The "Smart" Diet (Food For Final Exams)

Well, final exams are over, and I don't like to brag, but I did quite well.  I believe such grades were earned, as I  studied hard and made sure to manage my time efficiently (or as efficiently as possible while still maintaining my sanity).  Yes, all in all, I'm quite pleased with my grades, and god does it feel good to be done with these piles of work.  It's as if all at once, the pressure's been lifted.  The lid's off the pressure cooker, ya know what I mean?

Anyway, before I start rambling, I'd like to bring up an important concept relating to my success in this year's final exams (and school year in general).  It's actually a concept I talk about quite frequently.  Could you guess what it might be?  If you said "food," or "diet," you're right.  I relate a lot of my success this year to my study habits, but feel that credit should also rest in what I've been putting in my belly.

How, you ask, does food have ANYTHING to do with academic success?  Well, unlike a lot of articles which just spout off fact after fact and tout study after craftily worded study, I'm just going to tell you about my personal experience.  I mean sure, I'll say that you'd be crazy not to think that food has an effect on your brain. Nutrient dense food does wonders for cognitive ability, leading to better memory, lower stress levels, and greater confidence.  Good food helps you stay happy, healthy, and ready to take on the world (or a nasty, brutally complicated exam).  This isn't any secret, yet so many people fail to accept the fact that a healthy diet can keep them successful when they need to be.

Did I personally do anything special to my diet in preparation for exam week?  Well, the changes I made weren't initially geared toward the exams themselves, however I soon realized that they worked great for cognitive ability as well as physical prowess.  You see, on my Olympic lifting training program, I work double sessions in the gym multiple times per week.  This week, being pretty much empty other than an 8 AM exam every morning, I decided I'd go even harder on the double sessions (as the only other thing I had to do each day was study.)  To support this brutal attack on my body, I made sure I was getting another hundred or so calories ON TOP of what I had already calculated to be a 200 calorie excess.  I've been stalling out recently on weight gain, so I figured it couldn't hurt anyway.  I made sure these calories came from clean sources such as almonds and egg whites, as well as a few more veggies on my plate.  So far, such diet programming has been working beautifully for my workouts, and I've been maintaining strength despite increasing squat volume considerably.

This caloric excess also did WONDERS for my level of alertness, stress (low), and energy.  That healthy food pushed me through extra study sessions as well as extra squats, and a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, whey, and peanut butter woke me up and got me going each and every morning.  To put it bluntly, I felt, and still feel GREAT!

And one more little nugget of useful information:  heavy brain work burns a lot of energy.  Yeah, you heard me right, you're burning more energy than you think just trying to remember that darn equation for energy stored in parallel inductors.  Ever feel drained after a big test?  Like it's time for a nap?  Well, you're drained because you've been working hard as heck.  The bottom line is, my body needed those extra QUALITY calories, especially this week, in the face of the final test of knowledge.

Note to students:  Those "care packages" or "study packs" your college offers to your parents to buy for you are full of absolute junk.  Dum-Dum lollipops will NOT help you pass that final, and will likely send you on an aggressive sugar roller coaster that will leave you either too hyper to think or too monotonous to care about which bubble you're filling out.  And all that chocolate?  It won't help your brain grow, but it sure will grow you out of those jeans.  

So what's my advice to you?  If you've got tests coming up, don't be afraid to eat hearty meals of clean food.  I would suggest heaps of complex carbs, as well as plenty of protein and fats from sources such as nuts, milk, and fish.  You do NOT need to be waking up a completely drained wreck, unable to focus and unable to think about anything but how hungry you are for lunch.  Keep yourself fed with "premium fuel," 'cause hey, you wouldn't put anything but the best in an expensive sports car right?  Your body is the fastest, sleekest, most valuable car you own.  Fuel it as best you can, and you'll not only see your lifts increase in the gym, but your grade point average climb as well.

Good luck on finals to all my fellow college students.  Eat well and let's start this summer right!!

Bodyweight Isn't Everything

I'm a firm believer in the fact that if you train hard as hell and eat right consistently, you can accomplish fantastic feats of strength, endurance, and power DESPITE being overweight, underweight, or right on your supposedly perfect "BMI."  That video above is partially of Caleb Ward (in the blue shirt), an upcoming 105kg+ class American Weightlifter.  Yes, you heard me right, he's in the 105kg+ class, which means he weighs over 230lbs.  Can most of you flip around like Caleb?  No?  I can't either, and I'm over 70lbs lighter.  Some of you may be absolute gym rats, completely ripped to shreds and strong as a bull.  Can you flip around like that?  I'd be inclined to say no.  A better question might be, could you clean 440lbs?  No?  Well not many can, but Caleb has done it, on multiple occasions.  He is an absolute powerhouse, one of the most consistent, strong, flexible,  and promising weight lifters in this country.  And if he was just walking down the street, I bet you'd just think he was overweight.

The point I'm trying to make with this article is as follows:  Even if you're overweight, you can still be extremely "fit."  And even if you're sitting right on your perfect weight ratio for your age, you can still be extremely unhealthy and out of shape.  What do I mean?  Well, I'll tell you stories of countless people I know who suffer from a condition called "skinny-fat."  This condition involves being very skinny, but eating like absolute crap.  I have a friend who's about 6' tall, weighs a whopping 128lbs, and last night for dinner had a heaping pile of linguine, then an entire cheese quesadilla, followed by two cream puffs and a donut.  He didn't touch a single vegetable, fruit, or protein (other than maybe the beef chunks he loaded into the quesadilla.)  How many calories would his dinner amount to?  I'd guess around 1700 for the dinner, and probably another 600 for the dessert.  And I can't even count the number of unhealthy sugar carbs he just had.  Honestly I was flabbergasted.  How could someone, ANYONE, eat like that, and expect to go about their merry way with no further consequences?

Here's news for all of you.  If you eat horribly like my friend here, no matter what your outward appearance may be, you WILL feel and perform like your body has never exercised a day in its life.  Do you think that someone who has this kind of diet can maximize their lifestyle and gym performance?  The answer is a big, fat, NO.  Your performance will reflect your preparation.  And your preparation (training) hinges on a balanced diet with all of the essential nutrients in carefully balanced ratios.  So it all comes back to food, and even those who are blessed with fast metabolisms will feel the wrath of the quesadillas eventually.

Here's some more food for thought, just because I believe the more evidence that's presented, the  more you'll be inclined to see what I mean about correct diet and training regardless of body weight.  Here's a quote from Menshealth.com regarding another weightlifter named Shane Hammond:

"Even the bulkiest Olympic heavyweights make astonishing leaps.  Shane Hamman, the top American lifter in the history of the sport, weighs in at 350 pounds but boasts a vertical jump of 36 inches.  Most NBA players top out at 34 inches.  Not only can Ham-man dunk (he's 5'9"), he can also drive a golf ball 350 yards."

Can you imagine a 350lb man who's 5'9" tall dunking a basketball over your head?  I find it a little hard to visualize, but not impossible.  Shane is as strong as a bull, and trains hard.  He eats BIG, but he eats right, as to all superheavyweights of the sport.  He is an epitome of human strength and power, and he gets around just fine at a weight that most people would need a wheelchair.

I believe seeing is believing though, so here's a few more feats of remarkable strength by those of remarkable size:

      A man who weighs 350lbs doing 13 pullups.

A 315lb man running what they claim to be a 4.6 forty (even if it was slightly slower, that guy is MOVING FAST).  This goes for a lot of NFL linebackers, I wouldn't doubt that most can run faster than I can.  Excuse the fowl language at the end of the video.

Pat Mendes, a US weightlifter weighing about 280lbs, jumping and touching a 10ft garage door.

Here's my final word.  I'm not going to suggest for a second that any of you should just drop your fears of becoming obese and beginning to eat as big as you want.  That's not the point.  My point is that eating right and training hard can make anyone an absolute monster in the field, on the court, on the platform, or anywhere else really.  Being overweight isn't good, no, but as you've seen it's not by any means the be all end all if it's not all fat and laziness crowding up your arteries.  And don't think for one second that just because you might be able to get away cramming that double cheeseburger without weight gain, that you'll be able to out-power or out-sprint the huge guy walking down the street who's been training for years on end and eating big and clean.  Performance rewards those who work for it, not those who get lucky.

Train hard as hell, eat as best you can, and as always, good luck!

Shane Hamman and his astounding vertical leap.