Rest Day Diet

The day has finally arrived, that sweet 24 hours of relaxation and recovery.  Your scheduled rest day, where you say adios to the gym for a little while and maybe can actually get a few things done for once.  Or maybe you'll just sit in front of your TV, relishing in that sore feeling you have all over proclaiming proudly that you DID push yourself in the gym, and you have earned that two hour shower you're about to take.  It's a great feeling, isn't it?

But hold on a minute, you've just realized something.  You've spent all this time carefully calculating your diet to tailor to your workout schedule.  What about the days off!?!  How much are you supposed to eat, and what foods are suitable for such lazy circumstances?  Should you eat as much food as when you're cranking on the weights or sprinting on the treadmill???  Who knows!?!  And at this point, on the couch, you're probably thinking "holy crap, this rest day might just throw MY entire diet off, and all MY progress out the window!"

First of all, that's ridiculous.  One day of eating, no matter the food, doesn't change a thing.  And as long as you eat clean and well timed meals, you have literally nothing to worry about.  However, this concept of rest day nutrition is an interesting one, and is quite important to consider.  I mean, what should you eat when you're not hitting the gym, and what should the caloric numbers looks like compared to a workout day?

Let me define for you what a rest day really is.  It may be nothing more to you than a day to tend to your sore muscles and tired eyes, but to your body, it's MUCH more than that.  Over a week of working out, not only have you broken down loads and loads of muscle fiber, you've also depleted glycogen stores quite considerably.  And that sore feeling you have?  That's your muscles telling you they've been heartily damaged during your lifting escapades.  People used to believe that it was something called "lactic acid buildup," but several studies have shown that it's actually just torn up muscle fiber that's making you achy all over.  Fun stuff, right?

Your body uses a day of rest to take whatever nutrients it has at its disposal to replace and rebuild what you've smashed, broken, and depleted, namely muscle fiber and glycogen stores.  Now you may be slightly confused as to why your body needs a rest day to actually complete this task, because after all, isn't your post workout protein shake and added carbohydrates for exactly this purpose?  Sure they are, and they do a great job of repairing muscle as quickly as they can and refilling glycogen to manageable levels.  But your body isn't a miracle worker, and can't repair 100% if you're hitting it day after day after day.  It takes time to rebuild and refuel, and therefore after one whole week it has fallen noticeably behind.  Your rest day is a day to catch up, a day to let your body finish the job (until next week, that is...).

So all this talk of rebuilding and replenishing should be giving you a pretty good idea of what you need to do to help your body repair efficiently.  The bottom line is, to recovery fully, your body NEEDS NUTRIENTS.  That's right, you NEED TO EAT.  There's this stupid thought floating around that if you're not working out that day, then you don't need increased protein levels, or a good amount of complex carbs, or clean, balanced meals in general.  That's truly ridiculous!  For your body, this isn't a day of rest, it's a day of furious work to fix the damage YOU caused it.  So your first rule of thumb when it comes to eating on off days:  Don't skimp on the healthy, nutrient dense foods.  Get a lot of lean protein in there, and complex carbs like oats, veggies, and wheat.

But what about the actual AMOUNT of food?  Like the number of calories?  Well, first off, like I've said before, I'm not a calorie nazi.  I truly believe you can eat a LOT of extremely clean, nutrient dense food and be in much better shape than someone who's counting every single calorie they consume.  But I understand the importance of keeping general trends in view, and if you're dieting strictly then it is probably a good idea to have a number in mind.  So I'll offer this advice.  If you're looking to lean out, lose some body fat, tone up, etc, then on rest days I would suggest consuming 200-300 fewer calories than on a training day.  This is a simple thing to do, and most people already are following this rule by omitting their post-workout shake on rest days.  No workout, no shake, right?  Seems pretty obvious.  If you're looking to cut a few more calories out, consume a few less carbs in the evening, and you should be set.  Again though, you do need to get those glycogen levels back up, so the same number of carbs as usually consumed in the morning shouldn't change for rest days.

What if you're looking for size, or strength, or both?  Well, as a strength athlete myself, I feel comfortable telling you guys looking to get bigger and stronger that rest days aren't an excuse to cut back on the calories.  You can eat as much as you do on training days, and possibly even slightly more.  After all, if you're constantly lifting heavy, you'll need those extra calories to rebuild for another hard week of lifting.  Think of it as your chance to catch up!  YOUR BODY GROWS WHEN YOU REST, NOT WHEN YOU LIFT!  Chug some milk, have a sweet potato, and watch those PR's fall like dominoes in the coming weeks.  Obviously, keep your intake under a semi-scrutinous eye, but don't skimp.  Depriving your body will only hamper your gains.

Taking a rest day?  Don't forget the milk!

My favorite rule of thumb though, and perhaps the most important, is to listen to your body and its needs.  I'm actually often much HUNGRIER on rest days than lifting days.  Why is this?  Exactly what I told you above.  When you're not lifting, your body jumps on the opportunity to replenish.  This will cause a huge hunger that isn't normally there when working out, as lifting and cardio can actually stifle appetite to a noticeable degree.  If you're hungry, eat.  Make it clean food, and you're golden.  Simple, right?

A side note:  Drink LOTS of water on rest days.  Water helps in all sorts of ways, it will aid in nutrient absorbtion, it will rehydrate you after a long week of sweating it out in the gym, and if you ARE looking to cut the calories back a little on non-workout days, it will help keep you full.

There you have it.  Hopefully now your rest day won't be such a confusing time for you, and you can actually enjoy that soak in the tub.  Just as a side note, if you're really sore, I suggest first warming up your muscles with a hot shower or some dynamic stretches, then foam rolling or static stretching to loosen up your muscle fibers.  This will definitely help nutrient absorption, plus you'll feel a whole lot better.

Enjoy your time off, don't stress the little things, and as always, GOOD LUCK!

My Beef with YOUR Legs

All right, this here's my blog, and though I'll almost always give helpful, hopeful, kind and informative information, a guy's gotta blow off steam sometimes, right?  

I've recently had a string of circumstances in which I've overheard people discussing the infamous "leg day" in the gym.  Oh god, LEG DAY!  HOW AWFUL!  It's been nothing but moaning, groaning, and whining at how sore they are after their LEG DAY.  "Aw man, I hate walking up stairs after LEG DAY..." or, "Man I think I'm going to take my rest day today, I just hit LEGS yesterday and I can barely walk."  I usually just stand there, fuming a little bit, trying not to scream out at them that they have no idea what a real leg workout really is.  Luckily though, self control is one of my better qualities.

So what's my big issue with LEG DAY?  Well, while I can agree with a lot of bodybuilding philosophies, the dogma behind leg day is NOT one of them.  Sure, I can understand you may be sore after some high rep squats, leg presses, and lunges, but I won't tolerate the whining for days on end that follow such a "high intensity " workout.  I put high intensity in quotes because it's all really a matter of opinion, and I hate to say it, but most gym rats have no idea what some top level athletes go through to force their legs to the next level.  Allow me to explain, but before I do, understand that I AM going to bring up Olympic lifting and power lifting yet again, and because I am training for Olympic weightlifting you may think I'm biased.  You're entitled to that opinion, and you probably are right in a way.  I'm biased, sure, but for sound reasons.  Anyway....

Let's look at an amateur Oly weightlifter.  Do you bodybuilders have any idea what they're training entails?  Let's go through the motions of how their training progresses.  When they're  a stark, raw beginner, they're squatting moderately heavy/ heavy twice a week, and probably pretty light for one more day on top of that.  They'll then progress to at least four days of squatting per week, increasing both their volume and weight.  Pretty soon they'll be hitting at least 80% of their 1 rep max every one of their training days.  Once their body adapts, they'll increase the frequency of their training sessions.  A good amateur will be training about 6 days a week, with one double session thrown in there, in which they'll squat in BOTH sessions.  After that?  You guessed it, they'll add one more day.  At first they'll only squat light on this 7th day, but after a while this workout will build up to around the same level as their other ones.  They'll be hitting at least 85-95% of their max almost every day, for doubles and triples.  But this isn't even close to the end.  Oh no.  A professional, world class weightlifter will squat every day, two to three sessions, in which they'll max out multiple times on singles, doubles, triples, 5's, and sometimes even 10's.  On top of that, they'll be using weights that regularly exceed 500 lbs.  And that's just for squats.  Did I mention they do the same thing with snatches and clean/jerks?  Yeah, your leg day doesn't seem so hard anymore, does it?

Now THAT's some depth!

A common powerlifting workout schedule may not be as squat oriented as Olympic style weightlifting, but they're still working legs multiple times a week with far more intensity than you can really fathom.  They usually have one to two days entirely devoted to the heaviest squats they can muster, and usually one day devoted completely to deadlifting (again, at maximal loads).  These guys are the strongest of the strong when it comes to moving heavy stuff around, and they're doing reps with weight I couldn't move in any way, shape or form.  Do that multiple times a week, then complain about those lunges you used to do.

Bottom line, you'll build strength squatting heavy and squatting often.  You may think it goes against conventional knowledge of muscle recovery, but that's exactly the point.  You force your body to adapt to heavier weights, because you're lifting them so often.  Even me, the skinny kid from Vermont, has put about 100 lbs on his squat so far with the Olympic lifting technique, and it's only been about 6 months of serious training.  And that's self coached.  There's a reason the greatest Olympic athletes were squatting over 500 lbs by the time they were 19.  I think John Broz, one of America's finest weightlifting coaches, puts it best:

"If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you'd start squatting every day. Other countries have this mindset. America does not."

Now I don't mean to take anything away from serious bodybuilders.  Judging by the size of their legs, they know how to train to get what they want.  But that's just it.  They want size, definition, vascularity.  Strength comes in behind those.  Again, that's fine if that's your goal, but it certainly isn't mine.  I'd rather squat super heavy weight with big legs than medium/light weight with GIANT legs.

One more issue I have with a bodybuilder style leg workout, is the depth of the squats.  What the HECK are you guys thinking?  I regularly see these big fools get under a bar with WAYYY too much weight, groan as they barely manage to lift it onto their back (or neck if they're REALLY inexperienced), hunch right over and squat a full 4 inches.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?  You're killing your knees, getting no real leg workout, and most likely destroying your lower back.  To get strength, you need to squat deep.  To squat deep, you need flexibility.  Look at any Olympic lifter, or even power lifter, they have ridiculous hip flexibility and can maintain a tight back even into the deepest of squats.  They're building solid legs.  Why aren't you?

NOT DEEP ENOUGH!!!!!

Anyway, there's my little rant.  To anyone around me, don't complain about leg days.  I may be a skinny kid with pretty skinny legs, but I'm still squatting 6 days a week, with double sessions every other day.  I don't find anything difficult about your stupid lunges, quarter squats, or leg presses.  And next time I see you straining to push 500lbs on the hack sled a full two inches, don't be surprised if you hear me chuckle just a little bit.

If you're looking for strength, squat heavy, squat deep, squat often, and don't cry about it.  GOOD LUCK!

Size v. Strength: The Great Debate

Ever since the dawning of the modern workout, there has been a great divide between two main trains of thought regarding muscular growth.  There were those who wanted to get BIG, and those who wanted to get STRONG.  Such desires spawned two completely different methods for lifting weights, and two completely different types of athletes.

For the time being, lets ignore the casual "I just want to get toned" gym-goer (although I will admit this is a large percentage of gym-goers...).  

When I say two completely different athletic builds, I really mean it. Put these guys next to each other and rarely will you see extreme similarities.  Make them train alongside each other, and the differences will become even more apparent.  The methods are DIFFERENT.  To get big, you must train in separate fashion than you would if you were specifically looking for strength.  Yes, some traits carry over from each method of training (an athlete looking for strength only will inevitably put on muscle mass), but I'll say again, in general they are distinct from each other.

Let's examine the methodology behind each muscular goal.  What goes into the workout, why does the method work the way it does, and how can you incorporate it into your own gym related endeavors?

SIZE:  We've all seen them.  The fantastically enormous bodybuilders that appear to be half man half gorilla, all muscle.  They're basketball sized biceps, ginormous pectorals, and shredded abdominals seem to defy some law of nature.  Yet there they stand, bigger than any human we've ever seen.  How do they do it?  Well aside from an extremely picky diet, and some "medical enhancement," it's all in the gym, and their method of training. 

Bodybuilders train for hypertrophy.  Hypertrophy is the increase of overall cellular volume.  More specifically, bodybuilders train for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, and focus more on training their slow twitch, or I muscle fibers.  This basically means that bodybuilders train to experience an increase in cross sectional area of their muscles, and not really associated strength.  It's common to watch bodybuilders doing unbelievably high volume with very sub-maximal loads, at least relative to their muscle size.  Judging by their physique, it appears that they could throw a car above their head.  But in the end, they simply do not have the strength that they appear to have.  

But to them, this doesn't matter so much.  They train for APPEARANCE. And there's a lot to be said about appearance.  Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy allows you to look big and strong, often a more impressive trait than actually being as strong as an ox but only average in the muscular department.  This hypertrophy also more readily accelerates your metabolism, allowing you to burn more fat more quickly, and build that physique you've always wanted.  

How do you go about training for this type of muscle gain?  Well for building big muscle, you want a big rep number, with sub maximal weight.  Don't go super duper light, but work those muscles to exhaustion.  As you've probably heard before, FEEL THE BURN.  Super sets, drop sets, and negative reps are all great ways to overload your muscles for set after set to really ensure a good growth stimulus is sent to your brain and those muscles increase in volume as quickly as possible.  The most general rule for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is to keep reps within the 8-12 range, for at least 3 sets (I've seen people do as many as 10-15 though.)  This is only a general guideline though, and I suggest heading over to bodybuilding.com to get a more detailed workout routine.  

STRENGTH:  Let me bring to mind an athlete you may or may not have heard of: Pyrros Dimas.  Dimas was a three time Olympic gold medalist for weightlifting.  He weighed in at a meager 182 pounds, yet lifted 473lbs over his head in the Sydney Olympics.  He was the ultimate example of a strength athlete, and is one of my personal heroes.   

So how is it possible that Dimas was able to get so ungodly strong without becoming enormous and inflexible?  Well he, and other strength athletes alike, train for Myofibrillar hypertrophy, or an increase in overall muscle fiber connections.  This type of training surprisingly does NOT drastically increase cross-sectional area or overall volume of the muscle being trained, but instead allows the muscle to contract with much more force than it could previously.  Believe me, to put that much weight over your head, you need a LOT of targeted, raw, force.  

Myofibrillar hypertrophy deals more with fast twitch, or type II muscle fiber, the kind often referred to as "usable muscle."  Athletes like sprinters, Olympic lifters, power lifters, and other related force athletes often have large amounts of fast twitch muscle.  This muscle contracts, as the name implies, hard and fast, and can apply great amounts of energy to objects in very short amounts of time.  It is not, however, very effective endurance muscle.  Muscles can only contract with remarkable force for relatively short periods of time, hence the reason that joggers, bodybuilders, Nordic skiers, swimmers, and other endurance athletes (I put bodybuilders in there because of their ability to hit fantastic numbers of reps, NOT their running ability, which I'm sure is horrendous) possess much more slow twitch, endurance muscle fiber.  

It's always good to get strength training into your workout routine, as being able to lift heavy weights is not only healthy, it also builds a more solid body and strong neural connections between your brain and your muscles.  So where do you start?  Well, first of all, drop the huge number of reps.  Next, increase the weight.  Finally, do this for a good number of sets, 10 or so.  For an olympic lifter, a squat workout program may look like this:  10 sets of 2 reps, every rep at around 85-95% of max.  Believe me, though it may look like an easy workout, it is anything but.  That weight is very heavy, and will ALWAYS be very heavy.  This type of training does work though, and I can personally vouch for it.  The majority of my training is strength targeted.  My squat has gone up around 90lbs in 6 months, and shows no signs of slowing down.  And I don't look too much different, implying I haven't experienced much sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.  Watch out Dimas, here I come!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So which is the best way to train?  ....HAH!  What a silly question.  That's not possible to answer, and rarely will anybody who knows there stuff about exercising/fitness give you a straight shot one way or another.  For the average person, I suggest a mixture of both!  You'd like to look good and be strong at the same time, right?  Well that's a great goal, AND entirely possible.  Switch up your workout, either weekly, monthly, yearly, daily, I don't care.  Confuse your body, train both high and low reps, high and low weight, high and low volume.  You want to see benefits across the board right?  Well you will!  There's always carryover from each type of training.  Even though I said bodybuilders aren't relatively strong...well...I said RELATIVELY.  They're still unbelievably strong, because look at how much muscle mass they've got!  And sure, Olympic lifters aren't overly huge, but I mean they aren't exactly tiny either.  Train for both size and strength, and you'll get both.  Sure, what you'll always get isn't the BEST of either world, but it'll be a pretty good start into each one, and it'll do your body a huge favor.

Get big, get strong, and as always, good luck!