Post-Thanksgiving GAINZZZ

Study: chronic dosing of THC reduced testicular volume in Rhesus monkeys.

For each 1 mg/7 kg/day increase in THC dosing, there was a marked loss in total bilateral testicular volume of 11.8 cm3 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 8.3--15.4). In total, average bilateral testicular volume decreased by 58%. Significant dose-response decreases in mean total testosterone level by 1.49 ng/mL (95% CI: 0.83--2.15) and in estradiol level by 3.8 pg/mL (95% CI: 2.2--5.4) were observed, but significant increases in the levels of follicle-stimulating hormone by 0.06 ng/mL (95% CI: 0.02--0.10), luteinizing hormone by 0.16 ng/mL (95% CI: 0.08--0.25), and prolactin by 7.4 ng/mL (95% CI: 3.4--11.3) were observed. There were no statistically significant changes in semen parameters.

Conclusion(s)
In rhesus macaques, chronic exposure to THC resulted in significant dose-response testicular atrophy, increased serum gonadotropin levels, and decreased serum sex steroids, suggestive of primary testicular failure. Further studies are needed to determine if reversal of these observed adverse effects would occur if THC was discontinued and for validation of the findings in a human cohort.

I can't have my bilateral testicular volume decreasing. I leave that to JackStraw and his ilk.

This guy says he got shredded to 10% body fat just by keeping in a caloric deficit (watching his diet) and walking on a treadmill. Caveat, his before picture shows that he started off at about 13% bodyfat, so he wasn't exactly out-of-shape.

He makes a few points:

Walking burns almost as many calories per mile as jogging. That may sound like nonsense, but I introduced a nonsense comparison: Calories per mile, not calories per minute. You'll burn calories more quickly running, of course, but walking burns them too. It just takes longer.

Walking also keeps the body burning energy in the fat-burning zone, where only fat is burned for extra energy. More intense cardio causes the body to burn muscle tissue for energy (along with fat), which isn't the end of the world -- you can build muscle back -- but it's not ideal, either.

The big disadvantage walking has over other forms of cardio is that it takes so long. You're not exerting yourself anywhere near your limit, so you have to walk for a while to burn 300 or 400 calories. But the advantage of walking over all other forms of cardio is precisely that you're not exerting yourself anywhere near your limit, so you're never wiped out from it, and you need almost no recovery time. You can walk everyday; if you have the time, you can do two long walks in a single day.

He walks on a treadmill, he says, because where he lives, Florida, is so flat, and he needs the treadmill to simulate inclines to increase intensity. If you have hills near you, you can get that intensity just walking outside.

Regarding intensity: To get something out of walking, you have to try to walk at a brisk pace, one that causes you to breathe somewhat heavily. Casual strolling does burn some calories but so few you'd have to walk a long while to really make an impact.

A big problem with walking is that if you're not paying attention and mentally putting the whip to yourself, you will find yourself naturally slowing to a casual stroll. You can't do that in jogging, because if you jog too slowly, you just fall out of the jog entirely. Jogging has a minimum speed. But walking doesn't. If you're not paying attention to your pace, you can really start loafing.

I used to get my best times with a Jawbone tracker set up so that my phone would give me my split times audibly periodically -- telling me that the last quarter mile was walked at a pace of 15 minutes per mile or whatever -- which would help me focus on maintaining a pace.

Just one thing you have to keep in mind. It's not the end of the world if you loaf, but if you loaf for too long, you're getting fresh air, but not really exercising much.

That's all I've been doing in this post-Thanksgiving period. I tried starting some home workout stuff but I didn't get a schedule down and stop.

I'm using this guy as an inspiration -- supposedly he lost 330 pounds over a year and a half just through diet and walking. Although, his walking schedule was walking a mile to and from Walmart for each of his three meals per day. I assume he was on disability or welfare because the walking alone, not counting changing, showers, and stretching, would take three hours per day.

Still. Most people won't be looking to drop 330 pounds.

This guy walked 100 miles in 7 days (he says), which is about 31,000 steps per day, and, in addition to losing four pounds of fat, he says he gained an inch of height due to his back straightening.

I don't think I believe that. On the outer edge of plausible but... meh.

I think I'll just eat some liver and testicles for GAINZZZ.

What about you guys? What are YO GAINZZZ?

Workout mix of training montage songs from the 80s. Plus a couple of parodies of 80s training montage songs, and Europe's "Final Countdown" just because it should have been used in a training montage.

posted by Ace at 05:10 PM

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