I think we’ve been talking up this challenge for far too long now. We’re about to embark on a modified Mark Rippetoe starting strength cycle. It’s been modified based on our schedule, our equipment, some good pointers from Wichita Falls Weightlifting and our own sadist brains. As part of this new cycle, we’ll be doing heavy lifts about 4 times per week. We also will prove to you that weightlifting in this way does not create bulky females or bodybuilder arms. With proper nutrition you all should lean out during this period. We’ve programmed it for 8 weeks, but may go longer depending on how things are going.
Strength Cycle Summary
- Monday – Squat + Alternating Ring Work
- Tuesday – Heavy Deadlift + shorter metcon
- Wednesday – Longer Metcon + skillwork
- Thursday – Squat + Press
- Friday – Power Cleans + shorter metcon
- Saturday – Longer Metcon + skillwork
- Wednesdays and Saturdays will be your best days for rest and will both work with our cycle.
- We want you ALL to try to hit every strength day.
- Weights will start at about 60 to 70% of your 1RM. You will NOT change weights during sets. Rest times in the beginning will be 30 to 90 seconds and 60 to 180 seconds for later weeks. Weights will move up by 2 to 3% per week. This is much faster than we regularly rest between sets, but with good partnering and organized coaching it will be doable.
Nutrition Challenge… IT’S ON!
- Consult your doctor before you make any nutrition changes.
- I’ve realized that even with our posts about nutrition (Nutrition Basics, “Nutrition Basics for Health and Performance” and “Eating a Zone-Ish Diet”) we still need to get it in your heads that FOOD IS FUEL (i.e. if you eat like crap, you will perform like crap) and proper nutrition is MORE important than the hours you spend with us. You may not realize what you are missing, so here’s the deal.
- If you want to enter the nutrition challenge, you follow what we say. No one is perfect, but if you want results (lean body mass, feeling good, etc), there will be no cheating the nutrition challenge.
- It starts Monday and ends after 8 weeks, coinciding with our strength cycle.
- On Monday, we will take a picture of you showing your mid section. The winner will be the one who shows the best body change (more lean muscle mass/less fat). The winner will get 2 months of free gym membership ($300 value) and look really hot.
- If you want to compete, you must decide ASAP. You need to enter all your nutritional information into FitDay. You must enter everything you eat. This will continue throughout the entire competition.
- One of our trainers will review your FitDay information with you on Monday and at the beginning of each week. If you do this for us, we will provide free nutritional consulting to you. It’s a good deal. Remember how we are accountable to our WOD performance? Now we want you to be accountable to your nutrition habits.
- Calculating how much we eat: Take your body weight and subtract fat mass. I weigh 149# and have about 10% body fat, so I have 136# of lean body mass. Everyone will start eating .7 grams of protein per lean pound of body mass (I would eat .7 (up to 1 gram)*136# or 95 grams of protein per day). Based on general zone guidelines, I will divide that number by 7 to estimate my fat and carb macronutrient blocks. I know I am more active than most people, so let’s say I get 15 blocks from this estimate. Multiply by 9 for carbs and by 3 for fat; so 135 grams of carbs and 45 grams of fat. I know I do best between 2x and 3x Fat, so I eat about 90 to 120 grams of fat per day. This isn’t a science. It’s just a starting benchmark. If you are looking to shed pounds dramatically, you probably need to be eating under 100 grams of carbs per day. Under 50 carbs per day and you are going to be lethargic and your performance will decrease. You need to experiment, track and dial things in based on your specific needs.
- We will make recommendations along the way and based on specific needs.
- Try to eat as much naturally raised food as possible. The more processed and the more industrialized, the worse it is.
- Short list of things that aren’t OK: fruit juice, sugar of any kind, sweeteners of any kind, bread, pasta, flour products, soda, anything with gluten, beer, liquor, wine, vegetable oils. Small quantities of these are ok, but they BLOW your good nutrition out of the water.
- Things that are OK: sweet potatoes, yams, squash, tubers, meats, eggs, BACON, vegetables like broccoli, asparagus, lettuce, cabbage, brussel sprouts, carrots, spinach, artichoke,(you need to be eating A LOT of these), coconut oil, olive oil, fruits in limited quantities.
- Things that are in the grey area (I eat them): milk products, protein powders, butter
- Supplements: 5 to 8 grams of fish oil, multi vitamin, vit d.
Please use the comments for questions and clarification.
Posted In: Workout of the Day
I’d also propose we have participants throw $10 each into a pot for the winner.
FYI: It’s Rippetoe, not Rippatoe.
Sounds like fun!
YES
Is there a difference between Dr. Sear’s “Zone for Atheletes” in how many grams of carbs per block? In the standard Zone diet, there’s 9 grams of carbs per block.
we’re not doing Zone, we’re using it as a baseline and then modifying for individuals. fixed errors, thanks.
2 things:
1) YES
2) What’s the recommended work/rest schedule for this?
work/rest schedule?
Assuming we come in for all the strength days, what’s the max # of other days we can/should do in a week?
5 days on/ 2 days rest OR 2 days on 1 day rest, 3 days on 1 day rest.
Well, yes, since I’m already on Day 22 of eating Paleo, and I have before pictures from when I began (front and side) and have been entering all data into FitDay.com. Should I ‘restart’ the challenge to coincide with the new weight programming or just continue as is?
PS I already look hot (duh) but love the idea of 2 free months at the gym.
you need to restart on Monday.
I guess I’ll just consider the past 3 weeks as ‘practice’. Ugh, midsection belly pictures boo.
Kyle – I’m inclined to take on this challenge. But I’ve been doing strict Paleo for 13 days (other than the Hershey’s kiss I ate last night) and will complete the 30 day challenge. After that, I plan to go back to Zone-ish. There will be grains and dairy brought back into my diet. I subscribe to the dietary belief that if doesn’t grow from the ground or didn’t have a mother, don’t eat it. Given that information, can I still participate? I also have a belly picture that I took 12 days ago – do I need to take a new one?
everyone will start with a new picture on Monday if they want to participate.
high fructose corn syrup grows from the ground and is processed at the same level as flour based products.
this isn’t a strict paleo challenge it’s slightly different from what we talked about before. quality is more important than quantity, but based on the few cases I’ve examined, people are really bad at estimating quantities.
I’m going to be in AZ all week (this Friday through next Thursday). Can I still participate?
yes, come in on Thursdsay to do your pictures.
“Take your body weight and subtract fat mass. I weigh 140# and have about 10% body fat, so I have 136# of lean body mass.”
10% of 140 is 14, not 4
my other nickname shall be “can’t do math”
“other” nickname?
Been out this week with strep but I am up for this. It will be a major challenge. I love beer and cheetos! How do we figure out our body fat?
http://www.bblex.de/en/calc/navy.php
this is fairly accurate for calculating body fat
I’m not a fan of the zone diet. It’s way too calorie restrictive for me. I’m 6′ 1″ and the athletes zone has me eating only 1600 calories / day. I’m currently eating 2300ish calories using Robb Wolf’s prescription and losing weight. I’ll stick with what I’m doing.
Zone is just a starting point and a good measuring stick. Without a benchmark it’s hard to compare things.
Robb Wolf also recommends weighing and measuring and zone.
Wednesday night Colbert Report: Guest is Paleo diet guy Durant, I think, if you want to watch…
I am in with this thing. We, however will be on a sunny tropical vacation the very last week of this challenge. Would it be possible to take the end pic before I go (at about 7 weeks) and still be considered in the challenge? As much as I would like to think I could it is unlikely that I would track my food that last week.
“Food, Inc.” Alice Waters gave it a great review and that’s good enough for me (ah the Slow Food movement). But seriously, whether you eat Paleo, Zone, or just plain ‘healthy’, eat REAL food.
I just watched this last week. Makes me want to eat super clean Paleo. Makes my wife want to eat vegetation. Go figure.
I’m just thankful for C’Ville market (spent only $8 yesterday on way too much produce) and the Main St. Market butcher. The old man there is so sweet!
now if only a Kosher deli would open up somewhere around here!
Now this was cute.