Conversations with Tyler

It is pretty rare that I talk to someone who gets me amped about body building.  Typically I enjoy talking workouts, but will rarely receive nutrition advice well.  Tyler happens to have been U.S. Special Forces and was a competitive body builder prior to a workplace injury that has had him recovering from traumatic brain injury and facial reconstruction.  He is also an aeronautical engineer who was working in commercial fire mitigation.  He is currently planning on getting back in the gym under the guidance of a physical trainer.  I will paraphrase and then expound on a couple of the topics we discussed.

Tyler - "As an engineer, you must be really dialed in on your nutrition.  How much protein do you consume daily"

Me - "I don't really track, I typically eat a 2500 calorie carb heavy diet with only 10-15% of my calories coming from protein."

This opening got us started on nutrition and he had a few strategies for eating clean.  Rather than an elimination diet, eat your clean foods first.  For example drink a gallon of water for the day before you have soda.  Eat your vegetables before you have a cookie.  Strategically you will be satiated and will either not drink the soda or eat the cookies, or worst case scenario eat less.  He also recommended a protein supplement to make sure your ratio of proteins to carbohydrates is 2:1.

If my current diet still hovers around 2500 calories, 60% carbs, 30% fats and 10% protein.  That puts me at 214 grams of carbs, 83 grams of fats and 62 grams of protein.  I think it is quite reasonable to supplement 20 grams of protein a day to get that number up.  Also starting with vegetables is reminiscent of the 800 gram challenge. 

Tyler - "So what do you do for abs"

Me - "Well...."

This was interesting, because I have always held enough extra weight that "six pack" abs were never on my radar.  However, that doesn't mean I should limit myself to abmat sit-ups once a week at best.  Tyler's recommendation was laying on your back arms holding onto the couch and do slow leg raises and lowers.  Repeat on the sides to get the obliques.  Train until you feel it, but not to failure.

This corresponds to what I read in Draper's book about always starting with ab work to get the core primed.

Tyler - "How many pull-ups can you do"

Me - "3 strict pull-ups"

Tyler - "I bet you could do 8 in a month if you worked at it every day"

I had no intention of adjusting my training, but somehow felt good about this.  For 30 days, I would work on pull-ups (he suggested mixing in switch grip work) and track my progress.  The stakes are $5 from a baseline of 3 pull-ups.  If I get the 8, I am not sure if I owe him $5 or he owes me $5.  Either way, I have some skin in the game.