The Smarter Sculpted Physique: Training | Nutrition | Muscle Gain | Fat Loss

This episode began with a real and raw letter from a potential client who suffers from binge eating, but who agreed to let us share her letter on the show. For those dealing with these issues right now, please do visit: scottabelfitness.com/foodissues to get a few specific, helpful exercises sent to you (journaling prompts, self-investigation questionnaires, etc.). ---------------------------------------- ♦ IMPORTANT POINTS FOR HEALING ♦ ---------------------------------------- Release valves: what’s a good release valve? The answer is anything that is not a self-sabotaging behavior. Scott likes adult colouring books, which are becoming more and more popular as a relaxation exercise and self-connecting activity. Anything you can immerse yourself in is a good thing (flow state). Another option is, yes, television. Another important point is to get away from the number crunching, which encourages black and white thinking, and is often the cause of the build up of pressure in the first place. Scott mentioned the transformation of Alba and her husband. Find those here. The writer of the letter mentioned that she has worked in a supplement shop. One of the keys with this is to be aware of environments that actually make things worse. A supplement shop can be an environment full of triggers, since it is so body-image oriented (the writer mentioned that the shop is “full of sweets,” ironically). Mike: You have to be careful with “knowing thyself” and creating self-fulfilling prophecies: “Oh, these are my triggers, I’m destined to binge when I encounter them….” (Also, note that it won’t come in this form. No one says stuff like this. It’ll be a vague, much less articulated fear of “giving in.” But it’s just as damaging, and it’s still a self-fulfilling prophecy.) You also have to avoid becoming “comfortable” in trying another diet, and another diet, and another diet. You’re not actually digging your way out. It’s a way to pretend. (We all do this.) Be careful about associating “health” with “leanness.” Yes, these things are associated, but be careful: are you truly dieting for “health” reasons? Scott often refers to the triangle of awareness: mental, emotional, physical/behavioral. One problem many people have is focusing too much on the behavioral, and putting all their efforts there, when they have to dig deep into the emotional realm first. Avoid the compare, contrast, compete mindset. You can’t win with that one. A good followup exercise for almost any journal exercise is “and then what?” and do that five times (or, in other words, five layers deeper): “I want to lose 5 lbs. by next weekend. Okay, and then what? [blah blah blah] –> Okay, and then what? [blah blah blah] –> etc.” -------------------------- ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ -------------------------- • For the exercises: scottabelfitness.com/foodissues • Some extra ones at the full shownotes: smartersculptedphysique.com/055

One of the most requested topics is more info on biofeedback for things like tolerable hunger and supercompensation mode. Understandably, people want to know when they are or are not ready for a cheat day or refeed. You can find out more about the Cycle Diet at thecycle.diet. ------------------------ ♦ CYCLE DIET BASICS ♦ ------------------------ The Cycle Diet is a form of dieting in which you diet to get into “supercompensation” mode. Once you’re there, in begin implementing cheat meals, half-day cheat days, or full cheat days. People who have metabolisms that are really “revving” can have up to a day and a half of a refeed: a full day cheat day plus a mid-week spike meal. The Cycle Diet is relatively unique relative to other popular cheat” diets or refeed systems, because you don’t apply a set of external things to get your body to need a refeed; instead, you work from the inside out, and diet in a relative deficit and let your body tell you when it needs a refeed. ------------------------------------------------- ♦ BIOFEEDBACK FOR SUPERCOMPENSATION ♦ ------------------------------------------------- Hunger, hunger hunger. A slide from “tolerable” hunger to “always thinking about food” hunger. (Hunger, not just cravings for delicious things.) Being relatively lean. The leaner you are relative to your metabolic setpoint, the more likely you are to be in supercompensation mode. Concentration levels (partly just a bit of diet-induced attention deficit, and partly just always thinking about food) A feeling a being “flat” or “empty” in the gym, as well as less energy all throughout the day. Hunger is keeping you up at night. One of the things you need to take into account is the diet history and the mental history: if you have emotional eating issues, or a past history of yoyo dieting, you might be hyper-focused on hunger without it being physiological. A history of yoyo dieting can hyper-sensitive you to hunger or craving cues. ---------------------------- ♦ TRYING A CHEAT DAY ♦ ---------------------------- You don’t have to be 100% sure absolutely absolutely whether or not you’re in supercompensation mode. You can try a cheat meal, cheat day, or whatever, and then assess how it went. Be willing to make a small mistake here and there. The key is not to play mind games, but it can be done. ------------------------------------------------------------------ ♦ SCOTT'S TIPS FOR GETTING IN TOUCH WITH BIOFEEDBACK ♦ ------------------------------------------------------------------ Start with frequent small meals, use the 1/3 plate rule: protein, carbs, fat, each 1/3 of the plate. If you're thinking of cheat days, use the above indicators, but start with 4-6 weeks *at minimum* If you're ready, try a cheat MEAL, then ASSESS. What's the weight scale say, what's the mirror say? Did you lose the water weight quick? See what happens. -------------------------- ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ -------------------------- • Learn more about the Cycle Diet at thecycle.diet

Alwyn Cosgrove came on to discuss training strategy and program design, and especially some of the most absurd trends in the industry. Key themes were about delivering real results, relentlessly cutting chaff and extraneous fat, getting to the real core actions that will deliver results, and doing those things incredible well. ------------------------------------- ♦FITNESS TRAINER CONSULTING ♦ ------------------------------------- A lot of what Alwyn does with business consulting has to do with lifestyle design — that is, thinking about why you’re running a business, and how you’re going to structure that business to accomplish those goals. You don’t want to work for the sake of work, and if you’re not pro-active, that’s where you’ll happen. There was also a discussion about the benefit of the benefit. It’s not about losing a number on the scale; it’s about the benefit of that, or the “and then what?” or “why?” Keep digging. Why? And then what? Oh, why is that? That’s how you get to the real deep-seeded beliefs. This is good for marketing… and for coaching! The “and then what?” and lifestyle design equation come together when you think about why are you training. If you feel exhausted and terrible all the time, you’ve probably gotten lost somewhere. Go back to the why. In terms of marketing, and dealing with the people out there offering absurd promises, Alwyn says there are only two defensible positions in terms of marketing: “You were the first, or you were the only.” That is, Alwyn positions himself in a category of one. His clients won’t find someone else with the same background, expertise, and proof as him. They just won’t. -------------------------------------- ♦ SIMPLE, EXCELLENT EXECUTION ♦ -------------------------------------- Both Scott and Alwyn agreed that expertise is about simplicity is key. Expertise is often about getting rid of the extraneous stuff, not about adding complexity. This is true of coaching, and marketing: do amazing stuff, and do it well. Execution is key, not bells and whistles. Do simple things, and execute. A problem is information overload. If your coach gives you an opinion, guaranteed within five minutes you can find an article or something that can seem fairly legitimate that says the exact opposite. Always. For both sides. Alwyn sometimes uses a rule with clients: you’re allowed to question anything I say, but you’re not allowed to go out and just Google it and question. It used to be hard to get information. When Alwyn was writing about creatine way back when, he had to write a letter to the actual researchers. Now you Google it and have to sift through endless piles of crap. Sure, there’s more good stuff, but there’s exponentially more chaff. Another problem is the outright lies and supposedly legitimate research taken out of context. E.g., a supplement company pays for 10 studies. Nine of them show nothing. One of them shows maybe… sorta… something. Well, they don’t talk about the studies that didn’t show anything; the just build up and build up the study that was vaguely a little better than inconclusive. A similar problem, beyond supplement companies, is that journals don’t like publishing research that shows a negative result: “We were trying to show this, we didn’t.” The study design is valid, and it’s good for us to know such-and-such doesn’t have a positive effect. But it’s hard to get funding or published for producing that kind of result. ----------------------------- ♦ LINKS AND RESOURCES ♦ ----------------------------- • Alwyn’s Private Facebook Group • ResultsFitnessUniversity.com • AlwynCosgrove.com • Alwyn’s Cosgrove on T-Nation » Get clickable links and resources at SmarterSculptedPhys...

Today we were joined by Krista Scott-Dixon, who shared her wisdom, advice, and expertise regarding food, body image issues, and fitness, especially as it relates to women’s issues and gender. Discussions got pretty theory-heavy, but it was all excellent, relevant stuff if you’re involved in body or physique transformation in any way. -------------------- ♦ABOUT KRISTA ♦ -------------------- Krista is Program Developer and Coaching Coordinator for Precision Nutrition. She also has a PhD in Women’s Studies, and taught at York University until 2008, when she left academia altogether. She is published both inside and outside of academia; for instance, you can read lots of really good stuff over at stumptuous.com, where you can find articles with titles like, “Stop being a dick to yourself,” and “F*** exercise, try this instead.” You can also check out her book Consumed: A Memoir, which chronicles a peanut butter binge, but also addresses body image, dieting, Krista’s choice to leave academia, and more. -------------------------- ♦ POWER AND BEAUTY ♦ -------------------------- What began our discussion going was a quotation from Krista’s book, Consumed: -------------------------------------------------------- Because here is the big lie: that beauty brings power. The truth is that beauty attracts power, but only as the smell of week-old squirrel carcass invariably attracts the family dog, who rolls in it and then covered in the stink, consumes it with its canine teeth and front-facing eyes before forgetting about its ex-squirrelly existence. Real power is hidden. The less you need to display it, the more you have. [...] So you think you are winning by doing power’s bidding. By getting beautiful. By steeling your buns and raspberry-swirling your lips. But the illusory “choice” that real power offers us, like a bone to a begging dog, is still bullshit. -------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ ♦ “EMPOWERMENT” IN FITNESS ♦ ------------------------------------ Once you realize that the choice between Coke or Pepsi isn’t really much of a choice, you can realize you’re in a story, and that is itself a form of power. If you want to find where the power is, take a look at who’s making the money and who’s cleaning the toilets. Sometimes “taking control” of your body is marketed as a form of empowerment, but in many ways, it can be an exact opposite kind of situation, where you actually relinquish control: you lose touch with hunger, with what satisfaction is, with having “full energy” is. In terms of self-connection, Krista really likes George Beinhorn’s book, The Joyful Athlete. One of the dangers is that these things really do feel empowering at first, and they give us access to stories we can tell ourselves about ourselves (e.g., “I am a badass,” “I am super committed,” etc.) but it’s only much further on that you realize what’s really going on, and the toll its taking. In Scott’s parlance, ask the question: really, deep down, what is fitness doing for my life, and what is it doing to my life? -------------------------------------------------------- ♦ DISORDERED EATING AND UNHEALTHY THINKING ♦ -------------------------------------------------------- How do you move past it? Part of it is accepting that there is some kind of secondary gain, somewhere. This doesn’t happen in an instant; it’s a process. You don’t diet your way out of it. More nutritional knowledge doesn’t help, and it often makes it worse. Look for instances where your story doesn’t allow you to be a whole,

Scott’s former client, Desiree Walker, joined us to discuss her amazing office gym set up, and the way she’s integrated her fitness with her work as a dentist. Desiree’s competed in on Ninja Warrior, she’s won a Crossfit championship, she’s been a Pro Figure competitor, and now works as a dentist — while still keeping amazingly active and fit. ------------------------------------ ♦ DESIRÉE'S BACKGROUND ♦ ------------------------------------ Desirée's a general dentist and owner of her start-up dental practice, Lumber River Dental. She is a fellow of the International College of Dentists (2016), a member of the Academy of General Dentistry, the New Dentist Committee, and the American Association of Women Dentists. She has also been published in Dental Economics, Dentaltown, Incisal Edge, and a variety of dental blogs. She is a two-time competitor on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior, a two-time national fitness champion, pro fitness competitor, and an adult gymnastics competitor. She has been an nationally ranked as an amateur triathlete competitor, Boston Marathon Finisher, and Crossfit champion. She has creatively integrated her love of fitness into dentistry by transforming her private office into a Ninja training suite – equipped with rings from the ceiling, bars on the wall, and a balancing slack line. ------------------------------------------ ♦ DESIRÉE'S EXPERIENCE COMPETING ♦ ------------------------------------------ Before coming to Scott, Desiree's coaches had given her a very outside-in approach. In other words, they prescribed diet and training according to an arbitrary time frame: she was such-and-such "weeks out," so let's cut calories and add another hour of cardio, that sort of thing. When Desiree came to Scott for coaching, he didn't do anything magical so much as just realize he needed to let her genetics and her athletic background go to work for. She cleaned up by doing zero cardio, because that's what her body needed. What she was doing before wasn't "leaning her out..." it just just draining her. Desiree did a version of Scott's 5-Day MET for her contest. ---------------------------- ♦ DESIRÉE'S HOME GYM ♦ ---------------------------- Desiree has "wall bars" or "stall bars" on her office wall, which gives her a lot of flexibility for training. The bars themselves can be used for chin ups and gymnastics movements, and on top of that, you can attach resistance tubing or resistance bands to them for MET style training. In her door is a chin up bar. Desiree's desk is a standing desk and she has a floor balance beam right near it. Desiree also recommends wearing clothes you can move around in. Both she and Mike like Betabrand, which makes nice-looking clothes that actually let you move. -------------------------------------------------------------- ♦ VISIT SMARTERSCULPTEDPHYSIQUE.COM FOR VIDEOS ♦ --------------------------------------------------------------

J.C. Santana joined us to discuss functional training, program design, and some of the myths and biases that exist in the fitness industry. Scott has respected J. C. for a long, long time, having come across his book, The Essence of Program Design, just as Scott was leaving the bodybuilding world. ------------------------------------ ♦ THE INFLUENCE OF COACHES ♦ ------------------------------------ Scott’s intro led to a discussion of the influence of mentors and coaches. For Scott, it was Bill Pearl, and for J. C. Santana it was Andy Siegal. 14-15 is the crucial time for a coach, noted J. C. Bruce Lee was also a big influence of J.C. Ironically, Scott’s first gym was a powerlifting gym, while J.C. was “raised” by bodybuilders early on, which influenced his wrestling, his fighting, his judo. Both Scott and J.C. believe that fitness is a vehicle for personal growth, and can even be a spiritual endeavour. For Scott, it’s more of a potential — for plenty of people it’s not that, even if it should be. This is J.C.’s next project. ----------------------------- ♦ FUNCTIONAL TRAINING ♦ ----------------------------- What is functional training? Training to allow the body to do what it normally does. Okay, what does it normally do? Locomotion, level changes, push and pull, and rotation. These are J.C.’s four pillars of what the body does, and therefore how you would organize or think about your training. Level changes in two ways, parallel stance (up and down, think two leg squat, RLDLs, etc.), and staggered stance (think anterior reach, single leg squat). Staggered stance is usually used to decelerate and change directions; parallel stance is for things like picking stuff up. J.C. acknowledge the importance of bodybuilding have its place: if you’re a fighter, maybe not, but if you’re an NFL lineman trying to maintain a 350 lb weight, it makes no sense to put you on a stability ball and do acrobatics. For J. C., and integrated approach almost always makes the most sense. Even in sports training, if you want to put on weight, bodybuilding training makes the most sense. E.g., Evander Holyfield hiring Lee Haney to put on raw muscle mass. Scott and J.C. also both acknowledge that traditional bodybuilding training can be very good on the joints, provided exercise selection is sound. J.C. thinks the overhead squat has pretty much no use for functional training. Scott and J.C. also agree about Cross Fit (hint: they don’t like it). Neither of them train to failure any more. The mechanisms of action for bodybuilding and functional training are mutually exclusive, but that doesn’t mean both mechanisms can’t be used in a single program. -------------------------- ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ -------------------------- ihpfit.com Functional Training on Amazon JC Unplugged on Youtube

We had Mathew Park of the Peak Mindset podcast on to talk about what a “peak mindset” really is, and how mastering your inner game can help you with the outer game stuff as well. Mathew is a motivational fitness speaker, a performance business coach, and a WBNF pro natural bodybuilder. He is the founder of INBF Canada and Vice President of RE7, a caffeine-free, all-natural sports drink. Mathew helps trainers and folks in the fitness industry master their inner game, their focus, and their long-term goals. ------------------------------- ♦ MATHEW PARK’S STORY ♦ ------------------------------- As Mathew tells it, he was a farm boy from the middle of nowhere in Alberta, Canada. Mathew got started in bodybuilding way back when he was only 12, and did his first show when he was 16 (he got last place!) Mathew’s moved on from INBF and RE7 to coaching other trainers to help them with their business and life. The discussion turned to how mindset is a gaping whole in the fitness industry: trainers and often the marketing will pay lip-service to it, but often that’s really all it is. Scott was also reminded of Rocky IV’s training sequence: -------------------------------------- ♦ INNER GAME AND OUTER GAME ♦ -------------------------------------- Mike and Scott were both curious about the connection between Mathew’s coaching, and how it ties into, say, the business model of one of his clients. The first thing Mathew focuses on is self-image, because it’ll affect business decisions like Why am I even in the fitness industry? What am I hoping to do with my career? and that sort of thing. He’ll also help his clients who are trying to take their business to the next level: Okay, what’s your plan? What’s your one-year goal, what’s your five-year goal, and how are you going to design a strategy to get you there? A lot of trainers have no business goals, and end up doing four or five different things at the same time, when really they need to figure out a) what their goals are, first of all, and then b) what are the things they’re doing that are actually producing results — i.e., use the 80/20 rules and figure out what are the 20% of activities that are producing 80% of the results. Mike and Scott had a bit of a debate about what how you define the industry someone is in. Scott always says a coach isn’t in the fitness industry, they’re in the services industry. Mike pointed out that the “fitness” element can stay constant even as someone moves from services (like coaching) to parts of a business that are not technically service-oriented (e.g., physical products related to fitness). Both Scott and Matt emphasized that, if you’re trying to succeed as a coach or trainer, you need to stop thinking about “me” (I won this show, I have such-and-such a certification, etc.) and start thinking about we — what can your coaching do for the client? Mike pointed out that this shift is the essence of good marketing. Marketing isn’t taking a product and saying, “Okay, now do the marketing thing with it so people think it’s really good!” Marketing is… about the market itself. What are their needs? What’s their story? Mathew pointed out that our culture conditions us to think it’s all about you, the individual, rah rah rah, but that’ll only get you so far. MATHEW’S FIVE PILLARS OF YOUR INNER STATE 1. Your Body’s Physiology 2. Your Focus 3. Your Language 4. Your Intensity 5. Your Vibrations or Frequency Mike asked about #5, and Mathew said they were about your KPIs (key performance indicators) and where you’re at. Mathew is heavily into morning routines, and he’ll make specific suggestions to clients for their own routines.

Strength expert Dan John shares his knowledge and experience using what he calls the 1-2-3-4 assessment for his coaching clients. --------------------------------- ♦ THE 1-2-3-4 ASSESSMENT ♦ --------------------------------- Dan emphasizes that you have to figure out what the client really wants, and then figure out okay... What do we need to do? The 1-2-3-4 assessment is designed to give you insight into this question. It is also designed to focus on the difference between what the client says they want, and what he as a coach now knows what they NEED. ♦ ASSESSMENT ONE: STAND ON ONE FOOT ♦ If the client fails this test, Dan will also refer the client to a medical doctor. ♦ ASSESSMENT TWO: MEASUREMENTS ♦ » 1: Scale weight » 2: Height and waist line ratio ♦ ASSESSMENT THREE: THREE QUESTIONS ♦ » 1: How many pillows does it take for you to be comfortable at night? » 2: Do you eat colorful vegetables? » 3: Do you exercise for at least half an hour each day? From Dan’s book: “What we’re looking for in the final two questions is the disconnect between the other assessments and the answers to these questions.” ♦ ASSESSMENT FOUR: FOUR TESTS ♦ » 1: Plank » 2: To the Floor and Back Up » 3: Standing Long Jump » 4: Farmer’s Walks ♦ THE VENN DIAGRAM ♦ The assessments tell you where to focus your energy. Dan uses a Venn diagram to show the ways a client’s needs may overlap. For example, problems in Assessment Two (the measurements, meaning someone over 300 lbs. and/or with a waistline that’s more than half their height) equals a three in the Venn Diagram, and the client needs to focus on body composition. -------------------------- ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ -------------------------- • DanJohn.net -- Dan John's website and blog, where he posts regularly. • Can You Go? by Dan John • Dan John's Amazon page

With the launch of Scott’s Program Design Masterclass at programdesignmasterclass.com, we figured we would just do an episode all about what program design really is: why Scott believes there is an art and a science to it, what good programs look like, what bad program LACK, and that sort of thing. We mention a few specific exercise sequences and programs, scenarios, and what factors affect Scott’s program design decisions. ---------------------------------------------------- ♦ THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PROGRAM DESIGN ♦ ---------------------------------------------------- Scott believes there is an art and a science to program design. To him that means a workout is more than a collection of exercises, and a program is more than a collection of workouts. In other words, what you do today is affected by what you did yesterday, and it will affect what you do tomorrow, and next week. The program you just finished a month ago affects the program you should be on now. Scott got started in this way back in the early 1980s, partly when he got tired of trying to guess or just do what the magazines said, and started trying to learn more. There really wasn’t much on program design specifically, so he was reading a lot of actual physiology texts and articles, but one of the books that really stuck with him was Bill Pearl’s Keys to the Inner Universe. Mike and Scott also discussed Scott’s process for designing a new program from scratch: he starts with the theme or purpose, then moves on to the structure, then the context, then whether or not (or how) to use planned performance training* or periodization, and from there this lets him determine the strategies and tactics, and what will be variable vs. constant. The theme or purpose might be something like conditioning, or balancing conditioning with long term physique development goals, putting on muscle, developing workload capacity, and various combinations thereof. Context is a bit about the trainee, but in a general way, before the specific application. Structure is like “a 3-day program using quadplexes” or “a 5-day traditional bodypart split.” That’s all the DESIGN of the program. The application of a program to a specific client or trainee is then about the 5-Part Training Model, which asks “Who is my client?” in terms of 1. Effort, 2. Training Strategy, 3. Workload Capacity, 4. Recovery Capacity, and 5. Internal Biochemical and Hormonal Environment. In other words, Scott has a “collection” of hundreds of workout programs he’s designed over the years. Sometimes a trainee needs a totally new one, but often not: often Scott can just go into his collection, make a tweak here and there, and assign it. Sometimes it doesn’t even need a tweak — the customization will be in Scott’s email where he’ll say, “Look, here’s the program, pay attention to this, but watch out for this, this and this, and condition into it by doing this…” * I think this comes from JC Santana – M Scott and Mike referenced some slides that Mike made for the masterclass, to illustrate Scott’s process for designing a new program right from scratch. (Available at the shownotes at smartersculptedphysique.com/047.) ----------------------------------------------- ♦ USING 4-WEEKS’ WORTH OF WORKOUTS ♦ ----------------------------------------------- Scott mentioned that one of the ways he could very quickly see if someone was taking his programs was they would come back with a four week cycle of workouts. That is, Scott’s workouts aren’t periodized in terms of planned load percentages or anything, but many of them do have 4 weeks’ worth of workouts that you cycle through, so you do Week 1 of chest, week 1 of delts, week 1 of arms for the first week, then in the second week you go to week 2 of chest,

On the heels of several university athletes being hospitalized because of the intensity of their workouts, Scott and Kevin ranted a wee bit about some of the most dangerous strategies that are currently popular in the fitness industry. -------------------------------- ♦ DANGEROUS WORKOUTS ♦ -------------------------------- One of the most dangerous things to do is heavy kinetic chain work to failure, without a lot of rest. Although a lot of crossfit programs are much better, a lot of crossfit training programs still do this. The university students had indicators of rhabdomyolysis, or “rhabdo,” which has also come up in some crossfit programs, and “uncle rhabdo” has become almost a joke. It’s worth noting, though, that the university players in the article were doing bodyweight workouts, which in this case meant stuff like hundreds of burpees and things like that. Scott and Kevin emphasized that there is a difference between optimum work capacity and maximum work capacity. Going into a gym or a workout just to see how badly you can punish yourself isn’t a sound strategy that has anything to do with the principles of exercise physiology and eliciting a specific adaptive response. --------------------------- Where do you draw the line? How do you “push it” in the gym? --------------------------- Two key points came up here: One, it can heavily be about mindset. There is a difference between having a bit of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) because one workout was especially intense, or you are pushing yourself according to a set workout program. Secondly, this goes into program design. Yes, you push it, but you don’t assign a new trainee a 6-day program they can’t handle. Someone doing rehab after chemo treatments shouldn’t jump into a high-level program like Whole Body Hypertrophy. Leaving the totally insane workouts aside, you need build up a person’s (or a client’s) workload capacity and recovery capacity over time, and assign workouts that will challenge that and build it up. Both Scott and Kevin are basically against group training. To make a long story short. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach to something where that doesn’t work. Scott emphasized what he calls the “law of least eligibility.” The least fit person in the room receives the most stress or overload. In terms of your own progression, you should also learn to differentiate different forms of biofeedback. DOMS is not the same as ongoing muscle cramping, discoloured urine, and sense of fatigue and low motivation, a loss of libido, and things like that. Invigorated, not exhausted! Even DOMS should be something you adapt to over time. --------------------------- ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ --------------------------- The Article on ESPN Susan Powter’s Wikipedia page

We began by talking about questions Scott got about Andy when he and Andy went live on Facebook. A lot of the questions were about very, very specific things like macros, what brand of protein powder to buy — all things that are 1) more incidental and less fundamental than people think, and 2) although success leaves clues, the things people were asking about were going to be specific to Andy in any case. Are you a 6’3 fitness model with the same genetic and athletic history as Andy? The same goals, or lifestyle? No? That’s okay. You should still model success and learn, but you have to focus on what will be applicable to you. This episode was about those things, as well as dealing with some of the obsessions that come with focusing on things like macros instead of the bigger picture. --------------------------- ♦ MODELING SUCCESS ♦ --------------------------- Tom Platz, a bodybuilder known for having freaky huge legs, used to get asked all the time what he did for his legs. He said to Scott (and elsewhere) that a better question is what they should do for their legs, since Platz admitted he could basically walk up a hill and they would grow. It’s the day-to-day grind and sacrifices that people don’t get. It’s not a magic potion. It’s a lifestyle. In terms of sacrifices, the trick is that for Andy it’s not about “overcoming” this or that, but about adjusting and tweaking his lifestyle over the years so that at this point there are not “sacrifices.” It’s not, “Oh, well, when I think I’m going to cheat on my diet I do this [insert magic thing] instead.” It’s: “Uh… I don’t think of that now? Like, it doesn’t even come up…?” The goal is to make the things that will take you to your goals an invisible part of your day, like a fish in water who doesn’t even notice anymore that he’s surrounded by water. It’s just that fish’s world. Scott read out a letter from a woman who had previously dieted at 1,800 calories per day, but was not having problems with satiety, hunger, and cravings when eating 2,200 calories per day, and feeling (understandably) confused. Scott compared the metabolic compensation system to a tsunami, borrowing a joke from Amy Schumer. The key is that if you’re struggling now, it is often due to the diet from earlier. Yes, the one that “worked.” It set in motion all the stuff you’re dealing with now. It’s easy to think, “Ah, if only I could enjoy the benefits of that diet, but then overcome these after effects,” but the two go hand-in-hand (both mental and metabolic) Kevin pointed out that this kind of thing is getting worse, especially in the competition world, where people’s expectations are getting a bit more unreasonable — no, you can’t maintain a stage physique. Even Scott experienced a huge rebound after his first show. (The story is in his Cycle Diet book.) Mike related a story where he was at home visiting his parents, in the middle of a low-carb diet to “get ripped,” when he realized his food scale was out of batteries, and his parents didn’t have replacements for that kind. He slammed the scale down on the kitchen island while screaming out F***! His advice: just be real, realize it’s not a good place to be, and stay out of there. One of the hardest parts of climbing your way out of there is that so many people online will be promising you that, no, no, totally, it’s no big deal, you can just do this special post-diet diet and you’ll be able to maintain this unreasonable body image blah blah. No. You can’t. The human body isn’t built that way. Mike made a joke about carb cycling, but Kevin pointed out that refeeds and some form of cycling can help *to some degree*, and is certainly better than a linear downward slope.

We continued our discussion with Vince Del Monte, this time spending a lot more time talking about metabolism, and especially the relationship between metabolism and muscle gain. Most people talk about metabolism only with respect to fat loss, but it's important to emphasize how muscle support metabolism, which in turn supports fat loss. At the same time, you want to optimize or prime a metabolism in order to gain muscle. ---------------------- ♦ RULES VS. PRINCIPLES ♦ Scott emphasized that some rules are based on principles, but some are not. He quoted a passage from Josh Waitzkin’s The Art of Learning: Over time each chess principle loses rigidity, and you get better and better at reading the subtle signs of qualitative relativity. Soon enough, learning becomes unlearning. The stronger chess player is often the one who is less attached to a dogmatic interpretation of the principles. This leads to a whole new layer of principles — those that consist of the exceptions to the initial principles. Vince agreed. He often gets attacked, but his response is “Look, don’t get mad at me. I’m literally just describing facts. I’m not making these up because that’s how I want them to be.” ---------------------- ♦ METABOLISM AND MUSCLE ♦ Both Scott and Vince emphasized that muscle building takes time. The body will add muscle at the time it will add it. You can’t just stuff your face and speed it up. There’s a limit to what your body can do. Vince shared the thoughts of his brother, who transitioned from very high-level distance running to bodybuilding. Vince’s brother found bodybuilding… weird. It’s an all-the-time thing. You have to keep eating. You have to always be on. It can be mentally exhausting. Scott somewhat disagreed. It can be exhausting. So: how do you avoid this? For Vince, it’s about listening to your coach, and the trusting the process. Don’t question. Just follow the plan and let it happen. You will also develop a lot of skills, and the only way to do that… is to do it. Learning to prep your meals is a skill. Learning to adapt your diet to different social situations is a skill. Indeed, it’s a series of skills. Scott is often surprised by the people who don’t learn. They don’t learn in such a way that they can take any of these skills with them. ---------------------- ♦FAT LOSS BEFORE GAINING MUSCLE? ♦ For Fat loss, Scott emphatically suggests focusing on metabolism first, weight loss second. But… with that in mind, Vince asked Scott how much Scott recommends losing fat at all before trying to gain muscle. Vince will often lean guys out a little bit, for the sake of optimizing their metabolism, but also for the sake of getting their habits and discipline in check, before beginning a muscle gain phase. Scott does this *to some extent.* There is an anti-catabolic phase to any relative caloric deficit, and this is something you can take advantage of. Your body will, at the beginning of a diet in a caloric deficit, preferentially lose fat rather than muscle or lean tissue, and you need to coax your metabolism and your hunger levels to get things sorted (insulin usage and storage, hormones, etc.). On the other hand, if you’re thinking of losing fat before you have gained any muscle, remember: you can’t sculpt a pebble. One of the reasons for this is that your metabolism won’t support it. Muscle supports metabolism, metabolism supports fat loss. And when you try to lose fat and get “ripped,” you will lose some lean mass. So you have to have enough there to accommodate that. Muscle, Carbs, Satiety and Metabolism are connected. So adding way too much aerobic activity, cutting carbs more,

We had Vince Del Monte on for an interview about training for muscle activation, and thinking through what your goal is with your training. There was a lot of overlap with what Vince talked about and what Scott has said about innervation principles, but there was also some disagreements about things, such as tempo training, and whether such things can serve as tools to help the trainee get a better mind-muscle connection or not. ♦ MARKETING SEXY VS. MARKETING LONGEVITY ♦ Both Scott and Vince agreed that social media has watered down how people recognized value and expertise. Vince: “Sell them on what they want, but give them what they need.” Vince even says he’s been criticized over the years for making bigger ballsy promises (on what his market wants), but he tries to deliver what his market really, really needs. Mike quoted an anecdote related to copywriter David Ogilvy (pretty sure the story came via current copywriter Ray Edwards in this interview here) in which Ogilvy was hired to write copy for a company, and when he handed the copy in, the company responded, “Whoa, whoa, you can’t say this! This is over the top?” and Ogilvy is like, “What? Look, you say this on page 78, and you say this other thing on page 116, and if you say both those things are true, then, logically, what I claimed also has to be true” (i.e. a logical syllogism: all men are mortal, Socrates is a men, therefore it must be true that Socrates is mortal). Vince noted that he has friends that sold crap and made a lot of money very quickly, but not they’re struggling. 4-5 Experts Vince respects: • For metabolism: Scott Abel • For mechanics: Tom Purvis • For program design: Ian King & Charles Polliquin ♦TRAINING FOR MUSCLE ACTIVATION (…OR… “INNERVATION”!?) ♦ Vince really likes RTS, or Resistance Training Specialists by Tom Purvis. RTS has a lot of overlap with stuff Scott talks about related to controlling and owning the wieght. Your goal isn’t just to move the weight from A to B. It’s to use the weight to contract muscle fibers. (See Scott’s free Innervation Primer.) Vince says you need to really think through your goal with each exercise: what are you trying to accomplish? If your goal is muscle growth, the numbers are not the be-all end-all. E.g., guys are able to lift more weight on the bench by thrusting their hips weigh in the air and butchering their form, but the one thing they aren’t doing is working their chest. Vince also mentioned the way a lot of muscle gain advice boils down to, “Well, train harder.” Well, sure… but that’s simplistic. First, a lot of guys are training plenty harder than other folks who are seeing more results. Secondly, you’ll hurt yourself, especially when you look at the effects of training over the long term, and what you’re going to do to your joints. Scott noted the difference between training at “optimal” work capacity versus “maximum” work capacity. Bill Pearl: “Don’t workout to see how much your body can take; workout to see how much your body can give.” Vince: “You are what you can recover from.” ------ VINCE’S PRINCIPLES OF MASS MECHANICS 1. Principle of ownership. You need to own the weight. You own the weight during both the eccentric and concentric phase of the movement: one pound at a time. 2. Principle of respect. This is related to active and controllable range of motion. You bring with your certain anatomical qualities and leverages you need to respect. What is you active and controllable range for this exercise? This is individual. Deadlifts, for example, don’t need to be done from the floor. 3. Principle of disadvantages.

We began by discussing snack foods, which lead to us discussing meal frequency, hunger, metabolism, and what kinds of strategies lead to an optimized metabolism. Snacking as such is dangerous, but what about other strategies to deal with hunger and cravings? How does one negotiate these things? ♦ MEAL FREQUENCY AND METABOLISM ♦ Right now Kevin eats only one meal a day. Scott definitely doesn’t think this is the optimal way to achieve and maintain a lean physique and an optimized metabolism, but Kevin says that personally has not experienced draw backs. Kevin mentioned that one of the benefits is that he’s less hungry when it’s not time to eat, but for Scotts, that’s almost a drawback: “tolerable hunger” is super important, and is a sign of an optimized metabolism; you don’t want to depress that. Mike thinks hunger is more a balance. This is why he calls it the “sweet spot” of hunger. Sure, you can take things too far, but reducing what Scott would call “intolerable” hunger is a reasonable thing to do, provided you don’t take things too far, and you can still assess your own hunger to some degree. All of this is also related to how we define hunger versus appetite, “mental” vs. “physical” cravings, and so on, and the overlap between and intersection between these things. Scott points out that more often than not if you look at high-end bodybuilders you’ll find them eating five or six meals a dya, not three. That’s worth mentioning. Mike agrees that, yes, it is basically indisputable that frequent smaller meals at the same times each day “works.” If you want a sure thing, it’s there. But he admits that he’s looked in the research, and he hasn’t found overwhelming evidence that it’s physiologically advantageous. [I didn’t mention it in the podcast, but I like Alan Aragon’s Research Review is in this regard. It’s certainly not comprehensive — that’d be impossible — but it is balanced and fair. — M] Scott believes this is one of those things where the research is just behind the folks in the trenches. ♦ LOW CARB vs. "HIGH FAT" ♦ Scott also wanted to point out that when Kevin eats a high fat diet, it’s not really the same as what is often sold as a “low carb” diet. Scott has written about Kevin’s diet before. It’s not “chicken breast” and broccoli. Scott and Kevin “agree to to disagree” though about the high fat diet itself. Scott thinks it’s more dangerous metabolically than a high carb diet. ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ • A blog post Scott wrote about Intermittent Fasting • Scott’s blog post about Kevin’s high-fat diet • Scott's book, Beyond Metabolism

We look at how to make real progress through your workout program, and how to assess that progress. What does it mean to be in what Scott calls the “Mastery Phase” of a workout program? How important are strength gains? If it depends on the program, what factors determine this? ♦ WORKOUT PROGRESSION ♦ Training for Size vs. Training for Strength Scott’s been posting exercise form videos on his Facebook page: facebook.com/CoachScottAbel Scott also wanted to talk about how great and versatile functional trainers are. You can mimic pretty much anything. You can see Scott’s own in his home gym walkthrough video: https://youtu.be/kJ6pHGuxSVk Workout program design needs to account for whether it is training ultimately for strength (e.g. powerlifting) or training for muscle development. If you’re training for strength, you’ll use volume, but your’e still straining ultimately for strength. If you’re training for muscle and development, you’ll gain strength, but you’re still training ultimately for muscle size and development. Strength will have more linear periodization than training for hypertrophy and muscle gain. If you’re training for muscle and size, the indicators of progress will be much more subjective, and perhaps subtle. You WON’T necessarily add pounds to the bar. Key Term - Training Efficiency Percentage (or TEP) – the percentage of reps in a set that force an adaptive response. I.e. a beginner does a set of 10, and the first 7 reps are easy. It’s only the final few reps that seem hard. By contrast, look at an experienced lifter. Even from the beginning those reps are difficult. Key Term - Maximum Voluntary Neural Activation: Simplified answer: your ability to activate your CNS and make as many muscle fibers as possible contract. ♦ THE MASTERY PHASE ♦ The Mastery Phase comes usually at least 6 weeks into the program, and it’s about getting through the initial “getting used” to the program your body goes through, and now you’re at the stage where you can really hammer it. What does it feel like? You’re no longer trying to remember, “Oh, do I do this, or this? Where do I go after? Aw, crap, how am I gonna super set this exercise with this other one?” At this point, you’ve figured it all out, both on the macro level (exercise 5 follows exercise 4, which follows 3, etc.) and on the micro level (this is how you perform this specific exercise). On the one hand, this is just… memory. Not even “muscle” memory, but just plain old memory. AND YET, that is important too, and plays a role. It’s not the entire thing, but it’s a part. ♦ STRENGTH IN THE SERVICE OF SIZE? ♦ Subjectively, you should always choose a weight that challenges you within the reps indicated. The program design should take care of forcing an adaptive response, which doesn’t always take the form of #s on the bar. Both Scott and Kevin agree that training for 1-rep max strength is not optimal if your goal is muscle development. Kevin thinks you do need a certain base level of strength before you start adding volume or worrying about advanced strategies. You just need to go through that initial progression. ♦ LINKS & RESOURCES ♦ Scott’s book, The Abel Approach, covers the science of what we talked about. Learn more here. The Innervation Primer provides more of a general intro.