Training after Achilles Surgery

7 weeks ago, today, (as I write this, anyway) I ruptured my achilles tendon in the first event of my first ever Strongman contest. I had almost finished walking the 320kg yoke the required 15 meters when ***BANG!!!*** My lower leg instantly went numb and my foot went dead and floppy!

Less than 24 hours later the amazing team at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital were stitching the tendon back together. It hadnt torn off the bone - somehow it snapped in the middle! The surgeon made a point of visiting to tell me the 2 ends of the tendon were over 6cm apart when he went in. He had to keep slicing up my leg to find the top end! Somehow my pathetic little calves generated some real pulling force!

Everybody I spoke with - including my less-than-conservative friends - told me the same story: an achilles rupture is a LONG recovery! I was told to think 12-18 months! This was not like my bicep tear mostly because you don't need to jump up and down on your biceps.

I was to be on crutches for 12 weeks before rehab began. The first 6 weeks would be in a cast. Then I'd move to a moon boot for 6 more weeks. Then I'd walk off crutches. I joked at the time that walking was the same as squatting 3 plates so in 12 weeks I was going to squat 3 plates. I was joking... but I wasn't. The video below shows I managed to prove walking is indeed like squatting 3 plates and I got there 6 weeks early!


Squatting - 6 weeks post Achilles Reattachment Surgery from Damon Hayhow on Vimeo.

Once the injury was done, there was nothing to do but get on with life. So the day I was released from hospital I got home, cooked up my food and was immediately back on my regular diet. The next day I was in the gym.

In terms of training, all exercises that involved standing were obviously out. Well, sort of. I discovered I could do barbell presses and curls kneeling and within 2 weeks I was back to 100kg on the kneeling press and 83kg on the kneeling curls! The looks of incredulous disbelief from other trainers were priceless!

I even found leg training was less limited than I expected. I could do single leg curls and extensions with limited compromise. So I hit them hard, twice per week, working up to reps on 124kg on single leg extensions and 56kg on the single leg curl; and that was on the leg in the cast! The only issue was keeping the calf relaxed on the curl.

My weighted chin-ups were unaffected, working up to an additional 60kg hanging off me. But virtually all other back exercises were compromised. I couldnt hold myself in the seat for heavy pulldowns. I couldnt brace with my legs to do any rows or back extension. So it was all light, squeezy rubbish.

When the cast came off a different doctor assessed me and said I COULD walk in the boot... but my leg would have lost the strength to hold me up. I just laughed. Even if I hadn't trained at all for 6 weeks I would still be able to squat over 220kg. For the rest of my life - with or without training - I will forever be much stronger than any average person and most athletes. Thats one of the lifetime benefits of proper strength training!

Because I had been training I was even more confident that my 124kg-extending leg had the strength to hold me up! I just didnt trust I should put 90kg through the slowly healing tendon? I had heard so many stories and warnings about re-rupturing an achilles that on my first attempts to put weight on the foot, I chickened out! I was just too scared. And the foot was still very swollen, bruised and painful.

But a few hours out of the cast and my foot had visibly reduced in redness and swelling. And a few hours after that I was indeed walking around the gym, in the boot with no crutches... carrying 20kg plates even! The very first exercise I did the night the cast came off was cable row. And I was delighted to find I was able to work up to the entire 140kg stack for a strict set of 10 (well, the first few were strict)!

Next day - without the boot - I was very carefully and gingerly walking around home! By walking I mean I could use the straightened left leg like a crutch. I certainly couldn't step off the toes or even get my foot to 90degrees. The ankle was VERY tight and even light stretching felt extremely unpleasant!

The third day after the cast had come off was leg training day. After leg curls I experimented with Stiff Leg Deadlifts. I stayed light, doing 15-rep sets and managed to work slowly up to 150kg at which point my grip exhausted first. I always keep my weight through my heels so I didnt even have to worry about putting weight through the toes or the tendon.

So I decided to try squats. Clearly walking the bar out of the rack was out of the question. So I succumbed to doing squats on the smith machine. I HATE smith squats! They are a terrible exercise that encourage terrible squatting habits. Anybody who says they squat on the smith machine to alleviate pressure on their back or knees is simply admitting they have no idea how to squat properly! Free barbell squats are the only way to squat!

Unfortunately there was no practical or safe way to do a free barbell squat. And on the Smith machine I was able to set up with a very wide stance and a slightly forward foot position that prevented any flexion at the ankle - which would risk the achilles - while keeping my weight entirely in my heels.

One 20kg plate per side was so pathetically light there was nothing I could do to even pretend I was working my legs. How anyone does smith squats with 1 plate is beyond me? Its actually harder to control or feel than having a heavy weight! So I went to 2 plates and it was still too light and easy. But most importantly there was absolutely no stress at all through my left achilles and no sense of wanting to lean into the toes!

So I smiled and went to 3 plates. Despite my fatigued back (from the stiff leg deadlifts), it was genuinely easy and felt light! By this point the gym was about to close so I quickly put 3 1/2 plates on for a few reps and called it a night.


160kg Bent Over Rows, 6 weeks Post Surgery from Damon Hayhow on Vimeo.


Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

PRESS RELEASE: Women's Accidental Super-Freakism Conspiracy!!!

Paranoia has gripped women around the world as Accidental Super-Freakism (Accidentilium Superious-Freakazoidus or ASF) reaches epidemic proportions – yet mysteriously, not a single sufferer can be found!

ASF seems to manifest as an allergic reaction to weight training equipment loads in excess of 2 kilos. According to reports, overnight the victims entire structure undergoes horrific mutations such that by morning they resemble a professional male bodybuilder – complete with dark tan, paper thin skin, rippling abdominals and posing oil!

Doctor Richard Head, is baffled.

“I am baffled! These poor women are suffering that which men previously required more than a decade of deliberate, chronic, anabolic drug abuse, intense weight training and long-term extreme dieting.”

“Even more remarkable is that it is most prevalent among the least likely of people. It seems the more thoroughly neglected the body, the higher the chance of infection. Those truly unmotivated, obese women with a lifetime abstinence from exercise combined with poor eating habits are most at risk! It never occurs in elite athletes or bodybuilders that might want it to happen.”

Dr. Head explains that somehow these women’s bodies begin synthesizing new protein at biologically impossible rates resulting in their super-human levels of muscle mass. Simultaneously their entire store of subcutaneous fat is lost. Literally hundreds of thousands of calories of energy are consumed over night, while tens of kilos of protein is somehow constructed out of thin air.

For all of the obvious seriousness of ASF, nobody has ever come forward to be studied. The lack of evidence of ASF has lead intelligent people to argue that the condition is a figment of women’s imagination.

While intelligent people are correct in their assertion that ASF is a biological impossibility, Dr Head believes ASF is actually being covered-up as part of an international conspiracy.

“Knowledge of the condition is very widespread so why are we unable to find a single sufferer? Personal Trainers regularly refer women [to my clinic] in terrible distress about ASF. They usually know of friends or celebrity victims now hiding from the press, such is their shame. Sometimes they themselves claim to have gone to a gym, touched on the 2-kilo mass limit and seen mutations begin. Yet none are able to bring forward a single sufferer. I want to know who is covering this up!?”

More suspiciously, those convinced they have a predisposition to ASF display hostility and disorientation when pushed to explain their experiences.

Dr Head says: “Their reactions are similar to alien abductees or Paranoid Schizophrenics. They are utterly convinced that any form of weight training will cause their body to instantly and uncontrollably mutate into a professional male bodybuilder!? And though their claims make absolutely no sense – biologically or philosophically – as long as my name is Dick Head, I’m going to give these people’s concerns due respect!”.

Government and leading Feminist group representatives have so far refused to comment.

For potential sufferers, Dr Dick Head offers the following advice:

• Walking for 30 minutes, 3 times a week is all the exercise you need
• Treadmills are best: you are more likely to quit exercise sooner
• Steppers can be used if you don’t actually bend your knees; a small ‘wiggle’ at the hips is best
• A glass of wine, every night is essential to maintain your current physical state
• If you must lift weights, do not lift more than 2kg dumbbells in any exercise. Plastic coated dumbbells are best.
• On weight machines do not lift more than 2 plates – remember it is the visible amount of metal and not the actual load on the muscle that causes ASF
• Use the Swiss Ball for everything. The Swiss Ball is proven to be an entirely ineffective form of exercise.

If you have any further questions or information for Dr Head please call the Department of Stupid Services.

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

Why Most PT Clients Want To Fail & How PT's Oblige

After Training clients for just a few years I came to a demoralising realisation: the majority of PT clients WANT to fail!

Subconsciously, the majority of Personal Training clients want validation that they are a victim; that their sub-par body is something unfixable that happened TO them by an unbeatable external force. They NEED to fail in order to say to themselves and the World: "My fatness is no fault of my own and it is not due to my actions. It's my genetics/God/hormones/[your excuse here]. I am powerless to fix it. I have no choice but to continue being lazy and eating rubbish because it makes no difference. I tried. I did everything I could. I even paid a Personal Trainer!"

To diet and train effectively would only prove that their fat, decrepit body was their own fault and that they do have the power to fix it. It would also prove that the reason they got out of shape was because of the diet and lifestyle they really do not want to give up because it's probably a lot more enjoyable to them than disciplined training and dieting.

In all things, people tend to put in the effort concomitant to the success they want and/or expect. And when you plan to fail you certainly won't put forth the effort required for success! So most clients treat their PT as a conscience for hire. They want someone else to blame and take responsibility for their own bad choices; as evidenced by the defiant (or guilty) way they admit to eating knowingly fattening foods. Their PT is the perfect target.

And most PT's disingenuously pander to this 'business opportunity' by pretending to sell motivation. This has never ceased to amaze and disgust me! Motivation is: "the desire or willingness to do something". It is self evident that you cannot buy the desire or willingness to do something you have no desire or willingness to do! It is exactly as ridiculous as thinking you can buy unconditional love or everlasting happiness. And any PT pretending to sell 'motivation' is either incapable of rational thought... or just a lying snake-oil salesman!?

Of course, selling motivation to unmotivated people leads to a horribly demoralising and dissatisfying situation for the PT as well. In a referral based business like PTing, the business you take becomes the business you get. So the more vampiric clients a PT takes, the more vampiric clients they will get. And nobody in any industry wants to wake up everyday to work with unmotivated clients who don't respect or desire their service but want to bleed them dry of their energy. The only people who can withstand that are vampiric parasites themselves. Hmmmm...

The Biologic Labs Difference
I created Biologic Labs with a very different goal: to see if SOME people actually DID want a proper, uncompromising body recomposition service? If nobody wanted it, at least I would have the answer to that question for myself! But I was never going to compromise my product to cater to people who didn't want it (despite the continued, persistent 'recommendations' of short-sighted people who just cannot seem to see past copying what everybody else is doing badly).

At Biologic Labs everything is measured and preplanned and presented up front so there are no surprises. If a prospective client doesn't like the way we do things, thats fine; we don't take their business. If they don't want to work that hard or have to follow the diet we set, thats fine; we don't take their business. If they don't want to give up drinking alcohol, thats fine; we don't take their business. Its really simple - if a person doesn't want the quality product we offer, we don't sell it to them!

Clients who don't want to do what is required to succeed are going to fail regardless! Changing our successful product to sell them the failure they want is not good business! The client who fails is disgruntled even when failure was what they wanted. Even worse, before they are disgruntled they refer their friends who want to fail. So the business becomes a place for failures. That then impacts on staff morale and the quality of work staff do. Staff start to expect failure and so they become good at delivering it.

By staying true to our business we ensure we get to focus on doing good work with committed clients who DO want our product. Success breeds success, as they say. It feeds upon itself, just like failure does. The choice for Trainers and clients is which they really want?



Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

Why Recomposer Is Unavailable to End-Users

Introduction

Recomposer is the software I personally designed (with a LOT of help from my partners, David and Tibor) to provide the ultimate body recomposition service. It is a very specialised software tool that gives our specialist staff the analysis tools they need to prescribe the exact nutrition and and training for clients to achieve their goals.

Recomposer was designed to help our staff do a better job more easily, deliver a more professional product to our clients, make training new staff more efficient and effective, protect the IP of our business and meet a plethora of other business needs. It is a business tool!

Why Recomposer Is Not Available to End-Users

Recomposer doesn’t create programs and diets. Its the tool our Recomp staff use to create programs and diets!

The measurements and calculations Recomposer makes depend entirely upon the quality of values fed in by our expert staff. If the skinfold measurements or strength test values are inconsistent or incorrect then every prediction and calculation in the system will be completely useless! 

The results our clients get depends on upon the appropriateness of our prescription to their individual needs, and then on their application of that prescription. We could create our prescriptions on a piece of paper or in a spreadsheet. But for a variety of business reasons, we do it with Recomposer.

Really, the software provides nothing more than a bunch of numbers on a screen! Those numbers - the quantities of foods and the weights and reps to be done in the gym - need to be given context to the intended recipient by the Consultant prescribing them! Thats why we have invested heavily in the best equipment to train our clients on. Good numbers used badly are no different than bad numbers!

So in the same way dentists drills are not suitable for the general public to fix their own teeth, Recomposer is not suitable for the general public to create a training program and diet! It is designed for our experts to efficiently create and measure each clients prescription. It doesn’t decide the prescriptions for us! 

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

The Sickening Truth About Our Health System

Australia has what is formally described as a conservative health system. Its most basic philosophy is that no citizen should employ any intervention that might risk their health. And on the surface of it, this seems perfectly reasonable... until you consider the real meaning.

‘Health’ is defined as “the absence of disease”. Technically and medically, there is no such thing as healthier than disease free! You can look terrible, feel terrible and function terribly, yet still be medically ‘healthy’. If you have no measurable clinical markers out of the established range, you are as healthy as can be!

The literal meanings of other words used in discussing health are equally important. An 'intervention' is simply any deliberate action to improve a situation. A 'risk' is the possibility of something unpleasant or unwelcome happening. 'Disease' is defined by any clinical measurement outside an established range that is based on what the majority of the population measures! (And when you consider that the majority of the population is likely to die of heart disease, cancer or diabetes, it's somewhat baffling that they would be made the yardstick of health)!

With these definitions in mind, now reconsider the meaning of citizens not undertaking interventions that might risk health? The literal translation of this philosophy becomes:

Citizens are not to deliberately do anything to improve their health; particularly if there is any possibility of comparing less favourably with average people (who are likely to die of a major disease).

So despite the best original intentions of our conservative health system, the application has resulted in something scarily different. The institutionalisation of rank mediocrity and predictable, major disease is definitely not what you and I mean when we talk about health! But as far as the health system is concerned, it is. And as far as the health system is concerned:

• Whatever is practiced by the majority becomes the ‘standard’ of normal ‘health’, irrespective of how predictable the negative effect on wellbeing is.
• Anything you do for the purpose of bettering your health is considered an intervention that 'risks' health. But if the same action is completely uninformed, unintentional and unmeasured, then thats OK (it's only an intervention if it's deliberate).
• Anything that benefits physical performance, body composition, energy, mental performance and/or general well-being is irrelevant and unnecessary to health because the simple absence of disease IS health!
• Health practitioners should prevent citizens from taking any deliberate action to affects their health in any way! If a person has a disease, then medication is the treatment.
• The 'healthy' ranges for clinical markers are revised occasionally to better reflect the state of the majority of the population, even when it is well established that the majority of the population are more unwell than before (eg BMI and male estrogen)!
• Regardless of how terrible you look, feel or function, there is no appropriate course of action if your health measures are within the range kept by the rest of the population. If you are particularly upset about this then you might be considered to have a mental health problem for which anti-depressants are the treatment!
• Regardless of how good you look, feel or function, any measure of health that doesn't agree with the typical measures of the majority of the rest of the population is considered a disease.

So when health professionals advise of a course of action for your health, they are often NOT talking about something that will contribute positively to anything you consider desirable or indicative of good health. They are talking about complying with a state of rank mediocrity established by the majority. In many cases, what health professionals advise for your health can significantly reduce what you and I would consider 'health'. Their advice is designed to reduce your wellbeing, body composition and future health to the level of the 'average' person!

So if you ever wondered why the advice provided by health experts was so often so hypocritical or just downright unhealthy, this is why! Virtually all of the advice you hear is tainted by this warped perspective! It pervades everything from the safety and labelling of the foods to the treatments and advice your doctor offers when you are sick.

When you understand the above and listen more literally to what you hear and read (when it comes to health advice and warnings) you will get the real meaning. And if you aspire to anything better than mediocrity for yourself, what you hear will disgust you even more than it intrinsically should anyway!

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

The 'Diet' Word Everybody Hates

It is popular these days to hate the concept of going on a 'diet'. Its slightly ironic given that whatever you eat IS your diet!

The only difference between following a measured diet versus not, is whether you are informed or ignorant. Either way, its a diet. How you feel about the word doesn't change the fact that you cannot avoid doing it. Even not eating is a 'diet'.

The great benefit of being ignorant about your diet is that you can blame bad luck (or genetics; which amounts to the same thing) for your sub-par body and go-nowhere training.

But if you follow a diet thats planned, suddenly you take responsiblity for the resulting body that you present to the World! And for a lot of people, thats an extremely distressing thought! Its much easier to join the mantra of the masses who claim that their fat, diseased bodies happened TO them rather than as a result of their own bad choices!

Ignorance might feel like an escape from the responsibility of your diet. But its not. And just because most planned diets out there are stupid, doesn't mean that planning your diet is stupid! Whether you deliberately follow a stupid diet or unintentionally have a diet thats stupid, either way you have a stupid diet! One way you know what was stupid; the other way you are ignorant AND stupid! But either way you are responsible for your the body (and "lifestyle diseases") that result.

The benefit of following a consistent, planned and measured diet - even if its not a great diet - is that you can make educated, intelligent decisions about how to change it when it doesn't deliver the outcomes you want. It's only if you eat the same things, in the same quantities, everyday, that you remove all other variables and can make a true judgement about the effect of your diet. Then you can adjust it accordingly.

Saying you eat 'healthy' by eating random quantities of random foods at random intervals - sorry, by having 'variety' - doesn't change the fact that when you fail to get the body you want, you have no way of fixing the situation! What should you do differently when you always do something different? You can't do anything! And thats not an opinion or judgement about it; its just a fact.

Plan your diet or don't; either way you are dieting! You cannot escape the word just because you don't like it. And you cannot escape the responsibility of the outcome because you choose to be ignorant!

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

Body Recomposition vs Fitness

Fitness does not mean 'lean, 'energetic', 'strong', 'toned', 'muscular', 'athletic' or any of the other positive terms people mistake it for. Fitness is nothing more than the absence of general physical malaise. To be 'fit' is to be 'suitably able' to function as a human should. It is, by definition, as physically mediocre as a person should be before they are sick or debilitated.

Body Recomposition is the process of becoming lean, muscular, athletic, toned or whatever other term you prefer for a better body! By definition, Body Recomposition is going BEYOND the mediocrity of 'fitness'. It involves MEASURED sports performance exercise and diet to achieve a MEASURED, desirable, athletic figure or physique of whatever extreme you desire. Whether you are talking about a flat tummy or pro bodybuilding, its all body recomposition; not fitness!

Critically, Body Recomposition involves the methodical measuring and planning that is critical to success in any endeavour. In direct contrast to 'fitness' where the objective is to 'destroy the body you hate', body recomposition is creating the body you want, by design!

Who is Body Recomposition For?

Body Recomposition is for any healthy person who wants a good or great body. But it is only for people who are willing to work harder and eat better in order to be better than average and the best they can be.

Fitness is for every sick to average person to maintain a minimum state of mediocrity. Hence, most Fitness training prescriptions are rehabilitation techniques from Physiotherapy. Unless you were born with an amazing body, things like walking on a treadmill, 'functional training', 'core stability', swiss/bosu balls, Pilates etc do not create great bodies. They aren't designed to. They are designed for 'fitness' mediocrity. As the names suggest, they are literally training techniques for normal human function and nothing more!

Measurement

Body Recompositioning focusses solely on the manipulation of bodily fat, weight and muscularity levels as measured by regular body composition testing. All nutritional and exercise interventions are meticulously measured and planned to achieve specific, measured changes in bodyfat and lean, muscle mass.

By contrast, in 'Fitness', if anything is measured then they are things such as heart rate, oxygen uptake, flexibility and other amorphous qualities that have no relevance to bodyfat and composition.

Nutrition

Body Recompositioning nutrition is measured and planned to achieve predefined, measured body goals. It is precise, prescribed, purposeful “sports nutrition” requiring true discipline and leading to significant, positive physical change.

Fitness professionals are not legally allowed to prescribe diets! The extent they can help is to 'recommend' random 'healthy' food choices and malnourishing starvation for indiscriminate 'weight loss'. Curtin University measured their prescriptions as having a 95% failure rate!

Exercise

Body Recompositioning exercise is measured and planned strength training. Again, everything has a purpose to achieve a specific body outcome. Training targets are designed to parallel muscularity goals. And the training is structured to work synergistically with the sports nutrition program for ultimate fat loss and muscularity.

'Fitness' exercise is deliberately low-intensity, low-risk movements designed to achieve and maintain 'normal' physical capability. Concepts like 'functional training' and 'core stability' are meant literally - they are literally training for normal, non-athletic human function without such maladies as 'back pain'! They have nothing to do with looking like a gymnast or making the abdominal muscles become visible!

Conclusion

'Fitness' involves a variety of varied activities and 'healthy' eating to achieve basic health and wellbeing. With 60% of the Australian population deemed 'overweight' and 'unfit', fitness IS a legitimate need in our society. But it shouldnt be mistaken for meaning anything great. Fitness is literally the minimum physical state a person needs to not be mildly debilitated.

Body recompositioning is for anybody who wants to improve their body beyond the mediocrity of being just 'fit'. It involves the disciplined application of measured strength exercise and sports nutrition to achieve extraordinary improvements in the form and function of the human body.

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

AOC Bans Sedatives. Training & Competing next?

This article in the Australian shows how sporting/Olympic committees continue to expand their definition of 'unfair advantage' and protecting athletes health. 

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/london-games/aoc-bans-use-of-sedatives/story-e6frgdg6-1226415616599

The AOC/IOC/WADA/ASADA are all fine to ignore that Olympic level sport IS a health risk. Athletes get injuries! Its part of every game. But thats OK. Running til you shit blood? Thats fine. Jumping until their is no cartilage left in your knee? Sweet. Throwing until you need a shoulder replacement? Thats what replacements are for. But taking a pill that millions of regular people all over the world take to get to sleep so your body might actually recover from the brutality of overtraining? That makes you such an horrendously dangerous risk to yourself and you need to be banned and publicly and financially ruined!

When it comes to drugs, usually the issue is that the drugs artificially boost performance providing an unfair advantage. But drugs that put you to sleep??? These agencies are fine to ignore that some athletes are provided with the advantage of millions of dollars worth of facilities, doctors, trainers, therapists, nutritionists and specialised training devices. Apparently thats NOT an unfair advantage. But popping a sleeping pill? You dirty scum!!! 

So the AOC has reinterpreted its mandate to protect the well-being of competing athletes to meaning they are now the self-appointed, active carers of every competitive athlete! And as could be expected by such a politically motivated group, delivering care to athletes is done in the same manner as the Gestapo cared for citizens in Nazi Germany: breaking into their rooms to search for things like prescribed sleeping pills so they can bring a crushing end to the athletes career, terminate their sponsorships, savage their future and publicly shame and ruin them. But all in concern for their well-being, of course.

The interesting question is, how much further are they going to reach into peoples lives? I mean, they've banned glycerol which is a common ingredient in bakery foods! So now are they going to broaden that to cover ALL bakery foods because pies and muffins arent very good for you? So could that include bread? Are there going to be night raids on athletes pantries to see whether the foods in the house conform to the AOC's opinion of what is 'healthy'? Non-organic flour? Career OVER!!! 

And what of training? Are they going to spy on athletes to see how hard they are training and if they breach some arbitrary level, ban them for training too hard or too much? Lots of injuries happen in training. Surely if you are so concerned with the athletes health then imposing your wrath upon them to prevent them training too hard is logical?

And what of the competition itself? This is where athletes really push the boundaries. Surely they should be stopped from putting in too much effort, running too fast, jumping too high or throwing too far? These things are all a bigger risk to their health than a doctor prescribed sleeping pill for a person who can't sleep!!!

Think thats being ridiculous? Remember this whole anti-drug movement really started with relatively obscure prescription drugs that could be heavily abused to dramatically improve performance and visibly turned women into men! It was the visible transformations that outraged the fickle public prompting a response. That has somehow now extended to include cake ingredients and drugs that do the very opposite of boosting performance - they put you to sleep!!! The article in the Australian even intimates that Grant Hackett LOST because of sleeping pills! 

Is sport really safer and better because we have a self-appointed Athlete Gestapo running around trying to destroy athletes careers and reputations under the guise of protecting them from doing things that make them lose??? How much further is it going to go before someone recognises how idiotic this is? Because I cannot think of anything more stupid than banning athletes over cake ingredients and sleeping pills?

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

Carving in Muscle Separations

(NOTE: Please excuse the bro-sciency-ness of this. PubMed is a little light on research into carving in muscle separations... probably because the whole concept is extremely bro-ish!)

One of the most idiotic and misunderstood myths in body transformation training is that of exercises or techniques for 'carving in muscle separations'.

This is not to say that there aren't ways to improve the visible separations between muscles. There are. But you need to understand what is happening if you hope to achieve the desired outcome and not just waste massive amounts of time and effort... like so many do!


START WITH THE BASICS
Before I get to the guts of this blog, I must make mention of the two most important factors in visually pronounced muscle separations:
1) fat - the number one reason people fail to display the definition and separation they would like between their muscles is that they are simply too fat!
2) genetics - some people have muscles that appear deeply and distinctly separated; others just don't. That said, the vast majority of people who blame their genetics are simply fat... and usually lazy and lacking the 'personal responsibility' gene!

YOU ARE PROBABLY JUST FAT
In all but the absolute most extreme cases, if you cannot clearly see your muscular separations it is probably because you have too much bodyfat! Even competitive bodybuilders who say they are "holding water", 9 times out of 10 are just too fat!

Do not underestimate how lean you need to be for clear definition! It does not matter how lean you FEEL or THINK you are, nor how lean your Trainer has measured you (assuming your Trainer even does measurements), its probably simply not enough. And just because you don't know how to get any leaner doesn't mean you aren't still too fat!

Everybody possesses the same distinct muscles. Those muscles ARE separate from one another! They are each wrapped in their own fascial sheath. What MOSTLY hides them from external view is the water, fat and skin on top! Typically the fat is the most significant factor. It literally 'blankets' the muscles and fills in the 'gaps'. Mostly...

ADVANCED MUSCLE SEPARATIONS - THE PROBLEM
Despite the above, at the more advanced levels of bodybuilding muscle size becomes a factor. More specifically, the current state of an enlarged muscle can be a factor that REDUCES the visible separations between the muscles.

Let me give a crude illustration of the issue. Imagine two, 1/2-inflated balloons inside a glass box. The box is fractionally too small in all directions for the two balloons so they are lightly squashed together and against the glass on all sides.

Now imagine inflating the balloons. With nowhere else to go, the balloons will expand into the empty space between each other and the walls of the glass box, reducing the gaps between them. As you keep inflating the balloons they press tighter and tighter together until, eventually, they form 2 almost-perfect cubes with almost no separation between them.

This balloon analogy is not dissimilar to what happens with muscles within their own fascias. When bodybuilders use food, training and supplements (and drugs) to force-fill their muscles with glycogen, fluid and other substrates, the muscles expand - like the balloons in the box - to completely fill their fascial sheaths. The muscles can press together so tightly that the visible separations between them reduce significantly.

This is why pro-bodybuilders can often be seen with extraordinarily low bodyfat, paper-thin skin, their bodies covered in veins, and yet completely lacking deep muscular separations. It is also why separations in leg muscles often completely disappear with a big leg 'pump' and why legs are famous for having reduced separation and definition for days after heavy squats and leg presses. Blame inflammation or fluid, much of it is WITHIN the muscular compartment.

ADVANCED MUSCLE SEPARATIONS - THE SOLUTION
The simple remedy to this state is for the muscles to SHRINK... a bit! For most of us, shrinking muscles is quite simple:
1) Don't train. Easy. Most lean bodybuilders know that their legs (in particular) are more separated and defined after 10+ days of not training them. They are also measurably smaller.
2) Do ineffective training. This is where the concept that leg extensions with light weights and lots of 'squeezing' and 'flexing' the muscles comes from. There is little inflammatory response, absolutely no stimulation to maintain strength/muscle plus a wasting of glycogen and, when dieting, the muscles shrink measurably. The very fact that this sort of training is INEFFECTIVE for muscular development is the reason it is effective for separations!
3) Do HIIT or more intense 'cardio'. If you feel a burn, glycogen is likely being burned and the muscles shrink. Even better, taking peak-strength-performance trained muscles and suddenly training them for endurance is the best way to cause maximum muscle loss! At some point there will be a benefit to muscular separation. Too much endurance exercise (combined with the typical starvation diets of many bodybuilders these days) can result in so much muscle shrinkage and depletion that the muscles wind up appearing soft and flabby.

The bottom line is, to genuinely "carve in separations", muscle shrinkage is what is happening! Hopefully in understanding this you can choose more wisely WHEN to utilise such techniques. If you are getting ready for a bodybuilding competition, using the stepper and light leg extensions 16 weeks out from your contest is probably not ideal. 2-4 weeks out - assuming your low bodyfat didn't solve the problem anyway - is more appropriate.

FINAL WORDS ON FAT LOSS & SEPARATIONS
Justifying almost every training or diet concept these days are massively overcomplicated (and incomplete) explanations of biochemical processes within the body. As interesting as they are, basing your actions on your hopeful guesses about something you cannot measure and cannot affect is a certain way to be wrong and probably fail!

1) If you have too much fat obscuring your muscles, you need to lose that fat with effective diet and weight training for body recomposition. Measure your body composition, measure your goal and train and diet to achieve those numbers. You cannot BS the basic math of body composition just because you learn some interesting new facts about biochemistry!

2) If you have uneven fat distribution then thats just how it is. There are some long-term drug options that can help. But shy of this extreme, you are not going to change your bodyfat distribution with any form or amount of exercise, diet or supplement. Despite all the convincing biochemical theories of what is going on, the fact is it just doesnt happen!

3) If you are talking about muscle separation then the above is what you are talking about. So next time you read that stupid chest training article in Flex magazine that says to do bench press for mass and then cable crossovers for separations, now you know why you shouldn't! You cannot achieve these 2 contradictory results simultaneously!!!


Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

Our Programs & Diets for Interstate Clients

Q: I do not live in Brisbane but I've heard that you can write a program and diet for me to follow? Can you please tell me more about your programs and diets for your Interstate clients?

A: We write diets and training programs for you to achieve a specific goal bodysize and bodyfat percentage. All we are concerned with is your body composition.

We make adjustments every week according to bodyfat tests you provide us with. So you'll need somebody competent and reliable to test you regularly and forward the results to us.

Your program is custom written to your personal body, goal and requirements. We first get you to complete a questionnaire including your current bodyweight, skinfold measurements and maximum strength. We do our best to help find somebody suitable for you to do this with because very few PT's are suitably competent. We then do an assessment over the phone to articulate your body composition goal and decide what diet and training is going to be best for you.

The diet we write for you specifies every gram of food to eat at every meal. The workout specifies every weight to lift on every set of every exercise at every workout. There is no ambiguity and no random 'stuff' like you get from Personal Trainers.

Our diets involve a lot of food! The biggest complaint is there is too much food - even to lose weight and fat fast. But there are no cheat meals, no random food choices and no drinking alcohol. There is really no point wasting money on our programs if you need to drink alcohol and not follow the diet.

There is no cardio on our programs - even for the most rapid and significant fat loss possible! Our training programs solely involve lifting weights to the limit of your physical capacity. There is not much training - usually 3 days per week? But it is VERY hard strength training with very hard exercises. So we require that you REALLY know how to train or have somebody exceptional to train with. There are VERY few PT's suitable to train you on our programs because the training is so different. We can try recommending somebody in your area depending upon where you are?

For an idea of how we deliver your program and diet to you, please watch this video:


Contact us if you'd like to know more or get started?...


Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

ARE YOU EXERCISING TOO HARD? HELL NO!!!

Here is yet another article alarming all the wrong people from the risks of training “too hard”. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/personal-best-workouts-have-their-limits-recognized-or-not/?mid=57

Now, I am in no disagreement that there are a lot of people out there overdoing it with really, REALLY stupid and ineffective training. But there are three main issues with this.

Firstly, in every human activity some people are going to hurt themselves overdoing something that was never going to achieve the results they wanted anyway. Some people are just dumb! Others get manipulated by someone dumb and evil! These people could not give a damn about some professor in his ivory towers spouting off about ‘risks’ and ‘danger’. They are going keep doing what they are doing until they get hurt. Just Google “cults” to see the historical proof of what I mean! Point being, the people for whom these “don’t train hard” articles are written, aren’t listening!

Secondly, a HUGE proportion of people getting sick and injured from overtraining could solve many of their issues with proper nutrition! The number of elite and serious recreational athletes who are thoroughly malnourished is STAGGERING! At Biologic Labs we have taken a number of elite athletes from “has potential” to “unbeatable” within a WEEK of getting them to eat properly! Elite trainers are ASTOUNDED at the changes in performance and the improvements thereafter. We are just astounded at the astounded-ness! If you are going to train hard you need to EAT properly!

But the main issue that really annoys me about all these alarmists screaming “careful, you might be training too hard” is that the ONLY people listening are already NOT training hard enough! 

TWO THIRDS of our society are going to DIE because of diseases related to their diet and lackluster activity! Do 2/3rds of runners run so much that they die? Do 2/3rds of gym goers exercise so hard they die? Do 2/3rds of HEROIN users die from heroin? Do 2/3rds of any group partaking of any other activity DIE from it? NO!

The diet and INACTIVITY of most people is THE MOST dangerous thing you could possibly do on this planet! Why are people warning against the risks of the solution???

These articles warning about exercising too hard or too much fail to help the people they are aimed at while vindicating the inactivity of people who don’t exercise ENOUGH!


Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

More Body Dysmorphia Aggravation

The mediocrity machine pumped out another inane piece of anti-achievement propaganda in The Age today. Presenting the same tired and sad “concerns” about men with body image “problems” - and despite obviously restrained and intelligent counter arguments from Andre Davids - the reader is again warned to be very wary of the ‘dangers’ of wanting to look good. Click here to read...

Here is my beef:

The biggest health problems facing Western society are the OPPOSITE of body dysmorphia! Most people in Western society will DIE from a disease related to nutritional ABUSE and physical NEGLECT! And yet some academics find it necessary to warn people AGAINST the exact lifestyle attributes and values that would solve MOST health problems in Western society? Why? Because a party-hard, recreational-drug-abusing idiot - who also happened to bodybuild - died in Thailand? Hmmm... really?

You do not need to look very far or hard to find idiots in their 20’s who do monumentally stupid, self-destructive things. In fact, pretty much everybody of any age could reveal a story about something that they did or do that is shockingly disturbing or bafflingly stupid. So to find a young, dumb, 20-something, who follows the disgracefully misdirected advice of nutritionally-untrained personal trainers (or his idiot mates) is no proof that training and dieting for a good body is an inherently problematic activity! Its just proof that some people are dicks!

This article, like so many others, brings up the “Zyzz” story. Again! Zyzz was a well known, drug abusing, party nut. The only difference between Zyzz and the thousands of drug-abusing party nuts who die each year is that Zyzz was popular and trained. Like most young guys he liked to take off his shirt to show off a good looking body at nightclubs, parties and festivals. In case you werent aware, good looking guys going to parties with drugs and booze to pick up girls by showing off is not a new thing! Neither is going to hospital or dying from related activities! It happens EVERY WEEK; mostly to non-bodybuilders and people who do not "suffer" body dysmorphia!

Admittedly, a LOT of bodybuilders are risking their lives with some horribly misdirected water and sodium advice. There IS a big problem with heart-failures, kidney damage and seizures in bodybuilding all stemming from unqualified, uneducated ‘fitness’ professionals operating well above their pay-grade to provide dangerously ignorant advice! But these problems have NOTHING to do with body dysmorphia, drugs, training or bodybuilding generally. The problem is entirely a product of morons giving bad advice based on just enough information to be really dangerous! 

Obviously the real issue is that body dysmorphia is extremely reader friendly. The average fat, unfit slob reading mainstream news feels vindicated by the idea that trying to make yourself look good by exercising and eating well is a dangerous mental condition. And the “family values” tripe runs thick throughout these articles with the yardstick of deranged, unacceptably obsessive behaviour being anything that causes relationship breakups. Because, of course, relationships between young people are sacred and normally ever-lasting; so long as a socially unpopular activity like bodybuilding doesn’t “infect” anybody.

The “body dysmorphia” charge so irritates me because it is an issue of personal priorities masquerading as psychological science. Dr Psychologist recognises that a competitive bodybuilder requires a level of size and leanness to be competitive but claims a non-competitive bodybuilder must be mentally ill for wanting the same standard for themselves! I was treated with the same contemptible attitude when I tore my bicep off the bone. The surgeon said to me that unless I planned to compete in something - anything - that I shouldnt worry about it being reattached! It wasnt good enough that I didnt want to be disfigured for myself. But doing it for some meaningless game was valid justification.

Body dysmorphia is also a question of standards. I may not be as disgustingly fat and muscleless as Dr Psychologist but that doesnt mean I’m mentally ill because I want to be even bigger and leaner than I am! It simply means I have much higher standards than Dr Psychologist. I think Dr Psychologist is mentally ill for wanting to waste his life working in a university doing research on body dysmorphia! Surely he could've contributed something to society more useful than that? What is wrong with HIM? Even more worrying, Dr Psychologist should be ashamed of how disgusting his own body is because, at the very least, its statistically far more likely to kill him than anybody elses apparent “body dysmorphia”!

Really, if society is going to have concerns about men getting depressed that they cannot achieve the physique standards that they desire, the concern should be the gross misinformation being spewed out by the Fitness industry that is making people waste so much time on such ineffective training! Perhaps if a few more Personal Trainers defected from the Fitness Industry and joined the ASCA and ISSN to learn about ATHLETE development - not helping unfit people achieve mediocrity - then more men would have physiques they didnt need to be depressed about!

PS: If you have body dysmorphia, good on you! Come on over to Biologic Labs and soak up the friendly pro-dysmorphic environment. If you need, you'll find effective training and nutritional advice and coaching from properly qualified Recomp Specialists. We can even put you onstage in a bodybuilding contest looking the best you could possibly look without ever restricting sodium or water or eliminating carbohydrate or anything else that would make you lose muscle, lose your mind, lose the title and possibly lose your life! Or you can always see one of the other guys and do it the other way.


Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

Advice for Posting Training Movies on the Web

I’ve been uploading videos of Biologic Labs staff and clients training for a few years now. Click here to see our YouTube Channel. 


Often we find out long after the fact that a good number of people have enjoyed and even been inspired by some of those movies. But you wouldnt necessarily get that impression from the comments on the web.

So if you are planning to post a video of yourself or a friend doing something in the gym and you want to minimise the abuse from the web critics in the comments, here are a few things I’ve noticed: 

DEADLIFTS

• Don’t post heavy deadlifts because they are bad for your back.
• Don’t post light deadlifts because then you are a weak pussy.
• Don’t NOT post deadlifts because then you are pussy for not doing deadlifts.
• Don’t wear straps on your deadlifts because straps lift the whole weight for you and mean you are a weak pussy who cant really lift 60kg
• Don’t post training lifts because they don’t count in competition
• Don’t post equipped competition lifts because the suit lifted the weight for you and you are a pussy who can’t really lift 60kg
• Don’t post raw competition lifts without a belt because its dangerous not to wear a belt
• Don’t post raw competition lifts with a belt because thats not raw
• Don’t use an over/under grip because ‘real’ lifters use a hook grip
• Don’t use a hook grip because deadlifts should be done with an over/under grip
• Don’t do a deadlift by bending over because you are an idiot and going to hurt your back
• Don’t do conventional deadlift because you are an idiot and sumo is way stronger
• Don’t do sumo deadlifts because you are an idiot and real deadlifts should be done conventional
• Don’t lock your shoulders back because you are an idiot and you’ll hurt your back
• Don’t not lock your shoulders back because you are a pussy who didnt finish the lift
• Don’t deadlift in boots or shoes because real deadlifts are done in slippers
• Don’t deadlift in slippers because you are a pussy fag

SQUATS

• Don’t squat above parallel because thats a half squat for weak pussies
• Don’t squat to or below parallel because you are an idiot who is going to have ruined knees
• Don’t break at your hips because that is just using your back
• Don’t break at your knees because that is just using your knees 
• Don’t squat low-bar because that just a powerlifters ass exercise
• Don’t squat high-bar because thats a pussy bodybuilder curtsy
• Don’t squat in knee wraps because knee wraps are for pussies and add 800% to your squat
• Don’t squat without knee wraps because you are an idiot who is going to have ruined knees
• Don’t squat with a belt because belts are for pussies and the belt adds 800% to your squat
• Dont’ squat without a belt because you are an idiot who is going to have a ruined back
• Don’t squat with a squat suit because you are a pussy and a suit adds 80000% to your squat
• Don't squat without a suit because you are an idiot and going to get injured
• Don’t squat in a monolift because real squatters walk out
• Don’t squat in a squat rack because real squatters use a monolift

BENCH PRESS & CURLS

• Whatever you do is cheating, dangerous, ineffective and you are an idiot pussy fag!

Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.

The Functional and Core Strength Deception

INTRODUCTION
Since moving to Melbourne and returning to public gyms to train, I have been appalled by how the Fitness Industry has managed to regress even further than the lowly lows I escaped over 8 years ago. 'Functional strength' and 'core stability' is the current fad being misrepresented to mean 'body recomposition'. The fact is: these are just more rehabilitation techniques being sold to people who do not want or need rehabilitation!

The critical issue still being ignored is: NOBODY ASKED FOR THIS! People just want body recomposition! And that wouldnt be an issue IF the Fitness Industry was honest about the fact that what they are selling has nothing to do with body recomposition! But they are NOT honest. The Fitness Industry continues to blatantly deceive its customers with promises to "get in the best shape of your life", "lose fat and tone up" etc etc while providing solutions that have absolutely no relationship to such outcomes!

DYS-FUNCTIONAL TRAINING
Worse still, the 'functional training' I see practiced in public gyms is the definition of an oxymoron. The 'exercises' I see PT's routinely give their clients resemble NO useful movement pattern that ANY person might ever use, in ANY activity, EVER! For example, the other day I saw a PT give his client a 6-exercise combination of lunge/bicep-curl to squat/shoulder-press to stiff-leg-deadlift/tricep-kickback - with 3kg dumbells! It was an exercise in memory and coordination - certainly not any useful function.

Watching this I just couldnt fathom WHY??? Why lunge down while curling up? It means the dumbells don't actually get lifted! Why reduce a weight for squats to weight you can do a tricep kickback with? For equal thigh and arm development? Just separating those six exercises and using appropriate loads on each to build strength would make a great workout. So had they been left alone, the client would have trained more productively WITHOUT the trainers DYSFUNCTIONAL training!

This is just one example and I could go on and on about the bafflingly worthless, non-functional, functional training I see taught everyday. Fortunately, you can click here for this YouTube video which speaks volumes about how atrocious the situation has become. EVERYBODY I have shown this movie gets a puzzled look on their face and asks the poignant question: WHY??? I hope you do too!

The critical point is that NONE of this so-called 'functional' training relates to delivering the body recomposition outcome that PT's promise and their clients pay for! It is an absolute, blatant rip-off!

THE REASON AND SOLUTION
As I have stated before, the Fitness Industry is part of the HEALTH industry; not sports performance industry! 'Fitness' is the state of MINIMAL physical function necessary to COPE with day to day life. It is not an aspirational achievement unless you are disabled! And this is why fitness solutions are typically derived from rehabilitation techniques.

This is also why the Fitness Industry is so completely irrelevant to non-disabled, non-unfit people who want body recomposition and/or above-minimum levels of physical ability. Anybody wanting body recomposition - even unfit people - need to look for experts in ATHLETE development! Athlete development comes from Strength and Conditioning Coaches; NOT Personal Trainers! And if you want abs, you need a SPORTS nutritionist; not a dietician; and definitely not a Personal Trainer who has no practical or legal ability to prescribe such advice.


Visit www.BiologicLabs.com.au for Body Recompositioning diets, training programs, strength coaching, supplements and hormone balancing. Extreme fat loss and muscle development that Personal Trainers and Fitness gyms cannot achieve.