"Muscle is medicine; it releases many substances that promote health. Fat( body fat, not dietary fat) is poison; it sends forth chemicals that disrupt metabolism and promote chronic disease and aging. Building muscle alters our metabolism; as we increase muscle mass, energy and nutrients are directed to our brain and muscle- not to our fat stores.
When you become more slender and muscular, your body composition (ratio of muscle to fat) makes it easy to maintain weight in a stable range.
Brief, more intense exercise supplies energy to the brain to offset hunger in a way that long and slow exercise cannot."
Increasing "energy out", otherwise known as boosting your metabolic rate, or exercising more, does NOT result in body fat loss. This is because body fat is regulated by a myriad of hormone / endocrine signals, most specifically leptin.
Expecting to raise energy needs and lose body fat from creating a "calorie deficit" is like trying to hold your breath to reduce your respiratory rate. Guess what happens? You breathe frantically when you let your guard down. Even assuming you temporarily maintain the lower respiratory rate, while actively in the slow breathing condition, a myriad of physiological changes occur to maintain equilibrium and adapt to the reduced oxygenation / increased carbon dioxide in the blood. Our respiratory rate is matched to our need for oxygen and to blow off carbon dioxide. The body is capable of adapting to a lower availability of oxygen (e.g. disassociating more oxygen from hemoglobin, otherwise known as a declining o2 saturation... in normal people it's usually about 98%, in hypoxic people it can go below 93% which is considered insufficient.... or, if carbon dioxide is increasing, to prevent impending respiratory acidosis the body can adapt by utilizing metabolic mechanisms to alkalize the blood such as blood cells swapping hydrogen for potassium, which helps buffer the acidic effect of retaining carbon dioxide. Hyperkalemia is an effect of anything that promotes acidosis for this reason (e.g. uncontrolled diabetes being notable / hall mark example, as not only are ketones acidic actively promoting metabolic acidosis but insulin is required very intimately to help regulate electrolytes and prevent shift of potassium out of cells).
Well kiddies, general medical info, I digress big time... but the point I am making is that eating behavior is not one iota different from breathing behavior over a long term continuum of time. This is what dumb bells like carbsane don't get. You can't exert "willpower" to eat less because you will induce an imbalanced state that promotes very strong hunger (just like under-breathing promotes very strong drive to breath) and if you resist the eating (temporarily, always) your physiology adapts to a starvation condtiion by slowing energy use and all metabolic process, as well as shunting more energy to storage (fat) relative to heat, energy production, or synthesis of non-fat tissue.
What is so complicated to understand about this? Eating is not random. People eat 100% and always and never for any reason other than the endocrinological prompts of their body. The nervous system at best modulates endocrine state of body, but ultimately how much you eat and how much fat you store is not any less than 100% an endocrine proposition over a long term trend of time.
People are very dim. They are also very very arrogant. "You mean my physiology absolutely controls me like a slave? You mean I'm not choosing to eat too much and be fat? BUT NOOOO! I am such a smart special human being totally in control / able to be in control of myself at all times" <~~ um actually you are an animal, and a DUMB animal at that.
Progesterone - noted to increase metabolic rate, sure. Hypothetically people should lose weight with supraphysiological progesterone. Good thing we aren't stupid and we understand body fat anabolism is always a metabolic/endocrine proposition, therefore the "rate" of metabolism means jack and shit for determining whether or not something is obesigenic! Yes, progesterone increases metabolism, increases body temperature, but it is well known and notoriously obesigenic. It ruins glucose tolerance, it literally tells your fat cells to store more energy by not only promoting hypertrophy/bias of insulin sensitivity, but also directly promoting adipogenesis of white fat around the mid section (which, BTW, is why women loose their figures with increasing age and especially after child birth - progesterone is very specific for pregnancy, raises total body fat permanently especially around the mid section. Women with smaller waists are basically advertising nulligravida status. Either that or great hollywood surgeons.)
Exercise increases metabolic rate, reduces insulin, promotes body fat oxidation/increases ketogenesis. Exercise actually can promote long term weight loss *if* it helps normalize glucose tolerance / hyperinsulinemia when it is pathological, just like lowering carbohydrate can do this as well. However, if one is already at a "leptin stable, weight stable" type condition, meaning to say your leptin levels are LOW and ADEQUATE for maintaining minimum body fat, all exercise will accomplish is one monster appetite (and, if you try not to eat enough, then you induce upon yourself a complex metabolic/endocrine/nervous system imbalance known as semi-starvation. See athletes triad and eating disorders for more info as to what happens, don't have time to go into all of this here, but basically if your leptin is too low for too long because you're exercising and not eating (or simply just not eating, without exercise) then your body says F.U. and refuses to work.)
Here, with exericse, we see yet another example of increasing "metabolic rate" but not reducing body fat. The body merely adapts to conserve energy, and increase appetite (with the only noted exception being when exericise is used as an insulin sensitizing agent in people who have pathological insulinemia; then exercise may promote healthy/sustainable body fat reduction by correcting hyperinsulinemia and metabolic disorder).
Just felt like writing this after observing myself working like a crackhead, with high progesterone... so much "energy out" but guess what? My appetite is non-stop and I just eat way more calories than usual.
I don't simply lose weight from all the activity.... my hunger increases accordingly and I eat 25% more calories than usual.
CICO amounts to religion as far as I am concerned. It is irrational, illogical, more than sufficient evidence exists to conclude it is false, etc. People continue to believe in it because of their moral and emotional feelings about body fat and obesity and human control/willpower. All successful CICO is basically a variant of mental illness, for it requires continuously denying your drive to eat, which is not mentally healthy.
Quick 15 minute post before bedtime! Yes, work the next 2 days, sorry no responses to comments yet again :( :( :(
The Hodgetwins have made Martin Berkhan’s Leangains Intermittent Fasting (IF) program even more famous. Is the incredible buzz about intermittent fasting deserved? In this article, I give you my un-biased opinion on what intermittent fasting is, if intermittent fasting works, and why it works.
For those of you who won’t read this whole article, let me give you the conclusion first. The Leangains intermittent fasting program will definitely help you gain muscle and lose fat, the question is why and whether it’s really works better than any other training and nutrition methods. If you want to know more, I suggest you get the book shown on the right, Eat Stop Eat. I know I say this all the time but I will say it again:
“Bodybuilding is not an exact science, you need to experiment and find what works best for you” – Scooby Werkstatt
There are an incredibly complex array of factors that goes into determining what workout style and nutritional style will be best for you. The only thing for certain is that it probably wont be the same as for the guy standing next to you at the bench press. For some people, P90X, Insanity, or Crossfit works the best. For others, 5×5, SS, or a bodybuilding style workout like my home workouts give them maximum results.
It’s all about finding what works for you and helps you achieve your goals. Nutritionally, many people find eating frequent, smaller meals too stressful and time consuming – for them intermittent fasting provides optimal results. Others find that frequent small meals help them keep hunger at bay with fewer calories so they can lose fat and get ripped easier. Again, find what works best for you.
“It’s far more important WHAT you eat and HOW MUCH you eat than WHEN you eat it.” – Scooby Werkstatt
Although I am still recommend to people that they frequent small meals, I would much rather someone eat just two healthy meals a day in an intermittent fasting protocol than eat five meals consisting of BigMacs! What you eat is far more important to your success in health and bodybuilding than when you eat in my opinion. If you do follow intermittent fasting, remember that your work does not stop when you decide to constrain eating to an 8 hour window. The biggest nutritional task for any bodybuilder is deciding what to eat.
What is Intermittent Fasting?
Intermittent fasting is just like you would expect from the name. There are many other kinds of intermittent fasting, like alternate day intermittent fasting, but I will focus on the kind that Martin Berkhan at Leangains presents which is intra-day fasting – basically extending the night time sleeping fast a bit longer. Normal people fast for 8 hours during sleep and then eat for the other 16 hours. In the leangains intermittent fasting program, it’s the other way around – you fast for 16hrs and eat for 8 hours. If Leangains was just that the webpage would be just one sentence and we wouldn’t be talking about it now, Martin Berkhan’s Leangains website has hundreds of pages of information which I am going to try to boil down into a few bullet points below. I apologize profusely to Martin for this oversimplification of his program but for those unfamiliar with his program I need to give them a quick idea of what it involves:
Fasting 16 hours, eating window 8 hours long – number of meals irrelevant
TDEE +20% calories on lifting days, -20% on non lifting days. (TDEE is your Total Daily Energy Expenditure,if you eat at precisely your TDEE you will neither gain nor lose weight.)
Nutrition, consume at least 2.5g protein per kg of bodyweight
Intermittent fasting isn’t as new as it sounds, in fact it is thousands of years old. Ramadan is the most sacred month of the year for Muslims. During the month of Ramadan, they do not drink nor eat anything (nor sex, nor smoking either) from sunrise to sunset. This is a rather brutal type of intermittent fasting, brutal because the fasting period is during the day. Trying to concentrate and perform normally all day long without food is very, very difficult. If intermittent fasting by itself was the magical key to bodybuilding success then the pro bodybuilding contests would be won by practicing Muslims but this does not seem to be the case. In fact, a 2007 study of two Algerian soccer teams (practicing Muslims) showed that it significantly decreases athletic performance during Ramadan. As bodybuilders, this study is our first warning that we need to proceed very carefully with fasting.
Does Intermittent Fasting work?
Yes, Intermittent fasting does work well for a lot of people. If you are getting good results from it then keep using it! You will note this is very similar to how I responded when people wanted to know “What Scooby thinks about YouTube trainer …” Before I take a critical look at Intermittent Fasting , lets look at why I make the above statements – I’m not being wishy washy. If intermittent fasting gives you the desired results, the reason *why* it works is irrelevant in my opinion. Intermittent fasting will help you gain muscle and lose fat if you believe it will. “WHAT?”, you say! Please hear me out. It doesn’t matter if it works because it is a superior program synergizing nutrition with Starting Strength workouts or if it works because of placebo effect.
Brain – Ally or Enemy?
The brain is the most powerful and important part of our bodies, it determines what you can and cannot do. If the brain in convinced that your life is in danger it will pump out adrenaline like a geyser and give you super-human strength. On the other hand, if you are pessimistic and convince your brain that you cannot do something then you will not be able to do it. If you make a P90X enthusiast do 5×5, I can guarantee you they will whine and complain the whole time and they will have very poor results. This is the reason it pays to have a positive attitude, there is something to it. In a very poorly understood process, if you believe that something will help you then it will.
Placebo Effect
This poorly understood process is called “The Placebo Effect“. The placebo effect is well documented in medical literature which is why all good research studies include a placebo group to make sure that the benefit is from the drug itself and not because the peoples brains have been fooled into healing them thru positive thinking. The term “placebo effect” is most often used when talking about drugs but it’s just as applicable when it comes to training programs. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons that there is so much heated disagreement from all the experts about what is the “best” training program. It’s because what is “best” depends on what the person believes is best. If someone is completely convinced that GOMAD and 5×5 is the optimal way to get stronger and more massive – then it will work! If it’s a reasonable workout strategy and you believe it will work, then it will give you great results. If you don’t believe your workout program is good then you wont have results no matter how well it works for everyone else. I am serious when I say that bodybuilding is equal parts mental and physical, leave out one half of the equation and you get poor results. When you choose a workout strategy, you need your brain as an ally – it’s gotta be 100% convinced you are doing the right thing. Work against your brain and it’s you are wasting your time.
Intermittent Fasting and Placebo Effect
So what does all this have to do with intermittent fasting ? I think you see where I’m going here. Since there is SO much buzz in locker rooms and gyms across the world about the leangains intermittent fasting program, a lot of people are totally convinced it will give them the results they want. Since their brains believe this, it WILL work. When they believe in the program, they will workout more intensely, they will workout longer, they wont skip days, and they will be religious about their nutrition. The leangains intermittent fasting program has an incredible momentum behind it. This is why in my blogpost “What does Scooby think about ..” I say that if a program is working for you and giving you the results you want that it is absolutely the best for you – no matter what it is. If intermittent fasting works, does it really matter *why* it works? Does it matter if it’s placebo effect or if their is some magical synergy between intermittent fasting and Mark Rippetoe’s SS style workouts?
The Newbie Effect.
This is a good time to point out that rank beginners to bodybuilding can do virtually any workout program, no matter how stupid, and get stronger and more massive. They can also use any nutritional program, no matter how stupid, and get stronger and more massive. Rank beginners can do the “curl monkey workout” where every day they do 100 curls and 100 pushups and have great results. The reason this is important to bring up is that as you will find in the following critical look at intermittent fasting, there is a severe lack of applicable, well done research – almost none. With a lack of good research, all workout programs (mine included) resort to anecdotal short term “before and after” comparisons are used and these folks are often beginners. A great before and after of a beginner on my website is just as useless as one on the leangains website. What matters is, can an advanced bodybuilder overcome a false genetic limit and make further gains with the workout system and what is the maximum that someone can achieve on the program.
Recompositioning.
Leangains program seems to be associated with the term “recompositioning” in peoples minds. What is recompositioning? It’s what I have always referred to as gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. Every day on bodybuilding forums across the world people argue about whether bulking and cutting is the fastest way to a ripped, muscular physique or if recompositioning is. Many bulker/cutters seem to think that *everyone* has to bulk to gain muscle but the success stories pages of P90X, my website, and the leangains website suggest otherwise. Remember what I said earlier, that beginners and intermediates can do virtually anything and make good gains? From everything I have seen, beginners achieve their goal of obtaining a muscular, lean physique much faster with a recompositioning type nutritional program (set goal = recomp on my calorie calculator) than with bulking/cutting. This is true for many intermediate bodybuilders as well. It’s my experience that only when you get to within 20% of your genetic max that you need to start playing tricks with your body, like bulking/cutting, to coax out further gains. Leangains and I are in complete agreement on this issue, recompositioning is the way to go for beginners and most intermediate bodybuilders – in other words, workout hard while eating at your TDEE. If you are obese, then perhaps eating 5-20% under your TDEE is called for depending on your level of obesity. For advanced bodybuilders, that is, those within 20% of their genetic potential it appears that bulking/cutting is the way to go.
Examination of Intermittent Fasting.
First it’s important to ask, does intermittent fasting work for *what*. What is the criteria that we are judging intermittent fasting on? Gaining muscle? Losing fat? Athletic performance? Endurance? Disease prevention? Reduction of cancer risk? Improved cardiovascular health? Better health markers (blood pressure, lipid levels, etc). Since most people here are young and healthy and are only concerned with the cosmetic aspects, we will stick to those: strength gain, mass gain, and bodyfat reduction.
Often in bodybuilding, arguments about nutrition or lifting programs turns into a ping pong match where the opponents take turns sending research volleys over the net to the opposing team where they point out the faults of the study which render it useless then smack their research paper over the net which ‘proves’ their point – and the game continues. At the end, if both players have the hundreds of hours at their disposal to find, read, and analyze the research, the game ends in a draw with both players exhausted both admitting that their needs to be better research done. In my opinion, this is basically what has happened with intermittent fasting between Alan Aragon and Martin Berkhan. I’m not going to re-invent the wheel here nor am I going to pretend to know as much about nutrition as Alan aragon. If you want to see the definitive critical analysis of intermittent fasting based upon research, then see Alan Aragon’s An Objective Look at Intermittent Fasting. Alan Aragon is one of the top bodybuilding nutritional specialists in the world and he makes a living doing unbiased, critical analysis of published researched papers with a bodybuilding eye. If you argue with Alan’s opinion then you had better have done your homework and have a stack of research to back you up. If you don’t read his whole paper, please read at least the conclusion. I don’t want to copy it here but I think I can safely include one sentence from the two paragraph summary that gives the flavor of the whole paper without stepping into copyright issues:
“In the world of fitness, recommendations for improving performance and body composition often gain blind acceptance despite a dearth of objective data.”
In an objective review of intermittent fasting, thats not a very positive outlook! OK, so lets look at some of the main points of intermittent fasting.
Health.
I know most are not interested in the health aspects of leangains intermittent fasting program but I have some big concerns about it so I will cover it quickly. A bad omen is that as far as I can tell, the words “vegetable”, “fiber”, and “anti-oxidant” do not seem to appear anywhere on the leangains website but there is a whole section on supplements. I’m a bit concerned about what the people following the Leangains program are actually eating. As far as the health of the intermittent fasting itself. It does appear the following the leangains intermittent fasting program does improve your cholesterol levels but according to this study, it appears that the same benefit can be achieved by exercise alone. The other concern I have about the health aspects of the leangains program is that it does not include cardio. In my opinion, daily cardio is the kernel of any fitness program that has overall health and well being as a goal.
Performance.
By performance I mean strength, endurance, speed, balance, and coordination. The before mentioned study of Algerian soccer players during Ramadan clearly showed that Ramadan style fasting is detrimental to performance. What about leangains style intermittent fasting, is it detrimental to performance? We don’t know as there is no research other than the soccer study. It’s clear that Ramadan style fasting where no food nor beverage can be consumed during the day has a far worse effect on performance than leangains style intermittent fasting where eating can happen 8 hours during the day. So leangains style intermittent fasting isn’t as bad as sunrise to sunset fasting on performance but is it still a problem? My guess is it depends on when the athletic event is. If the athletic event falls in the feeding window like a football practice would, my guess is that there is no performance degradation at all with leangains intermittent fasting. On the other hand, if your athletic event occurs during the fasting window then I’m willing to bet there is a significant performance degradation. Research done by Bird points to me being correct in this assumption. There are many anecdotal reports of people “having so much energy” in the morning before they eat. To those people I say, “see you at the race”. If you have so much energy while fasting lets do a Half Ironman and see who wins – you keep fasting during the race and I get to eat my normal 5000 calories or so in energy drinks, gels, and bars. Well see how much energy you have then As I discuss in when to do cardio, I personally find that when I attempt cardio before eating in the morning my cardio session is much shorter than if I do it after a small meal. What works for me is to eat a small well balanced meal and then exercise.
Ability to Lose Bodyfat.
Lets start with something that is very clear. Meal frequency does not affect how many calories per day your body burns, your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE). If the number of calories is the same, it doesn’t matter if you consume then in one large meal a day or ten small meals a day – your TDEE remains constant, as long as they are regularly scheduled meals. It does appear that an irregular feeding schedule can decrease your metabolism and make losing fat harder but nothing increases it and makes losing fat easier.
What about decreasing your feeding window from the normal person’s 16 hours to a leangains intermittent fasting participant’s 8 hour feeding window, does that make losing fat easier? Let the ping pong match between Alan Aragon and Martin Berkhan begin! As far as I can see, all the studies used when talking about this are seriously flawed and both sides agree that more research is needed.
According to Alan Aragon, the main study used to show the benefits of intermittent fasting has a number of serious flaws and I agree with him. There were only 20 participants and 5 dropped out which most likely means those 5 participants were having poor results. Leaving out all the people who have poor results out of the study doesn’t make it much of a study does it? The other huge problem is that they used a very inaccurate method for determining body composition, basically just measuring body impedance as the cheapo digital bodyfat tools do. Couple the inaccurate body composition measurements with the extremely short study period (6 weeks) and you get questionable results at best. It’s clear that many, many people have gotten muscular and shredded from the Leangains style intermittent fasting. The question is why. Let me bring up something related, carb cycling. It’s clear that carb cycling works great but it’s very complicated to make a meal plan (which is why I made my automated carb cycling meal planner) so anyone who does carb cycling is making a huge commitment.
Does carb cycling work because there is some biochemistry behind it or does it simply work because it’s followers watch their macros and calories so carefully as the old admin of the AskScooby forum suggested? It’s pretty clear to me now that he was right, it’s not carb cycling that makes you ripped quickly without losing any muscle mass, it’s the fact that you get plenty of protein, lots of vegetables, enough good fats and EFAs, and run a tightly monitored caloric deficit. The same question applies to intermittent fasting, is something inherent in the intermittent fasting itself that makes losing fat easier or is it just the fact that you are paying more attention to your nutrition? Again, I ask the question – does it really matter if it works? No! Leangains intermittent fasting works for many people in helping them get ripped while gaining strength and muscle mass so who cares why? So does intermittent fasting help you lose bodyfat? Maybe, maybe not. What is clear is that more research needs to be done.
Ability to Gain Muscle.
So, will leangains style intermittent fasting help you gain muscle? As far as I can tell, Martin Berkhan’s Leangains program recommends that you follow Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength (SS) program. Yes, of course! Following Mark Rippetoe’s lifting program while following Martin Berkhan’s leangains intermittent fasting program WILL make you bigger and stronger. A number of questions arise though. First, is SS the best choice for you based upon your goals, age, and limitations? Second question which is more important, is it the SS alone giving Leangains participants their mass and strength gains or is it a symbiotic relationship between SS and leangains IF that causes some amplification of results? If you did a year long study of SS+IF vs SS+GOMAD, who would have the better muscular and strength gains? If SS+IF produces better results, is that because IF people on the whole are more educated about nutrition than GOMAD folks? So then you have to do another study, what if everyone did GOMAD and SS but half the group did GOMAD in the intermittent fasting style? You will see here that we have far more questions than answers. As far as I know, there has been no study to date that shows you can gain muscle mass and strength faster with an intermittent fasting protocol than with normal eating.
Summary
Does Leangains intermittent fasting work? Yes, intermittent fasting helps you gain muscle and lose fat but the reason why it works is unclear. It’s also unclear if it works better than other nutritional programs – maybe, maybe not. What IS clear that more basic research is needed.
So, cut to the chase, do I recommend that you follow Leangains style intermittent fasting? I would say “Yes” if you are sure it’s the best thing since sliced bread and “No” otherwise. If you are unsure, I recommend my top-down bodybuilding nutrition approach. I will also continue to recommend 3+ meals a day because I believe (but cant prove) it is a great tool in satisfying hunger with fewer calories as well as a great aide in maximizing muscle gain. I would also say it’s far more important what and how much you eat than when you eat it or in how many meals you consume it in. Beer and protein shakes at the “right time” is far inferior to a big pile of vegetables and a chicken breast at the “wrong time”.If you want to do intermittent fasting, I recommend the book Eat Stop Eat.
Almost 1 yr on it and it has so many benefits its not funny. I have
been using it to cut (9months) maintain (1 month) and now lean bulk (2
months).
I didn't lose any strength on my near 10kg cut, so can assume
negligible muscle loss – and I'm not a beginner (training over 10yrs).
At my lowest weight (74-75kg) was around 7% bf, and still deadlifted
200kg. I'm mid 30's and look/feel better than I ever have and I have
always played sport, trained and been fit.
I now sleep better, I have more energy during the day. Its quite
liberating as I don't need to continually be worried about eating every
2-3hrs. I just eat 2-3 big meals a day, cycle my carbs/fats.
Its great on holidays, all you can eat once or twice a day and no concern about going catabolic and loosing muscle.
It took 2-3 weeks to train the body that it doesn't need bfast as I
had always eaten big breakfasts my whole life. Felt sick and all sorts,
but after 2-3 weeks it just gets better. Haven't tried a 24hr fast yet.
No real need.
I embarked on a self-experiment last weekend to see if I could better understand the interplay between the different types of exercise I do and ketone production (beta-hydroxybutyrate, or B-OHB, to be specific). To be clear, nothing I do with a sample size of one “proves” anything, but sometimes self-experiments can help you formulate hypotheses and, if nothing else, understand how your body works. Consider the parable of the black sheep. If you see even a single black sheep in the field, depending on your field of training, you can draw conclusions:
Three scientists were on a train and had just crossed the border into Scotland. A black sheep was grazing on a hillside. The biologist peered out of the window and said, “Look! Scottish sheep are black!” The chemist said, “No, no. Some Scottish sheep are black.” The physicist, with an irritated tone in his voice, said, “My friends, there is at least one field, containing at least one sheep, of which at least one side is black some of the time.”
My point is, even a self-experiment of one can be good for something.
To test the relationship between exercise and ketosis I decided to examine my blood levels of glucose, B-OHB, and lactate immediately before and after three different types of workouts on three successive days. This interplay is complex and no one knows “everything” about it, including the world’s experts (which I am not pretending to be). I’m going to try to balance a fine line in this post – I want to be rigorous enough to explore the ideas with substance but not too detailed to put you to sleep. I hope I am able to balance these forces adequately.
If any of you are not familiar with the work of Jeff Volek and Steve Phinney, but you are interested in the biochemistry of nutritional ketosis, I recommend getting familiar with their work. The list of people who know more about nutritional ketosis is short.
Let’s take a look at the three parameters I measured in a bit more detail. To give you a sense of what is “normal” here are some guidelines:
Glucose
A normal fasting glucose is generally considered to be between 75 and 100 mg/dL. My mean over the past year has been about 90, but I need to mention two very important caveats:
On the four occasions I have calibrated my hand-held device with an actual laboratory test, my device seems to run high by about 11 mg/dL, so a measurement of 95 mg/dL on my device is probably closer to 84 mg/dL in reality.
I carry a genetic trait for a disease called beta-thalassemia. The clinical manifestation of this is that I have much smaller red blood cells than normal (about 65% of normal size). There is some evidence in the literature that this condition prevents some accurate testing of any assay that can interfere with hemoglobin. For example, a test measuring glycosylated hemoglobin suggests I have much more glucose in my blood than is actually measured. In fact, the Glycomark test for mean post-meal glucose level suggested I have an average post-meal glucose level of 190 mg/dL which is obviously not true. In other words, something about my beta-thalassemia seems to interfere with, at the very least, measuring glucose linked to hemoglobin, and possibly measuring glucose in general.
I mention these 2 features to say my glucose levels (unlike B-OHB and lactate which I’ve documented to be very accurate) may be artificially elevated. Here’s the important part, though: the discrepancy seems to be constant, so the increases or decreases seem to be good measurements.
Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (B-OHB)
A normal fasting B-OHB level for a “normal” (i.e., non-ketotic) person is zero. Within a day of fasting, you might expect this number to reach 0.2 to 0.4 mM, and about 1.0 mM within 48 to 72 hours of complete fasting, though this is highly variable among subjects.
If you’ll recall from my discussion of keto-adaptation, the threshold for nutritional ketosis is about 0.5 mM. My normal morning fasting level of B-OHB is usually between 1.0 and 2.0 mM with an arithmetic mean of about 1.4 mM.
Both insulin and glucose (probably by causing the secretion of insulin) suppress ketones. This is why, for example, consuming more than about 50 gm of carbohydrates per day and/or more than about 120-150 gm of protein per day makes it difficult to be in nutritional ketosis – too much insulin secretion.
Lactate
Lactate (or lactic acid) is a byproduct of anaerobic exercise. A normal level is considered to be below 2.2 mM. Basically (I’m oversimplifying a bit), when you exercise in a predominately aerobic capacity, while you do generate lactate your liver is able to match muscle production with clearance via a process called the Cori Cycle (a process in which the liver turns lactate back into glucose).
If you’ve ever done a very intense exercise – like run an all-out mile – and felt like your body is completely seizing up and you are unable to move, you’ve experienced a high lactate. Technically, the lactate is not causing this. Lactate gets a pretty bad rap, and it’s actually a good thing as it allows us to generate energy even when we demand it in an environment where sufficient cellular oxygen is absent. The real “bad guy” is the hydrogen ion that accompanies lactate and interferes with the ability of our muscles to contract and relax properly. However, we use lactate as a proxy for the hydrogen that is actually causing the pain and difficulty in muscle contraction.
For me (personally, though this is probably true for most people) the highest lactate I generate tends to be in all-out activities lasting about 2 minutes which use all muscles in my body (the more muscles you use, the more lactate you generate). Hence, the 200 individual medley (IM) race generates the most lactate in my body: It’s 2-plus minutes of maximum exertion sending pain into every muscle in my body (this event requires a swim, in order, of 50 yards each of all-out butterfly, then backstroke, then breaststroke, then freestyle). A runner would probably concur that the 800 meter (half-mile) run is one of the most painful races in that sport.
The highest lactate I have ever measured in myself, following a 200 IM race, was about 16 mM. I have measured higher levels in several Olympic swimmers, including 20.2 mM in one (as he was vomiting all over the pool deck – for reasons I’ll try to remember to explain in a subsequent post). On my bike, where I’m mostly using my legs, obviously, I think my highest recorded lactate measurement was about 12 or 13 mM following a set of ten 2-minute all-out hill repeats.
I measure my lactate levels using a different hand-held device from the one that measures glucose and B-OHB. [Another parable, this time about marriage: 2 years ago my father asked me what my wife and I wanted for Christmas. I said “we” wanted a lactate meter with about 200 test strips (I think it was about $900 for everything). He looked at me funny, but figured I knew what I was talking about. When Christmas rolled around and “we” got “our” lactate meter I had to spend a few minutes explaining to my wife why this was a perfect gift for “us” as it allowed “us” to spend lots of time together while she pricked my finger for blood during my workouts. She didn’t really agree with me. I clearly don’t understand women very well – I really thought she would find this device “cool.” Which is why this is a blog about health, not marriage.]
Results from my experiment
Day 1: Saturday (hard swim workout, race pace)
This was a one hour, 45 minute swim with warm-up and cool down. The “main set” was mostly freestyle and butterfly at all-out race pace for distances of 25, 50, 75, and 100 yard intervals with long rest (1:2 – 2 times more rest than swim time) for the all-out 100 yard swims, and modest rest (2:1 – half the rest time of each swim). The single most demanding aspect of this workout took place with about 25 minutes remaining and, though I didn’t measure peak lactate, I suspect it was around 12-14 mM, based on the discomfort I experienced. I was surprised that my lactate level was still as high as it was (see below) 25 minutes later, though I suspect I didn’t cool down as gingerly as I should have, to optimize for maximum lactate clearance.
During this workout I consumed nothing and prior to the workout I consumed my usual 40 mL of medium chain triglyceride (MCT) oil.
At 7:29 am, just before beginning the workout, my glucose was 86 mg/dL, B-OHB was 0.7 mM (which is low for my fasting level), and lactate was 1.9 mM.
Immediately post-workout, at 9:14 am, my glucose was 118 mg/dL, B-OHB was 1.0 mM, and lactate was 7.2 mM.
Day 2: Sunday (long ride, 80% of race pace)
This was a tempo ride covering 104 miles (167 km) with 5,600 feet of climbing. Average pace was 17 mph (about 28 km/hr) with lots of headwind. My average HR over this 6 hour ride was 141 and average power output was between 190 and 200 watts. There were many sections of the ride, particularly on the climbs, where my HR was sustained in the 160’s for 30 minute stretches and power output was above 275 watts (which, for me, means my muscles generate lactate faster than my liver can clear it).
During this workout I consumed the following:
Two single-serving packets (1 oz) of cream cheese (14 gm fat; 2 gm carb; 2 gm protein)
50 gm of super starch, by Generation UCAN mixed in my water bottles (50 gm super starch which, technically, is a carb but does not behave like one with respect to insulin secretion and ketone suppression – I will write a dedicated post on super starch in the future, but if you must try it now, use this code to get a discount: “UCANPA”)
2.5 oz of mixed nuts (25% of each almonds, cashews, walnuts, peanuts – 36 gm fat; 14 gm protein; 15 gm carb)
Total intake during 6 hour ride, therefore, was: 50 gm fat; 16 gm protein; 67 gm carb (of which 50 gm was super-starch), for a total of about 750 calories.
About 90 minutes prior to the ride I consumed 4 eggs fluffed with heavy cream, cream cheese, coffee with heavy cream, and my usual 40 mL of MCT oil.
At 7:56 am, my glucose was 88 mg/dL, B-OHB was 1.3 mM, and lactate was 1.7 mM.
Immediately post-ride, at 2:39 pm, my glucose was 74 mg/dL, B-OHB was 4.4 mM, and lactate was 2.2 mM.
Day 3: Monday (dry-land, high intensity training)
If you’ve seen the video from my post, my pet peeve, you’ll understand what I do during dry-land high intensity training. On this particular day, however, it was raining (one of 3 days a year this happens in San Diego), so I did not do the outdoor stuff (including tire flips). Main sets included a lot of the stuff you can see in that video with a few (nearly as painful) substitutions.
Prior to the workout I consumed nothing other than my usual 40 mL of MCT oil and during the workout I consumed about 4 gm of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and 10 gm of super starch mixed in my water bottle – so essentially just water.
Immediately prior to the workout, at 6:43 am, my glucose was 77 mg/dL, B-OHB was 3.5 mM*, and lactate was 1.6 mM.
At 7:52 am glucose was 132 mg/dL, B-OHB was 2.2 mM, and lactate was 5.4 mM.
*If you’re wondering why my fasting B-OHB level was so high (recall, I’m usually between 1.0 and 2.0), I suspect it’s at least a partial result of 2 things:
Residual fat breakdown from the previous day’s long ride and caloric deficit, and
On Sunday night I ate (no exaggeration) about half a gallon of my wife’s famous zero sugar, high fat coffee ice cream, which must be the closest thing I’ve ever experienced to heroin in terms of addiction potential.
Summary
The figure below summarizes the data from the mini-self-experiment I just described. What can we learn about the interaction between glucose, B-OHB, and lactate? How does super starch impact my ketosis? Is ketosis helping me or hurting me? Stay tuned for next week, when I will try to interpret these results…
My second consecutive year presenting at the NSCA Personal Trainers Conference was one of the most rewarding, and definitely the most hectic speaking experience I’ve ever had. The way it works is that speakers do their presentation twice throughout the weekend so the audience has a greater chance of not missing them. As fate would have it, I was the only speaker in the lineup doing two presentations: a Paleo diet dissection & a carbohydrate debate. This means that I presented four times — and all four presentations were scheduled on one day (Friday). If the NSCA had a surprise hazing for me in mind, they definitely succeeded.
In order to avoid being a full-length novel, this blog post will skip the Paleo stuff (there’s plenty of that in AARR) and focus on the juicier highlight of the conference: my debate with low-carb icon Jeff Volek.
Dr. Volek 101
For anyone unaware, Jeff Volek is one of the world’s most prolific & influential low-carb diet researchers. He’s an associate professor at the University of Connecticut (full bio here). He’s also one of the authors of the latest installment in the Atkins bestseller saga, New Atkins for a New You. Many consider him to be the top guy in this area of study. When I agreed to debate a low-carb advocate, I had no clue who’d end up on the other side of the cage. When I got word that it was THE Dr. Jeff Volek, imagine my excitement as someone who has been intrigued by his work since the late nineties. I’ve always viewed him as the “Rebel RD.” This is because about 10 years ago when his name started regularly appearing in major magazines, he was the only registered dietitian who openly endorsed low-carb/ketogenic dieting. The rest of the low-carb RDs – if they existed at all – were afraid of reproach by the American Dietetic Association.
Volek’s Case
The topic was carbohydrate intake for athletic performance (and to a lesser degree, health). The planned format was for Jeff & I to present our case (via Powerpoint) for 15 minutes each, leaving another 20 minutes for free-flowing discussion and audience Q & A. So, it was more like a point/counterpoint thing than a traditional debate. Jeff went first and ran about 10 minutes over his limit, then I went on for a slightly shorter period. There was no time left for discussion since the whole affair was less than an hour before we had to clear out of there for the next presenter. So, only 50 minutes for a debate between Volek and Aragon? Yes. But it was an action-packed 50 minutes, that’s for sure. I’ll do my best to sum it up as follows.
Jeff began by discussing the problem of endogenous fuel stores in the context of endurance competition. While we only have roughly 1200-2000 kcals of glycogen, we’ve got at least 40 times that amount of energy stored in the adipose tissue. So, why not train the body to become adept at tapping into this nearly bottomless well of energy we carry around like designer luggage? Jeff then discussed the physiology of carbohydrate-mediated insulin elevations acting as a brake on fat mobilization & oxidation during exercise. He then illuminated the erroneous conflation of a relatively benign condition he calls nutritional ketosis with an adverse condition called ketoacidosis. He drove the point that ketosis has gotten a bad rap, and that ketones are a perfectly viable fuel source for not just brain functioning in the absence of exogenous carbohydrate availability, but also to support endurance capacity.
He then discussed research by Phinney et al [1], claiming a maintenance of endurance capacity in well-trained cyclists despite 4 weeks of a ketogenic diet for the purpose of inducing “keto-adaptation” – a physiological shift towards more efficiently deriving energy from ketones and fat. Jeff proposes that “hitting the wall” due to glycogen depletion in endurance competition can be avoided once an athlete becomes keto-adapted (also referred to as being fat-adapted), and thus more able to tap into stored fat for fuel. He also discussed a study where overweight/obese subjects on a resistance training program lost more fat on a low-carb diet than a low-fat diet [2]. I challenged Jeff on the methodology of this study when he brought it up again in the second lecture – more on that in a bit. Jeff concluded his lecture by contending that a growing minority of endurance competitors have successfully employed the low-carb approach, and that he’s not the only guy challenging conventional wisdom. To my amusement, he chose to use Tim Noakes’ recent (and rather dramatic) low-carb epiphany as evidence that he’s not alone on this. My Turn
The aim of my presentation was to present controlled research, observational research, and client case studies collectively showing that the narrow position of low-carb supremacy simply does not hold much evidential weight. I began by discussing the current state of affairs in the low-carb versus low-fat experimental research, which is best summed up in a recent meta-analysis by Hu et al (the largest of its kind) showing a general lack of difference in effectiveness for improving metabolic risk factors, including weight reduction [3].
I went on to examine the common methodological limitation of low-carb versus low-fat comparisons failing to match protein intake. As such, the advantage of greater thermic effect, satiety, and lean mass retention will strongly favor the groups whose protein is optimized, or at least adequate. Low-fat/high-carb treatments often fall short of adequate protein intake, and the disadvantages are inherent. A memorable example showing significantly greater effects on mood and a lack of significant difference in body composition improvement from a non-ketogenic diet compared to a ketogenic diet was by Johnston et al [4]. This study showed a trend toward more favorable effects in the non-ketogenic diet group, and the important detail is that protein intake was similar between groups, and significantly above the paltry RDA level.
It was serendipitous that Jeff brought up Phinney et al’s 1983 study on highly trained cyclists [1], because I was well-prepared to expose its details. This study involved 5 subjects who, after 1 week on a conventional diet, were put on a ketogenic diet for 4 weeks. Both phases were eucaloric (weight-maintaining). By the end of the 4 weeks, the subjects’ steady-state respiratory quotient (RQ) dropped from 0.83 to 0.72, indicating that they indeed were fat-adapted. Exclusive carbohydrate utililzation is indicated by an RQ of 1.0 while the exclusive utilization of fat is indicated by an RQ of 0.7, so with an RQ just a hair above that, these subjects were thoroughly primed for the proposed benefits of keto-adaptation.
Stick with me now… Pre and post-keto-adaptation endurance capacity (measured by time to exhaustion or TTE) was not significantly different. This lead the authors to conclude that aerobic endurance at 62-64% of VO2max was not compromised by the 4-week ketogenic diet phase. Mean TTE in the non-keto and keto conditions were 147 and 151 minutes, respectively. However, the authors’ conclusion is misleading since 2 of the 5 subjects experienced substantial drops in endurance capacity (48 & 51-minute declines in TTE, to be exact). One of the subjects had a freakishly high 84-minute increase in TTE, while the other increases were 3 & 30 minutes. The outlying high value was instrumental in skewing the results away from any significant decline in the keto condition’s mean TTE.
I proceeded to discuss how 21 years after the aforementioned study [1], Phinney wrote a review in which he reflects upon the ergolytic (performance-compromising) effect of the ketogenic diet phase, stating the following (my bolding for emphasis) [5]:
“The bicyclist subjects of this study noted a modest decline in their energy level while on training rides during the first week of the Inuit diet, after which subjective performance was reasonably restored except for their sprint capability, which remained constrained during the period of carbohydrate restriction.“
For the record, I have Anthony Colpo to thank for catching the above tidbit. The point is, any decrease in sprinting capability can be considered a crucial liability, especially since most endurance races involve sprinting at various points. Almost invariably, sprinting to some degree occurs toward the final stretch to the finish line.
The final segment of my presentation was a discussion of observational research including the carb-dominant dietary habits of the Blue Zone populations, who are among the longest-living and most disease-resistant in the world. I also discussed the carb-heavy diets of East African distance runners, who hold over 90% of the all-time world records and also the current top-10 positions in world ranking [6,7]. I concluded my lecture by relaying client case studies of high-level competitive & professional athletes, whose daily carbohydrate gram intakes ranged the high double-digits to the high triple-digits. My point was to illustrate the sprawlingly wide range of carbohydrate requirements across individuals, as opposed to the one-size-fits-all ideology of low-carb absolutists. Here’s the slide that put faces to the case studies of my athlete clientele over the years: The Repeat Round
As I mentioned, every presentation at the conference was delivered twice, and my debate with Jeff was no exception. This made for a very odd second round, since we both knew each other’s material. The moderation was tighter on this round, and the 15-minute Powerpoint presentation limits were strictly imposed to ensure some discussion time. Jeff appeared to portray more flexibility in his position. He opted to go first again after I asked him what he preferred. He was thus able to pre-empt my mentioning of inter-individual differences in the Phinney study, and pad it with the idea that the authors expected a much worse outcome after the keto phase, but were surprised that it didn’t completely obliterate performance.
In the discussion following our presentations, Jeff once again brought up a resistance training study [2] showing the benefits of low-carb versus low-fat. Unfortunately, this study is not readily accessible, nor is it peer-reviewed. In any case, I asked Jeff if protein intake was matched between groups, and he conceded that it was not. This opens up the possibility that a significantly higher protein intake in the low-carb group could have induced greater satiety and less overall caloric intake, resulting in greater fat loss. Again, a failure to match protein (let alone match optimized intakes, which under dieting conditions would be at least double the RDA) is a frustratingly common confounder in these types of studies.
When I asked Jeff how we can reconcile the high-carb diets of the vast majority of world-class endurance champions, he proposed that these populations simply have not given low-carbing a fair enough shot. To me, this is quite a stretch since the best in the world would be foolish to jeopardize what has been working so stunningly well since the beginning of organized endurance competition. When Jeff was challenged on the concept of chronically depleted or low glycogen levels compromising the capacity for muscle growth, Jeff deflected to his current concentration on the clinical applications of carbohydrate restriction rather than hypertrophic applications per se.
Did I feel that Jeff did an excellent job presenting his side and delivering useful information? Yes, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and his body of work. However, judging from my own observations – as well as the feedback from others – he simply did not bring a comparatively compelling case for a low-carb/ketogenic diet’s application to competitive athletes. In contrast, I was able to present multiple lines of evidence showing the benefit of both ends of the carbohydrate intake spectrum, and many points in between. Postscript
Overall, I enjoyed the conference immensely. I didn’t get a chance to see all of the presentations I wanted to, but the ones I was able to catch (by Brad Schoenfeld, Bret Contreras, Chad Waterbury, Lou Schuler, Marie Spano, and Mark Nutting) were top-notch. All of them delivered theoretical and practical gems of knowledge, and I can’t express enough how high the quality of education is. A large debt of gratitude is owed to Jeff Volek for agreeing to share the stage and lock horns with me. Huge thanks & kudos are due to the tireless administrators of the NSCA (special shout-outs to Peter Melanson & David Barr) for making this an event to remember. References
Phinney SD, Bistrian BR, Evans WJ, Gervino E, Blackburn GL. The human metabolic response to chronic ketosis without caloric restriction: preservation of submaximal exercise capability with reduced carbohydrate oxidation. Metabolism. 1983 Aug;32(8):769-76. [PubMed]
Quann, EE. Carbohydrate restricted diets and resistance training: a powerful combination to enhance body composition and improve health. ACSM’s Certified News. Oct-Dec, 18(4), 2008.
Hu T, Mills KT, Yao L, Demanelis K, Eloustaz M, Yancy WS Jr, Kelly TN, He J, Bazzano LA. Effects of low-carbohydrate diets versus low-fat diets on metabolic risk factors: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials. Am J Epidemiol. 2012 Oct 1;176 Suppl 7:S44-54. [PubMed]
Johnston CS, Tjonn SL, Swan PD, White A, Hutchins H, Sears B. Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 May;83(5):1055-61. [PubMed]
Phinney SD. Ketogenic diets and physical performance. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2004 Aug 17;1(1):2.Phinney SD. Ketogenic diets and physical performance. Nutr Metab (Lond). 2004 Aug 17;1(1):2. [PubMed]
Beis LY, Willkomm L, Ross R, Bekele Z, Wolde B, Fudge B, Pitsiladis YP. Food and macronutrient intake of elite Ethiopian distance runners. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2011 May 19;8:7. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-8-7. [PubMed]
Onywera VO, Kiplamai FK, Boit MK, Pitsiladis YP. Food and macronutrient intake of elite kenyan distance runners. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2004 Dec;14(6):709-19. [PubMed]
The amount you deadlift gets determined by more than your body weight. Your strength levels, skill and gender all play a role. A small, novice lifter will deadlift far more than a massive, elite powerlifter. When selecting a training weight, remember that you must never compromise technique -- train your body, not your ego. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any strength training program.
Untrained and Novice
As an untrained deadlifter, you should not worry about poundage; learn technique first. Then practice your technique. The weight increases will take care of themselves. An average male novice will deadllift approximately 133 percent of his bodyweight. An average female novice will deadlift 101 percent of her bodyweight, according to Lon Kilgore, Ph.D., one of the authors of "Practical Programming for Strength Training."
An intermediate lifter has been training nearly one to two years. Technique has been developed, and strength built through many repetitions of the deadlift. If you are a male intermediate deadlifter, on average you will lift approximately 150 percent of your bodyweight. If you are a female intermediate lifter, you will lift approximately 118 percent of your bodyweight. Many intermediate lifters move on to become novice powerlifters.
Advanced
As an advanced lifter, you will have clearly defined goals -- all of which are athletic-based. Many powerlifters fall into this category, as well as competitive weightlifters. Some bodybuilders and many strongman competitors remain in the heavier weight classes. As an advanced male, you should deadlift at least 210 percent of your bodyweight. As an advanced female, you should deadlift at least 160 percent of your bodyweight.
Elite
Elite athletes are long-time strength sport competitors. They have been competing in strength sports for years, including powerlifting, weightlifting, strongman competitions and the highland games. An elite male strength athlete will usually deadlift at least 260 percent of his bodyweight. An elite female strength athlete will usually deadlift at least 200 percent of her bodyweight on average.
References
"Practical Programming for Strength Training"; Mark Rippetoe, et al.; 2009
"The Westside Barbell Book of Methods"; Louie Simmons; 2008
Find out how strong you are and how to get stronger
By CJ Murphy
THE TEST
Estimate your deadlift one-rep max—the most weight you can lift for one rep—and compare it to the calculations below.
Your 1RM (one-rep max) is...
Less than your body weight = Damn, you're weak
1.25 x your body weight = You're average
1.5 x body weight = You're pretty strong
2 x body weight = You're a beast!
A 200-pound guy who can deadlift 300 pounds for one rep is pretty strong. If your number falls in the weak or average categories, see below for tips on how to bring it up.
BRINGING UP YOUR LIFT
If you bombed out on our test, try these tips.
1) As you lift the bar on a rep, increase your speed. Start firmly from the floor and try to go faster as you approach the locked-out position.
2) Try the workout below. Make it your first session of the week each week.
Week 1: Deadlift standing on a 45-pound plate. Five sets of five reps, resting one to two minutes between sets. Use the same weight on all five sets.
Week 2: Deadlift standing on two 45-pound plates. Five sets of five reps, resting one to two minutes between sets. Use the heaviest weight possible for each set.
Week 3: Perform good mornings. Set up as you would for a squat but point your feet straight ahead. Now brace your abs and push your hips back as far as possible. Keep the arch in your lower back as you bend forward at the hips as far as you can—you must keep this arch at all times. Extend your hips to return to the starting position. That's one rep. Work up to one working set with a weight that allows you only three reps.
Week 4: Same as Week 3.
Week 5: Deadlift standing on two 45-pound plates. Three sets of three reps, resting one to two minutes between sets.
Week 6: After a thorough warm up, test your one-rep max. It should be significantly higher.
Strength is the foundation of performance. When all else is equal, a strong guy will run faster, hit harder, and last longer than a weakling. Find out how strong you are with the deadlift, which tests your legs, hips, back, and grip.
HOW IT'S DONE
Stand with your feet about hip-width apart, your toes facing straight ahead. Squat down and grab the bar with an outside-shoulder-width, palms-down grip [1]. Keep your lower back in its natural arch, and drive your heels into the fl oor and push your hips forward, lifting the bar as you rise until it's in front of your thighs [2]. Reverse the motion and return the bar to the fl oor. That's one rep.
When people ask me how to gain weight the first thing I ask them is if they do deadlifts. If you are trying to get big but aren’t including deadlifts in your program you are wasting your time. There is simply no more effective mass building exercise than the deadlift.
From your neck to your calves, nearly every muscle in your body gets activated and receives a powerful growth stimulus from deadlifts.
Not only is the deadlift the most effective mass building exercise there is but it is also the most basic ,and has the greatest carryover to the real world. There aren’t many times in life where you would lie down on your back and press a weight up over your chest like you would during a bench press. But hardly a day goes by when you don’t bend down and pick something up off the floor. And that is what you do when you deadlift. So it trains you for real life situations and helps to prevent the oh-so-common lower back problems that plague hundreds of thousands of adults due to incredible weakness.
But the bottom line for all skinny guys and aspiring mass monsters is that if you want to know how to gain weight, you gotta learn how to deadlift.
Although the deadlift works the entire body from head to toe, it is especially effective at building huge traps, upper back muscles, spinal erectors, glutes, hamstrings and forearms. Plenty of puffed up bodybuilders have the big pecs and biceps but a deadlifter stands out from the crowd, looking powerful and intimidating with the mountainous traps and thick, ruggedly muscled upper and lower back.
To perform a proper deadlift, stand directly over the bar with your shins nearly touching it and feet approximately 8-14 inches apart. Squat down by breaking at the hips and pushing your glutes back. Keep your back tightly arched, chest up and head in line with your spine. Your upper body should be at a 45 degree angle in relation to the ground. Grab the bar with a vice grip and begin to pull up and back. As the bar passes your knees, drive your hips forward powerfully, push your chest out and pull your shoulders back to lockout the weight.
When you lower the weight, be sure to begin by pushing your glutes back before you squat down. After the bar clears you knees, squat down while maintaining a tight arch in your lower back, allow the weights to touch the floor and repeat.
One mistake many beginners make when deadlifting is they try and control the eccentric or lowering portion of the exercise. This leads to injuries. Stay tight and lower the weights quickly but under control. You will often see even advanced lifters drop a deadlift quite quickly and loudly between reps. This is because they know the danger associated with a slow deadlift. Treat a set as a bunch of singles until your form is tight enough to do touch and go reps.
Also, be sure to always deadlift with bare feet. If this doesn’t fly with the gym owner, go with deadlift slippers or Chuck Taylors; but never running sneakers.
Remember- a lot of deadlifts lead to huge, muscular physiques. If there was only one thing I could teach you about how to gain weight that would be it. Now get to the gym and start pulling some big weights.
For more information on how to gain weight and build muscle rapidly click HERE.
The Deadlift is the most important exercise next to the Squat. But nothing is more frustrating than plateauing on the same weight over & over. Worse even is when the weight you Deadlifted past workout for 5 reps suddenly doesn't even want to budge the floor. Maybe you've also experienced this on Deadlifts.
Good news - here are 9 surefire strategies that I've used to break through any Deadlift plateau and pull 500lb raw at 165lb body-weight.
1. Deadlift More. The fastest way to boost your Deadlift is to Deadlift more. You don't need to add assistance exercises, you don't require extra posterior chain work, and you don't have to pull against bands. All those things definitely have their place but not until you reach at least 400lb on Deadlifts.
Why? Because technique is the real secret to gaining strength, on every single exercise. Don't take my word for it, here's a quote from the "Michael Jordan of Powerlifting," world class Deadlifter Ed Coan who pulled 900lb...
The deadlift is the number one technique lift. If you don’t have technique in the deadlift, you just can’t muscle it up.
Deadlifting more does NOT mean that you should now do 5x5 instead of 1x5. It only means don't skip your Deadlifts to do other exercises. Just deload if you get stuck, and use the lighter weights to improve your technique.
2. Master Deadlift Technique. Another quote, this one by elite Powerlifter Dave Tate: "The stronger you get, the more important technique becomes, and one inch can make the biggest difference in the world". Technique is the number one thing you should look at when you get stuck on Deadlifts. Some pointers:
Don't Pull - Push. You have to use your hip muscles. Deadlift by driving through your heels, push your hips forward once the bar reaches knee level, and lock the weight by squeezing your glutes hard at the top.
Don't Squat - Deadlift. Deadlifts are NOT Squats, your hips have to be higher to pull big weights and so you don't hit your shins on each rep. Raise your hips so your shoulder-blades end up over the bar.
Use Your Legs. Your hips should be higher than when your Squat, but not too high otherwise your lower back will be doing all the work. Read this article to find the correct hip position depending on your build.
Don't use the mirror to fix your Deadlift technique - your hips will usually end too low. Instead ask someone for feedback or just tape yourself.
3. Strengthen Your Grip. It doesn't matter if your legs/back have the strength to Deadlift the weight. If your hand can't hold the barbell, it will obviously never leave the floor. The 3 keys to a stronger grip? a) white knuckling b) chalk c) the mixed grip. Read 7 Ways to Build Massive Grip Strength for more tips.
4. Warm-up Properly. Some guys don't warm-up at all which is not only asking for injuries, it also doesn't let you practice Deadlift form. Others are so afraid of getting hurt that they waste energy doing a gazillion of warm-up sets.
Get it? Add 25-50lb on each set until you reach your work weight. Even better is to decrease the reps as your warm-up sets go by (5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1x5). But since some guys can't live with doing only 1x5 Deadlifts, 5 reps on the warm-up sets gives you more volume without messing recovery and causing plateaus.
5. Eat More. David Ricks owns the raw world Deadlift record in the 165lb weight class since 1990 - 672lb. Compare with Konstantinov's 939lb Deadlift record @ 308lb. This 267lb difference illustrates an obvious point: if you want to Deadlift heavy weights, you will have to gain weight. Not just because bigger muscles are stronger but because weighing 161lb at 6'0" is bad leverages. Eat more.
6. Pull Faster. The faster you lift, the more muscles fibers you'll recruit and the more weight you'll pull. Lifting fast is NOT cheating, nor is it dangerous or bad for your joints as long as you control the bar and use proper technique. Proof of this is that all Olympic lifters pull explosively yet they have low rates of injury.
Accelerate the bar from the floor as fast as you can. Way down should be under control but not slow. Don't worry if the bar speed decreases as the weight goes up - just apply as much force to the barbell as you can. You have to pull your warm-up sets fast to be quick on your work sets, so don't be lazy about this.
7. Sleep More. Nothing wrong with sleeping 6h/night if it happens only once in a while, plenty of StrongLifts Members have set Deadlift PRs on little sleep. But chronic sleep deprivation is obviously terrible. One, it hurts recovery (your body releases strength building hormones when you sleep). Two, it kills motivation.
An average of 8 hours of sleep per night is vital for optimal strength gains, and many people believe the hours before midnight count double. If you got trouble falling asleep: stop watching TV and working on your computer the hour before you go to bed, and wake up consistently at the same time every day.
8. Stretch Your Hips. Spending 8h/day or more behind a computer like I do will tighten your hips. You'll have a hard time engaging your glutes during Deadlifts which can turn you weak at lockout and hurt your lower back. Stretch your hip flexors with warrior lunges and do supine bridges to activate your glutes.
9. Wear a Belt. Breathing into your belly and pushing against the belt with your abs increases intra-abdominal pressure. This is why you can easily break your Deadlift plateau and add 30lb to your max almost instantly by wearing a belt.
Get a 4" wide, 10mm thick, single prong belt like the Inzer Forever version that I own (don't be a cheapskate, you only buy this once). Just don't start wearing it on every single set, I only start wearing it from my last warm-up set onwards.
Finally, do not let it become mental. If you keep hitting the same plateau - stop. Deload, add weight slowly but steady, and focus on technique and speed until you're back at your past plateau. Just don't get lost with advanced techniques, you can achieve a 400lb Deadlift by Deadlifting solely. Always keep it simple.
More Free Deadlift Tips. Sign-up to my free Deadlift newsletter with free tips to double your Deadlift without injuring your lower back. You'll receive a Deadlift video as a free welcome gift and then free Deadlift tips by email every couple of days. To get the free video and tips, click here.
As I discuss in 
