Staley Bootcamp - Oct. 15

Training Bodybuilding
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First, thanks to Charles for having such a great line-up! Well worth the price of admission!

A big thanks to Julianne for helping set up my hotel stay and for referring my wife to the Dolce Spa. She had a great time while I was at the seminar.

A few of my observations:

  1. It was obvious that everyone who presented at (and attended) the event is truly what the iron game is all about. These people are the real deal when it comes to maximizing human performance. You newbies to the iron game would do well to attend one of these events. It will both inspire you and challenge your way of thinking about training and nutrition. ESPECIALLY if you get your info from the popular bodybuilding rags.

  2. Dan John is a funny sumbitch, and a great coach. I wish I’d had him as a coach 20 years ago when I started training.

  3. Lonnie Lowry has more intelligence in his pinky than most people have in their whole body! Thanks for a great talk on protein!

  4. Chad Waterbury is the bomb. Thank god my wife was at the spa. The man is big, smart and good-looking. Don’t let the photo on his website fool you, you don’t want him near your woman! Seriously though, Chad is pretty damn brilliant. I haven’t thought that hard about the nervous system since electromyography class in college! I need to see what he’s already written on the supramaximal holds that he recommends. Thanks Chad!

  5. NateDogg is short, thank god, cause so am I and I sat behind him, so at least I could see! BTW, I didn’t notice any boiled egg gas coming from Nate!

  6. Dave Barr is a big bastard! Didn’t get to speak with him, but he seemed pretty cool.

  7. Find out all you can about Z-health. I bought all their stuff. The older I get the more I think about my health as it relates to my training. If they open an L.A. office, I’m so there!

  8. Steve Cotter is a nice guy and very humble. Wish I could have seen him toss the kettlebells around.

  9. I gotta get some kegs and sandbags at my studio. I don’t have the room and the clients will think I’ve gone insane, but damn they look like fun. Reminds me of how easy it was to stay in shape when I baled hay and worked the farm growing up in Illinois. BTW, Keats and Franz Snideman are really nice guys. Didn’t speak with Josh, but he seemed real cool too.

  10. Take away message: Eat more protein, get more sleep, take care of your joints, lift heavy and fast (with good form, of course!), have fun in the gym, go to the next Staley Training Summit!!

We really do have to thank T-Nation for hosting a FREE forum which attracts so many great minds and great people. Without T-Nation, most of us wouldn’t have heard of many of these great coaches and writers.

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[quote]Chad Waterbury wrote:
Proteinpowda wrote:
Chad:

I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation btw.

Jason eg. Powda

Thanks! No fluff, just complex stuff. [/quote]

Thank god I could understand it…I don’t quite know what I would have done if I had not taken an exercise physiology course here at Arizona STATE and had a great professor by the name of Dr. Wayne Willis. GO DEVILS!

JK I like UofA; just not Tucson.

BTW I was not trying to insinuate that you have stated that your workouts will cause a shift in the curve towards more fast glycolytic fibers; I was just asking if this was theoretically possible in counter to the current literature availible today.
I’m going to go through your pamphlet after my organic chemistry test on Wednesday and I’ll let you know what I think.

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[quote]Devil0351Dog wrote:
Well I’m back in MD after a weekend of fun and learning. It’s so weird going from a hotel full of fit people to an airplane full of obese people (sucks when the fat chick stands up an puts her ass in your face…).

I’d have to say that I learned a lot from Dan John. He gave a great talk on “Training for the Busiest”, and training high school athletes (went hand in hand with “FUNdementals” talk by Henkin/Snideman). Then during lunch he gave a class on squat, snatch, and clean technique. I needed that!

The class by Lonnie Lowery was a little over my head…But I did learn a few interesting things. Apparently, weight training is almost as damaging to your body as skeletal trama (I’m lookin at my notes here and there’s a lot of numbers and stuff…) His take home message was basically that protein is good for us and timing and total intake do matter.

At this point, my brain was pretty fried by all of the numbers and charts…Then Chad Waterbury showed up. His talk went WAY over my head, but I bought his book so after I take a few more college classes I might understand a little more. Still it was a good presentation and I learned some stuff.

The round table was very informative. A big point that was made was that sleep defecits are real and we need to sleep more. Naps are good especially post workout.

I seriously think that this was the best $1000 I’ve spent in a long time. So much information. It was great getting to know a lot of trainers from around the country and listening to them all talk.

The after hours at the Kona Grill was a great time. It was like a “who’s who” of T-Nation. Bastard was a lot less of an ass-hole in real life than I expected. And who knew that 2 engineers (Bastard and Jodgey) could be such interesting individuals. JillyBop hung out with us and NateDogg and HotAZ went at it all night (2 shortest people in the place). N4S, I do not snore…At around 1am as we were all realizing that we had ignored the “importance of sleep”, Dan John noted that the bond that the group was building was far more important than the sleep that we were going to miss that night. Great point. Good times. Can’t wait for next year.

DD[/quote]

I think Dr. LL’s talk stimulated my brain the most. I definetly need to re-read his articles. I can see how it would’ve been over my head if I wasn’t a pre-med sciene major.
I’m left w/ these questions:

  1. If the micro-trauma induced by exercises causes localized insulin resistance or the muscle cell to become desensitized then why do we still carb up after a workout? Or is not neccessarily the damage that causes the resistance; but the response to the damange (increased leukocytes etc) which does not occur immedietly?
  2. LL stated that fat intake should be increased on non-workout days (he personally ups his fats 10%) and seeminglY CHO intak should be lowered. But should we focus on different type of carbs (excluding PWO and workout nutrition) on non-workout days? I’m going to guess that we should want even LOWER GI and II carbs on non-workout days.
  3. Should fats be increased in the morning on non-workout days?
  4. If exercise increases metabolic rate is the core philosophy of Massive Eating (in not changing calories daily) still very applicable b/c wouldn’t our caloric expenditure be similar on both days b/c our increased metabolic response for “healing” should be comparable to our exercise induce energy use spike?

For the other presenters:
Charles Staley’s presentation was fun; but if you follow CW’s workouts you should have most of those aspects covered.

The Sandbag men - A ratherfun workout

Z team - Maybe I should consider being a chiropractor or DO. That stuff is fascinating.

Dan John - Absolutely HYSTERICAL. He said the funniest thing of the whole day; it went something like this.
“People w/out chaos in their life need chaotic workouts like jumping off of buildings. And those medicine balls…well they’re there to land on when they jump off the building.”

Dan John can you quote yourself correctly?

Then LL I already summarized. Absolutely fascinating if you have a good background in this stuff and could keep up with him (he had the most slides by far and flew through them…his poor students!)

Chad Waterbury - Again pretty complex stuff. But if you’ve read what he’s written in his programs a lot of it was quite the same. The poor guy got mobbed though at the end! Ok I was one of the mobees…

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[quote]Chad Waterbury wrote:

Thanks! No fluff, just complex stuff. [/quote]

I sometimes forget not everyone had a background in control systems engineering. I followed the presentation fairly well.

But you brought up a great point during the presentation, which I think truly gets lost amongst the layfolk. NOONE KNOWS WHAT A THOUGHT IS. With all the ‘technology’ we still can’t recreate, follow, or map a thought. or a memory. The brain is like the next frontier and as Chad pointed out, we are just starting to march from the neuromuscular junction (or whatever you called it) back through to the brain.

BTW, I knew Chad was an awesome coach and lifting program writer, but that guy is one smart mfer. The point was really brought home in the Q/A session, when forced to come up with information on your own rather than regurgitate a prewritten lecture (even though it looked like he spoke from memory with a couple notes anyway).

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Just wanted to do a quick chime in here and give another thanks and all that. It was a blast and was yet another stellar gathering. Un friggin Forgettabl. It was a great time meeting with everyone there . there were many memorable times had.

Ill end it there I put a more then long winded reply in Chris Shugart’s open Blog a second ago,

Thanks and look forward to doing it again sometime,
Phill

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Wow. What a weekend! My article on the seminar will be posted soon. I just need to sleep 14 hours then, um, start writing it, which always helps with getting published.

The first thing that Nate Dogg said to me was that I was shorter than he thought I’d be. Dude comes up to my nipples and he calls my 6’ (in shoes) ass short! Really genuine guy though. His net personality really matches his real life one.

Oh, and Nate grabbed my ass once over the weekend. I’m not sure what to think about that. I guess one guy grabbing my ass and one girl grabbing my ass in one weekend isn’t a bad thing. At least it evened out.

I also got invited to present at a future seminar, so that’s cool. Really looking forward to that.

Sounds like everyone learned a lot and had a good time. I need to start writing the article up. Lots of pics from the seminar will be included. Nate Dogg fondling me will not be one of them.

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Shugs – I was sitting next to him during the presentation. I noticed that he grabbed any and all ass within his arm’s reach (you, the Candy Barr Twins, and I think he got a piece of HotAZZ), with the exception of mine. Not sure if I should feel relieved or slighted.

What was that keyboard thing you were typing on during the presentation? was it something to take notes on, or was it linked to the internet? I thought you were posting to your blog, but apparently, i was mistaken.

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Well, it’s approaching noon, so I guess I took the lecture containing the need for sleep seriously… hell, the only reason I’m going to do anything today is because I have to go buy some food.

The seminar was awesome. It was really great to meet everyone!

Although it was first and thus perhaps hardest to recall by the end, I really found coach Staley’s presentation useful. Adding weight certainly isn’t the only way to make progress, and after a while you’ll simply have to use other means.

Anyway, long story short, I’ll probably be crunching numbers a bit more and managing time and volume issues more than before. At nearly two years in the progress is slowing down.

Oh, and lest I forget, the thing I wanted most out of the seminar was a bit of a bump in enthuisiasm. Once I catch up on my sleep, I think it will be there. There’s some things I need to try out and a new sandbag I have to fill up and toss around.

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http://images.t-nation.com/forum_images/./1/.1129566046453.Neo_AlphaSmart.jpg

[quote]jodgey wrote:
Shugs –
What was that keyboard thing you were typing on during the presentation? was it something to take notes on, or was it linked to the internet? I thought you were posting to your blog, but apparently, i was mistaken. [/quote]

It’s an Alphasmart Neo - basically a word processor. Love that thing! Here’s a link:

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I met too many people this weekend, and didn’t get to spend near enough time with ANYBODY. This has got to be the best group of internet axe-murderers ever!

The seminar was definately mind-blowing. I was tired just from all the information being crammed into my brain! Thank God I took a lot of notes!

I don’t have much to add as usual - since others have said it better than I could, but I will say that yeah Chris is a bit smaller than he has been in prior years, and it’s all FAT lost. Dude has gotten just shredded! He was always fit and trim the times I have hung out with him, but holy crap. That Velocity diet WORKS, folks!

I got to admit, the thing that I enjoyed most about the seminar was the fact that there were actually people there who were fatter than me! Even with all the fat I’ve lost, I hadn’t expected that. I can’t believe how vain that sounds, but there it is!

Oh, I’m starting a picture thread for those of us who got some good shots. Please post yours there as well so we can all download some memories.

Lastly, if any of you axe-murderers are in Dallas and need anything, let me know and I’ll hook you up.

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I finally flew into Jacksonville at 2:00 p.m. (EST) on Sunday after staying up all night on Saturday. I made it home at 4:00 p.m., ate and CRASHED! I slept until 8:30 p.m, ate again and went back to sleep at 10:00 p.m. and slept until after 10:00 a.m. this morning! Man, I really needed the sleep.

But staying up was worth every minute. The entire trip was awesome, and I’m almost sad to be home and that it ended so quickly. The entire experience ranks as one of THE BEST times of my life. Words can’t describe how much fun I had and how much I genuinely enjoyed meeting everyone and hanging out. Like Aikigreg said, there wasn’t enough time to hang out with each person to really get to know them. But the little bit of time available was amazing.

The seminar itself was great. I know many people summed up their experience with each presenter already, so I’ll save my personal experience for later. But each topic was great. And even if everything wasn’t “new,” it was still extremely useful because we all tend to forget the small stuff and only focus on the main lifts or only progressing through additional weight. So I was pleased to be reminded of putting “FUN” in my workouts and using other methods to progress. The only thing a bit over my head was CW’s presentation, but it was still very good and very useful (buy his book to get the jist of all his research).

For me, this was a much needed break from my extremely stressful life that I’ve faced all year. Enough thanks cannot be given to Charles Staley and Julianne for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to rub elbows (or grab asses) with everyone.

This was just incredible. I wish I had more time to talk to many of you. But I enjoyed each precious minute getting to know Bastard and Derrick, Jodgey, aikigreg, Dan John, Devildog, Phil, Eric, Need4speed, Proteinpowda, Chris Shugart, Jillybop, HOT AZZZZZ ;), and so many others (many Charles Staley guys but not T-Nationers). My roommate, Kenny, was a trip. I’m glad I had a chance to room with him and have him join us Friday night when the majority of T-Nation members got together for the Kona Grill.

I don’t know what else to say. I could go on and on about the presenters and T-Nation members and how much fun I had and how I want to do this again…NOW!!! I hope to attend another seminar by Staley or by T-Nation in the very near future. It’s worth it!

Besides more time, I only wish I had brought a camera. As I really wanted to get pictures of everyone to help remember this weekend forever. Also, the pictures would prove how short I am when standing next to Bastard, Jodgey, Derrick and a few others who tower over me! LOL!

Yes, I did grab Chris Shugart’s ass, but he wasn’t the only one. LOL! I was grabby all over Candy Barr, Hot AZ, Lonnie Lowery and Dan John. Basically, anyone within reach of me was a target. I’m just a touchy feely type of guy. And I apologize for not grabbing Jodgey’s ass. I thought all the elbows and other taps on his leg and arm were enough. Next time, I’ll know to go for the full ass grab! LOL!

If anyone has photos of the event, I’d sure love a copy. Please PM me for my e-mail. Thanks!

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thread for pics:
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=788270

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Oh man, show up shredded and people say you’re smaller than they thought you’d be. Show up bulky and someone calls you fat. Tough crowd! (I’m sticking to lean and mean, however.)

Aikigreg was impressive. Guy’s lost about 100 pounds recently and turned himself into an athlete. His mental and physical tranformations are stunning. Most people might not recognize this, but I’ve met Greg a couple of times before and the transformation is amazing. He wins my vote for T-Nation Ass Kicker of the Year.

I’m working on the article now. Going through my notes is a revelation: tons of info in this one-day event!

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See, you wore too many clothes. If you’d come in a tank top, you’d have gotten more envious responses :slight_smile:

Of course, you’d also have had Nate trying to break into your room. And possibly Dan John. He does the gay voice WAY too convincingly. (NTTAWWT)

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I didn’t say Shugs was small…only shorter than I thought. You could tell he was built well under all the clothes, as I felt his shoulder (and his ass), and there was plenty of muscle. Same with Lonnie Lowery, Dan John and David Bar. However, Barr is just big. That mofo took up two chairs in the front row practically pushing Shugs out into the aisle!

Good times, good times. Can’t wait to see more pics and Shugs article.

Shelle, I’m always a good sport. I have no problem taking it just as much as giving it! Ummm…nevermind, that sounded really bad! LOL!

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Would anyone please verbally read this thread to me? My eyes are still blinded from the light reflecting off Nate Dogg’s head.

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[quote]Proteinpowda wrote:
Would anyone please verbally read this thread to me? My eyes are still blinded from the light reflecting off Nate Dogg’s head.
[/quote]

dude, I was sitting right behind him, I think I have corneal and retinal burns!!

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[quote]Bastard wrote:
I have money saying that every one of you goes home solo.[/quote]

(1) was I right?

[quote]Bastard wrote:
And, if you know me, it’s really not my style.[/quote]

(2) or was I right?

I don’t have the time right now to give some hugenormous wrap of the whole weekend, but I’ll drop a few notes.

To start, if you’d have told me even 6 months ago that I was going to spend $1000 in Arizona with a bunch of dudes I met on the internet, I’d have kicked you in the nuts … or something … I dunno, but I would have not believed you.

I told that to my buddy, you know the kind of tall guy, on the way back to the airport. He says “yeah, and add to that the fact that our hero is a 48 year old high school coach that lives in Utah.” Wow.

Thanks Jules … amazing job! Did you guys catch that she pulled an all-nighter to pull this thing off? She is cool. She could also sell wrist straps to Dan John, but that’s another story.

No thanks Jules … you suck at rigging the raffle!

Dan John is a chick magnet.

Nate, devildog, jodgey, protein powder, akigreg, need4speed, mars mapper, phill, jillybop, dr. ryan, hot AZ, iron john, vroom, kenny, dan john … you guys rock … good times!

Dan John is the most amazing speaker / presenter / teacher.

Protein Powda is alright. Although he wouldn’t have a drink, he ate a whole damned pizza, so Prof X should be proud. From this point forward, unless you have met him in person, you can not rip on him. Needless to say, I will continue.

Dan John made me laugh.

Nate is a stud. We’re sitting at dinner the first night, and some hot POA comes and hangs with him. We’re all thinking … WTF? I mean really WTF? Nate was great.

Dave Barr is a pain in the ass. Even though he has tiny guns, his hair scares the sh!t out of me, so I had to wait until I got far away to bash him.

Dan John is a chick magnet.

Iron John is BULLDOG. Awesome guy … was fortunate enough to share a room with him and chat for a while. The world needs more Iron Johns.

A bunch of you @ssholes owe me a bunch of drinks.

Guess who was involved in this little exchange:
Guy A: “Son, how old are you?”
Guy B: “22.”
Guy A: “Can I give you some advice?”
Guy B: “OK.”
Guy A: “Drink heavily.”

Since all of you guys are ripping on Shugart for being short, I’m going the other way. I’m going to say that he’s better looking than I thought he’d be. That’s right.

Dan John taught me how to squat, snatch, and clean in 20 minutes.

As Nate said it was the best weekend he has had all year, so it was for me as well.

Charles Staley was there. He’s like real smart and stuff. Apparently, adding weight is not the only way to make the movement, I mean exercise, harder. And don’t forget … he put this whole thing together. What a guy!

And I met a slew of his Staleyites too … a down to earth group that “gets it.” I can’t say enough about any of them.

Dan John is a kid in a candy store … all the time … the world is his candy store.

Waterbury knows things. He showed up late in the day, kinda sorta winged it, drew some nervous system sketches on a grease board, and enlightened us … something about lifting heavy weights fast. Dude looks like he walks the walk.

Dan John is a chick magnet.

The Lonman is the sharpest tool in the shed. He said that we should all eat protein and that too much is better than not enough. Glutamine is good. Sleep is good.

Eric Cobb says we need to pay attention to our joints. Check his stuff out … he’s on to something for sure.

And last but not least, Keats and Josh were a pleasant surprise. I did not know what to expect. I guess I thought that they would serve as “filler” since they are Charles’ buds. I was wrong. In fact, I got more “take home” from this duo than anyone else. Kudos!

Dan John made me laugh.

You know, to prove that we are real practitioners, we all better be bigger, stronger, leaner, drunker, or some combo thereof next year.

I am sure that I have left out a bunch of stuff that I wanted to post, but one of the guys there told me to just do something … it’s never going to be perfect. Geez I learned a lot this weekend.

[OK. So I did have time to write my version of a wrap-up.]

In summary, Dan John is an amazing educator and communicator that makes me laugh, and, most importantly, Dan John is a chick magnet.

Bastard

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[quote]chadman wrote:
Proteinpowda wrote:
Would anyone please verbally read this thread to me? My eyes are still blinded from the light reflecting off Nate Dogg’s head.

dude, I was sitting right behind him, I think I have corneal and retinal burns!![/quote]

That was me sitting directly to your left. Sorry we didn’t chat more.

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Well, I need to sum, too. I will tell all you T-Nationers: these are quality people. I really enjoyed myself with everybody and I would hate to leave anybody out, but I have to simply say that I had some real quality time with Derek, Dan, all the Michaels(was there five?), Nate (who was very comfortable giving me shit from the first moment), Iron John (who fits in perfectly with my world), Jill and Hot AZ (and I know your real names), Chris, Phil, and all the others, too.

See, now I forgot someone. Oh, there is Joe, too…and I think he is the “B” in Bastard’s story. Who is the A?

We can’t forget Kenny either…and all the presenters, too.

I will have a full report later, I have a two hour workshop tonight and I have to get out of here. Let me say this, though: there seems to be an instant bond that glues us all together at these events. It is strange how fast it happens. For example, Bastard and Derek. Now, Bastard has been on the net here for a while at T-mag often yanking my chain. Yet, he is…and I am ruining his rep here…a simply great guy. Derek…never heard of him…instant best friend. Here Derek: here are the house keys…lock up when your done.

Phil is a great guy. Ah…I have to run…job thing. But, I will be back.

Oh, I went to the lifting stuff, too. I need to mention that…