It was sometime in April of this year that I had an email exchange with Martin Berkhan of Leangains, private nutrition consultant and trainer. He’d emailed about some utter bullshit like I deal with here every day that’s not even worth mentioning.
We got to talking; he complimented me on my progress, I said I had 15-20 pounds more to go and without being the slightest bit pushy, offered that he could help me. Once we delved into what it was I was doing — that for more than a year at that point had not gotten me materially closer to my goal — he determined I was fucking around too much in the gym, doing high rep nonsense workouts that were a bad mix of conditioning & strength which, he tells me, he sees all too often in the paleo community. So, he thought I had lots of improvements to make here, with a no BS strength training routine. …Which turned out to be true — my training was fucking retarded…recalling, now, those silly-assed 3 x 10 x 135 lbs. deadlifts. Jesus.
But then was the issue of how to deal with it on the blog. As you’ll find out in a subsequent entry about “Working with Martin Berkhan,” he has a certain style. Without giving that away just yet, suffice to say that “we” decided to keep it a secret until at or near the end. And we’re nearing the end.
By now many of you thousands of readers are asking yourselves: who the hell is Martin Berkhan? Understandable — and I’m glad you asked — since so many of you are focussed on the Paleo lifestyle, more Crossfit styled workouts and for probably most of you, not obsessed about getting ripped.
Well, you know how I like to use pictures, so click on this for the larger version and no, I’m not telling you which is before & after.
Martin Berkhan
You can learn all you like about Martin’s very long path from fat teenager to near anorexic male model to the absolutely ripped and shredded guy you see above who dead lifts 600 pounds + and does chin ups with a weight belt sporting 100 pounds +. Right here, six posts.
This is going to be a multi-part series culminating in an interview with Martin. As such, I’m going to keep each entry relatively short and we’ll go for as long as it takes. I really want this to sink in, because I think Martin is at the very top of his game right now and is finally getting the recognition he deserves. And I know those of you paying attention in these areas are well aware of that. In short, Martin is in many ways turning lots of bodybuilding bullshit on its head. Finally.
As a bit of of a preview, Martin is positive towards Paleo and many of his clients are from the Paleo community, and intermittent fasting (IF) also plays a very core, crucial role in the success he gets. Of course, fasting is also quite Paleo.
And for a final preview, here’s a video of me just today, doing dead lifts. That’s 305 pounds for 4 reps and then a second set of 275 pounds for another 4 reps. I turn 50 in January. six months ago I was doing something like 155 pounds, feeling satisfied. I was full of shit.
So, there it is. The next post will detail how I lost nearly 10 pounds while gaining over 50% on my dead lift, among other Lean-ing-Gains.
The takeaway is this: Lean Gains. You can gain strength — like you can’t even imagine — and lean out at the same time.
This is real, and it turns the body building world on it’s head.
Update: Installment number two is right here: Leangains: Martin Berkhan’s Workout Approach
David Csonka 
Tyson 
Chuck O 
Anders F. 
I’m interested in to hear what Martin has to say. From the little that I know about the BB community it is a lot about eating huge amounts, ‘bulking then cutting’.
Is Martin’s approach different to that?
I can only speak to the program he designed for me after an extensive questionnaire that of course included my own desires & goals.
No, this did not involve bulking & cutting. I lost fat and gained muscle and strength at the same time. We’ll get more into specifics on the next post – those parts Martin generally reveals about his program.
Great work Richard, your gains have been pretty amazing! Deadlifts are such a satisfying workout, aren’t they?
Let me put it this way. I feel I could go to the gym once per week, DLs one week, squats the next, weighted chins the next. 10-15 minutes per session. Rinse & repeat. And with sufficient intensity, never loose a thing in terms of strength or composition.
Just back from several weeks in Italy, so catching up on all the blogs I follow. Anyway, I remember telling you this months ago, that it’s about short, super intense, infrequent workouts. I remember I wrote you in your comments about this, and you basically blew me off saying you were going to stick with your 4-5 day / wk workouts.
Me, I work out 4-6 times max a month, and never lose my seriously impressive strength (dip with 120 lbs dumb bell), 365 lb squats, 405 deadlift. I’m 49 and weigh 160, 11% bodyfat.
It’s ALWAYS about intensity. The enemy of intensity is duration. Once you TRULY appreciate these two statements, you will finally know how to properly strength train. And add this: the more intense the workout, the longer the required recovery period. So, if you’re truly pushing you intensity to absolute max, then one workout per 7-10 days should be your limit. (However, most people THINK they’re pushing themselves to the max, but really they’re not.) Finally, the best workouts are short, condensed, little rest between sets, and exhausting to your cardiovascular system. When I workout without a partner, I’m in and out of the gym in under 25 mins. And my condensed, intense workouts blow away the effectiveness of people who spend two hours in the gym.
But all of this is extremely counter-intuitive. Only 1-in-100 people ever believe me over the years, and they look at me as a genetic freak for being able to get away with it. They call themselves hardgainers. There’s no such thing — a hardgainer is merely a poor trainer, usually an over-trainer, who doesn’t understand that intensity trumps duration, and intensity requires much longer recovery periods.
Most people never see the light. But from a paleo perspective, it makes perfect sense. Humans that survived evolved such that they didn’t need to work out often to maintain peak physical form. Humans only need occasional peaks (twice or so a month) to build and maintain required athletic physical attributes. Our ancestors rested more than anything. They NEVER exercised, so the human body evolved to trigger growth from super brief periods of intense activity.
BTW, bodybuilders generally use cheats (like steroids) to overcome overtraining and poor training. We should NOT use them as our strength building models.
You must have me confused with someone else, Scott. I never, ever worked out more than twice per week, 30 minutes a session. Ever. And my very first post on the topic in May, 2007 talked principally about the inverse relationship between intensity and endurance.
Now, with Martin’s program, it’s 3x per week, 30 min each, but there are some remidial aspects to it, for now. Once I build up to DLs in the 400s and squats in the 300s, workouts will become far less frequent.
I cannot wait to see this series. I have been researching the leangains approach for a few months now. I tried it once but didnt do it correctly. Gained 5lbs. I am retrying it again (started Monday) and am hoping for better results this time around now that I believe I know what I am doing. Cannot wait to see your progress.
….awesome Richard, Congrats! Can’t wait for the next episode! :)
Strong work!
this lean-gain concept interests me greatly too, I have been working at it on my own, but not making near the progress I think I should, cant wait to read more about it.
He’s got an interesting take on alcohol consumption– worth checking out of grins and ideas.
I’m so psyched for more of this. I found LeanGains a few weeks ago and have been reading all of his stuff. I didn’t realize it, but with only a little tweaking I was kind of already following his protocol. Can’t wait to read the rest!
I’ve been following the Leangains plan (albeit quite loosely) for the last couple of months. Basically two or three big meals within an 8 hour window (but as I said I’m a bit loose so sometimes this window expands), plenty carbs on training days and low-carb high-fat on recovery days. So far I’ve made better strength gains than I did with the “traditional” approach (high carb, frequent meals) or the moderately-low-carb Paleo approach. I can’t say however whether the gains have been down to the diet or down to other factors (better sleep etc.). I’ll be interested to read what you have to say anyway.
I knew it! Your description of what you had been doing seemed very close to LeanGains…which I started on after a consultation about 3 months ago. I’d been messing around for so long, erratically, that it was worth the money to get a good program outlined. I gained a lot of strength and leaned out a little. Unfortunately, I injured myself a bit (bad lifting form) so am now using it to hold steady and maintain my gains/fat loss while I swap in some other lifts to recover. In about a month or so will hit it hard again.
It is an adaptable program, allowing for this sort of thing. Combining IF with high-strength lifting and plenty to eat…it is a super combo.
Scott W
Me too – I knew you were talking about Martin from day one – I’ve been a fan of him for years. His clients progress photos are always jawdropping, and obviously, as you show above, he walks the talk completely. He occasionally loses me with the more technical stuff, but his posts are always very insightful.
His cheesecake mastery series is funny too. Although….not very paleo. 80/20 I guess ;-)
PS – perhaps we should send some of the 30 BaD crew his way for bulking up…..
There’s some things even Martin can’t fix. :)
Joking, of course. I would imagine that if any one of them were willing to submit themselves to his dictatorship – which is absolutely required – they would see gain gains, ie, an increase in weight from added lean mass and strength, but a decrease in BF percentage. They have no place to go but to bulk up some.
On a slightly different note, i’ve noticed that your video clips don’ t load. Is this only me or are others experiencing the same? I use Safari on Mac.
Thanks,
Leonardo
They don’t load for me either. At least this one didnt.
Aha! That explains the cottage cheese!
Richard your blog is the bomb as is Martin’s.
My story is similar to yours and I can tell you you haven’t even
scratched the surface on the strength gains you’ll see ;-)
I hate people who post advice in comments but I guess I’ll be the
knucklehead today. your hip flexibility (or lack of it in this case) makes getting into
a strong (read safe) position at the bottom of the DL tough.
Especially if you’re pushing to pull PR’s regularly you might want
to consider pulling from the lowest pin in the rack instead of the floor.
It will radically improve your form instantly and leave you much less
vulnerable to injury. Unfortunately I know this from hard earned experience.
You can always work on hip flexibility as well and ultimately pull from the
floor but to keep you rollin’ just pulling bottom pin will do ya.
Keep up the awesome work … you ROCK brutha!
M
Richard first I want to thank you for the amazing blog.
Have been following your blog for sometime now.I am sure you know and will be careful with those heavy deadlifts as they have been responsible for a lot of back injuries!
Regards
richard just wanted to add that I deadlift heavy and regularly and encourage you to enthusiastically continue. there are few exercises if any more important than the deadlift. Nothing unsafe about the act itself just when form flies off.
Richard, congrats on the 305×4. That is a big milestone. You’re probably wishing you got that last rep though aren’t you.
I tend to keep it real whenever I move up in weight, especially on both 1st & 2nd set in the same week.
Martin is by far the best. I’ve never found a program that works anything near as well as his. Very easy too (relatively speaking). He needs to write his book already.
LG is a tweaking of CKD (which I’ve done in the past and loved) with IF thrown in (which is great because who the hell has time to eat 6 meals a day? We’re not cows we don’t need to graze like them). The evidence speaks for itself and I hope Martin really turns some heads!
Oh, and looking good in the video, Richard (no homo!). Have you thought about getting rid of the facial hair? Nah, your wife will hate it when even more hotties come flocking your way for looking 10 years younger. I know when I shave I get carded at the bars, wtf?
Pardon my ignorance – but what is CKD?
Cyclical Ketogenic Diet
Great. Thanks!
Richard,
This looks like it will be a great series of posts. I can’t wait to see what you have in store. Question for you regarding your workouts: do you workout in a fasted state or do you have a pre-workout meal? I tend to be one of those that likes to workout in the early AM before I head into work. I generally have been working out in a fasted state. I read some of Martin’s website and it looks like he recommends 10g of BCAA pre and then 20g of BCAA post workout for a person like me (then you started the feeding window).
I guess to take a step back; do you subscribe to the feeding window/IF pattern (16/8) that Martin suggest?
Thanks
Reid:
Long before I became Martin’s client I was already sold on fasted workouts. On my initial loss of 60 pounds I discovered IF and timed my workouts to coooncide with my two weekly fasts of 30-36 hours – at the end.
I have lots of posts about it if you search fasting on my blog. Otherwise, yea, I always work out hungry. I have tried once or twice to do a meal withing a few hours and I always hate it. Gives me heartburn. Hate it. Besides, once I do my first set, any hunger I have is gone.
Fed workouts are for pussies.
“at the end” meaning workout near the end of the fast.
Richard,
Thanks for the feedback. Do you take 10g of BCAA pre-workout? Also, what are your thoughts on an 8 hour feeding window?
I enjoy fasted workouts as well.
Yea, I have Purple Wrath. Used to take it pre workout, but pretty much near the end of the fast, and it’s zero cal, though sweet.
Frankly, have noticed no difference since, within the last month it has been packed away in a box for my move.
I haven’t missed it.
Richard,
One of my favorite meals post workout has become scrambled eggs and sweet potato cooked in coconut oil. Something about the eggs or coconut oil really makes the flavor of the sweet potato come out. My wife boils a few sweet potatoes for me early in the week and then I just keep em’ in the fridge. When it’s time for breakfast I just cube up a few slices of one and throw it in with the eggs.
Give it a try if you haven’t already. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Richard,
So even as you’re trying to put on muslce you’re sticking with the fasted workouts? Interesting. I did a lot of that when I initially went paleo, and I lost about 40 lbs. But now that I’m trying to bulk up a little bit, I read on Martin’s site where he called fasted workouts “detrimental.” So now I basically eat lunch at 1:00 (first meal), work out around 7:00, and eat after that. Do you think going back to working out in a completely fasted state would be helpful?
Thanks,
Jim
I’ve got a whole post planned about the meals, in terms of some of the things I like to do, variations and such. Of course, some of that is already in various food porn posts but this will be a chance to put a lot of the Leangains specific stuff into a single post.
Yes, Jim, virtually all workouts are right at the end of my fasting window so that my post workout meal and breaking of the fast are one in the same.
Excellent work, Richard! I’ve been waiting to hear what this was all about – excited to see it was working with Martin. I’ll definitely be looking for updates.
Hi Richard,
First, nice work on the DLs! That improvement alone has got my interest peaked.
The pictures on Martin’s site are really impressive. Do you know if this is his maintained weight or is this a weight dropped down to for a short period of time? I ask because my hubby and I have a background in bodybuilding and its inherent leaning out phases. If I could get lean without rebounding, it would be sweet, but it scares me to go down this road again (after having spent years trying to sort out my metabolism via paleo). I’m really interested to finding out if Martin is able to achieve this level of leanness on himself and his clients on a maintenance level.
Thanks, Richard.
Tara
Tara: Martin will be here fielding questions so I will defer to him.
However, I suspect the answer will be the logical one. No, you can totally maintain lean mass, low BF and super strength. Perhaps not to pro BB competitive requirements especially if juicing (though I know absolutely nothing about that). That’s why Ill defer to Martin.
Tara,
Yes, and so do many of my clients. Keep in mind that it took me many years to find a suitable system that worked for me in order to maintain this state – I am all too familiar with leaning out, and then rebounding, dieting again, rebounding again, etc.
I’ve talked about this here:
leangains.com/2010/03/maintaining-low-body-fat.html
leangains.com/2010/03/intermittent-fasting-set-point-and.html
leangains.com/2010/03/secret-benefit-of-being-lean.html
The “secret” to finding a system that allows maintenance of the lean state in the long term depends on
a) Finding the right approach for you, in terms of meal frequency, macrocomposition, “rules”, etc (while at the same time ignoring conventional wisdom…which is much easier said than done)
b) Winning the war with yourself – most people that have been dieting for a while, or those that would label themselves as somewhat “serious” when it comes to diet/training and so forth, have neurotic tendencies and irrational thoughts. “Magic thinking”, if you will. This is extremely counterproductive, as we set up imaginary and nonsensical rules for ourselves.
Concrete example of “b”
When breaking the rules we set up for ourselves, we get depressed/anxious – and binge.
Alternatively, we overindulge in “forbidden foods” when we get just a little taste of them. The all-or-nothing-mentality. If you ate some carbs at family dinner, you rationalize that you’ve broken the diet and go “screw it”, eat plate after plate of pasta, and end up in an insulin coma on the sofa for the rest of the day.
Hope this makes sense.
Richard… Like several of the comments before me, it was pretty obvious when you started incorporating carb refeeds post workout and eating cottage cheese who your consultant was. That and all of your tweeting with each other made me think you already told everyone.
And seriously…amazing progress.
Tara,
Martin says in various places on his blog that he sits around 6% body fat year round, I believe in some of those pictures he might be 5%. He doesn’t rebound much, even after eating a giant cheesecake in one sitting.
Richard,
great stuff. it seemed you might be doing something along these lines.
i’ve been thinking of consulting with Martin for awhile. I’ve followed the leangains approach for a few months, not perfectly and seem to have stalled after about 7 lbs of muscle gain and dropping the BF. Pulling a heavy set like that is soooooo satisfying isn’t it. the other day i was so pissed off after a morning meeting at work i immediately went home and pulled 345 x 4, 325 x5, 305 x5 with a very similar primal grunt to your video. then went back to work. so much better.
can’t wait for the posts as i’m still hoping to push up anoth 8-10 lbs of lean mass.
Dan
Show off! ;)
I think Martin is a mad genius – the smartest bodybuilders always know the most about nutrition. Ever read Rob Faigan? The man was way ahead of his time in 1990.
ive long read leangains blog and kind of knew that i should adopt it but for whatever excuses i havent. So i love seeing this series.
and on a purely bloggy side, i love seeing the whole “series” thing with a bunch of posts culminating in an interview, etc. Not that i needed one, but it really give a reason to keep coming back.
Great DLift btw. rock it.
Here’s what you guys need to know. The comments are great and while I already have rough drafts going of the subsequent entries, the comments weigh heavily in my continuing polishing and edits.
So keep ’em coming as it will only improve things. I’m looking to have a very vibrant series. It’s about time we changed subjects around here.