High-protein diets vs strength training

Today on Dad Strength

A band pull-apart tip
The burden of carrying things silently
High protein diets vs strength training for muscle
A book, a quote, and a dad joke

A band pull-apart tip

Band pull-aparts are a favourite warm-up and/or assistance exercise for your upper back. The default is retract the shoulder blades, pinching them together to create movement. This is fine BUT I want to tell you about a different approach – one with zero shoulder blade movement.

In this version, you push the shoulder blades forward, fully protracting them. And then? You leave them exactly in place. All movement comes through the shoulder joint.

Here’s a video demo I made for Bang.

This version shifts the emphasis from the rhomboids and lower traps to your shoulders (lateral and posterior delts). Why? Well, you may simply want to emphasize the shoulders. But I also feel like you should be able to express the control necessary to move through the shoulder joint with stable shoulder blades. Think of this as an essential skill for healthy shoulders.

The burden of carrying things silently

On our most recent Dad Strength call, I asked about where it might benefit our kids if we were to be a little more transparent with our struggles. There’s a tendency for guys to silently, stoically trudge forward without sharing what kinds of burdens they’re carrying. Often, it feels like nobody wants to hear about our struggles – or would even understand if went out on a limb and shared them. Shame is a legitimate fear but what a colossal bummer. That’s why guys often suffer in silence.

Here’s something I want to challenge you with: you may be wrong. There may be a place in your life where you can share what you’re feeling. And it may benefit everyone involved when you normalize challenges.

One of our dads shared how he was going through a huge personal challenge – and his son was feeling the stress from it. In a tense moment – where he could have shrugged it all off or shown only frustration – he paused and shared what was going on. And his son? That kid responded in a way that not only built their relationship but made his dad incredibly proud.

I’m not saying that your kids should be your sole source of emotional support. That’s probably a bad idea. But having an outlet is incredibly important. If you would benefit from that, I want to encourage you to check out our calls here.

High protein diets vs strength training for muscle

Protein intake alone does not seem to be effective for increasing strength or muscle size. This is a real bummer for anyone depending on protein-infused vodka to give them an edge. But it’s good news for anyone doing regular strength training.

The upper limits of protein absorption seem to be about 1.6 kg/day. Thats 128g/day for a 176 lb person. Not a wild number. I also wouldn’t worry about how it’s broken up. Eating more protein is probably fine. It’s filling and has a high thermic effect (you burn a relatively high number of calories to digest it). It may not do much for muscle gain but if you want to get leaner, eat bigger meals, or otherwise need healthier options than ice cream soup to stress eat over, it works!

The all-in carnivore diet crowd often experiences great initial progress by eliminating most of the nonsense they were previously eating and reducing total intake. Decreasing calories tends to decrease fat and decreasing fat tends to decrease inflammation. And the carnivore diet works better than you might expect for many. For the first month or two, anyway. However, both blood work and relationships (”sorry, buddy, I can’t bear to watch you eat raw steak for every meal”) may suffer. A number of carnivore “influencers” have notably abandoned the diet in spite of being incentivized to be edgy online about what they’re eating.

For the less extreme protein-maxxers, the issue is often being so fixated on protein that they miss out on dietary fibre and other nutrients that contribute to gut health and overall function. There are also people out there who want to tell you that eating a salad is bad. This is a deeply silly take; almost all of the supposed issues with eating plants are addressed by things like soaking and cooking things.

And then there’s the environmental footprint. Especially since there are so many healthy, nutrient-dense, and options that are more affordable. Yet, many of the folks conspicuously trying to jacked and/or immortal ignore the fact that we’ve all got to live here together. There are useful, healthy options with a smaller footprint. We just have to let go of the idea of maxing out at all costs.

What I’m reading

The High Cost of Free Parking by Donald Shoup
20% of the downtown areas of many cities goes to parking. This is part of the reason that there are more parking spaces in the U.S. than people. When you begin to think about other potential uses for that land, the cost of parking begins to feel absurdly high.

Here’s a shot of my friend Conor Heffernan lifting the 102 kg Cloch Dysart in Ireland – much to the delight of his son. You can listen to his Dad Strength Podcast episode here). He’s also got a tremendous newsletter on physical culture here.

A quote

“The question is: why can’t parking lots be modest paradises?”
―Eran Ben-Joseph

A dad joke

“You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen, it said 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice.”

—Tim Vine

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