zone update:
i read through the first zone book and had forgotten about dr. sears and marv marinovich's work with elite athletes.
it is important to know how well the zone works for people who are athletically gifted. for example, one "dara is a doper" blogger claims only illegal drugs could have allowed her to gain 17 lbs of muscle leading up to the 2000 olympics. this muscle gain occurred when she was zoning.
well, dara's muscle gain seems paltry, even for a woman, compared to what the zone diet did for marv's athletes. marv took 6 college football players and 3 professional basketball players and put them on the zone and trained them for 6 weeks.
marv, a former nfl player and former nfl strength coach was simply amazed at the results - he'd never seen anything like it in his life. the average muscle gain was 16 lbs, the average fat loss was 5 lbs, the average vertical jump increase was 10% (in spite of the average athlete gaining 11 lbs!), the nfl agility test time dropped 2% and the 15th 100m sprint time dropped 7%.
folks, that's more than 2 lbs of 100% muscle gain per week. these athletes were specifically chosen because they had completed a thorough training program that alleged to bring them to peak shape.
so, if a gifted group of men can gain an average of 16 lbs of muscle within 6 weeks, does 17 lbs of muscle gained in a year really seem impossible for a gifted woman?
i shared the story of rob who got on the zone and increased his pull ups from 3 to 63 within 8 months.
the zone is not a weight loss diet, it is a human performance optimization diet.
marv knows this, which is why he will only train athletes that commit to eating the zone diet.
from marv's website:
sportslab.net
marv's trainee's (ie, zoners) include:
1. troy polamalu (steeler's all pro safety)
2. jason giambi (admitted to using steroids, too, so might not be the best reference)
3. steve finley (d-backs mlb comeback player of the year award)
4. chicago bulls' tyson chandler
5. sammy knight (saints' all pro safety)
6. sinjin smith (all world volleyball player)
this list is pretty impressive, but when you add the best american endurance cyclist, the best american triathlete, the best canadian triathlete, the best american 50m free swimmer, the best female olympian of all time, the best female fencer in recent years (i think she retired this olympics) and the oldest member of the usa olympic swim team 5 straight olympics...
it just gets silly. this isn't random chance. this isn't atkins. it isn't weight watchers. those diets don't optimize human performance. athletes at the level of troy polamalu, dara torres and sinjin smith don't risk their performance levels to "fads." it has to work. it has to improve their game in a noticeable way.
you all have an idea how well the zone worked for someone who is anything but gifted when it comes to anabolic hormonal chemistry - 10 lbs flies x 20 to 195 lbs bench x 1 in less than one year (35 lbs above my body weight). even so, i figure i've gained less than 10 lbs of muscle in 14 months since i've been zoning. that's trivial compared to 16 lbs in 6 weeks.
i've added in HIIT to see if elevating my HGH level will help with muscle growth, but the jury is out since i haven't done it enough.
all this and manuel uribe continues to drop weight, feel good and his blood pressure and blood work remain that of a very healthy person. |
