This week’s WOW was done with my kids in tow. They are at the age (5 and 7) where their presence is actually fun for me (as opposed to being a distraction when they where younger). Afterwards they go through their own Big 5 and they do pretty well on form and intensity and are surprisingly strong.

Despite being in the midst of some very demanding ER shifts, this WOW was excellent. There was progression on 3 out of 5 movements, but more importantly, I felt like I hit that sweet spot for intensity and metabolic effect.

Med X Leg Press- up 4lbs/up 14 seconds TUL
Pullover- same weight/same TUL
Chest press-same weight/same TUL
Compound Row- up 2lbs/up 9 seconds
Overhead Press-up 2lbs/up 8 seconds

I have been stuck on the pullover and chest press for several rotations now. While this can be frustrating, these are also movements that seem to produce a lot of benefit in terms of pump and increased size over the days that follow the workout. Getting stuck for me sort of represents bumping up to the outer limits of my capability and is a marker for true maximal voluntary intensity (whereas the movements where I am progressing may represent an ongoing “running start” to this level). Clearly there is also some intersection of that movement’s sticking point and moment arm issues relative to the heavier and heavier resistance being used; but if the movement is one with good biomechanics I am relatively happy to hit these kinds of impasses. There are some trainees that get more bang for their buck out of variation, while some phenotypes (such as myself) prefer enough standardization to find these “sticking points” in progress and milk them for a while. I believe these preferences may be due to real genotypic/phenotypic reasons not yet discovered.

Post your WOW’s…and your thoughts.

Doug McGuff

Now that we’re back from Seattle it’s back to the reality of back-to-back ER shifts. I worked out Sunday morning at 6am before going in to work a day shift. As I’ve stated before, this is my favorite time to work out. I did a Little 6 workout after 2 consecutive Big 5 workouts. It was time to increase weights on some of the movements.

Calf Raise (heel raise)- stable weight and TUL. Added 30 second static in neutral position
Med-X Abdominal- increased weight 2lbs, TUL down 16 seconds. Progression to this level has always resulted in a TUL drop with inability to progress further. Will see if I can show progress this round.
Nautilus Bicep- stable weight, TUL up 8 seconds (finally).
Tricep Pushdown- stabe weight/TUL
Thick Bar wrist flexion-increased weight by 5lbs, TUL down 14 seconds
Thick Bar wrist extension-increased weight by 5 lbs, TUL down 15 seconds

Not much time to write, but here is another “thing I believe but cannot prove”. I think the status of your lumbar area is the “canary in the mineshaft” as it relates to overtraining. This is especially true if you are including direct lumbar work. I think this may be because this is an area where fatigue in the superficial muscles can result in a sudden transfer of load onto the deeper stabilizing muscles which tend to be smaller and cover smaller segments. I will elaborate further in a future post, but for now let’s just say, if your back is feeling a little tight or twingy, pay attention and take a little extra recovery. If you don’t your lumbar area may force an extended recovery on you.

Post your WOW’s (and your thoughts).

Doug McGuff

The Seminar at Greg and Anne-Marie Anderson’s Ideal Exercise was fantastic. There was a huge turnout, including old school Master, Dennis Beckman (who certified Greg Anderson…now that’s old school). Video will be posted in the near future, including a workout of one of Anne Marie’s clients who is 7 months pregnant.

I was due for a “Little 5″ workout, but doing a Little 5 at Ideal Exercise with Greg would have all the fanfare of kissing your sister….so here is what I did.

The Old Nautilus Plateload Leg Press (precursor of the Hammer Leg Press)
Close Grip Pulldown on the Nautilus Low Friction Torso Arm
Nautilus Leverage Bench Press (a bench/dip combo machine)
Row on the newest Nautilus version that lacks a chest pad-Greg traded this with Bill DeSimone-it is a very nice effect to have extension of the whole torso involved in this movement.
Finally, Nautilus Overhead Press machine

A great workout from a great trainer. It has been a cool year of BBS touring and being trained by the best trainers out there. Thanks to Greg, and all who have hosted me (Dr. Charles Christian, Mark Alexander, Hugh Hines, Bo Railey, Doug Holland, Bryan Cygan, AJ Bentley, and Greg/Anne Marie).

Post Your WOWs

This week’s WOW was preceded by lots of ER work. The work seemed less fatiguing than usual, because I enjoyed some truly rewarding cases. In emergency medicine you truly do “have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet the prince”, but the reward you feel when you get to save a life is indescribable.

Today’s WOW was also special because it was supervised by my son Eric. He is now good enough with math, numbers and time to record my performance during a workout. It is cool to see his handwriting in my workout journal. Today’s Big 5 is also one of my favorite big 5 sequences.

Leg Press- Up 4lbs, stable TUL
Compound Row- Up 2lbs, stable TUL
Chest Press- Up 2 lbs, stable TUL
Pullover- Up 2.5lbs, stable TUL
Overhead Press- Up 2lbs, stable TUL

As you can see, I increased weights on all movements and held stable on TUL. Now for an experience that demonstrates something that “I believe but cannot prove”. I believe more and more that what we are trying to do with our workouts and diet is to send biologic signals. It may not be as mechanistic as stimulus-organism-response. There may not be a specific stimulus, but rather a general signal that can be represented in a multi-factorial way. My specific example is this. I had recently hit an all-time low bodyfat of about 8% (via Tanita scale) following a hunter-gatherer diet and intermittently fasting. Based on some of what I read on other blogs, I decided to begin taking a high-potency antioxidant (Mark Sisson’s Damage Control Master Formula). I took this daily, per the product instructions, and within about a week my body fat had climbed to 12% (despite no change in diet or slip-ups). I then realized that all this extra nutrient may be sending a signal of abundance that told my body it was a good time to go into energy storage mode. I have since stopped taking them on a daily basis, but instead take them intermittently in conjunction with my dietary variations. As a result, my body fat is heading into single digit territory again. I think signaling is a much bigger deal than we realize.

Post your WOW (and your thoughts)

Doug McGuff