated with leanness, both physiological and psychological, I’d opt for cutting down to or below the 12-14% body fat range for anyone but absolute beginners.

For absolute beginners (those who have never touched a weight), the focus should be on gaining strength and eating wholesome foods. While food quality doesn’t matter in the short run, establishing the habit of eating whole, unprocessed foods will pay off in the long run, especially when it comes time to diet.

In Summary

Recomposition approaches are possible, but require a little micro-management. Bulking too fast will only get you fat, and cutting too fast will lose you muscle.

The quick and easy solution to this is to hire someone that knows what he/she is doing. The longer-term solution is to educate oneself in how to go about achieving your goals, something which I will cover in a future post.

Whatever you do, keep your eyes on the prize, and keep moving.

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Hunger is both real and imagined.

First there is the real type of hunger, physiological hunger. It can be measured by changes in hormone levels and is thus quatifiable.

Then there is the imagined type of hunger, psychological hunger. It can roughly be estimated by the number of McDonald signs encountered through the day, but has proven to be as erratic as it is momentous.

The difference is that real hunger evolved to keep us alive, while imagined hunger evolved to keep us safe; it got us imagining hunger in the future, so that we could take steps today to satisfy it. The problem is, of course, that it’s all too cheap and easy to satisfy our hunger.

The solution is simple: embrace hunger, the real type of hunger. Because no matter what you do, you’ll be hungry sometimes.

One will find, that the best artists in the world who are at peace with themselves and their work desire to get better. But they’re not getting better to fill a void, and they’re not getting better to further their ambition. Their simply getting better because it seems like the natural thing to do.

Like any quest worth pursuing, this one is going to take lots of introspection and experimentation. That, no one can help you with.

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All the washed-up gym rats know what I mean when I talk about the “Big Three”. They are the Squat, the Deadlift, and the Bench Press are all too often touted as the must do for any gym-goer. It’s obvious why people like to do these three lifts: You can move a ton of weight.

Just imagine the thoughts running through a young, male adolescent’s head after seeing Andy Bolton deadlift 1000lbs, watching Konstantin Konstantinovs pull 420kg raw, and witnessing the jaw-dropping performance of Carl Yngvar Christensen.

Of course, watching these feats serve as great motivation, but all too often they become aspirations, leading to dangerously foolish acts in the gym.

I’ve argued that body mechanics are an important thing to consider when lifting. And when you mix an unsuitable structure for bench pressing, the raging desire to lift more, and the social pressure from the other bros in the gym, you end up with the hapless trainee attempting more than he/she should and ending up with an injury.

The solution is to ignore everybody. Remember, you’re going to the gym to train. Remind yourself of that constantly. Either that, or you could get a home gym and be rid of the bros for good!

In the end though, no one is responsible for your ego. So chuck it out the door and ask,

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Check out my guest post on jcdfitness.

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Auto-regulation is a process where you determine the volume and intensity of training for the day, literally based upon how you feel during that training session. The strange (and awesome) thing is, both research and anecdote has proven that training this way seems to stimulate significantly greater strength gains compared to traditional methods.

If you’ve had the chance to talk to some veterans of the iron game, you’d come across nebulous claims like “I train by feel” and “I listen to my body”. It turns out that what these people were doing, was training just enough to stimulate gains, but not too much.

Therein lies the first key point: Training too much is worse than training too little. When in doubt, do less, not more.

What we want to do, is create a system by which anyone can auto-regulate their training, and therefore train just enough. This is opposed to systems which call for fixed weight increases week-on-week.

An Important Note

Auto-regulation isn’t for beginners. This is because it makes use of the Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale.

This is an arbitrary scale by which you gauge how close you are to muscular failure. For example, an RPE of 10 means that you are just on the cusp of muscular failure; you couldn’t do another repetition if you tried. An RPE of 9 means that you could have managed 1 more rep if you tried.

This is key in auto-regulatory training, since we aim not to train too much by hitting an RPE of 10, while training enough to hit an RPE of 9.

Beginners face the problem of not having adequately good technique, as well as being unable to judge for themselves how close to failure they are. For such trainees, a strict protocol works best.

Still, there are a group of gym-rats who love to push themselves to the absolute maximum during a workout (I was one of them). If you persist in doing that, I will guarantee minimal gains.

This is the second key point: You need to be honest with how hard you are training, only training to RPE 9 on most occasions.

Some Specific Protocols

With that out of the way, this topic is still pretty broad. What I’ll do is to point you to 3 knowledge bases of information, and you be the judge upon reading those.

For a tried and true method, look up Reactive Training Systems by powerlifter Mike Tuchscherer

For a good review of the methods out there, view the article by Matt Perryman.

Finally, if you’re more ambitious, hit up Google translate and read the article by Børge Fagerli on some of his methods to auto-regulation, as well as his four part series on myo-reps. [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4]

Personally, I have made tremendous gains on Børge Fagerli’s Myo-reps program. An example of my gains include an increase in the Dumbbell shoulder press from 15kg x 8 to 25kg x 8 in 8 weeks (and is still going up), a great feat for me given that shoulders were one of my weak body parts.

After all that touting of greatness, one may ask: If this is so great, why aren’t many people training like this.

I think it’s mainly because traditional methods work, so there’s no harm in following them. Most people would rather stay safe and do something that they know works, rather than venturing out to novel territory.

Probably more important is the fact that you just don’t see many people train this way. There’s no reassurance that you’re going on the right path. (see the sample routines in the notes to see what I mean)

And that’s the third and final key point: You have to take a long term view and accept progress over a period of months. At the end of the day, the only way you’ll know if auto-regulation is as great as I make it seem will be to resolve to give it an 8 week run.

Do it soon though. I predict that we’ll see more and more people talking about auto-regulation in the future. Jump on the bandwagon today and you can boast of your gains when the hype finally peaks. Until then, keep this secret weapon in your arsenal.

—

Notes:

As mentioned above, the way such routines are set out may surprise people. What is most surprising in my opinion is the number of exercises per workout for each body part: oftentimes having only 1 exercise in each workout.

I too was thinking, “How can I grow off so little work?” My experience has proven me wrong.

Sample workout routines:

Heavy Core Day – Training in the 5-6 rep range
(weights in kg. Worksets in Bold. Everything else is a warmup/ramp-up set)
- Decline Bench Press: 60×5, 70×5, 80×5, 85×5, 90×5, 95×5, 85×9
- Barbell Rows: 60×5, 70×5, 80×5, 85×5, 87.5×5, 90×5, 85×5, 85×5,85×5
- Military Press: 30×5, 40×5, 45×5, 50×5, 52.5×5, 55×5, 52.5×5, 52.5×5
- Barbell Curls: 30×5, 35×5, 37.5×5, 40×5, 42.5×5, 45×5, 40×10

Light Limb Day – Training in the 12-15 rep range
(all training with myo-reps. Not including warmups)
- Leg Press: 13 reps + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4
- Calf Raise: 12 reps + 4 + 4 + 4
- Romanian Deadlift: 13 reps + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4
- JM Press: 15 reps + 5 + 5 + 5
- Barbell Curls: 15 reps + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4

5 sets – one for each major body part.

Yes, they look weird. But rewards are there for the adventurous, and I encourage you to read the articles linked above.

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Routine is good for the soul

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the Black Swan, once opined that when it coms to investing, one should put 90% of assets into low-risk investments, and the remaining 10% into high-risk investments.

That way, one could get the upside of risk; graced by lady luck with a windfall. At the same time, one can fall back on safe investments when needed. Therefore, you may not stand to gain as much if lightning strikes and the stars align, but you’re sure to survive when the flood come gushing in.

In my opinion, food psychology should follow the same idea. We should make a list of healthy, wholesome foods that we enjoy, and eat those 90% of the time. This is the “boring” list.

At the same time, make a list of decadent, sinful foods, to satisfy your cravings with the remaining 10%. That way, cravings are satisfied, and you’ll gain a greater appreciation of your “boring” foods.

You may ask, what’s so special about that? Not much. Anyone could implement these concepts any time they like. The trick isn’t in doing them, it’s making them second nature. And unfortunately, stuff that goes against our evolutionary nature doesn’t seem to stick very well.

In other words: you have to keep reminding yourself to stay the course. The idea is to make it as easy and simple as possible, regardless of how boring that may be.

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I’ve dieted in the past, and while I kept to “healthy” foods, I still had trouble with adherence. Back then, I created a (mental) list of foods that I must avoid to prevent me from blowing my diet.

These were 10 of those foods:

1. Nuts – Pure Calorie Bombs
2. Nut butters – peanut butter, almond butter, whatever, contains “butter” I’m not eating
3. Breads – white bread, wholemeal bread, rye, pumpernickel, it’s out
4. Full Fat Yogurt and Ice Cream – takes 10 seconds to down a scoop
5. Eggs – I could literally swallow these in seconds
6. Fatty Meat – same as eggs
7. Rice – Used to down bowls of this as a fat teenager; too easy to overeat
8. Fatty Sauces/Dressings – Mayo gives you heart attacks
9. Cereals – don’t get me started
10. Oatmeal - I dunno why this never really satisfied me, but I kept it there because it was supposed to be “power food”

So many “healthy” foods were foods that didn’t really satisfy me, and yet I kept them in my diet because so many people said they were great dieting foods. I failed to recognise that the best diet is one that you can stick to. The corrollary is that the best dieting foods for me were foods that I could eat and feel satisfied afterward.

But where could I start? I was entrenched in all that bodybuilding dogma (bullshit) and didn’t DARE to venture out. Long story short, I finally got fed up, and searched for an alternative. That’s when I found Martin Berkhan’s leangains system.

That wasn’t the be all end all solution though, it simply gave me the mental clarity to ask myself the right question. It was then that I proceeded on the long path of experimentation to find the foods that I liked.

Back then, I knew couldn’t stand fatty foods and craved carbohydrates. Still, some forms of carbohydrates (listed above) are simply trigger foods for me. On the other hand, I do find full-cream milk to be particularly satisfying.

We can argue all day about how this is affected by insulin sensitivity and a whole host of factors, but the sure-fire way is to dive in, try something, and note your response. You won’t get anywhere without being willing to ask yourself these questions, and then really diving in and tasting it (literally).

Over time, I developed a sense of the foods that I could live with in the long term. That list includes things like fresh fruit, potatoes, lean meats, corn cakes etc. But for someone else, that list may contain full fat dairy, nuts and the like. With total caloric content being equal and protein requirements settled, it really is a matter of taste.

With all that said and done, you can now take your list of foods you hate, and your list of foods you love, and slowly work your way to that happy middle ground.

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Here is a simple 3-step protocol to lose 10lbs in 12hours, guaranteed.

Step 1: Do some depletion training

Head over to the gym and do 5 sets of 20 reps for each major muscle group. Shoulders, chest, back, arms, legs, abs -  feel the burn!

Step 2: Go back home and instead of eating anything, down 2 shots of vodka

Step 3: Wait for a couple of hours and then step on the scale. Hooray for weight loss!

Notes:
- throughout the entire protocol, you are not allowed to drink any water
- your health and well-being is not guaranteed, but who cares, WEIGHT LOSS is everything

Back to Being Serious

What I’m trying to say with the above is that body weight is largely variable, and if one wants, you can lose 10lbs in 12 hours. (The above protocol really works)

It’s important to recognise the psychology of scale weight, and make sure that you actively take measures to deal with it. After all:

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I don’t need to tell you about all the research that has been done about sleep deprivation and its negative consequences. The bottom line is that everyone should be getting a good 8 hours of sleep every night.

Yet, most people don’t get 8 hours of sleep a day, and the reason oft quoted is that their simply too busy.

9 times out of 10, this excuse is completely invalid. It’s usually a case of having bad habits that chew up time, leaving little time for productive work. Whether it be excessive TV watching (especially now that it’s World Cup Time), internet surfing, etc. Eliminating those habits typically saves up the time, which can be put towards a proper sleep schedule.

10% of the time, it’s due to some external factor. It could be a 3 hour commute that chronically shortens your productive periods. Or it could be a hectic time of the year for your business. While this class of problem is harder to resolve, people like 37signals seem to have done it just fine.

In other words: it can be done.

The great thing is, that once you get your act together, this becomes a virtuous cycle. You get enough sleep, and take on the challenges of the day with all the needed energy, finishing up just on schedule and thereby allowing you to get enough sleep again.

Fortunately, getting enough sleep is just like getting enough exercise: starting is hard, finishing is easy, and the results are addictive.

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Scale weight is simply that – the weight that you see when you step on a weighing scale.

TV shows like ‘The Biggest Loser’ have shown that we’re obsessed with scale weight. As such, many people who embark on a diet use scale weight as the defining factor of reaching their goals.

That’s good, since it’s a goal that can be objectively measured. That’s fine so long as we behave rationally, but do we?

The problem is of course, that many people let their progress on a weight loss (or weight gain) diet be defined solely by the scale. They get elated when the scale drops by a pound, and then feel depressed when the pound is gained back the next day.

This is due to the changes in water balance in the body. Basically, the amount of water you’re holding in the body at any time is regulated by various hormones, which respond to various actions. Eg: eating more sodium (salt) than usual leads to more water being held to maintain cell water potential – water retention.

Hence the first step is to recognise that such weight fluctuations do occur.

The next step is to recognise just how big these fluctuations can be. After a binge, it’s not uncommon for a 70kg individual to be up by 4kg (9lbs) the next morning. If you think about it, that’s probably 2-3kg added food in the gut and then add some water retention to go along with it. Even with normal eating, it’s relatively easy to gain 2lbs overnight.

But who the hell thinks when they step on the scale. Despite the fact that we intellectually know that water fluctuations will occur, it’s hard not to feel disheartened by an overnight 2lbs gain on the scale. Sure, you tell yourself, “It’s just random water fluctuations”, but you could just as easily say, “Could I some of that weight (0.5lbs) really have been fat?”

In other words:

So what’s the solution? Don’t weigh yourself at all?

That’s not optimal since there is useful data to be gained from tracking weight. In fact, the more often you weigh yourself, the more data points you have, and the clearer a picture you can get about fat loss patterns.

In practice though, we don’t need to weigh ourselves that often. For most people, a once a week weigh-in will suffice. Just make sure that it’s under the same conditions. Eg: Monday morning right after going to the bathroom.

Still, this makes some people fret like crazy. “What if I don’t make my goal weight? Do I really have to wait a whole other week to see results?”

Two solutions come to mind at this point. First, Shut up and stop worrying. Second, let someone else do the worrying for you; entrust your diet and gauging of progress to someone else you trust.

For some strange reason, the latter option makes it easier for a lot of people to “let go” and let the body do its work. I guess it’s a by-product of our evolutionary success; the ability to cooperate and assist one-another in organised societies. Exploit it.

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