Got some more text here. Building this airplane as I fly it.
THE “CATFISH PRINCIPLE”: HARMONY DISRUPTERS
I’ve written about this in my blog, MythicalStrength, before (On The Necessary Disruption of Harmony), but wanted to introduce it here as another principle you can apply with “Chaos is the Plan”, as, once again, this is an instance where we can intentionally apply chaos to a system in order to obtain the benefits of it. Once again, I must reiterate that this is not a necessary element to executing “Chaos is the Plan”, and if you are finding success without this, feel free to put it aside for now, but for those that want to continue to apply chaos as you go, allow me to introduced “The Catfish Principle”.
I derive the name from Jon Andersen’s “Deep Water” e-book, which had significant portions written by his training partner/weightlifting coach Jasha Faye. And the existence of such a training partner is, in itself, a testament to the principle. Jasha relates a tale of how Chinese fish merchants would ship fish to market and, by the time they arrived, the fish would be weak, listless, and effective dead from a long period of forced enclosure and inactivity. You can see several human-like analogues of these fish if you ever travel to your local grocery store or place of employment. To resolve these, the merchants began including a catfish inside the vat of fish, which would stir things up, swim around, cause chaos and force the fish in the tank to be active, alert and mobile, resulting in a quality product upon arrival.
Herein we observe the benefits inherent in having a state of harmony disrupted. Prior to the catfish’s arrival, the fish in the tank were in a harmonious state and, in turn, also a state of ennui. They were restless and listless, having no predators to fear nor prey to chase, simply “being”. Coasting, as it were. Many of us are guilty of the same: we settle into a comfortable groove in our training and eating, and that groove eventually becomes a rut, and one day that rut becomes deep enough that we can bury ourselves. Thus the catfish principle: INTENTIONAL disruption of harmony. We do this to stay sharp, ready and capable: just like the fish in the tank.
CATFISH PRINCIPLE FOR DIET
This was touched upon the 10% corollary, but the idea here is that we intentionally deviate from, if not in fact VIOLATE, the nutritional advice of “meat and eggs, when hungry, until not”. This could take one of two forms, and both have their benefits.
OPTION 1: FASTING
The first would be a straight up fast: NO food, even when hungry. This becomes an act of denial, and an opportunity to improve one’s willpower AND become better at peace WITH hunger, learning that hunger is not a crisis response and that one can still live, train, perform and thrive even in a state of hunger. For those with damaged food relationships that are frequent and constant snackers, this could be a good thing. Fasting is also dandy because it gives the digestive system a break and can help prime the body to better receive the quality nutrients you will eventually be feeding it. Herein we see the benefits of the Catfish Principle at play: we deviate from the norm, and it better sets up the body for success compared to if we just did the same thing indefinitely. There’s also a lot of studies that say a lot of cool things about the benefits of fasting, but it’s not my place to discuss them.
But do NOT employ this as a means of self-punishment. Discipline is divine: punishment is a consequence for wrongdoing. If you feel like you overate, don’t “catfish” your way into a fast to damage control: simply stick with the principles of Chaos is the Plan and wait until you are hungry again to eat. That’s “natural fasting”, vs an intentional fast.
I do want to take this time to introduce a middleground on fasting: the protein sparing modified fast (PSMF). Put simply: we eat ONLY protein during a protein sparing modified fast. No fats, no carbs. To accomplish this, one would need to eat pretty much nothing but egg whites and VERY lean cuts of chicken or fish, or possibly some piedmontese grassfed sirloin. This can be done for a full day as well. It’s definitely not something you’d want to do for prolonged periods of time, just like traditional fasting, as you will die, but as far as fasting goes, I like a PSMF as a means to achieving a “fasting mimicking diet” while still taking in enough protein to save muscle.
OPTION 2: FEASTING
I don’t want to call this a cheat meal, because it implies that the nutritional protocol of “Chaos is the Plan” is some sort of burden/punishment/sentence inflicted UPON us and holds that THIS meal is where “the good stuff” is. But for those familiar with that vernacular, that’s effectively what this is. We pick a MEAL (not a day) where the intention is to eat BEYOND satiety, to the point of gut bursting fullness, and one all the foods we have NOT eaten up until this point. Grains, starches, fruits, vegetables, sugars, nuts, legumes, lentils, dairy, honey, etc etc. I would really avoid eating pure junkfood during this time, but on occasion I can see some value there. Eating just high quality variants of these foods will honestly be enough of a system shock to have the desired “catfish” effect here.
What effect in particular? Very SIGNIFICANT harmony disruption, to say the least. I know that I sweat profusely after this meal after my body goes into some sort of insulin shock state and my metabolism gets ramped up like a humming bird. The next morning I am as vascular and defined as I’ve been in a LONG time, since my glycogen stores are all topped off after a pro-longed period without carbs. If I can manage to not eat to the point of sickness, I tend to be able to turn in a pretty solid training performance with all the excess energy I’ve taken in. And this practice of semi-regular feasting allows one to maintain “metabolic flexibility”, in that they can still manage to digest and process several different varieties of food. And hey, maybe if you’ve been lacking some essential nutrients in your diet, you just got them here. And just like fasting, feasting can help prime the body for change, this time in reinforcing the notion to it that we have food IN ABUNDANCE so it doesn’t need to cling so tight to every calorie it consumes. Whereas fasting preps the body to maximizing its ability to absorb nutrients (meaning a slower, more efficient metabolism), feasting creates the opposite effect and builds UP the metabolism to be less efficient; both have their respective time and place, and when used in a complimentary manner (dualism: here we go!) they can help achieve the kind of extreme results one cannot gain through consistent lukewarm efforts.
Much like fasting: don’t abuse this and call it abiding by the principle. This is an intentional feast done for the purpose of generating a physical response: this isn’t about placating some “need” for yummy food. When we are truly hungry, meat and eggs are delicious. They ARE the reward. You aren’t denying yourself to eat in the manner of “Chaos is the Plan”, nor should one “need” a break from it. If that IS the case: look into why that is happening.
CATFISH PRINCIPLE FOR TRAINING
Again, touched on in the 10% corollary, but we can employ the Catfish principle by taking a training day wherein we were SUPPOSED to execute the plan and, instead, do something completely different. No lifting of things from the floor over our head. This could be a chance to do all the “other things” you’ve felt the need to do, or you could just take a workout from any other program or book in the world and do it on that day. You could grab a bodybuilding magazine (there are still a handful in print), open to the first workout you see there and do that. Or go on “wodwell” and hit random and have fun. Or pick up Jamie Lewis’ “365 Days of Brutality” and follow one of the workouts there. Or do the deck of doom, or roll some die, or do whatever your heart desires. The benefits are obvious: much like the third sentence of the manual indicates, variety is good for keeping us sharp and preventing us from adapting, and this is running that to its logical extreme. We keep from getting stale, get to try out new ideas, and can even be shopping around for our next program by trying out bite-sized pieces of other programs.
But that is more “macro level”: we can apply the catfish principle on the micro level, within a workout itself. I am a big fan of “catfish sets”. I’ve stolen this from the Kalsu WOD, and it always works. The original Kalsu is 100 reps of 135lb thrusters, BUT, Every Minute on the Minute you must do 5 burpees. Those 5 burpees are your “catfish”. You settle into a comfortable groove with your thrusters, then suddenly you have to stop what you’re doing, put down the barbell and knock out 5 burpees. You will HATE those 5 burpees by the time Kalsu is done: they absolutely ruin your soul.
You can do the same thing with log viper press and chins. Or Clean and press and bodyweight squats. Or genuinely any combination of “one move, but EMOM another move”. Similarly, you can do Tabata intervals where you do something on the 20 second sets, BUT you still do something during the 10 second rests. Pick a movement what won’t absolutely kill you but does keep you in a state of “not fully recovered” before those 20 second sets, and by the end of 4 minutes you’ll be a puddle on the floor.
