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Information Detonation II
Report from the SWIS Weight Training Symposium

By Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D.
First published at www.t-mag.com, Oct 4 2002.

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I Don't Get No Respect

I often wonder if I'm alone in this complaint or if some of my educated T-brethren have encountered the same problems of information sharing that I have. After all, I've spent most of my life studying (formally or informally) the tenants of exercise and nutrition. And in this time I've learned so much that I've actually forgotten more about these topics than most people will ever learn about most topics in their lifetime.

Many of you probably have too.

So, like me, many of you know enough about this little game to be eminently qualified to offer some advice from time to time. But alas, when someone close to you, someone who has seen you in your underoos (like your mom, your fat uncle Jim, or your long-term girlfriend) starts griping about their weight or their lack of strength, and you offer your years of vast experience and knowledge, they totally ignore your advice in favor of something they heard on Opra!

Oh yeah, it happens to all of us. Even to a PhD candidate who also moonlights as a strength, conditioning, nutrition, and supplement coach to elite champion athletes. Take a recent example. For the last two years I've been constantly extolling the virtues of flaxseed oil and especially fish oil to my parents. My advice had fallen on deaf ears. Then, during a recent visit to Canada, my parents, after spending no less than two minutes with my advisor, Dr Lemon, decided that fish oil might be something they should be taking. Go figure!

Now, I'm not salty about that part at all. Any strategy that gets them on fish oil is a good strategy. What I am salty about is what my Dad said to me about it. He said, and I quote, "Hey John, why didn't you tell us about this stuff before!"

And John, to himself, mutters, "I don't get no respect."

This "proximity bias," as I call it, seems to be prevalent regardless of what level you're at. It just seems that when you're nearby, people tend to take your advice less seriously.

One recent egregious example of this principle in action was what happened in one of my classes (this semester I'm one of two instructors for a 4th year, 110-120 student, Exercise Nutrition class). On the first day of class, with the SWIS symposium looming on the horizon, I got up and excitedly announced the symposium. And not only did I announce it but I gave my glowing recommendation as a pseudo "expert" in the field. After all, what other event brings together the likes of Lee Haney, Bill Pearl, Ed Coan, Barry Sears, Mike Leahy, and more?

So, how many of my students showed? The answer is not statistically different from zero. Now understand that these students are all Kinesiology majors, presumably with aspirations to enter the very field that this very focused, specialized symposium caters to. Of course, I emphasized all these things but alas, I'm waiting for the inevitable "Hey John, why didn't you tell us about this symposium before!"

So listen up T-mag readers. Although I get no respect from my parents and have no influence with my classes, I hope that I have some pull 'round here. If you've been negligent enough to miss the last four SWIS meetings, don't let it happen again! Although I guess it's your absence that makes necessary articles like this. Regardless, next year, TC, Chris, and I had better see you in Toronto. As Ken Kinakin's tag line goes "We'll see you at SWIS!"

Kickin' It Off

From the talks I saw, this year's SWIS symposium was both action packed and information packed. The weekend also provided many titillating tales and amazing anecdotes. So be patient with me as I recount some of them along with a review of some important nuggets of wisdom that you can sink your teeth into.

Opening Remarks — Ken Kinakin

There's not much to tell about here since all Ken was doing was kicking off the symposium. But one particularly nice part of the intro was Ken's invitation for all the speakers to come up on stage for an intro to the symposium attendees and a group photo. On our way to the stage, Lee Haney, Milos Sarcev, and I bumped into each other in the aisle. In true symposium fashion, I challenged them to a pose down. Both declined. I think they were scared.

Lee Haney — Keynote Speaker: Power of Preventative Treatment

I know, I know, Chris covered this one last week. But I just had to throw in my two cents because Lee Haney and I go "way back." Uh, he just didn't know it until the weekend of SWIS. You see, back when I was 18 years old, I clipped a Flex magazine picture of Lee Haney popping off one of those amazing lat spreads and pasted it on my wall. Then, as a true believer in visualization, I cut out a picture of my own head and stuck it atop ol' Lee's massive body. Lee and I made it through some tough workouts back then.

Since I had the thrilling opportunity to sit right across from Lee (and Mohamed Makkawy) at dinner on Saturday night, I decided to share this story with him. It did take a couple of glasses of antioxidant-rich red wine to get the story out of me, though. After sharing a few laughs about this, I realized that that picture was a fixture in my room and mind right through to the 1995 Mr. USA contest. Thanks Lee!

As far as Lee's presentation, it was basic but powerful in its simplicity. After all, Lee emphasized that he was speaking from personal experience. He was speaking from what he's learned in 22 years of injury free bodybuilding training. Oh yeah, he did also win a couple of contests along the way too. He attributes this great string of physical health to:

• Proper rest to create "real energy" — Paraphrasing Lee, the only reason we should have energy is because we deserve it, because we've earned it with proper rest. Things like stimulants are "false energy" and when we mess around with "false energy," we get hurt.

• Proper nutrition — Lee described a diverse macronutrient profile and a regular program of "cleansing." Like Chris said, whenever someone talks about "cleansing" out the "toxins" I wonder what the heck they're talking about. Perhaps that's cause I've never heard a convincing explanation for what these "toxins" that need to be "cleansed" are. But the macro discussion was well said.

• Proper Body Mechanics During Training — It was comical when Lee related some of the crazy exercises he's seen. One poor soul was the subject of much ridicule when Lee recounted the story of how this kid was convinced that if you bang your knees against your chest during the squat, your chest would grow more rapidly.

• Prevention of Overtraining

• Saying Your Prayers — Lee takes his Christianity seriously. In fact he even invited my buddy back to his room for some God-talk. Whether that has anything to do with bodybuilding, I don't know. But it does show just what kinda' guy Lee Haney is.

In the end, Lee Haney's a many time Mr. Olympia winner, is a charming speaker, is still in incredible shape at 43, and has got a farm in Atlanta complete with all sorts of animals including a pot-bellied pig. Any former Mr. O.with a pot-bellied pig is ok with me.

Rob Rakowski — How to Test for Anabolic and Catabolic Physiological State

To say that Rob Rakowski is a fast talker would be an understatement. This guy has got a machine gun tongue and is quite passionate. I liked sitting in on this presentation just because I liked Rob's style. Apparently not everyone was in agreement since I did catch Eric Serrano sleeping during the talk.

Here are a few interesting gems that Rob threw down while Eric slept:

• Health status has a major impact on training progress. It's important to realize that a loss of body protein is not compatible with health and accompanies many disease states. Our health is made up of the food we eat, the exercise we do, the thoughts we think, and the rest we take.

• A high protein intake (2-3g/kg) is crucial for athletes since protein is necessary for muscle, organs, glands, hemoglobin, enzymes, immune mediators, etc.

• Many of the body's enzymes operate at a pH optimum and therefore a very acidic internal environment is not optimal for enzyme (protein) function and health.

• A three-year study at Tufts University showed that body composition (muscle mass) might be the most important determinant of how we will fare in our later years.

• Since body water is correlated with muscle mass, it may also be a good indicator of health. Total body water for young males and females should be 65-69% and 50-55% respectively. In obese individuals, total body water is as low as 38%.

• As we age we tend to "dehydrate" and lose body water. Babies start out at 80% body water. Feeble elderly can be below 40% body water. As Rob asks, "Do you want to be a grape or a raisin?"

• 2/3 of the body water should be in the cells while 1/3 should be outside of the cells. Often the first sign of a disease state is a shift of water out of the cells.

• Single-celled organisms rely on their surrounding environment for nutrients and waste removal. Luckily, we are organisms that "carry our pond" with us. While this pond is tightly regulated, we need to ensure that the pond is in good order. If it isn't, the body will dump water into the extracellular environment to dilute the "toxic compounds."

• Rob asserts that BIA (Bioelectric Impedance Analysis) is a good technique to assess anabolic-catabolic status based on the fact that it can measure total body water, intracellular fluid, extracellular fluid, and body composition.

• One parameter that the BIA can also measure is phase angle. Phase angle, like muscle mass, total body water (TBW), and the ratio of intracellular to extracellular fluid (ICF) is correlated with health outcome. In young males, TBW should be 60% of body mass, ICF should be 65% of body water, and phase angle should be 7.9. In young females, TBW should be 55% of body mass, ICF should be 61% of body water, and phase angle should be 7.3.

• When addressing nutrition, Rob was a big fan of high-protein intake and a diet high in Omega 3 fatty acids to surround our cells with health promoting lipid membranes.

In the end, while I really liked Rob and his ideas, the main problem I have with his conclusion (BIA should be used to monitor the anabolic: catabolic status) is that I've found that even the highest quality laboratory BIA devices (operated with the tightest of experimental controls) are very unreliable measurement devices. A measurement device is only as good as its reliability/consistency. Otherwise, I agree with all of his contentions.

John Berardi — How Different Types of Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrate Change Body Composition

To start off my talk, I wanted to demonstrate that body-weight regulation and appraising the energy balance equation is anything but simple. I showed this slide to illustrate some of the major factors that play into the energy balance equation. After looking at this diagram I hope it's obvious that energy in vs. energy out is a bit more complicated than it sounds.

After illustrating the multifactorial nature of energy balance, I wanted to focus in on proper food selection as an important determinant of body weight regulation.

First, much like my "Lean Eatin'" articles in T-mag, I made a clear argument for why a calorie is not a calorie, why a protein is not a protein, why a carb is not a carb, and why a fat is not a fat. Therefore I busted out all sorts of studies comparing the effects of different diets that were isoenergetic but contained different food selections or food timing issues, how different carb types impact insulin and glucose responses as well as body composition, how different protein types impact protein turnover (synthesis and breakdown) and lean body mass, and how different fat types impact both metabolic rate as well as fat and carbohydrate metabolism.

Then, at the end, I presented some rules for making proper food selections and some food lists for optimal intake (again, see "Lean Eatin'" part 1 and part 2.)

Much of the feedback I received was very positive. Unfortunately throughout the talk there were a few individuals in the crowd who simply didn't "get it" and wanted to argue every little minute whey vs. casein comparison and high GI vs. low-GI study. Perhaps they were just a little too impatient to wait for the big picture conclusion so they chimed in when I put up any study that contradicted their preconceived biases. I think some of them might have felt a bit embarrassed at their early vehemence after I tied it all together in the end.

Dave Tate — Westside Powerlifting Principles

Since I was back in my room pigging out on room service at this time, Lonnie Lowery stepped up to write this review for me. Heck, they don't call me Massive Eating Berardi because I skip meals! Take it away, Lonman!

Dave started his talk with the interesting observation that symposium attendees always fall into three categories: losers, winners, and bystanders. Is that judgmental? You bet. Condescending? Oh yeah. But there were no apologies out of this guy. Even at this early point in the talk, there were few ready to disagree with the big man. After all, who wants to be a loser? And who wants to get into it with a guy who squats over 935 anyway?

As Dave related the principles that Louie Simmons and his, uh, pack ("club" seems inadequate for the Westside lifters) advocate, it was clear that he has strong belief in their system. After all, it was a rueful change to "Westside thinking" that broke Dave out of a lengthy performance plateau. To illustrate the importance of Westside principles, Tate spoke about how inappropriate plans — no matter how stubbornly followed — leave one lost. A religiously followed map of Chicago, for example, still fails to get a driver to his destination in Columbus — just as an ingrained but inappropriate powerlifting plan fails to get an athlete to his performance goals. Being man enough to judge one's gains honestly takes uncommon strength of character. If you're going nowhere, be strong enough to switch gears and run with a different (bigger) pack.

The talk left many of us more willing to let go of no-longer-effective training routines, to train around stronger guys, and to "steal" what works from both scientific and coaching perspectives. Check out www.elitefts.com for the "how-to" regarding Westside principles.

Udo Erasmus — The Use of Fats and Oils in Fat Loss and Muscle Hypertrophy

Yep, I attended this one too. And since this infomercial was already covered by Chris in part I, I'll leave it alone, mostly. In the end, I think Udo's a bright guy. But that doesn't mean that he's beyond reproach. It's my opinion that years of infomercials have lead him to try to be a bit too sensationalistic (i.e. whey protein causes diabetes). Perhaps Udo's been sellin' "da oil," as we affectionately call it, for so long that he forgets that seminar presentations are about objectivity and information sharing. (But, make no mistake, he wasn't the only one).

Jeff Spencer — Advanced Weight Training Strategies for Road Cycling

&#^$% road cycling? I don't want to hear about that!

Now I know that most of you care less about road cycling than you do about whether or not Martha Stewart's jail cell will be done in pastels or earth tones. However, I decided to attend this one for a few reasons. First, my clientele includes endurance athletes. Second, there are more than a few cyclists/triathletes who read T-mag. And last, but not least, this guy has served as chiropractor and weight-lifting advisor to Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Team, spending the last four years as an on-site support practitioner during the actual Tour stages. Uh, yeah, this means that he was there for the last four Tour victories. Therefore, this guy's gotta know a thing or two about the spine and weight training for endurance activity. Did he ever!

Here are the highlights:

• Cycling creates muscle imbalances including tight muscles, inhibited muscles, hypertonic muscles, ratio imbalances, and exertional strain and fatigue.

• Muscles affected with adaptive shortening (tight muscles) include psoas, quadratus, suboccipitals, pectoralis, hamstrings, latissimus, gastrosoleus, tensor fascia lata.

• Inhibited muscles include glute max and medius, abdominals, deep neck flexors, serratus, mid and lower traps, vastus medialis

• Overactive muscles include upper trap, lumbar paraspinals, levator scapulae

• Trying to strengthen weak or inhibited muscles ("unplugged" muscles as Jeff calls them) will cause more stress and strain on the system, possibly in different locations. Therefore the off-season/post-season recovery program (4 weeks) should be designed to help decompress and elongate muscles. This is accomplished with a lot of core work as well as eccentric stretching work with weights for the tight muscles.

• A road cyclist really needs the transfer of functional power to bicycle performance. Since there is only so much time for recovery, weight training is minimal but important to correct inherent imbalances. Due to recovery concerns, Jeff recommends that a cyclist perform no squats.

• Weight training for cyclists should be periodized into recovery, transition, building, and maintenance phases.

• Recovery is for decompression/elongation and core work. It is done at 1 set/exercise of 20 reps. Transition is for heavier lifting loads and for adding in some bike work and is done at 2 sets/exercise of 12-14 reps per set. Strength building is for increasing muscle strength and plyometric power and is done at 2 sets/exercise of 4-6 reps on weight days and 20 reps for plyometric days. Maintenance is for keeping form through the 1st race of the year and is done at 1 set/exercise of 10 reps.

• Weight training rules:

— 2x per week with 3 days between each session

— Heavy lifts followed by decompression work

— Core stability is the "glue"

— There can be NO upper-body hypertrophy!

— You must ride the bike during a weight-training session

• This last rule is particularly interesting as Jeff recommends circuit style training. Here's a weight program that Jeff recommends for all phases. Only the reps and sets vary as described above.

— Leg Press

— Deadlifts

— Bent-Over Row

— Chin-Ups

— Calf Raises

Interestingly, this workout would be done in circuit type fashion and after the calf raises, the athlete would jump on the bike and ride 5 minutes hard (85% of max) and then 10 minutes easy (60% of max). Jeff believes that this helps with functional transfer of strength in the gym to the bike.

My favorite quote of the talk was "The body hasn't read the textbooks." It was given in response to someone's academic questioning of one of Jeff's techniques. Good for you, Jeff. Sometimes things work without a good reason why. Even so, overall, Jeff's ideas are rock solid. But even if I didn't think so, they might be worth a try. After all, if it's good enough for Lance…

Milos Sarcev — Precontest Bodybuilding Techniques

Milos Sarcev is now my favorite pro bodybuilder, in part because of the warm reception that he offered me on the first day of the symposium and in part because of his obvious kindness and intelligence.

It was 8:00 AM Friday morning and I had spent the better part of the morning trying to get up early, train, eat properly to recover, and get all gussied up for the symposium. As I hurriedly rushed into the main seminar room so as not to miss Lee Haney's keynote lecture, I made eye contact with a rather large looking Yugoslavian man. And as I did so, immediate recognition hit me and a big smile appeared on my face. Oh yeah, that's Milos Sarcev.

Amazingly, that face, which I've seen on countless magazine covers, reflected the same look of recognition. In fact, the big Yugoslavian strode over toward me immediately to introduce himself. "Are you John Berardi?" he asked. "I saw the video of your presentation last year and it was excellent. I look forward to hearing your talk this year. I also like your articles!" "By the way, I'm Milos."

Of freakin' course you're Milos! And Milos, you just made my day.

Now, don't mistake my enthusiasm for hero worship. It's just that when people you've seen in the magazines for the last decade, famous people, make the point to ensure an introduction, it's certainly unexpected. And flattering. And since I'm an ignorant North American, not knowing the difference between an Austrian and Yugoslavian accent, I found that if I closed my eyes, I could have sworn I was talking to Arnold. When Milos said, "I've trained with Dorian Yates many times," it sounded just like when Arnold said, "I've thrown up many times in the gym."

Besides the fact that Milos is a model of humility, sounds like Arnold, and made my day with his gesture, he's also pretty bright (oh yeah, here it comes) for a pro bodybuilder. As a guy who's competed in over 100 bodybuilding contests, has worked with old Chuckie P, runs his own gym in Cali, and trains both bodybuilders and Olympic athletes, Milos fits right in with us science geeks. Here are some of the things I took away from his talk:

• Milos' childhood hero was Bruce Lee. Accordingly, Milos has adopted the philosophy of learning what is useful, disregarding what isn't, and making your own experience (sounds sort of like Chris' Absorb, Apply, Modify). Again, Milos' experience has been shaped by 100+ bodybuilding contest preparations and by training guys like Ronnie Coleman and Dennis James as well as many Olympic athletes.

• Milos' precontest training strategies include:

— Maintaining heavy training loads during the precontest activity. The precontest period is not the time to change your training from what it was in the off-season. Here, Milos shared an example of this principle in action. Ronnie Coleman, two weeks before a bodybuilding show, works out with 800-lb deadlifts and six plates a side for bent over rows.

— Using additional activity to drop body fat. This could include additional cardio. Keep in mind though that several of his athletes do no cardio and simply raise their energy expenditure by doing two weight-training workouts per day

— For each workout, he recommends doing 4 exercises per body part. The first two should concentrate on fast twitch fibers (heavy weight, low reps) while the second two should concentrate on slow twitch fibers (higher reps, lighter weight, focusing on the peak contraction).

— Milos suggested overstretching the abs (ala swis ball work) to increase abdominal separation, slow concentric and eccentric contractions during slow-twitch work, and doing an interesting leg-extension exercise where one would do 1-legged extensions in a two step motion. This latter exercise is done with raising your thigh via hip flexion as the first step. And then the second step is accomplished via thigh extension coupled with external rotation. These strategies are designed to enhance muscle separation.

• Milos also got into some precontest diet recommendations:

— Eat protein at 1g/lb +, most of this coming from food.

— Post-workout nutrition is very important and he recommends dextrose, whey, creatine, and glutamine. And no, he didn't borrow this from me. He's been championing this combo for the last 4 or 5 years. It's just that no one listened to him before.

— Essential fatty acids should always be supplemented, but more should be added to the diet as you decrease carbs

— Carb intake should decrease during the precontest period but enough carbs should be eaten to function optimally. For guys like Milos, Lee Haney, Dorian Yates, a "zero carb diet" is equivalent to about 200-250g of carbs per day. As Lee Haney said, "Dr Atkins obviously never competed in a bodybuilding contest."

— Distilled water should be avoided and does not help with "drying out."

And no, he didn't talk about Synthol or any other bodybuilding drugs.

Barry Sears — The Zone Diet — Application in Fat Loss and Muscle Hypertrophy

My new nickname for Barry Sears is "silk." And that's cause he's as smooth as. Sears had the most polished presentation of the weekend, hands down. Of course, he'd probably delivered it a dozen times over throughout the last few years but that didn't make it any less "silky." Here's what the Zone guy had to say.

• To improve athletic performance the following should be targeted and, according to Barry, hormones control all these. As he says, "Control your hormones, control your life."

— Improved blood flow

— Improved neuromuscular communication

— Decreased inflammation

— Maintaining mental focus

— Decreased body fat

• Think of hormones as the "biological Internet." The hormones IFG-1, insulin, glucagon, EPO, Testosterone, cortisol, eicosanoids, etc., are messengers that travel the biological Internet.

• When we eat, we promote a hormonal response (i.e. glucagon, insulin, eicosanoids, etc). Barry thinks of glucagon as the mobilization hormone, insulin as the storage hormone, and eicosanoids as the master hormones.

• So what's the zone? It's the physiological state in which the hormones controlled by the diet are in the ranges for optimal health.

• So how do you know when you're in the zone? Well, blood tests showing the Arachadonic Acid/EPA ratio (3 is good, 1.5 is ideal), Insulin levels (10uU/ml is good, 5uU/ml is ideal), Triglyceride/HDL ratio (2 is good, 1 is ideal) give us some indication.

• Barry also believes that these measures correlate with athletic performance, making "the zone" the place to be for peak athletic performance.

• He believes insulin control is necessary for athletes (to control blood sugar and prevent the bonk; to allow for access to stored body fat, and to allow for optimal oxygen transfer) and this can be accomplished by the ideal protein: carb ratio of somewhere between 0.5 and 1 (with the optimal amount being 75 g of protein to every 100 grams of carb). More carbs leads to an inappropriately high insulin response.

• He also believes insulin control and eicosanoid control can assist in body-composition management by controlling appetite and cellular metabolism. He believes that glycemic control, not discipline, is the key to appetite control.

• Both fat loss and insulin secretion are managed better on a moderate carb than a high-carb diet. In addition, VO2 max, endurance performance, and exercising blood lactate levels are lower when the protein: carb ratio is increased

• So what the heck are those eicosanoid thingies? He calls them "super-hormones" and points to over 87,000 publications on them since 1966. The good ones inhibit platelet aggregation, dilate blood vessels, are anti-inflammatory, control cell proliferation, and enhance immune function. The bad ones do the opposite. All of these things will assist in the attainment of optimal health and function as an athlete.

• Fish oils control the eicosanoids. Five grams per day are required to control blood flow, 7.5 g per day to control inflammation.

• The problem with fish oils is that many of them may contain some "toxins" (there's that word again), taste like, gasp, fish, and may cause some GI distress (better known as the fish burps).

• Pharmaceutical-grade fish oils solve these problems. A pharmaceutical grade fish oil contains greater than 60% of its of its oil as EPA and DHA. Therefore if your fish oil capsule contains 1000 mg of fish oil, 600 mg of those 1000 mg should be EPA and DHA for optimal purity and the alleviation of some of the problems above. If you're in the US, go find some. If you're Canadian, sorry guys. It's prescription only. No MAG-10, now no fish oil!

• Interesting, the "40-30-30" guy modifies his zone diet for athletes by recommending 36% carbs, 24% protein, and 45% fat. This diet is called the omega zone. And while it looks like he's recommending less protein for athletes, he's not. Remember, he recommends more calories for athletes. So 24% of 4000 kcal is more than 30% of 2000 kcal.

• Barry's food pyramid would have veggies as the base, fruit as the next step up, low-fat protein as the next step up, monounsaturates and fish oil as the next step up, and grains/sugars/starches as the next step up.

• The rules for eating according to the omega zone are as follows:

— Eat a low-fat protein source that's the size of your palm

— Fill the rest of your plate with fruits and vegetables

— Add fat like extra virgin olive oil, flaxseed oil, and, of course, fish oil.

*In other words, eat like your Grammy told ya:

-Eat "small" meals

-Eat your fruits and veggies

-Eat protein with every meal

-Take your fish oil

"Silk" finished his presentation indicating, as many did this weekend, that food is a drug. All in all, this was an excellent talk and I agree with much of Barry's conclusions. If you hold our recommendations up to one another, the overlaps would be strikingly similar. The only problem I see is that while the zone-type eating is certainly the way to go for optimal health concerns, I believe the diet to be a bit too light in the carb content. Not a single one of my cross-country skiers or triathletes would do very well on such low-carb recommendations, the absence of glucose electrolyte drinks during training, and the absence of liquid post-workout nutrition after training. To this end, he makes no distinctions regarding nutrient timing, especially with regard to post-workout nutrition.

Eric Serrano — This Year's Cutting Edge Supplements for Fat Loss and Muscle Hypertrophy

Eric was definitely awake for this presentation as he had on his usual super-hero Hawaiian shirt, and was in possession of a power point presentation that was complete with rotating, pulsating words and images as well as full of sounds. Eric is a hyperactive presenter, always getting many laughs from the audience with his wife jokes and viagra comments. For example, he told Milos that he had the perfect drug to get him big, hard, and veiny. Then he showed a slide for viagra.

• Eric's food pyramid would look a little different than Barry's, as he would place water as the foundation followed closely by lean protein. Whole vegetables would be the next step, whole fruits as the next step, nuts as the next step, legumes as the next step, milk products as the next step, grains as the next step, supplements as the next step, fats as the next step, and sweets/other at the top of the pyramid.

• Serrano talked about drinking water. How much? Well, 0.6 x body weight in kg. 0.6 of what, I never got the chance to ask.

• Serrano talked about controlling your food intake by using the 2nd meal effect. He mentioned that when you eat a good breakfast, your next meal is good as well due to better glycemic control.

• Serrano discussed worrying about your diet even before you consider supplements.

• Serrano discussed the importance of fish oil, flax oil, olive oil, and CLA. He mentioned that while flax oil is great, the conversion to the essential fatty acids could be low in older individuals. He also mentioned that carbs, alcohol, and caffeine inhibit this conversion.

• Serrano is a big fan of fiber since it reduces the insulin response to meals. This is one reason for his recommendations to avoid fruit juice. The insulin response to apple juice (with the fiber removed) is much different than the response to the whole apple. To this end, he also recommended adding fiber to your protein shakes.

Besides those pieces of information, Serrano was all over the place, much like a kid with ADD. Most of the talk consisted of product recommendations so rather than list the products that Serrano thinks are good, we'll just have to take his word for it.

Lonnie Lowery — Post Workout Nutritional Recovery Strategies

Many of you know Lonnie Lowery as my T-mag nutritional counterpart. But many of you probably don't know that Lonnie and I studied under the same advisor (Dr. Lemon). And many of you may not know that Lonnie and I have, in addition to our Ex Phys and Nutrition training, philosophy and psychology backgrounds. This certainly makes for some interesting dinner conversations, especially when sitting directly across the table from Laura Crevalle, Lee Haney, Mohamed Makkawy, and Bill Pearl, and sitting next to Eva Moore (haven't heard of her, well you will). Lonnie took a lot of flack that night for ordering the split-pea soup. What kind of T-man eats pea soup?

Since Chris covered Lonnie's presentation quite well, I'll summarize Lonnie's talk in as few lines as I can:

— Strength training/Resistance exercise induces a whole-body injury response that can be severe.

— Many athletes under eat and fail to use proper nutrient timing.

— Many athletes overtrain/underrecover in that they spend too much time in the gym (acute) and their rest : volume/frequency/intensity ratios are all out of whack (chronic).

In order to combat this:

— Eat 1.8-2g of protein/kg (be sure some of this protein is taken pre and post exercise)

— Drink 30-50g protein and 40g carbs in 1L water before exercise

— Take 50-100g of carbs plus creatine directly after exercise

— Take 50-100g of carbs plus 40g protein within 2h of exercise

— Eat additional carbs during times of low muscle soreness (since muscle soreness correlates with insulin resistance)

— Reduce omega 6's and increase omega 3's and monos

— Be sure to consume about 100g of fat per day to prevent overtraining/underrecovering

— Antioxidant supplementation is beneficial (Vitamins E and C)

— Higher-volume lifters need more carbs and fat in the diet.

Rob Rakowski — Overtraining — Clinical Protocols to Reverse Adrenal and Thyroid Stress

Ok, I'll be honest. I missed this one too. Eating again.

Come on now, it was Sunday morning, we were up late on the streets of TO, and Massive Eating Berardi simply couldn't get up in time to make this talk. In fact, since Lonnie passed out in my room Saturday night, the both of us had to shuffle around like madmen just so we could get some breakfast in us before our roundtable at 10:30 AM.

However, I do have the notes from Rob's talk and here's what I think he said.

• With repeated stress, the stress response can be as detrimental as the stressors themselves. Things like decreased insulin sensitivity, decreased recovery from injury/illness, loss of libido and reproductive function, loss of muscle "tone," gain of body fat, alterations in blood cholesterol and blood pressure, fatigue and restless sleep, depression, inflammation, and reduced immune capacity can all result from an inappropriate stress response. Living your day as if it's an emergency is dangerous!

• 8 of the top 10 causes of death are linked to poor nutrition. Before turning to medicine why not try to correct these problems.

• The body has a 4-fold reserve capacity for oxygen and nutrients but in times of stress it may need a 10-fold reserve.

• Health is a balance between stress and stress resistance. Therefore, health is promoted when either stressors are removed or resistance is improved.

• Our "stress thresholds" are individual. For example, Mike Tyson's physical threshold is much higher than the average individual but his psychological/emotional is much lower.

• Panax and Siberian Ginseng: Both are "adaptogens" that may increase our thresholds to stress and damage via support of our adrenal glands and our pituitary glands.

• If you're "tired and wired," take ashwaghanda, B6, and rhemannia root; if "tired and stressed", take B6, ginseng, rhodiola, cordyceps, licorice, DHEA; if "wired than tired," take B6, ginseng, rhodiola, cordyceps in the AM and kava, magnesium, and B6 in the PM.

• Cortisol is the big player in stress related injury/damage and likely leads to syndrome x, decreased sex steroid and GH secretions, and blunted feedback of cortisol secretion.

• Cortisol leads inhibition of the conversion of T4 into the powerful metabolic hormone T3 as well as leading to chronic gluconeogenesis in the liver. This is the process by which glycogen and amino acids are converted to blood sugar. Even the protein degradation enzymes in the liver increase during stress. Talk about a prescription for being fat and weak!

• If stress is high and cortisol is wrecking your hormonal axis you'll probably also have poor mental state. This is a powerful stimulus for binge eating, especially loads of carbs. Time to get even fatter!

• Whenever excess carbs enter the body (via dietary intake or liver glucose production due to stress/cortisol), fat is formed.

• There is such a thing as adrenal diabetes where stress leads to chronically elevated blood glucose.

• Since over 25% of the non-obese, non-diabetic population may suffer from insulin resistance, failure to screen for glucose intolerance should be considered malpractice. If your doc hasn't screened for this or doesn't know how to, find a new doc now!

• Thyroid deficiency is common but is often not screened for or treated. Environmental estrogens and chemicals can negatively impact thyroid function.

• With respect to many hormones, even if blood tests are done and the results appear within the normal range, like with enzymes, if the pH is not optimal it may take more of the hormone to do the same job.

• There are three main problems pandemic to our society:

— Magnesium deficiency

— Omega 3 deficiency

— Colonic defloristation

• They can be fixed with:

— Magnesium Aspartate or Glycinate

— EPA and DHA

— Acidophilus, Bifidus

• Thyroid support includes:

— Manage stress (cortisol)

— Exercise

— Optimize conversion of T4 to T3 with guggulu

— Use ashwaghanda for general thyroid support

— Use the support protocols listed above

— Reduce the risk of auto immunity with a gluten free diet and vitamin D supplementation

— Supplement with DHA and EPA

— Use antioxidants like vitamin E

Again, Rob's second talk appeared as information packed as the first. I have no doubt that it was also delivered in the same hyper-excited, fast talker fashion.

The Nutrition Roundtable

Berardi, Lowery, Makkawy, Rakowski, Able, Serrano, Sarcev, Erasmus, Coan

What happens when you put nine know-it-all presenters up on stage to field audience questions? Well, this year, not much of anything. While I think this type of discussion has great potential, to me it seemed like the case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. There were simply too many people for anyone to really say their full piece or to get into any really juicy debates. I'd love to see this type of roundtable next year but I would recommend fewer panelists and a specific and provocative set of questions that presenters might see in advance.

For me, there were two really cool moments during the roundtable. The first occurred when someone was passing the microphone to Lonnie Lowery, over Mohamed Makkawy. It was clear that Mohamed wanted to say something so Lonnie offered him the microphone. While Mohamed was trying to be humble and decline the microphone, Lonnie insisted he take it saying, loud enough for the whole crowd to hear, "Come on and speak! For gosh sakes, you're one of my heroes. Of course I want to hear what you have to say!" That pretty much summarized the whole weekend for me as well.

The second occurred when a question was directed to Ed Coan regarding supplements for powerlifters. In true Ed Coan fashion, he simply stated that neither he nor many of his training partners have ever taken supplements. That was his full answer! For those who know Ed, he is the king of the understated; the master of the one-liners. At dinner, big Eddie, when asked how his quad reattachment surgery went, pulled up his suit pant leg and showed his scar and said "OK" as we looked at that nasty, fresh scar. Then he pulled the surgery report out of his pocket and let me read it. In just a few short weeks after a full quad tear, Ed's got 130 degrees of motion back and is full squatting two wheels a side. "So the recovery is going 'OK' huh?" That guy kills me!

Kickin' It Closed

Well, this may very well be the longest conference report ever. I could go on and on with more personal anecdotes about drunken waitresses tripping on my friend Jay's big feet, the prostitute and her "John" arguing on the 7th floor of the Sheraton, and the sensual trappings of mixed berry yogurt (hey, it's got the good bacteria in it) but I'll save those stories for when I see you at SWIS next year!