Jonathan, one armed pull ups are impressive, regardless of your weight. Have you considered taking up gymnastics as a sport? Maybe there are adult gymnastics classes near you. Or you can try to teach yourself:
http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/30_05_gym_and_tumb.pdf
Alternately, CrossFit might be appealing to you:
http://www.crossfit.com/

Every four days is probably still too often for deadlifting. The stronger you get, the more intense the workout it takes to drive progress, and the longer you need to recover from the effort. I'm closing in on a 400lb deadlift and I do one heavy set of five per week.

But if your back and hips hurt when you deadlift, you might want to check your form:
http://stronglifts.com/how-to-deadlift-with-proper-technique/
http://stronglifts.com/5-reasons-your-lower-back-hurts-when-doing-deadlifts/

Thanks Tuesday, the videos were very descriptive. I usually train my deadlift every 4 days and everything else every other day(barbell front squats, dumbbell press, one arm pull-ups, and plate pinching). I wanted to do every other day originally, but my hip and spine didn't agree. Sometimes 4 days isn't enough and I'll wait 6. I usually do eccentrics to help recover and get stronger strangely enough. Though it's a little hard to do with the deadlift, since it starts from the concentric lift.

I want to be agile, strong, and symmetrical. I figure such would improve my health and appearance. I'm going to practice jump shrugs for a couple weeks before I try cleans again(I'm not going to try the snatch or clean and jerk yet). I deadlifted today, but only 5 times.(No bouncing, 5 second rest between each lift) No back pain yet, but I'm going to take it safe anyways.

Lemur, I was on drugs for my depression and other mental problems just two years ago, as well as 'gastric reflux'. I know what it's like too, thankfully that's over now.

Jonas,

Are you sure you lost muscle mass and not intramuscular/subcutaneous fat or water weight that's bound to muscle glycogen? How do you know? Did you have MRI lean mass measurements done before and after?

Strength losses tend to come before muscle mass loss. Did you get weaker when you lost weight?

Jonathan,

Your lifts are pretty decent for your size and experience. What are your goals? How often do you work out and what do you do? Are you training for sports, health, or appearance?

If you're dreading deadlifts, you're almost certainly working them too hard. Try doing them half as often as you do now, and adding in power shrugs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7oVLXzpqt0 (it's basically a clean pull from the hang. Watch the full extension of the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles and how the arms only bend to follow the path of the bar after the extension is complete)) to replace the eliminated deadlift workouts while you learn the Olympic lifts. Interesting article abstract on the value of the power shrug here:
http://www.nsca-lift.org/Abstracts/detabs.asp?id=507

The O-lifts are a hell of a lot of fun, but are fairly technical and a competent coach will make the learning curve much less steep. Here are a couple video introductions to get you started:
Tommy Kono O-Lift Primer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt423i1w6vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71denvCLxP0
Second O-Lift Primer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ZV4gE0eUE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHB1r5Lo5iU

One for Dr. de Vany and his propensity for training the negatives (eccentric portion) of lifts. Elite Fitness sells "weight releasers" that can be used to perform negatives safely
http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=114&pid=51
http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=114&pid=560

I have been reading this blog for months, but this is the first time I've felt compelled to post a comment.

Seamus, it's great to hear how this has changed your life for the better. Finding this blog changed my life as well, I now see food from a completely different viewpoint. I'm a very logical person, and the inherent truth & logic struck a chord for me too.

I had never given much thought to what the body actually needs, and dismissed anything the media said because most of the time they're liars or misinformed, what was deemed "good" or "bad" kept changing, and none of it made much sense. I would read nutrition labels, but not really grasp what they meant because I didn't know how things truly affected the human body. Mostly I just ate a lot of ramen noodles (my comfort food) or whatever else I felt like. I treated fruit like it was candy (an occasional treat) and candy like it was fruit (a daily need).

Once I started reading here it all began to click and fall into place. The more I read, the more sense it made. I remember sending this link to a friend with a note that said, "I found the man with the answers, go read the archive." Now it's like the fog has cleared and the answers are fifty feet tall in blinking lights.

Thanks for sending in your story, Seamus. There are lots of us out here who are tuned in daily to this blog, even if we never make a comment. Your story and others like it are inspiring and reinforce my desire to better for myself.

You may want to check out the Caveman Power site. It's run by an Aussie, and has some excellent excercise videos. There's a forum, but it doesn't seem very active. Probably because people like me just read & lurk instead of participating. Nonetheless, you may find some interesting ideas there.

http://www.cavemanpower.com/

Jonathan, I think it's wonderful that you've found this way of life at such a young age. At 17 I was eating quite badly and consuming loads of mind altering drugs, definitely not working out & caring about how healthy I was. I don't regret the way I was, I had a blast in high school, but if I had known all of this at that age perhaps I wouldn't be in this shape today.

Once I reached age 20 I started to truly care about what I ate, but until I found this blog last summer I was just trying to sift through the information that's out there & cope. I'll be 27 in February, and I'm so grateful that I didn't waste any more of my life trying to make all of the misinformation fit together. You are lucky to be on the right track already, things will only get better for you.

Art, thanks for everything. Your words mean a great deal to a lot of people, and I appreciate everything they have done for me. Can't wait to see a forum, as I'm a bit longwinded, obviously. :)

I don't train high volume but I still added a little weight to my frame. I'm 17 years old, 1.7 m and 60 kg, up from 55 kg. Short and lightweight, but I'm getting much stronger, mostly in my upper body as I could only do sprints and unweighted training before this Autumn. I was still able to fix my posture and mechanics though, with Art's advice to do one leg-squats.

At the beginning of November this year I got a standard olympic barbell weight set and an adjustable stand. I'm not that strong yet, front squat 70 kg for 5, overhead press 45k for 1 and deadlift 115 kg for 1. I've come to dread deadlifting though, as it takes a long time to recover from when working heavy, even with fasting, plenty of walking/sleeping, clean water, and paleo-like eating.

So, I was wondering if olympic weightlifts such as the clean or the snatch would be an acceptable replacement for the deadlift. I've read that the olympic athletes will train their lifts several times a day for an hour, so I assume they don't take as long to recover. Competing isn't my objective though, just to get stronger overall. Btw, are bent-over rows fine too? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Nice job, Seamus! Thanks for sharing your story. I can definitely relate to the "two steps forward, three steps back" yo-yo principle. Hopefully we can both make that faulty "technology" a thing of the past.

I concur with the points that Elam made to Jonas about being lean and strong vs big (bloated) and potentially not as strong.

I'm at a point where being lean and strong is definitely more appealing than gaining more mass, but I can definitely understand why some would want to gain more mass.

Rather than ditch the EF way, why not intentionally add more calories or "calorie surplus" days and stay true to the EF foods and IF principles? Along with lifting heavy and maintaining good hormone levels, you'd be increasing "clean" calories for a clean bulk, and therefore you should be able to gain more mass and strength, as opposed to increasing BF. I'm sure there's a delicate balance you can find that works for you.

You are your own guinea pig. It wouldn't hurt to tweak/experiment with the EF way for your specific goals.

Way to go Seamus!

Jonas,
Why do you want mass over strength? I understand a little of how you feel. I felt weird the first time I weighed myself at 200lbs after spending the previous 15 years at 200-225 pounds. Being over 200 pounds just seem like man-weight to me. Although a I just as strong (in some exercises stronger) as I've ever been, a look to old photos shows that I was once a bigger guy. So the questions becomes why is the mass needed?
If it's for sports, perhaps being just as strong, but quicker might be a better than pure mass. When I was in high school, the best lineman on our (small town) football team was a wiry guy who played guard. We listed him at 190lbs, but the truth was in the winter he wrestled at 140lbs and he didn't have to lose weight to get there. He was just incredibly strong and knew how to use his body. Much bigger guys crumbled before him. Some of the strongest guys I knew growing up were farmers who were skinny, but in that sinewy fashion the let you know they were harder than a coffin nail.
If it's for looks, question your idea of what is fit. At my gym, most of the personal trainers are big guys, but they have a lot of sub-cutaneous fat (some even have a bit of a gut). Why do you want to be big? If it's for signally, then for who?

Finally, if you want to gain mass try increasing the volume in your workouts:
http://www.arthurdevany.com/2007/11/gaining_mass_1.html

The workout detailed above is a killer.

I felt very good eating the EF-way, but I got way to skinny even though I ate 3 big meals a day. I lost muscle mass and couldn't gain it, which is one of my goals :-(

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