Monday, November 15, 2010

An Announcement and a Few Good Reads

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After winning "Who is your favorite health/fitness blogger?"(thanks to everyone who voted) at Health Habits I was approached and asked whether I wanted to join the Hive Health Media network. After reading the terms, and looking at some of the other blogs in the network, I thought I wouldn't have anything to lose by at least giving it a trial run for a few months.

Hive Health Media 200

This will serve to give my site and my articles some extra exposure. In return, I'll keep an eye out for share-worthy material on the other blogs in the network and promote it (via Twitter, FB, etc.) if I find something good. That's it. Nothing else changes.


A Few Good Reads

I've come across quite a few good reads this last week that I thought I'd share.

1. "Why Making Dinner is a Good Idea." Jonah Lehrer writes one of my favorite blogs. This article is about evolution, dopamine and the curse of fast foods. I highly recommend you check it out. I've mentioned Jonah Lehrer before, in "The Marshmallow Test".

2. "Carbohydrate Intake and Depression." I've noticed some people have a harder time low-carbing during the dark winter months; I too experienced this way back in the days when I played around with ketogenic diets and CKD (cyclical ketogenic diet). Lyle proposes a few strategies that might make it easier. Note: The woman asking the question is an extreme example. 180-200 g carbs is certainly not low, but don't get too hung up on that; my point is that low-carbing is harder, relatively speaking, for some people during the dark months.

3. "How Not to Fight Colds." I haven't been sick in ten years but I do get a runny nose from time to time. According to this article, this is a good thing and you shouldn't aim to fight cold symptoms. They're just signs of an active immune system.

4. "Leangains: Martin Berkhan’s Workout Approach." I talk training over at Richard Nikoley's site.

5. "Why Working From Home is Both Awesome and Horrible." Hilarious. Even funnier, or spookier, when I see that the clock in "Loss of Regimen" is 03.17 AM...on the minute the same as here as I'm typing this.

That's it for tonight. Keep up with me on Twitter if you want to get more tips on read-worthy material.

P.S. New article coming soon. Sorry, folks. I originally wrote that it would be up on Tuesday but, as I started writing, it took off into another direction. On the plus side, it'll be more interesting and rewarding when it's done.

P.S.S. I added a review of "Adipoxil" to "Supplements You Might Actually Find Useful".

18 comments:

Simon said...

Great picks Martin. I too love the Frontal Cortex, all brain blogs are great. What else do you read?

LayzieBone085 said...

IN for new article, and IN for cheesecake update!

Unknown said...

Martin, thanks for the great info as always. You briefly mentioned higher frequency training as part of a gaining routine. Is reverse pyramid training an effective routine for a leangains-style bulk? If not, generally what do you recommend in term of workouts per week and volume and intensity per workout?

Unknown said...

Enjoyed the interview at freetheanimal and learned something valuable (that I wasn't taking enough rest between sets), thanks very much.

KAYUMOCHI said...

The article regarding cold symptoms reminds of research I once came across that stated that people who never got colds had a higher rate of cancer.

osteoconseils.fr said...

Hi Martin,

The article about the "low carb intake" (180-200 is not low)and depression didn't convince me but it makes me think about an article that shows the evidence that a high carb intake is superiorly addictive vs cocaine.
This study clearly shows it on rats. The rats prefers the carb intake vs the cocaine intake!!!

http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action?articleURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000698

So maybe her depression is just about her missing drug? Or maybe it's none of these and she is just depressed because of an another psychological problem (maybe the cause has nothing to do with nutrition...)

Nick said...

Martin, I loved your interview over at Free The Animal. All of your stuff is phenomenal.

Quick question: when trying to lose fat, how low do you generally want to restrict calories? I'm a male, 5'8" 150lbs. I've read that you like to have higher calories on workout days, and lower calories on rest days, but how low/high exactly? Should your calories be above your BMR or maintenance intake on workout days?

Thanks, can't wait for the book!

Unknown said...

Yes, thanks. My main reason for following people on Twitter is for reading ideas. I love the Wired articles you've put in the past. I've even thought of getting a subscription but I find I enjoy their online format more.

Basil Gravanis said...

Hey Martin,

Figured this may interest you... Hershel walkers eats 1x a day. The popular media take: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/10/11/herschel.fitness.martial.arts/index.html?hpt=C2

Richard Nikoley said...

Thanks for the shout, Martin. Love how some are still defending you against "marketing" via these posts.

The next entry will be about diet and I'll have that on your desk in the next day or two. Fasting will be a separate post in light of your recent mega post.

Good.

The last post will be about my perspective on working with a personality such as Martin. That should be fun.

Blank said...

Congrats on the win! Good reads and if the theorizing based on rat studies is close to home then the need for refeeds is even more important, possibly. Giving one a chance to flood the brain with serotonin and stabilize amino acid concentrations in the blood.

And the 'why it's good to cook dinner' article was more rat studies but still useful as a subject to pontificate.

Ahmed said...

Was laughing my ass off at the working from home one... Thanks Martin

dum3z said...

Can't say I quite agree with the working for your food article. I know a few farmers, moderately active, whose wives spend 1-3 hours in the kitchen per day making every meal and they're all 50-100 pounds overweight.

Ousa said...

Great something new to read. Nice blog!

Unknown said...

Martin,

Just a quick question about the book. When it comes out will you include a section on how you approach hypertrophy training; guidelines, number of exercises, reps, frequency, differences between beginners, intermediate, and advanced training? I know there are plenty if programs to choose from that are effective, I was just curious as to your approach.

If yes, then I'll wait for that. If not, so I can start bugging you to post about it here :-P

Anonymous said...

http://trainnowlivelater.blogspot.com/2010/11/leangains-experiment-12-week-update.html

In case you had misseed this.

Mike said...

Hi Martin,

Started the IF diet last Sunday night.

Just had my second rest day on the diet. I seem to be having problems with the first big meal. I'm 70kg at around 11%BF
I had a half a roast chicken (63g protein - sliced off and weighed out), one pear and an apple plus 30 peanuts and water.

I was an hour late starting
When I got home I was ravenous.

The eating was great!
I enjoyed it.

But...
not long after the meal I started getting a burning in my hands and feet and I felt really sleepy.
I had to retreat to the bed a few times to gather some energy. So that negated all the productivity gains of the morning :(


I Didn't feel hungry for 4 and half hrs later, which makes me wonder how to get the other meals in.

Yesterday wasn't as bad. I had a smaller meal, Tuna (22g protein) salad with onion, tomato and celery. I didn't get the overwhelming fatigue, just the burning in the hands and feet.

To be honest this has been going on every MORNING for years, so I rejoiced the first few workout days, because I didn't get it during the fast on those days nor was it a problem on the rest day mornings.


I live on the equator and I just spent some time in a colder climate and didn't have the problem for 2 months.

Wondering if there's a difference in calorie requirements due to ambient temperature?

Could I be eating too much in one sitting?

Any Ideas?

Unknown said...

Eek,

"Just a quick question about the book. When it comes out will you include a section on how you approach hypertrophy training; guidelines, number of exercises, reps, frequency, differences between beginners, intermediate, and advanced training?"

Yes

Mike,

I have no clue what the issue might be. Burning in hands & feet? Never heard about that in relation to IF & eating.




My name is Martin Berkhan and I work as a nutritional consultant, magazine writer and personal trainer.

Welcome to the Internet's leading resource on intermittent fasting and all things related.


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