After yesterday’s interlude, we return to our weekly open thread.

Chris:

Maybe you’re not aware of it as you breathe in the warm fresh ocean air of Malibu or bask in sun of the Dominican, but here in New England we have been buried with about 8 feet of snow during the last month. For those of us that shovel, how should we factor it in with our 5×5’s and with rest?

Leading with sarcasm? Dig (see?).

I fully appreciate this question because it proves that you’re hunting value at the margins. Most wouldn’t think of shoveling as volume added to training. This gives me insight into the way your mind works and gets me excited about answering this question.

First, shoveling should unequivically be factored in. Not knowing all the variables, I’d say most of this from livestrong.com is true:

Clear your snow-drifted walks and burn calories quickly at the same time. Snow shoveling is dynamic cardio exercise that uses muscles in your legs, core, back, shoulders and arms as you work to keep your body warm, walk around, lift a shovel loaded with frozen water, brace your core, thighs and upper body against the weight, and repeat a full range of movement with each toss. All of these things add up to a fair workout — and a strenuous one.

That said, the best way to get the most out of your 5 x 5 workout is to recover fully between training days. From builtlean.com:

If you do not provide your body with adequate rest or nutrition, you can actually reverse the anabolic process and put your body into a catabolic or destructive state.

Shoveling is not recovering. So answer your question simply and directly, be resourceful and get a neighborhood kid to shovel for you. Light on funds? Offer a barter deal with someone where you provide a service of equal value. Still no dice? I’ll let you set up a tent and camp on my property in Malibu so you can get catch that clean air. I’ve been looking for someone to build a chicken coop. Wait, that plan sort of defeats the purpose of your recovery, huh? Oh well. Everything is a negotiation.

Kap

Cody:

I start work very early in the morning, around 5am, and usually make breakfast the night before to bring to work so I don’t have to get up earlier than I need to. Reading Stephanie’s post on intermittent fasting got me thinking about skipping breakfast altogether in the morning to save time, I usually find I’m not that hungry that early in the morning anyway. We’ve all been told for a long time that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but is it really true? If there are benefits to Stephanie’s method of not eating until 5pm after she wakes then it shouldn’t hurt not to eat breakfast in the morning right? Curious to know if breakfast really is the “most important” meal of the day, or frankly if you need it at all.
Thanks and keep up the good work! Go Dodger!

Cody,

My man. First let me state the obvious. I eat and love breakfast, every single day. I crush a giant organic Japanese yam, a bunch of various mushrooms, 4-7 whole eggs and three cups of organic, black coffee.

I got started on my monster breakfast routine because of 1990s propaganda (not rooted in science) that “you have fuel up when you wake up.” This mantra was incubated to sell. It was generated by marketing machines across many verticals, not limited to cereal companies and bodybuilding magazines.

The other narrative was tied to the belief that if you skip breakfast, you’ll inevitably slow your metabolism and gain weight. I even advised teammates of such in the minor leagues thinking that I was sharing critical intel. This, of course, was before I was willing to mine quality data. Here’s some info from the New York Times that you might find valuable:

The largest and most provocative of the studies focused on whether breakfast plays a role in weight loss. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other institutions recruited nearly 300 volunteers who were trying to lose weight. They randomly assigned subjects to either skip breakfast, always eat the meal or continue with their current dietary habits. (Each group contained people who habitually ate or skipped breakfast at the start, so some changed habits, and others did not.)

Sixteen weeks later, the volunteers returned to the lab to be weighed. No one had lost much, only a pound or so per person, with weight in all groups unaffected by whether someone ate breakfast or skipped it.

Now, if you’ve been following the blog you know we don’t care about weight around here if the body composition is healthy. However, we do dig busting myths, and these studies assist in that regard.

Like I said, I flat out adore a huge meal first thing in the morning. It’s the sensory experience that I connect with. The yolks and the sweet starch combined…the smell of cinnamon and spice of cayenne pepper, the physical heat of the coffee, these are the elements I’m not willing to relinquish. For me, breakfast is no longer about solely health, although I make healthy choices.

Bottom line, if you’re not hungry, Cody, don’t eat until you’re good and ready. Your system is complex and smart. It’s going to share the signal that it’s time to crush.

Kap