The Cube Method: A Review

From September 15th, 2015 to November 13th, 2015, I conducted a cycle of The Cube Method.

The Cube Method was created by Brandon Lilly and is designed for powerlifting. With that knowledge, my goal was obviously to come out of the program stronger on my three main lifts: bench press, deadlift, and squat. Brandon Lilly created this program as a way to "return to his roots", meaning going back to the basics of lifting. With all the different programs that exist, it is easy to drown in variations of lifts and too many reps and sets; The Cube Method is basic, and wants you to pick a heavy thing up off the ground and put it back down, and ten weeks later be able to pick up a slightly heavier thing. The program is simplified, centered around the compound barbell lifts. So let's look at the pieces that made up my cycle.

The Online Calculator/Program: I used a calculator on Iron Beast to figure out my 10 week cycle, and it is the most excellent calculator I have seen so far. As usual, you input your current 1RM and it then figures out, week by week, what you need to lift to increase strength. What I makes it the best though is that it has a space for you to input the plates you have available, making it even easier to lift than ever before by telling you what plates to grab each day! No math! Yay! This calculator also allows you to select 3-5 accessory lifts and suggests choosing a Strongman lift for every training day to compliment The Cube Training and I think that is just fantastic. Personally, I came into The Cube Method after a year or so of mostly hypertrophy, so adding in the strongman lift/training was fun and new for me. It also allows you to choose between 3 and 4 training days; if you opt for 3, you will only do compound lift-focused days. If you choose 4, like I did, you have one day dedicated to your personal weaknesses.

The Layout: The layout of this program is very well thought out; every week you will bench, deadlift, and squat, but it varies as to whether those lifts will be Heavy, Explosive, or for Rep work. Example: one week you will do Heavy Squats one day, Explosive Bench another day, and Rep Bench another. Progressively your percentages increase throughout the cycle from 80% on heavy days to 95%,  70% on rep days to 85%, and 65% on explosive days to 75%. It is very doable if you put in the work. Every training day I felt like I was really pushing and getting stronger. Not everyday was perfect, but every week I noticed one of my lifts getting stronger. It is tough to see improved strength on three different compound lifts all in one week, but in the cycle overall I definitely saw strength increases.

My Results: Because I am equal parts impatient and uneducated as a lifter stiller, I PR-ed a week early. I had a rough deadlift PR day and did not increase my 1RM but DID increase a few rep maxes which was awesome. Same for my bench, I didn't increase my 1RM (out of fear of crushing myself without a spotter), but my rep maxes did increase, and my form also got a lot better. My bench 1RM increased by 5 pounds and I felt really strong with that rep, and probably could have gone higher. 

How It Compares: I have done Smolov Jr, MADCOW, and 5/3/1, as far as other training programs go. In comparison, this program is an intermediate level program, much like 5/3/1. The other two programs are great, but the volume within them is that you see in a more beginner strength program. If you've done 5/3/1, maybe try out Cube.  No dings on 5/3/1 though, that program stands its ground, I just prefer Cube (currently).

The Cube Method is a great training program, so great in fact that I am doing another cycle, this time so I can PR on the right week :). I have already noticed that the lifts for the first week are easier and I feel stronger than when I did it the first time. I am excited to see where I am at in 10 weeks.

On Body Image

The first time I ever thought to myself, "I'm fat" was when I was 15 years old. That seems pretty good these days, when you consider the fact that 40-60% of elementary school-aged girls (ages 6-12) are concerned with their weight or think they are fat (nationaleatingdisorders.org). Where have we gone wrong as a society that prides itself on progression that children are concerned with getting fat? Who did they hear it from? Where did they see it? How do they even know what classifies someone as fat? Truth is, they do not. A child does not understand Body Mass Index or obesity and the health issues it can lead to; they understand and value what they are told to value.

How does this happen? How did thinness even become something to value? 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some point in their life (Wade, Keski-Rahkonen, & Hudson, 2011). What is it about body image that makes it so powerful that it can control a life, and even end it?

The image of the "ideal woman" has always been connected to what is difficult to achieve, to what is rare. A fuller, curvier figure was worshiped during times in human history when food was sparse, so one had to be wealthy and high in society to be able to have access to an amount of food necessary to achieve a full figure. Today, being overweight is more the norm, thus those who are thinner are the ones who have achieved the now rare body form...how silly. Our society chooses what is held in high regard based on what is harder to achieve. It is arbitrary, and it ruins lives.

Eating disorders and disordered eating habits can also manifest as symptoms other than simply just trying to lose weight in a drastic manner; when I was 16, I went through my "middle child syndrome" pretty heavily, and I believe that I developed disordered eating habits as a way to get more attention. I didn't initially care about losing weight, but in the end I became addicted to it, because simply not eating worked so well. I received the attention I so desired, but only because I lost so much weight so quickly that my family was concerned. I am thankful that I eventually just grew out of it and returned to a normal weight range.

Skip ahead a decade to June 2014, when I deployed to Kuwait. At 5'9", I was 185 pounds, and felt fine with it. I was capable of doing all of the physical demands the Army placed on me, albeit at a mediocre level. I liked myself, though. A size 10-12, waist 31, I generally felt pretty good and had no desire to try and lose weight. As long as I could remember I had been eating and drinking without a care. That summer, though, I picked up the habit of lifting weights. Just for something to do while deployed. It was fun, and in a couple of months I started to lose weight. I added in running a few days a week, lost more weight, and became obsessed. I was commended for my lifestyle changes, my Chain of Command sent me back to the U.S. to participate in the O/A Ranger Assessment due to my new found physique and abilities. I weighed myself everyday, sometimes more than once. I'm embarrassed to put this into words now, but it is important. Getting smaller was all I thought about while deployed. I woke up at 4 am to go to the gym for 1.5 hours. I never restricted what I ate; I just worked in an excessive manner; walking 7+ miles a day, and then working out on top of that. When I left Kuwait, I weight around 145 pounds, and I worshiped it. I came home and felt fulfilled every time someone told me how small I was. I tried to hide it from my boyfriend, but he is too bright to trick. Over the past nine months, he has given me pep talk after pep talk to bring me back to reality, and I really do believe he is what has kept me from spiraling down into an eating disorder. Since coming back and getting my head right again, I have let go of trying to lose weight and put my focus on getting stronger, and have I ever! I am usually okay with the weight I have gained back because it has been an insignificant few pounds, but my mentality is much healthier. At the end of the deployment, I could feel myself losing the fun and enjoyment in lifting, because my priority became taking up less space. Sometimes there are still days where I panic and want to fall back into an obsession, but my supportive love and the logic he helps me hang on to keeps me from doing so.

So how does this happen? Where does self-hatred come from, and what does it feed off of? Body Dysmorphia is an obsessive focus on a perceived flaw of one's appearance. People who suffer from body dymorphia fix on an aspect of themselves and hate it. It is so unhealthy and toxic to hate a part of yourself, and so unnecessary. The world has created arbitrary right and left limits of what is acceptable and what is not, what is beautiful and thus cherished, and what is less attractive. When a person decides to use these limits imposed upon them as a means to judge themselves, they step onto a dangerous slope. The healthiest way to develop your own reasonable standards of what is healthy and aesthetic is to first know the basic facts about what body fat percentage is under the Obesity mark for your height, and then factor in what your overall health goal is. Being in the "overweight" range doesn't necessarily mean you are any of the negative things you associate with being overweight. Powerlifters and bodybuilders are often at a higher weight than a runner of comparable stature. It all depends on goals.

Let's talk about #everybodyisbeautiful and #healthyatanysize. While I believe this body positivity movement is incredibly important and a step in the right direction, I think that sometimes it is misconstrued into an excuse for indiscipline. Healthy At Any Size should not be used as a blanket statement to justify accepting obesity. Frankly, obesity is NOT healthy. This is not about fat or thin. Obesity is a clinical issue that leads to various health issues that are very serious and can result in death. Yes, we need to move away from the worship of the Kate Moss waif figure and just let men and women experiment with their own health and find what works for them, but that does not mean we should be creating hashtags and grassroots movements that allow people suffering from obesity to shrug off responsibility and eat their way to a slow death. Or a fast one. I don't know how fast heart disease or diabetes kills you, but neither sound too great.

In the end, it comes back to being rational. Whether you have it in your head that you should be rain thin or you have decided that you can be 50% body fat because #bodypositivity, you owe it to yourself to step back and look at science. All logic comes from facts. Do the research about your body, what makes up your body, and what is an optimal make up for you to live a long and healthy life.

Holiday Season is Upon Us!

Happy holidays everyone! We are knee deep in my favorite time of year, people. If you are lucky enough to already be graced with shimmering snow covering your ground, I am jealous. Chicago is trying to hold on to summer as long as possible, but eventually it will crumble under Mr. Winter's frigged embrace...I CAN'T WAIT. Now now, I am not about to skip right over to red and green and Fa-la-la, the month of November can be filled with holiday cheer without relating it to Christmas (although I did buy our stockings on November 1st...whatever.) Here are a few the things I will be doing this month to ensure that my insides explode with holiday sparkles and joy.

This is probably the most important. #CharlieBrown is my jam, and a holiday is not truly celebrated unless the accompanying Charlie Brown film is viewed. Charlie Brown is a man ahead of his time...but I digress. This wonderful gift of entertainment is heart warming and pretty funny, I encourage you to kick off the holiday season with a viewing, and of course watch it ON #Thanksgiving. Side note, does anyone else find cartoon food more tantalizing than real food? No? Just me? Okay...moving on...

The Chicago ice rinks open on November 27th, I am on the edge of my seat day by day. This activity seems to hold so much cheerful wonder in it, I may burst on site. The lights, the night sky, the glinting snow in the background, children laughing...I am mesmerized. Now, I am 1) not good at ice skating and 2) I don't particularly like it, but maybe that's because I have never done it outside! I am prepared to be wowed. If you live in a city with an outdoor rink, grab a loved one or a cherished friend and go ice skating for a night! If you do not have an ice rink....come to CHICAGO WE HAVE SO MANY. Or, here are a few options: snow shoeing, sledding, building a snowman or fort, etc...you owe it to yourself to get outside, even though it is cold, have fun, and enjoy the beauty and love of the holidays.

LIGHTS FESTIVAL!!! Now, most cities, big and small, have some sort of light festival or show to go see; even the small town where I grew up with roughly 20,000 people has a pretty magnificent light extravaganza; Chicago...well, Chicago has quite the light festival, pictured above, on November 21st and yes I will be there to hug Mickey Mouse. Allow yourself to be in awe and see the beauty in how lights look, see if they bring up any nostalgic feelings, and enjoy the show.

Oh, how I love holiday food...yesterday I read that the average American gains 10-15 pounds from October 31st to December 31st...hahahaha and that's OKAY because food is awesome! I love holiday food; everything is so rich and creamy. The sweets, chocolates, cheeses, breads, meats...it never ends. My dream is to one day attend a feast like that seen in the great hall at Hogwarts. The holidays are a perfect time to experiment with delicious baking recipes you've been wanting to try, you'll have plenty of willing people to test it on! Keep an eye on my Instagram account, @smashleymmac, for holiday recipes, I'll be posting one every week until New Years Eve! The recipe for the picture above, #BakedBrie, is being posted today, yay!

All holiday details and activities absolutely include the involvement of loved ones; spend time with the ones you cherish and let them know how much you appreciate them, enjoy their company, learn something new about one and other, and laugh a lot. Until next time!