Crocodile Part II
Becoming the Crocodile

By Dr. Lonnie Lowery

Okay, we're rested and recovered. On to the nitty gritty. Can we, as mere humans, achieve any level of reptilian brutality?

The answer is obviously yes.

The Yeti did it and so can you - if you're willing to eschew overall fitness for a brutal, singular goal. In a twisted sense, I still respect this, even if I don't openly recommend it. Fortunately, rather than waiting thousands of years, individual humans can acquire a degree of specialization within a matter of weeks. They're not genetic mutations, but rather physical adaptations.

In fact, I think one of the reasons humans have survived to dominate the planet - aside from intelligence - is our amazing adaptability. By asking one's body to perform specific tasks, the structures and metabolic pathways actually change to meet the need. So, Mr. Alien observer, starting with a ho-hum middle-of-the road template isn't so bad on a planet with radically varying environments.

Anaerobically, development of strength and speed come from, well, using one's strength and speed. High intensity interval training (I enjoy outdoor morning sprints to break up treadmill monotony) is one way to "become the crocodile". So are Tae Kwon Do techniques when done explosively and regularly.

You'll change biomechanically, biochemically and you'll eventually change on a tissue/ structural level. Visually compare Ben Johnson to an elite marathoner; obvious differences clearly reveal who can destroy whom. It may take several weeks or even months but anything worthwhile takes time and effort.

We have to use prudence, however. We're just humans after all and our bodies - although malleable - can be fragile. Even for the croc, vicious aggressive explosive movement takes its toll - both acutely and chronically.

Getting hyper-intense calls for equal amounts of recovery, no matter the species.(2, 10, 11) Otherwise, however brief it may be, ongoing intensity can induce "sympathetic type overtraining" in people.(6) For physique/ performance athletes, I'd suggest limiting sprints and bike sprints to no more than three times weekly.

For ectomorphs (thin angular guys), only twice. Of course, this is different from that prescribed for sprint athletes, whose programs get elegantly complex to maximize a single adaptation (moving from point A to point B in as little time as possible). Physique aesthetics are non-issues for them.

One way to assess power training (in its true sense) is to estimate your anaerobic threshold. By the time blood lactate is screaming, you've basically rifled through your creatine phosphate/ ATP system, and are approaching more of a "middle duration" type of metabolic scenario.

Glycolysis is supplying about 80-90 percent of ATP after about 90 seconds, or 16 reps in some research (yes, sooner than formerly thought).(20) Measurement methods include onset of blood lactic acid (OBLA), assessed by finger prick test; and perhaps even respiratory threshold (although it has central nervous system drivers, too).

Admittedly, the portable lactate analyzer has been questioned (17) but is affordable. The respiratory threshold, on the other hand, is simply the point at which breathing rate and depth increase dramatically when ramping up from jog to sprint. Training very near this threshold pushes us to become better at intense activity.

Of course, we're also after strength. Upper body strength is not only critical to the explosive early seconds in a 100-meter dash, but has obvious other benefits in life. Self defense, daily activities, social dominance, etc. And I'm not just talking creatures of the savannah here. What's that famous quote? "First be a good animal."

So how does one get it? Heavy lifting and "speed work", primarily with free weights.

Accessory movements too. It's no news that weight lifters exhibit a definite enlargement of muscle mass, particularly of fast twitch (Type II) fibers.(21, 22) We won't quibble over Type IIa vs IIb right now. As Rob "Fortress" Fortney wrote in Accidental Muscle on T-mag a while ago, a power training lifestyle leads to a thick physique, even if said physique is not your goal. Form follows function.

Toward this end, I have long been a fan of multiple sets of 3 rep-maximums; when my joints are agreeable, I tend to focus on these exclusively during specific days of the training cycle - or at least do some 85-90% triples. For efficiency, I try to get in some speed work during the lighter warm-up sets. A separate day devoted solely to muscular power (force/time) may be better, but I'm about bodybuilding, after all, and thus draw the line somewhere.

Listen, there is a ton of information here and on like-minded sites regarding programs to develop speed and power. (Regarding underlying mechanisms, I also recommend the text by Komi for hardcore muscle geeks, see references below.)

Plyometrics, traditional powerlifting speed work, escalating density training, accessory movements, you name it. Go dig around, taking in everything with a grain of salt, or talk to Charles Staley directly. The important thing is to learn with a somewhat skeptical mind. Cautiously used, the web is a real resource. Authors like me don't want to feel stupid for writing articles that get lost or overlooked in cyberspace after a bloody week or two!

So… we've got sprints to develop speed, heavy weights to build muscles and speed work/ plyometrics to improve the neurological wiring that innervates those larger muscles. Now what about other lifestyle factors?

In many ways it would be invalid (and pretty nasty) to imitate the environmental conditions in which a croc lives. I mean, do you want to a lifestyle in which you wallow in swamps all day among hoards of flies and mosquitoes? Still, we might take some cues from these beasts of power. For example, what is it that these aggressive anaerobic machines eat? Suffice it to say that it is not celery. A gross review of nature suggests that grazing placidly on plants is usually the realm of the meek herbivore. And to contradict a popular movie: "herbivores are food, not friends".

Meat provides not only quality protein, as most of us realize, but also is a very rich source of other nutrients. Let's forget about man-made (or woman-made) concepts such as "nutrient density", whereby a food's value is determined by dividing its micronutrient content (vitamins, minerals, phyto- or zoo-chemicals) by its total calories.

That may be valuable to dieters or those trying to limit caloric intake but it also favors near zero-cal foods like broccoli. Dividing its calcium content, for example, by its near-zero kcal content makes that broccoli look pretty good.

But fancy ratios aside, it doesn't hold a candle to the gross amount in good old animal-source (but calorie-containing) milk. This is to say nothing of bioavailability. Similar things can be said of most vitamins and minerals (too lengthy to list and discuss here) when we examine meats vs. plants.

Think about it: why graze all day when as a carnivore you can let the lower critters on the food chain do the work? They concentrate the environmentally-dilute nutrients in their tissues and you eat that store house of nutrition.

What does this have to do with humans?

On a gross level, not just survival but development of animalistic size and power depends upon nutrient and even kcal load. Again, a quick review of most vitamins and minerals reveals that they are in great abundance in animal flesh. Sure there are exceptions. Of course meats can't be solely consumed by a human; that's folly - for environmental and nutritional/ biological reasons. But like a croc who depends upon brief bursts speed and power, a human adapting in that direction needs large gross amounts of nutrients too. Those nutrients are plentiful in the meat of other creatures.

But let's be fair. We cannot forget to put back all the muscle carbohydrate (glycogen) that we hammered-through during aggressive anaerobic endeavors.

Typical bodybuilding exercise can wipe out a third of our stores.(5) Moreover, intense interval exercise may be even more demanding/ depleting than the continuous type.(18) Carbs are simply what we humans use during explosive anaerobic metabolism. Meat doesn't really provide any. This is where potatoes, fruits, some veggies, beans and grains come in to play. And for post-workout periods, a 4:1 ratio of carbs-to-protein is important to recovery (23), although those of us who are "dieting" may wish to curb this back to 2:1 or even 1:1.

At this "peri-exercise" time, liquid-source, high-glycemic carbs and whey protein may get to needy muscles even faster than solid food (like meat).

But let's not over-emphasize. Whether solid or liquid intake, glycogen resynthesis doesn't necessarily differ over the post-exercise period.(9) And mammals can actually adapt rapidly to repeated bouts of intense exercise, "learning" to fully restore glycogen from endogenous (non-dietary) sources.(16) That's right; talk about "becoming an anaerobic machine"! Thus, for the intense "croc-minded" among us, carbohydrates - although important - don't supercede the benefits and nutrient richness of meats during most of the day.

Regarding supplements other than (carb-plus-protein) recovery drinks, creatine monohydrate, bicarbonate and potentially even carnosine (or more likely beta alanine) also support anaerobic speed and power. These serve as circulatory and/ or myocytic (muscle cell) acidity buffers (15) and let's not forget that acidity build-up is a primary culprit in shutting down intense bursts of activity.

Of course, creatine also pulls double duty, re-supplying that essential ATP pool. And interestingly, meat supplies all of these buffers - just not in supplemental quantities.

And so we have toured the reaches of comparative muscle biology (in our own twisted way) and how we endeavor to be more croc-like, realize it or not. We may as well "get brutal and get into it" as a famous Austrian once suggested. Thanks for indulging my inner geek by coming along.

About The Author

Dr. Lonnie Lowery is an exercise physiologist, nutrition professor and former competitive bodybuilder living in the Midwest. Although there is a waiting period, Dr. Lowery does accept a minimal number of phone consultations set up through Staley Training. He can be reached at lonnie@staleytraining.com.

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