testimonials

Snowman Trek - Part 1

Most of you know that I took a month off and did what many call the "hardest trek in the world … the Snowman Trek".

I want to tell you a little about my training before I left and my experiences away from home.  In the weeks that follow I will be writing about my exploits in detail and do my best to explain what an amazing experience it was.  Going into it I felt as prepared as I could living here in Wisconsin at sea level.  The weather here prepared me a bit, but the high altitude was another story.  A friend of mine Pete Brooks, went with me.  We trained with lots of stair running, breathing only through our noses and using heavy packs.  We felt ready as we boarded the plane first for Bangkok, Thailand.

A few days later we landed in Paro, Bhutan.  Bhutan was like stepping back in time 2 or 3 hundred years.  There were only camps and villages.  No one had electricity; there were no streets, no sidewalks, no transportation; everyone and everything walked.  It didn’t take long for me to me to realize how easy we have it living in the States.  We were literally 6 to 8 days from the nearest road so therefore 6 to 8 days from medical help.  That was a little concerning to say the least.  No one had hot or cold running water, nor did they have windows on their houses to protect them from the cold weather.

A few days into the trip I realized that I was “out there.”  I couldn’t just say, “I don’t like this, I think I’ll go home.”  That was not a choice.  This really made me think about life, health our country and how easy our lives truly are.  Last night i was talking to my girlfriend about this very topic, our choices and the impact they have in the long run. As a country without question we can make better choices; eat healthier foods from the earth instead of man made ones, exercise for the shear joy of movement instead of getting on some machine because you feel forced into it, interact more with family and friends instead of vegging out in front of the TV every night.  In all of my travels this theme is constant, the people who live simple lives seem happier and healthier.

We have lots of choices.  Most of us choose the easy path and are still un-happy with life and our health.  Bhutanese don’t have many choices yet they are very happy and healthy.

Attached is a picture of my first day of the trip, while in Bangkok I saw this ridiculous statue of Ronald McDonald with his  hands in a Buddhist prayer position.   Ronald actually trying to connect and sell his un-healthy lifestyle to all the Bhuddists in Thailand…such is life, but we still have choices my friends to support crap or not:)

I will write more on things that I learned and experienced, but I wanted to start the ball rolling with this basic thought on my overall experience. Lets appreciate the little things, breathing fresh air, each other, our health, running water; the ease of our lives!
Jon Hinds

Your Warrior Diet Questions Answered - Part 1

Ori Hofmekler Maximum performance is the ultimate goal of individuals who wish to excel. Being the strongest, fastest and toughest you can be is a virtue that goes far beyond athletic performance. The quest to be your best forces you to push your limits and rise to your potential. Most important, you gain the courage to change things that need to be changed and thereby increase your chances of improving the way you look, feel and perform. However, the way to becoming better you isn’t always easy. As they often say, “the devil is in the details”, and those who are in the process of changing and improving diet and workout routines often face problems that need to be addressed.

Readers and followers of the Warrior Diet continually ask for practical advice and sometimes for clarification. Many of the e-mails I receive address important issues that deserve more than a simple “do this or do that” response. As many inquiries reoccur, this newsletter includes a selection of relevant and frequently asked questions with answers that include practical applications, in addition to general and detailed information beyond what is in the Warrior Diet book.
Nevertheless, certain topics such as how to deal with insulin resistance, how to maintain a state of alertness or the amount of protein one should consume to effectively build muscle, are of special interest due to their often unresolved and controversial appeal.

TOPIC: Length of Undereating Cycle

How long should the undereating phase last from the time of finishing the previous evening’s meal?

Regarding the undereating stage, there has been some confusion about timing. The Warrior principles are very simple: one meal a day at night. The Warrior diet is based on instinctual principles in which one does not have to check exact times, or for that matter, count calories or restrict macronutrients.

Simply put, undereating should begin after the last big meal (or overeating stage) has been digested (about 8-12 hours depending on the quality of the food). The 16-18 hours of undereating is a “maximum”. Fasting for longer than 18 hours may compromise the metabolic advantages of undereating (i.e., after digestion, you should not undereat for more than 18 hours or controlled fasting can have adverse effects on hormones and muscles. The confusion arose from the intended meaning of the statement "It lasts for 16-18 hours after your last meal, including time you are asleep." The intended meaning is 16-18 hours PLUS sleep time. Sleep time is usually when one digests the big meal. However, we have come to learn that WD followers have all kinds of bizarre schedules. So, “undereating” really “begins” when the big meal’s food has been digested (not necessarily eliminated).

While people should not fast for longer than 18 hours, they should use their instinct to determine when to eat the one daily meal, whether it’s 10 hours, 12 hours or 15 hours after undereating. Use your common sense. Don’t do anything that doesn’t make sense.

TOPIC: Gaining Muscle Mass While on the Warrior Diet

For the purpose of gaining muscle, can you eat during the day, what and how much?

Athletes and bodybuilders who train during the day are highly advised to have recovery meals right after exercising. Recovery meals should consist of mostly proteins (about 15 - 30 grams) and little carbs, about 5 - 10g from either starchy sources or glucose-mostly containing natural sweetener such as rice syrup, or maple syrup.
Ingesting raw fruits and vegetables is highly recommended for the purpose of constant nourishment and overall detox. Nonetheless, active people who are interested in gaining muscle should increase protein consumption via small recovery-like meals during the day. Protein and carb ingestion, especially after exercise, will help one take advantage of exercise-related growth stimulation to facilitate actual anabolic actions that can lead to muscle gain. It’s important to note that dietary proteins ingestion and insulin activity are critically important to finalize the actions of growth hormone and IGF1 on the muscles, notwithstanding, the anabolic actions of insulin by itself.

The WD is not about water fasting. However, many people on The Warrior Diet fast on water only during the undereating phase. There are times when I do a water fast simply because I am too busy. For those who water fast (there are quite a few), I recommend they break the fast at least once. Have a vegetable juice or fruit to help your liver detoxify. Also, you will prevent your body from becoming nutrient deficient (in particular, minerals). Note: if you water fast for the whole undereating phase, it’s still o.k. The Warrior Diet is about personal choices.

My primary goal is to gain as much muscle mass as possible. Is it possible to gain noticeable muscle mass on the Warrior Diet?

The Warrior Diet is about muscular development. Muscular development is a term that means much more than just muscle mass gain. It involves a process that improves muscle strength, speed, agility and endurance. In fact, muscular development does not always involve muscle mass gain. You are as good as your performance, not as good as your size. Nevertheless, for those interested in muscle gain, the WD can present you with the hard facts that can help you reach maximum anabolic state. In order not to be too vague, the WD clearly addresses critical topics such as how to increase natural anabolic hormone impact on the body via special dietary and exercise cycles. It also offers practical advice as to best nutritional food and supplements that can help you with the cast to build muscle and gain strength.

The Warrior Diet specifically addresses this question (refer to Chapter 5, "The Overeating Phase" and Chapter 10, "The Warrior Diet Idea"). I believe the Warrior Diet is the only diet on which you can lose fat and build muscle simultaneously without going through the typical bodybuilding routines of gaining and dieting. Many bodybuilders, while dieting on very low carb diets lose weight together with muscle mass and sex drive. Then, close to a competition, they depend on drugs to maintain their energy. The Warrior Diet puts you in the best shape without the typical side effects. You’ll feel more energetic and focused.

Dear Ori, Your book has made a major difference in my life! My energy is better now than when I was a teenager! At 44 years old that’s really saying something! I read Mike Mahler’s interview with you. I was struck by your ability to gain 12 lbs in a year. Ori, that is my goal! I am a lean 188lb but have for many years desired to hit the 200 lb mark. How did you do it? I’m assuming you did some minor tweaking of the Warrior Diet to reach this result.
There are ways to accelerate muscle growth. Principally you should cycle between 3 - 4 days of extreme overeating and 2 - 3 days of moderate to extreme undereating (whole days). After a few weeks of rotating between the above daily cycles, you’ll probably notice significant muscle gain. Nevertheless, it isn’t an easy routine. Sometimes I had to force myself to eat. As absurd as it sounds, the real gain usually happens a week or two after finishing a cycle. This is likely due to the time the body needs to adapt to the extreme calorie and protein fluctuations. Exercise is important. I found that cycling between controlled fatigue and low followed by high rep resistance training is the best method for giving your body the stimuli to be tougher, stronger, and leaner.

Finally, cycling between days of high protein and days of low protein consumption is another most efficient dietary method to increase protein utilization and inhibit muscle breakdown, thereby supporting muscle gain. Low protein days activate a biological mechanism that inhibits muscle protein breakdown. The following high protein days would likely help take advantage of the initial increase in protein utilization to accelerate muscle growth.

For personal consultations with Ori Hofmekler Email: ori@warriordiet.com or call: 1-866-WARDIET

Outside The Gym: Methods of Developing Strength & Power.

By: Josh Henkin

We all get trapped into certain paradigms. It is not too uncommon to see our training restricted only to what we can do in the weight room. This is very unfortunate, as there are many fun and productive methods of training that can be done outside of the gym.

Training outside or using methods other than weight training can serve a variety of functions. It allows for a change of pace which many trainees need. You can move and load the body in a variety of ways in which with traditional weight training would be impossible. Since there are so many different exercises and tools one can use for outside training.

This article will cover some of what I feel are the most productive exercises with medicine balls. There is obviously nothing new with medicine balls, however, many people only know of a few exercises they can perform and don’t even know why medicine balls are such a great tool. Let’s look at the following reasons medicine balls are so useful and versatile:

Why Use A Medicine Ball?

1. There are three planes of motion, with most of our weight training exercises we only train one. However, we move in three in everyday life and in sport. So, with medicine balls we are able to train the other two planes of motion, which can result in a great reduction of risk of injuries such as the low back.

2. Medicine balls utilize a high level of trunk activity. Many theorize that all movement begins at the core (abdominal and low back) and all forces are translated through this region. This means that if your core is weak your ability to develop power or force through the extremities will be reduced. Powerlifters can tell you that if you don’t have a strong core that one’s deadlift or squat will suffer tremendously. Now, even though there are a variety of ways to train the trunk, medicine balls allow one to train these muscles in an explosive manner as well. In sport, most movements are very fast and powerful, so in the development of high school to professional athletes this can be a very useful method.

3. Explosive power development can have a positive effect for those that are looking for new levels of strength in their weight training or increased sporting performance. In sport there is no factor more important than rate of force development. Meaning, being just strong is not adequate. Like I mentioned in the above point, sporting activities will usually contain very fast and powerful movements. If one can not produce their strength in a minimal amount of time then they will not perform at their full potential.

Effective Medicine Ball Exercises

Since now you are excited to see how to incorporate medicine ball activities into your routine let’s look at some of the exercises that I think are the most beneficial. I have selected these exercises as they utilize most muscles at one time. Our goal is to integrate muscle movement, not isolate.

Plyometric Push-up with Chest Pass

Start on your knees holding a medicine ball by your chest, partner is standing five yards away. Throw the ball to your partner (as in a basketball chest pass) and fall to the ground. Catch yourself in a kneeling push-up position and explosively push yourself back up. Once you are coming up, your partner will chest pass the ball back.

Overhead Toss

Start with the ball overhead. As quickly as possible swing the ball between the legs and your body will be in a position very similar to a deadlift. Reverse this motion as quickly as possible and thro the ball as far backwards as possible. Note: This is an explosive exercise for the whole body, however, try to utilize the hips as much as possible.

Woodchop Bounce Pass

Partners face the same direction. Start with the knees bent and feet slightly wider than shoulder width. The partner with the ball will bring the ball over the shoulder and shift their weight to the same side. Then as explosively as possible they will bring the ball across their body and shift their weight to the other side. Release the ball so that is bounces approximately two-thirds away from the thrower. The partner will catch the ball and reproduce the motion as quickly as possible.

Squat Push-Press

With the ball against the chest dip down into a quarter squat position. Very quickly reverse this motion and try to jump and throw the ball into the air. You may let the ball bounce and repeat, catch the ball and repeat as quickly as possible, or perform a quarter turn while the ball is coming back and catch.

Conclusion

These are all fun and very useful exercises. It is important to note that since all these exercises have an explosive nature to them, it is required you spend time warming-up and carefully go through the motions before going full effort. The explosive nature of the exercises should not be loss by excessive fatigue. So, do not use too heavy of a ball, use inadequate rest intervals, or too many repetitions. Most importantly have fun with these new movements!

30 Days Without Weights for Ultimate Strength, Conditioning, and Fat Loss

By Matt Potak

Weight training over long periods of time can burn out athletes from all different sports. Whether he or she is a world class MMA fighter or your average Joe who wants to stay in shape, athletes can get bored with not only their current regimen but with lifting weights period. Most will just take some time off from the gym and come back ready to hit it hard again. However, others will take longer periods of time off and become lazy. They lose a good portion of their strength and size and lose sight of their overall goals.

The best thing that athletes can do when this type of situation happens is to change up the entire training regimen to make it more exciting. Just to let everyone know, I love weight training, but sometimes I get tired and banged up. Instead of taking a few weeks off and doing nothing, I have other options.

Back to the basics

When I started to grow tired and bored of weight lifting, I thought back to when I wrestled in high school. I remembered that my coaches were big believers in body weight training. I had old school coaches who would make us do countless push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, and squat thrusts. I should note that I wrestled in 2002, not the 1980s. We had many different types of weight training equipment at my school, but our coaches insisted that all we needed was “running shoes and a pull-up bar.” I remember getting great results training with these types of body weight routines. My conditioning and strength levels went through the roof. My body fat percentage also went down. So I thought, “if it worked for me, it can work for anyone.”

You always see “in shape” military personnel who have never lifted weights in their life. Most of them are in great shape and live off of pull-ups, push-ups, and running. In the old days, boxers never touched weights, and look at the shape that they were in.

Motions

While coaching wrestling this past season, we had many strong wrestlers on the team. Many of them lifted all year long, and as the season approached, they got bigger and stronger through the off-season. As the season started, most of them were burned out on lifting weights. We had a two-day a week in-season program, but the wrestlers just didn’t seem to progress on it. Most of the guys were just going through the motions, and I felt that going in the weight room was becoming a waste of time. I preferred to just do more technique drilling. That’s when I decided to bring back the old days of body weight training. I wanted to see what kind of shape these kids could get into.

The program

I came up with this program to change things up for my athletes. I immediately had them and myself performing the workouts. The results speak for themselves. As a team, we increased our strength and endurance levels by performing this program for one month.

Here is the program:

Day 1: Body weight strength day

(Do 2–3 sessions per week.)

Station #1 (perform in a circuit mode)

  • Push-ups, 20 reps

  • Crunches 40 reps

  • Wide grip push-ups, 20 reps

  • Crunches, 40 reps

  • Knuckle push-ups, 20 reps

  • Crunches, 40 reps

  • Diamond push-ups, 20 reps

  • Crunches, 40 reps

Note: Eventually, you should add more reps after a few sessions. For example, do 25 push-ups, 45 crunches, and then a few sessions later, do 30 push-ups and 45 crunches. You can also change the exercises. Just keep it upper body specific.

Station # 2 (circuit mode)

  • Split squat jumps, 30 seconds timed

  • Mountain climbers, 30 seconds timed

Repeat three more times for a total of four sets.

Note: Eventually, after a few sessions, you should add more seconds per set. For example, go for 35 seconds instead of 30 seconds. You can also change the exercises. Just keep it lower body specific.

Station # 3 (circuit mode)

  • Pull-ups, 20 seconds timed (if you can’t keep pulling, just hold the bar but always strive for another rep)

  • Leg lifts, 20 seconds timed (holding the bar, lift legs up)

Repeat three more times for a total of four sets.

Note: After a few sessions, add more seconds per set.

Station # 4 (circuit mode as fast as possible)

  • 25 push-ups

  • 50 body weight squats

  • 5–10 pull-ups

  • 25 sit-ups

Start with 1–2 sets. As your fitness level goes up, do more sets. Try to work your way up to 6–8 sets.

Day 2: Body weight endurance day

(Do two sessions a week.)

  • Run at a fair pace. After every 100–300 meters (you decide), drop and perform 10 burpees. Keep doing this until you get 100 burpees. If your fitness level isn’t at that point yet, do five burpees and keep doing this until you get to 50 burpees.

Closing

This is a program designed for athletes and non-athletes. Remember, you can change the exercises and make it more suitable for you. Make sure that you add more reps, sets, and time as you progress. After completing this routine, you will see that body weight training can help you with all of your goals. If you’re bored with your current program, give body weight training a chance to see if it’s for you.

Matt Potak is a wrestling and football coach at the high school level. He is also a personal fitness trainer in the St Augustine, Florida area. For more info on Matt, email him at: m_potak@yahoo.com