Before we get to today’s actual post, I have a challenge. At the risk of sounding like a carny barker, guess my body fat and win a Damage Control Master Formula. The winner will be the one who, before tomorrow’s post, guesses what the “gold standard” hydrostatic test showed my body fat percentage to be – to the nearest tenth of a percent without going over. (Submit your best guess in the comment board.) If several people guess the same number, we will draw a winner from that group. Malibu gym members are specifically excluded from this competition (’cause that’s where I had the test done). This photo was taken around the same time.

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Original post by Mark Sisson

Here’s the classic way of thinking about hormones.

We know of all the hormones in the body.
We know what all the hormones in our bodies do.

Now here’s the truth…
We are discovering new hormones and signaling molecules every day. We are also discovering new roles for hormones every day.
It is true that your hormones regulate the functions in your body, but they do so in concert, with dozens if not hundreds acting together to cause a certain effect, and to regulate and guide that particular effect.
In this way you can picture your hormones and the roles they play in your body like a spider web…
Your Metabolism
With all the hormones working together, depending on each other while at the same time creating checks and balances that allow for an intricate design to take….This design being your metabolism.
The thought that we can decide health or a health-outcome by any one hormone is ludicrous.
Don’t get […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

I spend a lot of time highlighting the importance of omega-3 fatty acids and downplaying their poly cohorts, omega-6s. Of course, I do this for good reason. Western dietary patterns and modern agricultural practices have made omega-3s harder to come by and blown any semblance of omega-3/omega-6 dietary balance out of the water. As maligned as omega-6s are these days, however, they’re still essential fatty acids. Our bodies need them and can’t produce them on their own – straight and simple. The problem comes when we mistake emphasizing the omega imbalance in modern diets with disparaging omega-6 entirely. Although the Primal Blueprint promotes a healthy fatty acid balance – one that parallels that of our hunter-gatherer ancestors – I still get questions about omega-6s, particularly reservations about the role arachidonic acid (part of the omega-6 fatty acid family) plays in the PB.
Dear Mark,
While I totally agree with the importance […]

Original post by Mark Sisson

We were recently on the topic of fasted training and the need for pre-workout protein intake as a slight compromise to training completely fasted.
I argued that the need for pre-workout protein intake was due to this being a case where the benefits (increased protein synthesis) simply outweighted the negatives (insulin increase; low insulin being a determinant of the fasting state). It’s also known that BCAAs independently affects the same myogenic pathway through which fasted training may increase protein synthesis in response to post-workout nutrition.
On the whole, the scientific evidence that speaks in favor of pre-workout protein for increased protein synthesis and muscle growth is strong. Some researchers even speculate that it may be just as important as post-workout protein intake.
Last week I came across another study which makes a strong argument for pre-workout protein to facilitate body fat loss. Let me give you a brief summary of the findings.
Participants were […]

Original post by noreply@blogger.com (Martin Berkhan)

Building more Muscle.
Considering some of the things happening in the news today, I thought this was timely. Biggest mistake we make with regards to building muscle is false expectations of what is actually possible.
Hi Brad!
I read almost every article u wrote, and your view is very impressive.
But I have 1 question (maybe off topic, sorry)
You say the amount of protein is not so important, the quality of the food is not so important (ok avoid crap), 2-3 workout per week is enough to keep or build muscle.
What is then the mistake what most of the average  gym rat make?
Ok we can see some real life example like you, but every competitive bodybuilder use (or they lie) the old method (6-8 meals, lot of protein above 300 grams, lot of training, cardio everyday) and not only for the end of the preparation, but from the beginning.

Hey Wood,
The average gym rat makes […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

Come join Matt and KnuckleUp in the Winter Bootcamp and lose those Holiday Lbs!

Bootcamp lead instructor Matt Costa just released the official dates for the Winter Fitness Bootcamp.
Here are the dates:
Winter Bootcamp Starts: December 29th
Time: Tuesdays – 5:30am till 7am
Thursdays – 5:45am till 7am
Bootcamp Ends: February 11th, 2010
Matt’s bootcamp training has created the most impressive results in each one of its participants. Almost all of the bootcampers completed the Outer Banks 1/2 Marathon in close to 2 hours – Reverend Jay Bowman actually ran the full marathon.
But the most impressive results came Monday, less than 48hours after the Marathon was finished: the entire class showed up for class without whining – they were ready for more!
The bootcamp is now famous for not only getting people in shape, but incorporating fitness and well being into their daily lives.
Come join us on December 29th – space is limited, so sign up now:
Contact […]

Original post by knuckleup

Come join Matt and KnuckleUp in the Winter Bootcamp and lose those Holiday Lbs!

Bootcamp lead instructor Matt Costa just released the official dates for the Winter Fitness Bootcamp.
Here are the dates:
Winter Bootcamp Starts: December 29th
Time: Tuesdays – 5:30am till 7am
Thursdays – 5:45am till 7am
Bootcamp Ends: February 11th, 2010
Matt’s bootcamp training has created the most impressive results in each one of its participants. Almost all of the bootcampers completed the Outer Banks 1/2 Marathon in close to 2 hours – Reverend Jay Bowman actually ran the full marathon.
But the most impressive results came Monday, less than 48hours after the Marathon was finished: the entire class showed up for class without whining – they were ready for more!
The bootcamp is now famous for not only getting people in shape, but incorporating fitness and well being into their daily lives.
Come join us on December 29th – space is limited, so sign up now:
Contact […]

Original post by knuckleup

Quick ‘notes style’ post today as I need to get away from this computer and get some shopping done:
MUSCLE and your METABOLISM.
1 pound of muscle burns about 5 Calories in a 24 hour period at rest.
Not 50.
Not even 10-12 like commonly stated.
So why the confusion?
Well, if we look at the Katch-McCardle Formula (used for calculating a persons metabolic rate) we see that:
Our daily metabolic rate can be calculated as “Calories burned in a 24 hour period = 370 + (21.6 X LBM(kg))”
Which leads many of people to think that a kilogram of Muscle burns 21.6 Calories in a 24 hour period.
So a pound must burn about 10 Calories right? (21.6 divided by 2.2)
Well not so fast…
As I’ve been saying for a long time now, a pound of Lean Body Mass does NOT mean a pound of muscle.
It includes everything else in your body that is NOT FAT.
Which means this calculation […]

Original post by Brad Pilon

CrossFit Radio had me on their show this Wednesday. We talked grains, inflammation, the difficulties of sorting fact from fiction in nutrition studies and the power of the Primal Blueprint. I had a great time and hope to do more in the future. You can listen to the full Episode 97 podcast by visiting the CrossFit Journal site or by listening here:
CrossFit Radio with Mark Sisson
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Original post by Mark Sisson

It’s become one of those oft-repeated half-truths floating around that people either assume to be unerringly true or completely false. It draws both sides of the spectrum: those that eschew all traditional medicine, and the folks who take the official governmental recommendations and proclamations as gospel, every single time. Every now and then, you might hear a blurb about the cell phone-cancer connection on Oprah, or on the evening news, or from the neo-hippy mother picking up her child from daycare. You probably can’t really quite place where you first heard about it. It’s just there, lingering in the public mind space. And it never really gets a clear answer. Now, a growing body of research seems to suggest that a link between cell phone usage and brain tumor incidence does exist, but it’s just that: an association, a correlation. Correlations are interesting, but you can’t draw concrete causal conclusions […]

Original post by Mark Sisson