Eat Bacon, Don't Jog

 

I was at the library looking for "Just Ride" by Grant Petersen and found this instead.  The title works as a summary -- you should do hard simple exercise (kettleballs, burpees, sprints) and forgo grains and carbs of all sorts.  It posits the insulin response as the great enemy.  It inspired me to pull the trigger and buy a couple kettleballs with my birthday money.  It did not inspire me to change my general belief in Dr. Greger.

I like the size -- it's about 8" by 4".  I like the organization/format -- about 100 chapters, some several pages, some just a couple paragraphs.  The 100 chapters reminds me of the way that Robert Richardson writes books (which I've written about before, via Austin Kleon).

The chapter titles are aphoristic themselves:

• Mixing work and play wrecks both
• Write your routine on a 3x5-inch card, then follow it
• Booze trumps junk
• How to get a figure like a potato
• Don't let the clock be the boss of your piehole

The book is broken up into sections:

• Food basics
• Food particulars
• Exercise basics
• Exercise particulars    

I learned from 

Chapter 70: The Brutal Tabata

Izumi Tabata was a Japanese Olympic speed-skating coach in 1996 when he was credited with developing a high-intensity, 4-minute workout that provides all the aerobic benefit of a 45-minute, huffy-puffy training effort in less than one-tenth of the time, and with less risk for injury.  A Tabata is eight 20-second all-out efforts separated by 10 seconds of rest. like this:

1. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
2. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
3. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
4. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
5. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
6. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
7. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest
8. 20 seconds all out/10 seconds rest

Although the all-out time is only 160 seconds, it's a tought 160 seconds, since the rest periods aren't enough for you to even begin to catch your breath. That why it works, and why it's so brutal.

Here's an example of the two characteristic chapters: