We also saw two white squirrels in the same area. Nuts!

Brian the bear whisperer.

Bears on parade.

Approximately here.

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The truth is I doubt many of us would ever start anything worth doing if we really knew how much work it take. Here’s to my slow-learning-fearless-DIY brethren. Wear a dust mask.

Here’s the beginning…

And after much confusing un-plumbing work done in the basement, here’s where I am now. There is no turning back.

I don’t think I’ve seen ever so much pommade, ear gauges, and neck tattoos in one place. Some of those things aren’t exactly “era correct” but when the third wave of rockabilly mixes with punk rock and hot rod car culture (the automotive version of punk rock) things get crazy. Here are some pics and videos.

Rockabilly and mud wrestling behind us. Remind me to shave before hitting the road next time.

This T-bucket was one of my favorites. More pics from the Weekender.

Below is 1932 Chevy Roadster Pickup Hot Rod. (Didn’t get to talk to the owner/builder. Interesting ride.)

Slammed Model A Tudor and Clint Bowyer’s 1934 Chevy hot rod (I’ve seen Bowyer’s ride in Rodders Journal. Nice to see it in person.)

T bucket hot rod (Love the paint. One of my favorite cars at the show. Saw it in Street Rodder April 2011.)

1927 Chrysler Roadster (I got to talk to Larry Shoaf owner of Rod Crafters. This car was featured in Street Rodder October 2009. Great to see it in person. Build quality is extremely high.)

The Buzzards playing outside at Heavy Rebel Weekender 2011 (While mud wrestling is taking place…)

The Hollowbody Hellraisers (One of the better bands we got to see. Too loud for the mic on this camera…)

I’ve been a fan of Tim Ferriss for a while and was excited to get his latest book The Four Hour Body as a Christmas gift. That said, it took me a while to get into implementing anything in there. I’m a classic ectomorph, just over six feet tall and weighing between 155-160 since high school. I’m 44 now. I decided to try Occam’s Protocol, the rapid muscle-gaining program in the book, to see if I could overcome my genetic predisposition to skinniness.

My primary sport is competitive cycling. Except that in the last year I haven’t been competitive. No races at all in 2010, much less riding in general and virtually nothing resembling “training” had left me weighing about the same but softer and weaker than ever. I had committed to getting back into cycling shape this year, but decided to give Occam’s Protocol a shot before piling on the miles and hours of bike training.

I was only going to allocate one month to the muscle building program because I was already behind on the cycling plan. I read, re-read, highlighted and tabbed every page of the related chapters of The Four Hour Body including “The Slow-Carb Diet (I and II),” “Damage Control,” “The Four Horseman of Fat Loss,” “Six-Minute Abs,” “Geek to Freak,” and “Occam’s Protocol (I and II).” I had read Ferriss’s orginal Geek to Freak blog post a couple years ago, on his site and at Bodybuilding.com. This time I scanned the 1000+ comments for answers to many of the questions I had. Finally, I took everything I could digest and understand from those sources and came up with a plan.

Supplements

Time Ferriss says “this protocol works without any supplementation whatsoever” but then goes on to recommend four if you have the budget. My time, brain space, and money budgets were somewhat limited but was able to get three of the four before I started the protocol.

• Alpha-Lipoic Acid
• L-Glutamine
• Creatine Monohydrate

Read the book if you want the details. I followed the loading phases and dosing pretty closely. In the Geek to Freak he mentions NO-Xplode so I bought some of that too, only using it before workouts.

Workouts

Speaking of workouts, I followed the directions in Occam’s for those as well. I used free weights but substitute deadlifts for squats because they bother my knee less. All weight lifting exercises used a single set to complete failure.

Workout A

• Yates row with straight bar. Target 7 reps, 5/5 count.
• Military press. Target 7 reps, 5/5 count.
• Myotatic crunch. 10 reps. (optional)
• Cat Vomit. 10 reps. (optional)

Workout B

• Slight incline bench press. Target 7 reps, 5/5 count.
• Deadlift. Target 10-12 reps, 5/5 count.
• Kettlebell two arm swing. 50 reps.

I used the exact progressive spacing of workouts in the book, and the rest periods between exercises during a workout. The deadlift is such a total body exertion that I was never sure if I was achieving a proper failure. I realize that last phrase of the last sentence sounds ridiculous. What I mean is, even though my legs could probably crank out a few more reps, my form would start to fall apart, my back would round, I couldn’t get enough oxygen, etc. Deadlifts are fun but can be somewhat scary too.

Food and More Food

Of course, the eating is the hardest part. There are various rules of thumb for how much protein you need, Tim has his more precise calculation, but I made sure I was getting at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. I didn’t do detailed calculations because I had a standard set of meals each day. To help keep on track I took pics of everything that went into my body for the first couple weeks. The first week food log on Flickr.

I also used protein shakes (the exact recipe in the book) as part of what Ferriss calls “The Fixer: GOMAD” for those that are “hard-gainers.” Instead of a gallon of milk a day I had about a liter, or LOMAD. He points out that fat gain can accelerate, and for me it did. After the third week I stopped the milk and just had the protein powder in water, which is how you’re “supposed” to use it.

Again, following the directions, I used the Slow-Carb diet, with shakes, and added “a starch such as brown rice or quinoa to the non-shake meals.”

The diet, supplement, protein plan was getting complicated so I made a couple charts to reference throughout the day.

Results

My first weigh-in and measurements were on Feb. 5. I did Workout A the following day. By March 5 I was essentially done, but did one more of each workout before completely changing my program to focus on cycling. You can see from the chart that I didn’t gain much weight after Feb. 26 which is when I stopped the milk. My gut was getting way too fat.

Tim Ferriss would not approve of the Tanita body fat scale as a way to measure body fat percentage. To be honest, I think it’s bogus too, but the closest Bodpod to Asheville is few hours away. All that said, I do think that about half of my weight gain, almost 10 pounds, maybe a little more was muscle.

I believe that to be true because at my largest my waist grew over one inch, and as I mentioned I started out soft in the first place. Later I noticed a comment from from Ferriss on his blog where he recommended getting lean as possible before starting Occam’s Protocol, but with cycling season on me I couldn’t wait to do that first.

The good news is the muscle gains have remained and my gut is almost back to where it was when I started. I’m doing a consolidated workout just once per week now for maintenance and a whole lot of cycling training. The Slow-Carb Diet does not work at all for cycling so I’m back to eating a wide range of carbs before, during, and after training rides. On off days I stick pretty close to the Slow-Carb tenets. A month after the protocol was done this is where I ended up:

• Neck: +0.4″ – No direct exercise at all.
• Shoulders: +1.0″
• Chest: +0.3″ – I didn’t expect much from the incline bench.
• Waist: +0.4 – And shrinking. Lost an inch already.
• Hips: +0.0 – Really? I was sure deadlifts and kettlebell swings would have had some effect.
• Upper Arm: +1.0 – Nice surprise.
• Foreman: +0.3 – No direct exercise at all.
• Thigh: +1.2 – My legs were sore after every B workout.

Mistakes and Lessons Learned

The number one mistake I made, that I’m aware of, is performing the reps too quickly. My “five count” was nowhere near a five full seconds. Unfortunately, it took a couple weeks to figure this out. I decided to use my Flip camera to record lifts mostly because I wanted to focus on form and not counting reps. With deadlifts I don’t think my brain was capable of counting accurately. What I discovered was that I was moving the weight way too fast, especially in the early reps. As a result, my “time under tension” was less than the prescribed 80-120 seconds. And worse, I couldn’t really tell what my strength gains had been.

Now I use the Flip to record everything, and a big clock on the wall to help count the seconds.

Questions that Remain

• Did the Four Horsemen supplements actually help avoid more fat gain? How can I tell?
• Why should I take NO Xplode on non-lift days? It sounds like Tim did with one day off per week to give his “adrenal glands and adrenergic receptors a rest.”
• Should you still have Slow-Carb cheat days while doing Occam’s Protocol?
• Should there be one day per week where you cut your caloric intake by half? Ferriss mentions doing this in the blog post to prevent “protein uptake down regulation.”
• Why is “whey protein isolate” preferred to just “whey protein”?
• In The Four Hour Body Ferriss says to avoid artificial sweeteners like acesulfame potassium and sucralose, both of which are in NO Xplode and most protein powders. Are the amounts in those too small to matter? Where can I find “whey protein isolate” that doesn’t have those sweeteners?

Occam’s Protocol Take Two

I am definitely going to try this again later this year, when road cycling done. I’m the heaviest I’ve ever been, possibly the strongest too. Now that I’ve been through it, learned the diet, and how to keep lifting form on track I’m sure I can gain another five plus pounds of muscle.

If you are reading The 4 Hour Body by Tim Ferriss you will probably find this interesting. These guys are trying to get their body fat down to 10%. Like Ferriss recommends they are using Bod Pod to get an accurate baseline. And it’s just kind of funny.

I looked into as well but the closest Bod Pod in hours away in Charlotte, NC. I’ve started the “slow carb” this week and plan to dive into the muscle building bit on Sunday. Instead of Bod Pod I’m going to use my Tanita Scale with “bioelectrical impedance analysis” that I’ve had for several years. Mr. Ferriss is not a big fan, and I know they are not super accurate, but it’s what I have. I figure if I’m as consistent as possible in how I use I’ll get good data. At the least relative numbers will be helpful.

People in Asheville turn out. I love this place. Downtown was jammed. We managed to make it to our office and viewed the beginning of the holiday parade before wading through the crowds to meet some friends down the street. Then we capped off the morning with some killer gyros at Mediterranean Restaurant on College St. That place has become an addiction for me. From their Google Places page:

Cuisine‎: Mediterranean
Reservations‎: Not Accepted
Meals Served‎: Breakfast‎, Lunch
Dress Code‎: Anything Goes
Audience‎: All Ages

Man, I had a lot of work to do today, but it seemed silly to not at least check out the Bill Clinton scene, especially since our office is only couple blocks away. I didn’t get there until Bill was already on. There were barricades around the perimeter of Pack Place, and at this point they were only letting people come out, not in. So, I’m pretty far away, but you can recognize that voice right away.

We get our share of presidents!

I’ve never done a corn maze before. Hickory Nut Gap Farm is a popular one near us in Asheville. I would say the maze, the farm animals, the barn, and pumpkin patch are great for families with young kids. We enjoyed it with our teenagers, but it’s a pretty low-key experience. Of course the short drive out there is beautiful. And who doesn’t like goats? Especially micro goats.

Check out Hickory Nut Gap Farm.

A couple pics of the kids.

And oh yeah, riding horses. This is Paris riding at my parents’ neighbors’ joint. Now owned by Hampton University.

An evening stroll at Buckroe Beach. I have fond memories of the amusement park that was still there when I was a kid.

Fireworks finale from Fort Monroe. My parents live on Mill Creek directly across the water from where the fireworks are launched. Always a good view.

Osprey nest over on the Fort Monroe side of Mill Creek. My lady loves the birds, especially raptors.

Boating on Mill Creek with the yacht my dad and uncle recently bought. We usually canoe but considering the heat I didn’t mind the motor.

Saturday morning before we left Mars and checked out the hot rods at a car show in Asheville. I’ll do another post with some pics.

Friday before we the trip Mars and his friends at Rock Academy put on a show. The one song I didn’t capture in its entirely, tragically, was Mars singing (what??!?) “Ace of Spades” by Motorhead. I need to post this on Imheavyduty.com too.

Some family photos here.

I’ll do another post about the hot rods, probably.

We love the waterfalls in NC. The falls at Dupont Forest are some of our favorites, and they’re close to Asheville. These videos are from “High Falls” which is at the top of the park. As a special treat we had some extra family members with us yesterday, Jolly, Phil, Ellie and Dillon.

On the other side of the falls there is a sweet looking natural slide. There were some college-age kids zooming down it but I didn’t manage to catch them in motion. It looked like it was hard on the backside, but worth the pain. Well, maybe at that age.