Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Dont Believe Everything You Read

You have all read it and heard it before:

You need two grams of protein per pound of bodyweight a day.

You need a super fast acting post workout shake.

You need to take supplements to get big and strong.

You can't get stronger while dieting.

You need to do a dynamic warm up before lifting heavy.

You can't do conditioning or cardio if you want to get bigger and stronger.

These are all nonsensical myths that people want you to believe. If you do believe this stuff, it will actually be true. That's how the mind works. What you believe becomes your reality. I don't believe any of that stuff and thus it doesn't affect me or the hundreds of people I have trained over the last 13 years.

You don't need super high protein diets. It is a waste of your time and money to try to consume anything more than one gram per pound of bodyweight a day. The only time you would even need that much is if your carbs are extremely low. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself. Cut out all your protein shakes and just eat food. Your protein will drop by at least 25% but I would be willing to bet it has no negative effect on your size or strength. This myth is spewed by those who sell protein; don't buy it.

It doesn't matter how fast you replenish glycogen after a workout unless you are training three times per day. Fat free chocolate milk is the best tasting post workout drink going and works as well as any high priced crap on the market today. There is one real benefit to a post workout drink and one benefit only; it helps you get in more calories. By the time you finish training you probably haven't eaten in at least two hours, maybe more. After you clean up, shower, drive home or to a restaurant, another hour could pass. But if you slug down some kind of shake immediately after your last set it gives you a quick few hundred calories, and then you can eat your meal in an hour when you get home. That's it. Plus, most people don't feel like eating solid food after a hard workout which leaves them choking back their own vomit for 30 minutes.

You don't need ANY SUPPLEMENTS AT ALL! ZERO. That's right, I said and I stand by it. Supplements suck. They are a waste of time. All of them. Period. The end. Get your vitamins and minerals from eating lots of fruits and vegetables and don't worry about creatine, glutamine or branched chains. Drink coffee if you need a pre workout boost.

If strength gains are made by improving your neural drive how come you can't get stronger while dieting? You can. If you believe you can't, you won't. If you don't buy into this, you will get stronger. Now some lifts, like squats and deadlifts, are easier when you weigh more and have a bigger waist because of the wider base of support. Many other lifts will be harder because your leverages will change as your measurements decrease. Who cares? Just keep training to get stronger and you will be fine. If you believe you can do it, you will. If you don't, you will be weak and small like an internet guru in no time.

The dynamic warm up is starting to get really played out. Yesterday I started my workout with high pulls. I walked into the gym and did the following dynamic warm up to prepare for this workout...High pulls. It was a great workout and I am still alive to tell the tale.

I have trained countless athletes over the years and all of them spent a great deal of time running, jumping and playing their sport on top of the time they spent in the gym with me. They all got bigger and stronger. Forget you ever heard the myth that too much conditioning kills your size and strength gains and do what you want. Run sprints, play hoops, whatever; you will be fine.

In the last few days I have done the following while dieting strictly(down 15lbs in the last month):
1 Arm DB Rows- 35 reps with the 100's
Touch football for two hours Saturday with no warm up
Sled dragging Sunday for an hour
Deadlifts, yesterday- 500x5 from pin 2
Sprints today- 30 minutes intervals

While there is nothing overly impressive about any of that I should point out that I have had less than a gram of protein per lb of bodyweight, 500-1000 calories below maintenance, zero supplements and zero protein shakes. If I believed every myth listed above I should be weak and hospitalized right now. For those that don't know, without eating right and training hard I have the genetics of Pee Wee Herman. So I am not a freak case. I also try all of this on many, many test subjects. The results are all the same.

Very soon I will be releasing my new training manual which will destroy every myth there is and explain everything you need to know about training, in full detail; uncensored and no BS. No editors, no nothing, just me dishing the straight truth that nobody wants to tell you.

Get ready...