Dave Tate on Integrity

Dave is a super successful powerlifter, businessman and has shown an amazing ability to get lean.....pro-bodybuilder lean. He is the real deal.

I ran across this clip and had to share it.

I have met a lot of people who have built their business and/or lives around talking about how much other people suck, how they are frauds.

You'll hear them brag about their accomplishments, whether athletic, financial or otherwise. All in an effort to promote their own awesomeness. Usually it is a case of a scared little child behind a grandiose curtain, much like the Wizard of Oz.

Of fall the high level people I have ever known, the ones who show excellence and have had continued success are the ones who quietly demonstrate their integrity, rather that talk about it. You have to live it, or else it is all words and smoke and mirrors.

Alwyn Cosgrove told me "Be excellent and success is inevitable."

Wall Street Journal

Pavel and I both got mentioned in an article about Kettlebells in the Wall Street Journal.

They got "Tsatsouline" right but spelled my name wrong?

That's a great problem to have!

Compliance vs. Calories-The Mental Game

or "when is 10% not really 10%?"


I have written before about the 90% rule. Simply, it states that in order to achieve any meaningful result on a given program, you must comply with that program to at least 90%. Less than 90% doesn't give you enough information to know if the program works, because you are introducing too many variables into it.

The other side of that is that for most people, the difference between 90% compliance and 100% compliance is negligable. We know that a LOT of folks can make big changes in body comp JUST by hitting their diet at 90% consistently.

Then there are guys like me. I have hit 90% consistently on paper since the beginning of the year. Read that again, pay attention to "on paper". Fact is, I actually got fatter from Jan 1 to Feb 1. I put on some muscle too, but I did in fact gain fat. How do I know this? I got dunked and was sitting at 27.9%.

Ah yes, Christmas is still with us.....

So I asked myself "What would I tell me to do if I was was my client?"
Step one-
Check dietarty compliance. Good. 90% weekly average.
Step two-
Check training. Good.
Step three- Check calories. hmmmm.....no data.

So I began keeping a fitday log again. This lead me to the I realization that my "10%" meals were more like binges. If you eat steak, salad and 1 cookie or fish & chips and a whole box of cookies, it is still the same in terms of the compliance number, but not in calories.

Ah, simple logic and the ways I trick myself.

So for the past 2 weeks here is how it has been going: Everday, everything I eat (or drink if it has calories) goes into the fitday.

100% compliant days are in the 2500-3000 cal range (BW is 277, was 282 at the onset of the new metric) Estimated maintainance level is 4500.

The important change: Non 100% compliant days are no more than 5000 cals. Notice the 5lb difference in 2 weeks?

Also, I need more accountability. Notice that I am posting here. I need to "put my nuts on the anvil" again, like I did last summer.

This week I will schedule another hydrostatic weighing for next month.

1000 32kg swings in 54 minutes

Last week Rif posted on the Dragon Door forum that Tracy did 1000 swings with a 24kg kettlebell in 50:00.

Inspired, I decided (on an off day) to do 1000 32kg kettlebell swings (100 sets of 10) on Saturday.

I set Gymboss to :15/:15 and off I went. This allowed for 10 swings with a 15 sec rest, or 20 swings per minute, the same scheme that Tracy used with a 24kg.

I can honestly say that it was more mind-numbingly, painfully boring than GS training.

I had some Gollum-style inner dialouge going between my split personality of Lazy Dave & IRONTAMER.

LD: We got 400. That's more than just about anybody would do. It's supposed to be an off day.

IT: We promised ourself that we'd do 1000.

swing, swing, swing, swing....BEEP!

LD: You got 500, that's good enough. Let's go get a beer.

IT: NO! We said we were gonna do 1000.

LD: Yeah, but we know we can get it, so why bother?

IT: Because we said we would.

swing, swing, swing, swing....BEEP!

LD: It's getting dark.

IT: We must finish.

LD: 800 is enough, that's more than Foxy Bill did.

IT: Maybe your right....NO! Stop your trickeries!

swing, swing, swing, swing....BEEP!

LD: 900 is enough....we have nothin to prove.

IT: If we quit then we lie to ourself.

I had to psych myself into finishing. It was tough physically, but that absolute worst part was mental. I had to take a couple of breaks at 800 and 900, primarily because of grip fatigue.

Felt a little sore and drained on Sunday and Monday. Today, I am back to full power.