Thanks KK and Jim.....very useful info, I really appreciate it.

I know that we need much less protein than most ppl believe.....but I can feel in my body when I need more protein. I ran out of mesquite for a while recently and my body felt wrong somehow as well as too soft. As soon as my mesquite arrived I tucked in and literally overnight I lost fat around my waist and built harder muscle. My training hasn't changed but my body has changed a fair bit in the few days since I've upped my protein intake. I don't want to rely on this one source as a super-protein though, so it's great to have other options at home.   

I will read Storm's e-book and order some hemp powder. I'm sure my horses will enjoy the hemp ;-)

Thanks again and have an awesome Sunday!!!

 

awesome harley!  I wish I had your leg development!

Anyway I will overcome my shyness and post my picture (in my calvin klein undies - just for the girls) just so people know that yes I get my protein from fruits and vegetables and muscles are built on the floor and not in the kitchen!!!     I do not work out with weights either, only body weight and isometrics (as shown in the following pic):

Yes - Ross Enamait's bodyweight training, John Peterson's Transformetrics, Doug Graham's overload and 1RM principles, plenty of power yoga and I am currently in training for the Canberra Marathon on April 13.  Sounds like a lot but it isn't really, some days I only do less than 30 mins training - the key is INTENSITY.

I was 58kg in December, now I am 63kg - without a change in bodyfat %.  So this stuff combined with raw nutrition is working very well!

Thats pretty impressive...5 KG in a few months at same bodyfat %.

In fact that's damn impressive.

Yes it is, i'm not entirely convinced its 5kg of muscle - myabe 3-4kg. I do fluctuate between 62kg and 64kg depending on hydration/food consumption and activity on any given day.

In the past I would have always placed myself in the 'hard gainer' category.  i.e. ectomorph body type.  However, I do believe now that we all have the same potential as everyone else to build muscles, its just that those with endomorph type bodies have a more stable platform to lift heavier and thus their muscle growth is increased in quicker time - only because they are overloading the body more.

What is working for me is high intensity transformetric muscle contractions in conjunction with rather than pumping out a set of pull ups, I slow down a pull up to 30 seconds and do a 1RM.  Doug talked about this in his maximum athletic performance course.    During the course I got up and did a 30 second 1RM single leg squat and after 15 seconds going down and touching knee to the floor I couldn't get back up and complete a single rep. This is some serious overload.  And this after I had been demonstrating my 1 legged squat strength that weekend to some people.   

As I mentioned somewhere else, then progressing a 1RM to an unstable surface like a bosu ball is further overload and thus the muscle adapts and grows.

However I never made any serious gains until I did transformetrics and daily power yoga.  The yoga I think may have been my missing link for total body strength allowing me a more stable body platform to do the bodyweight training.

And then lastly with nutrition it depends on calories in and out. If you are burning more calories than you are consuming you will not grow - your body will conserve.   Working out the math on 811 comes out to serious food intake and this is where I think everyone except for probably harley is not reaching the daily 3000+ calorie count without going above 10% fat and protein levels.  I have 50kg of bananas at home now which I will consume over the following 2 weeks to ensure I am reaching 3000 calories a day at a minimum.  Especially while training for the marathon I do not want to drop any weight that I have gained over the last few weeks.

However since starting to run again and then progressing to a a few 50km runs and plenty of 10km+ lately I have not dropped any weight. I think just about everyone in society (not on raw) would not have achieved this.

My bodyfat level is 12% so I still have room to drop to single digits.  I suspect both Harley and Doug are single digits.

I think its just denser muscle, i.e. its not marbled in so much fat.   You look at big beefy guys in gyms now - and they are big, but they look puffy and not very well defined.  They almost take on a 'round' look.

Once they stop training they deflate sort of like a balloon - I think its more to do with the fact they stop consuming so much copious protein, than stopping training.

I was out at the Wests Tigers v Bulldogs NRL match yesterday - and some of the players are massive. Then I noticed a bulldogs player only retired for 2 years working as a trainer. He looks about 15-20kg lighter than his playing weight just over 2 years ago.   And then all the old footballers working as administrators, support etc... are all much tinyier than they once were many years ago.

There may be something to do with isolated weight training, but I think when you are working all your muscle groups through bodyweight/isometric training you get a more natural look - combined with right nutrition - the ripped factor is there. And since its very hard to lose muscle unless you've been fasting for a significant period - then over time you will not start 'deteriorating' away like most muscle heads do - I think they just loose some of the water and fat weight from the muscles.

That being said over a significant amount of time if you don't use it you will lose it. So if you stop physical training altogether your body will say - hey we don't need all this muscle, time to conserve our resources and the muscle slowly gets eaten away.   I have no plans on reducing my training well into old age so that doesn't concern me.  Doug at 56 is rock hard.

All this is speculation on my part too

Hi Steve

Thanks for the tips. I love mesquite too! :-) I bought my mesquite from Jen here on RP and it's 1.6g/10g protein and 1.8g carbs - so very balanced after training!

I was also recommended this for hemp  http://www.happyplanet.com.au/shop/product_details.php?ProductID=71 which I'm going  to order soon and try it out. :-)

LS