Raw versus Pasteurized Milk

Like raw milk? Not sure what to think about it? Check out this blog post by Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness to get the low-down on raw milk.

Under the Microscope: Raw versus Pasteurized Milk by Sean Croxton

Get big or die tryin'.

This Past Week (4/5-4/11)

What is up, what is up, what is up??? So this past week was a REALLY good week for me. Not the best week I've ever had, but you know, solid all around.

So I finally got back on campus and could resume my normal eating, sleeping, training pattern. Let me tell you, after eating resort food for a week, cooking for myself again with all organic food was AWESOME. It was also nice not being completely drained from being in the sun all day so I could actually get some stuff done.

I started SMS6 the Monday after I got back. I decided to go with box squats again in this phase and then go back to free squats after this mesocycle is complete. I figured it made sense to keep them in there for two months so I could hit some heavier weights with it (triples and singles in this phase). So that was my lift Monday morning. Then Monday afternoon I did my first plyo session in about two and a half months. I stopped with the plyos in-season because I could feel myself getting worn down by mid-January. It was a great plyo session too.

Then Tuesday was my bench day, and I hit all of my weights clean and smooth, which was a great feeling after coming off of the week off in Mexico. Wednesday I did plate pushes in the morning for 15 minutes before class, emphasizing max effort during the pushes and only allowing 15-60 seconds recovery between sets. Thursday I was back in the weight room for deadlifts. I quickly finding out that I'm a much better deadlifter than I previously thought. Not that I a good deadlifter by any means, but I have definitely improved significantly over the last 5 months.

Friday was my standing military press day, and that went surprisingly well. I was starting to struggle with the weight at the end of SMS5, so I wasn't sure how SMS6 was going to start off, but just like every other lift that week I hit all of my reps clean. I was planning on doing my second plyo workout of the week, but I was feeling pretty drained, so I pushed that off until Saturday. Saturday afternoon I got my athlete on and killed my plyo session.

Now that basketball is over and the only training I'm doing is the training I put myself through, my ideal weekly schedule will look something like this:

Sunday: Squat Day

Monday: Bench (morning), longer plyos (afternoon)

Tuesday: Recovery work

Wednesday: Deadlifts (morning), alternate conditioning (plate pushes, hill sprints, etc.) (afternoon)

Thursday: Recovery work

Friday: Standing military presses (morning), shorter plyos & box jumps (afternoon)

Saturday: OFF

This past week the school weight room was closed on Sunday so I had to shift some things around, but it ended up alright.

On Saturday I also decided to restructure my plyo program such that it takes into consideration total time and total metabolic demand for each workout. In order to accomplish this, I will complete every workout in the program while wearing a heart rate monitor to figure out these numbers. This will be about a six month project or so, but I definitely think it's worth it.

Outside of training myself, I began training the Williams College Women's Soccer Team on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. We do speed and agility work for about 20 minutes before they play pickup games. I sent out the newest issue of The Source this past Thursday as well. If you are interested in signing up for my free monthly newsletter click here. Also, on Saturday I traveled with 2 other people to a farm in Vermont (Polymeadows Farm) to purchase raw goats' milk. It was a great trip because we got to see the milking process and play with the baby goats. I also picked up some goat cheese as well, which, by the way, is really, really good.

Well that's all that I can really think of that happened last week. Now it's time to go live this one.

Get big or die tryin'.

Raw Milk

Okay so for the past 10 days I have been drinking raw milk. Personally, I love. it. It tastes great and it's health benefits are astounding, especially compared to regular milk. Like I said in the intro to the page, this is a subject that I'm not incredibly familiar on but am learning about. Here's a very basic, partially ignorant, description of raw milk: it is milk that has not been pasteurized or homogenized so all of the enzymes and bacteria that are naturally in milk, and supposed to be in milk, are in the milk. These bacteria boost our immune systems and keep us healthy and the enzymes allow our bodies to function as they were intended to. For instance, people who are lactose intolerant don't do well with milk or milk products because their bodies are unable to produce the lactase enzyme. However, this enzyme that is destroyed in regular milk during pasteurization is naturally found in raw milk and therefore most people who are lactose intolerant are able to handle raw milk and raw milk products very well. For athletes, especially those who strength train and/or are trying to put on muscle, the enzymes in the milk are incredible in boosting protein synthesis and adding mass. This is where my shaky knowledge of raw milk ends, but there are others out there who are much more informed. For instance, Sean Croxton of Underground Wellness constantly talks about raw milk in his weekly radio show as well as his youtube videos. Here's one of Sean's earlier videos about raw milk:

This is just one source of information out there. There is a whole other side to the raw milk story, which Sean talks about in his video, about the increasing struggle to be able to purchase raw milk. I won't talk about that here because I am completely ignorant on this subject, but nonetheless it is something to think about.

Get big or die tryin'.