Mon 1 Feb 2010
W.O.W. 1/31/10- The Perfect: Destroyer of the Good
Posted by Doug McGuff under Uncategorized
I am feeling pleasantly sore and invigorated from my WOW performed yesterday. I again performed a Doug Holland by inserting the Leg Press in the middle of the workout. It was not as metabolically demanding as the last time, but I attribute this to more time off from the ER. I made modest improvements on all movements.
Pulldown
MedX Chest Press
MedX Leg Press
Pullover
Overhead Press
I couldn’t find any worthwhile studies to link to this week’s WOW, but I would like to continue the excellent discussions from last week’s thread on how making the stimulus more and more perfect can actually narrow the therapeutic window to a point of diminishing returns. When we reflect on the fact that we are an adaptive organism, we must acknowledge that a more and more perfect stimulus may not be the answer to continued progression. This is hard for a geek like me to accept because my interest was born out of the Arthur Jones experience and the idea that we were going to produce a more profound response by use of cams that would make the stimulus more perfect. I think we have pushed that end of the equation enough to know that we have approached a point of diminishing returns. While the response may not be that much more profound, I think what we have achieved is time efficiency. We are able to get the same response with less time commitment…sort of like tanning at the beach versus a tanning bed.
What this leaves us with is the fact that this tweaking of the stimulus actually creates an opportunity to see where we may be lacking in terms of the recovery/response side of the equation. This was driven home to me the other day when I picked up a workout journal from 2003 (which is around the time that I started experimenting with a paleo diet). At that time I weighed 176 pounds and had a body fat percentage that fluctuated between 13-15%. I was very strict with my diet up to that point (calories in-calories out) and was consuming between 1500-1800 Calories per day. I was hungry all the time. This week I weighed in at 171lbs and 8.7% body fat. Now I don’t weigh or measure anything and am never hungry. Recently, I have noted an almost steroid-like increase in my muscularity which I can only attribute to Vitamin D3 supplementation.
In conclusion, I think tweaking the stimulus is great. Heck, it is what most of us live for. However, as we tweak the stimulus side of the equation, we must be even more vigilant to tweak the recovery/response side of the equation. If, for whatever reason, we cannot make the recovery/response side as well-tuned as the stimulus, we might be well-served to let the stimulus be a little more lax as well. Remember, the perfect is the destroyer of the good.
Post your WOW’s and your thoughts
I have been eating as close to a strict Paleo as I can get. E.g., partial intermittent fasting each day, i.e., I eat supper at about 1630 hours, have 3-4 berries and 2 “slugs” of heavy cream before bed at about 2100 hours. My next meal is “breakfast” at about 1130 the next day. I begin my AM w/ 2 cups of High Intensity coffee each with 2 tbsp of heavy cream. I’m now weight-stable at 163 and roughly 10-12% BF. I’ve been doing this protocol since mid October when I began Eades’ 6 Week Cure. I ran into Kurt Harris’ blog couple months ago.
My most recent lipid values are TC 260, HDL 101 and LDL 160 by the Friedlander formula (tends to overestimate LDL); idiot lab did not report my Triglycerides so that last value I have is about 2 years ago when the # was 76. My C-Reactive protein is now .14. My doc shit her drawers when she read my TC value and (yet again) pushed the “heart to heart” statin crap, which I of course refused
John Wood hooked me up with a Lipidologist near his facility and I’ll be getting some more lipid data soon.
HTH, tony
Marc,
Sorry, I missed your question. You are likely experiencing a “head rush”. The head dependent position causes venous pooling in the head/upper body that suddenly corrects when you stand. This does not increase your risk of stroke. The head dependent position is a little riskier for exercise induced headache. If you stand upright too quickly you may faint. Some dangers, but no stroke.
Doug McGuff
Hello everyone !
I´ve read Body By Science and I train once a week (Big Three).
Now , my plan is to go on a Paleolithic diet and I´m wondering :
Should I eat two or three times a day ?
@John M.
Yes.
Seriously. As your appetite autoregulates you will find yourself eating when you are hungry. This may be twice a day, three times per day, occasionally only once per day. Follow the spirit of the concept and the rest will take care of itself.
Doug McGuff
Ahh , I see.
Thank you , Mr. McGuff , for your response and wisdom !