Author: Tony

To say that I’ve been busy the past few weeks is an understatement. Suffice it to say, my blogging prowess has been suspect at best, and it looks like I’ll probably have to be cutting it down to 2-3 times per week. We’re kicking it into high gear for the next few months at CP, and I’ll need all the free time I can get to write programs, answer e-mails, write an article (or two), and spend some quality time with a certain someone called my girlfriend.

As such, I’ll still be trying my best to hit you off with some good content when I can. Today, I want to share an interview I did with Leigh Peele.

Leigh’s been a good friend of mine for a few years now, and is one of my go to people when it comes to anything dealing with fat loss/witty banter. Enjoy.

Tony Gentilcore (TG): Lets start off with a simple question, will you marry me?

Side Note to my girlfriend: Hey babe, did I mention how fabulous you look today? You really do. Just wanted to let you know that the above question was completely rhetorical, and that it’s purpose was completely for entertainment value only. In any case, I’m pretty sure I’m sleeping in the doghouse tonight, huh? Dammit!

Leigh Peele (LP): Yes, but only if you promise not to do anything kinky with a light saber.

TG: As someone who’s known for her fat loss expertise, why do so many people have a hard time nailing it down? I mean, fat loss IS a fairly simple concept- albeit it’s not easy. Exercise more, eat less “crap,” and repeat. Am I missing something? Enlighten us Leigh Peele.

LP: I think at the heart of this is a basic instinct for the mind and body to avoid things we don’t like doing. Fat loss isn’t fun, it goes against our very nature of survival. If you aren’t by nature a certain personality type it becomes very hard to make yourself not eat and train for improvement in body and performance. These are not things most people want to do. Most people want to eat and have sex all day long and perhaps cuddle up after wards with a good Tivo recording. Big difference.

TG: I hear you there girlfriend! Although, for the record, every time I have sex, I end up doing this after wards:

…….and then I’ll watch an episode of 24.

Moving on, what are your three biggest pet peeves when it comes to fat loss? For example, it drives me bonkers whenever someone tries to argue with me when I tell them that (intense) training on an empty stomach makes about as much sense as a poop flavored lollypop. That being said, what “myths” about fat loss do you wish would just go away?

LP:

1. Fat Loss Workouts – There is not such thing as a fat loss workout. This is a huge pet peeve of mine. I see people talking about this amazing “fat burning busting furnace exercise or workout.” It is even funnier when they are pumping their pre-workout nutrition product with it because the only way your workout will be a fat loss workout is if you happen to be in a negative energy state when doing the workout. Otherwise it is just a workout like everything else. If you are in a deficit then power walking can be a fat loss workout.

I like my training to be training and leave it at that. Leave the fat loss to the diet.

2. Insulin = No Fat Loss – It is amazing how this one is not only dying, but seemingly gaining power.

3. Calories don’t count – I realize this makes me barbaric, old fashioned, and completely uneducated on the horrible things that (enter your dogma/fears here) is doing to you, but what can I say, I am a purest.

TG: Along the same lines, I’m a big fan of the Pareto Principle. When it comes to fat loss, what are the “big rocks” that people should concentrate on? Personally, I feel that too many people get so bogged down with minutia; i.e, worrying about whether they should eat 1.25 grams of carbs per lb as opposed 1.18 grams post training, that they often lose sight of the big picture. Like you know, maybe they shouldn’t be drinking three cans of soda every day. Thoughts?

LP: The big rock is eating less. I welcome anyone for the conversation who still likes to claim a deficit isn’t needed, but the simple truth is a deficit is needed in order to achieve fat loss. That doesn’t mean there

isn’t room for discussion within that, but that is the bolder holding up the mountain.

If that bolder has a sister it is understanding activity level and its relation to how much you need to eat for you to achieve an actual deficit. Humans are filled with egos and entitlement. We believe we deserve more food, and we’ll come up with many arguments and illogical fallacies to get it. Trust me, I love to eat, and if there were a way you could eat more and not gain weight, I would have found it. Sadly you can get fat, even on veggies and meat.

TG: You had me at meat. Anyways, in your recent book, Body By Eats, you go into great detail about our relationship with food. Am I crazy, or are people more confused than ever on what the hell they should be eating?

LP: Why shouldn’t they be?

One day we can’t eat an egg, the next day we have a kid stacking cups on a table telling us how incredible it is. The problem is we have too many agendas and too many cooks in the kitchen. People don’t know how to read studies, and conclusions are too easy to jump to these days. Back in the day you simply ate what you found, end of story.

Today we have hours of time to kill and paranoias to feed in between meals. This will only get worse and the niches are going to divide even more. All I am trying to do is provide a voice of those who don’t want to be scared by a potato anymore because of an index rating, which coincidentally, when you factor in food mixing, isn’t even a concern for the general population.

TG: Great point, and couldn’t agree more. After reading the likes of Michael Pollan and watching Food, Inc, I’ve really started to question whether or not I should go out of my way to eat organic food. I know you’ve expressed that this whole notion of organic vs. “conventional” food is a bit overblown. Care to elaborate a bit?

LP: While I appreciate their intentions they are simply making things worse by fueling the fire with the same problems the “other” guys are doing. They are cherry picking studies the same way. Take this quote from Food Inc.’s website…

“In Food, Inc. we meet Barbara Kowalcyk, whose 2 year old son, Kevin, died from E.coli poisoning after eating a hamburger. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses. Although Kevin’s law is not pending in Congress right now, there are other important national food safety legislation pending now for you to support.”

If you actually look at the CDC stats they paint a very different picture.

http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/documents/2006_line_list/2006_line_list.pdf

The majority of food illness cases are due to improper handling of food by people in their home or restaurant owners and do not originate for the source of export. Another news flash is no one is watching what the local market guy is doing. Those health food items and supplements have even less of a guard dog.

My point is food safety goes far beyond crowded, unhealthy cows in a bin. This could happen to organic or free range meats. Spoiled is spoiled. Bad handling is bad handling. Bad ethics or lack of knowledge can exist in any field. Obviously stores or restaurants who deal in health are going to have higher standard of quality control. That more than anything, would lead me to a health food store versus a normal market.

If there is a savior in organics I have yet to see it. For me, it makes the problem worse and is just enabling us to not make the real changes needed, environmentally and ethically, to make progress in the field.

Currently I do not side with organics. I don’t see it as safer or more beneficial. I do, however, support ethically treated animals and fresh foods so this sometimes results in me buying from organic and health food companies due to their policies.

TG: I like to end reach interview with some random questions:

• Favorite movie of the past year:

LP: The Blind Side. I am a sucker for these types of movies and it delivered and then some.

• Top 5 Training Songs:

LP: Only five? Of all time? I will have to give a current top five as the thought of committing to an all time is too much.

1.Phoenix – Listzomania

2.Depeche Mode – People are People

3.My Morning Jacket – One Big Holiday

4.No Motiv – Give Me Strength

5.Nina Simone – Feelin’ Good

• You have 20 minutes to kick your own ass and get a good training session in, what do you do?

LP: Since I am so intense in my training (See: accident prone) I have to fit in a warm up no matter what, which is usually something like leg cradles, t-spine rotations, bird dogs, etc. After that I would likely do some medicine ball circuits, Sled pulls, pull ups, jump roping, and a deadlift variation. If I had any means of equipment I would throw in tire flips/hammer work.

• What will come first: Kevin Larrabee with a six pack or I make out with Alicia Keys?

LP: While I believe in your skills I have to put faith in my boy Kevin. He is massively dedicated to achieving his goals and I have no doubt at in his abilities at all.

TG: Thanks for your time Leigh. Where can anyone interested find out more about you and your products/services?

LP: If looking to troubleshoot your fat loss you can click HERE. If you are looking for recipes and more you can click HERE. And if looking for simple free info you can check out my blog at http://www.leighpeele.com.

Will have an update up later on today. Promise. Actually, I interviewed Leigh Peele, and will post that as soon as I have some free time to edit it. In the meantime, here’s a picture of Olivia Munn dressed up as Princess Leia:

Toodles…..

1. Isn’t it amazing how there is like a five week build-up to Christmas, and then it’s over in like ten minutes? Always bums be me out. In any case, I hope everyone had a wonderful time with their families. And, more importantly, I hope Santa was good to you. He was certainly good to me to say the least!

I drove to Albany Christmas Eve and stayed with my sister and her family. I woke up Christmas morning and beat my niece and nephew (4 and 7, respectively) down the stairs to see what Santa brought us. Here’s me running into the living room:

Annnnnnnnd, here’s my reaction:

2. Brian St. Pierre wrote a really interesting blog last week titled, The Case Against Conventional Dairy. While I’m not quite as adamant against dairy as Brian (although he is very convincing), I will say that after reading The Vitamin D Cure a few months ago, I have made it a point to decrease some of my dairy consumption; particularly in the form of cheese.

In any case, I highly encourage you to read Brian’s post. I think he brings up a lot of valid points, not to mention he’s also going to get a lot of hate mail this week. Nice work Brian. High five!

3. Speaking of stuff to read:

Advances in Functional Training – highlights many of Mike Boyle’s training concepts and techniques he’s adapted since his first book (Functional Training for Sport). There aren’t many people who have influenced me as much as Coach Boyle, and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the field of strength and conditioning who has done more in terms of creating healthy athletes who perform at a high level than he.

What’s more, one of the things that I admire most about Coach Boyle is the fact that he’s not scared to admit when he’s wrong, and he’s open to change; a rare attribute to have in an industry filled with ginormous egos and bravado. In short, this book is basically what he’s changed in the past few years in terms of training philosophy, programming, injury prevention, and corrective exercise, to name a few.

Additionally, Coach Robert Dos Remedios released a book recently titled Cardio Strength Training, which is a little more “user friendly.”

In this book, Coach Remedios does exactly what the titles implies- torch body fat, build muscle, and get stronger faster using complexes, circuits, and other stuff that will undoubtedly leave you asking the question, “why in the hell am I doing this?”

4. Here’s my attempt at a little conventional wisdom. I had one of my online clients e-mail me the other day expressing concern over the fact that his deadlifts felt like, for lack of a better term, shit.

I went 5×5 on deadlifts today and was considerably weaker than I remember being (had to drop the sets from 330 to 315 to 275).

He noted, rightfully so, that he hadn’t done conventional deadlifts for a while, but was still perplexed nonetheless.

Here’s my response:

Also, the fact that you had to lower your weight makes sense. As you noted, you haven’t done conventional deadlifting in a while, so it makes sense that you’d have to lower the weight. As well, even I don’t always increase my weights every time I deadlift.

I mean, the other day I was doing trap bar deadlifts, and all I did was 405 for 5×5 (I normally go in the 480-515 range for this). Point is, you don’t ALWAYS need to break PR’s every week. Sometimes it’s just a matter of getting quality reps in. Even Eric (Cressey) does this. The guy can pull 600+ when he wants, and I saw him doing 405 for reps the other day. Just because you can pull a shit-ton, doesn’t mean you have to.

Granted, the more “advanced” you are, the less you need to do to get the desired effect (specifically with regards to overall volume), but it just goes to show that you don’t need to go balls to the wall every session. Know what I mean? You’re not going to have your A-game every day; nor should you. There’s something to be said about just getting your reps in and calling it a day.

To summarize, you can’t be a hero all the time.

Note: Despite the name, there is no “nekidness” in the video below. It’s totally SFW. God, why does everything have to revolve around sex with you anyways? Grow up!

What Is It: Naked Get-Up. So named because I’m doing this exercise without the use of a kettlebell. Obviously, this exercise can be progressed to

Who Did I Steal It From: Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’d have noticed that kettlebells are kind of a big deal lately. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical about them to start, and just saw them as the next “flavor of the week” in the fitness industry.

Within the past year, however, I’ve definitely grown to view them as a valuable “tool” I can use with my clients and athletes.

To that end, many highly reputable people in the industry are huge advocates of kettlebells- Mike Mahler, Brent Jones, and of course, Dan John—–who is the one person who really convinced me that they’re worth the time and effort to learn.

What Does It Do: I don’t care how much you deadlift or squat, this exercise is about as humbling as it gets. Don’t believe me? Try it tough guy! As such, the naked get-up is a fantastic movement that encompasses a multitude of benefits, including but not limited to scapular stability, hip mobility, and core stability.

Key Coaching Cues: Like Dan John, I like to break down this exercise into three basic parts:

1. Punch and crunch.

2. T-position.

3. Hips High.

It may take a few days (or even weeks) to get the hang of it, but as with anything, practice makes perfect. Obviously, this can be progressed to the point where you could include a kettlebell, but don’t try to be a hero here. I’ve been using this as part of a general warm-up lately, but you could certainly include it anywhere in a training session.

To start, I’d focus on “x” number of reps per side before adding in the kettlebell. As it stands, I have most of my clients performing five repetitions per side for 2-3 sets. Get er’ done!