My cousin, best friend, and trainee Sagar Shah gives me a run for my money asking the tough questions associated with my training methods. He summarized his constructive criticism in three, well-constructed paragraphs. I will present one of his criticisms, and try to answer it with the best of my abilities. The article Sagar is referring to is A Simple Primer to the Shah Training Methodology.

“The main idea of this article is that bodybuilding will not help the layman build cardiovascular and muscular endurance. “Work capacity” is just a buzz word used to explain the same thing. I partially agree with his thesis. Bodybuilding alone will not make you a well-rounded athlete. It might get you bigger or cut up but it won’t give you quickness on the courts or stamina when it counts. However, I do believe that bodybuilding is an important tool in the entire conditioning process. “

Work Capacity is not a “buzz word” to explain anything. In my conversation with Sagar he stated that a “9-5 job” has nothing to do with what I’m talking about. I will try to take another stab at this without repeating what I said before. I’m going to break the rules here and use the words being defined in the definition. Work Capacity is your Capacity to do Work. And so, WORK can be defined as anything from taking out the garbage to answering phone calls. In a fitness sense, WORK is defined as the type of exercise you are performing.

But Work Capacity is not simply talking about a well-rounded program. Yes, Shah Training is a program which revolves around targeting multiple quailites of fitness within the same time frame, including aesthetics, however if it were that simple, then Work Capacity would on be on the tip of everyone’s tongues.

“As Parth often emphasizes, “there is no perfect system, just hard work.” This is the best advice that anyone can get when it comes to reaching your physical goals. But, it seems as if Parth is claiming that bodybuilding is a waste of time and a half dozen compound exercises will do the trick. If this is the case, then you should be weary.”

Lets visit another principle for a moment. As an economist, Sagar, you should be familiar with the Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle is a common rule of thumb in the business world. The principle was named after Vilfredo Pareto, who noticed that 80% of the income in Italy is held by 20% of the population. And so in business terms, this principle translates to 80% of your sales come from 20% of you clients. Hence, if you wish to run a successful company, your goal is to observe and figure out which of your clients consist of the 20% giving you business.

If it works so well in the business world, then why not apply it to every aspect of your life? This means that 20% of your relationships are bringing you 80% of your gratification (think about this for a second. It’s true.) This means that 20% of you marketing effort are bringing 80% of your business. This means that 20% of the exercises that you are performing are bringing you 80% of your returns.

I was explaining this to a bodybuilder friend of mind, and he asked me, “Well, what about the other 20%?” Well, the other 20% is the specialization work which is required to bring you to completion. For some people this 20% could be doing bicep curls, and for other people it could mean doing steady state cardio. However, the problem that I have with bodybuilding is that it uses a reverse principle: the 20/80 rule, in that you perform 80% of the work in order to achieve 20% of the results (namely, aesthetics).

I personally think that you’ve accomplished something profound if you can only spend 20% of the time that you previously spent achieving 80% of the results you were previously getting. For me, personally, if I have only 10 to 20 minutes to train per day because I’m a normal guy with a family and a full time career, then I’m going to choose those exercises that give me the greatest returns for my efforts. And those are full body, compound exercises. In this sense, Shah Training, or Work Capacity is actually the perfect program for the layman with limited time and equipment, not some “buzz word” I cooked up to market some product I don’t sell.

“Use shahtraining. But use conventional weightlifting as well. Why do you think basketball, football, and baseball player’s condition by hitting the weight room? Because weightlifting coupled with compound movement exercises and cardiovascular training helps them become better athletes.“

First of all, weight lifting in the traditional sense is actually all compound movements. The first programs that came out consisted of Olympic Lifts such as the Clean and Press, Push Jerk, and Snatch, all three of which are no longer present in the new “traditional” bodybuilding programs. So lets keep bodybuilding and weight lifting separate. When you talk about weight lifting, you are actually referring to exercises used in the Shah Training program.

Perhaps I used a bad example last time, making you believe that this program was only for athletes. One of the drawbacks in your particular example is that professional athletes have a lot of time to improve in their sport. And so you have to really analyze what the bulk of their training consists of.

Let me restate the fact that this program works with the element of time. The majority of the world has very little time on their hands to get to the gym. This is one of the main excuses you will hear when people talk about getting into shape. As a fitness guy, I hear this all the time. The moment people know about my website or when I flip out my business card, they say, “Oh, I used to train for hours in the gym, but when I started working and then I got married and now with two kids, I barely have time for myself, so how do you expect me to get to the gym.” This is precisely the problem that Shah Training fixes.

The following is a guest post from Josh Levine from FortisMag.

This workout is great for people who don’t have much time to train but want to get a great workout in. It doesn’t take long to complete, but when you are done you are completely spent. Here’s how it works:

First you do 10 Pull-ups, 20 Push-ups, 10 Body lifts, and then 20 Dips on Bench. After doing this you rest as little as possible. If you can go do 9 pull-ups right away, then go do that. If not, take a little rest until you think you can.

After you complete the first set you do 9 Pull-ups, 19 Push-ups, 9 Body lifts, and then 19 Dips on Bench. Once again rest as little as possible. You are going to continue this pattern until your last set which should consist of 1 Pull-up, 11 Push-ups, 1 Body lift, and then 11 Dips on Bench.

Some of you may not know what body lifts (also known as inverted rows) are so let me try to explain them. Basically, you lay flat on you back. You find a bar that about 2-3 feet in the air, and you use that bar to lift your body up. It’s a fairly simple exercise.

Now, let’s say you want to modify this workout because you don’t have access to a bar of any sort. You can substitute pull-ups and body-lifts for sit-ups and squats. By doing this you will also get a full body workout in.

Additional exercises that you may want to include are two-legged explosive jumps, burpees, kettlebell swings, and reverse sit-ups.

You can take this workout and make it as hard as you would like. The concept for this workout is very open and thus can be modified easily. If you want to really push yourself add two more exercises to the routine.

Train Hard. Eat Well. Live.
Fortismag.com

The Shah Training Methodology revolves around Work Capacity. Work Capacity is defined as the general ability of the body to produce work of varying intensities within a given time frame. Work Capacity is an integral aspect of being an athlete. Basketball players need to be able to move fast from one end of the court to the other and make quick and agile plays. They need to repeat this task over and over again. A basketball player with poor Work Capacity will tire out quickly and will not be able to recover properly between intense plays.

Bodybuilding seems to be the primary choice of training methods for even the layman lifter. Someone just looking to put on a few pounds of muscle mass without ever desiring to be a full-fledged bodybuilder should not be training with the bodybuilding method. Training a particular muscle group, then resting it for three to four days due to muscle soreness does not fit into the rules of Work Capacity. A basketball player cannot train his jump shot one day, then work on his running another day, and finally his defense the last day. No, he needs each aspect of his training all at once in a game. If he says to the coach, “Coach I can’t run in the game today. I did that yesterday and I need to take 3 days off before I run again.”

Work should not be an end itself, but instead a means to an end. One of the reasons I despise the traditional 9 to 5 hours is that it forces you to be in one location all day long. During those 9 to 5 hours, you may have enough work, or you may not have enough work. Often times, work that can be performed in 3 hours, takes 5 hours, 8 hours, one week, or even months. Things are delayed, simply because the 9-5 paradigm gives us a skewed perception of time. There is a huge difference in productivity between one worker completing a task in eight hours and another worker completing the same task in two hours. Naturally, the work needs to be both effective and efficient.

Bodybuilders often train for two hours at a time in the gym. Total time and work are not taken into consideration. A bodybuilder will always say, “Oh, I spent 2 hours in the gym, or I performed 46 sets today.” Time and work should not be mutually exclusive. Instead, a bodybuilder should say, “I performed 46 sets in 2 hours.” How impressive is that? Well, this person is performing 1 set for every 2.6 minutes. Is this work effective? Perhaps, if you goal is to put on two inches on your arms curling a barbell for two hours seems practical. But is it efficient? No way. You can achieve the same results by performing pullups and dips at a high intensity for a few sets.

The following is a guest post by Leigh Mohammed from The Soap Kitchen.

When friends and people hear I am vegan they always ask me …
” What the hell does a vegan eat? “

So I am doing this for all the inquisitive ones, my hope is
1. You would be surprised to find out we do eat food
2. Maybe…hopefully, after you realize we do eat a vast array of food you would be tempted to also stat a vegan life style.

These dishes I cooked recently, and they all tasted wonderfulllll..:) you should try them too.

Tofu a la Orange
I was reading “Kitchen Mysteries” by Hervé This where he described a method to infuse flavor by injecting a mixture of Cointreau, salt and pepper into food and then microwaving it to evaporate the mixture inside.

Not having a needle handy, I decided to take advantage of tofu’s sponge-like nature and vacuum-seal the tofu with the cointreau mixture (1/4 cup cointreau, pinch of salt dissolved and fresh black pepper brought to a boil, then cooled).

After refrigerating it for six hours, I quickly seared the tofu cutlets in peanut oil in the wok (cut into six pieces with a slit cut in the center, rather than the standard eight pieces). With the cointreau permeating the tofu, it will scorch if you don’t keep an eye on it, so rotate often. Once it’s golden brown on both sides, turn the tofu down to low, and splash with a little tamari and let cook for another 1-2 minutes on both sides.

We had a little scape and onion filling leftover from the griddle cake the other night, so I used that to stuff in the pocket of the tofu.

The tofu was then placed on a sheet pan with a rack in the oven for 15 minutes at 350F to finish cooking the insides.

The final texture was almost creamy/melty inside with a nice balance of orange flavor throughout.

Tofu a la Orange

Stay tuned for more recipes from Leigh, and do not forget to visit her website, The Soap Kitchen.

We know America’s fat. What are you going to do about it? You can start by being in shape. Then people will come up to you and ask you how you got in shape. You can either teach them the right way, or tell them to go to Tastefully Driven and read all the posts by Parth Shah. Read more.

There are many types of equipment to choose from: kettlebells, barbells, dumbbells, sledgehammers, sand bags, medicine balls, and clubbells. This is not even a concise list. Which equipment do you feel has given you the greatest benefit for your money?

Do you have a “dream” equipment out there. Is there a piece of equipment out there that you feel you would purchase in a heartbeat if money or space were not a problem? Why did you choose this product?

Please, post your thoughts to comments.

The following is guest post from Josh Levine of FortisMag.

These days everyone is trying to find a way to cheat the system. You hear guys talking in the weight room about all these magical supplements that will make you ripped in about 20 minutes (a slight exaggeration, but it is meant to emphasize a point). The fact of the matter is this: you will not achieve anything worth achieving unless you work hard and discipline yourself. The liquid salad is for those who wish to achieve a completely new level of fitness. You can take my word for it – I am not selling anything here.

The liquid salad is an all natural drink composed of vegetables. All you need to make the liquid salad is a blender and strainer. To make the drink you take at least 3 of the following vegetables: beets, celery, parsley, kale, spinach, broccoli, and red cabbage. Feel free to experiment with other super-healthy foods. After you get your vegetables it would be wise to cut them up into small pieces. You can either use water or some sort of juice to make the liquid salad. Pour at least 5 cups of liquid into your blender. Add the vegetables. If you need to, add only a couple at a time. After you have blended all your vegetables into juice, pour the liquid salad over a strainer and into a big bowl. Push the pulp down so as to get all the juice possible. Then pour the liquid salad in the big bowl back into the blender. You now have your liquid salad and can start serving it.

I would recommend making a big enough batch so that you can save some for the next day. If you make it in the morning you are probably going to want to drink all of it that day, but if you make it in the afternoon or evening you can save a lot of it in the refrigerator. The best time to have this drink is after a workout.

How many vegetables should you use? You should use at least half a beet and then a handful of ever other vegetable if you are using all of them. If not, use two handfuls and about 3 different vegetables.

Every vegetable that you put in this drink is full of nutrients. Beets alone have folate, manganese, potassium, dietary fiber, vitamin C, magnesium, tryptophan, iron, copper, and phosphorus in significant quantities. Beets also have vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B6, E, and K. They have calcium, selenium, sodium, and zinc as well. In addition to the vitamins and minerals, beets also have amino acids! This drink is simply filled with nutrients. Plus, the best part is that these nutrients will go into your body almost immediately. When you blend these vegetables up, you are tearing the fibers that would otherwise get in the way of digestion.

Please check out Josh’s website, FortisMag.com

In response to my “Three Intense Bodyweight Workouts for Females,” article, Neena Longia wrote: “I’d like to say that the article was great, but I’d like to suggest that you explain more in depth what high levels of testosterone really does to a females body, because I can guarantee that most women don’t know that they carry both estrogen and testosterone, but the testosterone is in a small amount compared to the estrogen, and how women in some ways do benefit from some testosterone, just as a side note letting the readers know that testosterone isn’t bad for women!”

Here is my response:

An Introduction to Testosterone

Testosterone is a steroid hormone produced in both men and women that plays a vital role in the maintenance of health, well-being, and sexual function. The hormone also boosts one’s appetite, fuels the immune system and helps build lean muscle mass.

Women produce about one-tenth the testosterone of the amount naturally found in men. Normal testosterone levels will help women look, feel, and perform better from day to day. The hormone has been linked to helping treatment with Osteoporosis (weak bones). Fibrocystic Breast Disease, and Breast Cancer.

Despite the gender differences, testosterone is required in both men and women for the same reasons: to generate more energy, reduce body fat, increase lean muscle mass, maintain healthy libido, and to improve mood.

Many women find it frustrating that men often can control their weight more easily and even lose more weight when following the same weight loss program. This has to do with the amount of muscle mass found in men. Extra muscle helps men burn up to 30 percent more calories than women, and can even help increase the level of testosterone found naturally in men.

Testosterone Research

The research on testosterone for women is very mixed. Studies have found that improving testosterone deficiencies by using some sort of supplement can boost mood and sexual health, but other studies have also found that high levels of testosterone can triple heart risks for older women.

In a study conducted by Dr. Karen Miller, an endocrinologist and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, 51 premenopausal women with below-normal or undetectable levels of testosterone were randomly assigned to either a placebo or Proctor & Gamble’s testosterone patch, Intrinsa, which has not yet received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use by American women. During the one-year trial, women on the testosterone patch showed improvements in mood, sexual function and quality of life.

The findings in this study are very important in understanding the role testosterone plays in women, however Dr. Miller also stated that the study did not deal with women with normal testosterone levels. She stated that supplemental testosterone in women with normal levels may have unwanted side effects such as increased facial and body hair.

Dr. Anne R. Cappola, an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania, conducted a study, which found that high testosterone levels in older women are a predictor of cardiovascular disease. In this study, Cappola and colleagues measured testosterone levels in 344 women, aged 65 to 98 years. They found that women who had the highest testosterone levels were three times more likely to have heart disease compared with women who had lower testosterone levels. However, they also found that women with the lowest testosterone levels were also at a higher risk of heart disease compared with women who had testosterone levels in the midrange.

Last December, the FDA voted against the approval of Intrinsa for women with lower than normal testosterone levels, citing insufficient long-term safety data. To me, it is clear that normal testosterone levels are a vital component to long-term health.

Checking Testosterone Levels

My suggestion is that you get a blood test done to determine if your testosterone levels are normal. For men, a normal testosterone level is 350 – 1200 ng/dl (nanograms per deciliter). For women, a healthy number could be 35 ng/dl to 120 ng/dl. However, it is best to speak to your physician about these numbers. When you get your blood test done, you will see a range right next to your number, which will tell you if you fall within the healthy range.

If you are unable to get a blood test done anytime soon, then there are certain symptoms associated with a low testosterone count. These include feeling tired for no reason, loss of interest in sex, uncontrollable fat gain, and mood swings.

This is great feedback from Neena, and the kind of feedback I urge all of you to send to me. There are many modes of communication, including posting to comments, sending me a facebook message, or simply sending an email to shah@shahtraining.com.

For further reading:

Testosterone Offers Women Benefits, Risks
How To Increase Testosterone Level
Women and Testosterone
Testosterone Information
Nanograms per Deciliter (ng/dl)