Iron Clad Ben

Calisthenics are huge for 6 packs. I have been doing pull ups 5x/week and I finally have a solid 6 pack. Also, keeping your diet really low fat (<10% cals) helps too. Keep at it!

Thanks Brian! I had another breakthrough on Pull ups today. Got 9 on my first set, BOOYAH!~ Update on pull up program (new stuff in RED): Week 1: Monday: 5,3,2,2,2 (5 sets to failure, 90s rest) Tuesday: 1,2,3,2,3 (pyramid: 1, 10s rest, 2, 20s rest, 3, 30s rest... failure, 60s rest, set to failure) Wednesday: 3x3x2 (3 sets of 3: regular pull ups, short grip chins, wide grip pull ups - 2 reps each) Thursday: 4x3x2 (4 sets of 3 as before, 2 reps each) Friday: 1,2,3,4,2,2 (pyramid again, repeating hardest exercise of the week) Week 2: Monday: 7,4,3,3,2 (huge level up from last week!) Tuesday: 1,2,3,4,2,3 Wednesday: 3x2, 3x3, 3x2 (3 sets of each type, extra rep on the middle set of sets) Thursday: 3x3, 3x2, 3x3, 3x2 Friday: 1,2,3,4,3,2 Week 3: Monday: 7,4,4,3,3 Tuesday: 1,2,3,4,4,3 Wednesday: 3x3x3!~!!!!! Thursday: 3x3x3, 3x2 Friday: Skip day Week 4: Monday: 7,5,4,2,2 Tuesday: 1,2,3,4,3,2 Wednesday: 3x3x3 rather easily Thursday 3x3x5!! Friday: 7,5,4,4,3 Week 5: Monday: 9,5,5,4,4 ~~~ YEAH BUDDY!!! Finally met Robert in person the other night. We gotta hang out some more dude!

Nice, I need to get back into the habit of riding my bike to work. I have a friend who was working at REI for a while and absolutely loved it. But then he managed to snag a job at the one raw vegan restaurant in town and couldn't pass that up. But I hope you enjoy REI!! Keep riding!

Hey I remember the beginning of my first 5K training too. In the beginning it can be very easy and there is a temptation to skip ahead in the program. I would say don't skip ahead even if you feel like a lot of the workouts are easy. If you do that you run a risk of getting burned out and/or injured. Difficulty will ramp up in time, don't worry. It's easy to get injured in running if you push your boundaries too much and/or try to progress too fast. As for Thrive, if the recipes look easy to you give it a shot. I always thought the recipes were kinda complicated and required a lot of ingredients that I would have to go Whole Foods specifically to get. If you check out www.nomeatathlete.com it's a vegetarian/vegan running website and they have lots of plant-based recipes for runners, that IMO are a lot easier to do than the stuff in Thrive.

Thanks Jesse! Yeah I haven't eaten noodles in about a year due to digestion issues with grains. Even rice noodles tear me up. So I just ordered a spiralizer, pretty stoked to get it! Are you going to WFF this summer? It's right in your backyard. I'll be there. Pretty stoked!

PR'd my 3rd half marathon! First HM (Nov'11) 2:11:11 2nd HM (Feb'12) 2:03:30 3rd HM (Mar'12) 2:00:53 Should hopefully break 2:00 next time! Update on pull up program (new stuff in RED): Week 1: Monday: 5,3,2,2,2 (5 sets to failure, 90s rest) Tuesday: 1,2,3,2,3 (pyramid: 1, 10s rest, 2, 20s rest, 3, 30s rest... failure, 60s rest, set to failure) Wednesday: 3x3x2 (3 sets of 3: regular pull ups, short grip chins, wide grip pull ups - 2 reps each) Thursday: 4x3x2 (4 sets of 3 as before, 2 reps each) Friday: 1,2,3,4,2,2 (pyramid again, repeating hardest exercise of the week) Week 2: Monday: 7,4,3,3,2 (huge level up from last week!) Tuesday: 1,2,3,4,2,3 Wednesday: 3x2, 3x3, 3x2 (3 sets of each type, extra rep on the middle set of sets) Thursday: 3x3, 3x2, 3x3, 3x2 Friday: 1,2,3,4,3,2 Week 3: Monday: 7,4,4,3,3 Tuesday: 1,2,3,4,4,3 Wednesday 3x3x3!~!!!!!

Hey man, welcome! Looks like we're pretty close. I live on East riverside and work downtown. I'm at the auditorium shores pull ups bars or running town lake trail pretty much every day. Hit me up if you wanna work out some time. -Ben P.S. I quit drinking 1/1/12, no plans to go back I don't think. Definitely feel better overall that way.

Hey dude, I am on day 36 of 100% LFRV and loving it. What is your handle on 30BAD? Mine is the same as here. I see you made cucumber noodles. Can you recommend a spiralizer? I am thinking about getting one but there are lots of brands so I was hoping to get opinions on which ones people like.

Logging my pull up program: Week 1: Monday: 5,3,2,2,2 (5 sets to failure, 90s rest) Tuesday: 1,2,3,2,3 (pyramid: 1, 10s rest, 2, 20s rest, 3, 30s rest... failure, 60s rest, set to failure) Wednesday: 3x3x2 (3 sets of 3: regular pull ups, short grip chins, wide grip pull ups - 2 reps each) Thursday: 4x3x2 (4 sets of 3 as before, 2 reps each) Friday: 1,2,3,4,2,2 (pyramid again, repeating hardest exercise of the week) Week 2: Monday: 7,4,3,3,2 (huge level up from last week!) Tuesday: 1,2,3,4,2,3 Wednesday: 3x2, 3x3, 3x2 (3 sets of each type, extra rep on the middle set of sets) Running another half marathon on Sunday. Look out San Marcos!

I heard Doug say the hardest month for 80/10/10 is March, due to breadth of availability (more specifically, lack thereof). Buckle up and hang on!

1 week of the pull up program complete! I can already see gains! On Friday you're supposed to re-attempt the workout that was hardest during the week. So I re-attempted the Tuesday workout and got a few more pull ups than last time. Also, I'm not really that sore at all after doing pullups to failure 5 days in a row. Maybe a tiny bit of soreness in my shoulders and lats but that's it. Also, I hit 14 "Cheater" muscle ups this earlier this week (i.e. muscle ups on a 6' bar starting from a jump). My previous record in one session was one 3. I just caught fire, it was great.

w00h00! Was hoping to run a 2:08 half marathon today but ended up running a 2:03! FRUITS AND VEGETABLES FOR THE WIN Tomorrow begins the Major Charles Lewis Armstrong pull up program

Wait, what? Eating all fruit is not doing 80/10/10. Did you actually read the book? Did you track your calories, macros and micronutrients? You can't say that the diet didn't work for you if you didn't actually read the book or follow the program. Fruit is a staple, but you must also eat 1-3lbs of leafy green vegetables a day. You also have to eat enough calories, 2500 for a woman and 3000 for a man. There are several more subtleties such as proper food combining, sleep, sunlight, etc. If you're interested in going raw I would recommend taking advice from people who are succeeding on it, rather than people who don't have first hand experience with it. Get educated and read up on it. There is a lot to learn and it's not something you can just implement overnight be a raw vegan. It takes learning and practice. I've read several books on raw food and I think 80/10/10 book is by far the best. It's the most comprehensive book on raw food nutrition and science. You can buy a copy on http://www.foodnsport.com (it's way more expensive on Amazon for some reason). The daily menus you show are not enough calories to make your diet sustainable. Check out "TheVeganInitiative" 's blog on the blog section of this site, he does an excellent job of logging everything he eats on 811.

"Low Carb, Slow Carb, Bro Carb..." Very funny stuff and also, very true. Nice video. Ahhh glad someone could appreciate that. It just kinda slipped out but then later I was re-watching the video and applauding myself 2nd Half Marathon on Sunday. I AM READY. BRING IT!!

If you buy 2 cases of bananas at once, how do you prevent them from going ripe all at the same time. I typically buy a case of bananas every 4 days to stagger out the ripening. It would be nice to only buy once a week.

Welcome! Robert just moved to Austin yesterday. Suddenly, the scene is exploding, LOL!

MASSIVE BAR WORKOUT TODAY! 8 pull ups (form is now totally clean) 14 chin ups (same here) 24 dips 41 pushups 16 lunges 70 squats 12 jumps onto a 4' ledge 12 ab rolls My arms felt like jello after this one. EDIT: Also forgot to mention, I am on day 14 of 100% LFRV. Going for at least 60 days, maybe 90.

12.5 mile run today! Austin Half Marathon next weekend Texas Jugglefest the following weekend! San Marcos Half Marathon the weekend after that!!! Looks like it's going to be one hell of a fun month

Recipe or ratios for that tomato/mango/chive/lemon sauce? Sounds gnarly

It's easy to have expensive taste

What's everyone's banana record? I've eaten 50 in a day.

Wow, I drank that stuff religiously for 13 years. 9 months later I'm probably still detoxing it out of my body. The funny thing is, all the warnings in the world didn't stop me from drinking it because I was addicted. I knew it was bad for me but I just couldn't stop. I had to go under hypnosis to break the addiction. So you can show people all the information you want about how bad something is. But if they're addicted, information is not going to change their habit.

Cloak of displacement and a katana

Another new video. Been eating 100% raw for the past 8 days. For some reason when I eat this way I feel much more creative and less shy about sharing my thoughts, so I tend to make videos. Fun stuff. Here's one I made for one of my buddies who wanted to try some of Tim Ferriss' bro-science supplements in lieu of cleaning up his diet.

Couple new videos up: Tough Mudder: Yesterday's Grocery Haul