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How do you know if you’re squat dominant or deadlift dominant?
It’s not an exact science—some bodies are just better designed to squat than to deadlift and vice versa—but if your back squat is more than 85 percent of your deadlift, then many would say you’re squat dominant.
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Keto eating should always put nutrients first, but there’s nothing wrong with having treat recipes on hand for when you’re making the conscious choice to enjoy something sweet. This recipe offers it all—whole food, Primal friendly ingredients for whipping up either a Primal brownie batch…or a keto version. You’ll enjoy the rich texture and deep chocolate taste without the typical sugar rush.
Tips: This recipe has a primal option sweetened with dates and a keto option sweetened with a granulated monk fruit sweetener. Feel free to use Swerve in lieu of the monk fruit. These brownies are extra fudgy and taste even better after being refrigerated, so we highly recommend allowing them to cool, cutting them and then placing them in the fridge for a few hours or overnight before enjoying.
Servings: 12 Brownies
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
Primal Brownies Ingredients:
Keto Brownies Ingredients:
Instructions:
Primal Option:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Set up a double boiler by filling a pot with a few inches of water and placing it over medium heat. Once it begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and place a heat-safe bowl on top of the pot. Add the chopped chocolate and butter to the bowl and gently mix using a spatula until the mixture is melted.
Soak the dates in hot water for at least 10 minutes. Drain the dates and add the dates, coconut milk and vanilla extract to a food processor. Blend until the mixture is fairly smooth, making sure to stop the processor occasionally to scrape down the sides. Add the chocolate and butter mixture and pulse a few more times. Add the almond flour, cocoa powder and espresso powder and pulse until combined. Add the eggs and blend until smooth.
Pour the brownie batter into a greased or parchment lined baking dish (the one we used was about 7”x7” but made fairly thick brownies, so you can also use a larger dish). Feel free to top with chopped chocolate or walnuts. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until the center is fairly firm. Allow the brownies to fully cool before slicing.
Keto Option:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Set up a double boiler by filling a pot with a few inches of water and placing it over medium heat. Once it begins to boil, reduce to a simmer and place a heat-safe bowl on top of the pot. Add the chopped chocolate and butter to the bowl and gently mix using a spatula until the mixture is melted. Remove the bowl from the heat.
To the bowl, whisk in the monkfruit sweetener, and sift in the almond flour and cocoa powder. Add the coconut milk, vanilla extract and espresso powder. Whisk the eggs in a small bowl and fold them into the brownie batter.
Pour the brownie batter into a greased or parchment lined baking dish (the one we used was about 7”x7” but made fairly thick brownies, so you can also use a larger dish). Feel free to top with chopped chocolate or walnuts. Bake for approximately 18-20 minutes, or until the center is fairly firm. Allow the brownies to fully cool before slicing.
Primal Brownie Nutrition Information (1/12 of pan):
Keto Brownie Nutrition Information (1/12 of pan):
The post Primal (or) Keto Fudgy Brownies appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Beans, beans, they’re good for your heart. The more you eat them, the more you fart. The more you fart, the better you feel. So eat your beans with every meal. Most of us remember this little chant that was so much fun to repeat when we were little. No one will dispute the health […]
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Research of the WeekDespite being at an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome, shift workers eat the same number of calories as daytime workers.
In prehistoric Bavaria, babies were drinking animal milk out of clay bottles.
Eating eggs and dairy can’t save the B12 levels of vegetarians.
The monetary value of prayer (or not praying).
Dairy fat is vindicated once again.
Pretty much just humans and a few great apes can recognize themselves in the mirror.
Episode 378: Shawn Wells: Host Elle Russ chats with Shawn Wells, a Registered Dietitian, Certified Sports Nutritionist, and Fellow in the international Society of Sports Nutrition who practiced over a decade as a Chief Clinical Dietitian in acute (hospital) and skilled nursing settings.
Episode 379: Sean Jewell—All About Dark Chocolate: Host Brad Kearns chats with chocolate expert Sean Jewell about choosing the best stuff and avoiding the bad.
Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 28: Laura and Erin chat with Dr. Greg Kelly about supporting the brain with nutrition, nootropics, and lifestyle.
Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.
The U.S. and U.K. are the only two non-developing countries with a falling life expectancy.
A new method may allow us to read damaged scrolls found in the ruins of Mt. Vesuvius. Can’t wait for Homer’s lost rom-com.
A way to weigh a whale without a scale.
11 reasons why this trained dietitian is “Team Meat.”
Meet the energy efficient washing machine which acted as a drug-resistant pathogen reservoir in one German hospital.
Wild children allowed to be wild in nature will come to know, and love, the world.
A stone fridge for meat from 23,000 BC.
I, too, cannot deny reality: Experts are realizing that “eat less red meat” was actually bad advice.
News I enjoyed: Peter of Hyperlipid goes (mostly) carnivore.
Article I found interesting: The persistent myth of persistent hunting.
I’ll take these “secondary outcomes,” thank you very much: Vitamin C infusions fail to reduce organ failure score or inflammatory biomarkers in sepsis patients, but they do reduce mortality.
Nice essay: Meat is not the environmental problem you think it is.
Will the health authorities ever accept the fact that red meat and high-fat dairy aren’t killing us?
One year ago (Sep 29 – Oct 4)
“The teen athlete using a high carb diet is plagued with significant increase in dental caries
As a practicing dentist for 47 years, I am stunned by the rapid increase in caries in the otherwise ‘healthy’ teen due to the large increase in refined carbs now encouraged in their sports diets
Dr John G Steuterman
Saint Louis Missouri”– Important point, Dr. Steuterman. Thank you.
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http://chriskresser.com/
Are you ready to take your health goals to the next level? Then read on for a little motivation and to discover how to use SMART goals for health.
The post Why It Makes Sense to Set SMART Goals for Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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Emotional intelligence is important for leaders, for relationships, and even for your health. Find out the benefits of a high “EQ” and learn how to improve your emotional intelligence.
The post Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important? appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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The fitness world is booming these days. You can see it in the popularity of CrossFit boxes, obstacle course and endurance events, and record-breaking gym construction. It’s encouraging. Inspiring even. But there’s also a downside to the rising gym memberships and event registrations. There are still too many people dealing with recurring patterns of breakdown, burnout, illness and injury. More people are trying to do the right thing, but the flawed approaches they often gravitate to end up derailing them.
Nonetheless, there are changes afoot. It’s an evolution of thinking that’s slowly spreading its way through fitness circles. More forward-thinking coaches, trainers, and researchers are helping right the wrongs of the fitness boom with a general rejection of the “more is better” approach for one that respects the importance of balancing stress and rest, one that moves toward an intuitive approach to workout planning.
More people are implementing strategies to maximize workout return on investment and minimize the risk of injury and burnout that too often result from an indiscriminate approach. The endurance world, for example, is finally rejecting the narrowly focused, overly stressful chronic cardio approach of old in favor of emphasizing aerobic development at lower heart rates, avoiding chronic patterns, and becoming fat adapted instead of sugar addicted. Endurance athletes are embracing the importance of strength training and explosive sprinting just as strength/power athletes are doing more aerobic conditioning. The CrossFit movement itself is an ode to the health and longevity benefits and increased enjoyment that comes from achieving broader fitness competency.
I’ve talked recently about microworkouts and recovery-based workouts. Today, I want to delve in further and share a radical transformation in the way high intensity workouts are conducted that will generate fitness breakthroughs while simultaneously minimizing the risk of exhaustion. Specifically, I’m taking aim at the extremely popular workout pattern known as HIIT—High Intensity Interval Training. Sprinting is a part of the Primal Blueprint Fitness Pyramid, but I’ve been wary of the details around traditional HIIT practices because these workouts are quite often too stressful and exhausting to deliver the intended fitness boost they promise.
Yes, you have to challenge your body regularly with hard efforts to build fitness, but most of us do it the wrong way. When you complete a killer HIIT session at morning boot camp or spin class, at home on your Peloton bike, or with the Tuesday night track group, you get a tremendous sense of accomplishment and a flood of feel-good endorphin chemicals into your bloodstream. Unfortunately, the typical HIIT workout can also be depleting, exhausting, and stimulate an assortment of unnecessary cellular damage and inflammation.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Be redesigning your high intensity workouts, you can get leaner and fitter with higher quality, more explosive, less physically stressful workouts that are easier to recover from and thus can be performed more frequently. In short, a better approach involves transitioning from HIIT to HIRT, High Intensity Repeat Training. HIRT is an acronym coined by Dr. Craig Marker, psychologist, certified strength and conditioning coach, and CrossFit instructor from Florida.
Here’s a compare and contrast that can revolutionize your approach to intense workouts….
The problem with a typical HIIT workout is that it’s too strenuous—too many repetitions of hard effort that (each) last too long, and with insufficient rest between hard efforts. This results in cumulative fatigue during the workout, a diminishing quality of performance over the course of the workout, increased cellular damage due to this cumulative fatigue, and extended recovery time afterward. These kinds of sufferfests are a great source of satisfaction and personal growth when you high five your fellow bootcamp classmates after an hour of power, or cross the finish line of a big event in which you’ve trained for months to prepare. But including them as a major and recurring element of your training program is a really bad idea. Unfortunately, the sufferfest mindset is incredibly common these days, perhaps suggesting that the ego has more influence that strategic planning or intuitive decision making.
A HIRT workout stops short of the exhaustive nature of HIIT. The essence of HIRT is to conduct maximum efforts, typically of shorter duration, with much longer recovery, and fewer total efforts than a HIIT session. The word “Repeat” in the acronym suggests that you maintain a consistent quality of effort on every repetition of hard work. This means not only the same performance standard, but also the same level of perceived exertion.
For example, say your workout entails running 100-meter sprints across a football field, and you hit 18 seconds for your first sprint. This is a nice controlled, explosive effort with excellent technique, and you assign a perceived exertion level of around 90 out of 100. Hence, you’ll want to do successive sprints in 18-19 seconds each, preserving explosiveness and excellent technique—delivering what you still discern to be 90 out of 100 on the effort scale. If you have to “dig deep” (the implicit objective, and badge of honor, with a HIIT session) just to arrive at 19 seconds on your fourth effort, that’s it, you’re done. If you notice a slight attrition in explosiveness or breaking form during the effort, you’re done. Typically, this might be a little twinge in the hamstrings or lower back, a tensing of the face or chest, or any other indicator that you have played your best cards of the day.
In Dr. Marker’s landmark article titled “HIIT versus HIRT” at www.BreakingMuscle.com, he explains that after HIIT sessions we bask in self-satisfaction of a job well-done, but disregard the health-destructive consequences of these sufferfests: “[Y]our subjective feeling of the effectiveness of a workout is not as important as what science tells us is important to building an impressive base of endurance and changing your body composition.” (That sound you hear is a slap to the face of highly motivated, goal oriented, Type-A fitness enthusiasts across the land. Don’t worry, I’ve been there, too….)
This admonition applies to everyone from elites to novices. Elite athletes are notorious for constantly pushing the envelope and frequently succumbing to injuries or periods of declining performances. Novices generally don’t concern themselves with training strategies, often leaving their fates in the hands of the bootcamp instructor. Without sufficient experience or reference points, they exercise themselves into exhaustion, believing that pain and suffering are part and parcel of the fitness experience.
The (too often) result? Ambitious, well-meaning enthusiasts burn themselves out and then are down for the count. The most dedicated keep going to their detriment, all the while accumulating fatigue, injuries and even pounds. Others simply stay away from the gym by invisible magnetic force. Alas, the subconscious is very good at avoiding sources of pain and suffering. Can we dump this suffering-and-attrition dynamic already?
Side note for those who love to read about sports: For inspiration, check out this article about the greatest marathon runner in the history of the planet, the amazing Kenyan Eulid Kipchoge. The article describes his training regimen as extremely devoted and incredibly impressive, yet he maintains a relaxed mindset, remains in control of his energy output, and never extends beyond his limits into exhaustion. Even the march to the unthinkable two-hour marathon (Kipchoge’s current world record stands at a mind-bending 2:01.39) comes from a sensible approach instead of an extreme one.
Marker explains that there’s an optimal duration for sprinting where you can obtain maximum benefits with minimal cellular destruction, and this is typically around 15-20 seconds. Try to maintain maximum effort for any longer than that and you’re not really sprinting anymore anyway, since it’s impossible to maintain maximum energy output.
Here’s why this works:
Look at what’s happening physiologically over the duration of a near-maximum intensity sprint of any kind (running, cycling, rowing, or kettlebell swings). During the first five seconds of your sprint, lactate starts to accumulate in the bloodstream. Lactate levels double between five to ten seconds, then double again from 10 seconds to 20 seconds—up to what Marker calls the highest acceptable level. As you increasingly feel the burn, lactate doubles again from 20 seconds to 30 seconds. It doubles again from 30 seconds to 60 seconds, causing cellular destruction, ammonia toxicity, and extended recovery time.
As Marker explains, “The amount of lactic acid produced up to 20 seconds [of sprinting] is still manageable, but the next doubling is over the top. Even a single 30-second sprint spikes ammonia levels almost five times! Why trash the body for no good reason? Rebuilding broken down cells is a costly and time-consuming process. And while it’s taking place, you feel tired and run down, with your ATP short of a full stack.”
You may be familiar with the Tabata concept of interval training, which entails a repeating pattern of work efforts lasting twice as long as rest intervals until you complete a Tabata set of a certain total duration. The original Tabata protocol, developed by Japanese physician and researcher Dr. Izumi Tabata and colleagues at the Japanese Institute of Fitness and Sport in Tokyo, calls for four minutes of a 20-second sprint, 10-second rest, 20-second sprint, 10-second rest pattern. In the original studies, Japanese Olympic speed skaters achieved massive boosts in VO2 Max in a short time with Tabata training. Unfortunately, the original Tabata concept has been widely misappropriated into workouts that honor the 2:1 work-to-rest ratio, but carry on for too long and generate cellular damage and exhaustion: multiple sets of kettlebell swings, pushups, box jumps, running sprints, cycling sprints, and so forth. Bottom line with sprint workouts: a little goes a long way, and too much can really mess you up.
To transition into a more effective, less stressful high intensity workout pattern, pick the sweet spot of 10-20 seconds for your explosive efforts. Take what Marker calls “luxurious” rest intervals to ensure that your cells have a chance to partially or fully regenerate ATP (takes around three minutes) and minimize the disassembling and deamination that occur when you ask your body to perform again and again with rapidly depleting cellular energy.
Finally, conduct between 4 and 10 sprints. You should be able to manage four shorts sprints even if you’re a novice. If you claim you can complete more than 10 and feel great, you’re better off going faster and doing fewer more explosively.
Keep in mind that a properly conducted HIRT workout is going to feel different than a HIIT sufferfest. It may require an adjustment in your mindset to feel confident and satisfied that you’re training with maximum efficiency and minimal suffering like a “real athlete.” If you’re a focused, driven, goal-oriented type, be vigilant about resisting the addictive allure of the endorphin rush that happens after a sufferfest. Remember, the blissful feeling of powerful pain-killing chemicals flooding your bloodstream is a fight or flight reaction to the extreme stress of the workout. Realize that the genetic purpose of the endorphin response is to help you continue to run for your life instead of lay down in exhaustion! If you abuse this delicate mechanism with a chronic pattern of extreme workouts, you’re going to pay a heavy price. Dr. Tommy Wood calls this overactivation of the fight or flight response, “liquidating your assets,” and I couldn’t agree more.
Several friends who have recently updated their approach to a HIRT protocol report feeling much better in the days following their most challenging sessions—more energy, less soreness and stiffness. That’s how it should be.
Combine the HIRT strategy with recovery-based workouts and walking. See how it goes for you, and let me know. Thanks for stopping in. Share your questions and thoughts below, too.
The post HIIT vs. HIRT: Reducing Workout Stress To Increase Fitness appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
In the age of becoming more and more gender-neutral, I still respect biology. And biology has shown me in a decade of coaching fitness that women have a harder time gaining upper body strength than men. End. Of. Story.
Many of us females pull and pull and still don’t have a pull-up—it seems that no matter what we do our lats just don’t want to grow. And then we push our hearts out, but still can only do a couple of sad little push-ups.
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In response to the recent post on whey vs. collagen, a number of readers wrote in asking about pea protein. Today, I’m going to compare the two.
Before I begin, let’s get this out of the way: I’m biased toward whey protein. I sell the stuff. But the reason I sell whey protein is because I really like it, not the other way around. All my products are things that solved a problem I was having, an itch I needed to scratch. I made Primal Kitchen Mayo with avocado oil because I couldn’t find one without industrial seed oils and I didn’t want to make it fresh every time I wanted tuna salad. I put together Adaptogenic Calm (formerly Primal Calm) to help me and my buddies recover from heavy training. And so on. I made Primal Fuel out of whey protein isolate because it is the best gram-for-gram protein powder around. But pea protein is having its day in the sun now, and readers want the facts.
Well, let’s take a look at the literature.
First of all, pea protein contains all 9 essential amino acids. That’s great.
Pea protein contains fewer branch chain amino acids—those amino acids that contribute most to muscle protein synthesis, but it does have them.
Pea protein is about 9% leucine, a very important amino acid for muscle building. Whey is 10-11% leucine, so pea comes pretty close.
In one study, resistance trained men and women in their 20s-40s were split into two groups. One group used pea protein. The other used whey protein. Both groups trained in the same manner (Crossfit-esque). At the end of 8 weeks they measured changes in muscle thickness, force production, and WOD (workout of the day) performance. Neither group had an advantage. Both groups gained about the same amount of muscle, performance, and force production.
In another study of resistance-training adults (men, aged 18-35), pea protein and whey protein resulted in similar bicep muscle gains.
That all looks pretty good for pea (and whey), but these were relatively young adults. As people age, the quality of the protein becomes ever more paramount. A young man or woman is hormonally primed for hypertrophy. Nature is working with them, not against them. If anything, they can actually get away with eating less protein than an older person of the same weight and still gain and maintain muscle because their ability to utilize dietary protein is optimized. Older people need more protein to do the same job because their ability to utilize dietary protein has degraded.
Not only do older people need high quantities of protein, they need high quality protein—bioavailable protein full of amino acids that promote muscle protein synthesis. Whey is simply higher quality on a biological level than pea protein. That difference may not show up as much in the younger person lifting and drinking protein shakes to increase their calories for mass gain, but it certainly shows up in the older person lifting and drinking protein shakes and trying to hold on to their lean mass.
Okay. You’re younger. You’re eating plenty of calories. You’re trying to gain weight. Your muscle protein synthesis capacities are optimal. You should, in theory, be fine with pea protein. Right? Sure, but why?
Pea protein is usually more expensive. It’s still technically lower quality than whey. The best justification for using pea protein to gain/maintain muscle is either you’ve got an uncle who works at a pea protein processing plant and can get you a great deal, or you’re vegan. That’s it.
All that said, pea protein looks to be the best plant-based protein around for performance in the gym. No arguments there.
Perhaps. In hypertensive rodents (probably working high stress jobs, enduring long commutes, and generally deep into the rat race), pea protein causes drastic reductions in high blood pressure, while the reductions are much more modest in humans taking pea protein daily for three weeks.
Whey does it too. In humans, a single dose of whey protein after a meal reduces postprandial blood pressure and improves arterial stiffness for up to 5 hours. It may just be the protein. Extra protein in general is great at lowering blood pressure, especially if you remove carbohydrates.
The thing about protein powder is this—although whey gets most of its accolades on account of its effect on hypertrophy—gains, larger muscles, better performance, etc.—that’s not everything it can do. It also has some very unique health effects that other protein powders, most especially plant proteins like pea, do not possess.
On the one hand, whey intolerance is the dairy protein intolerance with the lowest incidence. People are far more likely to be intolerant of or allergic to casein. But whey isn’t just less likely to be allergenic. It’s downright anti-allergenic. Whey-based formulas have shown efficacy in the prevention of allergic diseases like asthma and eczema in susceptible children and infants.
There’s no evidence that pea protein powder can do this.
In “high-stress” subjects, a whey protein shake improved cognitive function and performance by increasing serotonin levels. The same shake had no effect on “low-stress” subjects. And dietary whey also lowers oxidative brain stress, at least in mice.
Pea protein may do this, but I haven’t seen the research.
Whey protein is one of the best foods we know that increase levels of glutathione—the body’s master antioxidant. We use glutathione to detoxify the liver, to metabolize alcohol and other toxic substances, to control allergic reactions, to recycle and restore to active status vitamins and antioxidants, to quell free radicals, and to perform many other vital processes.
There is simply no evidence that pea protein has the same effect. It doesn’t have enough cysteine.
Once the whey protein hits your GI tract, many different bioactive peptides with their own unique effects are formed. In a recent review (PDF), a team of Polish researchers explored the effects of at least nine of these whey-derived peptides. Some improve blood lipids, lower blood pressure, or act as opioid receptor agonists (if you’ve ever seen a milk-drunk baby bliss out after nursing, his opioid receptors are likely being severely agonized by bioactive peptides). Others induce satiety and improve metabolic health biomarkers.
I’m sure other proteins change when digested, but their effects haven’t been studied as closely as whey.
There are also a number of bioactive components in whey protein that are not in pea protein:
Beta-lactoglobulin
Alpha-lactoalbumin
Lactoferrin
Immuno-globulins (A, M, G)
Could pea protein have similar aspects that have yet to be quantified and studied? Perhaps. But I doubt it.
After all, whey was designed by evolutionary processes to be food for other entities. It’s meant to be consumed—that’s its express purpose, and it’s why it has so many interesting bioactive components that support health. Pea protein was not, and likely does not.
Again, if you’re vegan and looking to gain muscle, pea protein is a great choice. But if you’re not, and you’re interested in other aspects of health, whey protein is the much better option.
Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care!
References:
Banaszek A, Townsend JR, Bender D, Vantrease WC, Marshall AC, Johnson KD. The Effects of Whey vs. Pea Protein on Physical Adaptations Following 8-Weeks of High-Intensity Functional Training (HIFT): A Pilot Study. Sports (Basel). 2019;7(1)
Babault N, Païzis C, Deley G, et al. Pea proteins oral supplementation promotes muscle thickness gains during resistance training: a double-blind, randomized, Placebo-controlled clinical trial vs. Whey protein. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015;12(1):3.
Teunissen-beekman KF, Dopheide J, Geleijnse JM, et al. Protein supplementation lowers blood pressure in overweight adults: effect of dietary proteins on blood pressure (PROPRES), a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2012;95(4):966-71.
Bumrungpert A, Pavadhgul P, Nunthanawanich P, Sirikanchanarod A, Adulbhan A. Whey Protein Supplementation Improves Nutritional Status, Glutathione Levels, and Immune Function in Cancer Patients: A Randomized, Double-Blind Controlled Trial. J Med Food. 2018;21(6):612-616.
Chandra RK. Food hypersensitivity and allergic diseases. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2002;56 Suppl 3:S54-6.
Markus CR, Olivier B, De haan EH. Whey protein rich in alpha-lactalbumin increases the ratio of plasma tryptophan to the sum of the other large neutral amino acids and improves cognitive performance in stress-vulnerable subjects. Am J Clin Nutr. 2002;75(6):1051-6.
The post Whey Protein vs. Pea Protein appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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