Go watch a video of someone doing a sumo dead lift properly. Maybe this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r--etdWUmc0. You will notice that the dude sets, gets all the tension out of his arms and shoulders, and pulls smoothly off the ground. What you do is grab the bar and jerk upwards. Even your head jerks around. Sure, you might be getting stronger, but like Adam. said, the toll on your joints will catch up with you no matter how "clean" you eat.
My philosophy is to use momentum as required . . . with the joints in my spine, neck, shoulders, ankles, knees, hips, elbows...because that is what occurs during a vertical jump. During a sumo deadlift, you are sumo deadlifting. During this exercise I posted, you are performing a jump and it neeeds to be jerky. THis isn't unconventional wisdom really, but if you want to powerflit, powerlift. If you want to be an athlete you should use as much momentum as possible, unless you want to avoid using the joints that particular day.
Jumps aren't jerky, they're smooth and fluid. Or should be. Go watch the t-dub videos. Nothing about him is jerky. He's springy, but you look like someone just grabbed you and shook you hard. Of course, during a sumo dead lift, you are sumo dead lifting. You are also increasing the strength of your glutes, hams and spinal erectors. And, to a lesser extent, your arms, upper back and shoulders. All of which play a role in jumping. Just as there is no perfect transfer from sumo dead lifting to jumping, there is no perfect transfer from running up to the bar and jerking it towards your hips to jumping. The only perfect transfer to jumping is from jumping. The goal of strength training (unless, as you say, you're a power lifter) is to strengthen your muscles so that they will produce more force when you practice or perform athletic movements either on their own or while playing a sport.
Your fencing thing is also the result of diet, and it is still curable.
I have a bone spur in my left foot, on the first metatarsal of my left big toe. Repeated friction between the proximal phalanx and first metatarsal caused the cartilage to wear down and bone to grow in as a reaction. Fencing does not cause this problem in most people, but A) my posture was bad, and B) the surface of the proximal phalanx is too flat; I was born that way. Diet does not enter the equation in my case. Same as ligament tears, tennis elbow, pick your poison. Ask an orthopedic surgeon how big a role diet plays in herniated discs relative to chronic or acute trauma to the spine.
Squats don't work for me - I have mild scoliosis so extra pressure is on my lower back (since my upper back is curved). And deadlifts hit the back too much.
Fair enough.
THis is essentially a trap bar deadlift.
No, it's not. It's a straight-bar-straddling jerky dead lift. And anyway, why wouldn't you just do a trap bar dead lift? I've done jump squats with the trap bar. Feels great. I mean, I get that you're trying to use momentum but that...doesn't...make...sense.
This exercise was inspired by something I've seen form Nick Nillson, who performs weirder exercises that you would thinka re worse for your joints. Anyway, why are you even asking 'why I'm reinventing the wheel?' THe mere fact that your mind is clouded with that thought prevents you from being rational about this. I'm doing something that I think works and feels right for me.
I'm asking why you're reinventing the wheel because there are dozens of different exercises that have been used for decades if not centuries by the best athletes the world has ever seen, with great results and great safety. With such a large menu of effective, safe exercises, why would you try to come up with one on your own that might not be as effective as some other exercise that already exists, and might be unsafe? But what do I know? If you feel like you're making gains with it then knock yourself out.
I've followed lyle mcdonald for a while, he's awesome. However Alan aragon tries hard, but clean eating is a complex issue and no one has it down right. I eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, (including peanuts a legume), seaweeds, and fermented foods. That's clean, pasteurized dairy/chicken and 180 grams of peptide-bonded protein that is difficult tto digest. I haven't read everything form him though so I'll leave the browser open, he has some good stuff but I can't agree with all of it. I eat Raw Food, extremely beneficial, and the science is coming in now. Nutrition science is quite a new field..and there are a lot of questions being answered wrongly and correctly. If you trust what the FDA says, you're not enjoying the best health out there.
I would bet my life and the lives of my immediate family members (five lives in total, for the record) that Lyle agrees with Alan that the raw food movement is largely full of shit. I've certainly seen him mock "clean" eating on many occasions. Like every day. Sure, there
may be cases where raw food
might be indicated or beneficial. But that movement is just like Paleo, or Zone, or Atkins, or any other diet fad. A small group of people find something that they think works for them, decide that for that reason it must work for everyone to the exclusion of all other diets, and then promote it zealously, evidence be damned. Or they take a few independently correct things and create an entire dogma about them. Take a deeper look at Alan's stuff.
What is hilarious is that I had a HUGE debate on milk on mind and muscle forums, a great forum, and how I believe pasteurized milk really does kill your joints. You're not going to find a correct answer through large scale studies, because there are equal amounts showing it improves bone health and that it reduces or has absolutely no benefit to bones/muscle. It's the individual's special situation that determines if whatever food is right..but overall, pasteurized milk and other dairy products are linked to joint problems, and most importantly, are INFLAMMATORY. How do people come to this conclusion when there are so many LARGE studies showing the opposite? Small scale, CASE studies which provide us with a more narrow/specific insight, although there are enormous amounts of scientific data showing milk is not helping bone problems.
You want to talk about sample sizes of one? I drink a ton of milk and have since I was a little kid. Beyond the aforementioned toe issue (unrelated to diet, as discussed) and some hypermobility (completely and utterly genetic and thus also unrelated to diet), I have no joint issues at all. And great digestion. You should see my shits, dude. Beautiful.
My problem with large studies is that they disregard so many variables... and that people belive what the study says without questioning what was missing using their own logic.
The irony of this statement defies belief.
Stop drinking dairy and your foot or whatever may improve. My friend was a workout buff and got injured all the time, he does not drink dairy anymore and seems to be doing better. It's these individual testimoies I trust more that extremely large studies which are generally easier to interpret than the more detailed specific case studies. Has anyone studied what happens to your joints after high impact loading consuming bee pollen, spirulina, colostrum, velvet deer antler, cacao, hemp seeds.... not yet, but I look forward to when I get the chance.
Good for your friend. Maybe he was lactose intolerant. Or maybe milk had nothing to do with it. I've never heard of milk causing or promoting injuries. Explosive farts, sure. If you have studies to back that up, please share them. As I've said above, the chances approach zero that drinking milk had a role in my toe condition. And I'm not about to stop drinking milk because protein is essential to gain muscle (or to prevent loss if gains are not desired) and milk contains cheap, easily if slowly digestible (there, I said it--but then I'm NOT lactose intolerant*), high-quality protein. I also eat chicken, beef, pork, and fish. And enjoy every minute of it when I do. Eggs, too. Those are also good sources of very high-quality protein and fat. Not to mention they're hella good for you. That's right.
All that being said, the only individual testimony that should matter is your own to yourself. If you feel good and are making gains on the raw/fermented food kick, power to you. Don't listen to me or anyone else. Incidentally, it'd be awfully hard to do a serious study on the effects on joint health of consuming pollen or hemp seeds or whatever after high-impact loading because the effect of high impact loading (depth jumps, improper form while fencing, etc.) is
cumulative. It takes years and years sometimes to become a problem. I hope you pull off a study someday because it'd be a fascinating read. No joke or sarcasm there, I'm serious. But my doubts about your finding positive results are thiiiiiiiiiis big (I'm now holding my arms out as far as they'll go...there).
The biggest thing that I've learned from Lyle and Alan (and others) is that everything has its place, and you should do everything in moderation most of the time. Raw food might work great for some people but as a general prescription it is more likely to be wrong than not.
*Nor do I have Celiac...so I can eat all the grain I want! And, as I said before, my digestion works like a god damn charm. It's all in the shits, man.
