Get lean
Every athlete wants to be lean. More lean means more muscle.
Most Americans think less fat when speaking of lean. Nutrition must be
coordinated and supply nutrients to meet the needs of the system. Nutrition is
vital at the top levels of performance. Work is important. Work cannot be
heightened if nutrients are not present. Hydration is part of nutrition.
Getting lean is a simple matter of nutrition. Exercise has been sold as the
solution to body composition. Body composition is a matter of nutrition, not
exercise.
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| Many believe the one on the left is lean.NO, he is skinny! |
Muscle is metabolism. Metabolism is breakdown (not a muscular
part), absorption, and use. Muscles can store nutrients. Diabetes is the
inability of the system to seize nutrients from the blood and store them in
muscle cells. It is a metabolic disorder. When an athlete works the body in a
systemic way the metabolism is stimulated. The endocrine response to eating is
also known as the thermo-genic effect of eating. Nothing stimulates the
metabolism as much as eating. Exercise is a distant second place. Eat the same
calories distributed over more meals and become less fat. Top bodybuilders eat
eight meals per day to get “lean” for competitions. It works very well.
Starvation is always pending homeostatically. We have not evolved past this
point. Do not expect to in your lifetime either. Eating frequently cuts fat
storage off at the pass.
A healthy level of body fat is 15% for a male and 20% for a
female. It is a valid and reliable scientific fact. If the body fat is below
this level for a female athlete she may very well stop menstruating. This illustrates
ill-health. The body needs fat to be used. Cholesterol is an agent used in
mobilizing stored fat. If we do not have cholesterol we cannot use stored fat. This
is why we manufacture cholesterol if it is not supplied nutritionally. If the
body fat is lower than 10% metabolism is compromised. Joints are lubricated by
fat. The brain composition is 90% fat. The nervous system is insulated by fat. The
digestive system requires fat for lubrication, insulation, and transaction. We
store fat for energy reserves. Fat fuels the system while we fast, sleep, or
simply do not eat frequently enough. If fat levels dip below the 15-20% range
we are less than healthy. Do not allow the media to drive your understanding of
body composition. They want you to believe in a lower level to be healthy. No one is below 5% body fat and sensible. The
body protects us from starvation. Oh “I know someone who is 3% body fat”
someone will say. This is a well-marbled piece of meat. We have all seen a
well-marbled piece of meat. This is intra-muscular fat. This is what happens
when the subcutaneous fat is unavailable for storage. The fat is stored
intra-muscularly. These people are rarely strong. They may appear very strong.
They may be stronger than you and me alike. They are never as strong as they
could be. There is not enough muscle
there to be truly strong. This is the result of “the pump”.
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| Skinny is different than lean! |
Remember myofibrillar hypertrophy and sarcoplasmic
hypertrophy? The pump causes the muscles to store fat intra-muscularly,
sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. It is tasty meat. It has fat intertwined within the
muscles cells. Fat tastes great. It is bad to consume and bad to retain.
Athletes want to store fat subcutaneously. There is no room for storage within
dense muscle. We need to store it somewhere. I would rather look fat and be
strong. This is truly lean. Paper thin skin and full round weak muscle bellies
is not lean. It is weak and weak is not lean. Dr. Fred Hatfield (Dr. Squat)
gave me a formula for body composition testing years ago. It does not involve
skin fold calipers. It does not involve a CAT scan. No under-water weighing is
done. It involves a maximum on several different weightlifting movements. Our
performance on these lifts displays how lean we are. If you are weak you are
fat. If you are strong you are lean. Performance is the key to health.
Appearances are superficial. We do not need to look like we are 50% body fat.
That is excessive. We should be able to see the separation between muscle
groups. The ridges in the rectus abdominus should be seen.
Lean tissue is strong. Lean tissue completes actions. Lean
tissue sits next to the skeleton. If it is pumped up and separated from the
skeleton it is full of fat and fluids. Dense strong muscles are less likely to
store fat intra-muscularly. They are designed for a different level of work
than high repetition muscles. High endurance athletes consume muscle for energy
and do not really have either dense or fat muscles. They are working at such a
deficit already and are lucky if they have any functional muscle at all. This
makes strength work and protein consumption more important for endurance
athletes than strength athletes. Do not take this the wrong way. I am not
attacking anyone. I am helping people understand strength. If I seem
antagonistic email and we will have a conversation electronically, on the
telephone, or in person. I am here to help athletes. I help all athletes
perform better. Strength athletes, sugar burning athletes, and endurance
athletes all benefit from strength and conditioning.
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| He is lean because he is strong. |
The key to body composition is nutrition. Protein and fat
consumption are determined by the size of your body. Protein and fat should
remain relatively constant. Carbohydrates are necessary. They are the means by
which we manipulate meal size. I do not want to eat carbohydrates if I am going
to sleep soon. Insulin will cut off growth hormone release and store fat. Growth
hormone mobilizes fat while we sleep and keeps the brain fueled. Fat storage is
a reserve of energy. Look at the people who swim the English Channel. They hold
more fat for many reasons: buoyancy, insulation, and energy storage for a long
cold swim. Keep fat relative to you activities. It is far healthier to be a
little overweight than a little underweight; 2-3% in either direction.
If you know someone claiming 5% body fat or lower I can
guarantee you one thing for certain: this is not a high functioning strength
athlete. They are untruthful about their body composition too. I digress
again…Typical body composition tests cannot, cannot, measure the body
composition of an athlete. The numbers are set in accordance with the body mass
index which does not take athletic people into consideration at all. Not
everyone who participates in athletics, who is 68” tall or any other height,
has the same chest cavity depth. Case in point.
Manipulate your body composition with carbohydrates. Eat
fewer carbs and become less fat. Eat more carbs and be more energetic. Eat
carbs before you drink alcohol and keep the brain fueled and maintain liver
function. The enzymes responsible for gluconeogenesis are killed by alcohol and
the brain is deprived of sugar; it’s fuel. Brain cells die in great numbers and
this is being drunk. Eat fat for the functionality. Eat protein, animal protein
is my recommendation, for structural integrity. If Mother Nature did not make
it do not eat it. Be reasonable and cook your food. Just don’t break it down to
an unrecognizable form. Eat a colorful diet and you will live a longer and
healthier life. Lean is a matter of muscle. Fat is a matter of function.
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