You know that you want to, and possible should, start working out and getting into shape. But maybe you don't like the gym or you want something to do when you're not going to the gym? Well then you need to learn muscle building at home techniques. Muscle building at home does not have to be difficult, it can even be fun, but you are going to need to have motivation and dedication to really get the results that you are looking for here.

Starting on a Diet Plan

If you want to start muscle building at home, the first step needs to be for you to create a proper diet plan. Many many people make the mistake of thinking that exercises come first and are the most important part, but this is actually not the case. Instead you are going to need to focus on your diet and what you are eating before being concerned with the exercises that you are doing.

Getting Equipment

Now before you can start muscle building at home, you are going to have to get the right equipment for yourself. You are going to need to get weights for one. Make sure that you are aware of what amount of weights you are getting, it might be best to get a dumbbell set where you can change the dumbbell weight. This is because although you do want to challenge yourself at the same time you do not want to overdo it and end up injuring yourself, this does not help you get into shape.

Make sure that you consult your physician before you start trying to muscle building at home. This is important so that you know how to safely use the weights at home but also it is important as it will ensure that you are going to lose the most body fat in the shortest amount of time. Also this will ensure that you don't have any health condition at play that you are going to have to be concerned with when working out.

You also want to keep in mind when you start muscle building at home that, unlike weight machines, free weights do not restrict movement, which personally I think makes them a lot better. Consider your exercise motivation for the quality and durability of the weights that you are thinking of buying, make sure they are fit for purpose for what you have in mind.

You also want to make sure that the weights you are going to be purchasing are going to be easy enough for you to store. Especially if your home is already cramped it is very easy to lose an entire room to a set of equipment for muscle building at home, which is why I would recommend a set of dumbbells.

I'm Joe Gore and I have created http://www.24hrbodybuildingfitness.com/ using information I have researched and put into practice through my own fitness routine. Take action now and visit my website at the above link.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Building, Muscle, Start

So why do the Bulgarians have such a successful national weightlifting program? Do they use anabolics in excess? Do they need to use them? I will answer this question and more right here.

By: Critical BenchOct 18, 2005 Email More SHARE

This article was written for the single purpose of exploring Bulgarian training methods as they can and should be used by your run-of-the-mill American weightlifter.

Well, that and for the purpose of firing off a little rant. But, if you can get through the ranting, I promise there will be some training stuff somewhere in there ...

Begin Rant

As of late, it seems that an increasing number of people have taken to saying that the Bulgarians have lost their edge, and that Bulgaria is 'no longer dominant' in international weightlifting.

I am not altogether sure exactly what results these folks are looking at. The 2000 Olympics, for example, which was about the worst meet in 3 decades for the Bulgarians, still saw 4 Bulgarian-trained lifters on the medal stand.

Six students of the Bulgarian system medaled at the 2002 World Championships. As of March 2003, if one were to look at the IWF men's rankings one will find that the Bulgarians have a lifter ranked in the top 3 in ALL SIX classes that are 69 kilos and above. Not only that, but in 4 of those classes the Bulgarian is ranked number one.

So, it seems to me that in the 'ever-expanding world of the 21st century', the Bulgarians are continuing to more than hold their own in weightlifting. Especially when one considers that Bulgaria is a nation of about 8 million, while countries of half a billion sit and flounder with no lifters and no medals.

But I digress... the fact is that the Bulgarians are still good. They are better than good. And the single most important reason for their success is their training methods.

RELATED ARTICLE  Bulgarian Leg Training Secrets Explained!
This is an extensive and thought-provoking article about the different leg training protocols that were popularized by the dominant Bulgarian weightlifting teams of the latter half of the Twentieth Century.
[ Click here to learn more. ]

Yes, after comments about how the Bulgarians are not that good anymore come out one side of the mouth, comments about how their training is worthless usually comes out of the other. The most common version of this old song and dance is a statement to the effect of "Oh, that routine would KILL you!"

Inherent in this excuse is one of two common premises.

First is that the Bulgarians succeed with their training solely because of enormous amounts of drugs.

Second is that only their hand-picked genetic freaks could handle that kind of workload.

 Drug Offenders?

The problem with the first point is that the Bulgarians are not that high on the list of IOC drug offenders. Sure, there are Bulgarians that use banned anabolic substances. But, the same can be said for EVERY international team, and I do mean *EVERY* team.

The fact is that the Bulgarians dominate the middleweight classes, where excessive use of anabolics might just put a lifter over his class limit. Some countries which will remain nameless (*cough*Russia*cough*), always seem to have their best lifters drifting through the 94s and the 105s on their way to being 135 kilo heavyweights.

This type of situation seems much more indicative of drug use, but of course the whiners do not want to hear logical arguments. Additionally, the Bulgarian training system is not the type that would draw too heavily upon the benefits of using anabolics.

The Bulgarian-type workout consisting only of a moderate number of not-quite-maximum singles imposes a heavy burden on the CNS, but if one is looking for CNS stimulation or recovery there are better places than steroids to find it.

Central Nervous System:
The central nervous system along with the peripheral nervous system comprise a primary division of controls that command all physical activities of a vertebrate (a life form with a spine).

Neurons of the central nervous system affect consciousness and mental activity while spinal extensions of central nervous system neuron pathways affect skeletal muscles and organs in the body.

Again, contrast this with traditional training programs in the Russian regimen where athletes of high sports mastery would be training on up to 80 different lifts/exercises a year, with about 25% of these done for sets of 5 reps or more, and you can see a training protocol that drastically has its effectiveness increased by substances that will increase protein synthesis and help recovery at the cellular level.

 Genetic Freaks?

The second point (that of genetics) has a grain of truth in it. The best Bulgarian lifters have been in the system for quite some time, and have risen to the top from among the best of the best.

However, one can look down the Bulgarian ranks to see if it is the 'system' or the 'individuals.' Bulgaria usually has a deep team of lifters, so much so that they can afford to sell half of them to foreign countries.

I somehow doubt that, again, in this nation of only 8 million people there are that many more 'perfect weightlifters' born than anywhere else. The other thing is these lifters have slowly worked up to what they are doing over that long time that they have been in the system.

Bulgaria does not throw its 14-year olds into a situation where they go from doing nothing to doing 27 workouts a week where they snatch to a heavy single.

In fact, many Eastern European nations that start lifters as young as 12-years old have them doing only about 30% of their training as specific preparation for as long as 3 years. It takes them a long time to ramp up to the volumes they are handling once they are competing at the world level.

 A Brutal Training Program.

Finally, as an adjunct to both points, people need to realize that the training program, as the elite Bulgarian lifters follow it, IS brutal. However, drugs are not as big a piece of the pie as they are made out to be. Neither is genetics.

The Bulgarians have massages before, during, and after workouts. Do you?

RELATED ARTICLE  The Benefits Of Swedish Massage Therapy For Athletes.
There are numerous types of massage, but perhaps the most popular and commonly known is Swedish Massage.
[ Click here to learn more. ]

The Bulgarians take all sorts of herbs and 'adaptogens' and are deeply involved in legal sports performance pharmacology. Are you?

The Bulgarians on the national team don't have to keep a 9-to-5, 40-hour a week job. Do you?

The point here is that there are many recovery factors that can come into play that make a Bulgarian routine more accessible to their lifters than to the average American.

That said, if you are willing to do some homework on herbs and learn a little bit about sports self-massage, etc., you also can reap the benefits of increased recovery.

The Bulgarian Blitz

All that having been said, I simply refuse to accept the idea that there is nothing to learn from their training.

In fact, I have arrived at what I believe is a way to work *anyone* into a system that at least draws upon the same principles as the Bulgarian training methods, and have been using it with myself and others.

You might never get to 'Full-on Bulgarian' status, but you can definitely make their type of workouts work for you ...

 Step 1:
Basic Routine Template

Monday:

Snatch: 3 singles, using 'Maximum Training Resistance'Clean & Jerk: MTR matrix Front Squat: 3 singles, using MTR, then 2 doubles with MTR -15 kilos

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday "Matrix A."
Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday "Matrix B."
Click Here For A Printable Log Of Monday "Matrix C."

[ See Below For An Explanation Of A, B, & C Progressions. ]

Wednesday:

Back Squat: 3 doubles with Monday CJ MTR + 20 kilos Power Snatch: 3 singles with MTR Power Clean and Push Jerk: 3 singles with MTR Romanian Deadlift: 3 triples with Mon CJ MTR + 20 kilos

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Wednesday.

Friday:

Snatch: work up to true 1RM CJ: work up to true 1RM Front Squat or Back Squat: work up to true 1RM

Click Here For A Printable Log Of Friday.

[Basically this is a 'Total Day' or a simulated competition. Again, you don't want to psyche up like this is the Olympics, but you do want to 'let loose' and push yourself to darn near what your absolute max for that day would be.]

 

Weight Lifted

Reps (1-10)

One-Rep Max

There you have it. Pretty simple, eh? And who could complain about that volume or frequency? If you cannot handle the above workout schedule, then you have some serious recovery issues. You may want to consider retiring from weightlifting and taking up cross-stitch, or something else less stressful.

Maximum Training Resistance.

Now, one of the important concepts here is that of "Maximum Training Resistance." This is what some of you may have heard referred to as a 'daily max' before.

The definition of the MTR is "the maximum resistance that can be overcome one time without a strong effort of will or emotional stress." This is key in this program; at least as I have it structured to work for the individual.

We want to use the MTR so as not to burn out the nervous system. Thus, on Mondays and Wednesday, the singles in the classical and power lifts must NOT be 'balls to the wall, my youngest son is hanging suspended over a Judas Cradle' type of lifts. They are 'I can walk up to the bar and pull this weight' lifts.

What Is A Judas Cradle?
The Judas Cradle, also known as the Judas Chair, was a torture device used in the Spanish Inquisition. The Judas Cradle was a pyramid-shaped seat. The victim was placed on top of it, with the point inserted into their anus or vagina, then very slowly lowered by ropes. The intended effect was to stretch the orifice over a long period of time. Saving a person from such a device would require the equivalent of a rather intense power lift.

Of course, you have to toe the line. Also, you have to learn whether you are missing lifts because you are actually working above your MTR, or because your form sucks.

For me, it is an issue of pulling in the snatch and clean and the drive in the jerk. If I am pulling the bar high enough to snatch it or clean it, and driving it high enough to jerk it, I don't feel that I have exceeded my MTR, whether I am making the lifts or not.

If I am missing my snatches out front, it is likely just because of my crappy first pull and lack of a full shrug, and not because I am going too heavy. As a lifter progresses, he will learn exactly where that line is.

At the start of the program, Mondays and Wednesdays only will be done using the 'MTR Matrix'. This matrix will appear at the end of the article, and I will place appropriate comments with it.

 Step 2:
Adding A Session.

Alright, the first step beyond the basic workout on your way to becoming a Bulgarian. What is it?

On the middle day of the week, you are going to do 2 sessions. The session you have already been doing will be the a.m. session, and the following will be done in the p.m:

Middle Day PM

Snatch 80%/2 (3-4 sets) CJ 80%/2 (3-4 sets) Snatch Pulls; 3-4 sets of triples with a weight 10 kilos over what was used for the snatches.

 

The issue here becomes on what day of the week are you able to add a session. So, if you can do an a.m. and p.m. workout Thursday, that becomes your 'middle day', and you are now lifting Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday.

Though, if adding an a.m. (or basically just a session 2-3 hours earlier in the day) session is a big stumbling block, continuing on with the progression of the program might be next to impossible.

The other issue here is when to take these steps. That, I am afraid, is up to the individual lifter and/or his coach. I would say that once you have been 'through the matrix' a couple of times at each and are able to keep making progress, add the next step. Your body is ready for the challenge.

 Step 3:
Adding A Day.

So, you have added a session. A few months later, you should be ready to add a fourth day. What previously would have been the M, W, F workouts, respectively, will now take place on Mon, Tues, and Sat. What do we add in?

On Thursday, you will do a workout that looks exactly like Monday's. That wasn't so hard, was it?

 Step 4:
Adding A Session.

You have now been lifting 4 days a week, twice on Tuesdays. Your hair has gotten a little longer than is stylish, and you tend to wear T-shirts bearing '80s slogans that were not even cool in the '80s. It is time to move on ...

You will add an a.m. session to Monday (with the previously done Monday session moved to the p.m, or done second). What will that a.m. session look like?

Monday a.m. Session.

Snatch: 85%/2 (3-4 sets) CJ: 90%/2 (2-3 sets) Back Squat or RDL to MTR

 Step 5:
Adding Two Sessions.

This is it. The final bump in the road. It may have taken you a year and a half to work through the prior steps. You now can answer your cell phone between the clean and the jerk portions of the lift, and you got a new driver's license that says "Boevski" instead of "Dave Smith". You are ready for the final step in truly becoming a Bulgarian ..

What is added? It's simple, really. On Thursday you add an a.m. workout that looks the same as Monday's a.m. workout, and on Saturday you do the following workout (though it is more of a CNS warm-up than a workout) in the a.m:

Saturday

Back Squat 80%/3 (3 sets) Power Snatches: 'light' Power Clean and Push Jerk: 'light'

 

Barbell Push Jerk

 

Conclusion

So, there you have it. You now do 8 workouts a week. Craziness? Hardly, if you have added the steps only once you were ready. Not quite as extreme as the Bulgarians?

Think again, because you are now using almost the exact same routine that the Bulgarian team has been doing since new Head Coach Plamen Asparukhov took over for Abadjiev in 2001 and reaffirmed the Bulgarian team's commitment to staying in line with IOC doping regulations.

You now train just like Boevski and Jeliazkov, so good luck and go lift like them ...

 The MTR Matrix

This is basically a system of volume/intensity progression that was used by the old Bulgarian regime that has not fallen out of favor. You can play with and rearrange the weeks as you like, but my preference is to go A-B-B-C-A. Some people can handle A-B-B-C-C-A. Try different things and see what works for you.

Also, to start with a lifter is probably best off basing the entire mesocycle on the MTR that was used during the first week. So, the weeks will just build upon each other.

As the lifter becomes more comfortable with the system and his own capabilities, however, he will become more in tune with what his true MTR is on any given day, and during weeks B and C, respectively, will basically just do a second wave and a third wave back up to that weight irrespective of what MTR was used during week one.

"A" Week:

Predicted MTR -20kilos for 2 reps.Predicted MTR -10 kilos for a single.MTR for 3-4 singles.

"B" Week:

Perform A week progression.MTR -10 kilos for a double.MTR -5 kilos for a single.MTR +5 kilos for 2-4 singles.

"C" Week:

Entire B week progression performed.Double with MTR -20 kilos.Double with MTR -10 kilos.3-4 more singles with MTR plus 5 or 7.5 kilos.

So, if you were doing a simple A-B-B-C-A progression over 5 weeks, and you found that your snatch MTR was 100 on the first Monday, for the next 5 weeks your Monday snatch workouts might be as follows:

Week 1: 80/2, 90, 100 (3-4)
Week 2: 80/2, 90, 100 (3), 90/2, 95, 105 (2-4)
Week 3: 80/2, 90, 100 (3), 90/2, 95, 105 (2-4)
Week 4: 80/2, 90, 100 (3), 90/2, 95, 105 (3), 80/2, 90/2, 105 (2), 107.5 (2)
Week 5: 80/2, 90, 100 (3-4)

At this point, the lifter would start over, this time likely using 105 as the MTR for the first A week in the mesocycle.

 

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Blitz, Bulgarian, Weightlifting

What I recommend

Multi-vitamin. I recommend an inexpensive multi-vitamin from your local drugstore. Do NOT go into places like GNC to get a multi-vitamin because it will not be cheap or tested for safety. If you want a safe, effective multi-vitamin, walk into your local drugstore and get one there. A multi-vitamin is good for filling any gaps in your diet and overall health.

Green Tea. I do not recommend the green tea extract pills, I only recommend drinking the good stuff. Green tea is high in antioxidants and is good for overall health. If you don't like green tea, don't worry about it. Green tea will NOT make or break your results.

Fish Oil. Fish oil is more of a "maybe" on my list. If your diet has a sufficient amount of fatty acids, then you won't need a fish oil supplement.

That's it! I don't recommend anything else because everything else is just a waste of money and totally not needed. People may argue that protein powder should be on the list however, protein powder is a food not a supplement. Anything that has calories is considered food, supplements do not.

I recommend you buy your supplements at bodybuilding.com since they will be the cheapest there, however don't get caught in the trap. When you visit bodybuilding.com, you will be overwhelmed on the amount of supplements available. Trust me, 90 percent of them do absolutely nothing!!!

SUPPLEMENT FAQ

What about Creatine? Creatine is a supplement that has very mixed opinions. In my opinion, Creatine is a waste of money. Trust me, I have tried almost every supplement out there. Creatine is a waste of money. It's more beneficial to use the money for healthy food. May work for others, but I'm skeptical.

What about pre-workouts? Pre-workouts are the biggest scam ever. I have tried twenty-three different pre-workouts and they all do the same thing... nothing! If you think they're doing something, then you are falling for the pre-workout trap. It's not the pre-workout, it's your mind. Companies that make pre-workouts want you to believe that they work, so they add caffeine to give you a jolt. Then they have you hooked into thinking that you can't workout without a pre-workout. Abracadabra... customer for life.

CLA? I took CLA for about 4 months and nothing happened. I can tell you that any results you get while taking CLA will be from your diet and exercise routine, not from CLA. CLA is a waste of money and who knows what it could be doing inside your body.

What about Fish Oil? Fish Oil is actually a decent supplement however, your diet should contain essential fatty acids, which means you don't need to waste your money on Fish Oil. If you feel that you don't have enough fatty acids in your diet, then you actually might want to supplement with a fish oil supplement.

Glutamine? Again, I really don't believe supplements like these are necessary. You shouldn't need a supplement to help you recover faster because the diet should do all the work. Diet is so important in bodybuilding no matter how many supplements you take, the diet will be the key factor in your success. From my experience, Glutamine does help a bit with recovery, but a lot of protein powder out their already has Glutamine in it, so therefore you don't have to spend any extra money on Glutamine.

Weight Gainers? The problem with weight gainers is that they are mostly empty calories. It is true that some weight gainers have a lot of vitamins and minerals, but it would be a thousand times better to eat actual food. The other thing is you have to drink this weight gainer, which means your body will not absorb all of the nutrients. You're body can only absorb nutrients so fast. It's almost like someone drinking three scoops of whey at one time, and another person drinking the whey slowly throughout the day. The one who is drinking the whey slowly throughout the day will absorb the most amount of nutrients. The one who drank the whey all at once will most likely crap it out.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Advice, Building, Muscle

by Lee Boyce – 4/8/2013
Supramaximal holds
Extended sets
One-and-a-half reps
Ladders

The strength training industry has come up with some pretty cool and innovative ways to pack on muscle mass and increase strength, with the above methods serving as prime examples.

Sometimes, however, it doesn't need to be complicated to make progress. Something as simple as pulling or pushing "dead weight" can help you blast through even the most frustrating strength plateau and get you on track to building muscle again.

The primary benefit of deadstop training is that it shuts off the stretch reflex so that it doesn't offer any assistance during the hardest phases of the lift.

Some salty coaches will go so far as to say this is the best way to measure someone's "true" strength as it's just muscle against load – no assistance from the meddling stretch reflex or any other efficiency hack.

This is partly why powerlifting meets require a full stop during the bench, squat, and deadlift competition – to get an uncompromised assessment of true muscular strength in a given movement. No bounce off the sternum/hope I don't snap a rib technique allowed.

Another benefit of deadstop training is that it gives you a split second to re-establish your technique. On movements like the deadlift, you can physically readjust yourself between reps so that your pull happens from the best possible geometry.

Compare this to training with the stretch reflex where we typically see technique degrade with each successive rep. Better movement always yields better results.

Deadstop training means coming to a full stop at the bottom of a deadlift, squat, bench press, and the like. However, when most lifters think of "deadstop training," they think of deadlifts and maybe a bench press movement.

That's no fun! Not to mention that in sports like football or even sprinting, aggressive pushing movements (blocking from the chest, pushing off the ground for a start) are required, meaning performing dead stops with your pushing and squatting movements can have considerable application.

The truth is, you can apply it to a variety of exercises, and in many different ways. Let's start with the most common applications before touching on the more obscure.

Not only are deadlifts awesome for adding lower and mid-back thickness and size, they're also an awesome way to improve overall force production and develop max strength. Adding a deadstop to the mix makes a "no cheating" exercise even more of a challenge as you must treat every rep like its own set because you take the time to readjust your technique.

Check out the video of my much skinnier self performing deadstop deadlifts:

Yup, there is such thing as a deadstop squat. Cutting off the stretch shortening cycle doesn't have to be limited to only the pulling movements – applying this technique to "push" exercises can be a great stimulus for muscle development and strength gains.

This is the most common deadstop squat variation. Let's forget all the propaganda about lower back muscle and lumbar spine injury – if you stay tight and don't "relax" at the bottom of a box squat, and you don't have any pre-existing conditions or use a box that's too low (taking away ideal pelvic position during your seat), you should be fine.

Here's the bonus: Using box squats with a wide stance allows for a more vertical shin position, meaning lowered knee stress and more glute and hamstring activation.

If you do have issues with your lower back or are just neurotic regarding box squats, then try bottom-up squats. They have the same deadstop effect on the muscles, without the bottom-end compressive forces that a box squat creates.

Since you get to rest the bar right down on the pins, you have the chance to give your lower spine a bit of a break while making any needed adjustments to your technique.

As you'll see in the video below, pin squats are also great for taller lifters since depth issues often plague us. Sometimes boxes aren't high enough to work with to get the right form, but setting up the pins at a level that suits you can be beneficial.

The cool thing is, when you follow up these variations with sets that do incorporate the stretch reflex (like typical full range squats), you'll have amped up your nervous system to recruit its fast twitch muscle fibers much more efficiently and get a hell of a lot more out of your workout.

Using the power rack for deadstop training can work with upper-body work, too. Pin presses for both the shoulder press and bench press are fantastic options. As a tall guy, one reason I like pin presses is that it helps avoid the unwanted shoulder capsule stress that we long-armed lifters often must endure in the bottom range of a heavy bench press.

To mitigate this, setting up the pins a couple inches above chest level can be a huge benefit – not only will it be much more comfortable, but the slightly shortened range of motion usually means more weight can be lifted. Nothing wrong with that.

The same thing applies here. Focus on letting the bar settle on the pins before "bouncing" it up for another rep.

These are often used as a deadstop movement. The difference, however, between a pin press and a floor press (apart from the obvious) boils down to tension. During the "dead" part of the floor press, when your elbows are on the ground, you still need to maintain constant muscular tension. Otherwise, the dumbbells or barbell will fall down and crush your skull.

You don't get a break as you do in dead stop variations, so certain muscles (like the forearms and scapulae) will constantly be holding an isometric contraction – and as the set continues, your rate of fatigue will be faster than that of a pin press.

Long story short, if size and max strength is the goal, then these little things begin to matter. We want to get the most out of every rep.

Too many lifters perform their rowing and overhead pulling exercises with the stretch reflex. At times this can help increase muscle recruitment or rep performance, but often tapping into the absolute strength of the muscle fibers is what's needed.

Deadstopping your pull-ups offers a real indicator of your true pull-up strength and is more humbling than even performing weighted pull-ups.

As for rows, here's the Mountain Dog himself doing a set of deadstop single-arm rows:

The nervous system can take a beating with all this deadstop training, especially since deadstop training is typically paired with heavier lifting.

Knowing this, an easy way to incorporate this method without your neurotransmitters giving you the finger is to kill all your negative reps, where applicable.

In pressing exercises like pin presses and large lower body movements like bottom-up squats and deadlifts, almost "dropping" your negative rep can do your body plenty of good in terms of long term sustenance.

Just make sure you're not reckless about it – be in control when dropping the weight and ensure you still keep some tension on the bar or dumbbell.

Why is this helpful? The eccentric phase of a big lift is the part that's most taxing. One of the reasons Olympic lifters use bumper plates in training and competition is so that they can drop the weight and shirk the demanding (and dangerous) eccentric phase of repeatedly lowering heavy loads, saving themselves for the concentric movement.

By sparing our strongest muscle fibers the negative, we're keeping our nervous system at bay and can train with deadstops more frequently.

I'll concede there were no atoms split during the writing of this article, and I certainly didn't forge new ground in the strength and conditioning world.

Still, not everything you read needs to be the Newest And Greatest Information Ever. Sometimes all it takes is a proven old school trick that's been around for decades to break even the most stubborn plateau.

Try using these variations to shake up your routine and get your nervous system firing on all cylinders again. Let your weight settle to a dead stop so your gains don't have to.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Deadstop, Revisited, Training

If you have been stuck benching 250 lbs. and really want to get to 300 lbs. then reading this article will be the biggest step you take this year. Get ready to bench 250, 300, 400, or more!

Quick Tips & Questions 

 Tips To Keep In Mind Keep your elbows tucked in to your side and use your strong triceps to help the lift. The Bench Press Strength! manual contains the appropriate volume and intensity of triceps work to prepare your arms. Use your whole body in the lift. Push against the floor with your feet. Keep your upper back muscles tensed and keep the upper back on the bench for stability. Push the bar straight up to reduce the movement distance. Practice your technique! Heavy lifting is a combination of skill and muscular work, so you learn how to perform the movement most efficiently. Identify your weaknesses so that you can train appropriately.

 Questions To Ask Yourself What are your weaknesses in the bench press? Liftoff? Lockout? What are your strengths in your lifts? What are your specific goals for the bench press? What is your training schedule? - Detail each workout day. Have you had any injuries? What training program has given you the best results in the past?

Bench Press Tips From The Experts 

The first step to improving your bench (even before designing your program) is figuring out what the heck is stopping you from benching more weight.

 What Is Your Weak Area In The Exercise?
 

If You Fail At The Bottom: If you just can't get the weight off your chest (but would have no problem with the lockout), you need to become more explosive in the start of the movement. Dave Tate recommends you incorporate explosive pressing. This is described later in this article as "Dynamic Effort" training.

If You Can't Complete The Lockout: If so, then your triceps strength (or lack of it) may limit your success. Use a combination of heavy close-grip presses and triceps extensions to build the necessary triceps strength.

Pick the weak spot in your bench and make it a priority in training.

 Other Factors...
 According to Sarah Clarke, gold medalist at the 2002 Canadian National Powerlifting Championships in the 75 kg weight class, "You can't let your legs dance around or tap your feet when things get tough. This reduces your power generation in the bench press. Instead, you must set a strong foundation with your legs.

Press your upper back into the bench and use this to aid in pressing the bar. Stability is a key in a heavy bench press, so putting your feet on the bench isn't going to help you out one bit. Tension throughout the entire body is mandatory in the bench press."

Review each rep afterward and use this feedback to improve each future rep. According to Tate, you should "stay tight, keep the elbows tucked, drive your heels into the floor and shove your body away from the bar as you press".

Practice your technique. Treat strength development like any skill development. Perfect practice makes perfect presses.

You have to do it over and over again to find your best method of benching.

 Strengthen Your Upper Back.
 

Bench Press Strength Techniques 

 Maximal Effort Training 
This type of training refers to the sessions where you lift as much weight as you possibly can for a specific number of repetitions.

For example, a 5 RM maximal effort session would require you to work up the best weight that you can lift for 5 repetitions with good form.

 Dynamic Effort Training 
Dave Tate recommends devoting one day per week to "dynamic effort" training. Dynamic effort training is designed to increase explosiveness. The foundation of a dynamic effort workout is opposite to a traditional workout.

Because the focus of a dynamic exercise is to move the weight as fast as possible, you will use much less weight. In addition, rather than performing a small number of sets and many repetitions, you will perform a larger number of sets with a smaller number of repetitions (i.e. 8 sets of 3 repetitions for the bench press).

It is extremely important to push the bar with maximal force on each rep. Don't take it easy just because it is a lighter weight. Adding chains and bands (see below) helps increase the resistance at the top of the movement. You must press with maximal force to overcome the added resistance at the top of the movement. Tate describes dynamic effort training as, "compensatory acceleration" and that "it can help you break through sticking points".

The key to getting through a sticking point as Tate describes it is to, "train to accelerate through the sticking point". If you explode the bar up, you can break through your sticking point. When training with the dynamic effort, focus on bar speed. If the bar slows down from rep to rep, it means the weight is too heavy. Use a resistance that is ~50% of your estimated 1 RM bench for 8 sets of 3.

 The Use Of Bands & Chains in Bench Press Training 
Adding a chain or band increases the resistance at the top of the movement. For example, if you have 225 lbs. on the bar plus a 10 lb. chain on each side, you will bench press 225 lbs. off your chest but you will lockout 245 lbs. The chains must be attached to "unload" onto the floor when the bar is lowered.

The same principle applies to the bands. The bands are looped around both a secure object at ground level and the ends of the barbell. The bands then provide less resistance at the bottom of the movement.

Bench Press Exercise Descriptions 

Remember to always have a spotter for heavy bench pressing and for the lift-off. Your spotter will help you get the bar off the rack and out to the start position. You will also need them to make sure that you complete every repetition in your set.

 Bench Press 
Keep your feet flat on the floor, legs bent, and upper back flat against the bench. Grip the bar using a medium-width grip. Have your spotter help you take the bar from the rack. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, lower the bar straight down to the bottom of your chest. Pause briefly and then press the bar back up above the chest in a straight line.

 Dynamic Bench Press 
Attach the chains or bands to the ends of the bar as required. Make sure to anchor the bands under the rack or with very heavy dumbbells. Keep your feet flat on the floor, legs bent, and upper back flat against the bench. For the first 3 sets, grip the bar using a medium-width grip. Use a slightly wider grip for the next 3 sets, and a slightly narrower grip for the final 3 sets. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, lower the bar straight down to the bottom of your chest. Accelerate the bar up as quickly as possible. Perform all 3 reps as fast as you can.

 DB Floor Press 
Lie on the floor and hold the dumbbells above your chest with your palms turned toward your feet. Lower the dumbbells until your upper arms contact the floor. Pause briefly and then press the dumbbells straight up above the chest.

A floor press strengthens the mid-point of your bench and demands a strong grip. It also removes the leg drive from the exercise and makes you work harder while forcing you to keep your body tight.

Do 2-3 sets of 6-8 reps. Start with no more than 75 percent of what you use in a normal flat bench dumbbell press.

 

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Bench, Improve, Press

There are a few particular chest workouts that are really going to be great for you but you just don't yet know which ones they are. There are also some terrific chest workouts which you can try and that you can do if you are a female, however, most women don't tend to want an overly muscular and worked out chest. It is generally more for the men, who want to work out their pectoral muscles and who want to benefit from really good chest workout ideas.

Ideas

One of the great chest workouts to try, and is going to be a great starter for you, is the cable crossovers exercise which is performed as follows:

1. Hold the pulleys in each hand, after setting the resistance for the pulleys and positioning the pulleys above your head.

2. Step forward of an imaginary line between the two pulleys while having a slight lean forward in your posture from the waist up and pulling your two arms together in front of you. This is the starting position.

3. Slowly let your arms travel back in an arc until you feel a slight stretch in your chest, maintain a slight bend in the elbow to stop bicep stress and breathe in as you perform this movement. Note your shoulders should be moving but your body and arms should remain in the same positions.

4. Using the same arc motion return your arms to the starting position. Remembering to breathe out at the same time and to keep your body and arms in the same positions while moving the shoulders.

5. Continue until the desired reps are reached.

Another great chest workout exercise to try is the incline dumbbell press, my favorite one, which is very similar to the bench press exercise. The exercise is simple as follows:

1. Set-up by sitting down on the bench supporting the two dumbbells on your thighs, then once settled on the bench lift your dumbbells up to shoulder width apart in front of your chest. Finally twist your hands so your palms face away from you as if you are holding a bar between the two.

2. Keeping control of your dumbbells constantly push them up with your chest as you breathe out.

3. Once you reach the top hold and then lower your dumbbells back down to your chest.

4. Repeat the movement for the required repetitions.

A final exercise which I think is great is the press up. It is simple, effective, works more than just the chest, can be varied to increase or decrease difficulty and is easily done anywhere and without weights. It is performed as follows:

1. Lie flat on the floor and place your hands just above shoulder width apart, and holding yourself on them with straight arms.

2. Lower yourself down while inhaling until your chest almost touches the floor.

3. Hold and then return to the top while exhaling.

4. Repeat for the required repetitions.

These three exercises will be a great start to your chest workouts.

A little bonus advice an exercise rhythm that works great for me and others who I have researched is to do the following. The motion you breathe out on, i.e. the strenuous part, should take 1 second, then you hold at the top for 1 second, then the motion you breathe in on, i.e. the relaxation part, should take 2 seconds. This should help you to get the max out of your reps and you will certainly feel it.

I'm Joe Gore and I have created http://www.24hrbodybuildingfitness.com/ using information I have researched and put into practice through my own fitness routine. Take action now and visit my website at the above link.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Chest, Workouts

by Dan Blewett – 4/1/2013

Every year in May I go off to chase a dying dream – pro baseball. Having suffered some major injuries at key moments in my career meant my path was going to have to be the one less traveled. Independent baseball has been great for my soul, but terrible on my body.

If you've ever taken 5 months off from your normal workout routine and replaced it with tons of overnight travel, long days in the August sun, gas station meals, and limited gym access, you'll know what a toll it takes on the physique.

I typically enter my season at 190 pounds and 8-9% body fat; I show visible abs, a reasonably wide back, and large thighs. By the time I get home in mid to late September, I'm 185 pounds and 12-13% body fat. By my own standards, I'm skinny-fat – and there's not much worse than skinny-fat. Sigh.

Rather than ease into things, I bum-rush the weights and push through the soreness. Three years running I've added 10 pounds while reducing my body fat by 2-3%, all in a month's time.

In this article I'm going to share my 4-week plan for the 15-pound swing – 10 pounds of lean mass while removing 5 pounds of fat. Be advised, however – it's not for the faint of heart.

This isn't a complicated plan. Rather, it's quite simple because the two key components are volume and hard work. When you have those two components, you're most of the way there, anyway. Here's how it breaks down:

Low-Technique Compound Lifts + Goal Rep Sets + High Overall Volume + High Overall Intensity

Following are the big players in this scheme, the ones I feel provide the best bang for the buck considering the formula above.

Front squats are a fantastic builder of the core, quads, and back, not to mention they're easy (relatively) to learn. Almost all of my young athlete clients start their barbell squatting careers with the front squat, and it pays major dividends later on as they learn the other variations.

On this plan we're going to be pushing through long sets, so having a low-technique squat variation is crucial. The weight placement won't allow a round back, so you have less to worry about as fatigue sets in.

I watched my back get bigger and wider than it's ever been doing almost nothing but front squats. If you have a big front squat, you have a solid back. Can't have one without the other.

This one is going to get some jeers, but some of my push-up sets are among the hardest tests of my training career. We have two in my facility that we especially like, which are employed a number of times during this month of hell.

The rules here are simple: take the number of continuous push-ups you can do in a set before failing and multiply this by 2.5. Then, complete this number without allowing the knees to touch the floor. You can hold plank or pike to the down dog position for rest, but that's it.

I've only had 10 or so athletes out of 100+ complete this test. It's 95% mental. Here's how it plays out:

The volleyball player in the video had a 50-rep set because of her 20-rep personal best. My personal best is 60 consecutive push-ups, give or take a few. So, my Horrible Hundred was 150.

On Day 1 last year just getting to 100 took me 10:25. Three weeks later, I'd cut 4 minutes off that initial time and started using 150 as my goal. On my personal best I reached 100 in 3:03 and finished all 150 in 6:08.

That means that last 50 push-ups took roughly 3.5 seconds apiece. The last 40 were basically 40 sets of 1. This is called grinding it out.

Oh, and core work is included in this test – don't forget that every minute of push-ups is a minute in plank, and thus a great core workout.

We also do a to-failure set wearing a 50-pound weighted vest. My personal record is 50 consecutive push-ups without allowing my knees to touch. This was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Scoff at the push-up if you must, but my arms went from 14.5" on Day 1 to 16" on Day 28. Not bad for a month of bodyweight exercises.

The king of upper body exercises. Those who can do 4 sets of 12 are, in my book, deemed strong. Problem is, every year when I return from the season I can only get 4 or 5 in my best set.

I recall Chad Waterbury writing about total volume being the important factor in workouts, rather than the way they were chopped up. You can't get your chin-up numbers up fast enough if you only designate a handful of sets to them – 4 sets of 4 just won't be enough volume to see significant growth.

Enter: The Goal-Rep set.

The chin-up is the number one exercise in my gym that gets assigned goal-reps. Because most untrained clients can perform few, if any, we have to get volumes up.

Want to make moderate progress? Get in 30 reps, twice a week. Good progress? Fifty reps, twice a week. Want to pack 10 pounds onto that scrawny frame in just a few short weeks? Try 200 reps per week. We want to get close to that.

I know what you're thinking. Overtraining! To that, I say, go talk to John Broz, any elite gymnast, Olympic lifter, distance runner, baseball pitcher, or powerlifter. Your body will adapt.

Can you sustain 200 chins a week forever? I'm confident the answer is no. However, for a month it's doable, and I've done it numerous times.

Plus, we're not starting there – we're working up to it. You'll be sore, tired and mentally drained, but your back and forearms won't look like cigarillos anymore.

One tip, though – use freely rotating handles or rings. They'll keep the elbows happier. At the very least, use neutral grips if you don't have access to handles.

Glute-ham raises (GHRs) are the bomb. I love them for what they've done for my squat and for the size of my hamstrings. Yet, weak people don't love them, and for good reason – "It feels like my hamstrings are tearing."

Yes, this is the exact feeling an untrained person gets the first time they jump on the GHR. For this reason, it's not the best idea to start banging out mammoth sets of them if they're beyond your ability.

What I prefer to do is either start with sliding leg curls and build strength, and/or reduce the lever arm on the GHR and gradually lengthen it as we go.

This is also the same plan of action I use with some of my exceptionally tall pitchers who aren't quite there yet for full glute-ham raises.

The glute-ham raise is another exercise that's well suited for the goal-rep scheme in this plan, and we'll use it until proficiency increases to where we can then return to higher volume sets of 8-12. Sliding leg curls are great for sets of 12-20.

Face pulls are a great, simple rotator cuff and upper-back exercise. We prefer to use a 41" mini band and stretch it apart during the pull. This puts a little more emphasis on external rotation.

I like to mix the scapular retraction and external rotation we get from face pulls with Y raises that provide movement on the scaption plane. I'm not picky – do them prone, at an incline (shown) on a bench, or stability ball.

If you use a chain, as shown in the video below, you'll get the added benefit of dynamic stability. The faster you move with the chain and pause at the top, the more their erratic movement will force you to stabilize the joint.

During this program the arms get plenty of tension and stress from the high volume of overhead pulling. Because of this, it's not a great idea to be concurrently deadlifting heavy.

But the back and hamstring development of the Romanian deadlift is a great compromise – we use lighter weights for higher reps to build work capacity. The front squat stays as the main leg lift, with glute-hams and Romanian deadlifts as assistance work.

I'm not going to go into any sort of depth regarding the nutrition required of this program. However, there are three maxims:

Surrounding your workouts with a shake containing a 2-3:1 ratio of carbs-protein is ideal. For most, this is going to be somewhere in the 60-90 grams of carbs and 30-50 grams of protein range.

Don't worry – your body will use all of it. Check out the Plazma™ Reactive Pump™ Stack for a very effective approach with the math done for you.

If you aren't very carb tolerant, reduce the carbs slightly and stay where you think your body responds best – we're all different. But look at this shake as your saving grace to get you through to next week.

To get strong and big in a hurry you need calories, so don't expect to subsist on broccoli and green tea. All I tell my clients who want to gain good weight is to eat green things in each meal, choose whole foods first, and then pound as much of it as possible.

You'll need the oatmeal, rice, sweet potatoes, and quinoa to get enough calories to complete these workouts, but you need to start every meal with the veggies and fruits that are going to supply the micronutrients your cells need.

You've read enough about fish oil without me having to talk you down from the Omega-6 ledge yet again. I recommend a liquid fish oil or high-potency pill like Flameout™ that will keep your joints happy. The elbows especially may be stressed from all the overhead pulling; fish oil is going to keep them relatively calm.

These are all important aspects of any good program, but this isn't a typical program – it's a rush on size and strength. If you want to get more flexible, increase tissue quality and mobility, go ahead and add it at your discretion.

But all that good stuff is beyond the myopic scope of this program.

* if you're man enough to make it

Max Rep Set with 20-pound vest/chain added
Max rep set with 40-50 pound vest/chains added

We're using three different rep ranges on the squats – 10, 6, and 3. We need the 10-rep days to build volume and lactic acid tolerance – if you're deconditioned, you'll need to develop some stamina in a hurry to handle the rest of the week.

The 3-rep day is intended to get maximal strength up so that you can handle more weight on the 10 and 6 rep days. I like placing it after the 10-rep day because it's shorter and requires less mental energy, even though the actual bar weight used will be lower due to fatigue from the 10-rep day.

The 6-rep day should be the hardest, that magical mix of strength and hypertrophy where you can put a much more substantial load on the bar and still have relatively high time under tension and total work volume.

Jason Ferruggia is a big advocate of 6-8 rep ranges for hypertrophy, and I'm an absolute believer as well. With these three squat days you'll have three distinctly different bar weights that are all intended to push your strength and size back up to respectable heights in a hurry.

Hate front squats? Go with a back squat if you prefer. I favor the front squat, though, for it's simplicity, back-building properties and relative impunity to lower back roundness.

Further, if you can't handle GHRs I suggest the body curl or a higher volume of sliding leg curls, stability ball curls, or another hamstring flexion exercise.

Can't hack the overall volume? Don't have the guts to finish the Horrible Hundreds? Too sore at the start of the next workout? Well, I don't have much help for you there – you're going to have to tolerate a certain degree of fatigue, ache, and soreness.

You simply can't avoid it while declaring blitzkrieg on the iron. Getting good results in a short time comes with a price – it ain't easy and I assure you this won't be fun.

But if you can make it through the month, you'll laugh as you return to your 3-day split. Rest days? Only squatting once a week? That's chump talk.

See you in the gym. You'll be spending a lot of quality time there.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: 4Week, Radical, ReInflation

Here are some things you need to keep in mind if you ever experience pain behind the knee.

Possible Causes
 

1. Possible Arthritis This is one of the most common causes of pain in the knee. In fact, if you are over the age of 65 one in two of you has arthritis, with the knee being one of the most common joints involved.

The pain of arthritis is usually a dull tooth ache pain that is occasionally sharp with sudden movements. The pain is usually located over your joint line (where the tibia meets the femur) and in the front of the knee.

Mild and sometimes severe swelling is associated with this pain. The pain is worse when you exit a chair or car. It is also worse with any prolonged walking or standing. The pain is usually better with rest, heat (sometimes ice), wrapping the knee and pain medication.

Occasionally the knee may catch on the rough uneven surfaces of your cartilage. Patients often complain of grinding in the knee, and occasional popping.

Arthritis: The Six Most Frequently Asked Questions.
This article addresses the most frequently asked questions about exercise and arthritis. Find out about the six most common questions!

2. Minor Tear Of The Cartilage Surface

Rather than a cyst or fluid build-up, the causes of the pain behind the knee might simply be slight micro tears in the cartilage. This can be treated with the same solutions at the end of this article.

Tears, if minor, require no surgery and will heal on their own depending on the time allowed for healing and if the activity that aggravates it is avoided.

3. Baker's Cyst The cyst usually occurs due to some other problem in your knee such as arthritis or even a tear of your meniscus. The swelling from this problem causes fluid to build up in your knee. This fluid pushes out the weakest point of your joint capsule surrounding your knee.

This is usually to the back portion of your knee capsule, and a cyst forms. The cyst has a valve made out of your joint capsule tissue.

This valve can sometimes become clogged and the fluid becomes trapped in the cyst. Thus, even when the injury has resolved, you still have the swelling in the back of your knee. This is associated with pain and is usually described as dull and aching.

The pain is worse with prolonged walking or standing. It is sometimes improved with rest, elevation and taking pain medication.

Possible Remedies
 

Many people agree that when it comes to pain behind the knee, the best plan of action is Control, Avoid and Rehabilitate.

 Control: Cryotheraphy, which involves putting ice on the area for 5 minutes at a time. This will help reduce the pain. Do not continue to apply ice if a burning sensation is felt.

Heat from a heating pad for 10-20 minutes on a lower setting may help reduce pain. Alternative methods include creams that create a heating sensation like Icy-Hot or AST BioFreeze gel.

Bracing from a comfortable knee brace can provide some needed relief and stability to the area, reducing the pressure on the area and thus reducing the pain. There are many knee braces available that can be worn during activity or at any time when the area becomes bothersome.

Ice Or Heat For Faster Healing?
One question many athletes ask when they get injured, is which is the best to use, ice or heat? To answer that question we must first look at the physiology behind the healing process.
 Avoid:

 Rehabilitate: Talk to a doctor and make a plan of action to rehabilitate the knee through controlled motions. Rehabilitation includes motivation to do the prescribed exercises. The correct exercises as prescribed and the proper equipment to keep the motions controlled.

Conclusion
 

Pain behind the knee is common in so many sports that you can suffer from this by doing almost anything from snowboarding to racquetball. Taking precautions in your sports and understanding what might cause this, will allow not only enjoyable sports activities, but a lifetime of activity.

About The Author:

Marc David is an innovative fitness enthusiast and the creator of the "The Beginner's Guide to Fitness And Bodybuilding" method on www.Beginning-Bodybuilding.com. He can show you how to reduce your body fat thru diet, how to gain weight or create more muscle through an abundance of workout tips by training LESS! Not more.

He dispels many "bodybuilding myths", tells you what most people never realize about nutrition, and what the drug companies DON'T WANT YOU to know. Go to: www.Beginning-Bodybuilding.com to find out more about The Beginner's Guide to Fitness And Bodybuilding.

Marc David

Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
Read Visitor Reviews - Write Your Own Review

 

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Reasons, Suffer

Once we start a new weight loss program it is important for us to stay motivated. To continue to lose fat until we reach our goal. To create lean muscle, to be fit and healthy. Of course we also want it to be a permanent lifestyle not a temporary fix. So how come so many of us can't? You need the right information, the right tools and of course the right mindset.

The fact is burning fat is not as hard as most think. I am not talking about losing in pounds or even inches. I am talking about losing fat and creating the lean muscle we all want. There are reasons so many weight loss programs fail. People get discouraged either because they are not seeing the results fast enough or when they hit that magic number in pounds the are smaller but still what some may refer to as "skinny fat". Not losing the fat in the target areas for your body is also discouraging. So how can you be sure the weight loss program you are choosing is the one we won't fail with?

1. We all know proper nutrition is a key to burning fat. What foods speed up your metabolism? What foods help get rid of the belly fat? What foods should we stay away from? Is it always about calorie intake? What most do not take into consideration is that depending on your age and sex this is different information for all. What an 18 year old girl should eat, who is active, to maintain or build a healthy body is different from a 40 year old female who is just as active. As we get older our bodies require different types of fuel (food) to keep our metabolism going strong and our muscles lean. "Eat to live do not live to eat".

2. Exercise is another key to not only burning fat but in also creating muscle. Not every exercise plan gives the same results for all. It depending on your body type. So how do you know if you are doing the right exercises? How often should you weight train and what exercises will give you maximum fat burn while building muscle? How often do you need to do cardio in your routine? Your weight training, and cardio routine will be different than say your best friend who may also be your workout partner. If you are heavier in the legs and she is not, your routine needs to be different. If you want to lose belly fat and she wants leaner arms... different routines are needed. You have to customize your routine to you. Every exercise program needs to incorporate strength/weight training and cardio in order for you to see the physical changes you desire. Building muscle burns fat faster!

3. Finally attitude, motivation and will are just as important as the nutrition and exercise piece to being successful in the weight loss challenge. How do you keep the best attitude when you are not losing or seeing results? How do you stay motivated when you have eight million things in your life going on and can't seem to find the time? Its time to make the time. That's how! Make an appointment with yourself everyday. Set aside at least 30-45 min a day. You will easily spend that kind of time in front of your computer browsing or watching TV. So you have the time. Redirect it to your want to a healthier, leaner body. Find a workout partner. One who will motivate you and in return who you can motivate as well. Your girlfriend/ boyfriend, your spouse, your best friend, a co-worker. It works! Once you put all these things into place, you will see the results. You will feel good. You will look good and before you know it people will be asking YOU how? YOU will be their inspiration.

Its time to make a change. If you feel like what you are currently doing is not working, is not giving you the results you are wanting or if you are almost at your goal and just need that added push this program is for you! Customized Fat Loss does exactly what is says. Customized to fit you and no one else! No gimmicks just real tools that work! To make this change NOW!! go to http://www.burnfatfastandnaturally.com/ and see for yourself! It works!

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Keeping, Losing

by TC – 4/12/2013

I bet my Hello Kitty sleep mask that you sleep abnormally.

It's not your fault, though. Blame it on James Watt, Jean Lenoir, Henry Ford, or any one or all of the guys responsible for the industrial revolution. Blame it on Tommy Edison, or if you need a more current scapegoat, Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel, or those Nick at Nite people who run those delightful reruns that beckon to your sleep-deprived spirit like some bare-breasted Siren hopped up on No Doze.

Roger Ekirch, a professor of history at Virginia Tech, had it all figured out years ago but he was afraid to tell the country.

This is how it started:

One of Ekirch's areas of study was the history of the night. As he haunted the library stacks, looking for clues to how people in the past spent the hours between dusk and dawn, he kept stumbling on peculiar references to "first sleep" and "second sleep."

There they were in The Canterbury Tales. And then again in relatively ancient medical textbooks that recommended people sleep on one side during first sleep and the other side during second sleep. He even found stories about how a naked Benjamin Franklin would read between first sleep and second sleep, no doubt being careful not to slam shut a heavy political tome on his schlong of a bookmarker.

Ekirch had rediscovered a normal part of human life. After sunset, people used to go to sleep and then reawaken some time after midnight. They'd then get up, eat, socialize, read, screw, whatever, and go back to bed.

He was freaked out. He didn't know if he should tell the world that it sleeps unnaturally; that it sleeps wrong, that consolidated, or all-at-once-sleep, isn't the norm and it shouldn't be the object of heroic physical, psychological, or pharmaceutical efforts.

So he fretted away, wondering what to do. That is until, serendipitously, he read about research conducted by Thomas Wehr, a psychiatrist at the National Institute of Health.

Wehr did experiments where he kept humans away from artificial light of any kind. After a couple of weeks, they started to fall asleep early – right after the sun went down – and then wake up after midnight. They'd lie awake for an hour or so and then fall back asleep.

Deprived of light, the subjects resorted to historical norms, dividing up their sleep into two distinct periods!

Wehr also found that this period between the first sleep and the second sleep was the most relaxing time of the day, almost akin to some yogi-like meditation. He confirmed this observation biochemically as he found that subjects were pumping out large amounts of prolactin, the post-orgasm hormone, during this mid-sleep period.

Roger Ekirch, the guy who had been studying the history of the night, read about Wehr's experiments and contacted him, whereupon they compared notes.

What they realized was that it was perfectly normal for humans to sleep in two stages; in fact, it's what they were designed to do. It was only the industrial revolution and its requirement that workers show up to work every day at a predetermined unholy hour, along with the invention of the light bulb, that screwed up the first sleep/second sleep behavior.

People no longer went to bed when it got dark. Instead, people put on a gingham dress and played Mother Nature themselves by turning light into darkness by the pull of a light cord any time they chose.

[Of course, complete darkness is hard to achieve even when you turn your light off, as the modern nighttime sky positively glows with the scattered light of millions of streetlights, traffic lights, movie theater marquees, and neon signs. Consider that after the 1994 Los Angeles earthquake and subsequent power outage, hundreds of alarmed Angelinos called the police department to report an ominous "silvery cloud" in the sky. What they were seeing, presumably for the very first time, was the Milky Way.]

As time went by, people forgot this ancient part of themselves. The first sleep/second sleep thing was cast aside. (Beyond that, the very act of sleep itself was derided by figures such as Edison himself, who felt that it was a sign of laziness.)

Wehr released a subsequent study, augmented with the historical background supplied by Ekirch, and waited for the tsunami of public wonder and gratitude. But nothing happened. Nobody cared.

But people kept on waking up at night, of course. As much as they tried, their genetic memory wouldn't let them forget about first sleep and second sleep. Still, millions of people wale and gnash their teeth because they can't sleep through the night, and doctors continue to write hundreds of thousands of sleep prescriptions for a condition that is, physiologically speaking, perfectly normal.

The anxiety over perceived poor sleeping patterns isn't new. Joseph von Meering and Emil Fisher invented the very first sleeping pill, Veronal, in 1903 to combat sleep abnormalities. It was a barbiturate, which meant that patients developed a tolerance to it and needed larger and larger doses.

That might not have been so bad had the recommended dosage not been so close to the fatal one, especially when mixed with alcohol.

The benzodiazepines, like Valium, heralded the next generation of sleep drugs in the 70's. They too had problems, though, in that they were highly addictive because they made users high. Enter Ambien in 1993. It, and its more recent competitor, Lunesta, caused far fewer side effects, which led to the FDA approving them for long-term use.

But here's the rub: a number of studies have shown that Ambien and Lunesta offer no significant improvement in sleep quality. One National Institute of Health study showed that the pills only make people fall asleep 12 minutes faster than placebo, along with only extending sleep an average of 11 minutes.

Add to that the fact these drugs cause anterograde amnesia. That means they make it harder for the brain to form short-term memories. So it's quite possible you'll still fight for sleep after taking Ambien or Lunesta, but you'll think you slept great because you won't remember being awake!

Aside from disruptions of the first sleep and second sleep pattern, there are plenty of other sleep problems that plague humans.

There's sleep apnea, of course, which, depending on who you talk to, is caused by overdeveloped neck muscles, being a fat bastard, possessing a large cow-like tongue or big tonsils, or even having a funny shaped head.

The apnea is characterized by waking up gasping for air several times at night (which you may or may not remember when you wake up). Sufferers usually wake up with a headache, dry mouth, gummy teeth, and feel tired all the time.

The gold standard treatment (aside from exercise and losing weight if you're one of the aforementioned fat bastards) is a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) unit like the one Junior Soprano wore that caused Tony to ask him how many MIGs he shot down last week.

Then there's the far more common occurrence of "sleep maintenance" problems, of which the first-sleep/second-sleep phenomenon has mistakenly been included. The term simply refers to being able to fall asleep and stay asleep and poor sleep maintenance is a far bigger problem than realized, with conservative estimates of sufferers ranging from 50 to 70 million Americans (around 2 out of 5 adults). Poor sleepers may actually wake up hundreds of times a night for only a few seconds each time but not realize it.

They only know that they never feel rested.

The body is designed to cycle through 5 stages of sleep every 90 minutes. The 5th stage is the much-ballyhooed REM stage that's thought to be the most restful stage. It's also where most vivid dreams occur. During this stage the body sends out hormones that pretty much paralyze your arms and legs so they don't act out what you're dreaming. Obviously, as sleepwalkers or night thrashers will attest, it doesn't always work that way.

And if you repeatedly wake up before you get into REM sleep, you'll begin to suffer detrimental effects to memory, motor skills, and performance in general.

Then there's the problem of not being able to fall asleep in the first place. This type of insomnia is often self-inflicted, the result of the brain's refusal to stop thinking about itself.

Sleeping itself is actually contradictory. As sleep professor Emily Martin of NYU stated, "It [sleep] is precious good...but it is a good like none other, because to obtain it one must seemingly give up the imperative to have it."

And have it we must, but no one really knows why. Allan Rechtschaffen and Bernard Bergman of the University of Chicago performed the now classic sleep experiment where they deprived rats of sleep for two weeks.

The rodents began to self-destruct. They developed weird spots and festering sores and their hair fell out. They couldn't shuffle while filming cute Kia commercials and were replaced by hamsters. Then they dropped dead. The researchers couldn't figure out why, though, but their best guess was that just staying awake drained their body systems and made them lose their ability to regulate body temperature.

We don't subject humans to such extreme studies, but we know that even limited sleep deprivation leads to increased blood pressure, incredible cravings for carbs, a drop in body temp, and a weakening of the immune system.

Add all that up and you've got lousy body comp, poor performance, limpdick, and practically any other physical and psychological shortcoming you can come up with.

But when it comes down to specifics, no one really knows why sleep is so important, prompting Rechtschaffen to observe that, "if sleep doesn't serve an absolutely vital function, it is the greatest mistake evolution has ever made."

Perhaps a couple of better questions are why, if it's so important, is it so hard to achieve, and what can be done to make it easier to get to sleep and stay asleep?

Of all the obstacles to sleep, perhaps the most daunting is the person sleeping next to you.

People who share their bed are about 50% more likely to be disturbed at night by their bedmate's punching, snoring, farting, or getting up to go to the bathroom or quaff a MAG-10. Then there are the age-old points of contention like temperature and blanket dominance.

When asked to rate their quality of sleep, people almost always said that they slept better when someone was next to them, but brain wave studies suggest otherwise. Test subjects who slept by themselves were less likely to wake up at night and they usually slept 30 minutes longer on nights they spent by themselves.

Contrast that with the effects of Ambien or Lunesta, which caused people to sleep only 11 minutes longer. Examined that way, it seems that sleeping alone is a more effective sleep aid than pharmaceuticals!

Architects and housing developers are aware of the advantages of sleeping alone and they predict that by 2016, half of all custom-built homes will have separate master bedrooms. Somewhere, sleep researcher Neil Stanley, who said that that "there's only one good reason to share a mattress," is nodding his head in approval.

Unfortunately, given hectic modern lifestyles, couples lament that sleeping together in the same bed was the only time they got to spend time together.

So what conclusions have we come to so far?

First, it's clear that sleep is paramount to both mental and physical performance. Whether you want to get stronger, bigger, have better body comp, or get ejicated, getting enough sleep is as crucial or more crucial than anything else you might do to further those ends.

Secondly, we know that waking up at night is probably a vestige of your genetically programmed first sleep/second sleep pattern and that rather than lie awake and curse the sleep gods, you might get up briefly and do something productive or pleasurable.

And thirdly, most prescription sleep aids might not help that much and that any supposed benefit might merely be the cause of a faulty, lyin' memory.

(A better option might be BIOTEST's Z-12, whose primary ingredient is beta-phenyl-gamma-aminobutyric acid HCL, a chemical that acts as both an anxiety reducer and a nootropic. It brings a lasting sleep more quickly and true to its nootropic nature, doesn't impair memory.)

What might be more conducive to a good night's sleep than most pills is sleeping alone, but whether couples will make this choice is doubtful given that sharing the same bed has long been the barometer of connubial bliss; i.e., if couples don't share a bed, neighbors think the Schwarzeneggerian husband must have been schtupping der maid and he's been relegated to the couch.

(An alternative to sleeping alone might be to buy a Tempurpedic bed or something similar. I know from personal experience that I could be sleeping on one side of the bed while three naked coeds were having a pillow fight on the other and not feel the slightest disturbance because the bed's design keeps the movements localized.)

At best, I've provided some understanding of the problem, but none of it might be of much help to the textbook insomniac who lies awake much of the night trying to force sleep as if it were just another heavy weight that needed to be lifted. That is, cruelly, where the paradox rears its drowsy head again – the more you try to sleep, the less likely it is to happen.

There are a few other things you can do to help, some of which are well known, and others not so much. You've probably heard these before, but they bear repeating:

Don't go to bed until you're tired.Eliminate alcohol, or at least excess alcohol.Avoid caffeine after noon.Do gentle stretching before bed.Practice meditation every day to the point where you can achieve "quiet mind," the state where your mind stops galloping all over your psychic terrain and instead stops to graze thoughtlessly on a whole lot of stress-free nothin'. It's an incredibly valuable skill to have and you can find plenty of instructions on how to do that if you've got yourself some of that-there Internet.And as mentioned repeatedly in this article, don't stay in bed when you can't sleep.

You might also consider that thyroid problems might be the cause of the problem. And, unbeknownst to many, both hypo- and hyper-active thyroids can interfere with sleepy time.

Lastly, nutrition might be a cause or a contributing factor to poor sleep. Magnesium plays a role in regulating sleep patterns, and the typical American diet is often deficient in this vital mineral. Four or five hundred milligrams before bedtime can often give immediate benefits.

We spend one out of every three hours of our existence sleeping. Given its importance, it seems like a good idea to understand it better. Maybe then we can stop chasing it so that like a beautiful woman, it'll miss the attention and end up granting us the ultimate gift, which in this case is restful, virtually uninterrupted, sleep.

Kolbert, Elizabeth, "Up All Night: The Science of Sleeplessness," The New Yorker, March 11, 2013, pp. 24 – 27.

Luoma, TC, "Luoma's Big Damn Big of Knowledge," Penguin Classics, 10th printing, 2013.

Randall, David K., "Dreamland: Adventures in the Strange Science of Sleep," W.W. Norton and Company, 2012.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: About, Facts, Fascinating, Sleep

by Critical Bench Jan 07, 2005

As with biceps, triceps, chest, back, abs, delts, thighs; every body part there is, there are numerous programs and techniques for developing them. This is true also for calves.

Same old line I always use; "what works for one, may not work for another." Well, here is a calf specialization program worth trying if you need to add an inch or so to your lower legs. I've had some good results from this program and you might also.

You will need to give it four weeks in order to determine if you are going to get results and in any event, your efforts will not go un-rewarded. If after that length of time you feel you are making progress, then naturally, keep going.

Big Calves & Genetics

Many times I have stated, and some agree while others do not; "you are either blessed with good calf muscles or you are not." "There is not a great deal you can do about it." I have seen some people who have never lifted a weight in their lives walk around with some of the largest and well shaped calf muscles you could find on any Mr. Olympia. At the same time, I have seen seasoned professional bodybuilders that are weak in the calf department.

Genetics plays a major role here and although you can improve on any situation, there are limits. Just don't be quick to blame poor calf development on your genetics. I have seen some who have done just that when in reality, their weak calf development was more a result from being lazy than genetics.

I have never been a big supporter of doing weighted 20-or-30 reps for calf development.

I have always been, and even written many times, about keeping the reps in the 10-to-15 range, sometimes even less. This of course is with heavy weights. Now here is a twist but it must be followed as outlined and you cannot make any changes to the routine. You will work your claves four days per week. Two heavy days and two light days and you must leave sufficient time between the days for recovery. This is why I say you cannot alter this program, either exercises or days prescribed.

Start each movement by standing on a block of wood or weight plate at least as high as a 2 x 4. Place your feet so that only your toes and the ball of your feet are on the block. Point your toes slightly outward. Your feet should be spaced about 10-to-12 inches from center of big toe to center of big toe. It is best if you do not wear any shoes. Bare foot is the preferred method.

If you do wear shoes, make certain they have very flexible soles. Stiff shoes have to go. You must stretch all the way down on each rep and you must come all the way up on your toes. Concentrate on placing your weight on your big toe and the toe next to your big toe, contract fully at the top. Do this on each rep of every set for every exercise outlined. THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE A MUST!

Use one 25-pound plate to hit the inner calves.

Roll your feet down to the outsides to work the ankles fully.

On Monday and Thursday you will use heavy weights and on Tuesdays and Fridays you will use bodyweight only. No weights at all. On Tuesdays and Fridays with body weight only, you will perform standing calf raise in the same position, on the same block, using the same technique as you apply on Mondays. Only on Tuesdays and Fridays, using bodyweight only, you are to perform 100 reps of standing calf raises. This will be extremely difficult to do at the beginning so I suggest the following method.

Start by performing four sets of twenty-five reps with not more than 30 seconds rest between sets. Work up to doing two sets of fifty reps. Finally try for one set of 100 reps.

If you can do two sets of 50 reps you can be proud. It is essential that you perform these reps properly. That means no "bouncing" up and down. Do not perform them ultra fast nor ultra slow. You must get a full stretch at the bottom and a full contraction at the top.

I also suggest you massage your calves well after each workout. This will not only help with the soreness that is sure to come, it will help invigorate the calf muscle with blood and help produce gains. If you do not have access to a massage therapist, use a hand held massager. If you do not have one you can use a rough towel and rub your calves briskly for several minutes after each session.

Use these 5 techniques to develop your calves to the very fullest, including the hard-to-reach inner and outer areas.

Find out more right here!

The Program

Standing Calf Raise. Use either a regular standing calf machine or a Smith machine. Perform five sets using the maximum weight you can use to perform the sets and reps correctly. 1 x 15, 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1 x 6.

Bodyweight only standing calf raises. 100 reps.

Seated Calf Raises. Perform five sets using the maximum weight you can use in performing the movement correctly. If you do not have access to a seated calf machine, perform standing calf raises as performed on Mondays. 1 x 15, 1 x 12, 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1 x 6.

Bodyweight only standing calf raises. 100 reps.

Conclusion

This is an extremely difficult exercise routine for the calves and will produce a great amount of soreness at the start regardless of how advanced you are in your training. Be prepared, I warned you!

 About The AuthorWe offer quite a few programs but we're known across the Web for The Critical Bench Program. Learn how to add 50 lbs to your bench in 10 weeks!

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Exercise, Specialization

I have people ask me all the time "I live in the gym and I am not getting bigger. Why? Another one I get is "what supplement can I take to get bigger?" Also "what is the best workout to do to get big"? That is just few of many questions I get all the time to get mass muscle. When asked these questions my first response is "how is your diet"? Usually I get a strange look back and then I get asked, "Why"? Here is the truth people you can take all the supplements in the world, you can lift all day and night but it going to help until you eat right. In does not matter whether you are trying to lose weight or gain muscle, 70 to 80 percent of that is done in the kitchen. Sorry everyone there is no magic pill or secret workout.

The truth is that in order to gain muscle you really have monitor what you put into your body. The basic rule of thumb that I use for myself and other people that I think works is 40/40/20 method. What I mean by this is 40 percent of your daily in take of food should be protein. Than the second 40 percent should be carbohydrates, and lastly 20 percent should be good fats. There are variations of this if you are one carb sensitive or a hard gainer than I change this up, but to start off with this is a good mix.

Let's start with the protein everyone is going to tell you that this the most important part of putting on muscle, and in some aspects they are right. We also have to have the carbs and fat though. Right now we are talking about protein. Yes, protein is the building blocks for muscle, and where we get our branch chain amino acids from. So with that being said how much protein do we need to get mass muscle. If we use the mathematic equation goal weight times 19 times.40 divided by 4 that should tell us. The 19 are the calories per pound of body weight that we need,.40 gives us the 40 percent we need, and 4 is how many calories per gram of protein. So our example would be 200 lb man times 19 give us 3800 total calories per day. Now we take 3800 and multiply it by.40 that gives us 1520 calories from protein every day. Finally we take 1520 and divide that by 4 and that tells us we need 380 grams of protein every day. This is almost 2 grams of protein per pound of our goal weight.

The second part of meal plan needs to be carbs. Earlier I said that protein is important, but there are other factors, and here is why I said that. Carbohydrates help get the protein into the muscle. It does this by elevating the hormone insulin. This in return puts glycogen into the muscle to help in repair and energy for the muscle. Secondly carbs are what give use energy through out the day. The mathematical equation for carbs is simple because it is exactly the same as protein. That means we need 380 grams of carbohydrates everyday also.

Now for the third part of the puzzle "fats". Now when I say fats I mean good fats like avocado, nuts, olive oil, and so on. Now don't get scared when I say fat we actually need it. One of the main reason is it helps in brain function. Fats have other functions for the body, but that is a whole other discussion. The formula for this is body weight times.20 divided by 11. So we know our ideal body weight calories are 3800 so let's multiply that by.20 to give us 760 calories from fat every day. Now there 11 calories in every gram of fat, so if we take 760 and divide that by 11 we get roughly 69 grams of fats per day.

Now with all this being said we need to try to spread all this out over 6 meals. The next thing you are going to say is I can not eat that much in a day. I will admit the first week is hard, but after that you will be hungry all the time. If you start with this 4 to 5 weeks, and then tweak it as needed you will see results. Remember getting mass muscle starts in the kitchen and ends in the gym.

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Muscle, Nutrition

by Sol Orwell and Kurtis Frank – 4/5/2013

Creatine? We can hear the comments already.

"I go to T Nation to read about the latest and greatest in building muscle and losing fat, and you want to tell me about creatine? What is this, 1997?"

Hold your water, tough guy. While discussions on creatine might not be burning up the bodybuilding message boards, creatine research has been on fire.

Searching on PubMed (a clearinghouse of almost all scientific studies) yields nearly 200 studies for creatine in 2012, and over 20 for the first month of 2013 alone. So while people like us may not be talking about creatine, researchers are still studying its many benefits – and what they're finding is very interesting.

In fact, some of this new research could potentially move creatine from being considered a "muscle building" supplement to an important "general well-being" supplement. Imagine that, recommending that your mother take creatine!

Before we get to the new research, let's address some of the misinformation on exactly what creatine is and what it does.

Creatine is stored in your body as high-energy phosphate groups in the form of phosphocreatine. For those that remember high school biology, your body's primary source of energy (at the cellular level) is adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Your body also has adenosine diphosphate (ADP) circulating in its cells. ATP is basically ADP plus a phosphate group. When your body is under stress or doing work (i.e., when you're lifting weights), it needs immediate energy. Phosphocreatine gives ADP a phosphate group to become ATP, thus giving you energy, fast.

Stated simply, creatine is a stored form of energy that can be accessed quickly by your body.

The beauty of this is that creatine also aids in cellular function. Most of us only think about creatine helping our musculoskeletal cells, but it can also help the cells in your brain, bones, liver, and more!

What if you don't want to supplement? Is it possible to get enough creatine from your diet? The answer is, yes, it can be done, but it's not easy. To get to 5 grams of creatine (the recommended daily dosage), you'd need to eat roughly 2 pounds of beef or pig, or 3 pounds of chicken or rabbit.

Herring is arguably the richest dietary source of creatine, but you'd still need to eat 1.5 pounds of it – every single day. And we doubt that even the most creative chef could make a herring smoothie taste good.

It's even harder for vegetarians. It's commonly cited that cranberries are a rich source for creatine. The unfortunate reality is that it's a rich source relative to other plant products. You'd still need to eat 500 pounds of cranberries to get 5 grams of creatine. Good luck with that.

Somewhere along the line, creatine got a bad rep in that it somehow damages your kidneys. The likely cause of this patently false accusation is failing to distinguish between creatine (the supplement) and creatinine, the diagnostic measurement for kidney problems.

If serum creatinine levels are high, your kidneys could be malfunctioning. Creatinine is also the waste product of creatine, and since creatine consumption increases your creatinine levels, this creates a false positive. Over half a dozen studies have been conducted that checked kidney function after creatine consumption – and no problems were found.

There was even a study in which a young man with a single, damaged kidney took creatine for a month, along with almost 3 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (another widespread myth is "protein damages your kidneys.")

The end result? No problems whatsoever.

Now you know (or remember) what creatine does, why it works, that it's hard to get through your diet, and that it's safe. So what new benefits has research been finding?

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are used as antidepressants, and according to their name, they inhibit reuptake of serotonin. Neurons pass molecules known as neurotransmitters from one to another, and reuptake occurs when the neurotransmitters don't pass through and instead just end up back at the originating neuron. Preventing this from happening encourages signaling of the neurotransmitter to the target neuron.

Although creatine is not inherently an SSRI, a double blind study in which one group was given creatine alongside SSRIs found that creatine supplementation greatly improved the anti-depressive effects of the SSRI medication.

A few other studies have been conducted showing anti-depressive effects of creatine supplementation (mostly in women), but the above trial was the first well-conducted and statistically powerful study to support its anti-depressive effects.

Several studies conducted on isolated neurons note that toxin-induced death seems to be related to a depletion of cellular energy. Neurons are able to resist being destroyed by toxins as long as they have energy (ATP) and, as discussed earlier, creatine can act as an extra source of ATP, thus enabling neurons with larger creatine storage to last a little bit longer by buffering energy stores.

That means that in some cases, creatine's buffering effect could potentially save a cell from toxins.

Currently, the cells that are most investigated are those implicated in Parkinson's Disease – dopamine producing cells in a region of the brain called the Substantia Nigra. That, obviously, could be a big deal.

You might've heard creatine bashers say "you gain nothing but water weight," or that your cells "inflate like little water balloons" while on creatine. While this certainly isn't all that happens with creatine, creatine does have a fluid retention effect.

Interestingly, the creatine molecule may attach itself to a cell wall. Paired with the increased water retention in a cell, these two mechanisms suggest that creatine may protect cells from membrane damage.

Interestingly, the phenomenon of cell swelling is also linked to anti-cancer effects, although this has yet to be linked to oral creatine intake.

A main concern for people with diabetes (type II) is to reduce their fasting blood glucose, as high levels of blood glucose are associated with the ill effects of diabetes (nerve damage, eye damage, and kidney damage are reliably tied with high glucose and its downstream effects).

Creatine by itself has not yet been shown to reduce fasting blood glucose in diabetics, but similar to its augmentative anti-depressive effects, it appears creatine can augment the effects of exercise on reducing circulating blood glucose. Exercise tends to reduce blood glucose, and creatine seems to make the muscle draw more glucose into it when stimulated by exercise.

It appears to be related to a mechanism called AMPK, and activation of this protein is associated with a cell increasing the rate of uptake for both glucose and fatty acids. AMPK is also the target molecule of anti-diabetic therapies such as Metformin and Berberine, although creatine is much less potent than those two.

Cognitive benefits of creatine, beyond possible neuroprotection, are mostly related to memory formation and retention. These memory-enhancing effects of creatine are actually well established in vegetarians and vegans.

Creatine follows many vitamin-like motifs in the body, and those who don't eat meat products seem to be in a state of relative deficiency. (As an aside, if you were completely deficient, it would be a genetic disorder that results in mental retardation.) This relative deficiency seems to be a prerequisite for the cognitive enhancing properties of creatine.

I'm not saying that not having creatine makes you dumb, but the studies seem to indicate that an optimal cognitive state requires sufficient creatine intake.

Although creatine doesn't reliably increase cognition in omnivores, it has been implicated in increasing reaction speed and improving an omnivore's cognition overall when they were otherwise sleep deprived.

The above is but a sample of the research being conducted on creatine. Now well beyond its original fame as an effective muscle builder, creatine seems to help in many facets of healthy living.

Bottom line, creatine works and is safe. Considering how cheap it is, doesn't it make sense to take it every day?

Alves CR, et al. Creatine-induced glucose uptake in type 2 diabetes: a role for AMPK-a? Amino Acids. (2012)

Andres RH, et al. Effects of creatine treatment on the survival of dopaminergic neurons in cultured fetal ventral mesencephalic tissue. Neuroscience. (2005)

Brustovetsky N, Brustovetsky T, Dubinsky JM. On the mechanisms of neuroprotection by creatine and phosphocreatine. J Neurochem. (2001)

Dahl O. Estimating protein quality of meat products from the content of typical amino-acids and creatine. J Sci Food Agric. (1965)

Genius J, et al. Creatine protects against excitoxicity in an in vitro model of neurodegeneration. PLoS One. (2012)

Groeneveld GJ, et al. Few adverse effects of long-term creatine supplementation in a placebo-controlled trial. Int J Sports Med. (2005)

Gualano B, et al. Effects of creatine supplementation on renal function: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Eur J Appl Physiol. (2008)

Gualano B, et al. Effect of short-term high-dose creatine supplementation on measured GFR in a young man with a single kidney. Am J Kidney Dis. (2010)

Harris RC, et al. The concentration of creatine in meat, offal and commercial dog food. Res Vet Sci. (1997)

Hosamani R, Ramesh SR, Muralidhara. Attenuation of rotenone-induced mitochondrial oxidative damage and neurotoxicty in Drosophila melanogaster supplemented with creatine. Neurochem Res. (2010)

Klivenyi P, et al. Additive neuroprotective effects of creatine and a cyclooxygenase 2 inhibitor against dopamine depletion in the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) mouse model of Parkinson's disease. J Mol Neurosci. (2003)

Lyoo IK, et al. A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of oral creatine monohydrate augmentation for enhanced response to a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor in women with major depressive disorder. Am J Psychiatry. (2012)

Matthews RT, et al. Creatine and cyclocreatine attenuate MPTP neurotoxicity. Exp Neurol. (1999)

Schiffenbauer YS, et al. Cyclocreatine transport and cytotoxicity in rat glioma and human ovarian carcinoma cells: 31P-NMR spectroscopy. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. (1996)

Schiffenbauer YS, et al. Cyclocreatine Accumulation Leads to Cellular Swelling in C6 Glioma Multicellular Spheroids: Diffusion and One-Dimensional Chemical Shift Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy1. Cancer Res (1995)

Tokarska-Schlattner M, et al. Phosphocreatine interacts with phospholipids, affects membrane properties and exerts membrane-protective effects. PLoS One. (2012)

View the original article here

Read more »

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

0 Comments

Tags: Creatine