Sean Hyson

We now return to the Mountain Dog interview, where Meadows talks about training with Dave Tate, the safety of saturated fat, and the best exercises for back.

You program Dave Tate’s workouts and even train with him regularly. Can you give us any anecdotes about it? How do you push a guy who’s famous for pushing himself to the brink?
The best way to push Dave is to set the example. He is competitive by nature, and doesn’t like to be outworked. Neither one of us get consumed with the amount of weight we are lifting anymore, but we do get consumed with how hard we can push ourselves. If I do something that cripples me, Dave will do that plus some.

Dave Tate. Do you think you can train this guy?

Why did Dave come to you to design his training and diet?
I think he was just so busy with life that he didn’t want to think about it. Plus, he had tried some of the workouts that [nutrition expert and national-level bodybuilder] Shelby Starnes was doing and liked them—I write for Shelby, too. I love being around people like Dave and Shelby. I ask Dave questions all the time. I have Shelby dial me in for shows toward the end—we all learn from each other. Kind of like how it used to be in the old days of bodybuilding!

Can you briefly explain why saturated fat has been misunderstood? What were some of the flawed early studies that linked it with heart disease?
One of the biggest and most misleading studies ever was the Framingham study. This was done in Massachusetts and started in the late ’40s. The study did provide valuable insight into risk factors and heart disease, so I don’t want to say it was bad, but there was a lot of misinterpretation of the data and the results. Many of the study directors actually resigned because of this. I always got a kick out of one of the directors’ reactions. His name was Dr. George Mann, and he said something that has always stuck with me: “The greatest scam ever perpetrated on the American public was that saturated fat increases risk for heart disease”.
 
Another bit of flawed research was the work of Ancel Keys, the guy that really created the lipid hypothesis. He did a study called “The Seven Countries Study” in which he basically cherry-picked data from countries that supported his views, and disregarded available data from countries that did not support his views.
 
If any of your readers want to further research this, there is a lot of good work out there from guys like Uffe Ravnskov (he has a website called www.thincs.org. Anthony Colpo, Malcom Kendrick, and many others have put out some great work as well.

What does a “perfect” day of eating look like for a guy who wants to be healthy, muscular, and lean?
I would do 3-4 meals and probably 2 fast-digesting shakes. Here is an example:

Meal 1 – Organic pastured eggs, some avocado, and some veggies
Meal 2 – A high-quality shake (not whey that’s been exposed to heat or acidic treatments which denature the protein), along with some organic nut butter
Meal 3 – Lean meat (could be grass-fed beef), more veggies, and some brown rice
Meal 4 – Another shake with some raw nuts
Meal 5 – Lean fish with some oats and more nut butter
TRAIN
Meal 6 – More lean fish or meat with some sweet potato and some berries
 
What are some of the unconventional exercises you use or even invented to target muscles that other guys don’t think of?
I think I have invented more back exercises than anything. My back was just so bad, horrible really, and the standard stuff didn’t work for me.
 
“Meadows Rows”, which you can find on my site, are in my opinion the best lat-builder there is, and I am seeing more and more people doing them now. Also, one-armed barbell rows. Stand beside the barbell with one end anchored in a corner and row. Another one is stretchers, where you put your foot on a pulldown machine and row the handle to your chest. At the top position you get a deep stretch in the lats. I also like Smith machine bent-over rows. To me, they are superior to a regular barbell row. I have lots more cool things you can view on my YouTube channel, Mountaindog1.

Benching with bands for assistance helps you train the chest hard without hurting your joints. It also attracts hot chicks.

I utilize a lot of bandwork. It seems like 99% of guys that call themselves “hard core” think these are easy but they’re not. I learned this stuff from Louie Simmons and Dave Tate and I have come up with many variations as well. The truth is, if you apply the right number of reps, the exercises can be extremely intense. There is no easy part of the movement. You can also do what we call “reverse band” type training in which you use the bands to provide assistance at the point in the range of motion where the joints, tendons, and ligaments are most vulnerable (like when you drive the bar off your chest in the bottom of a bench press). This makes it safer to use heavy weights.
 
Thanks, John.

Check out mountaindogdiet.com for more great training and nutrition advice.