Achievements over three and a half years

I once did a 30 day exercise challenge where I completed a minimum of 100 push ups per day, every day, for 30 days.  After completing that challenge I was in less pain.  Once it ended, without having a rest day I started another 30 day challenge, then another when that ended, and another.  

During those challenges there are no rest days.  There were no days off between challenges.  This continued for over three and a half years!  

I think back to my first challenge.  Back then, simply getting to/from the ground to do push ups was difficult.  Back then, walking from my house up the driveway and getting into my car was difficult and painful.  Back then sitting at my desk at work was painful and difficult.  

Since then I have achieved a lot of milestones, some achievements are more impressive than others: 

• 100 push ups every day for 30 consecutive days
• 1,000 push ups in one day
• 250 push ups in one set
• 1,000 push ups in one hour
• 1,000 push ups every day for 62 consecutive days 
• Dead hang for 100 seconds
• Dead hang for 2 minutes
• Elbow lever
• Human flag
• Turkish Get up using 15kg (this is probably the least impressive thing on this list, but it almost killed me)
• 100 strict pull ups in one day
• 27 strict pull ups in one set
• 100+ pull ups every day for ten consecutive days
• 10 weighted pull ups (7.5kg additional weight) in a set
• 20 weighted pull ups (7.5kg additional weight) in a set
• 100+ weighted pull ups (7.5kg additional weight) in one day
• 100 pull ups in under twenty minutes

Some of those things took me months to train towards.  Others were achieved a lot faster.  Some I can no longer do as I have not been training for them, while others I do regularly.  

Training for back lever - I still can't do that yet

I am going to mention some statistics.  While the following statistics are concerning, they provide perspective to my achievements:

• Being able to do a single push up puts me in the top 50% of strength in the country 
• Being able to do one strict pull up puts me in the top 25% 
• Being able to do 10 strict pull ups puts me in the top 5% 
• Being able to do over 20 pull ups in one set puts me in the top fraction of one percent 

I can't find any reliable stats for the following, but I know that very few people in this country have done any of the following: 

• Elbow lever
• Human flag  
• 1,000 push ups in a day
• 100 strict pull ups in under an hour 
• Weighted pull ups - any number 

Considering my age, the limited time I have to dedicate to training, my body composition, the long term chronic injuries I have, combined with the alarming statistics above, my achievements aren't bad.

Pull ups per day - modulated and increasing

I put my achievements down to how I train.  I do prochnost' training every day, and it works for me.  I train every single day, no rest days, no days off.  The human body is made to be able to do full body exercise every single day.  When you train that way, it responds well.  

The human body is not made to push to failure regularly, it is not made to push to failure and then do one more rep, this is a dreadfully inefficient way to train.  It is not made to train one set of muscles one day, another set another day, cardio on other days, all with rest days interspersed.  While the smug arrogance of motivational quotes may help you, it doesn't work for everyone.  Training every day, multiple times a day, keeping well below failure, does work for everyone.  

Western style training is probably good for hypertrophy, but inefficient at building strength.  

If western style training was effective at building strength, the alarming stats above would not be a reality.  If it was effective, then being able to do a single push up would not make you above average.  If it was effective, there would be almost no one who is into strength and fitness that is unable to do a strict pull up.  Western training failed me when I was younger, and I would never have achieved the above if I was still training that way.

If you have read this far, my advice to you is to stop training like a westerner.  Western training will make you fail and you will not reach your potential.  Do prochnost' training, and be more.  

BMI over 12 months

There is an old saying that goes "Shchi da Kasha, Pisha Nasha", which roughly means "Cabbage soup and buckwheat porridge are our food".  

There seems to be solid logic behind this saying that goes beyond the fact that these were some of the few foods that were almost always available in the old days.  

Most of my life people have told me that I need to fatten up and that I am too thin.  My body is not like theirs, for me to be healthy I need to be relatively thin.  

Gaining fat for a skinny person can be dangerous and unhealthy.  Gaining weight by gaining muscle on the other hand is healthy.   

If I eat poorly and don't exercise I tend to lose weight (which is the opposite of many people).  I believe this is mostly from losing muscle mass, and gaining fat around my organs.  This is a bad thing.  

If I 'eat healthy' and exercise I tend to gain weight (again this is the opposite for many people).  This is mostly from losing fat around my organs, and gaining muscle mass.  This is a good thing.  This is how my body works, and if you are skinny fat it is likely how your body also works.  If you are skinny fat, you want to gain weight but not gain fat.  

Gaining fat for a skinny fat person is unhealthy as they mostly gain fat around their organs.  Skinny fat people need to gain muscle to be healthy.  

I need to be relatively thin to be healthy, but for some time I kept slipping below my healthy range.  For a while my weight was too low, and I was worried.  

To help keep an eye on things I recorded my weight each week for over a year.  I got on top of things, and started to put on a little weight, you will see this in the graphs below.  

Weighing in at the same time, on the same day each week, wearing the same thing, for an entire year (plus a few extra weeks), enhances the data integrity and allows for some interpretation of the data and some fascinating conclusions to be drawn.   

BMI stats for over a year

In the above graph I weighed myself at the same day each week, around the same time, and wearing the same thing (just my glasses so I could read the scale).  

A 'healthy' Body Mass Index (BMI) is considered to be from 18.5 to 24.9 and as you can see I spent most of the time within that range.  My average BMI over the past year, even when you include the first few outliers, was well within the healthy BMI range.  

Looking at the graph you can't help but notice the initial sharp increase.  This is when I stopped eating wheatbix for breakfast, and started to eat buckwheat (grechnevaya kasha).  It changed my weight and helped me become healthier.  

During the initial BMI increase, I visibly lost fat even though I was gaining weight.  As I gained weight and lost fat, presumably I was gaining muscle.  Prior to recording these stats my cholesterol was a bit high, and my LDL to HDL ratio was not great.  Towards the end of these stats my cholesterol is low, and my LDL to HDL ratio is perfect.  

As nothing else (diet, exercise) changed, I am pretty sure that this is entirely due to eating grechka instead of wheatbix for breakfast.  It appears that buckwheat is far more healthy for me than wheat.  

I also recorded in kilograms how much the BMI deviated from the ‘healthy’ line in the graph below.  The bar on the right shows the entire healthy range to provide context.  0 is the healthy line, anything below zero shows how far below the healthy range I dipped, and anything above shows how far into the healthy range I reached.  As you can see, I was at the lower end of of the healthy BMI range, which is where my body needs to be in order to be healthy.  

Kilograms above or below the 'healthy' zone

So there you have it, a little over one year of BMI stats collected weekly.  Initially I was a bit too low.  I started eating buckwheat instead of wheat.  Since eating buckwheat every day my BMI has been healthier, I have lost fat, my cholesterol level has dropped, my LDL to HDL ratio has improved, and I gained weight.  

If you are skinny fat, record your weight every seek for a few weeks.  Weigh in at the same time at the same day each week, try to do this before getting in the shower so you are not weighing clothes.  Then start eating grechnevaya kasha for breakfast.  

Buckwheat is high in high quality protein, and very nutritious.  Perhaps buckwheat will make you stronger and healthier.  

Shchi da Kasha, Pisha Nasha (Щи да каша – пиша наша) - Cabbage soup and buckwheat are our food.  

Protein powder vs meat vs eggs

I looked into protein shakes to increase my protein intake.  They taste great and take less effort and time than cooking food, but they seem expensive and lack many nutrients that are present in meats, vegetables, and grains.  

Strangely, I am yet to find any decent comparisons of the amount of protein and the price per serve in protein shakes to meats or other foods.  So I looked up and compared several meats, eggs, vegetables, and a few grains.  For ease of reference, I included the websites I gleaned the information.  

I am interested in protein percentage and noted if the food is not considered a complete protein.  Leucine is an amino acid that is important for building muscle, repairing muscle, and it is metabolised in muscle fibers.  I am also interested in iron content as I struggle to get enough iron.  I know a lot of people care about calories, so I also include the amount of calories of each even though I think people vastly misunderstand calories.  

To give the below comparison some perspective, the recommended daily intake for a male about my size and age is roughly:

Protein 50 g
Leucine 2.4 g
Iron 8 mg
Energy 2,000 kcal

To make the comparison as useful as possible, I am comparing 100 grams of each as it would be around one serving, except for the protein powder which is one 40g serving.  

Protein Powder

Note: whey protein are considered complete proteins as they contain good amounts of all essential amino acids.

Protein Powder per 40 g serve

https://www.uprotein.com.au/100-whey-protein-powder-enzymes-2kgs/

Protein 33 g

Leucine 3.39 g

Iron 0.74 mg

Energy 149 kcal

Meat

Note: meat based proteins are considered to be complete proteins as they contain good amounts of all essential amino acids
Note: about 14% to 18% of iron is usually bioavailable from meat

Chicken per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/171477/nutrients

Protein 27.3 g 

Leucine 2.33 g

Iron 1.04 mg

Energy 165 kcal

Beef per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174032/nutrients

Protein 25.9 g other cuts as low as 13.6 g

Leucine 1.45 g 

Iron 2.6 mg 

Energy 250 kcal

Rabbit per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174348/nutrients

Protein 33 g

Leucine 2.57 g

Iron 4.85 mg

Energy 173 kcal

Quail per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169902/nutrients

Protein 25.1 g

Leucine unknown

Iron 4.43 mg

Energy 227 kcal

Squab per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169905/nutrients

Protein 23.9 g

Leucine unknown

Iron 5.91 mg

Energy 213 kcal

Eggs

Note: eggs are high in all of the essential amino acids and are considered to be a complete protein

Chicken egg boiled per 100g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/173424/nutrients

Protein 12.6 g

Leucine 1.08 g

Iron 1.19 mg

Energy 155 kcal

Quail egg per 100 g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/172191/nutrients

Protein 13 g

Leucine 1.15 g

Iron 3.65 mg

Energy 158 kcal

Vegetables and Grains

Note: many plant based proteins are considered to be incomplete proteins as they are low in one or more essential amino acids
Note: Plant based iron is not as bioavailable as animal based iron, for example less than 2% of the iron in spinach is bioavailable

Comparison of nutrition: Buckwheat vs Rice vs Wheat vs Maize

Spinach per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168462/nutrients

Protein 2.86 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.223 g

Iron 2.71 mg (low bioavailability)

Energy 23 kcal

Soy bean (sprouted and steamed) per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168460/nutrients

Protein  8.47 g

Leucine 0.607 g

Iron 1.31 mg

Energy 81 kcal

Peas per 100g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170419/nutrients

Protein  5.42 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.323 g

Iron 1.47 mg

Energy 81 kcal

Lima beans per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/174253/nutrients

Protein 7.8 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.673 g

Iron 2.39 mg

Energy 115 kcal

Corn per 100 g 

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/169998/nutrients

Protein 3.27 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.348 g

Iron 0.52 mg

Energy 86 kcal

Buckwheat per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/170286/nutrients

Protein 13.2 g

Leucine 0.832 g

Iron 2.2 mg

Energy 343 kcal

Rice per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168930/nutrients

Protein 2.38 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine 0.197 g

Iron 0.2 g

Energy 130 kcal

Wheat per 100g

https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/168944/nutrients

Protein 9.61 g (not a complete protein)

Leucine unknown

Iron 3.71 mg

Energy 332 kcal 

Mulberry fresh leaves per 100g

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17135021/

Protein 7.34 g (range 4.72 to 9.96 g)

Leucine unknown

Iron 7.53 mg (range 4.70 to 10.36 mg)

Energy 77.5 kcal (69 to 86 kcal)

Conclusion

Meats: Rabbit meat has more protein than chicken or beef, and had the highest percentage of protein other than the protein powder.  Surprisingly, rabbit meat has far more iron than beef or chicken.  Rabbit meat was also the superior meat when it comes to the Leucine content.  Rabbit meat is very low in fat.  It makes me wonder why more people don't eat rabbit meat.  Rabbit is far too expensive and difficult to buy here, so I would eat chicken as it is high is protein, high in leucine, and has some iron.  

Eggs: Chicken eggs are reasonably affordable and easy to buy, and has good levels of protein, high in leucine, and has some iron.  

Plant foods: As far as plant foods go, buckwheat was the stand out.  Buckwheat is one of the few plants that are considered complete proteins.  Buckwheat is nutritionally comparable to egg, but has higher iron and higher fiber, and is easier to digest.  The carbohydrates in buckwheat are healthy.  

Novel plant foods: mulberry leaves are an underutilised (and seemingly unknown) vegetable.  Mulberry leaves are far more nutritious, easier to grow, higher yielding per square meter, need far less water, and use less fertiliser etc than common vegetables that we eat.  I find them to be unpleasant raw, but when cooked and used like spinach they have a mild taste and an agreeable texture.  I only included this for my own curiosity as you probably can't buy them anywhere and would need your own tree if you ever planned to eat these leaves.

Price comparisons per gram of protein

I tried to compare rough costs per kg, cost per serving, and the cost per gram of protein of some of the foods listed.  Some meats (rabbit, squab, quail) are expensive or even impossible to buy locally, so I have not included them below.  Prices vary from day to day, and from store to store, so the following will not be completely accurate.  Still, this is interesting and may be of some use, so I will leave it in for now.  

Uprotein powder costs $94 for 2 kg, $1.88 per serving, or about 6 cents per gram of protein

Chicken costs about $10 per kg, $1 per 100g or just under 4 cents per gram of protein 

Beef mince costs about $11 per kg, $1.10 per 100g or just under 5 cents per gram of protein (or vastly higher depending on the price of meat or the cut eaten)  

Spinach price varies considerably, sometimes about $15 per kg, $1.50 per 100g, or about 52 cents per gram of protein 

Buckwheat costs about $7 per kg, $0.70 per 100g, just over 5 cents per gram of protein

Eggs cost about $5 per dozen, 2 eggs weigh about 100g and cost about $0.83, or just under 7 cents per gram of protein.  If only eating egg whites (as many people do), the cost per gram of protein doubles