Posted on 5 Comments

Never Let Go by Dan John – Book Review

Never Let Go by Dan JohnWhen I heard from a friend that Dan John had a new book coming out, I went and placed my order right away.  Unfortunately, that backfired as Laree Draper (wife of Golden era Bodybuilder Dave Draper) had already intended to send me a copy as part of being on the insider list.  I couldn’t have been more excited.  This is a review of that book.

For those who don’t know of Dan John, well it’s your loss.  Truly a more friendly, knowledgable and helpful individual in the field of strength training may not exist.  Dan is located here in Salt Lake City where I pursued ice speed skating and while I’ve only had a chance to hang out with him sporadically, it’s always worth the time.

You see, Dan John has been in the lifting weights since about the history of recorded time.   He’s seen it all, done it all, and tried it all. … Keep Reading

Posted on 9 Comments

Does Soy Protein Impact Thyroid Function?

The topic of soy protein tends to bring up lots of argument and debate and certainly there is some good reason for this.   Depending on a huge number of factors, soy protein can be good, bad or neutral.  In general, the extreme stances are just that and the reality lies in the middle.  But the topic of today is not soy protein in general (discussed in detail in The Women’s Book Vol 1).  Rather, I want to examine if soy protein impacts thyroid function.

To examine the topic, I want to look at the following recent review:

Messina M, Redmond G. Effects of soy protein and soybean isoflavones on thyroid function in healthy adults and hypothyroid patients: a review of the relevant literature. Thyroid. (2006) 16:249-58.

A Primer on Thyroid Hormone Production

To give readers a brief background on the topic, the thyroid gland releases two primary hormones T4 and T3 (thyroxine and trio-iodothyronine respectively) in a ratio of roughly 80:20 in response to the signal sent by TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone). … Keep Reading

Posted on 39 Comments

Training Frequency for Mass Gains

In recent years, bodybuilding/hypertrophy training has divided itself into a number of different “camps” with quite a bit of argument and debate going on over what the optimal training frequency for muscle growth is.

In this article, I want to look at the three most common training frequencies (in terms of how often a given muscle group is hit each week, I’m not talking about overall training frequency) and some of their pros and cons.  First I’m going to look at the two opposite extremes of training each muscle group before giving my own preferred training frequency.

I want to make it clear that I’m looking only at training frequency as it applies to muscle mass gains and hypertrophy type goals.  I’m not talking about athletes or strength per se (although the recommendations end up being fairly similar) but focusing only on muscle growth as the end point goal of training.… Keep Reading

Posted on 6 Comments

A Guide to Dietary Fats

For decades now, ever since people started talking about cholesterol and heart disease, there has been a combination of concern and confusion over the topic of dietary fats.   So let me see if I can unconfuse things.   First, let me start with some basic definitions.

Triglycerides, Cholesterol, &c

While people tend to throw around the term dietary fat somewhat loosely, the fact is that not all of the dietary fat that we consume on a daily basis is the same.   Here I’m not talking about saturated versus unsaturated fats.  Rather, I’m referring to the different distinct chemical types of lipids (just another word for fats).

The primary two that folks eat on a day to day basis are triglycerides (TGs) and dietary cholesterol.  Dietary triglyceride contributes the bulk (over 90% of the total) of the dietary fat that we consume on a day to day basis.

We also consume small amounts of other lipids in the diet such as phospholipids. … Keep Reading

Posted on 32 Comments

Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat

In various places, a comment I’ve made is that water retention often seems to “mask” fat loss and make it appear that a diet is not working.  In fact, in The Stubborn Fat Solution, I wrote (with a straight face no less) about the topic of whooshes and squishy fat.  In fact, here’s the chapter section from the book on that very topic.

Of Whooshes and Squishy Fat

Before you freak out and think you’ve entered some weird Internet forum where people talk about stalls and whooshes, please bear with me; there’s actually some physiological rationale to what I’m going to discuss.

Many people have noted that fat loss is often discontinuous, that is it often happens in stops and starts.  So you’ll be dieting and dieting and doing everything correctly with nothing to show for it.  Then, boom, almost overnight, you drop 4 pounds and look leaner.

What’s going on? … Keep Reading