Free The Animal » Body Conditioning

MovNat Day 5: The Gauntlet and a Wrap

Richard Nikoley — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:26:25 +0000

Flashback Day 2: We had taken the jungle trail to the lake for incredible swimming for fun; anxious for it, because normally we'd have gone day one, but rain prohibited. We had a blast just frolicking and then the training. Water training, for me, doesn't carry an iota of drudgery, unlike ground-based training. I just love the water and on top of that, you stay cool. And movement is more efficient -- at least for me -- in that I naturally invoke more functional body parts such that I don't exhaust so easily or quickly. I'm naturally more efficient in the water, a subject I'll expound upon later in this post.

Erwan had a magazine deadline to get some photos in and I had a quality photo rig, so Vic and the others headed back on the 2.5 mile trail and Erwan & I stayed behind to take some shots. And we ate berries as blogged previously. But on the way back I brought up the subject of the last day of training, the no-breakfast, all-out compilation of all we've learned: Saturday morning; the dreaded Saturday morning.

Erwan: "One guy threw up. Two cried."

I sensed there was drama involved, but I was happy to go with it because I knew that in the end, even if I vomited and cried, I'd eventually end with a smile.

Such is the wonder of the human-animal condition. How funny, how wondrously ridiculous, how inspiring and how goddam amazing is it that we have in us the virtuous capacity to pay a decent fee, fly across the country (or from Sweden, as Elizabeth did) and endure all manner of discomfort -- if only to get a small 5-day slice of Real Life.

At this point I could lament that. I could lament the fact that a guy like Erwan has to go out of his way to show us what a slice of real, human-animal life looks like.

But I recognized it from the get-go. All week long I was reminiscing. I talked about it with Erwan a number of times. This week brought back so many childhood memories: climbing willow trees, exploring every inch of my grandfather's 10 acres on the Truckee River just west of Reno, Nevada where we lived. The fishing in that river and the trips to Pyramid Lake and the Klamath River. The bird hunting and the deer hunting trips. As a kid, this was natural, and we moved, and we moved in context. We had no need or want of "Natural Movement" vis-a-vis any "reawakening" because we lived it -- if not every day -- a good bit of the time. And we didn't think about it that way because it actually was natural, for us.

And then we lose sense of who we are; or, at least I feel that I did. So a reawakening it was.

Day 5, the final day, began without breakfast, with an assessment of progress in various skills. We were filmed on day 1, then filmed again for comparison. After a brief interlude it was time for the final challenge.

The weather, as I've recounted, was not the best on day 1 and while threats of rain persisted throughout it actually turned out to be beautiful on days 2-4. But as if to call in an overdue debt, the sky began to darken only moments in advance of our last adventure together. And then it darkened more, as if to impress upon us a deep sense of foreboding as to what was in store for us. And then it darkened even more; a dark cloud, visibly and rapidly descending upon us. The fear & loathing was palpable...

...Nah. Actually, we were chomping at the bit. I just though the drama would be fun to write...

And so it was that as the gust front kicked in and the clouds burst into heavy rain, Erwan called out the "Let's Go" and we go'ed. In the driving rain our first stop was a heavy rope suspended between two trees at a distance of about 50'. As we took our turns hanging on, hooking our feet and transporting ourselves from one point to the next the others did continuous movement: squats, half-squat holds, pushups, splays, planks, one arm planks, punches, kicks, elbow punches and more. Continuously.

This never ended. From one movement to the other, nobody stood around. And we did lots of movements, eventually driving and diving into the jungle on all fours, sometimes on a path and sometimes in the raw. Every obstacle encountered was overcome using some skill we'd learned, either by going over, under, around or hauling it out of the way.

There was even a 20' patch of crotch-deep mud. We went through that twice, for fun.

This went on for over an hour. How long exactly I won't say because I don't want to give away any suspense, but I will say that there's not a moment's rest in any of it. And we all made it back alive and intact. (Note: Click on all images below for the hi-resolution versions.)

The Motley Crew

And while I didn't puke, nor cry, I did end up with that smile.

Some Guy

Some cleaned off massive amounts of mud and debris while others chipped in for our final meal together. I'll speak to the level of cooperation among us in the wrap up portion of the post.

Chipping In

Time for a massive mixed grill.

Mixed Grill

...And then the feast for 15.

The Feast

...And one man's plate (mine, 1st trip).

En Plat

And shortly after that last meal we said our goodbyes and headed off back to the human zoo in which we spend the vast majority of our lives, fretting about all manner of quotidian minutiae that we've no real control or influence over, devoid of natural, human animal context, but in which we're trained like seals bouncing balls on their noses to care about and pay attention to.

There are many aspects of this beautiful experience I could write about but I'll stick to just a few. To echo the foregoing paragraph as a start, it could be suggested to Erwan Le Corre that what this is isn't "training" at all. This version of the MovNat course is called "Reawakening." And perhaps that's a good start. After all, we weren't "training" in the sense of doing something humanely unnatural like reading a daily newspaper and getting worked up and stressed over things that will never affect us and over which we have no real control or influence, but simply rousing that hibernating inner animal to a set of actions that have been natural for eons and which merely require the application of a context.

Humans always seem to be competing. It's taken as given that competition among humans is an a priori good, i.e., you don't even need to get up off the couch to know it's true. And for all of my life I've believed that. Now I'm not so sure.

While competitiveness does have application and value, I believe, is that the primary value we ought to be seeking, or, might we put cooperation first? I say that because I noticed two applications of this idea throughout the experience, on an individual level, and on a group level.

I noted a few things. While myself and others were getting all bruised & scratched as we reconnected with natural movements, Erwan & Victor had none, and they do this over and over, day after day. Is their skin somehow super human, or is there something else to it? Are the scratches and bruises a necessary aspect of all these movements or, are we doing them wrong? Is one part of our bodies in competition with other parts? Is our mind in competition with our bodies? Is this a manifestation of an old & tired notion that our minds and bodies are somehow in endless and eternal conflict, the one with the other, an endless dichotomy?

And if so, what are the social ramifications? After all, if we wear our individual bruises as badges of honor rather than recognize them as a sign of unnecessary travail, how far of a stretch to imagine that our damaged, manipulated, worrisome personal relationships and our wrinkled and torn social fabric is merely an outpouring of the same fundamental struggle?

Here's some context. Never in my life have I seen a group of 12 individuals, strangers to one another, act so very cooperatively and mutually supportive of one another. If I could sum it up, MovNat placed competition and cooperativeness into a proper human values hierarchy.

You see, the real competition comes from within. You compete against yourself. You strive and struggle to improve while encouraging others to better themselves. You get better by being better, not by fooling yourself because others have not improved, or done worse.

This was the MovNat experience at its core. Everyone improved. Everyone encouraged everyone else to improve, enthusiastically cheering on all other's accomplishments without fear or trepidation such accomplishments would make them look or feel worse.

If you want to get better, you have to get better. It's all within you. Competition is often misguided, misdirected and counter-productive in The Zoo Human.

Erwan le Corre is a natural at this and my only reservation is that his knowledge and experience are so deep (see here to learn of his background) that he has a real challenge ahead of him to both maintain the profound integrity of MovNat while at the same time, taking it to a more mainstream level. If I had to summarize Erwan's skills: part Cirque du Soleil acrobat, part gymnast, part mixed martial artist, part nature survivalist and part dolphin. How in the world do you replicate that? On the other hand, this is a very good start -- widely accessible and local. I can envision a gym like StrengthBox in that video, combined with regular weekend group outings in nature to apply what has been reawakened in the gym.

This is by no means more than an infinitesimal slice of what we witnessed on a continual basis over 5 days, but it gives you a taste: Erwan and MovNat in Action.

MovNat Action from Richard Nikoley on Vimeo.

There is a grace and efficiency to all he does and teaches and this is why there's never a scratch on him, while the rest of us were bruised and scathed. It's not primarily about muscle and will, but about reawakening your muscle to work cooperatively and to use your senses -- always -- in order to be profoundly aware of the entire integrated texture of your surroundings.

There is so much more I could talk about, like, the evening talks given by Erwan on such topics as Natural Movement itself, nutrition, metabolism, fasting and more and which often motivated discussion beyond the time we all should have been in bed.

But I'll save all that for you to discover when you get a chance to attend a MovNat experience.

Departure Lounge: Amis Pour La Vie

Here's a list of links to all the posts in this series.

MovNat Day 4: Integrating and combining skills

Richard Nikoley — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 03:28:00 +0000

Today was quite varied but the best way to sum it up would be combining things we’ve learned, often without thinking about them at this point. There is so much we’ve learned and used over and over that in some measure many things have become automatic.

The morning began, after breakfast...

Egg & Veggie Scramble and Fruit & Coconut Milk Smoothie

...with a 2 1/2 hour session in the beating sun rolling around on hot, bug infested grass to learn various ways of moving on the ground -- applicable to stealth hunting or escape, perhaps -- and culminating in an excellent session where all of that movement, weight transfer and shift was applied to self defense situations where you defend yourself when you’re on the ground and your attacker is either on top of you, or standing. Extremely informative and valuable. Well, actually that wasn’t a culmination because Erwan created a combination drill that kicked our asses at the end. So why torture yourself in the sun for 2 1/2 hours? The answer is that it pays to do that, sometimes. You never know when you might be called into action that requires maximal effort for long periods in awful conditions.

I retreated to the cold shower before lunch.

Portabella Mushroom and lots of nut veggie stuff

We had a pretty good break, actually. About three hours. I managed a 45 minute nap, and I never take naps. I actually went to sleep.

So by mid-afternoon it was time to take up training, again. First stop, the NovNat Jungle Gym.

The MovNat Jungle Gym

I can’t remember whether it was yesterday or the day before (we’ve been here a month, already...) but I did manage to get myself over the horizontal bar using one technique, both sides. This is hard to do, folks, and I have the bruises and scratches on my arms to prove it. Today Ewan showed us a different technique that’s a bit more difficult in terms of weight shift but can be compensated for with strength. This was my first clue that my strength is really sapped because I couldn’t even begin to execute this move and after several attempts had to give up because I’d just lose what little strength that remained.

We then went over to the heavy logs that we cleaned and pressed on day 2 and where I easily handled the heaviest one numerous times. This is where I learned how depleted my strength was, because I had to dump my first attempt.

Oh, well. Part of this training is to learn your own limitations. It’s also about movement efficiency. In the role of trainer, Erwan, for instance, is continually demonstrating complex moves over and over, many times. And he’s as strong and fresh as ever. Is it because of raw strength? Well, he has a lot of strength and often demonstrates the pure strength move vs. the efficient, energy conserving one. But on balance he’s at the top of his game daily and hourly not primarily because of his strength but because he gets the job done using the least amount of strength and energy necessary.

And that’s a huge part of what this is about.

So then we moved onto a series of functional movements, the first being picking up 15’ long tree limbs of 6-8” diameter, getting them efficiently on your shoulder, balanced, and walking and squatting with them.

Next up was something I’d been waiting for: lifting, carrying, and throwing heavy things; in this case, large rocks. Turns out we also got to catch them in a number of different ways. I shot video of Erwan’s demo and instruction which I’ll mash & post when I get back as part of my massive wrap up post.

School Time in Carrying Heavy Things

My camera wasn’t exactly configured for high speed photography so this one is blurry, but ought to look like fun.

Throwing Heavy Things

And on the catching side of things, here’s a couple of me.

Catching Heavy Things

More Catching

And after that it was a combo circuit of rock swings (like kettlebells), a high static jump onto a picnic table, jump off, four split jumps on the balance beams, a 40 yd sprint where the last 10 yds is on a balance beam, and then start all over -- for 10 straight minutes, non-stop.

Then we called it a day and had dinner. Grilled fish, some red potatoes with green onions, and kale with avocado and mango.

Grilled Fish Dinner

Tomorrow the show ends. It ends with a fasted workout in the morning that we’re told is going to have us on our knees but with ear to ear smiles as we have our last meal prior to departure.

So I’ll leave the camp at noon and if all goes to plan, arrive back in San Jose at 9pm Pacific. I’ll put up a final wrap up post on Sunday.

So until then...

Here's a list of links to all the posts in this series.

MovNat Day 3: Not Boot Camp

Richard Nikoley — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:53:54 +0000

My previous posts have somewhat emphasized the rigorous nature of the training. It has been, and today was no exception; just different, less, avoidance of burnout. While we kept active from morning to 7:30pm, we also did a lot of liesurely fun stuff.

First up in the morning was training in getting up & over a horizontal bar that you must pull up to, hook a leg and swing yourself up onto. Only, it’s not a bar but the equivalent of a tree limb, rough bark & all.

Then we did various jumps of all sorts trying to perfect a landing on a 3.5” beam (4x4) without falling off. Some of these jumps are 6’ and more and practice makes perfect. In my best effort I stuck the landing in a squat from 6’ three times in a row.

Shortly thereafter, Erwan got the sense that people were getting a bit fatigued, so we broke for lunch and got a bit of a speech from him on how this isn’t boot camp and that training for Natural Movement should be a natural pursuit; vigorous & disciplined, yes, but not Boot Camp.

We had a great salad with chopped figs & Brazil nuts and for those who wanted (me), prosciutto.

After lunch we just lounged around for a good while, maybe an hour before heading off to the lake for more water training. The hike is about 2.5 miles through jungle, tropical like terrain. Thorns, hornets, bugs, twisted wood and various obstacles of all sorts abound.

On the way we did some activities and took some photos.

Barefoot in the Jungle

Stream Crossing

It was so glorious to finally arrive at the water. I was first in. Barefoot Ted had gone a bit ahead but found some wild blackberries and had picked a bunch. Good -n- Paleo. I knew of another wild berry patch with some sort of blueberry -- that Ewan & I feasted from the day before while pursuing a photo op -- and after the water training he was taking the whole lot of us up there.

First we had a good amount of time to just enjoy the water, a real break we all took advantage of. I just swam around, did some dives off the rocks and really had a blast cooling off and chatting with the others. I haven't talked about it but the social aspect of this experience is quite a pleasure; good. It basically started when 8 of the 12 of us met at the airport and hasn't let up yet. Everybody is super cool to everyone else, there are no big egos, no annoying people at all. Barefoot Ted is a real riot, life of the party guy and Erwan & Vic have great humorous personalities (with lots of French banter between them that I sometimes translate for the others). As demanding as this pursuit can be, at times, you always know some joke is right around the corner. We Laugh. A. Lot.

After the long period of free time in the water it was back to training. Firs thing we did was to swim for some good distances on our backs with both hands out of the water, a skill necessary for lifesaving. Second skill we practiced was to dive from the rocks, remain under water and swim to locate a person who had already sunken beneath the surface, simulated by Vic treading water. We began at about 25 feet away, which everyone successfully accomplished and kept increasing to about double that. Quite a lot of fun; good, mutually encouraging competition and some real surprises from Maggie and Elizabeth who both made the longest distance along with a good number of the guys (I and Barefoot Ted did not).

Next it was a climb to up the cliffs via a circuitous route to feast on wild berries.

Wild Berry Find

Then we did some more self-defense training in a wonderful setting and took a group photo.

Kick Training

Group Photo

By the time we hiked it back to camp very worn out it was about 7:30 and time to call it a day. Dinner was ribs, so had to cook a while and we had a great meal around 9pm, in the dark.

BBQ Ribs Slaw

The slaw was red cabbage & pears with some sort of sweet tasting sauce. The sauce on the ribs was a puree of caramelized onion and fresh oranges. Way good.

Well see you back here tomorrow night.

Here's a list of links to all the posts in this series.

MovNat Day 2: This aint no picnic

Richard Nikoley — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:43:33 +0000

It just keeps getting better & better or worse & worse, depending on your perspective. Those who are here, of course, know it's getting better. They're just having the quality and comprehensiveness of what they signed up for confirmed for them.

It's truly remarkable, and different. Long days. No time wasted. But I'm walking dead right now and it's coming up on 11pm. I'm sitting in Erwan's car in the parking lot of a Burger King on WiFi getting this done.

One of the things that's different about this is that you never know exactly when mealtime is, what sort of training you're going to be doing, how long it's going to last or when you're done for the day. But on both days we've gone from morning (today, 30 minutes of primal & functional stretching exercises before breakfast) until late, after 7pm.

Eggs and Fruit & Nuts in Coconut Milk

After that meal we did breathing exercises that takes the breathing one learns in a Yoga class to a functional level that's used in all of Natural Movement. This included holding your breath. Now, in the assessment drills on day one I did a 2:10, beaten only by Barefoot Ted at around 2:30, I think. But today, after breakfast, not getting to sleep until 2am (rain, rain and more rain) and exhaustion, I could barely manage 1:30.

I was so tired but self defense training really breathed new life into me. I was particularly interested in this because I have never had any fight training. Interesting. Freeze, Flight, Fight, in that order. You train to fight for self-defense (but often by being very offensive & aggressive) so that you can have a very short freeze reaction and then take flight: get your ass out of there; that is, if you can't do that right from the start.

They wore us out, having us throw endless palm & elbow punches using proper hip rotation. Ah, lunch...

Zucchini Noodle Spaghetti

And ha, it wasn't raw vegan this time. Since the one guy eating veg (for the last 7 months) caved to the beef last night -- and Allie the camp chef had some leftovers -- it when in the sauce (it was a cold dish, very yummy and would have been great even without the added meat.

Thank god we finally got a sunny day, and so after lunch it was off the the lake via a hike through the wilderness of 2.5 miles or so. Many obstacles along the way offered opportunities to practice new skills for just getting by in a jungle-like environment like a human animal.

The water training spot on Summersville lake is diving, as well as secluded. Most people would not brave the rugged trail to get there.

Summersville Lake Water Training

We spent a time hauling around a huge water logged-log, then did some drills with sticks and awareness I can't describe, then did drills seeing how far we could dive down to get to the bottom. Many of us did 12-15 feet, but I think Barefoot Ted went the deepest at around 20 or so.

Finally it was a hike back and more training, this time first cleaning heavy logs (from one end), then cleaning and pressing them. And then after that, it was jumping from balance beam to balance beam, placing them farther apart with each success. Finally, we called it a day at 7:30 pm.

Mr MovNat

That's a photo I took of Erwan earlier today to send to a magazine editor who's doing a story on MovNat.

No photo of dinner as I was too busy eating and plus we were faked out with an earlier dinner. But we had enormous chicken breasts with a great fresh veggie/pepper puree sauce, some sweet potatoes and green beans.

Here's a list of links to all the posts in this series.

MovNat Day 1

Richard Nikoley — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:49:36 +0000

The day began for me at 4:15 am, Monday. I got up in plenty of time to ensure all was in order for a 6:15 flight out of San Jose. Arrived in Houston on time, had about 2 hrs of layover -- enough to eat a pound of BBQ ribs & brisket (no sauce) and then they got us on to Charleston, West Virginia 20 minutes ahead of schedule. It was 5:00 pm local and the shuttle from Summersville Lake Retreat was due to pick us up by 7:00 for the nearly 2 hr drive to the MovNat encampment and training.

Unfortunately one of the attendees had a weather delay and so we ended up getting to camp at 10:30pm. Long day. And all was dark save for some Tiki torches; and nobody really delayed much getting off to bed in their individual tents with thick air mattress and bedding. Still; it took me quite a while to wind down and get off to sleep.

In the morning we were able to actually see where we were, and it’s quite lovely.

MovNat Encampment

Before anything got going we had a nice breakfast with ample scrambled eggs, some bacon and a big salad with some nuts & seeds in it. And I learned something: try red palm oil on a salad. Amazing, and you really don’t need any lemon, vinegar or anything else.

Orientation and training begins, led by Erwan and his assistant, Victor, with lots of conditioning and training experience himself.

Erwan and Victor

The training day began with an assessment where we were to each run through a surprising number of movements in order to judge our individual levels and to scale training to individual capabilities. While some movements have that scale built in -- such as what size log are you going to hoist onto your shoulder & carry, or deadlift -- and some require close supervision on the part of Erwan or Victor.

All in all it’s my impression that for a majority of the movements the field is quite level. Nobody in the group of 12 is holding anyone else back, and I find that impressive.

After the assessment we had an interesting session by Erwan on the importance of perception in the concrete context of natural movements. It’s quite simple, yet fundamental all at the same time. It was part lecture and part mild exercise for the purpose of teaching this awareness that in turn benefits the training.

I didn’t manage to get a photo of lunch, it was raw vegan, but quite good entailing a hearty salad with a nut butter dressing and finely chopped parsnip with curry, all drizzled with the red palm oil again (if I only knew).

Then we spend a long time training in many various moves and it was tough and fun. There is an intensity to it, at times, but it’s also something you’re training for skills, even to include proper breathing techniques.

Squats on the Balance Beam

Most of us have been doing everything barefoot, including the running and jumps. No cuts, but I definitely have some sensitive areas on the bottom of the feet. I might give it a break tomorrow and don the Vibrams.

We also got drenched with monsoon like rain at least twice. But while sunshine would be preferable this added level of difficulty probably makes for better training. It also makes you questions your resolve, as in, what the hell am I doing flying all the way across the country to stand in the rain, torture my feet, and generally cause myself scrapes & bruises?

Dinner of Grilled Beef, Veggies & Guac

I’m not sure I have an answer for that yet, because finding the answer to that question is part of the process.

Here's a list of links to all the posts in this series.

MovNat; Summersville, West Virginia

Richard Nikoley — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:34:07 +0000

Simple title, eh? But that's where I'll be, flight time in 10 hours.

I've got to get packing, but then, I'm a 5-minute pack kinda guy. Only, I've been corresponding with Erwan and we've mutually worked out coolness. For the first time ever that I'm aware of, a participant (me) is going to do a little side work to benefit the both of us.

I'm bringing an HD camera, laptop (normally forbidden), cigarettes (kidding), and with what is apparently crappy wifi, we're going to try to mash a little video (original sound), add some pics, some commentary, and send it out to you daily at FTA. Wadda deal. Free.

It's worth doing. After all, we're there to work. I've been obsessed about it the last week and increasing in intensity gradually.

Wanna see whaddI mean? Check out Melissa McEwan.

Well, for the meantime, check out the videos at Erwan's MovNat. And I'll catch up with you as very soon I can. Note: Beatrice & I leave for France/Italy three days from when I get back. When we return, a 14th annual camping trip a few days after. I'm going to be tied up a lot. (Side Note: I've got like 150 unanswered emails from you wonderful readers. I really am at a loss about what to do about that and if you don't hear back from me KNOW that I read and appreciated every single one and some will make their way into the blog, one way or another, in time -- I don't delete until I know I'm done.)

My Workout Video #1

Richard Nikoley — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 16:06:24 +0000

Enough people have asked for me to take some video clips of my workouts that I've finally obliged.

So here's six reps of deadlift at 255 and seven clean reps of standing press at 115 with two cheat reps tossed in at the end. Previously, I had gotten to 250 on deads doing sumo style but decided to go back to conventional. That was a few weeks ago and I took it up at 205 and now have surpassed what I was doing in the (easier) sumo. As for standing presses, I was up to 130 on those but it was getting way too compound (kinda like the cheat reps you'll see). So, we took it to 105 where I could do at least six clean reps and I've been advancing it since.

Workouts #1 from Richard Nikoley on Vimeo.

I also shot a clip of seated rows at 220, but my form really reeked when I looked at the video so I'm going to brush up a bit on those.

Later: Damn, I forgot to include my post workout meal. 3/4 pound of burger done on a Foreman style grill to pretty well done in order to make it a lean burger. Did something quite interesting with the mash (incidentally, I'd be eating white sweet potatoes instead but no one seems to have them just now and I don't care much for the orange ones). After draining I added 1/2 cup cottage cheese and a tbsp of yogurt, both low fat. It was really tasty.

Big Meal

So, not perfect paleo, of course, but reasonably primal with the goal of keeping the fat in check and the protein & carbs high for the sole purpose of post-workout glycogen replenishment and continued fat burning.

Post-Workout Overfeeding (More Humongous Meals)

Richard Nikoley — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:50:25 +0000

I think I've finally hit a good stride with the food required to take these last steps and get to my goal of leanness while not sacrificing lean muscle. Moreover, I'm beginning to get pretty strong. At about 175 now, 5'10, I can smell that 300# deadlift (conventional, I'm now at 250# for reps, where I was a while back on sumo). The back squat is progressing nicely too, though not quite as quickly. I'm up to 230# for reps there.

Most everything else, to me, is kind of a means to the end of getting into the 300s, maybe even 400s on those two exercises and not hurting myself doing it.

Of course I've been writing about some of this stuff for a while and have talked quite a bit about potatoes. And this isn't my first post on Big Meals. Click on the photos in series for the hi-resolution versions.

Big Meal

But what I do find interesting is that I'm not the only one in my neck of the paleosphere talking about this. In mid-June, Mark Sisson broached the topic, as did the uber-strong Keith Norris. The general consensus seems to be:

Use starchy tubers primarily.
Do it in conjunction with a post-workout feeding or overfeeding

And that's exactly what I've been doing.

Bigger Meal

So, essentially, I'll try to get in 80% or so of my carbs for the day in one meal, post-workout. That's three big carb meals per week and the rest are pretty conventional low-carb, high-fat & high-protein paleo.

Biggest Meal

Once I reach my goal I'll then decide whether to continue the high carb meals but I'm leaning towards doing that. I also might ratchet down the protein but I'm not entirely sure about that, either.

Potato Pancakes - Leftover mash, two eggs and green onion, in butter

I guess I'm up in the air about that because I feel like I've really gotten myself into a good groove that works. I'm getting strong, slowly leaner, and so what's not to like?

It was hard to wait until they were done

Initially I was sort of repulsed by the Big Meals, having gotten used to eating smaller ones, high in fat. But now I'm finding I really like it. Yesterday we were out running about to join up with family in the woods when my post-fast meal window opened and we found a perfect restaurant: Steve Medlen's House of Beef in Oakdale, CA. I had a bowl of vegetable beef soup, a big green salad, about 10oz of tri-tip, mixed vegetables and the bowl of chili that came with it. I can just feel the furnace kicking on when eating a meal like that after an 18-hr fast. It just feels really good.

Of course this was only the first helping for the sake of taking a photo

So I guess we'll see how it all turns out on the dietary front.

There is one more issue and you might think me crazy (others do) but I have been having great success the last three consecutive weeks doing all three workouts back-to-back, in three days, to be followed by a full four days of rest.

My favorite of the lot - a cup of cottage cheese, 4 eggs and a pound of potato fried in bacon drippings

Here's what I'm seeing as the advantages of this:

Mental boost. It's like a 3-day work week and I get mentally up and stay up.
Four days of rest in a row is fantastic.
In terms of the diet, this gives me the post-workout overfeeds three days in a row, followed by four days of more pure low-carb paleo.

So, what do you think about all of that?

Big Meals to Fuel Big Workouts and Big Gains

Richard Nikoley — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:00:12 +0000

In the process of losing the 60 pounds I've lost I became averse to appetite, by which I mean that when I got hungry I'd eat pretty good -- you've seen the food porn -- but hardly ever with a voracious or gluttonous attitude. I just really got out of the habit of eating a lot, or often. This was good.

What I've done is to gradually accustom myself to eating big...really big; for me. Today's post workout meal, after nine days of rest from the gym -- and eating less each day because -- was records on deadlift, standing press, and seated cable rows. After that and a few other exercises I downed 1,420 kcal in a single meal. Yea, carbage was involved, but not huge.

Anyway, this is not the typical food porn, it's fixed only for me (another factor), but it's what I'm doing right now. You see, I have a specific goal and I'm going to attain it. It requires real attention to diet in a way that's paleoesque but not necessarily how I would eat normally, short the goal I'm intent on attaining. (Click all images for hi-res.)

Steak & Eggs

That was a post-workout "break-fast." What you don't see is the cup of cottage cheese and the shake I downed for another big whack of protein.

Her's a pound of roast beef, chopped & crisped under the broiler with a bit of beef stock for moisture.

Roast Beef

First helping.

Roast Beef and More Protein

And then I finished off the rest of the beef.

At first this was hard and I drank a lot of the protein needed to make the impressive strength gains I've made in the gym in a couple of months. How much protein exactly on workout and rest days? I can't say exactly and I don't really know "the formula" in any case if there even is such a thing, but should it be any mystery that lots of protein is needed to make really big gains? Maybe it's not required, long term, but I don't want to wait another three years. I want these gains in months! And plus, I've simply found that I dig lifting bigger and bigger. I just do.

This is very, very different from what was going on before, where I had respect from trainers other than my own. Now I get a bit of awe. This is not a body-builder gym by any means (...oh so far from it -- it's an old-fat-fuck, downtown-lawyer gym; they call it a "club") so some of them -- standard cert-holder p-trainers -- are quite interested in what I'm up to. Today one of the newer trainers came into the room where I was doing some post-workout intervals on the stationary bike and, having seen me do my DLs and standing presses earlier said, "Dude, you're gettin' strong!" Believe me: he's 20-sumthin' and I'm pushin' 50. That's music every day.

And I'm just getting started. A 300 conventional deadlift would have been unimaginable three months ago. Now it's just a matter of a few weeks away and I taste it. Can I hit 500? That will surely take more time and serious effort. I'm not committed to that goal, yet, but I'm thinking about it.

I wrote earlier that I downed 1420 calories post workout today. I had a lot of roast beef, cottage cheese, mashed potato, cantaloupe and a big glass of coconut water. Here was my second meal, tonight.

Comfort

Basic grilled grassfed burger & mash. The sauce was of my recent batch of bone stock -- of which I have photos and may do a post on soon.

I dunno... Maybe it's obvious. I suppose just getting lean is a great goal. It's what I wanted to do and then I bounced 175-180 for a year and never got much stronger, or leaner. I still bounce 175-180, the difference being I'm hugely stronger and visibly more muscular and lean.

I'll take it; and plus, I'm not finished.

Another Brief Progress Report with Pictures

Richard Nikoley — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:25:01 +0000

I suppose the best thing about all of this Paleoishness and conditioning is that though months go by without a lot of progress perceived on my part, it's gratifying to see it after a year.

And guess what? I weigh exactly the same as I did a year ago, about 180. Here's what it looked like a year ago, "My Transformation in Photos," and I was happy with that because it was an improvement on the previous set.

In all of this, I have always taken refuge in the belief that, 1) if this isn't long term sustainable then I'm just goofing myself and that, 2) if it is long term sustainable then if I'm doing it right the fat will take care of itself in time. Patience. This is not and never has been about quick fat loss. It's about getting on a life plan you can live with that motivates your genes and your metabolism to just do their natural thing. You didn't get fat and undesirable overnight (yes, being fat is undesirable, unattractive, debilitating and all Fucked Up -- don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise).

On the other hand, for those of us a little older, and, if being ripped style lean is an itch you just have to scratch, then once you get to a nice, sustainable body composition you might want to take it to the next level. That's what I decided to do and I'd venture that two months ago I pretty much looked like I did a year ago. But no longer.

OK, here's how it's going. Bear in mind, the pics from today and a year ago are at the same weight, 180. You can click to get the larger version.

The Today Me

And this was a year ago.

Year Ago Me

So there you go. Gains in the gym continue. Right now it looks like the bench is my friend. Gains two weeks in a row after nearly two months of go-nowhere crap. And I'm now exclusively on conventional deadlifts having found that once I got to 255 x 5 on Sumo that it greatly compromised my squats, making me feel -- even at 135 warmup weight -- that I was doing squats for the first time. So I'm catching up and am at 215 on conventional DL and it's feeling pretty good. We'll see how the squats go tomorrow.