STRONG MAN NUTRITION++

NUTRITION LEADING UP TO STRONG MAN COMPETITION

After completing my first strong man competition, I can now say I have a better understanding of the nutrition requirements for strong man.

Above is a picture of my friend Marc @turbo_savage420 - He inspired me to do this comp.

The sport of strong men, is as it sounds, has the requirement for strength. But unlike the often compared sport of powerlifting, it requires more cardiovascular capacity. For that reason, powerlifting, or Olympic lifting are purer displays of strength and power, where as strong man, is like a hybrid sport between CrossFit and Olympic lifting / powerlifting. The key component is that your must drive a powerful movement for a period of time.

Pic of myself (right) and my highschool friend Mark. P, post axel bar deadlift

Now as a biohacker, I am always applying the science and strategy of sleep / nutrition / breathing to various different sports or physically demanding tasks. I have never done anything that requirement this much strength. I’ve done bulking/muscle building many times over the past decade, but they never included developing strength and mass at the same time.

NUTRITION FOR STRENGTH AND MASS

This event took place on May 20th 2023. I began training for strength / strong man in September 2022, so lets say about 8 months. Prior to that I was do strictly CrossFit, and was focused on fat loss in combination with the HIIT style crossfit training. I had dropped to about 180 lbs. @ 12%, my overall fitness was fantastic (Cardio / flexibility / strength). My strength was probably the weakest of the 3, but I could back squat 225 and deadlift around 300 and bench around 200 lbs.

I decided that I would focus on building strength and muscle at the same so. The strongment comp we had registered for had 2 weight categories, under 200 lbs or over 200 lbs. That gave me a target of 200, so I gained 20 lbs. on the dot over 8 months.

My two older boys (Bennett - Left and Callaghan Right) getting ready to cheer me on

I added the 20 lbs. well, I’d say about 13-15 lbs. of muscle and 5-7 lbs. of fat. These are good ratios for natural athletes (no steroid use). Adding muscle always comes with fat.

To do this, I found out my avg caloric daily requirements using the cunninghams equation at the following link; https://peterbond.org/calculate-rmr-cunningham-equation

I always prefer the cunninghams equation, as it is one of the only ones that takes muscle mass into consideration. This is very important for athletic populations.

I then added 300 kcal to my daily average, and target about 6g / kg of carbs and 1.5-2.0g /kg of protein and filled in with lots of healthy fats.

This is a sample day for me;

Breakfast

2 cup oatmilk (>50g carbs)

1 banana (~25g carbs)

3 tbps. cocoa powder (Loads of iron/magnesium/zinc and ionophores such as quercetin to help utilize those energy nutrients)

1 tbsp. hemp or chia seeds for omega fats, adding micros and fiber.

1 scoop of plant based lean fit protein

1 cliff bar on the side (oatmeal and soy protein, perfect addition to boost complex carbs ~45g and 10 protein).

The shake was easy for me during this bulking phase. I was able to drink it on the go. It was quick and convenient, as well as easy to digest, which is important for me, because I never have time sit in the mornings. The shake provided me with over 100g complex carbs, loads of micronutrients, at least 35g protein and essential omega fats and about 800 kcal.

LUNCH

whole wheat wrap (30g carb, 5g protein

1 can of light tuna in water (40g protein) or 4-5 eggs

baby spinach

1 tbsp. olive oil

pickled carrots

2 tbsp. light mayo

2 cliff bar (90g carbs, 20g protein) or peanut butter and honey toast

So we have about 1200 kcal here for lunch, totaling 2000 kcal for the day

DINNER

1.5 cups pasta (350 kcal, 90g carbs)

Store bough marinara, nothing fancy

180g chicken breast (60g protein, 330 kcal)

1-2 cups of 2 different colored vegetables

800 kcal, >100g carbs and 75g protein

DESSERT

PB + HONEY + CRACKERS OR 2 CLIFF BARS (500 kcal, 90g carbs, 20g protein)

So my calculated avg caloric burn was about 3000, my lean bulk target was 3300, and I tried to keep carbs around 500g and protein around 150g.

This was not difficult to do. Personally, I prefer a simple 3 meal per day as I am busy.

I terms of supplements, I was using;

3g creatine HCL Muscletech

3g Beta Alanin Allmax

9mg boron

500mg krill omega 3

2000 mg hawaiian spirulina

After about 8 months of training, I achieved my weight goal, but fell short of strength goals. I got my dead lift up to 420 lbs, bench press up to 250 lbs, and squat up to 385 lbs.

During the competition, I was able to axel deadlight 11x350 lbs which is a significant PR.

I hope you guys keep getting stronger!

Bada bing

BIOHACKING IS MY JOB AND I LOVE IT

BIOHACKING IS MY JOB, and I LOVE IT

I have decided to restart my BLOG so I can better convey my journey and passion as a biohacker, and help people along the way. I love what I do, and I want to share what I do so others can benefit as well. I like to help people, all types of people. I want to help people live healthier lives so that my get the most out of their human experience.

My specialization is in sports performance. Much of my practice revolves around being able to optimize peak human performance, but I also really enjoy helping regular individuals improve their health and well being. I believe a healthy and fulfilling life requires the balance of adequate exercise, nutrition, & sleep (Also spirituality, but I’ll focus on the more concrete stuff for now…).

WHAT IS A BIOHACKER?

As a BIOHACKER with a focus on sports performance, I am constantly self experimenting with techniques to improve the functioning of my body for a specific goal. High level sports performance requires many different bodily adaptions which vary depending on the sport. All sports require a certain degree of strength, cardiovascular capacity, explosiveness, reaction time, talent and a variety of mental abilities, just to name a few.

The role of a biohacker is to apply the most up to date techniques on himself and/or others to create unique and fine tuned protocols for specific application to individuals, and in my case athletes.

My educational background is varied, I have a degree and license to practice respiratory therapy in Quebec. I have been working as a Respiratory therapist since 2010, mostly within critical care setting, but more recently within a sleep diagnostic laboratory. This education and working experience has giving tremendous insight into physiology and disease, and sleep.

I also have a Bachelors of science in Nutrition from McGill, with a focus on sports nutrition. This is the foundation for my practice as a biohacker. I apply nutritional techniques to improve the adaption or function for sport/exercise.

Since 2020 I have completed my Master of Science in Exercise Physiology, where I was able to lead a scientific study focused in sports nutrition, and participate in the publication of scientific literature. This experience was vital in my understanding of how to read and interpret scientific literature. My practice as a biohacker is fundamentally based in science. I am constantly reading and reviewing newly published research papers to stay on top of the fast moving world of sports science.

My practice began in 2016

I have started a small biohacking practice in 2016 out of a good friends gym (Speed Science) in the West Island of Montreal. I began this practice while completing my degree in Nutrition, while working full time as a respiratory therapist. Originally my practice was dominantly nutrition focused, but it gradually evolved with other growing training, education and expertise. I began to realize that human performance can be optimize is many different ways. I began to incorporate breathing exercises for athletes or for meditation into my practice around 2018. Shortly after this I became very intrigued with the effects of sleep on recovery and performance. Ironically at the time I had very bad sleep and was suffering the consequences of that bad sleep. Since then I have done and tremendous amount of sleep research, and also took a job at a local sleep laboratory (One of the domains a Respiratory therapist can specialize). So at this point my practice has 3 main prongs; Nutrition, Breathing and Sleep.

Picture of me in 2019 at McGill biomechanics lab performing research.

TESING PROTOCOLS ON MY SELF

What I realized from studying nutrition and exercise physiology is that there is a huge gap between what is being understood at the scientific level, and it can be applied in real life. A biohacker fills the gap by learning from the scientific domain and develop techniques, structure and coaching methods to apply those methods in real time. This methods are fine tuned by seeing what works and what doesn’t in regular practice and while testing things on oneself. The later is a very unique perspective. It’s one thing to learn about how to lose weight in a text book, another thing to put it to trial on a client, and another level of understanding comes from testing it on yourself. The combination of the 3 leads to a very good understanding of the strengths/weaknesses and limitations of the method.

I am always running some experiment on myself, whether it be nutrition, sleep, exercise, breathwork or all of the above. I have deliberate gotten fatter, skinner, built muscle, ran marathons, weight cut for combat sports, multiple forms of fasting including up to a 3 day fast, sleep deprived myself extensively, spent 1000$’s of dollars on various nutritional supplements and more. My most recent and ongoing experiment was to prepare for a strong man competition which is taking place in two weeks. I have spent the past 6 months trying to get as strong as possible with the minimal amount of exercise and effort as possible. The life of a biohacker is never dull and often painful.

This was a picture of me in September 2022 after reducing body fat, and prior to a phase of bulking and building strength for a strong man competition in May 2023.

So this is the first episode of my restart on BLOG. I hope to do this on a regular basis, weekly/bi-weekly/monthly at best. I do enjoy writing. I am not great at it, but I notice I get better with practice. I’ll often get my wife to correct it to save all you grammar nazis (My grandmother and mother in-law) the angst. I will do my best to share the many interesting experiences and discoveries on my journey as a performance BIOHACKER. I hope we all get to learn stuff together.

Patrick

NOTE:
If you want to receive notifications for further blogs, please sign up below!