Body Composition

I know that it has been a while since I've posted anything, but time has been very scarce for me lately. Today I wanted to talk about calories and diet. There are some changes I want to make to my program to help me improve both my gains and my body composition. By body composition, I am not talking about fat ratio, but about actual muscle density.

To understand what I want to talk about, you have to understand a little about muscle composition. Muscles aren't all one piece; they are made up of thousands of fibers, each of which are made up of individual cells. Each cell in a muscle fiber can store nutrients, including water and fat. The water is good, and some fat is necessary, but bloating the cell with unnecessary fats can impair its function. Also, between the muscle strands, is tissue that can store fat. This fat can be burned as energy when doing slow twitch exercise, but isn't used for fast twitch exercise. In short, for a bodybuilder, this is wasted space in our muscle that only contributes to softer, less defined muscle formation.

Now, on to the diet changes that will help with my composition. I have always been a proponent of excess caloric intake in order to have plenty of energy for muscle building. I still believe that you need the calories, but nowhere near the amount that I believed before. Studies show that it is even more important to figure in what kind of calories you ingest than the amount. The old axiom of calories in equal's calories out has become a wives' tale. To put it simply, carbohydrates have a rate of digestion. If the rate is high enough, you will absorb an excess into your body that will become fat. The slower digesting carbs however, will be burned as they are digested with the excess being excreted by the body. The more refined a carbohydrate food is, the faster the absorption rate. In essence you get the theory that white foods are bad because they are overly refined. Simple sugars get absorbed even faster, thus they are almost an instant fat food. High glucose corn syrup is the worst, being absorbed instantly and stored instantly making this an immediate fat. Fats are fast absorbing as well, but are a mandatory diet requirement. The key is to make sure you get the right kinds of fat, omegas 3 and 6.

Protein is very slow absorbing and thus very hard to utilize. It must first be broken down to an amino acid level by the liver making less than 20% of your protein consumed usable by your body. Almost no protein calories are ever turned to fat because of the slow digestion rate. You take what you need and crap out the rest. Consequentially, protein is a very poor energy food because it is almost never converted to either fat or glycogen.

My new diet plan is going to be hard for me. I am still formulating the exact foods, but it amounts to a simple strategy. I burn off approximately 180g of carbohydrates per day. My maintenance level of protein, the amount I need to keep the muscle I have, is the same 185g per day. If I change either number, then my body composition will change for the good or bad. In order to gain the muscle I want, I will have to increase my protein to 370g of protein a day, this will give me around 7.4g of usable amino acids in my blood stream after muscle maintenance that can be used to build new muscle. Since I am taking in this amount of protein, I will be burning more carbs to digest, process, and utilize this protein excess. This will amount to around 37g more carbohydrates per day to avoid deficit. So, in short, I will be raising my protein intake to 370g per day and my carbohydrates to around 220g per day. I plan to choose my foods wisely, picking carbohydrates that are very slow digesting, such as whole oats, whole wheat, and legumes. For the protein I will have to rely on "super" foods, such as egg whites and fish. The challenge is getting to this protein level without exceeding my carbohydrate level. This should give me optimum muscle density without messing up my energy levels.

I will spend a lot of time over the next week playing with my diet plan. I will post my results here within the next few weeks to let everyone know how it worked out and what I did to get there. Until then, train like a freak!

Train Like A Freak

As Promised, I wanted to give everyone my current training program. This is an advanced training program for people that have just hit a wall and can go no further. I have just recently switched to this schedule after hitting 205 lbs and around 12-14 pbf. For supplements I use BSN products almost exclusively. Pre-workout I use NO-Xplode about 30 minutes prior to workout. Post-workout I use Cell Mass, take 2 amino acids (optimum nutrition), and my multivitamins which are Opti-Men. Within thirty minutes of my workout I drink a protein shake, Muscle Milk, and take my Axis-HT. I also take Axis-HT with lunch and dinner. Around an hour before bed I use Cell Mass again and take two more amino acids. Just before bed I take one serving of Syntha-6 protein powder, it's sustained release blend and helps me recover through the night.

I try to eat at least six meals a day. Since I work out at 5:30 am, it's a little rough to eat pre workout, but it's important enough that I pull it off. I get up at 4 am and eat organic oats with fruit to give me plenty of complex carbs to get through my training session.

Meal Schedule

4am Organic Oatmeal, fruit, glass of skim milk

Post WO Muscle Milk Shake

10am Two servings of organic oatmeal with 2 scoops protein powder and 2 tablespoons of flax

1pm 8 ounces of lean meat, 2 servings of veggies, and two whole grain carb servings such as whole grain bread

4pm ¼ cup of nuts and ¼ cup of raisins

7pm 8 ounces of lean meat, 2 servings of veggies, and two whole grain carb servings, usually brown rice

9pm Syntha-6 time released protein shake

 

If I feel the need for a snack between meals, I usually grab a handful of nuts of dried fruit. I particularly love dried cranberries.

 

Now, on to my workout schedule. I always begin each workout with 10 minutes on a recumbent bike in order to get my heart rate up and to warm up my muscles. I aerobically pump up the muscle group I will be working for the session. Below is my schedule, though I will leave out the amount of weight I am using because when you train you should leave your ego at the door…form not mass. I don't want anyone to try more than they can manage. I start with Lower Weights to warm up and then do 4 additional sets of each movement, increasing the weight each set. I target 8-12 reps, but go till exhaustion. After each workout I do ten minutes of abs.

Monday: Chest- wide grip bench press, Incline Dumbell Press, Decline Dumbell press, Cable Crossovers, Cable Flys

Tuesday: Back- Wide Grip Lat Pulls, Cable Rows, Cable Stiff Leg Dead Lifts, One Arm Rows

Wednesday: Shoulders- Military Press, Upright Rowing, Reverse Cable Flys, Shrugs, Frontal Raises, Lateral Raises

Thursday: Legs- Deadlifts, Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Lunges, Leg Press

Friday: Arms- Superset bi and tri- Curls/Close Grip Bench, Hammer Curls/EZ Bar Skull Crushers on Decline, Close Grip Curls/Reverse Cable Press, Reverse Curl/Cable Press, Wrist Curl/Reverse Wrist Curl

Saturday and Sunday are recovery days, time to play with the kiddo and with the wife.

I try to squeeze in a little cardio when I can, but honestly I don't have the calories to burn for cardio. During a cut session, I will do cardio for 30 minutes 3 times a week just to burn off some extra calories.

 

I hope this helps some people. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. Just remember what BSN says about training…Train Like A Freak…110% every time!

People are often misled when it comes to starting a resistance training program. They believe that all they will have to do is throw weights up into the air over and over to become a Herculean figure. There could be nothing further from the truth. Resistance training should be approached very seriously and scientifically. Of every sport out there, weight lifting has the highest injury rate. From pulled muscles and strains to blown tendons and slipped discs, lifting injuries range from painful to crippling.

The first rule in starting any training program is making sure you don't over do it. You can't just jump in and throw weights around. You have to take things slowly. Start out with calisthenics, push-ups, crunches, lots of stretching. After you have those muscles used to doing work and those tendons limbered up, you can start to do actual lifting. I recommend a solid six week period just getting ready for the weights.

The first six months is by far the most exciting. You will feel more strength every single time you work out. During this period you aren't really gaining any muscle, at least not much. You are training your nervous system to use the muscles that are already there. This is the period where you will go from a sixty pound bench press to over a hundred pounds. Nothing is more exciting. Just keep taking it slowly, make sure that you aren't lifting too much weight. Warm up before your workouts and stretch out thoroughly. The usual workout in this time period is upper body three times a week with one exercise per muscle group. Lower body should be done on the alternating days, twice a week. You can get away with this for the first six months because you aren't tearing down the muscle as much as training yourself how to lift.

After this period is over, you will usually start to hit walls. This is because your nervous system is trained and the muscle is starting to grow. At this point it's time to change your strategies. Stack on the weight a bit more heavily and shoot for exhaustion at around eight to ten reps. If you can do more than that you aren't breaking loose those muscle fibers. Also during this time period you will need to change your recovery strategy. On the average, it takes muscle around 72 hours to recover from a proper workout. This means that your three day a week program will cause you to loose muscle mass as your muscles will never heal from the prior workout.

Supplements while during these periods should be kept simple and to the basics. That is all you will need. A gallon of water a day, a good multi-vitamin such as Opti-Men, 1g of protein per pound of body weight, and a sensible diet filled with lean meats, healthy fats, fruits and veggies, and whole grains. Sticking to these few basics will give your body all it needs for maximum growth. Forget all the hype on the other supplements. They may work great for an advanced body builder with advanced needs, but you are still at the stage where your body has not hit its limits. Save your money and keep it simple.

Later I will post a nice, simple, intermediate workout to start at week six through month six. Until then, keep lifting.

Pre-workout Drinks, A Review

As the science of exercise and nutrition advances, different phenomena arise that can change our exercise results drastically. The latest in the constant stream of products on the market are pre-workout drinks. These drinks claim to give you a burst of energy for your workout, allowing you to push yourself harder than you normally could. They also claim to increase the "pump" you get and dramatically improve your gains in muscle.

I have been using these drinks for just over a year now. I have tried several of them with mixed results. Here I will review the three that I like best, the benefits I received from each, and the bad side effects; after all, there is a down side to everything.

Third Place- SuperPump 250. This drink promises to increase your lean mass with your first workout, cause rapid and measurable full muscle pumps, promote mental focus and maximum energy, enhance full body vascularity. What it offers is of course creatine, which will give you more muscle energy and create fuller muscles. It has an insane dose of B vitamins, L-Arganine to increase nitrogen levels for greater oxygen transport, along with just about every body building chemical out there compounded into one powder. Many of these chemicals are based more on reputation that clinical trials. I tried the product for a week and it did give me a very good pump, high energy levels, increased vascularity, and unfortunately the runs. Evidently, you can have too much of a good thing. This stuff shot right through me and made it tough for me to even complete a workout without running for the bathroom. If you have a hearty constitution and think your stomach can handle it, the product is sound. Just be careful and start out with low doses to see if it agrees with your system.

Second Place- Nitric Blast. I loved this product. It is the usual blend of creatine and vitamins, along with some herbal suppliments. To the mixture they add electrolytes and some very nice recovery elements, such as glutamine. This product did not give me stomach cramps and there was no flushing side effect you sometimes have with pre-workout drinks. It gave me a steady energy level through my workout and seemed to increase my recovery time as well. The only down side to it was it lacked the mad energy rush that I love and the muscle pump increase that I shoot for. I would say that for anyone with a sensitive stomach, this is a real winner of a product. Two thumbs up!

First Place- N.O.-Xplode from BSN. If you want good solid science in your corner, BSN has the products for you. So far, they have never let me down and this product is no exception. Massive amounts of B Vitamins combined with their own creatine blend, which doesn't get lost in your stomach like many others do, are a great base in this drink. Add to that L-Arganine for massive pumps, electrolytes for endurance, and a patent pending absorption system and you have a real winner. This product gave me a combination of unparalleled energy rush, insane muscle pumps, and explosive strength to get through my workout. Over the course of the day I felt less drained from my workout and could still function at a full pace. Though it did upset my stomach mildly the first week, that side effect wore off quickly. I would recommend this product to anyone that can handle it. It does what no other product can; it does what it says it will do.

There you have it, my little review of pre-workout aids. With any of them, start slowly to make sure you can tolerate it. Over time you can increase to the full dosage if your body says it's ok. Just remember the first rule of exercise and fitness, listen to your body, it knows what it needs.

Until next time, keep on lifting.