The gym can be a frustrating place at times. These days I’m fortunate enough to not lift in a “Go Big or Go Home” type of gym, but I do remember what that was like.

There are several red flags to watch out for in a free weight room: skull caps, sunglasses (indoors), and heavy use of the word bro…“it’s all you bro! It’s all you!”. If you workout in this type of environment, I feel for you.

That last thing you want to do is emulate the approach of these guys. While not every guy that fits this description is a full idiot, many of them are at least partially there.

Use your brain to come up with a strategic workout routine that makes sense. Don't just mindlessly follow any particular routine. Understand why something works before adding it into your workout program.

Why You Shouldn’t Simply Copy a Big Guy’s Routine

I understand the idea of learning from someone who is successful at what you would like to learn. This does work a lot of the time, but not so much when it comes to building muscle.

You just don’t know all of the variables, just by looking at a guy. Maybe it took him twice as long as it should have to reach where he is at. Possibly he used steroids. Maybe his muscle is mostly due to amazing genetics. What if he spent the last 6 years in prison and trained 3 hours per day?

“That Guy Got Big and Ripped off Nothing But Tuna and Oranges”!

Back when I was in college there was a Sorority that put on a contest each year for guys to compete to become “Anchor Man”. I think it was Delta Gamma, if memory serves me correctly (it has been a long time).

Anyway this was the equivalent of a beauty pageant, but for guys (very awkward). The last part of the competition was a bodybuilding contest. I didn’t watch the contest, but the guy who won during my senior year trained in the same gym as me.

My workout partner asked him how he got so lean, and supposedly he lived on a diet of tuna and oranges. A year later we found out he was a steroid dealer. Luckily we thought the idea of just eating tuna and oranges was lame and didn’t buy into it…but I am guessing at least 6-10 guys immediately switched to a tuna and orange diet.

Speaking of Brains…

Don't be a Zombie...just mindlessly following a workout routine..."must lift, must lift more, it's all you bro, ugggh."

Gaining Muscle? Let Me Break It Down For You

Let’s keep it simple. A muscle cell is comprised of muscle tissue and fluid. The quickest way to increase the size of a muscle is by increasing the fluid within the muscle cell. Tissue growth is a longer process. Here are the exact terms of the two main ways to increase the size of a muscle.

*Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy: This is an increase of the fluid within a muscle cell. The best way to achieve this type of muscle growth is to lift in the 6-15 rep range. The rest in between sets needs to be kept somewhat short to fatigue the muscle in this rep range. The weights don’t necessary need to be heavy. Contrary to popular belief you can gain a lot of muscle without having to lift extremely heavy weights. Remember the main goal here is muscle fatigue, not so much the amount of weight lifted.

*Myofibrillar Hypertrophy: This is the actual increase of muscle cell tissue. This type of muscle growth makes less of an impact on size, but will make you significantly stronger. This also tends to make the muscles more dense and angular looking. The best way to achieve this is by lifting in the low rep range. Anywhere between 2-5 reps seems to do the trick. Maximum tension, NOT maximum fatigue, is your goal here so rest enough in between sets to lift somewhat heavy.

Understanding the Two Main Types of Muscle Growth Helps You Create Your Ideal Workout

Do you have big muscles but they look slightly soft and rounded? Well then maybe lower the reps, increase the rest and tension, and aim for some Myofibrillar Hypertrophy.

Do you have rock hard muscles but they aren’t as large as you would like? Your approach would be to increase the reps, shorten the rest period, aim for maximum fatigue…which would increase your Sarcoplasmic Hypertrophy.

Some would have you believe that muscle definition is simply about body fat levels…this is not true…the density of a muscle (or lack of) largely determines the look of a muscle. This is why two guys can be at 8% body fat and one guy looks fantastic and the other guy still has a soft “puffy” look.

You Can Even Alternate Between the Two Types of Growth Strategically…

One of the common suggestions in bodybuilding circles is to bulk up to gain muscle and then drop off excess body fat to look lean for summer. The problem with this approach is that you wind up with loose skin and it takes another 30-60 days for your skin to catch up with your smaller body size.

You won’t display maximum definition for a month or two after. This is why a lot of men and women look better in late July or August than they do in the beginning of summer.

Well, I have a better method…

Click on the image above and watch Video 3 on the page that opens up. There are 4 videos on my site that explain muscle growth in further detail, but this one describes a great strategy to use before summer!

Understanding Why A Routine Works Is Crucial to Hitting Your Goals

I focus on the lean and angular “Hollywood Look”, but I realize that this isn’t the goal of every guy. If your goal is to get as big as possible, then do the right type of lifting for that goal (mainly sarcoplasmic muscle growth).

Either way, don’t just blindly follow a routine like a zombie. I don’t care how big or ripped or that person is. Use your brain! (Maybe that is what the zombies are trying to tell you when they are saying “Brainsssssssss”)

Note from Editor: You can learn more about “smart” muscle building through Rusty’s visual impact videos here.  I highly recommend it, as training the right way (along with smart eating) is the path to success…especially if you are after that lean and defined muscular “Hollywood” look.

So here they are (with the original articles linked as well) in no particular order for you to enjoy!

Best Quotes/One liners of 2009:

The point being in your battle against weight loss, you need to start where it matters the most…in how and what you eat. From there you compliment your efforts with “effective” exercise…and not “excessive” exercise. Too many people are being excessive in what they do, expecting faster results somehow.
- Aerobics (Cardio) is Not Your Priority in Lasting Weight Loss

With the caveat that sugar intake should be VERY minimal, I’d rather go ahead and give my body the substance that it can process rather than some unknown chemical. … Again, better is a relative term. It’s better to smoke one pack of cigarettes than to smoke two packs. Cocaine is probably less harmful than crack. That doesn’t make it healthy. It’s even better to do neither.
- Real Sugar Vs. Artificial Sweeteners: Which Is Better?

I eat clean 90% of the time so that the other 10% of the time, I can relax and do whatever. I can eat sushi without being concerned about the rice. I can dig into the chips and guacamole at a Mexican place before my plate-load of carnitas. I can have a drink or two while watching football with friends.
- Cheat Meals, Flexible Eating, and Dietary OCD

“Stimulate and don’t annihilate”
- Get Bigger Muscles by…Walking?

In the end, we all just need to go back to the basics. Eat Real Food! Do that and you can forget worrying about the cardiovascular protection of omega-3s or how many egg yolks you should eat to lower your blood pressure.
- How A Paleo/Primal Eating Plan Improves Your Health; And Why None Of It Matters

Along with trans fats, sugar is the worst thing you can put in your body.
- Marketing Lies: There Is No Such Thing As “Healthy Sugar”

Perfection is an illusion, it means there is some final destination to be achieved (and disappointment to be had if you don’t get there). Strive for living daily instead, not trying to achieve a goal that your happiness is depending on. Your happiness is now.
- Deep Thoughts……More on Weight Loss, Health, and Living

So many people accept illness as a regular part of being alive. But is it really? Is illness the normal human life, an inevitable part of drawing breath? I don’t think it is.
- How Do You Repair Your Immune System?

Many people are overweight despite eating hardly any food…so while calorie deficit is needed to lose weight, it’s only in relation to how optimal the overall metabolism is running in the first place. Have a hampered liver and it will also negatively affect your fat burning metabolism.
- Speed Up Your Metabolism – Fatty Liver Disease

You probably noticed I left one off. Here’s a statement to ruffle some feathers: Do not drink soy milk. If you want to know why, go back to the anti-nutrient section. Add to that very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids in soy fat. It’s really not good for you.
- Nutrition In Milk And Milk Substitutes

We have seen healthy societies with various %s (high and low) of carb intake but they all have one big thing in common…they all eat natural “real foods”. They also have another thing in common, once people from their culture move into a more “modernized” food environment, then the health benefits seen previously decrease dramatically.
- Are Low Carb Diets Over-rated for Health and Longevity?

The reality is that humans started cooking food because it makes food more easily digestible, rather than making it more difficult to digest. There are some exceptions, but for the most part, this is true. And the only measure of how nutritious a food is is how well the body can digest it.
- Are Raw Vegetables Healthier Than Cooked Vegetables?

If you don’t like something….change it or quit whining about it. Anyone can change their job, anyone can move to a different state, anyone can stop doing so much inorder to spend more time with family, anyone can make time for simple exercise, anyone can find ways to eat healthier. Dump the excuses and just take action to make a change now.
- Urgent Changes to Make in Your Vocabulary Today (for Health and Happiness)

Proteins and fat lowered a bit % wise, but carb% increased dramatically (primarily thanks to the whole “low fat” movement that could turn out the be the worst advice ever given). We are not saying carbs are the enemy, but we know that quality matters…..so let’s see where we are getting our carbs from. While fruits and vegetables have marginally increased, cereal grains and sugars have skyrocketed.
- Obesity, Diabetes, and Other Diseases vs Food Trends in Pictures

So knowing that pastured eggs are markedly more nutritious than conventional eggs, along with being more flavorful and safer, you have another reason to support your local farmers. Pastured eggs are more expensive, but they are also more nutritious. Check out your local farmer’s markets and buying clubs.
- The Truth About Free Range, Organic, Cage Free Eggs Nutrition

“If you told me you were going to jail and only had a barbell and didn’t want to get raped in the showers and could only do one exercise to put mass and strength on, then I’d tell you to do the snatch deadlift on a platform.”
- The Best Muscle Building Exercise…If You Had to Pick One

If you’ve been around here for any length of time, you already know that I’m no fan of grains, whether processed or whole. Unfortunately, those of us that think such blasphemous things against those “wholesome” grains are an anomaly. So for those that still think whole grains are an important, healthy, wholesome, and necessary part of the diet, let’s look at just a few of the issues.
- The Real Truth About Those “Healthy Whole Grains”

It all boils down to the simple equation that if you put your feet in a stiff shoe, you are not going to use all the muscles in your feet. What happens when you don’t use muscles? They get weak. Add an addition unnatural stride (heel striking) with weak feet and you create instability at the base of your body (your feet hitting the ground). That translates up your knees, legs, back and creates compensatory movements (such as overpronation) and injuries.
- Cure all Running Injuries (and Pain) with One Simple Fix….Barefoot Running

Instability of the scapula is a major cause of shoulder issues, so my goal is to teach the muscles to work together to make sure my scapula is moving within the joint as it should be. And there are a load of muscles that connect to this bone: deltoid, traps, biceps, pectoralis minor, rhomboids, serratus, and rotator cuff to name a majority.
- How To Improve Scapular Stability For Healthy Shoulders

IF is not about starvation, it’s not about crash dieting, and it’s not about quick weight loss (even if results may happen quickly for some). To me it’s all about a lifestyle and lasting approach to improving your health, redefining your relationship with food, to reduce unnatural cravings, get back in tune with the natural survival design of our bodies, optimizing your glucose energy metabolism and just an easy and simple approach to lasting results.
- Intermittent Fasting has a New Name….Intermittent Feeding

As you can see, I don’t think that you need to 100% give up coffee or alcohol to be healthy. I enjoy both and am unlikely to go completely clean from either. If you stick with the a low intake of both and pay attention to how you feel after having them, there’s no reason that you have to be completely ascetic.
- Caffeine, Alcohol, And Health – How Much Is Too Much?

The bottom line is that humans have been eating eggs, meat, and butter for a really long time without heart disease and cancer. Yet somehow, now heart disease and cancer run rampant and the food industry is always there to protect us from eating these wholesome foods.
- Real Foods Take On Fake Foods: Butter, Bacon, And Eggs

Wrapping up the year, we mainly want to thank YOU the readers for making this a great 2009 at Fitness Spotlight (with all your contributions/comments). We look forward to more great things to come in 2010!

- Mike and Scott

PS. If you have any great quotes or one liners you heard this year, please feel free to share them in the comments below as well.

Here it is…..

The keys to success…..

Normally just 4 easy payments of $69.95 but yours today FREE!

Muscle Gain = Enough Food + “Progressive Overload” + Recovery

Wow and I mean WoW!

Ok, so I played it up a bit, but were you excited or actually let down to learn that is the secret? What exactly were you expecting to hear? Sadly this is the mainstream culture we live in today promising unbelievable results in no time at all. The old saying always holds true, “if it is too good to be true it usually is”.

But have no worries, as I am going to give you the real story of how people are putting on muscle (well at least the ones not using any additional anabolic hormones).

Can You Handle the Truth? There is No Quick Fix.

Ok, that was done in my best Jack Nicholson voice impression (thank goodness you couldn’t hear that over the web). But that is the honest answer, there is no “quick” fix to put on lots of real muscle.

Sadly I don’t think people want to hear that, some may actually keep looking for a quick fix while doing nothing right now. We overlook people who have spent years (and I mean lots of years) building up muscle and expect to just find it in a can or something. A person who keeps looking for the magic answer is just wasting their time.

It is time for people to get realistic about their muscle gains. First step is to realize how much muscle they can really put on, what their real weight is going to be and the time it is going to take. Here is a good part from an article by Lyle McDonald on how much muscle one can genetically gain.

Now I think part of this has to do with exceedingly skewed ideas about what’s achievable, a problem driven by pro-bodybuilding.  After seeing a pro-bodybuilder stepping on stage at 260 pounds or more and shredded, the idea that a natural may top out at 180-190 pounds of lean body mass (if that) can be disheartening.

Of course, to the general public, an individual at a lean 180-190 pounds is still pretty enormous.  It’s just that compared to the absurd size of a pro bodybuilder, it seems absolutely tiny.  But it is reality.

People forget that Arnold Schwarzenegger competed at perhaps 230 pounds (assuming 5% body fat, that’s only 220 pounds of lean body mass) and that was with (admittedly low doses) of anabolic steroids in the mixture.

The simple real-world fact, which can be verified by going to any natural bodybuilding show is that you simply don’t see naturals coming into contest shape much above 200 pounds (the exceptions can usually be counted on one hand) and few even achieve that level of size.  It’s always the lighter classes (e.g. 165 lb class) that have the most competitors at natural shows with fewer and fewer coming in at the heavier weights, especially in contest shape.

Even when people point to large natural strength athletes who might be 270-280 lbs. natural, by the time you figure in 28-30% body fat, that still puts them right back at a maximum lean body mass of 189-196 lbs.  Certainly near the higher end of things but not by that much.

I have often thrown out the following values for rates of muscle gain.

Year of Proper Training	Potential Rate of Muscle Gain per Year
1	20-25 pounds (2 pounds per month)
2	10-12 pounds (1 pound per month)
3	5-6 pounds (0.5 pound per month)
4+	2-3 pounds (not worth calculating)

Again, these values are for males, females would use roughly half of those values (e.g. 10-12 pounds in the first year of proper training).

So as you can see from above, a real novice (one who has not really put on much muscle yet) can make some great gains of 2+ pounds of muscle (not just weight, which includes fat) per month. After that it will tend to slow down and become harder as the body will resist putting too much on.

Also another good point is about how much a person really should weigh. I’ve heard people say that they want to be 220 lbs and ripped, and yet they are 180lbs and a bit chubby. Time for a little math. Say you are 180lbs at 20%BF, that means you have 144lbs of lean mass. If you think you can be 220lb and 6% BF, that means you will need 207lbs of lean mass. So we are talking about gaining 60+lbs of muscle? Well that may take a long while.

The reality is that while people want to weigh more, they usually neglect to think about actual muscle gain. That and most bodybuilders/athletes/actors (or whoever you are comparing yourself to) are probably alot lighter than you think they are, or also have more bodyfat than you realize.

So understand that your journey for building muscle is a slow and steady one, and that you should be in it for the long haul. I mean imagine if you had this attitude 2 years ago with steady training and eating, what you could be today. So being in it for the long run mentally is the first step to getting there, otherwise you can be like all the others out there spending lots of money on things advertised for quick gains….and we know how that turns out.

Eat More…and more…

So you are skinny right now, so what? I’ve heard too many people wear the “hardgainer” badge with honor. Well if you ever plan on really adding muscle, time to throw the badge away and just get to work (namely with a fork). Ask many “bigger” people and they may tell you at some point they were also a skinny lad, but then did what it took.

You are not lacking more protein powders, nitric-oxide, or any other fancy supplement. Real food has been doing the job for ages so no reason to think it still doesn’t work. Just take a look at this outtake from an article entitled “Complicated” at Elite Lifts.

Whenever I’ve spoken with a group of up and comers—the local guys just starting to do competitions—the conversation always revolves around the “secret” cycles, the exotic compounds, the rare products, the combination of supplements that only the “top guys” must know about. That’s always what the conversation turns to.

Whenever I’ve talked to the “top guys” in bodybuilding or powerlifting, the discussion is never about rare compounds or exotic products. It’s always about eating—how much, how often, what to eat, when, the time they spent $120 on breakfast at Bob Evans. That’s the difference.

When a I meet a local guy at a show or at the gym, they never ask about food. It’s always about some exotic compound. The funny thing is nine times out of 10, I’ve never ever heard about the “magic” compound they’re talking about. I’m sure most of the top guys in the sport haven’t either probably because they were either in the process of chewing a big chunk of steak or their ears were ringing from the set of deadlifts they just finished.

If you really want more insight into the nutritional background of strongmen and bodybuilders, I strongly suggest also reading this article at Weston Price on it all.

Remember, the fork is your greatest tool to use outside the gym (or you can eat with your hands if you like too). If you do not eat enough, you will not gain real muscle even with tough workouts. Plain and simple. Stick to real foods and stay away from the all those overhyped muscle building supplements (as you don’t need them!).

Don’t Make it Complicated or Look for the “Holy Grail” of Workouts

Above we talked about the key to building muscle as being “progressive overload”. What does this mean? Simply that you are continually putting your body under a stress over time that is progressing and overloading your body with increasing volume/weights/tension. Your workouts are going to signal for your body to continually adapt to the ongoing stress and build more and more muscle. If you keep the same workout with the same weights, your body has no reason to adapt any further.

Here is the key, there isn’t just one way to achieve this. Ask 10 bodybuilders what kind of workouts they do, and you will probably get 10 different answers. Maybe one does HIT style, or German Volume Training, or 5x5s, or 20 Rep Squats…and the list goes on and on. What they will have in common is somehow they are adding weights/volume/tension over time. This is what is signaling the new muscle growth.

It is a simple concept that gets lost out there in the search for the perfect workout program. Too many are suffering from a severe case of information overload, and information is easy to come by nowadays. People are reading new workouts every month, week or maybe even every day. Whether it be on the internet or with the latest monthly issue of Flex. People are getting sidetracked and never sticking with one program long enough to allow the golden rule to apply of progressive overload.

So find a workout you will enjoy (as enjoying your workouts is important for consistency) and stick with it for at least 12 weeks. No changing it, no adding things, just stick with the plan and progress with either more reps or weight each workout. I don’t care if it is a simple 3×5 or 3×10 plan, it will work if you really challenge yourself and progress over time! Don’t make this more complicated as it needs to be, all you need is a plan, a pen and a book to write down your weights/reps. Then next time in, you beat it by a rep or with an additional 5lbs….and continue onward and upward.

Here are some additional basic tips on workouts:

• If you want to train more for strength (with size), reps should be around 3-5
• If you want to train more for size (with strength), reps should be around 8-10
• Do mostly compound movements using biggest muscles first (chest, back, legs)
• Do not focus on isolation workouts (like most BB magazines would have you doing)
• Keep workouts about 45min at most and 2-3x a week
• Keep track of weights and reps and make sure they are progressing (progressive overload)
• If you see you are not progressing (or going in the opposite direction), take a couple days off to recover some more

Stay Healthy and Don’t Get Injured

Smart training means knowing how to take it slow and steady and not put yourself in worse condition. That means keeping optimal health for the immune system and your muscles/joints.

Staying healthy means a strong immune system and making sure you are not suppressing it. Eating real foods and staying away from sugar and processed crap is a good start. Also making sure to get plenty of sleep it vital as well.

Being smart in your workouts also matters. As once you do something to injure yourself, everything comes to a halt (I’ve been there and know what it is like). So instead of continually making progress on your gains you are now on the sidelines waiting to heal up. You will only set yourself back and depending on the injury, it could be for a while.

Remember that part of growing muscle means being consistent (and progressively overloading), which is hard to do if you aren’t able to lift any weights for the next 6-12 weeks.

Forget the Post Workout Insulin Spike

“The first law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing…..the second law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.” – Unknown from internet forums

Great quote from somewhere on the net, and it is so true. What is means is that what you eat in a day (total macronutrients, calories) is more important that the “science” of nutrient timing. Namely the “post workout” window and insulin spiking.

But what about restoring muscle glycogen you may ask? Well unless you are a full time athlete in training or need to go again with muscle glycogen in the next 6-12 hours, it is not needed. Your muscles will be fully restored within 24-48 hours anyways with a proper diet.

In fact in a study (The effect of high carbohydrate meals with different glycemic indices on recovery of performance during prolonged intermittent high-intensity shuttle running; Erith S)  with professional soccer players, it was found that there was NO difference in performance on 2 consecutive days with one group consuming high GI carbs and another low GI carbs after their workout.

So insulin sensitivity and muscle glycogen is not a factor really anymore, what about a certain window for more protein synthesis? What we do find is that increased protein synthesis lasts much longer than some immediate post workout window (so no need to chug down that sugar/whey shake right in the gym).

The response to the amino acid-carbohydrate drink produced similar anabolic responses at 1 and 3 h. Muscle protein breakdown did not change in response to the drink. We conclude that essential amino acids with carbohydrates stimulate muscle protein anabolism by increasing muscle protein synthesis when ingested 1 or 3 h after resistance exercise.

An oral essential amino acid-carbohydrate supplement enhances muscle protein anabolism after resistance exercise;Blake B. Rasmussen; J Appl Physiol 88: 386-392, 2000;

It has been shown that muscle protein synthetic rate (MPS) is elevated in humans by 50% at 4 hrs following a bout of heavy resistance training, and by 109% at 24 hrs following training.

Resistance training alters the response of fed state mixed muscle protein synthesis in young men; Tang JE; Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Jan;294(1):R172-8. Epub 2007 Nov 21.

We conclude that exercise resulted in an increase in muscle net protein balance that persisted for up to 48 h after the exercise bout and was unrelated to the type of muscle contraction performed.

Mixed muscle protein synthesis and breakdown after resistance exercise in humans; S. M. Phillips; Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol 273, Issue 1 E99-107

So what is the end result?

• There is NO need to spike insulin after a workout
• You don’t have to immediately worry about replenishing muscle glycogen after a workout (unless you need it later that day again)
• It is more important to make sure you are eating enough calories and protein during the whole day (not just windows after a workout)

Focus More on Your Lifestyle

Muscles do NOT nor will they EVER grow in the gym. Not possible, as you are there creating a muscle catabolism environment, just so they will respond by growing over the next 48+ hours. Which can mean only one thing, you grow muscles only when you are not in the gym.

So this means your lifestyle outside of when you train will either help or hurt your muscle growth potential. If your lifestyle is full of stress, alcohol, little sleep and excessive/intense activity you can bet you will be wasing more muscle than building. But if you get plenty of sleep, control your stress, keep inflammation low and keep activity lower intensity, then you can allow your body to build more muscle (not too mention help reduce chances of any injuries as we have seen above being important).

One of my favorite activities nowadays is just walking (outside, inside, anywhere) as I covered the benefits to it in a previous article on how to get bigger muscles by walking.

So If You are Still Not Gaining, Do the Checklist

Whenever things look like they are not working, just go over the things below and ask yourself:

• Have I given it at least 6-12 weeks to progress in weights? (or are you hopping around to different programs and not allowing any “progressive overload” to happen?)
• Do I eat enough (not just protein, but all calories)? How much is enough? Well most people can start at about 15-20x their lean mass (lbs) in calories and go from there. If you want to know how much protein you really need, then read this past article.
• Am I getting enough sleep? Don’t overlook this powerful anabolic event at night!
• Is there too much additional stress or activity getting in the way (are you running around too much while increasing stress on your off days and not allowing your body to relax and grow)?

There is your simple checklist. Most people fail to make progress because of those 4 things. That is where most all of your gains will come from, not from different grips on the bar while you curl.

Coming Soon, New IF Muscle Building Plan

Right now I am in the process of tweaking a new IF plan for building muscle that will be released sometime early next year. If you want more inside scoop on using IF to also add some muscle, make sure you are on the IF Life mailing list at the site here (as that is where I will be giving the updates from). Just enter your email and you will be good to go (plus you get all the free ebooks now and access to other mini-courses I have planned for early 2010).

How much

Six healthy young men reported to the laboratory on 5 separate occasions to perform an intense bout of leg-based resistance exercise. After exercise, participants consumed, in a randomized order, drinks containing 0, 5, 10, 20, or 40g whole egg protein. Protein synthesis and whole-body leucine oxidation were measured over 4 h after exercise by a primed constant infusion of leucine.

APS increased in a dose-dependent manner and also reached a plateau at 20g ingested protein. Leucine oxidation was significantly increased after 20 and 40g protein were ingested.

Ingestion of 20 g intact protein is sufficient to maximally stimulate MPS and APS after resistance exercise. Phosphorylation of candidate signaling proteins was not enhanced with any dose of protein ingested, which suggested that the stimulation of MPS after resistance exercise may be related to amino acid availability. Finally, dietary protein consumed after exercise in excess of the rate at which it can be incorporated into tissue protein stimulates irreversible oxidation.

Source: Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin synthesis after resistance exercise in young men

and here’s another one

This study sought to compare changes in muscle protein synthesis and anabolic efficiency in response to a single moderate serving (113 g; 220 kcal; 30 g protein) or large serving (340 g; 660 kcal; 90 g protein) of 90% lean beef.

Mixed muscle fractional synthesis rate was calculated during a 3-hour postabsorptive period and for 5 hours after meal ingestion. A 113-g serving of lean beef increased muscle protein synthesis by approximately 50% in both young and older volunteers. Despite a threefold increase in protein and energy content, there was no further increase in protein synthesis after ingestion of 340 g lean beef in either age group. Ingestion of more than 30 g protein in a single meal does not further enhance the stimulation of muscle protein synthesis in young and elderly.

Source: A Moderate Serving of High-Quality Protein Maximally Stimulates Skeletal Muscle Protein Synthesis in Young and Elderly Subjects; Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 109, Issue 9, Pages 1582-1586

So according to the research above we are seeing that muscle protein synthesis maxes out after a meal at 20-30 grams and anything in over will actually not help stimulate more muscle protein synthesis, but rather just increase excess oxidation (burn for energy).

More Protein Does Not Mean More Muscle

While protein is of course essential to building up muscle, that doesn’t necessarily mean that just eating more and more guarantees bigger muscles. So how much do we really need in the first place? Well here’s some numbers for you:

• The RDA (recommended dietary allowance) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight of adults (or roughly 0.36 grams per lb of body weight). Or I have also seen advised that women need at least 46 grams of protein per day, and men need at least 56 grams of protein per day (to avoid deficiency).

• NSCA (National Strength and Conditioning Association) recommends that for active people ,endurance and strength training, a higher intake is advised at around 0.4-0.6 per lb of bodyweight (and up to 0.8g/lb bw for full time athletes).

*Note that most of these “body weights” for calculating protein are more based on “ideal” (or even “fat free”) weight.

These are interesting numbers and much lower than what you may hear out there. You can see that with more activity, then the recommended amount of protein will increase. What is also important to remember that the overall calorie intake is also increasing with activity level. So in essence, while the amount of protein may increase the % of protein per daily calories may actually be the same (or less). Just something to keep in mind, as calories also matter.

Intermittent Fasting and Protein Intake

Well if you look at the info above where only 20-30grams of protein are absorbed per meal, then what about many of us IF’ers who eat less number of but larger meals? Are we going to lose all our muscle when we fast and only eat 2-3x a day? Of course by now many who IF already know that is not true.

But it does call into question about “needing” 5-6 meals of 20-30grams of protein to maximize muscle protein synthesis. As much as every supplement company would love us all to believe that we need a 20gram whey protein shake every 2-3 hours (and fuel more supplement sales), in fact maybe the body works better when presented a randomized/stressed environment and not some set equally divided schedule day in and out.

Here’s a little outtake from Dr Eades on his blog comments (#2 to be precise) about protein turnover and IF that is very enlightening:

I don’t think IF would affect muscle mass much at all. If you go without food for a long period of time, say, several days, your metabolic system goes after your muscle mass to convert the protein stored there into the glucose you need to keep your blood glucose normal. This doesn’t happen in the short term. All the protein structures in the body draw from and add to the amino acid pool. When muscle breaks down the individual amino acids go into the pool from where they’re harvested by the system that converts them to glucose. When new muscle is made, the amino acids used to construct the muscle protein are drawn from the amino acid pool. One of the contributors to the AA pool is enzymes that are no longer needed and junk proteins that the body is cleansing from the cells. When one is fasting, one of the group of enzymes not really needed is the group of digestive enzymes that would otherwise be employed in digesting food. These enzymes break down and their amino acids enter the AA pool where the muscle can pick them up as needed. Also, during an IF, the body goes into ketosis. I posted a few months back on how ketosis stimulates the process of cellular cleansing by removing junk proteins from the cells. The amino acids from these proteins also enter the AA pool where they can be recycled by the muscle mass. So, even though new protein isn’t coming into the body minute by minute from the diet, there is plenty of substrate there in the AA pool to last until the next meal, which is, at most, only 24 hours away.

So by the looks of it, actually not eating all day long may help increase you ability to build more muscle on less dietary protein. By using IF and allowing the body to recycle old junk proteins (remember autophagy?) as well as enzymes, the demand for amino acids through diet could be less.

Protein Pulsing for Better Anabolic Responses?

Here’s another interesting outlook on how the body is actually able to use proteins in a larger meal vs several spread out ones.

After a controlled period, 15 elderly women (mean age: 68 y) were fed for 14 d either a pulse diet (n = 7), providing 80% of the daily protein intake at 1200, or a spread diet (n = 8), in which the same daily protein intake was spread over 4 meals. Both diets provided 1.7 g protein•kg fat-free mass (FFM). Protein accretion and daily protein turnover were determined by using the nitrogen balance method and the end product method (ammonia and urea) after an oral dose of glycine. Nitrogen balance was more positive with the pulse than with the spread diet. Protein turnover rates were also higher with the pulse than with the spread diet, mainly because of higher protein synthesis in the pulse group than in the spread group.

Source: Protein pulse feeding improves protein retention in elderly women; American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 69, No. 6, 1202-1208, June 1999

My favorite big meal of protein usually involves lots of juicy steak....what's yours?

So in this group it seems that when eating a “protein pulsing” style of having 80% of daily protein in one meal (and 20% later on), it actually increased nitrogen balance, protein turnover and protein synthesis…when compared to the equally spread out diet. In short…they became more anabolically responsive (for the muscle building nerds).

But to be fair, the same study was done on younger (mid 20s) women too, and this time the results were even between the pulse and spread diet. While there was no increases in the nitrogen balance or protein turnover/synthesis for the younger group, there was also no disadvantage from the pulsing pattern.

Lesson to be learned, eating protein in a pulsing style/larger meal (although through the studies up top would go against it) does not decrease the anabolic factors associated with muscle gain. In fact, as we get older and our anabolic sensitivities/responses start to decline (all downhill from 30 after all!), it may be more vital to use such strategies to help keep us more responsive (as the study for protein pulsing was initially done to try and help elderly people from losing muscle with age).

But Post Workout Protein Makes More Muscle … Right?

While eating protein is part of the building blocks for making more muscle, it is important to know that your body works in the long term and not minute by minute. With that in mind, how about the importance of the post workout shake (as we hear that eating right after a workout increases protein synthesis)? But that “microscience” ignores the overall bigger picture on whole body recovery that has us building muscle long after the “post workout” window. Here’s a study to help show that point:

Twenty healthy men were studied in the evening after consuming a standardized diet throughout the day. Subjects participated in a 2-h exercise session during which beverages containing both carbohydrate and a protein hydrolysate (C+P) or water only (W) were ingested.

During exercise, whole-body and muscle protein synthesis rates increased by 29 and 48% with protein and carbohydrate coingestion.

During subsequent overnight recovery, whole-body protein synthesis was 19% greater in the C+P group than in the W group. However, mean muscle protein synthesis rates during 9 h of overnight recovery did not differ between groups.

We conclude that, even in a fed state, protein and carbohydrate supplementation stimulates muscle protein synthesis during exercise. Ingestion of protein with carbohydrate during and immediately after exercise improves whole-body protein synthesis but does not further augment muscle protein synthesis rates during 9 h of subsequent overnight recovery.
Source: Coingestion of Carbohydrate and Protein Hydrolysate Stimulates Muscle Protein Synthesis during Exercise in Young Men, with No Further Increase during Subsequent Overnight Recovery; Journal of Nutrition, doi:10.3945/jn.108.092924

Confused? Well I’m going to let my buddy Brad Pilon and author of the new ebook “How Much Protein” answer that one:

What you are looking at is two different measurements of protein synthesis in the human body. “Whole body protein synthesis” is a measurement of the protein synthesis happening in your entire body. This includes things like your liver, heart, lungs, brain GI Track and your muscles. This measurement does not tell you WHICH part of your body the protein synthesis is happening in, just that it is happening. “Muscle protein synthesis” is specifically measuring the amount of protein synthesis that is happening IN your skeletal muscle.

So from the example you posted above, it is obvious that the post workout protein shake increased whole body protein synthesis, but did not increase skeletal muscle protein synthesis. Most likely this means that the extra protein increased protein synthesis in your liver and gastrointestinal tract, but had no measurable effect on your muscles.

So if the point of taking protein before, during, and after your workouts is to build muscle, then the research you quotes seems to say that there would be no additional muscle building effect.

You can skip all the money you spend on protein shakes/powder and just eat enough protein with real foods, as you don't need as much as you think you do.

When you have the right kind of recovery and still eat enough during the day, it seems the “hype” about the post workout window goes away. Honestly unless you are a hard training athlete who needs immediate glycogen replenishment to train again the next day, trying to intake protein (with carbs) during or right after a workout is not necessary.

If people are going to insist on something around workouts, then I would say only a small intake of BCAAs PRE-workout would be most the average person would need. Whether you eat or not immediately after a workout can be up to you, but I wouldn’t base it on some extra muscle building theory.

Higher Protein and Weight Loss

The other part of the equation when it comes to why you eat protein, is about your goals and how many calories you are intaking. Many people use the higher protein intakes when they are looking to lean out and minimize muscle loss. Protein being a harder macronutrient to convert to fat (than carbs or fat), makes it an easy choice to eat more of while keeping carbs/fat low.

Protein will also help you to feel fuller and less likely to overeat on any other macronutrient (fat/carbs). So even if you are intaking more than enough protein to maintain muscle, you are really doing it from another strategy that may include just trying to avoid excess calories and lean out.

Wrapping Up

• The amount of protein that you REALLY need to build muscle is lower than you think, but you still have to get in enough calories from some place.

• Most people using higher protein based diets are usually trying to lose weight and maintain muscle (by limiting calories from excess fat and carbs). As remember, calories matter when you are trying to lose weight.

• If your intake of carbs or fats is higher, then your need for protein (as a calorie source only) decreases. Also diets higher in carbs/fats tend to have more nitrogen sparing effect. The issue being making sure you are eating healthy (especially carbs) and not overdo it, as it could easily be stored as fat. This is why many just go the higher protein way, because of an easier route for body composition and they say “well I have to eat something…mine as well be more meat!”.

• The more active you are, the more protein you probably should intake. Most average active people only need about 0.6g/lb of lean body weight. On the high end I would say only need to go 0.8-1.0g/lb bw, but that does not guarantee extra muscle especially when you can up calories from fat/carbs.

• Using IF (intermittent fasting) is not going to make your muscle waste away, but will in fact actually utilize more internal sources for AA (amino acids) such as unused enzymes and junk proteins.

• Skip the protein shakes and eat real foods….as the additional vitamins, minerals, and essential fats also play a role in building more muscle (and burning fat too). This is also an advantage to knowing you need less protein than originally believed…because you can focus on quality of the source (pastured eggs, grass fed meats) rather than quantity. Which leads to more natural vitamins, minerals and essential fats (including less Omega 6s, more Omega 3s and even some others like CLA proven to help burn fat/build muscle).

• Unless you are needing immediate muscle glycogen replenishment for the next day of training (athletes), you don’t need that immediate post workout shake/meal.

• Bodybuilders telling you to eat 300+ grams protein a day and train 5x a week…..are only getting results due to the best genetics (much higher than average protein synthesis capabilities) the world has to offer…or a little help from anabolic hormones (steroids) to increase protein synthesis with that higher protein intake (and frequent workout schedule). The average person could not do much with that strategy (except just burnout).

• Seems that whether you eat in 2-3 bigger meals (and/or pulse 1 large meal), or 6 smaller meals…..it won’t matter for muscle building. In the long run, the results are the same as long as the total amount of protein is kept constant.

So there you go. Did it make you rethink how much protein you really need? I wish someone had this talk with me when I was around 16 because I could have saved $1000s over the next 10+ years from not buying all sorts of protein powders/shakes/bars. When it comes to muscle building, having enough protein matters of course….but the amount is smaller than most would think (especially when you can get enough calories in from carbs/fats and have adequate training + recovery).

More reading: If you want more studies to understand how much protein you really need, then I highly recommend Brad Pilon’s How Much Protein ebook, as it is one of the best straight forward and scientifically (and not bodybuilding hyped) based reads on protein out there.

Oh and to all the ladies out there, don’t skip over this article…as these rules apply to you also for getting that sleek “toned” look you are going for (don’t worry about “bulking up”, it won’t happen)

The Secret To Get Bigger Muscles

I had a client I was consulting with recently who wanted to gain some more lean muscle (Yes I know all muscle is “lean”…but many “claim” to put on muscle, when it’s really more fat and water retention).

He worked out long and hard several times a week, did intervals after the workout and also other activity on the side trying to stay “fit”. But he wasn’t making any progress in putting on real muscle and leaning out at the same time.

I told him that the problem was “him”. He was getting in the way of “allowing” his body to build muscle and burn fat by not following the basic rules:

• Muscle Builds When You are NOT working out
• Workouts Break Down Muscle but Recovery Builds Them
• Hormones are Vital to Whether You Build (or Lose) Muscle
• Your Workouts and Recovery Should be Geared for Hormonal Responses

So instead of only trying to force down 5000 calories a day trying to gain muscle (and most people usually just end up fat and bulky looking), why not just do the simple things right in the first place?

Workout For The Right Reasons

We go workout to “hopefully” challenge our muscles to grow bigger. This involves enough stimulation through resistance/volume to signal muscle growth by the body. Included will be the signal of muscle building hormones such as Testosterone. We can also signal GH which is key in helping us recover and burn fat.

What happens when we overtrain? Well how about our Testosterone and GH levels can drop. How are we supposed to build muscle if those are in the gutter? Hit the weights some more? I think not.

"Stimulate and Don't Annihilate"...solid advice

As seen in this past article, the study done on people using Testosterone and not working out, vs people working out and not using Testosterone…ended up with the people using Test with no workouts gaining MORE muscle than those just working out! So hormones make the difference!

Workouts should be geared to have enough stimulus for hormonal muscle growth, without going overboard and suppressing them. As said once by (edit) Lee Haney, “Stimulate and don’t annihilate” when you go workout. Seems like good advice to me.

You Build (Or Not) Muscle 24/7

So we have gone to the gym to use some weights, stimulated our muscles and now what? Well as soon as you leave the gym you are now in “recovery” mode. This is where the real magic happens for building muscle (or is supposed to).

What you do for the rest of the day, night and into tomorrow…will determine if you are really going to build muscle. Simple enough right?

So why do so many people go back to the gym, workout the same muscles, go do some other intense cardio workout all in the name of being “fit”? More is not better in this case and is probably the reason that so many fail to see any real results year after year.

My advice to any average client that comes to me wanting more muscle is usually these simple recommendations (because I know what 95%+ of people’s problem is)

• Eat enough foods (without going extreme to make you fat in the process)
• Lift only 3x a week (45min max)
  
• Buy an XBox, Relax, Sleep and Walk as your fastest Speed
  

Anything else is NOT allowed. Unless you are some professional athlete who needs to train or go to practice, stop doing the same things over and over again when they were not getting any results in the first place! Your idea of being “fit” is probably making you worse off.

Continuing down that same road is just what we call “insanity”…doing the same things and expecting different results.

Post Workout “Intense Cardio” May Be Killing Your Gains

The biggest mistake I see with anyone is the inability to “stop” doing more and more fitness. Cardio/jogging junkies, gym addicts and the likes. This is also the case with the cardio after a workout.

We have all seen the studies about intervals and how they increase fat burning (or really how they increase the “fat releasing” hormones such as GH). But slapping on a 30min interval session after 30-40 minutes of intense lifting is not going to work out.

That additional cardio is not going to give you a bigger GH boost (more than what you already got from in the initial workout if intense enough) and will just suppress Testosterone levels from the workout (who needs those to build muscle right? Ummm…You do!).

If you workout the “right” way in the first place…you will get enough GH and Test from the workout. With an elevated GH you now have your “fat releasing” hormones telling the fat cells to empty out. So you don’t need more sprints…you just need a slow and steady pace to burn a bit of extra fat (without compromising your Test or muscle building).

Keep Cortisol In Check

Cortisol…we all know this hormone. Many call it a “stress” hormone but it is really a blood sugar hormone at heart. It readies your body for “fight or flight” by accessing more glucose from your liver and other sources…like breaking down muscle for amino acids.

Which has more muscle mass and looks more ripped...a sprinter or distance runner?

This is not something we want elevated after a workout in which we have already broken down muscle and want to go into “repair mode”. So doing some intense cardio that the body will see as a stress and need for more blood sugar, is not a smart idea.

Compiling workouts and intense cardio back to back will only elevate your cortisol levels and lead to no real muscle gains in the long run.

Most that have a high cortisol lifestyle also tend to lose muscle, gain fat (skinny fat look), look more bloated (lack of definition) and have more fat in the stubborn areas such as the stomach and hips. I see this problem with many cardio/jogger addicts.

Compare that to sprinters who workout by doing intense sprints (short…like 60-100meters) with plenty of rest in between and lots of walking around (or other short sprint athletes like pole vaulters as seen up top). They don’t jog. They do short explosions to boost the right hormones and then don’t compromise them with additional stress. This is why when you look at most they are ripped and have more muscle than say your average distance runner.

Blow Out Your Adrenals And You Are Done!

Most people don’t realize the importance of the adrenal glands until they are fatigued and things start going wrong. The adrenals are where you produce cortisol. While cortisol is a natural hormone (as you need it to get your butt awake in the morning), it can also be abused. When cortisol is released too much and too often (excess stress such as intense exercise, mental stress, caffeine), you are going to start wearing out your adrenals.

Adrenals are also responsible for producing DHEA, a precursor to testosterone (and estrogen). So while you are running around at full tilt all the time, you are killing the organ that will help you build muscle.

Signs Of Adrenal Fatigue

Here are some warning signs that you may be on the road to bigger issues. Adrenal fatigue is just the first bad step…it can be turned around, or you can keep going down that road to full adrenal exhaustion…your choice.

• excessive fatigue and exhaustion
• non-refreshing sleep (you get sufficient hours of sleep, but wake fatigued)
• overwhelmed by or unable to cope with stressors
• feeling rundown or overwhelmed
• craving salty and sweet foods
• you feel most energetic in the evening
• a feeling of not being restored after a full night’s sleep or having sleep disturbances
• low stamina, slow to recover from exercise
• slow to recover from injury, illness or stress
• difficulty concentrating, brain fog
• poor digestion
• low immune function
• food or environmental allergies
• premenstrual syndrome or difficulties that develop during menopause
• consistent low blood pressure
• extreme sensitivity to cold

If any of this sounds familiar above…then it may be time to rethink your lifestyle approach to trying to be “fit”.

Slow And Steady Wins The Race…

Going “balls to the wall” will leave you burned out, overtrained, injured and probably gaining more fat if you give up altogether.

If you want success in the long run whether it be with gaining muscle or losing weight (or both at the same time) you need to take it slow and steady. This means smart workouts, plenty of recovery, proper eating, plenty of rest and a lifestyle activity level that won’t overstress your body.

This biggest mistake people make nowadays is doing too much. More is not going to be better, especially if you are doing it with too much intensity and too often. Your body just doesn’t work that way and your hormones won’t respond optimally.

So while you can still go for an occasional run or bike ride, go play some sports…in general, along with lifting/resistance training, the smartest thing you can do…is alot of walking. Not only will this keep your stress hormones down from exercise, but also from a mental level as well.

Nothing calms the soul like a slow walk outside in nature (leave the Ipod at home, unless you want to listen to some relaxing music). Walking will help the body heal, recover from exercise, burn extra fat (with elevated GH levels from working out), keep inflammation under control and lead to a long and healthy life.

Related Muscle Building Articles

• The Single Best Muscle Building Exercise
• Muscle Building 101 – Master the Basics
• EDT – The Simplest Muscle Building Routine

What if there can be only one?

What if you could only pick one exercise, one to build the most muscle mass….one to stimulate the most hormonal responses….one to just master and progress with as the gains keep coming. So what would it be? The squat? Bench press? Tricep kickbacks? (I kid….I kid)

So let’s first define what it does take to increase muscle. How about exercises that do the following:

• Use the major prime movers (compound lifts for the big muscles)
• Stimulating those muscles with enough resistance (keeping reps lower and weights higher)
• Increasing the time under tension of work (greater ROM/slower reps)
• Maximum signaling of muscle building hormones (Testosterone, GH, IGF-1) and limiting the muscle breakdown ones (Cortisol)
• Progression over time with workout (add weight/reps/volume)
• Rest, nutrients and recovery (especially sleep)

So taking all those into account, we are looking for an exercise that uses the most (and biggest muscle), able to lift heavy, bigger ROM (more time under tension) and generates a positive muscle building hormonal response….sounds like that would be a winner!

The best exercise is….

I am going to send this one over the the strength and conditioning expert Charles Poloquin as he talked about his #1 exercise in an interview a couple years back

The snatch-grip deadlift, specifically a snatch deadlift on a four inch platform. The idea here is to get a large range of motion by standing on the platform and using the wide grip.

If you told me you were going to jail and only had a barbell and didn’t want to get raped in the showers and could only do one exercise to put mass and strength on, then I’d tell you to do the snatch deadlift on a platform.

This exercise alone makes people gain weight like crazy. Any time I have someone who needs to gain weight fast and doesn’t have a whole lot of time, I have them do snatch deadlifts. And with the snatch grip deadlift, straps are okay because you’ll be doing reps above three, but don’t use them until you get to your working weight.

If you think about it, this is the opposite of the sumo deadlift, which shortens the range of motion. Likewise, some powerlifters will lift in ballet shoes to shorten the ROM. What we want to do here is lengthen it. The snatch grip and platform will take care of that.

interview from tnation.com

How to perform: In the starting position, feet are shoulder width apart. Grip is wider than usual like done with a snatch lift, except that you can use standard or over-under hook style (above). Knees, chest and shoulders over bar and retracted shoulder blades. Lower back is always kept arched. Eyes forward (not down). Now with the upper body tight, start the lift with your legs/back and pull upward. You can go as fast as you like on the way up (explode depending on weight) and then use a slow and controlled movement on the way down to increase the time under tension. Repeat with 3-5 sets of 4-8 reps for optimal size gains (those numbers and sets can also be changed up of course depending on the weight used).

Make it harder: do while standing (just your feet, not the weights) on a 2-4″ elevated platform (talk about an evil exercise that will humble you).

Weights: Start light and progress up till you know your “working” weight for your sets. Charles mentions about using straps, and I suggest you avoid using it until you find your grip failing and want to continue with more sets (as a weak grip will not help to maximally stimulate all your other muscles)

Other Resources: For more info on how to perform deadlift properly check out these resources with a tutorial over at strong lifts on how to perform the deadlift and these videos by Mark Rippetoe (author of Starting Strength)

More bang for your effort

The great thing about the snatch grip deadlift is how it incorporates so many muscles/movements all in one exercise. Look at the benefits:

• 

  Use a small platform and feel all those muscles work even harder!

  Just as deep if not deeper than a squat (especially for those that don’t even get deep enough or have weaker hamstrings)

• Excellent stimulator of posterior chain (power and speed)

• Uses all the back muscles (erectors, lower, lats, traps)

• Increases grip strength

• Provides more ROM and time under tension (growth) than a standard squat or deadlift (especially if you get on a small platform as seen to the right)

• Can also do explosive versions (a full snatch movement – weight lifted overhead)

• Help attack those weaknesses and sticking points (which are usually in the low starting position) for other lifts, while also preventing muscle imbalances (especially the quad:ham ratio that could injure many)

All in all this exercise brings most everything to the table (except maybe more chest/shoulder/pressing strength). While most people may stick to a squat (or their limited movement version) or a less than optimal deadlift form….getting nice and low with the snatch grip DL will ensure full ROM, working/blasting through sticking points (that will carry to other movements) and the most “bang for your buck” in a full body movement.

Reminder that hormones DO matter

Here’s an additional thing to remember in your muscle building quest, about how important your hormones are. If you think it’s just about isolating muscles and drinking lots of protein shakes, you have been sadly mislead by mainstream media (and all the supplement companies). Hormones play a vital role in the building (and maintaining) of muscle.

Here’s a great example in a study in which groups of men ages 19-40 years old were given either 600mg testosterone or a placebo each week, and then those groups were also divided up into ones that did no exercise and those that trained 3x a week.  The results may surprise you:

The men treated with testosterone but no exercise had an increase of 3.2 kg in fat-free mass, and those in the placebo-plus-exercise group had an increase of 1.9 kg.

from: The Effects of Supraphysiologic Doses of Testosterone on Muscle Size and Strength in Normal Men; Shalender Bhasin, M.D., Thomas W. Storer, Ph.D.

The group that was sedentary and had testosterone had almost DOUBLE the lean mass gain than the placebo group that worked out! So still think it’s all about working out or are hormones a bit more important now?

Take home point….the snatch grip DL is going to be a great natural stimulator of testosterone, unlike those people on the machines isolating muscles all the time.

Burn Fat as Well!

If your goal is more weight loss than bulk, this exercise is also a great addition to ramp up those fat burning hormones. Yes women….don’t worry about bulking up and add this exercise into your workouts as well. Get the reps a little higher (8-10), keep the volume high (add a superset with another exercise), go explosive, slow and controlled on the way down, and enjoy that full body lactic burn that is increasing your GH output with every lift! (and we all know GH is a vital hormone in signaling the release of fat from storage).

Now go try it…and enjoy the pain, I mean results!

So there you have it….the one exercise I (and a little known guy named Charles Poloquin) recommend you add in to your workout programming. Whether you do it more often with varied reps and speed, or work it into an EDT based programming style…it’s all your choice. Of course there are other exercises you can add in after to hit the areas not covered or add in secondary exercises for muscles already used….but this is a true muscle builder.

When it comes to building muscle….know that there is so much more at play as well (hormones), so make sure your lifestyle (nutrition, stress, sleep) supports muscle building and doesn’t take away from your efforts. (If you want more details into all the hormones at play again, I suggest re-reading the muscle building 101 article here.)

There was a very interesting article posted over on the Performance Menu forums a few days ago: Muscles, Genes, and Athletic Performance. I’m also going to use these two articles in this post: Skeletal Muscle Fiber Type Part I and Part II.

The crux of the article is about genetic engineering and “genetic doping” at the elite athletic level. But there’s some interesting stuff in there for the rest of us, from a performance perspective. Note that much of the article and my discussion invokes sprinting, but sprinters aren’t the only ones that can make use of this information. Sprinting just happens to be the best example of raw speed.

Anatomy Of A Muscle

The image above does a good job of showing the overall structure of a muscle. Basically, a muscle is a bundle of cells called fibers, or more technically myocytes. A fiber is a bundle of myofibrils that run the full length of the cell. Each myofibril is composed of contractile units called sarcomeres, which are in turn composed of filaments known as actin and myosin that slide together to produce contraction. Here is a visual of the actin/myosin interaction snagged from Page 4 of the PDF above.

A component of the myosin molecule is known as the “heavy chain” and determines the overall functional characteristics of the muscle fiber. So in order of smallest to largest: actin & myosin -> sarcomere -> myofibril -> myocyte (fiber) -> “the muscle”.

Muscle Fiber Types

Now, let’s have a brief overview of the types of muscle fibers that are found in all mammals. At a base level, there are two fiber types: slow-twitch (Type I) and fast-twitch (Type II). Fast-twitch is further divided into Types IIa, IIx, and IIb, in increasing order of speed of contraction. Humans possess Type IIa and Type IIx, whereas the fastest muscle type, Type IIb is found in animals like small rodents.

Here is a table from Brian Mackenzie that describes the base attributes of the 3 fiber types. I copied this exactly, but it’s likely the final column should be Type IIx rather than Type IIb since as far as I’ve found, Type IIb is not found in humans.

Muscle Fiber Attributes

As you can see, as you go up the scale, you increase speed of force production, but you decrease the ability of the muscle to sustain maximal force production. A simple example is sprinting versus jogging. If Usain Bolt tried to run a mile at the speed he runs his 100-200m sprints, he’d make it…approximately 200m before slowing to a crawl. The muscle fibers that produce 100m speed don’t have the endurance to produce that speed over 1600m, which is why the record for the 1 mile run is around 3:45, rather than the 2:35 it would be if Bolt could sustain his 100m world record pace for another 1500m.

The Type IIa muscle fiber is essentially a hybrid of the Type I and Type IIx fibers. It possesses some characteristics of the Type I fiber, namely a higher oxidative capacity than Type IIx fibers, along with some characteristics of the Type IIx fiber, such as being about five times faster to fully contract than a slow-twitch fiber (for comparison, the Type IIx fiber contracts about 10x faster than Type I).

Strength Characteristics Of The Muscle Types

So we know that Type II fibers are faster than Type I and that Type IIx is faster than Type IIa. But what about in terms of strength?

Gram for gram, the two types are not different in the amount of force they produce, only their rate of force production. So, having a lot of fast twitch fibers only makes a positive difference when the time available for force production is very limited (milliseconds), like the 100ms or so the foot is in contact with the ground during a sprint or long jump. It makes no difference to the powerlifter who may use 3-4 seconds to execute a slow, smooth lift.

So fiber type doesn’t determine raw strength potential. It can only determine power potential, i.e., force over time. An example is picking 250lbs off the floor. Picking up 250lbs is picking up 250lbs whether it takes you 1 second or 1 minute. But doing it in 1 second is significantly more explosive and powerful than doing it in 1 minute.

Muscle Type Conversion And The “Overshoot” Principle

Okay, so basically we all have muscles made up of the three main types of muscle fibers (counting IIa and IIx as different fiber types) and the fibers in turn determine how good we are at specific sports. A person with lots of slow-twitch fibers will never make a good sprinter. Someone born with lots of fast-twitch muscle will probably gravitate to sprinting rather than distance running. Let’s get down to what we really care about…is it possible to “configure” your muscles to excel in your chosen sport?

The average active person has about 50% slow-twitch and 50% fast-twitch fibers throughout their body, with about 5% being the super fast Type IIx. An elite sprinter on the other hand has around 20% slow-twitch, 45% Type IIa, and 35% Type IIx. For a world-class marathoner, you’re looking more like 80:20 slow-twitch to fast-twitch, with virtually no Type IIx.

Converting One To The Other

Is it possible to change your muscle fiber composition? Technically, yes, a muscle fiber can change its type. This happens commonly between Type IIa and Type IIx (in both directions) with training. But can Type I fibers become Type II fibers or vice versa? Evidence in this area is weak, but it does appear that Type I fibers can convert to Type IIa fibers with the traditional tools used by sprinters to increase speed. If Type IIa fibers can convert to Type I, the conversion is very slow and there’s no evidence to prove it happens as there are no before-and-after biopsies done on marathoners.

Bulking Up

Unfortunately, you cannot grow new muscle fibers. If a muscle has ten fibers today, it’ll have ten fibers tomorrow and ten the day after that (it could actually have 9 or 8 as people lose muscle fibers through aging, but it’ll never have 11 or 12). But you can grow new myofibrils within the fibers, so all isn’t lost. Basically, you’re increasing the size of the fibers, not increasing the number of fibers.

So if you workout in a way that grows your Type IIa and IIx fibers, you can change the overall ratio of Type I-to-Type II muscle mass, though the ratio of actual fibers remains the same. The slow-twitch fibers don’t tend to bulk and heavy strength training converts Type IIx fibers to Type IIa (relax, we’ll come back to this). Effectively, by strength training, you are pushing your muscles towards that Type IIa fiber that has some component of power and some component of endurance.

Overshooting

Here’s a very interesting phenomenon discussed in the paper: overshoot.

As expected, the relative amount of the fast myosin IIx isoform in their vastus lateralis muscle was reduced from an average of 9 percent to about 2 percent in the resistance-training period. We then expected that the relative amount of the IIx isoform would simply return to the pretraining level of 9 percent during the period of inactivity. Much to our surprise, the relative amount of myosin IIx reached an average value of 18 percent three months into the detraining.

Physiologically, there’s no real explanation for why this happens. The question is, do we care why? Understanding that a tapering period before a major competition will bring about a significant increase in our fastest muscle fibers is enough. Sprinters use this to their advantage all the time before their most important meets…it’s called “peaking”.

Then again, the deloading period in the study was 3 months, which is unreasonable for an athlete. How much of “peaking” is a result of overshoot vs. simple recovery? Unfortunately there’s no way to know just yet. Again though, the phenomenon is interesting from a science-geek perspective, but knowing that tapering works is enough until we’re able to better take advantage of the science behind it.

Training For Sport

So which is better? That’s an impossible question to answer. For the average person, the standard mix of about 50% slow twitch and 50% fast twitch is just fine. But for the athlete interested in improving performance in their chosen sport, it is a very important question. Other than running/rowing/cycling for long periods of time, I can’t think of any sport that wouldn’t benefit from the raw power of the fastest-twitch muscles.

Obviously, the short sprints (200m and below) in track and field rely heavily on the fastest fibers we have, but every field event is also reliant on a very quick, explosive movement to move either an external object (shot put, discus, javelin) or to move the body itself (pole vault, high/long/triple jump). Sports like basketball, baseball, football, and soccer are characterized by bursts of speed or jumping intermixed with periods of light to no effort.

Given that, unless you’re a distance athlete, you probably have enough slow-twitch muscle fibers and would benefit from devoting some time to increasing the size of your fast-twitch fibers. But frankly, who really cares about muscle fiber composition? The important thing is performance.

Training For Power

But since we’re here, let’s look at the kinds of activities that increase power, focusing prominently on growing our fast-twitch muscles, the ones that increase our speed and ability to jump. Basically the goal is to increase the size of our engine (get stronger) while also keeping or increasing the firing rate of that engine.

• Heavy Strength Training – High weight (85% of 1-rep max or more), low reps in exercises like the deadlift and back squat for serious posterior chain targeting, as well as bench press and overhead press (don’t neglect the upper body here). The goal is to try to move the weight as quickly as possible (with good form, of course), whether the weight actually moves quickly or not. This focuses on increasing the overall size of the Type IIa muscles (bigger engines). Some Type IIx will convert to Type IIa as will some Type I.
• Plyometrics – Depth jumps, bounding, explosive skips…all work to give a very quick stretch-reflex that is difficult to mimic in any other way. It teaches the muscles to fire hard and fast and I can’t think of any other movement that is as quick as things like depth jumps and bounds. Ease into plyometrics slowly as they are intense and very hard on muscles and connective tissues. Here are a few precautions and some ideas for plyometric workouts.
• Sprinting – If you want to jump higher, you’d incorporate plenty of jumping in your training protocol. So if you want to be able to outsprint the next guy, whether you’re a wide receiver that needs to blow past a cornerback or a 1-mile runner wanting a stronger kick at the end of the final lap, sprinting more will speed you up. Uphill & downhill sprints are great, but the incline should not increase or decrease your speed by more than 10%.
• Olympic Lifts – While not as quick as the short time your foot is planted when running full speed, the Olympic lifts are great for teaching you to activate explosively. Hang power cleans are the easiest to perform without instruction, but a few sessions with an Olympic lifting coach might be good.

What other ways have you used to successfully increase your speed?

The Best of IF Life and Modern Forager from 2008

As most of you know (or newer readers may not), Mike and I recently merged our blogs (namely the IF Life and Modern Forager) into the Fitness Spotlight in early 2009. Each of our personal sites had grown to around 100k+ views per month. It was at that point we figured it would be beneficial for all if we teamed up, took our two sites with similar ideas and brought them together into larger one to try reach even more people with our messages (to help those drowning in all the mainstream misinformation being peddled out there….you know the kind that is full with fluff, not getting people results and keeping most sick). With that we now have some new readers, readers from the different blogs and a site with alot more information. Some of you may haven’t seen what I consider to be my best posts. Some of you may haven’t seen Mike’s best stuff either. And some of you are totally new and haven’t seen anything from either of us.

With the 100s of posts now on one site, we figured we would take time out to make your life easier and list our best posts from the last year. You can experience (or re-experience) some great content and maybe remember the important things that matter. So here they are in roughly alphabetical order:

Straight Up No-BS Fitness

• Developing Hip Function: A Hallmark Of Athleticism
• Fat Loss 101 – Master The Basics
• Five Exercises For Strong Abs And Lower Back
• Muscle Building 101 – Master The Basics
• Picking the Right Tool for the Job, Part 2: Developing Base Fitness
• Things Your Personal Trainer Won’t Tell You
• The Biggest Workout Mistakes People Make
• Trainer Tells All, What I have Learned About Health and Fitness
• What Can The Tarahumara Indians Tell Us About The Importance Of Running Long Distances?

Your Health Matters

• Can One Be Both Vegetarian And Primal?
• Eating More Meals Does Not Speed Up Your Metabolism (Part 1 of 2)
• Eight Ways To Lower Your Testosterone Levels
• How Vitamins A, D, E, and K Interact – Part 1: The Players (3-part series)
• Intermittent Fasting 101
• Intermittent Fasting Roundtable, the Experts Talk
• Is Your Gut Leaking? What To Do About It
• Nutrition 101: The One Rule To Remember
• Part 1: What Happens To Your Body When You Fast? – Energy Production (6-part series)
• Why Your Doctor is Wrong About Meat
• What Sweetener Should You Choose? Sugar? Honey? Agave Nectar?

The Simple and Happy Lifestyle

• How to Win the Mental Battle in Life
• How to Be Happy Right Now
• Important Lessons for Living Simple
• Why Worry About Little Things If The Big Things Aren’t In Place?

Unfortunately, our move to a new domain means we lost the “love” we had from StumbleUpon on all these old posts that was helping to get our information out to people that had never heard of us. So if you see something that you think is worthy once again, please help us re-spread the word and click the big green “Stumble It” button at the end of that particular article. We are going to keep telling it like it is in 2009….except now there are 2 of us, and with your help…we can all make an even bigger positive impact out there (as we know how bad the mainstream media info can be).

Look out world….as we don’t care what “Brangellina” is doing or wearing, we eat red meat, love butter, lift heavy stuff, don’t run marathons, question everything out there, keep things simple and want to free you from all the trappings in your life that are useless and/or bringing you down…..so at times the truth may hurt, but will set you free.

Less is More

I’ve been working in gyms for so long that I can’t wait to get out of there some days. But what about my workout? Ahhh I’ll just do it tomorrow…and then that turns into the next day…or the next…or the next. When I’m excited about my workouts I stick with them…when I dread them, then good luck getting me to the gym. Long ago I got bored will all the typical pyramidal sets of 8-12 reps, chest day or all those other things you find in any magazine. Then I came across a system that looked and sounded so simple, that it couldn’t get old. To this day I still call it my simplest workout plan for those times I just want to go and push stuff around without thinking too much (which seems to be my regular workout nowadays).

The funny part is…that it can also get you great results for building muscle and burning fat! (as we all know the best way to burn fat is build muscle and get those fat releasing hormones like GH going….along with eating right of course). So now I present the easiest workout idea that I have enjoyed using over the years of trying almost every method out there.

Staley’s Escalated Density Training (EDT)

I first came across this concept long ago reading an article on escalated density training by Charles Staley about his style of training and how he has had remarkable success with many big name clients in putting on muscle. Charles is very well known in the fitness community, and you will actually see more things that closely resemble an EDT style of training out nowadays. Why? Because it works and it is simple. What is EDT? Charles gives some good insight in this interview:

Now, in my opinion, if you’re interested in growing muscle, that statement contains everything you’ll ever need to know. Muscle is in fact a biological system, and it grows (or atrophies) in direct proportion to the amount of work it is forced to do.

Every training principle you’ve ever heard of, plus most of the ones you’ve never heard of, are designed to allow you to do more and more work over the weeks and months. And Q2 is no exception. In fact, let me be the first to say that there is absolutely NOTHING new here. The only thing that’s new is the way I’m “framing” or presenting the information. In a sense, the EDT system is just a foolproof way to ensure that you perform more and more work in each workout that you do.

EDT involves doing a workout, measuring how much work was done, and then consistently and gradually increasing that amount of work. When you do, muscle will grow, metabolism will increase, and you’ll have a leaner, more muscular body. Now, as it turns out, there’s a paradox at work here. Because good fatigue management strategies allow you to do a lot more work

full article at t-nation.com

The EDT details

That’s the gist of pretty much how every program will work, progression and progress. Ok, let’s look at the details that Charles uses:

• There are usually two “workout” periods he likes to call “A” and “B” (or also PR Zones) per workout
• The time is usually about 15-20min per workout period (PR zone). Resting 5 min or more between workout A and B.
• In each workout period you get 2 exercises, usually of opposing muscles (push/pull or upper/lower)
• You put on a load that is about 10-12 RM (rep max) of an exercise and use it for all reps/sets.
• Then the goal is to get as many reps as you can in the time period alternating between the 2 exercises (so for workout period A, you do exercise A1 for x reps, then go to exercise for A2 for x reps, taking a break between sets and going back and forth till time is up). Usually you don’t go over 5-6 reps per set in the beginning and never take a set to failure (fatigue management).
• Each workout you should notice a progression of reps until you get an increase (of usually 20% more) and then add weight for the next workout.

be ready to feel some pain. Don’t start this program if you need to attend some social event where shuffling and moaning in pain aren’t acceptable.

So you can see, it can get pretty intense (based on the loads and exercises performed). Now of course that is just one format….the great thing is about the concept and how you can modify it to make it your own (without needing to limp up the stairs for a week).

I’m not the only one who likes it

Many other well respected fitness trainers also have used the concepts of the EDT system and applied it in their own way. One big name in the fitness industry, Alywn Cosgrove, has also used EDT style training.

I was recently talking to my colleague Alwyn Cosgrove, owner of Results Fitness Training in Newhall, California has been using EDT-inspired training programs to facilitate rapid losses in bodyfat with his clients for several months now. In fact, Alwyn claims an average loss of 2% bodyfat per month with no dietary changes at all.

Cosgrove: Note that you can also reduce the rest periods between PR zones thereby further increasing the density. I also prefer to have a bigger rep “buffer.” In regular EDT I allow 20% more reps before I increase the loads. In Fat loss EDT I don’t increase the loads until you perform 30% more reps. I think the higher volume helps with fat loss (this assumes a good load selection initially). Another rule I use is that the eccentric phase should be controlled, the concentric should be accelerative.

full article here

Mike Mahler a very respected strength/kettlebell coach has been using modified EDT with his clients too. He likes to use heavier weights and lower reps with the focus on sets and not time.

There is no doubt that Coach Staley’s EDT program works for getting much bigger. In addition to the incredible pumps, increases in strength occurred as well. However, I knew that the strength increases could be enhanced by decreasing the rep range to two-four per set and by shifting the focus to total sets. In other words, instead of focusing on total reps in which you take super short breaks and gut out as many reps as possible.

I found that it is better to keep the breaks at one minute between each exercise, and to focus on getting two-four reps per set. Moreover, I eradicated the PR Zone so that trainees do not feel like they are fighting the clock. The initial goal is to do ten sets of two on two antagonistic exercises in a single workout. For example ten sets of two on bench presses and bent over rows. Take one-minute breaks in between each exercise.

full article at bodybuilding.com

The Exercises

This is key for most people, it’s all about the most “bang for your buck” exercises. We are not talking about the best isolation movements like tricep kickbacks or calf raises, we are talking about using as many muscles as you can under the heaviest of loads. This means less time in the gym and more time getting real results. Also using compounded movements is a great booster for the hormones you want for building muscle (like Testosterone) and fat burning/releasing (Growth Hormone). (If you need a brush up on the hormones for fat loss or muscle building….be sure to re-read the fat loss 101 post and muscle building 101 post) The list does not have to be limited to, but can include the following:

• Squats and Deadlifts
• Overhead Barbell Press
• Olympic lifts like Clean or Snatch
• Bench Press or Weighted Dips
• Bent-Over Rows or Weighted Pullups
• Bodyweight movements like lunges, pushups or more.

The goal is to pick 2 exercises of opposing body parts and then just go at it for either a set number of sets or time with the same weight. Then when you see increases in performance, increase the weight and go again. This type of simple progression with the right exercises will be sure to get your muscles stronger!

Make Your Own Rules

Now you don’t have to do it just one way, but you can take the basic concept of EDT and make it your own. You can make endless workouts such as:

• Doing 3 different exercises (for more variety or focus on strength and endurance)
• Using bodyweight exercises only
• Using higher reps and shorter rests for more fat burning/conditioning purposes
• Using lower reps and longer rests for more strength focused gains
• Counting Sets and not reps (like 5×5 or 10×2…you up the weight when you can complete the desired set/rep scheme)
• Only doing one 20min workout (or PR zone) for days you are crunched on time
• Alternate high and low rep workouts

Here’s just a couple of examples of doing an EDT style session with either time or sets your goal.

Sample Workout #1 – Strength and Hypertrophy:

Do workouts for 20min each (rest between A and B)
- Workout A – Bench Press and Pullups for sets of 4-5 reps max (with 10Rm weight)
- Workout B – Bent Rows (barbell) and Squats for sets of 6-7 rep max (with 12-15 Rm weight)
next workout switch A & B order and rep max

Sample Workout #2 – Strength Based:

Do 5 sets of 5 reps
- Exercise #1: Deadlift
- Exercise #2: Weighted Dips
- Exercise #3: Overhead Press
increase weights for exercise when you can complete all 5 sets of 5 reps.

Sample Workout #3 – Fat Burner:

Do workouts for 15 min each, with resistance based modifications
- Workout A – Pushups (5 reps), Jump Squats (10 reps)
- Workout B – Body Rows (angled pullups-5 reps), DB snatch (10 reps alternating hands each full set)

Those are just a few samples off the top of my head. Do something EDT based 2-3x a week (depending on intensity and volume) and you will see good results while enjoying how simple working out can really be! No more tricep kickbacks needed!

photo used from abdallah

In fact, I will show you the little known secret of how you can build a huge chest and arms by working your LEGS!

Does this sound strange?

Many bodybuilders and weight lifters might agree that this sounds strange. But that is why they still have scrawny arms and a small chest.

Your Biggest Mistake

The biggest mistake lifters make trying to build a bigger chest and guns…

You see, the problem is that most weight lifters spend too much time doing isolation exercises for their arms and chest in a futile attempt to build a massive upper body…

Why is this bad?

This is bad because a primary factor of muscle growth is making sure you jack up your levels of testosterone, growth hormone, and other “body chemicals”… this is what signals your body to “grow more muscle!”

The absolute best way to raise the levels of these chemicals in your body is by intense exercise that involves your WHOLE body (or as much of it as possible)… and not just certain parts (like you would do with pure isolation exercises for your arms or chest).

So when weight lifters spend too much time doing lots of different workouts for their arms (curls, etc)… and lots of different exercises for their chest (bench, flies, etc)… they’re only working out small muscle groups and not putting their whole body under enough stress to signal muscle growth. (are you making this same mistake?)

So What’s The Answer?

The answer is to work out ALL of your body as much as possible. Especially the biggest muscles of your body. Like your legs and back and THEN your chest, arms, etc.

The best way to accomplish this is to start with multi-joint (compound) exercises and lifts like the Squat and dead-lift before you go on to isolation exercises like specific arm exercises (curls, pushdowns, etc) and chest exercises (bench press, dumbbell flies, etc).

So, if you’re ready to stop fooling around on exercises that are just wasting your time… and you want to build a shirt-popping chest and monstrous arms (like “Ahnold”) then you need to work out your whole body — and don’t forget the LEGS… follow the guidelines in this article and you’re sure to start building muscle fast almost overnight!