The Training Week That Was 9/23-9/29 and Carb Backloading v2.0

Training 9/23 - 9/29

-Nothing

-Absolutely nothing

-Zero

My back has been giving me fits since Estes Park. I've been trying to train though it with zero success. With that in mind, I've done something that I haven't done in probably a year: I did nothing. No training. No sled dragging or Prowler. No reverse hyper. No yoga. No bar work. No tempo work. Nothing. I saw the chiro twice this week and my back hasn't felt this good in ages. Proof will be in the pudding as I'm restarting training for my next meet tomorrow. 

On to vastly more interesting topics: Carb Backloading. I've tried a number of different diets with my training, from Carb Cycling to a modified version of the Warrior Diet to Intermittent Fasting. I have found my most success from Carb Backloading and its sister plan, Carb Nite. I used Carb Nite for ten weeks right after my last meet and moved from 214-202 and lopped an inch and a half off of my waist, which has stayed off. I must say that I would HIGHLY recommend people try a wide variety of nutrition programming (including ALL of the previous programs) and see what works for you.  

So the basics of carb backloading: skip breakfast, stay ultra low-carb and stick to protein/fats/veggies during the day, train hard and then pound high glycemic carbs til bedtime. That's the 50,000 ft view; the actual mechanics are much more detailed than I can (or should) go into in a blog post. I highly recommend you pick up the book and read it for yourself. There are literally about fifty pages of references for the protocols to scratch your nerd itch, and these protocols are backed by the science. 

I won't go into big picture details, as none of these ideas are mine and I want to protect Kiefer's intellectual property. I will, however, give you some details on what has been optimal for me specifically. This is my second go round and I learned quite a bit from my first run of CBL. 

1. Gluten free is the way to go: I've never had any noticeable issues with gluten in my life. Having said that, I experimented with going gluten free for a week of backloads and the results were fantastic. No bloating, no feelings of impending doom, no issues with sleep and no morning-after carb hangover. I stick to white rice for my first post-workout meal, typically a bowl from Tokyo Joe's, a stir-fry at home and/or a yam and sweet potato. I get a little dirtier for my second meal, which is usually a bowl (or three) of Cocoa Krispies (with raw milk), some Rice Krispie treats or a Fro-Yo. I'm also terribly partial to Udi's gluten free muffins. The cinnamon and chocolate are the shiznit. 

 

2. Paleo is the way to go: I'm no expert on the Paleo diet, but it's very tough to make an argument against the idea of eating whole foods from smart sources. Carb-Backloading, within the Paleo realm, is still incredibly easy. Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, bananas, mangoes and cherries all make excellent high-glycemic backloading foods. Personally, I've noticed that I don't get as good results when my backloads are high in fruit, so I stick to the potatoes with a mango or banana or the side rather than the other way around. Honey and agave aren't the best ideas either, as they're actually quite low on the glycemic response scale. 

3. Find your upper and lower ranges: The first week I pushed the backloads very hard to see my upper limits and the second week I pushed them low to see my body's response. For me personally, staying at the lower end and cleaner works best as far as refueling and feeling good. It's probably a function of my style of training (Olympic weightlifting) that I stay at the low end as it isn't terribly glycogen depleting. Carb backloading isn't a one-size fits all protocol; you need to dial up the particulars for your personal situation. 

4. Watch out for too much fat in the morning: My "breakfast" is typically coffee with a half scoop of whey isolate and some combination of coconut oil and heavy cream. When I go overboard on the fats in the morning...the phrase "gastrointestinal distress" some to mind. If/when you go too far, you'll know. 

I like to think of the whole backload process as an extended post-workout shake. Pretty much the entire fitness industry agrees that a post-workout shake is a good idea in most cases. The ideal shake is typically high-glycemic carbohydrate and a fast acting whey protein, rich in leucine. So imagine the backload process as multiple meals within the post-workout window rather than a single meal. 

So that's that. Visit Dangerously Hardcore. Read the book. Listen to the Biojacked Radio podcasts, either on Soundcloud or through the Dangerously Hardcore website. Be open minded. Ask questions. I've implemented both diets with success. Be moar healthy and moar awesome. 

So I Baked: Big Whoop, Wanna Fight About It?

This past weekend I did something I hadn't done in ages: I baked. After almost a year living in my current utilitarian hovel, I finally managed to use the oven. And since I had a ginormous zucchini from a friend's garden, I went looking for zucchini bread recipes. Preferably with chocolate.

What I found was a recipe for MOIST Chocolate Zucchini Bread from Denver, Colorado's own Juli Bauer of PaleOMG and Crossfit Broadway fame. I did make a couple minor tweaks to her recipe (sorry Jules):

-I went with almond butter instead of sunbutter (1:1 exchange), purely because I already had an unopened jar of Justin's Nut Butter. A well-prepared baker would've bought Justin's chocolate almond butter. Next time. 

-I also dropped two scoops of Muscle Feast Whey Isolate into the batter. Anything to squeeze in a little extra protein whenever possible. And yes, I realize the high temps from baking probably denatured the protein a bit.   

SIDE NOTE: (People always seem to mention protein denaturing when you cook with protein powders like it's the end of the world, but never when you cook with meat or eggs. The main point of cooking is to denature and break down foods (not just the Precious protein powders), which in turn makes them easier to digest and more bioavailable. Do some Googling on the Tron and you'll see that cooking our meats and plants has had a tremendous impact on our evolutionary path.)

And that's it. Follow Juli's excellent recipe and you should end up with a couple loaves of an awesome cake/bread-type thing that stays really MOIST. Mine didn't rise a whole lot (I probably shorted the baking powder), so keep that in mind. I took both loaves into the office on Monday morning and they were terminated with extreme prejudice by 10am by the entire trading desk. 

(I didn't frame my pics quite as awesome as she does, but you get the idea)

(Mini-Band from Elitefts.com; supersetting band pull-aparts and grating zucchini is great rotator cuff prehab)

A Quick Word on Recovery

A quick word on recovery, 

Your body is concerned with one thing: survival. It adapts to everything, from your shitty college diet (mine consisted of rugby, booze, Top Ramen and booze) to your stressful job. It adapts (hopefully) to training by making you faster/fitter/stronger. In short: your body adapts to anything that pushes it out of homeostasis.  

Once we realize that the body adapts to stress and wants only to survive, it stands to reason that we want to create a substantial (read OPTIMAL) training effect and not blunt this effect immediately post-training. Your body freaks out because you're stressed it and it wants to get back to homeostasis ASAP. You WANT your body to feel the full impact of that god-awful workout you just finished. 

-Avoid anti-inflammatory meds immediately post-workout. They're a placebo and they blunt the impact of the tough training session that you just finished. Move More (This applies to pretty much everything). Movement magically fixes all that stuff that comes on by not moving, like bad posture, love handles and annoying co-workers. Increasing work capacity also increases your recovery capacity. Louie Simmons has trained some gigantic, strong as hell lifters and they have fantastic work capacity. 

-Related to the above: it is OK to be stiff, sore and have that general not so fresh feeling on occasion. Life has a way of doing that, never mind training on top of it. Move More. Just for a walk. Dr Medvedyev considered nature walks and leisurely bike rides to be recovery methods, and he is/was an incredibly smart man. Soak up some sun and have actual interactions with the other animate and inanimate objects in your particular part of the world. Heck, walk around outside and stare at your phone (GUILTY). You can do recovery work while still being connected to Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest/Reddit!

-If you use contrast showers (big fan, cheap, no risk/good reward), wait 4-5 hours post-workout. Right before bed is ideal. Finish on hot; it always knocks me out.

-Put your biggest impact recovery methods (massages, epsom salt baths, etc) on your rest days from training. A little foam rolling is OK for some local soreness/issues. 

-Cycle recovery the same way you cycle training. Your body will get used to recovery the same way you get diminishing returns from using the exact same training methods.

-Training days are for training and recovery days are for recovering. 

The Training Week That Was - 9/15-9/21

Here's my first week post-comp. CNS is still shot, as is my lower back, so I'm just getting some useful training in while the body heals up. 

9/15

Snatch - up to 87x1x4

CJ - up to 110x1 (back is giving me fits this week)

9/16

Back Squat -145x5

Back Push Press - 95x5

Single Arm OH Press - 3x8 

Lat Pulldown 3x8

Neck/Hypers/Upper Back Superset

9/17 - Off

9/18

Snatch+Above Knee Snatch - 60x1x2 70x1x2 77x1 85x1 90x1 92x0x2

Down Sets (Pulls only): 3x2 90kg

Clean Pull+Above Knee CJ - 60x1x2 70x1x2 77x1 85x1 95x1 105x0 105x1 110x0x2

Down Sets - Shankle Complex - 90x1x2; Clean Pull - 3x2 110kg 

Back Squat - 3x5 110kg

Hypers

9/19

Pwr Snatch - 80x1x2 (Down Sets 3x3 - 65kg)

Hip Clean - 100x1 105x0 (Down Sets 3x2 80kg)

Back Push Press - up to 87x5 (Down Sets 3x5 82kg)

Chins/Rows/Abs

9/20 (my low blocks = 25kg and 10kg plates stacked on the platform))

OH Squat - empty bar 2x10

Low Block Snatch - 70x1x2 75x1x2 82x1 87x1 92x1 97x0x3 (Down Sets - 80x2 85x2 87x2)

Low Block CJ - 60x2x3 80x2x2 90x1x2 100x1 105x0 105x1 110x1 (back locked up)

(Down Sets 2 Cleans + 1 Jerk 90-95-100)

Front Squat - up to 255lbs 3x3

Glute Ham Raise//GH Situps 3x10 each

Reverse Hypers 2x15

9/21 - Off

I'll detail nutrition a little bit in my next post. I'm back on Carb-Backloading after ten weeks of Carb Nite.  More to come!

New Training Block

As long as no one objects, I'm going to start logging my training and some nutrition here weekly. If you're all (un)lucky, I might even post the gratuitous "Cell phone pic in the bathroom mirror" pic. 

Regarding training: I'm working off of a template that Glenn Pendlay outlines here. I've struggled in the past with finding a balance between strength work and Olympic work. Typically I've erred in the direction of the quick lifts and haven't done enough general strength work. The planning that Glenn outlined offers me a good template, which also allowing me some freedom to address my specific needs such as back strength and pressing. 

Below is my basic split idea; as always open to changes and interpretations:

Saturday - Max Day

Maximal Lifts in Snatch and CJ - chasing PRs

Sunday - Max Squat Day

Back Squat - up to a 5RM

Push Press - up to a 5RM

Pressing and Upper Back 

Hypers

Monday - Off (typically AM: Contrast Shower and PM: Epsom Salt bath)

Tuesday - Complex Work

Snatch Complex w/ 2-3 down sets

CJ Complex w/ 2-3 down sets

Back Squat 3x5 (non-maximal)

(Maybe a "complex" complex with 4-8 reps)

Wednesday - Lighter Olys and Strength

Snatch Exercise 

Clean Exercise

Push Press

Upper Back

Thursday - 

Snatch from Hang/Box - max single with down sets

CJ from Hang/Box - max single with down sets

Front Squat - 3x3 heavy

Low Body Extras

Friday - Off (AM: Contrast Shower and PM: Epsom Salt bath)

Estes Park Write Up

I closed out the Highland Games season at Estes Park last weekend with some of my training partners. We started and ended the day with a nip of good Scotch and in general had a great time. First time in over a year that we've been able to all compete together. We've splintered a bit as far as training and competing together, so it was really great to all get together and have a day of fun in the sun. Derek finished 3rd in the A class, while Reggie (1st), Beau (2nd), Justin (9th) and I (5th) were in the B-class. I'm waiting for some more pics to come back from the Estes folks, but below are some of the crew all kilted out. Personally, I threw pretty much in line with how recent practices has been, with one exception: the sheaf. I haven't thrown over 22ft all year with a 20lb bag (I MIGHT have hit 23 once in training), but for some reason I got a wild hair up my kilt and hit 26ft with two near misses at 27. I made a couple tweaks to my finish and that seems to have opened up some power. Gives me something to build on over the winter.

Derek (aka the Barge) is making a run at Pro-level and Reggie and Beau could both make the A-standard if they would train the throws a little bit. Beau is former pro lightweight strongman and Reggie is a really high level amateur strongman, so they have power in spades. Personally, I'm in this weird spot where I give up 50-60lbs to most other competitors, but I'm about ten pounds heavy for the lightweight class (sub-190lbs) as defined in Colorado. A lot of the other games' seem to be pushing the lightweight class to sub-200 and I'm hopeful the RMSA adopts the same standards. Regardless of weight class, I have plenty of technique that needs to be improved. Here are some pics. Goddamn we're a good looking group. 

 From left: Beau, Justin, Reggie, my ass

 From left: Beau, no idea, no idea, Reggie, Justin, myself

 The Entire B-Class from Estes Park

 Beau (with Fat Tire), Justin, Reggie, me (the look on my face says "I got hit in the head with a Braemar")

Justin, Beau, Reggie, me

B-Class Results by Event:

Overall:
1. Reggie - 664 avg
2. Beau - 631 avg
5. Kyle - 564 avg
9. Justin - 472 avg

Hvy Ht:
1. Reggie - 27.2ft
3. Beau - 24.6
8. Kyle - 19.9
10. Justin - 17.8

Lt Wt
3. Reggie - 47.3
4. Beau - 46.7
5. Kyle - 46.3 (I have to say this: I scratched my third throw @ 50'2", would've been a PR)
9. Justin - 38

Lt Hammer
1. Reggie - 97.3 (CRUSHED this)
2. Beau - 86.5
6. Kyle - 80.9
9. Justin - 54

Braemar
3. Reggie - 30.5
4. Beau - 28.8
6. Kyle - 26
9. Justin - 21.5

Caber
2. Beau - 11:55
3. Reggie - 1:05
6. Justin - 11:59 (scoring minutes this close is nuts, esp in a B-class; should've been a 12:00)
10. Kyle - 1:10 (My timing is atrocious with caber; always late. Glaring weakness, needs work)

Sheaf
1. Kyle - 26ft (BIG 2ft PR; I made 24 my first year at 230lbs. Now I'm 205.)
4. Beau - 21ft
5. Reggie - 20ft
6. Justin - 18ft

Wt for Ht
1. Reggie - 13 (SO CLOSE at 14. I think Reg just got tired)
4. Beau - 11
6. Kyle - 10 (PR is 12, which I threw at 230. Had height, left them in front of the bar.)
9. Justin - 10

We also got to see a couple world records as Dan McKim set a new North American record in the light hammer and Matt Vincent set a world record in the open stone. The pro guys are absolutely insane with the torque they generate as well as the distances they're throwing. Fun to watch and got to chat with Matt as well as Sean Betz, who has helped me out with some technique.

Great times with these guys all around. Thanks to the Estes Park Scottish Festival and the Rocky Mountain Scottish Athletes for all the help. Also thanks to Armbrust Pro Gym for supporting us...well, really for putting  up with us. Dylan creates an epic training environment for anyone who wants to improve themselves and we could not do the things we do without having a place like Armbrust to call home.

Personally, I also need to thank Steve Pulcinella for writing me a training program which I used for the bulk of the season. I added some legit length to my throws throughout the year and also added 10kg to my Olympic weightlifting total using Steve's programming. I would HIGHLY recommend Steve for anything regarding getting stronger and, if you're in the Philly area, he would be an unbelievable Highland Games coach and IronSport Gym is second to NONE. Follow him on twitter at @StevePulcinella and his log at EliteFTS.