For so many years I worked my tail off for minimal results and often times I even saw negative results. At about 14% body fat I wanted to be under 10 and thought, by that running and doing more cardio that would do the trick. After 6 months of that I was still at 14% but my bench press went from 225 to 135# for 1 rm.
What was wrong with that picture? Over many years of experimenting I realized that I wasn’t fueling my body properly. I was starving my body so it never got the nutrition that it needed to rebuild, repair and recover.
I am often asked about proper nutrition and what I do. I tell them that I like to look at it in two directions. The first is the big picture, general nutrition, high quality food in appropriate portions at consistent intervals, yes that means breakfast. Eat like it is a job that you need to do. The little pictures are the events in your life. Did you do a long endurance work out today? Did you lift allot of volume in your strength work out? Did you do physical work in the hot sun today? Did you take the day off from all of the above? Each of these events require a little tweaking in the diet.
Your body is a machine, it is your choice on what kind of machine that it performs like. Do you want it to perform like your annoying neighbor’s sputtering lawn mower or like that finely tuned Corvette that just blew your doors off? If you fuel your body with crap you will sputter and back fire. If you fuel with quality high test you will preform your best. On that note, if you don’t fill your tank you will soon run out of gas.
For all of you runners and endurance athletes that don’t understand why you can’t get stronger, think about what that is doing to your muscles. It is cannibalizing them faster than you can build them. If you insist on doing it, be sure to supplement your body with powdered carbs and proteins in a ratio at of least 3 grams of carbs to 1 protein. Why powder? Your body needs it in the blood stream right away and to go even a little further, avoid solid food for an hour so the stomach doesn’t slow down the digestion. I also avoid fats at this time because it slows down the absorption of protein. Whey Casein at night with fats such as nut butters actually helps slow down the absorption so it works throughout the night. Sleeping and recovering are a very important process for gaining strength as well.
I am not sure why some people are stuck on eating just dietary carbs and protein. That is for everyday people if you want to be an athlete then easy like an athlete. Protein supplements are a highly studied supplement so do your own part, find what will work for you and get on it.
Disclaimer I am not a nutritionist, I just play one in life.
Body fat = 8% and I haven’t run a mile in a year. Ask yourself how can that be? I think that I am also fairly strong for an old guy. OK, end of my rant…..
Thought Leadership, WOD 
