40fit Radio

Coach D and Trent kick off their deep dive into the compound lifts with an examination of The Squat (that's right, capitalized) and why it's the mother of all lifts. If you don't have squats in your exercise program... you don't know Squat!

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Coach Darin Deaton and Trent Jones are kicking off a new series about the so-called "Big Lifts" -- the squat, press, and deadlift -- that comprise the majority of the exercises in any good strength program.

Why the big lifts? They are simple, hard, and effective. With just three exercises (and, for most people, the bench press as well) you can get very strong, and build a functional and aesthetically pleasing body with the least amount of time. They work so well because they fulfill the basic criteria for strength that Rippetoe lays out in Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training (paraphrased here):

• They use the most weight
• They use the most muscle mass
• They use the greatest effective range of motion (also the safest range of motion for the human body)

With the barbell lifts, you can move much more weight, and therefore train your ability to produce force, than you can with dumbbells or any of shiny machines at the local globo gym. The barbell is also trainable for longer than other weight lifting implements. You can start as light as 10lbs with a small barbell or load 1,000+lbs on a standard barbell, with any weight increment in between. You can improve your squat, press, bench, and deadlift for years. How long can you improve your cable row?

Not only are the barbell lifts effective, they are also efficient. Why do 12 exercises when 3 will get better results? For athletes of any level, the compound barbell lifts will make up the majority of their strength training program. There's no need to make it more complex than that! Your time is valuable, and barbell training honors that time. In one hour of barbell training, you can accomplish far more than a two-hour "bro split" filled with curls and hammer strength machines.

Finally, the compound lifts are functional. Not in the fashionable, buzzword sense that involves chains, ropes, or bosu balls, but in a practical sense. The compound lifts apply weights to basic human movements. You squat every time you sit on and stand up from a chair, every time you use the toilet. You press when you put tools up on the shelf in the garage. You deadlift when you pick anything heavy off the floor, whether it's your kid or a bag of concrete. These basic movement patterns are how humans interact with the world, so it makes sense to train them. They use the whole body as a system, not single body parts in isolation. When's the last time you performed a tricep kickback in real life?

In the following weeks, Coach D and Trent will dive deep into each of the big lifts and discuss what makes them so useful and effective at making humans stronger.

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Coach D and Trent discuss the importance of setting good fitness goals, and allowing those goals to evolve and change over time. While all novices should focus on building a solid foundation of strength, intermediate trainees can direct their training in so many different directions, it's easy to get lost.

Some trainees get into competition, whether it's racing, cycling, powerlifting, or something else, which naturally directs the course of their training -- the training is designed to produce improved performance in their sport of choice. For the competitive athlete, not much thought is given to longevity and health, or at least those things take a backseat to performance. It's a bargain all serious competitive athletes make, and they are aware of the potential consequences.

Many of the people in the 40fit Nation, however, aren't serious competitors and don't plan to be either. They build a strength base, and a couple years into their training find themselves wondering... what next?

Intermediate training without a clear goal is often fruitless, because the complexity and demands of the programming require the coach to make choices about which aspect of fitness to develop. Top end strength will require more volume in the competition lifts, changing rep ranges, and accessory lifts to address weak areas or drive further adaptation when the competition lifts become too fatiguing to increase any further. High levels of conditioning, on the other hand, will naturally limit a trainee's ability to get stronger as they must cover from high force production strength work as well as sub maximal conditioning work utilizing various energy systems.

Coach D offers a few tips for setting goals for trainees who are unsure what to do next:

1. Pick something fun -- try a new skill, sign up for a new sport or competition, join a social group that does physical activities, whatever you can do to utilize the fitness you've worked so hard to develop.
2. It's OK to feel good -- as novices, we often tell them to forget about their feelings, and just put in the work. But experienced trainees have developed their sense of what "hard" is and may be feeling aches and pains as they cross further into the fitness end of the spectrum. It's OK to dial your training back from time to time to give your connective tissue and joints a rest, especially if you plan to continue training for many years to come.
3. Seek out a coach -- if you don't have one. Sometimes an objective third-party can help you identify gaps in your fitness, or help you develop a more sustainable training program if you're feeling stuck or beat up. This also means being clear about your goals with your coach! Your goals will likely change over time, and that's OK, just make sure you have regular conversations with your coach so that you are both working toward the same goal.

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Coach D and Trent dive into the topic of diet and weight loss again, this time joined by fellow strength coach Karl Schudt. Karl is eclectic and erudite, with a broad educational background (he has degrees in engineering and theology as well as a PhD in philosophy) and a solid grounding in strength and conditioning.

In his late 40's, Karl is exactly the kind of person we like to see in the 40fit Nation -- strong, healthy, good body composition, and educated. At a height of 5' 11" and weighing about 240lbs, Karl squats and deadlifts in the high 500's, benches in mid 400's, and presses in the mid 200's. Though he is a bit of an outlier, with good genetics and high testosterone, achieving these numbers while having a good body composition was a long road.

A couple years ago, Karl found himself strong but weighing in excess of 260lbs with a burgeoning waistline. After a concerning physical in which the doctor used the words "pre-diabetic," Karl resolved to bring down his waistline and his body fat, without losing too much strength in the process. He worked with our friend Robert Santana, began counting his macros, and re-programmed his behavior and feelings around food.

As a philosopher and a student of the classics, Karl takes a deeper perspective on the topic of diet and nutrition. While most sources are focused on the "how" of dieting -- that is, what to eat, how to make better food decisions, etc -- Karl observed that his motivation to eat was strongly tied to his happiness. In other words, the "why" of eating was more important than the mechanics of how to eat. He sought to divorce his animalistic desire to eat from his emotional state. The first months were hard, but just like barbell training, he developed a stronger mindset and adapted to training on a less-than-full stomach.

Karl notes that nearly all major world religions practice fasting in one form or another. The self-denial of food is an ancient concept designed to help humans access their higher nature. As Aristotle says, food is the "rudder of the soul," and if one can control his food, he can direct his soul.

Karl also argues that, from a utilitarian perspective, denying oneself pleasurable foods (like dessert) ultimately nets a higher amount of pleasure. The buttered roll, to use his words, tastes so much better after 40 days of fasting than it does eaten everyday.

While it's easy and satisfying to talk about nutrition in terms of diet "hacks," all the strategies in the world can't help someone who is not ready to change their behavior. And changing behavior comes first from understanding the motivation behind the behavior.

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Coach D and Trent discuss some recent conversations with patients and gym members about medical diagnostics and how they present an incomplete picture of health. Nevertheless, a scary looking MRI or conservative advice from a doctor can often lead people to inaction and fear avoidance -- in other words, avoiding taking active control of the problem by training and helping their body recover.

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Robert Santana -- Starting Strength Coach, Registered Dietitian, and Head Nutrition Coach for Barbell Logic Online Coaching -- returns to the podcast to talk about the "restaurant trap" and how to avoid going off the rails next time you dine out.

Let's face it, eating out is a big part of American culture. Restaurants serve as social hubs on the weekends and offer a bit of reprieve from the daily work grind. Even supposedly "healthy" restaurants are fraught with traps that can wreck your macros. With a little planning and some basic strategies, however, you can navigate any restaurant without letting it derail your nutrition.

Below are some highlights from our conversation with Robert.

Restaurants are a trap

• Let's not beat around the bush. Restaurant food has higher levels of salt, fat, sugar compared to home cooked meals.
• These exaggerated flavors override our natural satiety signals, making it easy to overeat.
• Fat is hidden in unexpected places: butter, oils, creams, dressings all contain lots of fat.
• We tend to desire sweet flavors after savory/salty, and vice versa, leading to overeating. Meals are often structured accordingly: appetizer, bread/chips, main course, dessert.

Plan Your Menu Options

• Identify "safe" restaurant choices with reasonable menu options — that way when you're tired and decide to eat out, you don't have to think about what to order.
• Ask for steamed vegetables and sauces on the side.
• Double the vegetables on the side instead of ordering a starch. LPT: more vegetables makes you have a fuller plate, so your dietary choices seem less weird to your friend group who may not understand or support your diet.
• Example of a tough restaurant, Texas Roadhouse: 6oz filet, one roll with no extra butter, side salad dipping fork in dressing, steamed vegetables

Over-estimate Your Calories

• Use the 50% Rule: assume you are getting double the calories you need, so only eat 50% of the portions you order. Maybe even less for high fat, high carb foods like pasta and desserts.
• Dip the butter and dressings, don't slather it on. Dip your fork in dressings, don't pour the dressing on your salad.
• Simple ingredients — salmon, vegetables, rice — are easier to estimate than complex dishes.

Know Some Common Food References

• Fist = 3oz portion protein
• If it's shiny, don't eat the whole thing. Probably oily, i.e. high in fat.

Routine vs Special Occasion

• For most people, dining out should be a special occasion not an everyday event
• Don't try to balance your macros at a restaurant — just follow the basic strategies and stick to your routines and good eating habits at home.
• If you know you are eating out, plan your meals accordingly. Eat less during the day in anticipation of the big work dinner, for instance.

Work on Your Food Prep Skills

• Trent's 5min food bowl: rice, big handful of chopped cabbage, top with ground beef, and drizzle with a savory/spicy sauce like soy sauce, sriracha, or chili sauce.
• Santana's slow cooked oatmeal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR5jV1-ijik

You can follow Robert Santana and his excellent nutrition tips and diet hacks @the_robert_santana. He also has a new gym that just opened in the Phoenix area! He offers barbell training and nutrition coaching services: https://www.weightsandplates.com

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Coach D and Coach Trent reflect on dogma in the fitness industry, and why some methods and styles of training become close-minded and insular over time. They explore the idea of using a model as the basis for a training program, and the shortcomings of complexity in the models. Ultimately, your fitness is bigger than your method, to paraphrase Coach D, and it's important to cultivate a skeptical mindset in which you search for good science, good principles, and then search for training methods built on those. It's ok to be dogmatic about principles, but keep an open mind when it comes to applying those principles in your day to day training program.

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Coach D examines the popular notion of central nervous system (CNS) fatigue and whether it's an important factor for training and sports performance. He looks at some of the literature, and dispels some misconceptions about using CNS as a measure of training fatigue.

Studies Darin references during the show:

• Sustained contraction at very low forces produces prominent supraspinal fatigue in human elbow flexor muscles: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17463302
• Study of the Effect of Stress on Skeletal Muscle Function in Geriatrics: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3939594/

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Today our good friend JoJo Brinton -- a crossfitter and strength athlete -- joins Trent and Coach D to talk about her fitness journey from YMCA aerobics to Crossfit to barbell training. In her late 40's, JoJo is a model of healthy aging -- strong, lean, and cardiovascularly fit for just about anything. However her fitness has not always come easily, as she sustained some knee injuries during sports requiring surgery (and will eventually require joint replacement). Through her fitness journey she has learned the value of strength and balancing recreational activity in a way that allows her to have fun while keeping her health and function high.

As we first discussed in episode #40 - How Strong Is Strong Enough? there is a line where training crosses over from a healthy pursuit to an unhealthy one. This is line is usually drawn over competition -- a lifter training for general health and fitness decides to compete in a strengthlifting meet, and the focus shifts from general health to performance, for instance. The competitor takes calculated risks in pursuit of performance, and one of those risks is the chance for injury and general wear and tear that may reduce function later in life. For the competitor this bargain is clear, and competition brings them value beyond recreational fitness that makes the whole endeavor worth it.

Many people are drawn to "competitive" recreational activities, whether it's sport, Crossfit, or other high-impact physical activities. While these can be great fun, they are often high-impact events, with physical contact, explosive movements, and high demands for both strength and cardiovascular fitness. In your teens and 20's, jumping right into an Ultimate frisbee game or a week of downhill skiing is no problem, but going into your 40's and 50's... there may a price to pay without preparation. We're NOT saying you should give up your favorite sports and activities! But a smart 40fit athlete prepares for these sports and activities by training in a systematic manner, prioritizing strength first.

You can follow JoJo and her exploits on Instagram @strongboymomma.

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