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Open Thread: Week 1

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We are starting to develop quite the community, you and I. The comments section is beginning to take shape with regular readers bringing consistently strong takes. We’re witnessing a sincere reflection of the blog in the replies. The guest posters have been showered with affection. Of equal importance, they’ve reported back to me on their substantial growth as an unequivocal result of sharing and inspiring you. All of this, my friends, energizes me to no end.

Additionally, queries on a wide array of topics have trickled in in recent months. Some I’ve answered, some I’ve strategically decided to wait on, as they’ve been quality future blog topics. However, we have yet to open a weekly forum for your thoughts. That changes now. For the foreseeable future on a weekly basis, we will have a Q and A. Post your questions, comments and thoughts. I’ll answer as many as possible.

Nothing is off limits. That said, I will act with discretion, so have at it with taste. Go.

Kap

  • Mike

    Kap, great news on thr Q&A, I seem to only ask questions that may only be relevant to your older mass gaining train of thought, but do you or did you ever monitor total caloric intake and if so what were the ranges you shot for when either trying to lose or gain weight? I understand body types are different but what worked for you? I feel you have an extremely deep understanding of this side of exercise and nutrition that we have not been exposed to. Thanks!

    • Gabe Kapler

      Thanks for the question, Mike. Look for a reply on Saturday.

  • http://Twitter.com/athleticone01 Michelle

    With taste? Guess I’ll be back tomorrow.

    For real, though…Do you have any short-term (or long-term) goals physically besides the standard ‘be healthy, strong, look good’ etc. Plans to compete in anything besides competing against yourself?

    • Gabe Kapler

      Hey there, Michelle. No. Competitions are nowhere near my radar right now. Perhaps in my 90s when I’m truly ‘retired’.

  • Tom St.Clair

    Kap, my question comes as a parent of an athlete. What is your opinion on how much do you push your son or daughter. In respects to on training, diet and acedemics? My concern is getting my son to realize his full potentional.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Tom, this is great question. Look for a response on Saturday.

  • http://gravatar.com/u0033189 Michael

    best way to reduce man boobs?

    • Matthew D.

      If you are drinking beer, stop. That helped me. Though, I could still afford to drop a cup size, perhaps.

  • Mark

    What place do potatos hold in your nutrition philosophy? I live somewhere without consistent access to affordable fresh veggies and fruits, but potatoes are cheap and ubiquitous. What’s an optimal ammount of potato to be consuming?

  • Susan Altman

    I would love your take on the energy of foods, especially the energetic impact of different animal proteins on your body. Maybe a bit on food combining as well? I am curious about how this effects your food choices - or not. As always, much appreciated.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Sure, Susan. Check out the blog on Saturday. I’ll answer this one there.

  • Dan

    Kap, love your site. My question goes along with a post from earlier this week. Other than an occasional glass of scotch, what other than water, if anything do you drink? I drink a fair amount of water, but often feel like it’s the only healthy liquid out there - am I missing something?

    Dan

    • Gabe Kapler

      Hey, Dan. I drink black coffee, water and the occasional scotch, beer or wine. That’s it, brother. Thank you for the kind words.

      Kap

  • http://kbeyazdancer.wordpress.com kbeyazdancer

    Good Sunday Love:

    Have you worked out a plan for helping your hip injury? You’ve posted about it bothering and not being quite right. My hip injury from my car accident has been acting up lately (I don’t think it’s because of my busy performing schedule as I’ve reduced that as well). Have you made a lot of adjustments with your workout (running a little less, resting more, etc)? Are the plyometrics helping or hurting?
    Was that too many questions?
    How that for that tasteful! :)
    Kelebek

    • Gabe Kapler

      No plan yet, Kelebek. Still sniffing around and managing my 5 x 5 with some sprinkled in bodyweight exercises. I’m still sprinting and hiking. I’ll keep you posted. Thanks as always for your participation.

      • http://kbeyazdancer.wordpress.com kbeyazdancer

        It is my pleasure love! I am curious to hear how the bodyweight exercises are working.
        Kelebek

  • http://gravatar.com/billstraehl billstraehl

    Kap, I’m curious about your take on some of the recent incidents with professional athletes, and what could be done to help prevent more from happening in the future. I know they are just people, and people screw up. They are different though, in that they live in a very unusual and demanding environment, and are placed quite high on a pedestal, serving as role models whether they like it or not. Their lives have a transparency now that has never existed before, so I do think there needs to be more discussion and assistance on an institutional level for these residents of the fish bowl. A part of the equation is how they are handled by the media, which is something akin to a shark feeding frenzy, driven more by click generation, than responsible reporting.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Bill,

      Will you be more specific? Which incidents are you alluding to? I could guess, but that seems mildly irresponsible.

      Kap

  • ~Al~

    It’s a free for all! Who wants to loan me some money? I’ll pay ‘ya back next week, promise! Snakeskin or Gators? Latex or Polyurethane?

    Seriously…I’ll talk about this because it’s been on my mind in the recent weeks, and I’ve wrestled with the best way to go about it.

    When you no longer want to deal with someone, either personally, professionally, or both, what’s the best way to go about breaking the tie? Especially when they’ve done you wrong. Often times, I choose to just ignore them. Especially when they have been just pain ignorant to me. Ignorant could mean anything you could think of too.

    I’m a self admitted hot head. Telling people why I don’t want to do business with them, or see them in my free time usually comes with the typical arguments from them, and then I regrettably lose my cool. Choosing to vanish keeps my sanity. It’s what works for me. A few people I care about tell me it is a common courtesy to tell people why I feel this way about them. I say courtesy isn’t common. Just like respect, it’s something that is earned. Not given.

    ~Al~

    • Gabe Kapler

      This I dig, Al. It’s philosophical and will need it’s own individual post. Stay tuned and make sure you follow up if you don’t see a musing on this topic in the next few weeks. Thanks.

      Kap

  • Matthew D.

    You have all seen (those of you who read my lengthy comments) that I’ve become frustrated in my training. I religiously follow the 5×5 with the exception that I coach a high school Cross Country team and run with them most of the time. I refuse to be the coach who doesn’t do what he asks his athletes to do-I try to lead by example. Lately, the weight has plateaued…both on the scale and on the bar. I decided to follow Kap’s advice about the scale (dump it like the untrustworthy ex it is) and resorted to taking pictures of myself. I went from a tight 36 waist to a loose 34 but the handles stick around the sides and I’m just not seeing any definition anywhere but legs. Six weeks of photos every two weeks and there is absolutely no difference (and to answer the potential question, pics are with same clothing, same time of day, same lighting). Kap, your recent advice said some “trial and error” with rest and nutrition, but I feel that since you’ve started this blog, I have done the trial and error approach. Drastically changed my diet (increase fat, little to no sugar, etc.) and it worked great…until June. I have no idea where to go from here on my “trial and error.” I suppose I could use some more “rest,” but 3 days of 5×5 and three days of running (no more than 5 miles) just doesn’t seem like I’m overtraining. You said to be patient and most results come at 6 months, but I want to maximize my health gains. Any help is greatly appreciated.

    • http://thompsontamashii.mobi Duane

      Matthew, I had an issue like that with my 5×5 so I went to 5×7 and added pull ups into my routine. I also combined my overhead press with squats. So I do my squat and come and straight into press. I had to drop my squat weight to be able to press but I noticed a huge difference in the combination of both then individually. Just my thoughts and I hope that helps. I would also like to know Kap thoughts for you.

      • Matthew D.

        Interesting thoughts. I do jump right from my squat to my overhead right now. Funny, my overhead was consistently was slowest gainer, but now it is moving up. Bench is now my slowest gainer, and I think I’ve peaked at 210 on squat and 235 on Dead Lift. I can live with those numbers. It is the fact I cannot press 110 when I started 4 months ago at 100. I’m sure it is related to the shoulder and spinal cord injury from almost two years ago, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating, plus, those are both fixed and solid, that really shouldn’t be the issue at this point.

        I’m not opposed to adding pull ups or moving to 5×7, if that will work.

        I also want to know how I could improve my nutrition as well. I feel like I’m eating enough, but not too much. I KNOW what I am eating better, and loading on the protien.

        • Gabe Kapler

          You guys are both stars. Stay tuned, I’ll try to address your concerns, Matthew.

  • Chester

    Lifestyle choices of MLB’er during the off-season. Are you free to do whatever (legally)? Are there contractual terms forbidding things like climbing, skiing, etc? Or does management pull a player aside and remind a player to make the right off-season choices with their body, because the player needs to “protect their asset” (no pun intended)? Just kinda curious.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Good one, Chester. I’ll hit this on Saturday.

  • Justin

    Kap, I travel a lot for work. As another guy who seems to be on the move, do you have any tips for staying healthy on the road? I have been talking your advice for finding the nearest whole foods or trader joes and stocking up. Now if I can just stay committed to my workout when away from home.

    • Gabe Kapler

      I’m into this question, Justin. I’ll set aside some time to think about it.

      • http://thompsontamashii.mobi Duane

        When I was traveling for work the best thing I did was took my weighted jump rope. Fits in a bag, can use it anywhere and 30 min of intervals and I was good to go. Just a thought.

  • Chris

    Kap,

    You mentioned that you may drop your daily sprouted wheat toast. Did you? It seems to be evident that even the sprouted wheat products end up as a processed sugar in the body.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Hey, Chris. I’m still eating my sprouted wheat toast in the morning. I’ll be making a change on this front come November. I’ll keep you posted.

      Thanks,
      Kap

  • Stu

    Kap, firstly I love your posts and hearing your opinion is so refreshing. A topic that I would like to hear your thoughts on is as follows. For a person that has been an athlete their whole life, always worked out etc, I find that my biggest challenge is finding ways to motivate my wife to be more physically active. Fortunately, she was blessed with beauty and a naturally healthy body/physique. As we all know, the underlying benefits of consistent physical activity aren’t always noticeable to the blind eye. I want her to be as healthy and happy as possible. I know that a consistent workout can increase her chances of achieving health and happiness. However, I can come across a little pushy and possibly have a negative effect when trying to motivate her. I hope to hear your thoughts on this sometime soon. Best, Stu.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Check the blog this Saturday, Stu. I’m on this one.

  • Tyler

    How do you feel about applesauce as opposed to consuming a whole Apple itself. Relative value still decent?

    • Gabe Kapler

      If by applesauce you mean apple puree made from the same organic apples you’d be eating and without adding sugar, I say go for it.

  • http://twitter.com/HutchBeav #BeatWarEagle (@HutchBeav)

    First, thanks for the opportunity to interact with you on your blog.

    I’m curious your thoughts on shows such as The Biggest Loser and Extreme Weight Loss. They are inspiring but I often wonder at what lengths the “contestants” go to to lose the weight. It doesn’t always seem healthy.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Great idea for a future post. Stay tuned.

  • slappythefishman

    Kap,
    First of all I love this blog, read it every day comment when I have something to say…if I ever had something intelligent to say …you know the end of the world is coming.

    Ok for my question, long winded as it is; (the wind-up) I had to have my Achilles tendon rebuilt…. I just got my leg out of a series of casts after 3 months and my calf that started at skinny, loved that post, is gone, my IT band is as tight as a drum and facing at least 6 months of physical therapy (the litany of issues goes on)… Now I am a guy in average shape…I am 5’9”, 212 pounds and go at about 12% body fat without a lick of athletic ability and at times this seems insurmountable (the pitch) how does someone athletic, with so much on the line get through something like this?
    What is the mindset?
    How do you deal with not being able to do what you use to be able to do?

    • Gabe Kapler

      Wow. This is good. Standby while I develop a game-plan to address this.

  • roger

    Kap just wanted to give you a up date on my calf injury through our mutual friend Cassidy. My Mount Washington climb went well no issues with the calf. Thanks for all the advice.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Awesome, Roger. Thanks.

  • Kat

    Hey Kap!
    I’m a ICU nurse who works 3-11. Often I don’t have time for a break and I’m hungry when I get home after midnight. Since It’s so late I know I shouldn’t be eating heavy but I’m starving. Any suggestions on a healthy midnight snack?

    • Gabe Kapler

      Nice, Kat. Tell me more about your eating habits prior to your arrival home? What do you eat before your shift?

  • Colt

    Do you think John Rocker will win Survivor?

    • Gabe Kapler

      No sir. I’ll always take the field.

  • bfile73

    Love to see an expanded post by Dan (and/or yourself) about his Insanity experience.

    • Gabe Kapler

      I’ll give Dan the prompt. Thanks for the idea.

  • Randy Brown

    Are you pro or con on the Shake Weight?

    I kid, I kid. I was actually interested your opinion on a different infomercial mainstay, the P90X series. I have two young kids and my only available time to get in a workout is to wake up before the sun (and the kids). I like the premise of the 5×5 workout and used to do something similar but I doubt that I would stick with a workout that takes over an hour. Wondered if you thought their 30-minute was a worthwhile substitute.

    • Gabe Kapler

      Let me think this one through, Randy. Thanks.

  • http://siue.edu Ryan

    I’ve recently started eating Ezekiel bread. What variety of Ezekiel do you recommend? Keep up the great work on your website!!

    • Gabe Kapler

      I dig the cinnamon raisin, Ryan. They all taste great, in my opinion.

  • Kyle G.

    Hey Kap, sorry I haven’t been following posting much recently, school and baseball has got me busy.

    My Q: Kap, how was your day?

  • Mike

    Kap,

    Love the blog. I have a question about a workout. It is called Occam’s Protocol and is based on the finding that a particular muscle group only needs 90 to 120 seconds of exertion to get the maximum benefit. Anything more than that is wasted energy. This is highlighted in Tim Ferris’s book “The 4-hour Body”. It involves doing one set of say dumbell presses to failure and taking 5 seconds for both the positive and negative movement. I have used this workout on and off over the past couple of years and found it saves some time and has done a good job of maintaining my 44-year-old physique. I also have NEVER seen anyone else doing reps in this slow, deliberate fashion. I have used your 5 x 5 workout with good results also. Since I place a lot of value in your thoughts regarding nutrition and strength training, I was wondering your take on the Occam’s Protocol style workout.

    Thanks a lot,
    Mike

  • Greg

    Hey Gabe,

    Love the blog and forgive me if you’ve covered this in the past and I’ve missed it. I am a father of 12 and 10 year old boys. They are in great physical shape…lean with boundless energy. However, they are weak! My 10 year old daughter can do more pushups. I’m curious what you feel is the best time to start weight training and what is the best way to do it? Simple body weight work like push ups and pull ups or actual weightlifting? I’m not suggesting they do this now but just wondering for the future.

    Keep up the great work.

  • Terri Torrez

    My question - what does the Kapler household pass out on Halloween? I’m looking for suggestions that won’t get us egged.

  • James

    Kap, what are your thoughts on smokeless tobacco and it’s prominence in MLB? With Tony Gwynn and Curt Schilling in the news recently it’s getting out there to the masses the dangers of its use. My guess is you’re totally against it, but seeing as you played pro baseball for so long and it’s so prevalent in the game, I was interested in your thoughts on it. Do you feel MLB should ban the use of smokeless tobacco during games or do you feel it’s a choice the players should be free to make? Thanks.

  • Max Goldstein

    Hey Gabe,

    As per my tweet from last night -

    What are you typically consuming before workouts and how long before are you consuming it? Also, does it vary from workout to workout ie lifts versus sprints?

    thanks,
    max

  • Jersey Boy

    Hey Kap’
    Local St. Pete resident here.. Had a great time with the 07 and 08 seasons… I heard you on local WDAE a few months back and decided to check out the site.. Great job inspiring others. I have been involved as a consultant in the nutrition industry for too long. Through the years I have put together a list of must have items for the aspiring athelete/weight loss/ anyone who is looking for a change items.. I saw your blog regarding such and would like to throw in my two cents. Every single day we leave our houses unprepared without the right food . This leads to bad decisions and the horrible western fast diet.. So I never leave the house whether short or extended without a representation of the following:
    Food
    Organic everything - Eggs, berries, greens, Greek yogurt, probiotics, peanut butter, almond butter, coconut oil, cacoa nibs, Pro Bars, Quest Bars, Honey, fruit, vegetables, nuts/seeds, Oats, raisins, grass fed- free range meat and or poultry 4 oz servings, Isolate protein, Enzymes, Various long leaf tea blends,
    Must haves
    Resistance bands, running shoes,
    Tools
    Vitamix blender, Omega 8006 Juicer, ( Vegetable juicing is the single thing everyone should be doing.)

    I live by simple rules.
    Daily POEMF - Protein/Oils/Enzymes/Multi Vitamins/Fiber(32g/pday)
    Good food equals good everything
    Calorie in Calorie out etc…
    Attaining goals in fitness, mental health, wellness,and weight loss all starts with what you put in your body.

    Quotes:
    “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
    ..Hippocrates
    “Well being is a state of consciousness”
    Me

    Gabe’s Input below :)

    • Jersey Boy

      I forgot one very important component from the list. Apple Cider Vinegar with the mother. I do a shot with a glass of water first thing in the morning. This is a ritual that I cannot compromise.
      Every Day Carry out the door.
      16 oz carrot & ginger juice. 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 pro bar, 1 quest bar, 2 litre water, 2 oz grass fed bison jerky. This seems to be enough to get me through the day. This is a good enough foundation to help me not make bad food decisions throughout the day.
      What are your everyday carry food items?
      Cheers

  • Mike L.

    Hey Kap,

    Thanks for all you post! I’ve become a loyal follower, and loved the time you spent with my home town Brew Crew!

    2 questions for you:

    1. What kind of organic coffee do you purchase?

    2. What advice do you have for eating purely on a budget? All of your posts are great, informative and interesting, but not everyone can afford to buy grass fed this, or organic that for every meal. Any input and information would be much appreciated!

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  • Mike Polidori

    Kap,
    What are your thoughts in Intermittent Fasting(IF)? Have you tried it and if so, what were your results

  • Kristy

    hey, gabe. have you written a post on what you eat in a day? My chiropractor told me this morning I need to eat more. I already eat 4-5 times day. More than your “average” girl. So I need to do some research on other things to incorporate. Not that I should eat as much as you haha. I want to get stronger. I’m still battling back to health from my eating disorder; trying to gain more muscle strength, learning to eat the right foods. I was health conscious when I was an athlete growing up then I lost myself for almost 10 years. I have a lot of food sensitivities because I damaged my stomach so I primarily eat whole foods, which is what’s good for us anyways, but trying to research what to eat more of to gain more strength. Would love any advice! Sorry for the long ramble! Thanks as always.

    Kristy

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