PERFORMANCE MENU

JOURNAL OF HEALTH & ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE

PRINCIPLES OF SQUATTING MENTAL GAME COACHING MASS MADE SIMPLE THE VALUE OF SLEEP

ISSUE 73 . FEBRUARY 2011

PERFORMANCE MENU
Volume 7 . Issue 73 . February 2011
5 Ask Aimee/Greg
Aimee & Greg Everett

JOURNAL OF NUTRITION & ATHLETIC EXCELLENCE

Answers to your questions.

7 Get Up, Stand Up: Five Spiritual Principles of Squatting

Matt Foreman

The basics of squatting

11 Mass Made Simple: An Excerpt By Dan John

Dan John

A sample from Dan Johns newest book.

16 Mental Game Coaching: An Interview With Bill Cole (Part 2)

Yael Grauer

Bill Cole answers more questions about the importance of psychological preparation for athletic performance

20 Sleep: An Undervalued Ergogenic Aid

Dallas Hartwig

The value of sleep and how it affects performance

25 Cooking with Scotty

Scotty Hagnas

Recipes for health, performance and longevity from certified culinary stud Scotty Hagnas

Info
is published monthly in digital format by Catalyst Athletics, Inc.

Contributors
Greg Everett is the owner of Catalyst Athletics, publisher of The Performance Menu and author of Olympic Weightlifting: A Complete Guide for Athletes & Coaches. Matt Foreman is the football and track & field coach at Mountain View High School in Phoenix, AZ. A competitive weightliter for twenty years, Foreman is a four-time National Championship bronze medalist, two-time American Open silver medalist, three-time American Open bronze medalist, two-time National Collegiate Champion, 2004 US Olympic Trials competitor, 2000 World University Championship Team USA competitor, and Arizona and Washington state record-holder. He was also First Team All-Region high school football player, lettered in high school wrestling and track, a high school national powerlifting champion, and a Scottish Highland Games competitor. Foreman has coached multiple regional, state, and national champions in track & field, powerlifting, and weightlifting, and was an assistant coach on 5A Arizona state runner-up football and track teams. Yael Grauer is a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in a variety of trade journals and consumer magazines and she writes regularly for various websites including MMA HQ. Yael trains in Brazilian jiu jitsu and teaches writing workshops both locally (in MN and WI) and virtually. For more information, check out her website. Scott Hagnas is owner of CrossFit Portland. He is certified as a CrossFit level 2 trainer and Circular Strength Training (clubbell) instructor. He has been riding BMX flatland for 26 years and counting and has filmed/produced/edited several series of BMX videos, plus several training videos. He formerly competed in bicycle trials, placing second in amateur in the World Championships in 1990. Cooking is one of his favorite pastimes. Dallas Hartwig, MS, has been a licensed physical therapist for ten years, and a strength and conditioning coach for almost as long. He was the owner/founder of CrossFit 603 until founding Whole9 with Melissa Urban, and now travels nationwide to present their Foundations of Nutrition and Trainers workshops. He sleeps nine hours a night, and makes no apologies for it. Dan John has been teaching and coaching for well over thirty years. He is the former Strength Coach and Head Track and Field Coach at Juan Diego Catholic High School in Draper, Utah. He remains a full-time online religious studies instructor for Columbia College of Missouri and contributing writer to Mens Health. Originally from South San Francisco, Dan came to Utah to throw the discus for Utah State University and recently returned home after 35 years away. He currently lives in Burlingame, California.

The Performance Menu

On the Cover
Warren Anderson

Editor in Chief
Greg Everett

Managing Editor
Yael Grauer

Design
Greg Everett

Subscription
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All content copyright Catalyst Athletics, Inc and its respective authors. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution is prohibited by law.

CATALYST ATHLETICS NEWSLETTER

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ROM THE EDITO

FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome back to another issue of the PM. This month we have another collection of great articles and recipes, including a piece on sleep by Dallas Hartwig of Whole 9. Aside from being a great article on an incredibly important topic, this is in direct response to our reader survey40% of you listed sleep as a primary struggle for yourselves. As someone who has dealt with incredibly poor sleep for over ten years, this is an issue very important to me as well. I have no doubt that my inability to sleep well is the greatest limiter in my own training and performance (and healthbut thats less interesting to me than snatching big weights). Dallass article contains some great information, and many of his recommendations are ones that Ive personally found helpful over the years. As Dallas points out, many of us have developed the mindset that we can get away with less sleep and accomplish more in a given day. I fall prey to this trap myself occasionally, and there have certainly been times in my life when Ive pumped out pretty ridiculous volumes of work in unimaginably brief periods. However, in the vast majority of cases, reduced duration and/or quality of sleep leaves me functioning at far below maximal capacity. Ive had days in which I literally sat in my office clicking between a half-dozen websites over and over again without actually reading much of anything while numerous programs ran idly in the background with open files waiting for some kind of action that never came. This gets remarkably frustrating when combined with the knowledge that there is an infinite list of tasks awaiting. The point is, take this article to heart and rather than dismissing its recommendations as impossible or impractical, do whatever you can to try to implement them for a period of time and evaluate the results. You may not feel good sleep more initiallyyou may be one of those people who tells me, I slept too much. But give it some time. Im no sleep scientist, but Im convinced that the body adapts to limited sleep in order to survive and we become accustomed to a suboptimal baseline that feels normal. When we allow ourselves to sleep more, the body resets and we suddenly feel all the exhaustion its been packing away. But give it some timesleep debt can in fact be repaid, but dont expect to resolve years of sleep deprivation in a few days. Extend your available sleep hours, try to squeeze in an early afternoon nap as regularly as possible (even if its 10 minutes of simply closing your eyes in a quiet room), and dial in a routine. It will be well worth the effort. Greg Everett

ASK GREG & AIMEE

use when new lifters come to Catalyst has no weight prescriptions; just exercises, sets and reps, and even those are flexible. Obviously I have an idea of what I want the athlete to be doing in terms of effort level, but theres really no way of predicting what weights will be necessary, possible and effective, especially in the classic lifts, and I definitely have to change the volume for some people to minimize or prevent joint pain, etc. while theyre adapting to the training. Regarding getting the lifter close to his/her 1RM each session, not really. Depending on how the athlete is conditioned, you may be doing 5 sets of 3 with anywhere from 75-90% of 1RM (and more is totally possible with certain training). If you mean getting them as close to a maximal effort for each set, or for the total sets, then thats more likely, but also not necessarily true. Its usually a good idea to start any cycle/program well within the lifters present abilities so theres space to gain momentum. For example, if a lifter could grind out 5x3 with 85% on day one of the program, it might be smart to start him at 75-80% and take 2-4 weeks to build up to and then move past that level. It also depends largely on what other training is accompanying the squatting. If your focus during a given cycle or time in the cycle is heavy classic lifts, or maybe heavy pulling, you wont be able to squat the athlete as heavy, or more likely, with as much volume. In that case, you may be doing 5 sets of 3 with a weight that would otherwise be more appropriate for 5x5. Tony Asks: Is there going to be an alternative to Crossfit? Perhaps a confederation of gyms that employ similar methods but reject the unscientific basis, random workouts, and ridiculous claims of the Glassman cult? Thank you for your time. Greg Says: Tough question to answer for a number of reasons. First, I want to clarify that I love the CF community in general and the majority of the people

Get your questions answered directly by Greg Everett or Aimee Anaya. Send your questions to Greg and Aimee at [email protected].

Mike Asks: Greg, Aimee, Ive got a question. Whats the difference, if any, when conducting strength training and the sets and rep scheme is either 5 sets of 3 reps or 3 sets of 5 reps. Conditions: the lifter is new (linear progression/novice) and performing sets across, the total reps would be the same in either scheme, the only difference is the set volume. Understanding that novice lifters will more than likely not have a true 1rm, but Id think youd want to get them as close as possible each session to their 1rm for that day, but still creating reps/vol. So my thought is to put them in a 5 sets of 3 reps scheme with the intent of creating less intensity per set and a little more volume for the session. Examples: 1) Back Squat 3 sets X 5reps @ 100# (total set vol. 500#, total vol. 1500#); or 2) Back Squat 5 sets X 3 reps @ 105# (total set vol. 315#, total vol. 1575#) I could be totally off here, either way Id still appreciate your thoughts or observations, especially if this can be applied to o-lifting programming. Greg Says: The basic difference for anyone will be that 5 sets of 3 reps will allow heavier weights to be used with the same volume5-10% or soalthough that doesnt necessarily mean it needs to be heavier. With a novice lifter, just about anything works, and especially with young lifters, higher reps often work better. With a new lifter who is still a bit dodgy with his or her movement, staying with somewhat lighter weights is a good idea, so more reps can be used to get enough work in to actually get a training effect. Max numbers for new lifters are not important, and theyre changing so dramatically and frequently, they would be of little use if you had them anyway. That early stage of training is really the time to be more intuitive and make decisions on how the lifter is feeling day to day rather than attempting to devise some clever plan and stick to it. For example, the program I

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within it; it has put me in touch with a lot of great people, and its driving exposure to weightlifting, which undeniably helps support my business. That being said, I obviously have significant objections to many of the current philosophies, actions and attitudes of the organizations leadership and those affiliates and individuals who subscribe, support and/or endorse those things. Fortunately Im better now at not allowing them to interfere with my day to day operations and mood. I think there already exist informal networks of gyms, coaches and trainers who share similar philosophies and methods. It would be great to have something more organized for the sake of individuals finding coaches and gyms of which they could expect certain levels of professionalism, experience and ability. The problem as I see it is that there is so much variation among such gyms that it would be difficult if not impossible to establish criteria or standards that would be of any utility. Add to that the fact that small, independent gyms are just that: independent. Few if any would want to be obligated to follow any kind of

rules, adhere to any kind of plan, etc that originated outside of their own business. And if the confederation is loose enough to prevent those kinds of objections, I dont see it being very useful. James Fitzgerald is doing about as close to what youre describing that I know of with his coaching certification and affiliation and associate coach system. A good indicator of the programs quality is the following question and answer from the certification page: Q: Ive been coaching a long time, can I bypass one of the levels? A: No. The CrossFit concept will eventually be ubiquitous like Pilates or yoga with complete decentralization, and at that point it will be possible for someone else to step in and reorganize those individuals who are most serious about training into a more refined, focused and professional system than exists now.

SEND YOUR QUESTIONS TO [email protected]

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Get Up,Stand Up: Five Spiritual Principles of Squatting

Matt Foreman
When I look back at the Performance Menu articles Ive been writing in recent months, I notice that several of them have dealt with topics such as coaching philosophy, mental strength, team building, etc. Theyve been fun to write and I definitely still have a lot to say about all of these areas, but I think its time to break things up and make this months article specifically dedicated to a training topic. Everybody who reads this magazine (as far as I know) is some kind of strength athlete, and most of you probably use the Olympic lifts as some component of your training life. And thats why were going to go back to the basics this month and take another look at SQUATTING. I wrote a PM article about squatting once, many moons ago, but it mostly focused on the technique differences between high-bar and low-bar squats. This month, were going to analyze squats as they apply to athletes who focus specifically on the Olympic lifts. Ive wanted to revisit this topic for a long time because, in a nutshell, squatting is absolutely one of the most important tools in the training of any type of strength athlete. If youre an Olympic lifter, powerlifter, strongman competitor, bodybuilder, shotputter, general barbell trainer, etc., then squatting has to be part of your basic belief system. You have to believe in squatting the same way a Christian missionary believes in the Ten Commandments. Just like the missionary relies on his biblical principles to guide him through lifes struggles, you have to rely on squatting to get you through the tough times of your quest for strength. When everything else has failed you, you still have squatting. Squats will never fail you. If you do them, you will get results. Your body will be strong. If you cant squat because of injury, disability, or lack of motivation, you will end up with nothing. The most important muscles of your body will shrink and you will eventually become weak. Youll be like a formerly dedicated religious zealot who has lost his way and drifted into a sea of drugs and hookers. You must be washed clean through surgery, rehab, mental re-commitment or whatever else needs to be done to put you back on the road to strength righteousness. It will be a baptism by fire, because hard squatting isnt exactly designed for your comfort. But the pain is just something youll have to accept. If you want things to be easy, you might want to read another magazine. Open your hymnals, brothers and sisters. Its time to read the scriptures. Were going to take a look at five basic principles of squatting that will steer you in the right direction, if you follow them. Feel free to shout hallelujah, speak in tongues, or be slain in the spirit at any moment.

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The First Principle: Squatting is the most important assistance exercise in Olympic lifting, but it is still an assistance exercise.
Squatting proficiency cannot be undervalued for athletes who want to improve in the snatch and clean and jerk. Both of the full competitive movements obviously involve a squat phase, and it is impossible to achieve maximum results in these lifts if squats are not being used in training because the benefits in overall body strength are impossible to replicate with any other assistance lift. Some people view the squat as a lower body lift, but there is much more benefit than simply what happens in the muscles of the legs. Squatting is one of the best core exercises in existence. The postural muscles of the abdomen, spinal erectors, obliques, and even the middle/upper back will be strengthened every time a squat is performed. The rewards of the squat exceed those of any other barbell exercise, plain and simple. However, its important to understand the place of the squat in the training of an Olympic lifter. The squat is the finest assistance exercise available, but it is still an assistance exercise. Sometimes I think American Olympic lifters get carried away with squat enthusiasm and they start to believe that heavier squatting will fix anything. Their philosophy becomes, Squatting will make you a better snatcher. Squatting will make you a better cleaner. Squatting will make you a better jerker. This type of thinking has good intentions because it shows respect to the squat as being hugely important. But there is a caveat here. Olympic lifters often get so focused on bigger squat numbers that they will start squatting incorrectly to get them. The depth starts to get shallow, the torso starts to lean forward, knee wraps come out, etc. All of these things start to happen because the lifter is obsessed with getting bigger squat weights, but none of them will translate into the movements of the snatch or clean. If you are an Olympic lifter, you have to always understand that the squats purpose is to make you stronger for the Olympic lifts. This means that the technique and positions of the squat have to stay as close as possible to the technique and positions of the snatch and clean. If you want to become a better snatcher, correctly practicing the snatch is the best way to do it. Squatting will make you stronger, and that strength will give you a better chance to snatch more weight. But the squats have to be used correctly if there is going to be any carryover to the competition lifts. When I was doing my best lifting, one of my close competitors had a one-rep max in the squat that was twenty kilos heavier than mine. But in competition, I could stand up with a 180 kilo clean easier than he could. Who was using the squats most effectively in training?

The Second Principle: Front Squats are a position lift.

Because of the basic movement of the clean and jerk, Olympic lifters use the front squat as an essential training tool. In fact, there are some voices in the weightlifting community who believe that front squats are more important than back squats. Much of this philosophy comes from the perception of the Bulgarian program. Several outsiders have mistakenly believed that the Bulgarians only use front squats in their training, no back squats. As I said, this is not the case. But the idea still lingers on message boards, forums, etc. Regardless, front squats are one of the primary weapons of the Olympic lifter. Everyone agrees to this. One of the reasons why front squats are so beneficial is the upper body strength gains that accompany the movement. Thats right. Front squats are as much an upper body strength movement as they are a lower body strength movement. When I started training for the Calpian weightlifting club in the early 90s, coach John Thrush explained to me that front squats are a position lift. This means that they are used not just to strengthen the muscles of the legs, but also the muscles of the upper body that hold the barbell on the shoulders in the receiving position of the clean. When an athlete performs a clean or a front squat, the muscles of the chest, shoulders, arms, and upper back are used to maintain the proper form of the movement (keeping the elbows high, the chest expanded, the shoulders wide, etc.) Heavy front squatting develops the stabilizing strength of these muscles, even though the arms and shoulders are basically immobile throughout the lift. This is why it is imperative that the lifter performs the front squat with exactly the same upper body position as the clean. There will be no upper body strength development if the front squats are performed in the sloppy manner we have all seen at some point (shoulders rounding forward, elbows dropping, fingers popping off the bar, etc.) A small amount of this technical sloppiness might occur when an athlete is pushing for a new one-rep max in the front squat. Thats understandable. But letting incorrect upper body positions become a regular part of your front squat technique will limit the benefits of the lift, and also increase the chance for injury.

The Third Principle: Stop Squats are a misunderstood ally.

Stop squats are not difficult to explain. A stop squat is a high-bar, Olympic style back squat with a one-

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second pause at the bottom. Some people refer to these as pause squats but stop squat is the name I use. I dont think there are many weightlifting coaches or athletes who use stop squats as a regular part of their training. And I dont understand this, because the rewards are tremendous. I have used stop squats throughout every phase of my serious weightlifting career, and also with every serious lifter I have ever coached. All of these lifters have done the best lifts of their careers while using stop squats. When I was doing the best lifting of my life, I used my top stop squat triple as the barometer of how strong I was. In other words, the heaviest weight I could do a set of three with in training told me how ready I was for a big clean and jerk.

the lack of rebound momentum prior to standing up from the squat forces the muscles of the lower body to push harder to complete the lift, which increases the potential power output of the entire body. But dont take my word for it. The proof is in the pudding. Incorporate stop squats into your lifting program and you will get stronger. So let it be written.

The Fourth Principle: Sets and Reps: the possibilities are endless.
How often should an Olympic lifter train the squats? How many sets and reps should be performed in a typical workout? How often should new one-rep maxes be attempted? In other words, how in the hell should you implement the squats into your training program to improve your lifts? Ive said this many times in the past, but there are several different ways to train the squat effectively. Nobody has the one magical answer. Throughout my years as a lifter, Ive probably seen at least fifty different types of set/rep programs, and many of them have had outstanding results. My personal preference is as follows: How many times per week should the athlete squat? Three. One front squat workout, one back squat workout, and one stop squat workout. The best days to do them are Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. Friday and Sunday will always be off days, and Tuesday will always be a relatively light workout. What kind of sets and reps should be used? Sets of three reps (triples) are always reliable for an Olympic lifter. Im an old-school lifter, so I have always liked the old 3x3 method. This means that the athlete performs three or four warm-up sets before picking the target weight for that workout and doing three sets of three with it. Now, variety is always going to have some benefits. I have never used sets higher than five reps when training competitive lifters, but thats just the method I prefer. There are other accomplished coaches who use sets of 8-10 reps with their lifters. One of our top American coaches has a volume phase for his lifters where the athletes are doing sets of ten reps in squats, pulls, push presses, and other assistance exercises. I dont think any Olympic lifting coaches would stay with this many reps throughout the entire competition year, but using high-rep sets during a volume phase can lead to positive results for some athletes. How often should Olympic lifters attempt new onerep maxes? Not often. And when the athlete does attempt a new 1RM, it would be wise to do it at a time when it wont negatively affect the athletes snatching and clean and jerking. Planning those squat max-out

People sometimes misunderstand the purpose of stop squats. I was reading a discussion on the internet recently where a group of lifters were explaining how the main purpose of the stop squat was to prepare an athlete to recover from a botched clean. Because of the pause at the bottom of the stop squat, the lift resembles a heavy clean where the athlete gets planted in the bottom of the clean and has to pause or double-bounce before standing up. Let me make it clear that stop squats are not intended to improve the athletes performance of an incorrect clean. It might be one of the residual benefits of stop squats that the athlete has more reserve strength for standing up from a paused clean, but that is not the primary purpose. Stop squats are a valuable exercise for two reasons. First, the pause at the bottom of the squat forces the athlete to maintain total muscle contraction with a heavy weight on the shoulders, which increases the stabilizer strength of the athletes torso. And second,

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sessions around the same time when the athlete is attempting heavy attempts in the SN or C&J can get dicey.

was 21 pounds lower than the 500 pound squat I had done a year earlier. At this time, my best snatch was 135 kilos and my best clean and jerk was 167.5. The point here is that the athletes leg strength and overall power output can increase simply by squatting in a stricter, more technically disciplined manner. Making your squats sloppier and higher for the sake of a few more kilos will not make you a better Olympic lifter. Adding new kilos to your squat max while maintaining perfect technique in the squats will translate into stronger competition lifts. The athletes (and the coaches) have to be perfectionists about squat form. Amen, brothers and sisters. Now you have five principles about squatting that will absolutely, positively make you a better Olympic lifter if you decide to make them part of your training life. If you implement all of these ideas into your training and your total doesnt go up, please contact Greg Everett for a refund on your Performance Menu subscription. I dont think youll have much to worry about though, because regardless of exactly which squatting approach you decide to use in your training, everybody needs to follow some of the same basic rules. He who has eyes to see, let him see. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

The Fifth Principle: Bigger squats = better snatches. True or false?

An athlete can improve their leg strength without moving up their one-rep squat max. Its true, its true. Let me give you a personal example to illustrate this. When I was twenty, my best squat was 500 pounds at around 215 bodyweight. I did this squat at the beginning of a workout when I was totally fresh, I wore light knee wraps, the bar was sitting low on my shoulders, my depth was around parallel, and there was a lot of forward lean with the torso. My best snatch was 120 kilos and best clean and jerk was 150. Shortly after this 500 pound squat, I changed coaches and my training program became completely different. After one year, I maxed out in the squat and did 217.5 kilos (479 pounds) at 218 bodyweight. I did this squat at the end of a hard workout, I wore nothing on my knees, the bar was sitting high up at the base of my neck, I sat down to 100% full depth, and my torso basically stayed straight up and down. This squat max

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Mass Made Simple: An Excerpt by Dan John

Dan John
What follows is a sample from Dan Johns newest book, Mass Made Simple: A Six-Week Journey Into Bulking, which can be purchased here. Pardon me; we seem to have an elephant in the room. Perhaps, we can call its other name, the 800-pound gorilla in the room. If you are not up on your delightful English idioms, this is another name for an obvious problem no one wants to address. But, if you want to be a strength coach, you had better come to grips with this issue. The issue? Bodybuilding. Body Culture. Muscle Spinning. Pumping the guns. Pumping Iron. Blast, Blitz and Bomb your pecs. Something nefarious has been happening in strength coaching for a long time and it comes under many guises and disguises. Honestly, have a group of young athletes do any serious movement that involves peak concentration, perfection of technique, well maintained equipment and developed skills and one of these fine young people will ask: What muscle does it build? Shake your head, shake your hand to the sky in rage and wrath, or come to grips with all of this stuff. For the record, we have two standard answers to what muscle does it build? when the athlete is snatching, cleaning or swinging. First: You know when you leap up in the end zone and snag the ball between two defenders and win the state championship? Yes? Well, it is that muscle. Second answer: Lets just keep doing snatches for another hour and we will ask you tomorrow as a pop quiz? Both answers are excellent, but the second one is really more fun for the coach. The Role of Hypertrophy remains the boogeyman in the field of strength and conditioning. The fear that the reaper of death is dressed in a black Speedo with a doo rag, screaming Its all you, Bro and demanding supersets of skull crushers and standing outside the hallway of every weight room remains the nightmare image of most strength coaches. It would be hard to find a strength coach, or a sport coach who hasnt had to deal with an athlete arguing that Mr. Greater Galaxy does this so I should, too! In the past fifty years, bodybuilding has gone from an underground activity to a period where it literally defined the barbell sports to its odd role today as the starting point for most peoples understanding of how to train with weights. Hypertrophy, or simply gaining muscle mass, is doubtless an important part of the training for many athletes. The key is discerning how much and how often in the training mix. Moreover, the role of hypertrophy training changes as the athlete moves through life and is a key to the longevity of the active or retired competitor. Bodybuilding is interested in two qualities: hypertrophy and fat loss. The artistic elements of symmetry and stage performance that are the keys to superior placing in a bodybuilding contest are beyond the scope of this work. It is important to take a moment to note that excellent lighting, intelligent use of tanning or coloring, AND no fear of the publishers of magazines in altering the final photos in the darkrooms or computer screen can do wonders for a subjects body. A good tan in the right lighting can completely change the perception of ones body in seconds. The composition of the body wont change, just the look. Hypertrophy and fat loss are qualities that can have impact in sports. In contact sports, hypertrophy can provide two qualities worthy of discussion: 1. Armor. In fact, an appropriate way to title a hypertrophy phase for an athlete is Armor building. In American football, a bigger forearm is a weapon, larger arms can (it is argued by my athletes) protect

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the ball better, and basic size is a tool late in a game. As the saying goes: Ive seen athletes slow down in a game, but Ive never seen one get smaller. In the fourth quarter, the accumulation of banging against a larger, heavier team does add up on the field. 2. Confidence. There is a wonderful term called peacocking. Love it or hate it, athletes like to look good. On the extreme end, we also have that wonderful phrase: Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane. There is nothing harder for a young coach to get used to and thats the error of judging the athlete by how the athlete looks physically. You cant judge a book by its cover is absolutely true when it comes to determining competitive performance. Having said this, athletes will always stay a few extra minutes, no matter how difficult the training, to work the show muscles of biceps, pecs, and abs. Of course, these body parts tend to be all show and no go! Although there has been an ongoing, perhaps two century, discussion on weight loss, fat loss is the quality to impress upon athletes. Certainly, combat sports and weightlifting have weight categories for competition, but there are dozens of methods of rapid weight loss that vary from practical to deadly. Fat loss continues to mystify everyone who cant understand these four words: Eat Less, Move More. Without a doubt, that is an oversimplification, but along the same lines as Buy low, sell high, its hard to argue that much of the weight loss industry is filled with quick fix gimmicks. Harvard nutritionist Jean Mayer said years ago: To attribute obesity to overeating is as meaningful as to account for alcoholism by ascribing it to overdrinking. True fat loss can improve test results varying from jumping and sprinting marks to flexibility standards. If there was a single magic wand to wave to instantly improve performance in most sports, it would make fat disappear. The challenge, of course, is maintaining the dietary rigor to force fat loss while training the other qualities needed in performance. And that is the key. The reason that bodybuilders can go on extremely difficult fat loss regimes is because they only deal with two qualities. Tanning or skin coloring is not the same as mastering an opponents offensive schemes. Once a bodybuilder, ideally blessed with natural symmetry and muscle insertions that gift one towards the sport, shifts from pure hypertrophy work to final preparations for a contest, the single concern is fat loss. Any other athlete in any other sport MUST juggle multiple qualities. It brings us back to the wonderful quote by Art DeVany that seemed to upset some people. Answering the question: Whats the best way to lose fat? DeVany answered: Dont get fat in the first place. Given the advice back in the 1970s that, to overstate the case,

all carbs are bad, it is a wonder obesity is only in one-quarter of our population as we write this sentence. Dont get fat literally means to swim against a lot of cultural norms over a long period of time for our modern athlete. School lunches added to lack of required physical education plus the proliferation of every sugary substance imaginable at every practice and athletic event for the kid involved in club activities make it very difficult for even a well-informed child to stay lean. Add the lack of honest play and we have the recipe for obesity. So, the athlete needs a long-term perspective when dealing with fat loss. Certainly, over a ten-year period, there can be an honest commitment not to get fat in the first place. However, a good strength and conditioning coach also needs some built-in programs to deal with an athlete who has let his or her overall condition slide. Addressing body composition needs to be done with some compassion and probably an eye to not leading the athlete into areas of eating disorders. It is a balancing act that not everyone has the skills to accomplish. And lets add one further issue: losing fat may have little effect on performance. True, maybe (or maybe not) a leaner athlete will be healthier, but sports rewards those who do a task the best. Shave off your body hair, dye the hair on you head, and wear as much glitter as you want, sports are a cruel mistress: they reward the one who does the task the best, not the one who looks the best. And this has been the problem for decades. What is the proper role and impact of hypertrophy and fat loss on performance? The answer actually comes from studying master athletes; those men and women who are at least beyond 35 years of age, but often continue to compete at a high level well into their 70s, 80s, and 90s. Years ago, in conversations with master hammer thrower George Matthews, he noted the issue of massive muscle loss that seems to infect master athletes, usually after 55 years of age. Many of them are empty nesters and have enough financial resources to train and travel extensively. Sadly, it seems that the muscles just vanish overnight. For the master athlete, assuming an understanding of efficient techniques in the sport of choice probably needs to move back to the basic rules of hypertrophy training: getting as much reps under load in as little time as possible. The master athlete reminds of us of the critical need for hypertrophy for athletes far away from the posing dais. So, there is a role for hypertrophy and it follows a very clear path. Early in the training career, simply doing pushups, pullups and general exercises seems to lead to some muscle gain. For young athletes, especially those enjoying the growths spurts of adolescence, practically any training

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program will work wonders in terms of bodybuilding. Anyone coming into weight training seems to enjoy this early growth spurt and any exposure seems to work. For a coach dealing in athletes from the basic levels of training, you cant go wrong with practically any kind of program from basic boot camp training to exposure to traditional lifting sports (Olympic, Power or Kettlebell lifting). Machine training might also be a perfect option here as there is a very low level of technical training and large groups can be herded through in relatively short amounts of time. Hypertrophy then follows the same path as the athlete in the early training curve. Hypertrophy will climb the same gentle slope that basic technical training and all the other qualities of either a specific sport or simple exposure to sports. As the skill levels grow, the athlete will literally grow along with it. For most athletes, the hypertrophy needs will rise along with the level of sport until the athlete completes their career, usually in the late teenage years. Thats why basic bodybuilding can be so useful for a high school football program; it meets the immediate needs of nearly every member of the program. Without a doubt, it is also the reason that probably any training program can support wins and losses in team sports. Many parents will spend a lot of money on paraprofessional coaching programs that promise improvements in agility, acceleration and other qualities that probably would improve just as quickly by doing a few circuits on the rusting Universal Gym at the local YMCA. There seems to be about an four to six year period where pure hypertrophy work with simple exposure to explosive training might be all the athlete needs to succeed. Especially in the area of armor building, a certain honest assessment needs to be made: if the athlete isnt ready for professional or elite performance by, at the very latest, 22 years, it is safe to assume the athlete will never be ready. If a 23-year old football player or basketball player is still working on basic skills, the game will have passed them by. There may be exceptions in individual sports, but it would be fun to name the athletes who have attained elite status by making enormous gains after 23. I will wait. After the initial hill of hypertrophy, approximately four to six years into training, the importance of this quality quickly drops down for the next few years of elite performance. It certainly doesnt disappear, but the importance of other qualities must take over. An important warning: this discussion is about the Role of Hypertrophy, so dont read or understand this in a vacuum. Hypertrophy, bodybuilding, is the elephant in the room in sport training: it is an obvious issue that no one wants to talk about very much. Its role is not nearly as important as technique, game preparation, tactics, injury prevention, recruiting or perhaps dozens of other

qualities, but bodybuilding sits in the weight room and has to be discussed. The elite athlete who is still worried about modeling for photo shoots probably only has a season or two left in the game. Just a few years ago, a professional football player in a speed position became obsessed with bodybuilding. As he got larger and larger, his game skills evaporated, as he was now too large to make efficient movements on the field. After being the cover on a bodybuilding magazine, his skills diminished until he was out of the league in a year. His bodyweight increases, although laudable for the look, ended his playing career. Bill Walsh, the late great football coach who led the San Francisco 49ers to several Super Bowls, was often credited with purposely not gathering athletes that simply looked good. He famously looked for players with a winning competitive mindset and seemed, according to some observers, to avoid athletes with any tendencies towards narcissism. The elite athlete in the prime of their career needs to focus nearly blindly on the goal and avoid too much work on looking good in the part. Hypertrophys role has a few years of little importance. Towards the end of a career, there probably will be a rise in the role, especially in sports that have a long career such as the throwing sports. After retirement, it would be wise to transition for a few years with basic bodybuilding in the truest sense of the word: repairing the sport related injuries and adjusting and adapting the body from all the overwork of the specific training. Literally, as one ages, one begins the fight for life. There is no truer indicator of actual age than the amount of lean body mass. An undermuscled and overfat body is not only unappealing but also unhealthy. As one moves into the last decades of life, time spent in the gym might improve the quality of life geometrically. The shape of the Role of Hypertrophy resembles a reverse, fallen down S curve. It starts up a gradual curve, comes back down (but not to zero!) and then continues in importance literally until death. Keeping lean body mass as long as one can is the fountain of youth. The problem with standard hypertrophy programs, beside their built-in boredom (at least for the strength or power athlete), is their inability to jack up intensity. We tend to let accumulated fatigue, which is good in the case of high rep squats, to limit the load. By breaking apart the sets just a little bit, you can add more weight to the bar and actually cut rest periods between what we traditionally called sets.

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For example, I have shared an interesting way to do the German Volume Training, the ten sets of ten, workouts. Rather than letting reps 60-100 dictate the load, we play with this rep scheme: 2-3-5-10. We use the same weight each set and rep and strive to do a total of five of these clusters. It adds up to 100 reps, with only five sets being that rep reducing tough set of ten. What is amazing about this program is that you often find that you put the bar down or in the rack and almost immediately do the double because that set of ten was hard but anybody can do two. Oddly, the triple is done quite quickly and, as I often think, might as well do the five, too. So, between those hellacious tens, you nail ten more reps with surprising little rest. If hypertrophy honestly is time under load or time under tension, it logically follows that more load (because you are NOT doing ten sets of ten and roasting yourself in the process) in less time would lead to greater muscle mass. Now, you dont have to do 100 reps. Oddly, I have found that doing three clusters (2-3-5-10-2-3-5-10-2-3-5-10) seems to be enough for any athlete. It is better to leave a little in the tank, especially for a drug-free athlete, than to go to the edge with this magic 100-rep barrier. What is actually more exciting is a very interesting variation on the five by five workout. The reps simply drop out the last set of ten, so we have 2-3-5. There are two very innovative changes that seem to really work well in the big lifts, the Bench Press, the Military Press, the Squat (all its variations) and the Deadlift. As I noted in other settings, writings and workshops about five sets of five, the big issue is, of course, what do you mean by 5 x 5? Since writing an article about five sets of five, I am even more confused about the dozens of variations of what I used to consider the simplest workout for bulk and power. Here are the two innovations: first, stick with one weight throughout the workout. Of course, you know that, but with this rep scheme of 2-3-5-2-3-5-2-3, you can handle far more load than the traditional five sets of five. You are not held back by that heavy last set of five that often forces one to take a lighter first four sets. Certainly, some of the options, like the Wave, have value, but this has been an issue for many of us for years. Yes, I realize that someone is going to a comment something like I thought 5 x 5 was obvious, then add a whole new variation that no one has ever seen before. With this first option, the lifter only has to deal with two big sets of five. So, try to find a weight that forces you to give it all (obvious note: get a good spotter on the Bench and Squat) on that second set of five. The same odd rest issue shows up: for whatever reason, and I am sure the science guys know the biology behind this, it is a quick recovery to get that double in after

the heavy set of five. And, once again, since you have nothing better to do, that triple often happens out of breath. I would suggest only timing the whole duration of this variation and see how fast all 25 reps are finished. Honestly, it goes fast even with a serious load. Small reminder: this is not a powerlifting workout! It is intended for the use of our audience interested in a nice mix of power and bulk. Again, if you have more plates on the bar and the workout finishes faster, isnt that hypertrophy training? The second option is really opening my athletes eyes. It is so simple of an adjustment, many will dismiss it and note that Ive been there, done that. Well, good for you. Lets review the second option. First Cluster: 2-3-5 Now, ADD weight! Second Cluster: 2-3-5 Add more weight. Third Cluster: 2-3-5 Challenge Cluster Add more weight. 2-3-5 You can use the first Cluster as a warm up of sorts and what is funny is that the program begins to take on the one of the earliest recognized programs in lifting, the DeLorme Workout. This second variation can reflect those numbers except we focus on the five-rep max (a number in many peoples experience that rewards bodybuilding training more than higher reps). Try this variation in a simple workout after any kind of intelligent workout. I have been training my athletes with the second variation (40 total reps, three plate changes) with the Front Squat, Bench Press and Power Clean (or Power Curl, a curl grip clean using the legs) mixed with some Hurdle Walkovers and some Farmer Bar Walks. This is not a fancy workout, but the load really impacts the athletes. If you can do some kind of Hurdle Walkover or hip mobility work during a training session that has a squat and deadlift or clean variation, I strongly recommend it. I also like to finish this workout with a Farmer Walk, but keep it within reason. If you want to build Armor, not just simply a little more muscle for the beach season, focus on two things. First, always emphasize the muscles that people only see when you are walking away. Fear the athlete with big glutes, big calves, big hamstrings, big spinal erectors, big traps and big delts. This athlete is built to win. Biceps and Pecs might make for good photos, or as Strength Coach Casey Sutera chants about these muscles: If you Tri to get Bi, youll get Trapped by these guns. (Triceps, Biceps, Trapezius and a Most Muscular shot!) The exercises that seem to build Armor the best are:

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With a Barbell: Zercher Squats Suitcase Deadlifts Snatch Grip Deadlifts Bench Press Curls (Try doing them with a Thick Bar!) The Kettlebell can surprise you. On the Armor building, the Zercher Squat is an appropriate barbell lift. A better choice might be the Double Kettlebell Clean and Front Squat. It is an exercise best worked in ladders:

1 Clean and 1 Front Squat 2 Cleans and 2 Front Squats 3 Cleans and 3 Front Squats Doing this up to five is an excellent way to understand the intensity needed for hypertrophy. A fun test is to do this up to ten reps (55 Front Squats without putting the weights down?), but that might be a once in a lifetime training test. The next day, enjoy finding your Rhomboids, Traps, Obliques, Thighs and Abs. Then you can ask what muscle this builds!

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Mental Game Coaching: Interview with Bill Cole (Part2)

Yael Grauer
International Mental Game Coaching Association founder Bill Cole has been coaching and consulting in sports psychology for 30 years. He has served as a sports psychology consultant for various elite level athletes, including 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist and two-time world curling champion Russ Howard and the Performance Menus own Aimee Anaya. I am a much calmer and more consistent lifter, thanks to him, she said. Cole has also worked as an NCAA Division I head coach, a sport psychology coach for the Stanford University Baseball and the Israeli Davis Cup Tennis Team and was the mental game consultant for the Irish National Cricket Team. We began discussing the importance of psychological preparation for athletic performance with Bill Cole last issue. This month we discussed mental training for various sports, and steps athletes can take to push through their own mental obstacles and limitations. Read on

How do you know if you need to work with a mental game coach or not? People call me because they are experiencing frustration in their sport performance in one of more of these ways: 1. They have lost their desire and passion to work hard and be committed. 2. Their sport is no longer fun and exciting. 3. They dont know how to win anymore. 4. They are in a slump. 5. They turn in a great performance, in the zone, but cant get there on command, again. 6. They are in transition in life or their sport, and lose their way. 7. Someone in their life is pressuring them to perform. 8. They play well in practice, but not in competition. 9. They have communication issues with key people.

My approach is to assess where they are, what got them there, discover where they want to go and help them devise a plan to achieve excellence. My overall approach is to help people in these ways: 1. Improve their self-confidence in their sport. 2. Learn new and better mental approaches. 3. Improve their sports performances under pressure. 4. Discover new levels of awareness about themselves as an athlete. 5. Counsel them in the big-picture view of their sports career. 6. Help them transfer the many mental lessons from sport to the rest of their life. No matter how good ones mindset, there are often other factors at play. How do you assure success for all of your clients? Is it possible for someone to not hold themselves back mentally but still not succeed for other reasons?

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Sometimes athletes dont succeed in their events for a number of different reasons, none specifically mental. And sometimes these reasons are partly mental. Examples would be not playing smart tactically or strategically, not preparing properly, inadequate sleep and rest, and other fairly obvious causes. To make sure my clients succeed I enlarge the reasons they come to see me. They come because their sport performance is falling short. I tell them that we will work on that, but that perhaps their performance issues in sport have larger ramifications. I do that to strengthen their motivation to change and to improve the quality of their lives beyond sport. Heres what I tell them: Mental game coaching is an educational learning experience. Its an opportunity to grow as an athlete and as a person. Its an enlightening growth process, and a very interesting one. You will learn more about yourself as an athlete, and as a person. Even though the main focus is to help you improve your mental game as an athlete, you will also discover ways to more consistently learn, change and perform in these other pursuits: Academic studies and exams Speeches, presentations and interviews Sales, networking and influencing situations Music, writing, art and drama Stressful life situations

As you master your mental game there will be easily measured, objective signposts that confirm your improvement in your sport. These might be records, times, win-loss outcomes, etc. You also want to notice the subjective measures of your progress with your mental game. These are less obvious, but they are just as real, and just as important. Here are 66 subjective mental game goals you can strive toward. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Improve your mental toughness. Improve your concentration. More confidence. Enjoy competition more. Understand yourself more as a person. Understand yourself more as an athlete. More positive self-talk and mental images. Handle pressure better. Enjoy your sport more. Progress accelerates. Skills become more automatic. More happiness and satisfaction. Reduce and eliminate a self-critical attitude. Reduce and eliminate self-defeating anger. Better ball judgment. Make better decisions. More control over your thoughts.

18. More control over your shots. 19. Enter the zone more often, and when it counts. 20. People who know you volunteer that they see you improving. 21. People you dont know volunteer that they see you improving. 22. Improve your positive mindset. 23. Overcome the fear of failure. 24. More patience with yourself and others. 25. Playing to win more than playing not to lose. 26. Reduce and eliminate self-sabotage. 27. Stay calmer and more poised under pressure. 28. Play as well in an event as you do in practice. 29. Reduce and eliminate perfectionism. 30. Reduce and eliminate mental blocks. 31. Fewer stress symptoms. 32. Fewer worry and nerves. 33. Better sportsmanship. 34. Analyze situations better and solve problems faster. 35. Improve motivation. 36. Better energy levels. 37. Better mental stamina. 38. Reduce and eliminate procrastination. 39. Better media relations. 40. Play better against weaker opponents. 41. Play better against stronger opponents. 42. Close out leads better. 43. Improve your stress control. 44. Keep slumps away and minimize them when they appear. 45. Reduce and eliminate choking. 46. Overcome the fear of success. 47. Better life-balance skills. 48. Handle setbacks better. 49. Handle opponents mind games better. 50. Improve communication skills. 51. Improve anticipation skills. 52. Improve mental readiness skills. 53. Skills take less effort. 54. Better learning strategies. 55. Transfer mental lessons from sport to the rest of your life. 56. Reduce and eliminate fears and doubts. 57. Improve emotional intelligence. 58. Recover mentally from mistakes more readily. 59. Improve self-coaching skills. 60. Control your muscle relaxation better. 61. Control your breathing better. 62. Improve your will to win. 63. Not embarrass yourself in a competition. 64. Feel comfortable enough to try new things. 65. Keep your mental game together more regularly.

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In essence, mental game coaching is a valuable, specialized educational experience, one that will benefit you far beyond your sport experiences. Its a lifetime investment in yourself as a person. The insights you learn and the skills you build will carry over to many important varied applications for school, business and life itself. I want to help you maximize your sport experience. I want you to succeed and to help you grow as an athlete and as a person. How do you modify mental training for different sports? Im assuming getting prepared for an individual sport like weightlifting is different than a team sport like football and different yet from, say, wrestling or other sports where you will compete with one person individually. Almost all of the methods and approaches I use are applicable across all sports, and also to the salespeople, public speakers, actors, musicians and executives I coach in my work. The major common threads across these venues are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Awareness Learning Development Change Habit Formation Performance

and making it as positive as possible. Mental Practice Mental practice is drilling or rehearsing your mind for an upcoming performance or shaping your mind to enhance a particular mental or personal quality. Visualization This involves using the movies of your mind to mentally practice, rehearse contingency plans, plan for goals, relax, energize, prepare or change mental, emotional and physical states. Self-Hypnosis and Hypnosis Once learned from a book, audio tapes, mind practitioner or a hypnotherapist, this mind-body skill may be utilized for a wide variety of mental training purposes. Uses include relaxation, visualization, habit control, fear reduction and performance enhancement. Cognitive Restructuring A more sophisticated mind tool, this involves changing thoughts and patterns of thinking so attitudes and mind sets are re-formed into desirable and intentional mental structures. 28 specific techniques and approaches I use in almost every session with clients include: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. Managing The Inner Critic Concentration Recovery from mistakes Mental Toughness Mental Readiness Procedures Championship Thinking Maintaining Perspective Breath Control Affirmations The Paradox of Letting Go While Maintaining Control Relaxed Concentration Closing Out Leads Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Paralysis By Analysis Trusting Skills Managing Expectations Emotional Intelligence Life Balance The Imposter Syndrome The Zone / Flow State Fear Of Failure Playing To Win Versus Playing Not To Lose Hating To Lose Versus Wanting To Win

I help my clients with these 16 critical performance issues: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Anxiety Choking Focus Goal-Setting and Achievement Perfectionism Procrastination Mental Preparation Mental Practice Self-Discipline Getting In The Zone Slumps and Confidence Hecklers And Psych-Outs Performing Under Pressure The Fear Of Success The Fear Of Failure The Imposter Syndrome

I utilize these five major mind-coaching tools, but have a toolkit of hundreds of techniques. Positive Thinking Perhaps the most common mind tool of all, positive thinking involves being aware of thoughts and speech

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24. 25. 26. 27. 28.

Emotional Management Intrinsic Motivation Influencing Skills Extrinsic Motivation Personal Narrative and Vision

Youve coached some Hollywood stars in tennis, and some very high-level athletes, and Im assuming some athletes who are not at that level yet. What are the differences that youve noticed? Or are the same patterns just amplified at different levels? The amazing thing about mental game coaching across skill levels is when my lower level athletes discover that the world champions I have coached have the exact same mental issues they are facing. That is always a shock to them. But its true. The difference? The high level people are more determined to succeed, have more mental toughness, and persevere in removing these mental and emotional obstacles.

Another unusual factmany high-level athletes got where they are WITHOUT much mental training at all. They did it on pure mojo, desire and hard work and along the way they picked up mental toughness and personal success system. Kind of like they are on some sort of mental momentum. They feel they cant be stopped. But then I often get calls from these same athletes when they hit a wall, go through a tough transition, say high school to college, or college to pro, and they lose their way. They forget how to be great, and they doubt themselves. Thats where I remind them of their greatness, that they still have it, and give them ways to re-create that greatness, but with a new intentionality and focus. So overall, the mental issues cut across all sports, levels and gender.

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Sleep: An Undervalued Ergogenic Aid

Dallas Hartwig
We all know we need sleep, and most of us would admit that we probably need more. Unfortunately, that knowledge often isnt enough to compel us to take action to improve our sleep habits (or lack thereof). In many Western societies, the hard-charging, gogetting executive takes pride in sleeping less than his or her competitors, purportedly getting more done in any given day. (From a raw productivity perspective, that may be true, though research suggests that being chronically sleep deprived significantly impedes psychomotor function, memory retrieval, and work productivity. So spending more hours getting stuff done - at the expense of sleep - makes you get less done in any given hour. Ah, the irony.) In the realm of athletics, sleep seems to be the red-headed stepchild: clumsily acknowledged, generally overlooked, yet permanently part of the family. To the detriment of our health and performance, we often dont give sleep proper priority. I think its high time that we help sleep come in from the cold. are very few instances where a health bias will conflict with a performance-driven perspective. A healthy body simply performs well. And adequate quantity and quality of sleep confers not only significant health benefits, but also directly impacts your performance through a few different mechanisms. With our consulting practice, and in the considerable time Ive spent in various gyms over the years, Ive noticed that performance-oriented athletes (and even aesthetic-driven gym rats) are very committed to their training. Ive known CrossFitters to hit the gym at 5 AM for the first of their two training sessions after only five hours of sleep. (Committed and neurotic sometimes look a lot the same.) I have not, however, observed the same degree of commitment to sleep. Ive long wondered why that is. I suppose sleep can seem like a benign, almost irrelevant nuisance when theres so much to do. (This is especially true when cortisol levels are abnormally elevated in the evening, skewing ones time perception and increasing anxiety and wakefulness. More on cortisol later.) Its easy to see the direct connection between the snatch balance and getting more weight overhead, but its a little more subtle with sleep which is why not enough of us are hitting snooze at 5AM instead of dragging our poor, abused bodies through yet another sexy metcon. However, sleep has a profound effect on athletic performance and lack of sleep can often undermine the potential benefits of that athletic training to which we are all so devoted. Lets explore how sleep affects not only our health, but also our physical fitness.

Sleep as a priority
In our Whole9 consulting practice, we address multiple facets of a clients life, including nutrition, sleep, and training. In that order. In terms of bang for your buck, nutrition is the linchpin, and PM is filled with excellent perspectives on Paleo and performance-oriented nutrition recommendations. There are also dozens of solid perspectives on training in PM, and there is no shortage of other resources explaining how to improve your physical fitness. However, I think that sleep has been generally undervalued as a potentially potent ergogenic aid, not to mention that it can seriously improve your quality of life. Ill try not to drift too far away from PMs performance bias, but since my best volleyball years are behind me and Ill never be an elite weightlifter (Im not bitter at all), I tend to skew my world towards a health bias. That being said, I think there

Sleep, Defined
Sleep is divided into two broad groups, REM and nonREM (or NREM). NREM sleep has 4 phases. Phase 1 is light sleep, where youre easily awakened and your musculature relaxes. Sleep twitches (myoclonic jerks)

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are a result of the spontaneous stimulation of motor areas of the brain. You spend about half your sleep time in phase 2, with somewhat slower brain waves. Phase 3 is the first phase of deep sleep, characterized by periods of slow (delta) waves and faster waves. In phase 4, the deepest level of sleep, the brain waves are almost exclusively delta waves. Phase 4 is also known as delta or slow wave sleep (SWS). The absence or shortening of SWS impairs how refreshed you feel in the morning. Folks generally are difficult to rouse from phase 3 and 4, and can feel groggy and disoriented if woken. Finally, there is REM sleep. Most adults spend about 20% of their total sleep time in this cycle its the period where most dreaming occurs, and achieving several REM cycles per night is critical for the development of long-term memories. There is, of course, significant variability in this pattern. For those of us who are under-slept (usually of our own doing), our bodies attempt to compensate by putting us into REM sleep earlier, primarily by shortening our phase 2 (slow wave) sleep. This is perhaps the bodys way of implementing some damage control for the lack of total sleep time. The problem is, this shortened cycle still translates to sleep debt the cumulative effect of not getting enough total sleep. Comparing sleep loss to debt implies that one can catch up on lost sleep by paying it off by sleeping in on weekends, for example. However, newer research suggests that the loss of cognitive performance seen in working folks getting an average of 6 hours of sleep per night is still not fully restored even after two consecutive nights of 10 hours of sleep. (Thus, catching up on the weekend is not a viable plan for optimal psychomotor performance.) So, in general, youre under-slept, and probably spending at least part of your day feeling tired, cranky, distracted, and unsmart. Not fun, sure but trust me, people, thats the least of your concerns.

metabolism and diabetes, and some types of cancer. Elevated CRP is widely recognized as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes. Theres more, but you get the point. And an interesting aside: chronic exposure to elevated levels of TNF can contribute to difficulty in gaining or maintaining muscle mass. Obviously, one rough week doesnt kill you outright, but chronically having your system awash in these inflammatory chemicals is not awesome (thats an understatement, there). Reduction of systemic inflammation is known to be a major step in managing risk of many lifestyle diseases and conditions, and plays a significant role in recovering effectively from injury or hard training. (After all, some of the adaptive processes that occur after training are in response to microscopic structural injury.) We work so hard to remove inflammatory factors from our diet (the standard grains, legumes, dairy, and sometimes nightshades shtick), we judiciously take our fish oil, minimize our nut and seed intake, and eat wildcaught and pasture-raised meats, all so we can better manage systemic inflammation. But despite stringent adherence to a healthy, anti-inflammatory diet, we fail to reap the full benefits simply because we arent sleeping enough. There is a complex interaction between sleep and the immune system. Immune status can directly impact sleep drive, which makes good sense. In states of elevated immune activation (illness or injury), the body recovers more effectively with additional rest. Yet excessive sleep is associated with obesity and metabolic derangement. Though the intricacies of sleep-related immune function are still being uncovered, I believe a chronic sleep deficit is primarily a cause of negative physiological consequences, whereas the excessive somnolence that is associated with disease processes is primarily a symptom of that immune-sleep interaction. Lets focus on the cause.

Sleep, metabolism and the immune system

Enter systemic inflammation. After just one week of that same modest sleep restriction, your body experiences a significant increase in systemic levels of the immune mediator interkeukin-6 (IL-6) and inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF), which cause the release of the acute phase inflammatory marker, C-reactive protein (CRP), and the inflammatory eicosanoid, prostaglandin-E2 (PGE2), respectively. What does that mean, in terms of your health? TNF induces insulin resistance and the secretion of stress hormones from the adrenal glands. PGE2 is part of the inflammatory cascade and is one of the clinical manifestations of systemic inflammation. Elevated levels of IL-6 are associated with systemic inflammation, autoimmune disease, impaired glucose

Sleep and Hormones

Inflammation is only one mechanism that plays into recovery from training (and life). Both are driven by complex hormonal systems, including testosterone, growth hormone (GH), insulin and stress hormones such as cortisol. An in-depth discussion of sleeps influence on specific hormonal processes is beyond the scope of this article, though there are a few key points worth making. Testosterone is of obvious value to athletes (both male and female) for its anabolic effects. Testosterone secretion occurs primarily while sleeping, and coincides with REM sleep cycles. Most testosterone is released into the bloodstream at night, with levels gradually dropping as the day goes on. Similarly, the largest pulsatile secretions of GH most

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of your total days worth occurs primarily the first hour or two of sleep (this is more true for men than women). Later in the night, GH secretion tends to be correlated with REM sleep cycles. (The common suggestion to nap after training isnt because your body is tired its designed to boost growth hormone secretion.) Both testosterone and growth hormone are potent promoters of protein synthesis, critical for recovery from training. (Translation: disrupt these recovery processes at your own peril.) So improving the duration and quality of sleep will help you take advantage of your nocturnal hormonal response, which means youll better recover from exercise. However, the solution might not prove as easy as just sleep more. If, due to dietary and lifestyle factors, you have some elements of cortisol dysfunction or overt adrenal fatigue, you might have a hell of a time actually going to sleep. The daily ebb and flow of cortisol should peak in the early morning, and generally decline as the day progresses. Cortisol prevents serotonin from converting into melatonin, a hormone that facilitates restful sleep. If cortisol is abnormally elevated in the evening, it will disrupt normal sleep patterns and delay slow wave sleep. Elevated cortisol is a good thing in the morning, but not so good when you should be winding down. If youve got some of this stuff going on, you might need to re-examine your lifestyle. Overtraining (or underrecovery, if you prefer that concept), poor nutrition, chronic stress, and excessive caffeine intake can all contribute to elevated levels of cortisol. The irony is that although youre desperate to restorative sleep more now, getting adequate sleep on a regular basis could have helped to prevent such a scenario from occurring in the first place. From a hunger regulation and weight management perspective, reductions in slow wave sleep (common with chronic sleep loss) cause significant decreases in insulin sensitivity, and tend to increase cortisol levels. In addition, sleep loss causes decreased levels of leptin (a hormone that tells your brain that youre not hungry) and increased levels of ghrelin (a hormone which stimulates hunger and appetite), and as such, is associated with obesity. Depressed leptin and increased ghrelin contribute to an uptick in appetite, particularly cravings for carbohydrates. Being sleep deprived means that youre more likely to make poor choices about which foods you eat and how much of them you consume, especially in the hours after dinner when elevated cortisol has you tired but wired. Combined with the direct effects of sleep loss on insulin sensitivity, this can be a destructive situation for ones metabolic state.

Sleep and Performance

As if inflammation, hormonal imbalances and metabolic dysfunction werent bad enough, lack of sleep affects your performance in another more subtle way. Its been found that, with acute sleep deprivation for only 1-2 nights, the deterioration in quantifiable psychomotor performance correlates highly with selfrated perceptions of fatigue and daytime sleepiness. (Meaning, after a night or two of virtually no sleep, youre well aware that youre not performing at your best.) However, when compared to a milder, chronic sleep deficit (defined by researchers as 6 hours per night), the psychomotor performance deterioration is similar, but the perception of those deficits is significantly reduced. So while you think youre doing just fine on 6 hours of sleep a night, you definitively are not. And I know plenty of people who survive on less sleep than that - survive, but not thrive. Think this doesnt correlate with your performance in the gym? You may think youre on point with your workouts, your technique and your intensity, but how can you be if youre chronically sleep deprived? All that being said, the negative effects of running a chronic sleep deficit does not inherently prove the opposite - that getting more sleep has an ergogenic effect. So how about this, then? There have been a series of studies demonstrating that elite collegiatelevel athletes that get extra sleep perform better on a battery of sport-specific performance measures, with results ranging from faster sprint times and better scores on agility tests to higher serving accuracy to increased free throw percentages. What do these measures have in common? Among other things, a huge neurological component. Were not talking about mindless chest-and-bis here (and even a pithed frog could do wall-ball). Weightlifting and functional, highintensity conditioning both have huge neurological components. Like a football players agility drills, performing the snatch or C&J requires tremendous CNS activation, and improvements in the brains ability to coordinate sport-specific demands with muscular activation leads to improved performance. In summary, weightlifters, generalists and competitive athletes would all perform better if they slept more.

Recommendations:
Sold yet? If youre ready to start taking sleep seriously, here are Whole9s guidelines to help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer and stop shooting yourself in the foot by pushing sleep to the bottom of your priority list.

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Sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. Cover all your windows and block out as much light as possible from other sources. Turn down the thermostat, too. Unplug everything electrical in your bedroom, and put your mobile in a non-transmitting (airplane) mode. Electromagnetic fields (EMF) disturb melatonin production from serotonin, which is critical for restful sleep. Get more sleep in the winter, and worry less about it in the long summer days. This is straight out of the Lights Out playbook, and I like it. No TV, computer or video games within an hour (minimum) of bedtime. Even better, avoid exposure to electronic screens and blue light after dark the intensity of light and duration matter, too. Dim your lights after dark. Try to make your sleep/wake times regular. Your body likes rhythm. Take naps. The studies that demonstrate increased athletic performance prescribed additional sleep. If youre peaking for a competition, take the two weeks prior to your event to sleep a LOT. Avoid sugar and starchy veggies within a 1-2 hours of bedtime, as elevated blood glucose dramatically impairs the secretion of growth hormone in early sleep. Free fatty acids (FFAs) in the bloodstream have a similar effect. If youre on a mass gain program and are eating at every opportunity, choose a chunk of protein as your pre-bed snack. Even if youre desperate to ingest more total calories, the additional intake of significant quantities of carbs and fat shortly before sleep might not confer the big picture benefit desired. Alcohol, although it expedites most peoples initial trip to Dreamland, causes fragmentation of late sleep, decreasing SWS (the really good stuff). It also suppresses GH secretion at a dosedependent rate (i.e. drinking less is better). Im not suggesting you drink in the morning, but before bed is especially detrimental to your sleep. No caffeine after noon. Play with caffeine timing if you want, but dont trust your defensive I can slam an espresso right before bed and be totally fine justification. Caffeine can have subtle influences on the quality of your sleep. Sleep disturbances, like poor

nutrition, can have insidious and creeping effects on your well-being, often undetectable on a day-in, day-out basis. If you use caffeine as an ergogenic aid when you train in the afternoon or evening, do so with caution. Potentially higher performance in training that compromises your recovery (due to reduction in sleep quality/quantity) is a net loss. If you have an afternoon/evening competition, however, the case could probably be made that increased performance in (infrequent) competition outweighs the sleep disruption of occasional late-day caffeine intake. (P.S. Your regular training is not competition. Its training.) If you do shift work, youre already a little bit screwed. Remember that total sleep cycles count, so even if youre napping in church, get those hours in any way you can. Your tolerance of sleep cycle disruption is that much smaller, so you might consider avoiding caffeine altogether, since it worsens aspects of adrenal fatigue that may already be present due to your daily schedule. If you dont get 6 hours of sleep, you dont get to train (and I know you want to train). Turn off the TV, stop browsing the web (even if youre learning good stuff about healthy living - theres that irony again) and get to bed. Optionally, spend a few minutes winding down, reading an actual book or published article about nutrition or training or whatever wont stress you out or wind you up. (No work.) Training in the late afternoon or evening can be a problem for some people, since high-intensity exercise releases neurotransmitters that are stimulatory, and make it harder for some people to fall asleep. Assuming adequate sleep the night before, we generally like training in the morning. The natural ramping up for the day corresponds with (healthy) morning elevations in cortisol, and training in the morning seems to make good sense to us. If youre having trouble sleeping, make sure youre doing at least some activity during the day, albeit at a much lower intensity. Even walking or easy swimming can help with sleep quality that night. If youre generally unexcited about training on any given day, take that day off, and use that time to sleep in or prepare some delicious food for the next couple days. In our experience, general apathy and/or disinterest in training are

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common symptoms of chronic sleep loss. Youd be better served by reversing that trend than exercising your personal discipline and training even if you dont feel like it. If youre generally under-slept, itll eventually catch up to you, and will either undermine training progress or create an adrenal fatigue scenario or both. If youre perpetually holding a gun to your own head to get to the gym, you ought to take a good, hard look at your lifestyle over the past few months, and consider taking a few (sleep-rich) weeks completely off to allow your neurological, immune, and endocrine systems to recover.

Bottom line: depriving yourself of adequate sleep on a regular basis has insidious consequences to your health and your performance. Both chronic and acute sleep reductions lead to measurable decreases in psychomotor function, though your own perception of those deficits is likely inaccurate. Getting adequate sleep improves health via a number of direct and indirect mechanisms, and has been shown to directly improve athletic performance. Tonight, I hope you dream of PRs. If you sleep long enough, your dream might become a reality.

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COOKING WITH SCOTTY SCOTT HAGNAS

This month features a few simple odds and ends. It also marks a slight shift in the recipes, as I will occasionally be using some ingredients that may be outside of what would be pure Paleo. I think many would agree that certain non-Paleo foods are beneficial to health, such as organic grassfed butter. On the other hand, Paleo done wrong could be detrimental to health - e.g.. concoctions containing copious fruit and nuts. Dont worry, I will always offer a substitution option for the purists. Well also look at an eggless mayo this month. This can open doors for those with egg sensitivities, and its also a way to avoid omega-6 fat common in most mayo.

Soy Glazed Sweet Potatoes

Time: 10 minutes 1 large sweet potato, peeled 1/3 cup water 2 Tbsp wheat-free Tamari soy sauce 1/8 tsp ginger sea salt 1-2 Tbsp either organic grassfed butter or coconut oil Chop the sweet potato into cubes. Add all of the ingredients to a pressure cooker. Cook for 5 minutes once at pressure, then de-pressurize and return to the stove over medium. Allow the water to evaporate until it becomes a thick sauce, about 2 minutes. Serve topped with organic grassfed butter or coconut oil. If you dont have a pressure cooker, why not? If you must do it the hard way, boil the sweet potatoes for 20 minutes. Drain some water, then thicken as above. Nutritional info: 3 servings at 26g carb, 7g fat (with 2 Tbsp butter)

Parsnip And Celery Root Puree

Time: 15 minutes 2 large parsnips 1 large celery root 1/2 cup beef broth 1/2 tsp sea salt 1 tsp Italian seasoning 2 Tbsp coconut oil or organic grass-fed butter Peel and cube the parsnips and celery root. Add the veggies, broth, and salt to your pressure cooker. Cook at pressure for about 7 minutes, then de-pressurize and pour everything into a food processor. Add the seasonings and either butter or coconut oil. Process into a puree. Boil for 20 minutes as an alternative. Nutritional info: 3 servings at 22g carb, 9g fat (with coconut oil)

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Eggless Mayo
Here is a very simple, eggless version of mayo. I like it better for its better fatty acid profile, ease of preparation, and the fact it doesnt contain eggs (which I seem to no longer tolerate). Time: 2 minutes 1/2 cup coconut milk 1 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper Combine all in a mason jar. Mix well. Nutritional info: 4 servings at 1g carb, 6g fat

Turmeric Chicken & Cauliflower

Time: 20 minutes 1 Tbsp coconut oil, lard, or bacon grease 1 lb. chicken breast or thighs, cubed 1/2 tsp turmeric 1 head cauliflower, cut into small florets 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes 1/2 cup chicken broth sea salt to taste Warm a large skillet over medium heat. Add the turmeric and stir for 1 minute, then add the chicken and cauliflower. Toss well. Add the remaining ingredients, cover and cook for around 10 minutes. Uncover and reduce the liquid. Serve when the broth begins to thicken. Nutritional info: 3 servings at 5g carb, 37g port, 10g fat

Potato Salad
A basic recipe for classic potato salad. Use the tuber of your choice. I used the eggless mayo in this recipe, but you can also use an olive/coconut oil mayo. Time: 15 minutes 1 large yam, sweet potato, or even Russet potato, peeled 1/3 cup finely chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup eggless coconut mayonnaise 1 Tbsp relish 1/2 Tbsp mustard sea salt fresh ground black pepper Peel and dice your tuber of choice into 1/2 inch squares. Use a pressure cooker to cook at pressure quickly, about 4 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. You can also boil the yam for 12-15 minutes. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Serve cold. Nutritional info: 5 servings at 16g carb, ~1g fat (using yams)

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