Last summer Tony agreed with me that I was probably killing myself with all the cycling I was doing. Soon there after I wrote Shortening your life by too much exercise to capture what I call the finite beat hypothesis - the heart has the potential for a certain number of beats and once these beat occur the heart stops working. It is a theory that seemed to make sense to me at the time.

In September when I started working at SST it became evident that the volume of cycling that I was doing was slowing my muscle growth because of the high level of cortisol associated with exercising longer than 45 minutes. Once I dropped down to one cardio session per week my lean body mass started to increase. If cortisol can have that dramatic an impact on lean mass creation what impact does it have on other body tissues?

A devastating impact.

Stress hormone may speed up brain aging outlines the findings of a recent study on an elderly population. The goal of the study was to determine if there was a relationship between cortisol levels and hippocampus size and neural density. The hippocampus is a part of the brain that is implicated in memory and spatial awareness functioning. It has long been known that in most individuals, there is a decrease in hippocampus size as they grow older and, as a consequence, ones performance on memory and spatial awareness tasks decreases with age. However, this new study indicates that the degree of deterioration is related to cortisol levels such that those individuals who have higher levels of cortisol show greater impairment and the size of their hippocampus is reduced when compared to those individuals who have lower cortisol levels.

What are the practical implications of this finding?

If you want to keep your brain functioning at a high level for the duration of your life you need to decrease the amount of stress you experience. This doesn’t just mean psychological or mental stress, it also means physiological stress.

Steady state cardio sessions that last more than 45 minutes have been shown to increase cortisol levels as have intense resistance and strength training sessions of the same length. Limit the length of these to less than 45 minutes and if you can’t, make sure you consume some simple sugars during the sessions to mitigate the bodies natural cortisol release in response to a drop in blood sugar level.

Very low calorie diets or eating behaviours that include not eating for more than 4 hours in a row should be avoided as they will cause a release of cortisol.

You should eat within 20 minutes of waking to help lower the level of cortisol in your body - cortisol is very high in the morning because you have not been eating. The sooner it is reduced, the sooner the negative aspects of cortisol will be eliminated.

Remember that cortisol is a wasting hormone that causes your body to consume itself to maintain functioning. When cortisol levels are high very little of your body will grow and we now know that this includes your brain. If you want to maintain a high quality of life into your senior years you need to avoid activities that promote cortisol release when you are younger.

I used to workout and I got pretty good results. I had a nice lean body and was more or less able to eat whatever I wanted. My friends would say that I looked good and I didn’t have any fear taking off my shirt.

Now I train and I get great results. My body is a work in progress. I can’t eat what I like anymore and I don’t listen to people when they comment of how I look. I take my shirt off to change and my girlfriend gets more out of the way I look than I do.

What are the differences between working out and training?

Purpose:
People who workout are trying to improve their appearance or some characteristic of their body. It could be to lose a few pounds, to lower cholesterol or normalize their blood pressure. In most cases there is an end point and once the individual reaches it, they can enter their maintenance phase and don’t need to workout as much.

People who train are primarily trying to improve their performance. They are pursuing something, a number or reps, a weight, a time, but they are after something that is slightly more objective than “looking good”.

Drive:
Most people who workout do so fairly consistently. They do more or less the same thing every week e.g. cycling class on Monday and Wednesday, upper body weights on Tuesday, lower body weights on Thursday and whole body on Saturday. They do more or less the same exercises during these workouts and rarely change things up because they are happy to be improving.

People who train cycle through their exercises and change their programs when things stop working. They are not content with simply improving, they need to be improving as fast as their potential allows them.

Intensity:
People who workout do so primarily with moderate intensity. After their workouts they are glowing and look like they are full of energy. They’ll be able to laugh and joke right after and will probably have a shower before going home.

People who train look close to death after they finish. They will have given everything they have to their training and will likely be gasping for air, soaked with sweat and generally feel worse than they did when they started. They’ll be consuming a protein shake while trying to recoup enough energy to change and go home. Their energy level will be low for a while and they are not going to be joking or laughing.

Passion:
People who workout feel less strongly about what they are doing. More often than not it is about feeling good in the moment and having fun. While working out may be an aspect of their identify, it does not define who they are. They workout based on their schedules. They’ll tell you that they workout and will often try to convince others to do the same. They may even invite others to workout with them.

People who train ARE their training. Their training takes over many areas of their life and is often the focal point of everything they do - training sessions determine when they eat, sleep, work and socialize. They’ll make you wait until after they have finished training and won’t try to convince you to train with them - if you aren’t already doing it you aren’t anyone they would want to train with.

Satisfaction:
People who workout get a lot of satisfaction from working out. Good enough is good enough. They won’t talk about achieving their potential because they feel they already are.

People who train tend to have fleeting moments of satisfaction. They may experience a high or bliss right after competition or achieving one of their goals, but soon thereafter they find themselves raising the bar and starting towards an even higher goal. They will never be happy with their performance and this is why they continue to train.

I used to dread being by myself. I became a distraction junky and remained in situations that were not good for me for too long. I wouldn’t do the things I needed to do unless I was with someone else - instead of going to the supermarket to buy good food, I would go to the nearest variety store and get junk food. I did this because there was less shame than walking up and down the ails pushing a shopping cart alone. I happened across an old journal entry from a few years ago - October 9th, 2004 - that marked the ending of this difficult period in my life.

It is Fall. There is that familiar leaf rotting smell in the air, it gets dark around 7 and it is kind of cold. 

I start at Goodlife on Tuesday. Monday is thanksgiving and I quit my Weedman job on Thursday and went camping at Albion Hills, staying at site 80 - our Hot August Nights spot.

Finally going camping by myself was great. There was a little weirdness to it at the beginning, but I guess I got used to it. I’m looking forward to doing it again and I wouldn’t rule out going to the Eastern Townships by myself.

Des made a comment “at least you didn’t have to entertain some girl so you could have fun” and it’s so true. Since I can do everything I want by myself that I use to need company for, getting into something that requires more effort or putting it on doesn’t serve any purpose. Go it alone and enjoy the company of others, but always remember life is a lot of fun NOW without her in it. If she is going to be in my life, it is because she adds to it. I always have a choice and I can choose me and live without them. It is good advice, the company of just me is good company. 

I don’t know why the switch flipped in my head that Thursday when I quit my seasonal Weedman job and went camping alone. I guess I was just sick of living a mediocre unfulfilling life of dependency on others. I remember when I paid for the site and the clerk asked how many people were with me and I said “just me” wondering what she thought about me being by myself. The thought didn’t last very long because she asked if I was going riding and when I said yes, she said have fun. There was a flash of awareness that I wasn’t the first or last person to check in my themselves.

That weekend marked the moment in my life when I stopped being a child and decided to face the world on my own.

Years later I’m able to see the significance of that weekend. My interactions with others are now lot more rewarding because I feel more at ease with them. I don’t fear the interactions ending because I do not dread being by myself. I have fewer friends now than I did before but my time with them is a lot more fulfilling and genuine.

Life got a whole lot better when I became my own best company because when you are at ease with who you are you can do everything you need to do.

10 Important Lessons by Charles Staley was posted in T-Nation.com a while back. There are some great lessons there but the one that resonated with me the most was his first:

1. The majority Is ALWAYS wrong, therefore DO THE OPPOSITE.

I consider this idea to be my central operating paradigm in life, and rarely have I found it to not be the case. Even if you apply this concept absolutely, across the board, without critical thought, to every aspect of your life, you’ll end up better off.

Here are but a few examples:

— The majority of people have no goals. Therefore, establish goals for yourself.

— The majority of people don’t train. Therefore, train.

— The majority of people think that seeing their doctor regularly is essential for optimal health. HAVING GOOD HEALTH HABITS is essential for optimal health.

—The majority of people don’t plan for their future, and end up unprepared for their retirement. Therefore, prepare for your future.

—The majority of people watch TV for several hours per day. Therefore, don’t watch TV.

—The majority of people spend many hours per day in a seated position. Therefore, spend more time on your feet.

It is an interesting way to look at things - doing what the majority do is a great way to be average.

Rachel is an athletic therapy student and has her placement with a womens hockey team. Here is something she wrote after a fairly bad on-ice injury. The injured girl will recover complete but is out for the season.

Going down on the ice, head down, direct impact, contact and player face down. It’s as easy as that. A hockey game I will never forget for the rest of my life. For player confidentially purposes, the locations and names and locations will not be used so this may be a little hard to follow.

Friday night, second period, an away game, player of the opposite team takes a hit minimal from my player, trips on the puck and goes head into the ice. I wait patiently trying to withstand the urge to run out on the ice. The hockey trainer from the opposition goes out onto the ice and is there blocking her head for almost a full minute with no help.

I looked at my watch counting down from 60 seconds in my head then go out onto the ice hoping to help the other trainer. My heart is pounding, the ice slippery and cold on the bottom of my runners. I am first approached the ref and told to get off the ice. I assure her that “I am here to help” and I reach the player and the trainer. As I get onto my knees, I intro introduce myself as Rachel and that I am a student in the athletic therapy program at Sheridan, and that I am there to assist her in anything she needs help with. The trainer introduces herself and says “she is a nurse”, and is talking to the player trying to get some sort of clarity.

The ref approaches me while I am on my knees beside the nurse and player. She tells me that if I do not get off the ice I will be suspended and that “I should not try to be stating a fight with the opposing team in such a situation”. I reassure the ref that “I am there to help” and she gets quite verbal with me, so I reaffirm to her that this “player is in dire need of medical attention and unless she is there to help, I am here to help”. The ref relaxes.

I ask the nurse what her status is and she says that “she is seeing colors and that she wants to move”. I tell the nurse that we have been sitting here just “under three minutes” and suggest that we call 911. She ignores me and gets a little verbal with me than says “just wait”.

I ask the ref for blankets as I believe she is going into shock from the hit to the ice. I ask the nurse again, “she is not completely conscious and aware, we should call 911″. The nurse replies “just wait”. I tell the nurse I am simply going to take her pulse. Her pulse is rapid and she is breathing and then I start palpation on the player from T spine to C spine and she has pain at the C spine. The player cries out in pain.

I ask the nurse again. “I understand that you are the trainer and make the decision to call EMS but your player is in and out of level of consciousness. Her pulse is weak. She is in severe pain and she went straight head down into the ice. Let’s call 911!” The nurse ignores me, so I prompt my EAP (emergency action plan) with my sign to call EMS.

The player is talking about swirling colors and gardens and then back to the game. The nurse is still talking to her about her colors she is seeing. I ask the player, do you know where you are? She is babbling about colors. I ask the player what the score is and she says she is on the ice. I know she has some awareness.

I ask the nurse to continue to block the head and I tell the player that “I am going to play a game” with her. “Sometimes I will touch you and sometimes I won’t. I need you to tell me where I am touching you or if I am not touching you at all, ok? “. I touch her shoulder and she replies “my shoulder”. I touch her lower back and she replies “my back”. I touch her left leg and she say “you are not touching me”. I am thinking it’s her pants, so I firmly grip her thigh, and ask her “am I touching you”. She replies “you are not touching me”. I ask her to remember three little words “three purple pigs” and then tell her that I will ask her them again later.

At this point she has the following signs and symptoms:
- in and out of level of consciousness
- severe pain in her tp’s and sp’s of her c spine
- rapid pulse
- loss of sensation in her left leg

I saw the mechanism of injury of how she hit the ice. I am treating her for shock as I ask the nurse to keep blocking the head to keep her calm. I am also aware this is probably a true spinal, and that all we can do is wait and all I can do is monitor her vitals, and treat for shock as we wait for EMS. I ask the player “what were those three words asked you to remember?” She is babbling about colors incoherently and no longer even aware that both the nurse and I are there.

The father of the player hurt is screaming at my player from across the ice and telling her he is going to hurt her. He is told to stay calm by the ref. I look at my watch and just under 6 minutes. I pull out my stethoscope and my blood pressure cuff and get a reading; it is normal 115/76. I write it down on my tape that is stuck to my leg. I get her pulse and breathing rate again and her pulse and breathing rate are a little escalated and write them down. I ask the nurse to try and look at her pupils although the player would rather keep her eyes closed and “look at the colors”. The player is no longer aware that both the nurse and I are even there or even where she is. Her skin is warm.

The father tries to come out onto the ice although the ref tries to stop him and he is crying” help my little girl, what is wrong with her”. He is told by the ref he is allowed to come onto the ice as long as he keeps his distance and just stays calm. I talk to the nurse for a second and she tells me that when the paramedics get there that she is “in charge”, and I reaffirm that she is and that I am just there to help. I take a second set of vitals, check her blankets and feel down her body for anything I may have missed in the initial assessment.

The paramedics arrive and I glance at my watch just over 12 minutes. They talk to the nurse and the nurse tells the paramedics what happened and that the player is seeing colour. I take the tape off of my knee then hand it to the male paramedic and tell him that there is a baseline they can start with. I tell the paramedic “my name is Rachel and I am an Athletic Therapy Student from Sheridan and that I am trained to remove the helmet pads and skates.” He smiles, takes my tape and says “thank you, we can use you”.

The spinal board is place onto the ice and with both paramedics one at the head, one at the feet, and the nurse and I at the hip, we log roll the player onto the spinal board. The male paramedic looks at me and says do you thing. At this point the nurse starts to yell at me and says what are you doing, so I reassure her that I am trained and that with her help, I can do this even better. I ask the paramedic to stabilize the head while I take the helmet off, and pads. I ask the nurse to help me take off the skates. I remove the left and she removes the right. The ambulance attendants thank us and pick up the spinal board and carry her off the ice to the ambulance. The nurse follows.

I go back to my team’s bench and the players return to the ice and we restart the clock to finish the period as though it never happened. The end of the game, we line up to shake hands, and the nurse skips me and I walk away from the ice with my head down in silence.

Inspired by T-nation author Eric Cressey’s What I Learned In 2007, I decided to put together my own list of things that I learned in 2007 (note - Eric’s 2006 article was my first ever post so be sure to read this years version).

1) Gifted athletes do not necessarily look remarkable but there is something weird about the way they look when they train. A few weeks ago we did the athlete testing for SST’s 12 week football academy. There were a variety of assessment tests but the one that stood out to me was the penta jump. This is basically a standing long jump with 5 jumps instead of just one, all linked together in a fluid unstopping order. It is a skill, but talent does impact ones performance.

Many of the athletes performed unremarkable, which is what we expect to see at the start of the camp because many of them are untrained and are coming off of a month or two layoff from exercising. But one of the athletes, a 14 year old, look weird doing it. He seemed to float away from me when he jumped - each jump took him so much further down the turf than any of the other athletes. His distance way 6-8 feet longer than any one else in his age group. I wasn’t very surprised to see his sub 5 second result in the 40. He’s 14 years old and pretty small. I’m looking forward to seeing how he’ll continue to improve as he grows pounds of muscle and gains more complete neural control over his muscle firing patterns.

2) Fish oil supplements eliminate most of the shoulder pain I experience when I’m lifting heavy. I’m both shocked and happy to have found this to be the case. There is practically no fire in my shoulders in the days following my chest / back workouts. There used to be pain that prevented me from sleeping and stopped me from training heavy in the summer. This is all but gone now, thanks to 6-10 grams of fish oil per day.

3) Great athletes embrace coaching, lifters tend to ignore it. How someone responds to feedback plays the biggest role in the quality of feedback that they get. The gifted 14 year old listens to all the advice and coaching that he is given and he continues to improve, and people continue to coach him. This isn’t surprising because people do not like to waste their time. IF someone isn’t going to follow the advice that is given to them, people learn very quickly to stop giving it to them. Personally I begin to disengage from a person after the first time they role their eyes and DON’T change their movement pattern - they can role their eyes, call me a prick but so long as they change their movement pattern I’ll keep coaching them.

When it comes to lifters most of them do not want to lift correctly. They lift the weight and not the movement. I look away a lot when I’m at the commercial gym because I don’t want to see someone hurt themselves and feel responsible from helping them. I’ll offer advice to a young lifter on the off-hand chance that they want to become better, but more often than not they don’t want to hear it. This is too bad for them and good news for Rachel because she’s going to be an athletic therapist and will have a lot of people to work on.

4) Energetic coaching is more important than knowledgeable coaching when it comes to working with young or inexperienced athletes. Young people don’t not have the movement inventory or body awareness that older people have because they have spend less time in their bodies interacting with the earth. Most athletic movements are going to be new to them and they are not likely to have the motor control to move their bodies in the way that is required in order to be performed the movement correctly. For this reason, advanced coaches are not going to be able to use their knowledge to facilitate improvements within this population. More importantly, given that it is frustrating to be bad at something, particularly when a coach or another athlete does it with ease, inexperienced athletes may find quitting an easier choice if they do not find any enjoyment in an activity. An energetic coach can help bridge the gap between a lack of experience and learning a new skill and will often help the young person find joy in an otherwise unrewarding experience.

5) Rotator cuff muscles are primarily fast twitch fibers and should be trained in the 7-10 rep range with fast effort and slower negative tempos. This one could have read - people should train their rotator cuff muscles. I started doing internal and external rotation exercises just after I started working at SST after the cause of my horrific posture was pointed out. While I am still imbalanced in this area, I’m catching up and standing taller than I ever have.

6) Steady state cardio promotes fat storage while high intensity interval training creates more EPOC that will result in greater fat loss over the long haul. I credit RPM with starting my brain thinking about this one. The choreography is interval based with exertion levels growing from comfortable to breathless. One of the things I found once I stopped trying to keep my heart rate at 150 was that I was more tired at the end of the workouts and couldn’t do so much riding. I also noticed that there is only have a finite length of time that I can get my heart rate above 160 and once this time is up I get too fatigued trying to bring it up there again.

As this relates to fat loss: you need to workout very intensely to promote fat loss, but you need to workout at various levels of intensity to get the most fat loss because it requires the most amount of energy to adapt to many different level of effort. Also, if you workout at just one intensity, your body will quickly adapt to make it more and more efficient to work at that level the next time. This means if you are working out at a level that requires fat as fuel, the body will adapt to store more fat to fuel the effort next time. If you keep it at a steady state, your body will become so efficient at working at this level that it will stop losing fat. Given that your activity level will not change, it is unlikely that you will alter your diet to account for this improved efficiency and will begin to eat a calorie surplus thus promoting fat storage.

7) Spell check and proof read your resume a number of times before you submit it. We initially passed on a trainer candidate because of the typos on his resume. I looked over his resume a week later and thought that maybe there was a good reason why the mistakes were there. When we chatted it was obvious that there wasn’t a good reason but that he was a good candidate. He did fantastic in his interviews and we hired him. He is a gifted trainer with a wonderful demeanor that allows him to connect with almost everyone he engages. I’m glad I called him because he is a real asset to the team and a good human being. But I almost didn’t take the chance because of something that is very easy to avoid.

One year ago - one year and 4 days to be exact - I started newstasis.com. It has been a fantastic year for personal growth, life improvements and physical fitness. In some ways I’m sad to see the year end. Here are the main reasons why the last year was so important to me:

I discovered my purpose in life. This happened the Monday morning after I took the RPM training.

I’ve posted about 160 items on newstasis.com. While many of them were re-blog items - my opinion or just a link to another authors work - a few of them were original and would not exist in the world had I not sequenced out the key strokes.

I’ve fallen completely in love and moved in with Rachel. Rachel remains empathetic as she calls me on my crap and it is the first time in my life when I have looked upon a girlfriend as a mentor. She is funny as well and that helps us move through the tough times very quickly.

I started teaching RPM. A big one, partly because it’s where I met Rachel, partly because I had been thinking about doing it for so long and partly because it forced me to learn how to ride a bike the correct way. My riding posture has never been better and I feel so much stronger on the bike now than I did a year ago.

I started working for SST as their operations manager. It’s nice to be working with a more motivated population and in an environment that is rich in opportunities to learn, and lift. I had never flipped a tire before September and I have to say that it is a much fun as it sounds! If you don’t think flipping a tire is fun, you’ve never done it.

I kept blogging EVEN after I moved in with Rachel and started my new job. I’m pretty happy about this one because it marks the first time in my life that getting a new girlfriend didn’t mean the death of the identify that I had forged out for myself.

So now I start year 2, grateful to be able to continue with newstasis.com!

T-nation article by Chris Shugart “It’s Sabotage!” is about toxic people. I love reading this article because it really resonates with me. I used to have a lot of friends who would rip on me for trying to improve myself and I have to admit that their influence was negative and effective. The big issue with toxic people is that you don’t necessarily see their influence until it has had an impact and the greater the impact, the harder it is to undo. If you make a clean break from the toxic influences in your life, you can begin to build more positive support structure but first you need to identify those toxic people so you can banish them forever. (Okay, maybe not forever because many of them don’t even know that they’re behaving like non-friends, but put them out of your life until they make a positive change in how they interact with you and the rest of the world).

I bring up toxic people in reference to body composition because very often there are negative people in your life who keep throwing up reasons why you shouldn’t try to change the way you look and feel. For the most part, their reason have nothing to do with you and are based solely on their own feelings of low self worth. For some reason, many people can only get up by getting others down. They have failed to see that their is almost unlimited success available in the world and instead see the world in binary terms such that any success of another person is an immediate failure in them.

I don’t see the world in these terms. I believe that there is unlimited success available when it comes to fitness and health because these things are measured by ones individual ability and not by comparing performance to another person. For example, there is no reason why most people in the world cannot have a body fat percentage of 15% and be able to run 3 Km. There is no reason for people not to be able to do a pull-up, 10 push-ups, and be able to walk up a flight of stairs without gasping for air. Assuming these things are a measure of fitness and health, my fitness does not improve anytime another person fails to achieve one of these benchmarks.

Translation - I do not get healthier when another person becomes less healthy. I gain nothing when someone else falls deeper towards disease. I actually believe that the world becomes a worse place when someones health and fitness falters. I do not enjoy seeing people fail at the gym, fail to make the right choices when they shop or fail to make the decision to stop smoking, drinking, or being a total layabout. 

I’ve been lucky enough to have a supportive family and close friends who don’t try to rip down my passions. When I started to learn how to play guitar, my friends put up with it. When I started to correct my eating habits, my family supported me and stopped offering me dessert. When I decided to take some time off from working, I was supported in my decision because my friends and family believed that I was working towards something.

What does this mean to those who want to change the way they look? Well, simply put, you need to start to clean out the crap from your life. There is an undeniable correlation between your successes and the successes of your 5 closest friends. If your 5 closest friends smoke, there’s a very good chance that you smoke. If they eat crappy food and blame the government for their place in life, there’s a very good chance you eat crappy food and blame the government for everything. If your closest friends are like this, there is an almost 100% chance that you will fail at everything you set out to do because your friends will help to facilitate your failure through negative comments, derailing behaviours and basically making you feel like crap for ever thinking you deserve better.

If you are tired of being overweight and lazy, and all of your friends are overweight and lazy, it’s time to get some new friends, ones who aren’t overweight and lazy. Even if you don’t / can’t get new friends (which is a possibility because healthy people know the potential negative influence that overweight under motivated people possess) you may need to get rid of your old friends and go it alone for a while because your chances of success are much greater if you have no negative influences.

Always keep in mind that true friends want for you what you want for you not what they want for you. They will look to you for inspiration and will try to be inspiring to you. They aren’t going to measure their successes in terms of your failures. Anyone who wants you to fail needs to be taken out of your life forever.

Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) have been given a lot of publicity recently as a possible way to boost recovery, performance and size. However, much of the *evidence* for their efficacy comes from the supplement companies who have a vested interest in people buying them given the high price they can charge for them. On Saturday Rachel and I have a big debate about them and, since my friend Pete in Ottawa is waiting my review of them, I figured I’d address both of their concerns with a newstasis.com article.

Branched Chain Amino Acids are the essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine. These three amino acids have aliphatic side-chains that are non-linear. It is estimated that 1/3 of muscle is made up of these amino acids and there is evidence linking them to a variety of processes including protein synthesis. BCAA do not provide energy to the muscles during workouts and as of yet, there is no evidence linking them to any improvements for endurance athlete.

The evidence in favor of BCAA supplementation:

Muscle is 1/3 BCAA. While not evidence per say, the fact that so much of the muscle is made up of BCAA is a good case for consuming more of them. Providing sufficient raw materials for building muscle is a good idea if you want to build muscle because the inverse is true - you will not grow if you do not eat sufficient amounts of protein.

Promoting insulin activity. Insulin is an anabolic hormone because it promotes cell storage and protein synthesis. It also lowers blood cortisol levels; cortisol is released in response to stress in an attempt to liberate sugar from protein. Of all the amino acids, leucine is special because it can promote insulin release in the absence of blood glucose. It is believed that BCAA supplementation will inhibit protein degradation because it increases the release of insulin.

Promoting translation of protein. Translation is the first state of protein synthesis and it is mediated by intercellular insulin and leucine levels. It is believed that BCAA supplementation will promote protein synthesis because it provides the body with leucine with acts as both a trigger for translation and a promoter of insulin release.

My rational for taking BCAA goes something like this - I know that my body enters a catabolic state when I work out. I know that muscle protein is broken down when I’m in this state and therefore my muscles will not grow. The sooner I can rid my body of cortisol, the sooner it will begin to grow again. Insulin decreases cortisol. The first step in protein synthesis is translation which is initiated by leucine and insulin. BCAA supplementation will increase insulin release and initiate protein synthesis. I believe that I will grow more because my body will be less catabolic, more responsive to insulin and have what is needed to initiate the first step of protein synthesis.

I’m not sure if my reasoning holds up in the real world or if I am supplying my body with enough material to advance protein synthesis once the increased levels of insulin and leucine have started translation but I feel comfortable with my understanding of what is going on with this small be key aspect of the puzzle.

Back when I worked for Ranger, my co-worker Chris told me that he was going to buy me a t-shirt that said “I YELL BECAUSE I CARE”. He never did, but he talked about the t-shirt often. It shouldn’t be surprising that I yelled at him a lot at that job. I didn’t handle stress very well and Chris was very good at helping me feel stress. He was a friend before we started working together so he had 10 years of history that allowed us to have very free and spirited interactions.

Every now and then he would take me aside and tell me that he didn’t appreciate my behavior. Any time he did this, I would apologize for it and we’d work on figuring out what the real issue was. Chris was funny like that, he seemed to know when he had it coming and he was sure to see that my reaction was only going to impact the catalyst. Often reactions impact people who have nothing to do with the situation and he wasn’t going to be the victim in one of these situations.

It has been a long time since Ranger and I have matured past yelling at people simply because I have passion for the job. I still have the fire, I just direct it towards people in a more appropriate problem solving way. It’s a lesson that has stuck with me and one that I find myself using on telemarketers a fair bit. As much as I would like to yell at them for calling, I stay polite and get off the phone as calmly and quickly as possible because while they are choosing to work in that field, I doubt any of them are choosing to call me in particular.