Why Am I A Jerk? Part One.

The question the title asks is a rather loaded one. It implies that I am, in fact, a jerk. This is a very subjective assessment of anybody. One person's behavior could be seen as crude and boorish or lighthearted and carefree. It all depends on who is doing the judging and what kind of mood they are in in that particular instance.

With that in mind it has been brought to my attention that I've recently become more of a jerk than usual. Specifically, since I lost some body fat and put on a little muscle. I'm going to hold off on agreeing or disagreeing for right now as I don't feel that I've become a jerk per se. Chippy, quasi-confrontational, and a little shorter fused? Yes. A jerk? No. In any case the part that intrigued me was that everyone agreed that it came about when I changed my body composition.

I mentioned this to a client who had lost a significant amount of weight and he said, "The same thing happened to me. My youngest [child] said just the other day that I was more fun when I was chunky." This got me thinking that maybe it's not just a coincidence. Let's take a look at the evidence.

Studies have shown that obese men have higher levels of estrogen and lower levels of testosterone. This is a fact. If you're carrying some extra stuff around the mid section you've probably got some issues with your endocrine system. This is true even in young men. Many men know they are not the virile go getters they were when they were young. Until recently it has just been something that was relegated to the just-a-part-of-getting-older category. While testosterone production does naturally decrease as men age the fact that a lot of men gain abdominal fat is also a contributing factor.

One thing I found interesting while researching the subject is that winning has a positive impact on future success and testosterone and all the good things that come with it. In animal studies it has been shown that there is a natural surge of testosterone when one wins. And the more you win, the more likely you are to win again. What does this have to do with me? Maybe that I get a sense of winning satisfaction any time I win an argument. Or set a PR. Or feel that my hard work is paying off in the way that I want it to. Have I perceived myself winning anytime I mock one of accusers speech impediments? Have I perceived myself as winning when I watch one of my accusers warm-up for 45 minutes and only lift for thirty and I think to myself, "What an effing girl that guy is."? I'm going to say that I do feel a sense of winning because all I'm thinking in my head is, "SWISH!" when that stuff happens.

But are these contests with a with a winner or loser that will actually feel the repercussions of winning or losing?

I'm not sure and I really have no way of knowing for sure if those situations parallel the animal models, especially since those were physical contests over territory. One could maybe say we have a pissing match here or there but that's hardly as stressful as a dispute over territory or females that the animals go through. This also leads to a chicken and the egg type question. Am I competitive because my testosterone is high or is my testosterone high because I'm competitive?

Is my testosterone even higher than what is considered normal? Not sure.

But I'm sick of talking about me. Let's talk about my accusers. Remember, being a jerk is dependent on who is judging and what they are feeling. If we flip the situations previously described in the evidence supporting my increase in testosterone and decrease in estrogen we come to some interesting results.

First let's look at probably the biggest factor, body composition. I'm going to tread lightly here. None of us, myself included, are going to be gracing the cover of GQ or Muscle and Fitness anytime soon. We are all decently fit guys, but male models with 6% body fat we are not. Some of my accusers are carrying a little, as I like to say, extra shit. That extra subcutaneous fat does not bode well for free testosterone. In the study cited it is thought that sex hormone binding globulin (this stuff sticks to sex hormones thus rendering them useless) gets an upswing when one is carrying extra fat. Strike one.

Now let's take a gander at the living/social situations of my four accusers. Of my two biggest accusers one is married with a kid on the way and the other lives with his girlfriend. Survey says?! Men who are in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone. It's the name of the damn study for crissakes. In our society this is probably a good thing since evidence has shown that lower testosterone leads to better paternal care and problem solving and all that jazz. Whatever, they have lower test. Strike two.

Those are the two biggest factors. We could argue over a strike three all day since the only other things I've found to lower test are piddly shit like types of music, lavender scented things (wtf?), warming up food in plastic containers and blah blah blah. Don't get me wrong, I do everything I can to keep my testosterone high and estrogen low, but at the end of the day I sometimes just say, "Yeah? But who gives and shit?" when confronted with stuff like that.

So let's take stock of where we're at. I've decreased fat mass, increased muscle mass, and perceived myself winning. On the other side of the ball we've got some guys who have a bit of extra weight and are all in committed day-to-day relationships.

So what the hell am I getting at? I'm sure everyone has connected the dots that I think I've experienced an upswing in my testosterone thus leading me to be more aggressive and an otherwise outwardly asshole while I think my accusers have experienced a downswing in testosterone and a possible upswing in estrogen thus rendering them overly sensitive and easily offended by my witty repartee. Open and shut case, right? If you know anything about me then you know if you've been thinking this your new name should be Lord Wrongsley of Dumbassfordshire. Part Two is going explore just what all of this nerdy stuff means. You might be surprised.

Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21771886 Independent and Additive Contributions of Postvictory Testosterone and Social Experience to the Development of the Winner Effect.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17426100 Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue assessed by magnetic resonance imaging in relation to circulating androgens, sex hormone-binding globulin, and luteinizing hormone in young men.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20433613 Socially explosive minds: the triple imbalance hypothesis of reactive aggression.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21403636 Combining behavioral endocrinology and experimental economics: testosterone and social decision making.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2401584 Obese men have elevated plasma levels of estrone sulfate.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3293358 Hormonal abnormalities in obesity.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20666639 Between- and within-sex variation in hormonal responses to psychological stress in a large sample of college students.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/13129483 Men in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone.

Saturday and Tuesday

SSB Squat:
135x10
225x10
275x10x3

Close Grip Bench:
95x10
135x10
165x10x3

Cambered Bar Good Morning:
135x10
155x10x2
175x10
185x10

Lat Pull Down:
3x20

Calf Raise:
3x20

After this I drank a bunch of booze and ate a bunch of food. L-I-V-I-N, livin'.

Tuesday:

Squat:
165x5
275x4
340x3
420x2
445x1

315x13
225x20

Dead Lift:
300x3
330x3
365x3x3

RDL:
4x10

This one felt pretty good. The 445 came up faster than it has in some time. Nothing really hurt although I still have the discomfort through the outside of my right thigh. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Song of the Day: The Dopamines- Thankyouverymuch

Thursday

Bench:
95x5
145x4
185x3
230x2
245x1x3
185x10

Single Arm Row:
100x10
110x10x2
120x10x2

with

DB Lateral Raise:
5x10

Face Pulls:
2x25

with

Shrugs:
2x20

Arm Circuit

Pretty decent session tonight. Bench technique felt solid yet the weight didn't move as fast as I probably would have liked. Such is life. Next week I'll be bumping up my calories so hopefully a little extra weight will help.

Song of the Day: Comeback Kid- The Blackstone

"If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way." -Mark Twain

Tuesday

Squat:
160x5
265x4
340x3
395x2
445x1
275x15
225x20

RDLs: 176x10x5
w/
Calf Raises: 225x15x5

I'm starting my meet cycle in earnest one week from today so I took things somewhat easy. I also tweaked the everloving shit out of my mid-upper back on Saturday. I had finished my last heavy set of front squats and dropped down to 135 to do a high rep set. On the third rep I must have gotten loose because all of a sudden my back seized up and I could hardly breath without feeling a shooting pain. I quickly realized that it was more or less a severe cramp and I just needed to give it a few days to relax. I was a little nervous going in to today but everything held up just fine.

Song of the Day- Choking Victim- 500 Channels

“Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more.” -Oscar Wilde

Thursday

Bench: 85x5, 145x4, 185x3, 240x2, 255x1

Single Arm Row: 5 sets of 10
w/
DB Front Raise: 4x10

DB Lateral Raise: 4x10
w/
Face Pulls: 3x15

Arms Circuit

Bench felt heavy today. I wasn't very good about getting fluids in me today and I think that played a part. My scale weight is also down a bit and pressing movements are usually the first things to drop when losing weight. Not worried though. Meet is still a ways away.

Song of the Day: Guttermouth- That's Life

"Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them." -Henry David Thoreau

Last Couple

Saturday:

Front Squat: 95x10, 135x10x2, 185x10, 225x10

BTNPP: 95x10, 115x10, 135x10, 155x10, 165x10

RDL: 225x10x2, 275x10x3

Monday:

One Clean, Two Press Medley

165 lb. keg
80 lb fat gripz dumbell
191 lb axle
186 lb 10" log

x3 rounds

Tuesday:

Squat: 185x5, 265x4, 340x3, 445x2, 475x1, 225x15x3

Dead Lift (speed): worked up to 405x1x5

Pendlay Rows: 225x6x3
w/
Calf Raises: 275x15x3

Saturday and Tuesday weren't anything out of the ordinary. I was happy I got the last set of front squats on Saturday. The 475 on Tuesday may have been a touch high but I'm not too worried about it right now.

On Monday I got a wild hair up my ass to do some strongman conditioning stuff. That's one hair I wish I would've plucked.

Song of the Day: Wugazi- Nowhere To Wait

"We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey." -Kenji Miyazawa

Thursday

Bench: 85x5, 145x4, 185x3, 235x2, 250x1, 185x10x2

DB Low Incline Bench: 55x10, 85x8, 8, 10
w/
Sgl Arm Row: 90x10, 105x8, 8, 10

DB Laterals: 3x10, 1x15
w/
Rope Pull Downs: 3x20

Shrugs: 405x8x3

Band Tricep Pushdowns: 3x20
w/
EZ Bar Reverse Curls: 3x12

Shoulder Prehab

Pretty solid session tonight. Upper body can definitely handle a lot more volume than the lower body. I'm really hoping that the extra GPP and muscle mass will be a big help when it comes time to transition to more strength based stuff. I don't know why it wouldn't.

Song of the Day: Banner Pilot- Skeleton Key

"To keep the body in good health is a duty...otherwise we will not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." -Buddha

Tuesday

Squats: 160x5, 265x4, 340x3, 435x2, 455x1

Pause Squats: 225x5, 275x4, 315x3,3

Speed Dead Lifts: 225x5, 315x3, 365x3x3

Standing Calf Raises: 3x20
w/
1 1/2 Bulgarian Split Squat: 3x10 each leg

Decent 80%er tonight. Squats felt kind of off. I'm not a very good judge of speed when the weight starts to creep up, but the last two sets felt kind of slow and like I was losing my arch a bit. I was playing around with my descent a bit so that may have thrown me off.

Everything else went fine. The 1 1/2 Bulgarians kicked my ass. Long time since I've done these and I know they'll be reminding me of that fact for a few days to come.

Song of the Day: The Flatliners- Mother Teresa Chokeslams the World

"Asses don't kick themselves. You gotta kick them." -The Rock

The Footwear Manifesto

I'm going to start this post with the disclaimer that I am speaking from a weight room performance perspective first, an overall health perspective second, and a running perspective in a shameful, shameful third. That is to say, I have zero authority to tell you what to put on your feet when you go out and run more than 50 meters at a time. I see a lot of kids with a lot of different shoes on everyday. And some stick out more so than others. On with the show. If you were to go into a modern athletic footwear outlet and put all of the shoes there through a scientific gauntlet, and test a myriad of variables on each, a lot of them would be fairly similar to each other with obvious differences towards the extremes. These numbers don't really mean much to anyone outside of the designers of said shoes and maybe a few researchers. Now, if you did a series of tests on habitual wearers of said footwear you'd likely draw some conclusions as to which shoes are better than others. We'll start with some of the worst offenders.

Reebok Zigs and Nike Shox

If it were up to me I would outlaw these shoes and draw and quarter anyone who had a hand in their creation. These are by far the worst shoes that you could wear to lift weights and/or live your daily life in. The heel-centricity of these shoes basically means you'll live the rest of your life with tight ankles, hamstrings and hips and be weak as a kitten with MD in the same areas. I won't bore you with the biomechanics of the foot, ankle, knee, and hip but suffice it to say these shoes blow.

I can't hear you. Your shoes are too loud.

Every kid I've seen wear these shoes has horrible ankle mobility, weak glutes, and tight-as-piano-string hip flexors. This stems from the fact that you are basically putting on four inch pumps when you slide these guys on. Talk to any women who wears heels on a regular basis and she'll tell you. It ain't fun. The raised heel put a lot of stress through the hip flexors. This causes them to become tight and pull the pelvis into an anterior (forward) tilt. This anterior tilt tightens and weakens the glutes and hamstrings rendering you all but useless when it comes to any type of pursuit that involves any kind of physicality.

The raised heel also shortens the calves which will adapt and stay that way over time. Tight ankles mean that the knee can't bend over the foot when doing anything with the lower body. If you want a recipe for disaster in the form of lower body injuries this shit is the bomb. The Achilles tendon and ACL can only take so much.

A crime against humanity

On top of all this, wearing these shoes feels like wearing a cloud. You're probably saying that's a good thing, right? Wrong. Double wrong. Let's do a test. Take two people and assign one to hard, strenuous, but not back breaking labor and the other to complete bed rest for six months. Which one is going to be better set up to defend themselves against a zombie uprising? It's definitely not the dirty hippie laying in bed because he's trying to prove some stupid point. Same thing happens in your feet. If you keep your foot completely supported and never make it do any work shit gets weak. Everything happens from the ground up and if your feet are weak then you're weak. A weak foot means a weak foot strike when running, it means a weak base of support when squatting, dead lifting, and pressing, and it means a weak blunt object when trying to shit stomp a zombie's skull in. None of these things are good.

What To Wear When Smashing Weight

Every person who has spent a good amount of time training and is above average in strength has a personal favorite shoe to wear. Some like Chuck Taylor's, some like indoor soccer shoes, and some, like me, prefer wrestling shoes. If you can picture all of these shoes they all have something in common: a relatively flat sole that rides close to the ground. Having a flat sole with little cushioning allows you to A) Create space at your hips while squatting, dead lifting, and pressing by being able to sit your hips back. This is what engages your glutes and hamstrings along with your quads. The flat sole also allows you to push your weight to the outside of your foot, keeping your knees towards your pinky toe. If you like your ACLs then you'll try to keep your knee to the pinky toe.

An oldie but goodie.

And B) Keeps you as close to the ground as possible. Being close to the ground keeps you stable. It's the old adage that you can't fire a cannon from a row boat. And you can't squat well with your feet an inch and a half off the ground on top of a bunch of soft cushioning. If you try to tell me something about balance training or relate it to bosu balls then you need to turn your computer off, get in your van and drive outta my face. Seriously, if that thought came into your head never read this blog again.

One caveat to this is that some weirdos prefer to wear Olympic weightlifting shoes. These are shoes that have a wooden, raised heel that is about a half to a quarter inch up. Doing the Olympic lifts in these shoes definitely help, but for the majority of gym lifts I could take them or leave them. For some people the biomechanics of their own body makes these shoes a better, ahem, fit. I've tried these shoes for squatting and other movements in the past and have had mixed results. I like to wear them when I'm trying to target my quads a little more, but don't wear them while doing max effort power lifts. The difference in these shoes and the Zigs and Shox mentioned above is that the sole is completely solid. It's very hard to fall back on them because the heel doesn't give. It's hard and made of wood. Also, they are ONLY worn during lifting. The same things would happen to my lower extremities if I wore these all the time. So don't do it.

My Two Cents On Barefoot Running

Barefoot running or running with minimalist shoes like Vibram's has been gaining a lot of traction as of late. One of the reasons for this are studies that watch African and South American tribesmen, who never wear shoes, run. They strike the ground with their toe or mid foot first with the heel never really making any significant contact. The studies then go on to say that they have healthy joints and muscles and blah blah blah. I don't disagree with the studies. In fact, I fully agree with them. The one detail that gets lost on a lot of people is that THEY HAVE NEVER WORN SHOES. These tribesmen didn't wear heel-centric shoes their whole lives, read an article in a magazine, and suddenly decide to run barefoot. They've been doing it their whole fucking lives. As such they have developed the movement pattern and the support structures (bones, ligaments, tendons, and muscles) to support running barefoot. If you are going to give barefoot running a try you first need to give running with shoes with less of a heel drop a try. Then try flat soled shoes. Then try barefoot. You need to build up your body to be able to handle it.

But that's only half the equation. If you've worn shoes your whole life then you have a movement pattern ingrained in you that requires shoes. It takes 10,000 perfect repetitions at something to make it a habit. To make the switch you have to unlearn how to run with shoes and relearn how to run without them. That takes a lot of time. Like months to years of knowing what the hell you are doing. And in the instant gratification society we live in not a lot of people are willing to do that. Or even realize they need to do that if they don't want to hobble around the rest of their lives because they were too lazy to do something the right way. I better stop before I completely change directions. Remember at the beginning when I said I had no authority to tell you what to wear when running? Yeah, I lied.

Some Recommendations

First and foremost I would recommend people to take their shoes off whenever possible while not doing anything strenuous. That being light yard/house work, short walks, or while at work. Forcing your foot to do some work and putting your ankle through a full range of motion is definitely going to help. But like I've said previously, ease into it. You can't go from having shoes on 24/7 to doing everything barefoot and not expect some stuff to hurt, specifically the bottom of your foot, the plantar fascia. Only dummies would do that. Right?

Same goes for everyday flat shoes as for going barefoot. A good starter shoe would probably be the Nike Frees or New Balance Minimus. These shoes are a lot flatter than most but still have a good amount of sole to help your foot work into it.

As for lifting start wearing flat shoes now. It's only while you are lifting so you don't really have to worry about hurting your feet by overdoing anything. Try out the Chucks, soccer shoes, or wrestling shoes and pick which one you like better. Some people even prefer to lift in Frees. While not the best in my mind, one could do a hell of a lot worse.

These make take some time to get used to the different movement pattern that they will put you through, though. Especially when squatting the big thing to remember is to use your heels and the outside of your feet as much as possible.

Friday and The New Training Cycle

Front Squat: 95x10, 135x10, 175x10x3

BTNPP: 75x10, 95x10, 115x10x3

RDL: 220x10x5

Guns

SPRINTS!!

In case I've failed to mention I'm doing a meet on November 19th in Dubuque. With that being a mere 13 weeks away my training is going to shift from more of a hypertrophy plan to a strength plan. Here is the weekly template:

Day 1: Squat, Deadlift, lighter posterior chain work

Day 2: Bench, upper back and shoulder work

Day 3: Ok, listen close. I'm going to pick a main supplemental exercise for each lift and do rep work with it. So in the example above I did front squats (squat), behind the neck push press (bench), and RDLs (dead lift). I'll keep these lifts to their own day so that I don't over do it on the strength days.

So in the week I'll have two strength days and one rep day. For the first 4 weeks or so I'm going to push some rep maxes and build some work capacity. I'll also have a day or two of conditioning work in there. At about 8 weeks out I'll cut the conditioning and focus more on the one rep strength. I think it's a good plan that will bring me some good results. Only one way to find out. And that's to get it on. Got's to get it on. Got no choice but to get it on.

Song of the Day: The Copyrights- Hell Will Be Party Time

"How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then you shall know what is in thee." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Wednesday

Bench: 85x5, 145x4, 185x3, 215x2, 245x1, 165x10x3

Single Arm Row: 3x10
w/
Db Side Lateral: 3x10

Band Shrugs: 3x20
w/
EZ Bar Reverse Curl: 3x12

Another lightish session. Just easing back into things. The regular bar felt a little weird in my hands after months of fat bar but I'm sure it won't take long to get used to it.

Ted Nugent is not bad at guitar.

Song of the Day: Ted Nugent- Great White Buffalo

"You are the only person on earth who can use your talent." -Zig Ziglar

Tuesday

Squat: 160x5, 265x4, 315x3, 395x2, 445x1, 225x10x3

Deadlift: 315x3x3

Glad I decided to fore go doing 475 for 1/2/3/1/2/3/1/2/3. Based on how 445 felt it would've been a no go. Instead I'm going to ease into my meet cycle. The actual cycle is going to be 12 weeks starting in two weeks. Until then I'm going to throttle back a bit and work into it. I'll lay out what I'm going to be doing for the 12 weeks a little later this week.

As requested by Eric.

Song of the Day: Dethklok- Hatredcopter

“What is difficulty? Only a word indicating the degree of strength requisite for accomplishing particular objects; a mere notice of the necessity for exertion; a bugbear to children and fools; only a stimulus to men” -Samuel Warren