Supplements, Hormones, Roadblocks and Undertraining

Supplement Surprises…………….

A few blog entries back I told all that I would give DIM a try and see what happened. DIM (Diindolylmethane) is a supplement that is supposed to support male estrogen balance; it reduces 16-hydroxy estrogen metabolites and improves 2-hydroxy estrogen metabolites. This supposedly improves free T-levels allowing more T to be used for important things like muscle building and fat lose. Specifically, what I am trying to prove to myself is that my man-pooch, that area of loose tissue hiding my lower abs and to some extent, my love handles, is NOT a middle age hormone issue. There is substantial rhetoric on the web and in several of the bodybuilding books I have recently read that point to a hormone imbalance responsible for this; hence we will give DIM a try.  

Researching DIM on the web, I bumped into several male pattern baldness web forums that discuss DIM as a means of counteracting the side effects of Finasteride, a pretty potent analog to testosterone that limits testosterone conversion to DHT (5ά-dihydrotestosterone); the cause of male pattern baldness. Finasteride has the tendency to increase estrogen levels and DIM is used to well………return those masculine feelings…….some men lose when using this product.

Anyway, if you read through the chatter on these forums, DIM seems to work pretty well but can also be overdone, causing you to lose those…..…..masculine feelings. One of the things I had noticed is that your pee will be orange, looking more like a case of severe dehydration. Then on about day 5, sure enough, those…..…..masculine feelings are interrupted; this is Bad Ju-Ju. So I stopped for a week then went to a 100 mg/2day cycle.

So after several weeks, guess what? No progress on the man-pooch. Bottom Line, it’s just an area of ‘Stubborn Fat’. Basically, Lyle McDonald is proven right again, it’s NOT a hormone issue; it’s a genetic issue that requires diet and exercise to cure. There are no easy fixes; there is only hard work. I had better luck in attacking the man-pooch during the 4 week trial of Lyle’s Ultimate Diet 2 Plan (UD2) I had worked through this past summer. You can read about that in my previous blogs.

Anyway, I ended this experiment in mid-December; DIM - Zero; UD2 - Rules

More Roadblocks, More to Overcome………….

So this month, I got another all paid work trip to Osaka to support our client. Actually, the company’s facility is in Sakai City, 20 minutes south of Osaka. And of course, they booked a different hotel from the one I stayed at previously. At this hotel, the gym is nothing more than a collection of antique nautilus machines and of all things, an indoor track. Not even a tread mill or more importantly, a dumbbell. I like to run, but doing 5 to 8 K on a 25 meter track is in my lowly opinion, really weird. In Saki, they have a canal walk that is several miles in length, wide sidewalks, with park benches, etc…; just bundle up and run to your heart’s content.

As far as a gym, I found several Konami Sports Clubs in the area that allow for a day pass; no membership required. The local one, the one closest to my Sakai hotel, is tiny, tiny, tiny. And unlike the K-Fit in Kakegawa or the Swissotel’s gym in Osaka, there is no smith or even standard 20 kg bar, just a row of dumbbells, a couple of benches and another collection of antique weight machines. Eventually, I will try the Golds Gym in Osaka and see if the Japanese just have an aversion to lifting anything heavier than 40 kg or if it’s just my run of luck lately. So far, my Japanese adventure scores pretty low on gym accessibility and more importantly, usability.

Back to the tiny, tiny Konami gym and one primary thought; just deal with it. So how do you get a good leg work out without barbells or smiths or anything that even resembles heavy? One legged split squats anyone; holding a 30 kg dumbbell. My balance was a bit off and I was a bit shaky, but when I was done with the 4^th set, my legs and butt felt like I just finished 4 full sets of 120 kg deadlifts. And the leg press machine; that antique only had about a 200 kg load max. So we did some modified “Loaded Isometric” motions; hold the leg press at mid position for a 10 count before completing the full leg extension and hold the leg press for a second 10 count at mid position before completing the full contraction. This method comes from an article I recently read comparing Loaded Isometrics to Dynamic Tension workouts of Charles Atlas fame. The Loaded Isometric’s are supposed to give you similar results as a heavier lift without a pause. I’m here to tell you, that when I finished that workout, in what has to be one of the world’s tiniest and ill-equipped gyms, my legs were spanked. It’s a good thing I do my homework……. Yep, it’s not a complete lost cause after all. Just gotta’ deal with it.

I will write more about Loaded Isometrics and Dynamic Tension workouts as time progresses. I see similarities in a number of Japanese exercise routines I have watched. Maybe they have learned to do more with less……..

Overreaching, Overtraining or Hormones…………..

Since coming to Japan, I have been very lucky; getting in morning split 20’s 6 days a week plus 4 nights a week, I hit the K-Fit gym (or gyms in Osaka and Sakai). So Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I’m getting two workouts a day.

In Japan, the New Year holiday is from the 30^th of December through the 5^th of January; a full week of off time at the company’s expense. Everything closes down; even the Gym is closed over those 6 days. So I got my last chance gym workout on the 30^th and didn’t return to the gym until the 5^th. I still ran every day; logging in another 23 miles or so. And my thinking was; I would use the week as a little R&R from lifting anything heavy.

Now the following is very odd; during this week of just running, I had a hell of a time. Fatigue, attitude, motivation, just being tired and a feeling of being Run Down set in. It was all I could do to drag my sorry carcass out the door to get the run in. Had I lost those …….masculine feelings? I had ditched the DIM two weeks earlier so there was no issue there. The Run Down feeling set in almost immediately after I started the holiday, more specifically once the gym closed for the week. And during the runs, hills and speed work that I normally do were disasters; seemingly slow, seemingly draining. Keep in mind this is the same effort I have put in 6 days a week since October, not to mention the 4 days per week at the gym. And one should note that the actual pace and times were very similar to previous runs (as verified with my Garmin wrist GPS). Everything just seemed overwhelming.

And once we came out of that week of ‘rest’ and I started lifting heavy things off of the floor or out of a rack, the Run Down feelings kind of vaporized. After returning to the gym, attitude and motivation are back to normal.

I am not a big believer in ‘overtraining’ for recreational or hobby exercise. However, one would think that lifting weights 4 nights a week plus a 4 to 4.5 mile run 6 days a week could push you into a state of ‘overreaching’ in a relatively short period. Not so, it seems that ‘undertraining’ could also have a downside.

If ‘overreaching’ is caused by not allowing your body to fully recover from a series of previous training sessions, then is ‘undertraining’ considered a condition where you are not stimulating enough muscle to cause fatigue or enough muscle breakdown to release hormones for repair………like the big T? The morning runs are not all that fatiguing, other than raising my heart and breathing rate. Generally by 7:00 am, after a 4:30 run, there is no feeling of fatigue or even DOMS from the runs. I used to get stiff as hell; not so much anymore.

Have I read this before? Weight training improves your T levels whereas steady state exercises, like running, just facilitate endurance improvements; e.g. fuel economy. As I had stated in an earlier blog, if you wanted to get good at something, just do a lot of it; Practice Makes Perfect. And as far as running, I am getting better; economy and sustainability wise. And as beneficial as economy and sustainability are, they don’t compare to the feelings, those………….masculine feelings, you get from picking up something heavy on a routine basis. And you really don’t know what you’re losing until it’s gone.

Again; DIM - Zero; Weight Training – Rules

Conclusion……………

So to keep on top of that Last 10 Pounds, cardio economy and sustainability are necessary but the real benefit, maintaining those…………masculine feelings, comes from an intensity that only ‘hitting the weights’ can provide.