Dark Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure

For people with hypertension, eating dark chocolate can significantly reduce blood pressure. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Medicine combined the results of 15 studies into the effects of flavanols, the compounds in chocolate which cause dilation of blood vessels, on blood pressure.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide, Australia, to conduct the analysis. She said, “Flavanols have been shown to increase the formation of endothelial nitric oxide, which promotes vasodilation and consequently may lower blood pressure. There have, however, been conflicting results as to the real-life effects of eating chocolate. We’ve found that consumption can significantly, albeit modestly, reduce blood pressure for people with high blood pressure but not for people with normal blood pressure.”

The pressure reduction seen in the combined results for people with hypertension, 5mm Hg systolic, may be clinically relevant — it is comparable to the known effects of 30 daily minutes of physical activity (4-9mm Hg) and could theoretically reduce the risk of a cardiovascular event by about 20% over five years.

The researchers are cautious, however, “The practicability of chocolate or cocoa drinks as long-term treatment is questionable,” said Dr Ried.

Thin Skin to Reveal Your Muscular Definition

Water weight. Water retention. Subcutaneous fluid. Thick skin. However you wish to describe it, the thin layer of fluid which obscures hard-won muscle development on an otherwise well-defined physique can spoil a bodybuilder’s chances of competitive success. Dieting down only to arrive onstage looking ‘smooth’ is one barrier to victory all bodybuilders must avoid.

Our bodies have a natural tendency to store water directly beneath our skin for hydration purposes, just as carbohydrates and fats are sequestered away for future energy demands. Stored with this subcutaneous water are ions (or electrolytes), charged particles which play a vital role in strengthening our immune system, and aiding water and nutrient storage. Though due to a host of factors (including menstruation, certain medications, lymphatic congestion, and, in extreme cases, kidney failure), water retention can be excessive and pose health concerns, a certain amount of subcutaneous fluid is to be maintained at constant levels (where it nourishes cells before being returned to surrounding capillaries).

Enduring months of monastic eating and training only to be hampered by a substance that is essential to life is one irony that is not lost on the scores of bodybuilders who falter due to the ubiquity of water retention. This is why physique athletes will spend the final days before a big show (or photo shoot) endeavoring to flush this water from beneath their skin, in particular from the lower abdominal region, where it is more likely to accumulate.

Banish water from beneath your skin and arrive onstage at your very best. In the following article I will take you through the water-shedding steps I use to get my bodybuilding athletes into supreme contest shape.

Top six steps for addressing water retention

First get lean
Before seeking to specifically eliminate subcutaneous water you must be sure that it is water you are dealing with, and not actual body fat. Though both are definition obscuring, one is more easily remedied than the other (no prizes for guessing which). To determine in a very unscientific manner whether you are holding water or fat, pinch a small amount of the excess away from your body and let it return to its original position: if it ripples like water then it is likely to be, you guessed it, water, not fat.

So get to work carving the excess adipose from your physique, to where you are holding no more than 6% body fat; only then will you have a true indication of how much final-stage water depletion is necessary. This is the most important step as not only can you not deplete what you cannot properly see, but any subcutaneous water elimination is simply a waste of time if you arrive onstage with rolls of fat hanging off your glutes.

Hydrate
Similar to the effect calorie restriction can have on dampening our metabolic response, and thus curtailing the fat burning process, poor hydration can cause us to hold excessive amounts of water under our skin. People often think they must withhold water consumption in order to prevent it from being stored subcutaneously. This is a myth that must be destroyed. In fact, the opposite is true: the body holds water, a precious resource, as a survival response to its limited supply; limit its intake and the body will release anti diuretic hormones which will enable it to hang for dear life to all the fluid it can store.

By drinking plenty of fresh, clean water on a daily basis (a gallon, or more, most days), our body gets to work rapidly releasing water (both that which is consumed and that which is stored) through urine and sweat.

Since muscle tissue consists of over 70% water, water restriction may cause our muscles to look flat and may even lead to severe cramping. Instead of limiting water intake pre-contest, manipulate carbohydrates and use the tips below to flush water from beneath the skin, not from the muscles where it promotes fullness and a shredded appearance.

Limit sodium consumption
Commonly found in rock salt, the chemical element sodium plays an important role in maintaining the fluid balance of our cells; for the proper functioning of our cells we need between 2000 and 2500mg of sodium per day, which it not hard to achieve given it is included naturally in many of the foods we consume and added in abundance to other less healthful nutrient options.

However, because any excess sodium is held in our skin cells where it attracts water, the more we consume beyond the above recommended allotment, the greater our chances are of experiencing excessive water retention. As your contest (or shoot) approaches, gradually eliminate added sodium (which can also be found in most condiments and sauces) from your diet.

Sodium manipulation can, however, be used to the more advanced-competitor’s advantage. For 10-2 days out from a contest, salt all meals. Doing this will help some sodium and water to be excreted from under the skin, though a thin layer of water will remain. To transfer all subcutaneous water to our muscle cells, to create greater fullness, all dietary sodium must be completely eliminated during the final two days (as well as regular salt, this includes egg whites, protein shakes, sauces and other condiments so check all labels to ensure no sodium passes your lips).

Supporting the sodium manipulation process is water loading/depletion where, from days 10-2, water intake is increased by 1-2 liters (if you consume two liters per day on average, drink 4-5 liters); halve this amount two days out and on the day of the contest, drink around 500mls, total. By loading, then depleting (but not entirely cutting), your water intake you can trick your body into sucking any remaining fluid from beneath your skin and into your muscles. Experiment with this process 2-3 weeks out from your show to see how this approach works for you.

Sweat it out
In conjunction with optimal water consumption we may also sweat to get tight and hard. Whether through intensive cardio, weight training, or time in the sauna, stored water, salt and ions are excreted whenever we sweat. Though we refer to it as water retention, a great deal of the puffiness associated with subcutaneous water storage is due to sodium ions trapped directly under the skin. Sweating forces these ions out first (which is why our sweat initially tastes salty) and accompanying them will be the excess water. Once our sweat begins to lose its salty taste we will know that the depletion of water retention is occurring. Be sure to consume plenty of water while sweating out the excess to stay well hydrated, and take a multi mineral supplement to replace any lost electrolytes excreted through sweat.

Fuel with fiber
As well as being excreted through sweat, water retention is also removed via the colon. The easier the ‘passage’, the more water we can eliminate. A clogged colon, however, may prevent the natural excretion of water. Thus, a diet comprised of sufficient fiber (supplementing with psyllium husk is an excellent way to drop excess water weight) may not only cleanse the intestinal tract to promote sound health and offset the occurrence of diseases such as stomach cancer, but may also help us to achieve shrink-wrapped skin come competition time.      

Try a natural diuretic
Whether synthetic or natural, diuretics increase urination to force more water from our system. For a healthy-functioning person, diuretics of any kind are largely unnecessary, though, as an adjunct to the methods listed above, one, or several, of the natural diuretics may accentuate final-stage water loss to ensure we achieve a shredded appearance.

While many good supplements have been used by serious competitors (which may include in them natural herbs such as dandelion root) simple foods like lettuce, spinach, asparagus, beets and pumpkin and good old coffee and tea may work just as well. Take note: diuretic use many cause dehydration so be sure to consume at least one gallon of water per day while using them and when employing any of the ideas outlined above.

The pre contest (or pre-photo shoot) intake or water should only be done in an attempt to saturate our muscle cells, to create a full and shredded appearance. Any excess must be eliminated. So to ensure conditioning is not a barrier to success for you, fully address any excess water retention before you next step onstage.

Water Weight: The Importance of Water for Muscle Growth

There are many things your body needs in order to put on lean muscle. The first important thing, of course, is a consistent weight training regimen. Then there’s following a proper nutrition plan and making sure your body is getting enough macronutrients (proteins, fats and carbohydrates), which are absolutely essential to putting on lean muscle. But for some reason, one of the most important things that a lot of people forget is probably the easiest one to remember…. Drink more water! We all know drinking water is important for our health in general, but what does it have to do with muscle growth?

I am sure we have all heard that saying, “That’s just water weight”, but what does it really mean? On average, the human body is made up of 60% water. That amount can vary depending on your age, sex and percentage of body fat. Muscle contains up to 75% water while fat only has about 10%. The reason muscle contains so much water is due to the presence of glycogen. Glycogen is a long branched chain of the simple sugar (glucose) that your body uses for energy.
The muscles store glycogen so that when they are called upon to work, the glycogen can be broken apart and used for fuel. Glucose, when bound together to form glycogen, uses a lot of water molecules that get bound up in the glycogen molecule. About 1-2% of skeletal muscle mass is glycogen. That may not sound like a lot, but when you take into consideration that the average adult male may have about 60 kilograms of muscle mass, that equates to up to 1.2 kilograms of glycogen.

When you exercise, you use this glycogen for fuel and when you eat, the glycogen is replenished. As you follow your training regimen and start to put on more muscle, your body will begin storing larger amounts of water and glycogen for future energy use. Often, when people first begin to exercise, they will notice an increase in body weight and become discouraged. But in reality, this is just water weight. If they stopped working out for a few days, the water would be lost.
Water and glycogen content in the muscle can change rather quickly while it takes considerable time for new muscle tissue to be laid down.
Not getting enough water? One easy way to remember to drink a little extra is by drinking a pre-workout sports drink prior to working out. Dehydration can have a major impact on your workout and result in fatigue and a loss in strength that you would normally have when properly hydrated.

Another way to get some extra water is by eating foods with high water content. Foods that are high in water content typically appear to look larger, require more chewing and break down slower, making you feel full faster. Foods that are high in water content may include fruits, vegetables, soups and broths, beans and oatmeal.

Bodybuilding Routine

When you decide to make a bodybuilding routine, you generally stick to it in the beginning. The results in the beginning are quite noticeable and so you will be more attracted towards the routine. But, after gaining some considerable muscle, the body building does not progress at a fast pace as it was before. That is because your body slows down after gaining some muscle and it only maintains the muscle size after that period. So, you may lose interest in the routine and may want to give up everything. But, that is not the right thing to do.

Initial stages of bodybuilding routine

When the body gains some muscle, then the metabolism slows down and sometimes it comes to a standstill. So, you may get frustrated and want to leave the entire exercise regime. But, on the other hand if you want to maintain your health and the beautiful body that you have got with the initial rigorous exercise routine, then you have to continue the bodybuilding routine. Otherwise, the hard work you have put all those months will be futile and even you may become sick.

But, what makes the body build itself in the initial stages of the bodybuilding routine? If you can think of the answer then you will not lose hope. May be before the routine, your body may not be that much fit and after the workout routine, it may have gained the fitness. Also, once your body adapts your routine, it gets used to the exercises and hence it may become less effective. So, the solution is you have to change your body building routine.

Change your workout regime

Whenever you introduce a new workout routine, your bodybuilding will progress, do you know why? This is because your body has not learned the new technique and hence will work effectively. So, the result will be an increase in the muscle size and strength with a toned body. But, you should never be in a hurry to change your routine.

If you start doing new exercises at a fast pace, then you may injure your muscles. So, you should not change the whole routine at a go. You should keep doing some exercises which you think produce the desired results and for the rest you can introduce new exercise regime.

First of all, introduce a new bodybuilding regime and continue doing it only when you feel that it is working quite well. You should check the results periodically and if you are satisfied with the workouts then you can keep them. Otherwise, stick to some new routine which will give you the desired result.

This way all your exercises can change and you can again adapt them after few months and it may work well now. You have to keep the initial exercises for at least six to seven weeks and then you can change it if you have not noticed any change in your body building pattern. Bodybuilding routines are different for different people. Those who design them should design it in such a way that it brings best results in the shortest time.

Body Composition and Optimal Health

More than 60 million Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease and more than 2,600 people die from cardiovascular disease each day. Hypertension is found in about 50% of individuals above 55 years. Metabolic syndrome (Syndrome X), characterized by elevated blood glucose insulin responses, is one of the most common conditions seen today and is estimated to be present in about 22% of men and 24% of women.

A central factor in all of these conditions is altered body composition. Adults with altered body compositions are at high risk for developing:

• Cardiovascular disease
• High blood pressure
• Dyslipidemias such as high blood cholesterol
• Metabolic syndrome
• Type 2 diabetes

What is Altered Body Composition?

Body composition is a measure of the amount of body mass (weight) that is present as fat, bone, and lean muscle. Altered body composition may occur from increased fat and/or loss of lean muscle, which result in an increase of fat-to-lean body mass. Although the most common form of altered body composition is excess fat, decreased skeletal mass by loss of bone, such as seen with osteoporosis, is also a form of altered body composition.

Body composition can be determined by:

Body Mass Index (BMI): BMI is calculated from weight and height or can be obtained from an easy-to-use chart. Individuals with a BMI of 25 to 29.9 are considered overweight, while individuals with a BMI of 30 or greater are considered obese.

Waist Circumference or Waste to Hip Ratio (WHR): People who accumulate fat in the abdominal area (apple-shaped body) are at a significantly increased risk for developing diseases as compared to those with fat accumulation primarily in the hips and thighs (pear-shaped body). A waist circumference greater than 35 inches for women or 40 inches for men, or a WHR of 0.8 or greater in women, or 1.0 or greater in men indicates abdominal adiposity.

Bioelectric Impedance Analysis (BIA): BIA uses electric signals at different frequencies, which are impeded (slow down) on whether they are moving through the fat or lean muscle mass.

How can I Support Healthy Composition?

An important part of a clinical management program to improve body composition is adequate nutrition to support lean body mass, while appropriately limiting caloric intake. The low-calorie diets commonly used in weight-loss programs may not be beneficial, and such diets may produce side effects of fatigue, dizziness, and weakness, and result in loss of lean muscle mass. Research has shown that clinical programs that include a supplemental meal replacement are more successful for weight loss. Intervention for healthy body composition should always include resistance exercise as well, since increasing muscle mass increases energy needs, helps combat fatigue, and decreases the likelihood that fat mass will return after the program is completed.

Soy Protein, Isoflavones, and Healthy Body Composition

Soy protein is a high-quality protein source that may improve blood pressure and blood lipids. Based on a thorough review of the research literature, the FDA has issued a health claim stating that a daily consumption of 25 grams of soy protein as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Specific preparations of soy protein have also been shown to promote healthy body composition. For example, a soy-based medical food has been shown to promote lean body mass over a non-soy based meal replacement in a weight management program. And, perimenopausal women fed 40 grams of an isoflavone-containing soy protein daily for 24 weeks showed increases in lean mass, whereas a control group consuming whey protein did not.

Glycemic Index (GI), Fructose and Metabolic Syndrome

The GI assesses blood glucose response to a food, and research documents that people at risk of diabetes should maintain a diet with low GI foods. Recently, a soy-based medical food was shown to have a low GI, suggesting it could be a suitable source of protein and nutrients while maintaining a healthy blood glucose and insulin levels.

The source of sweetener in any food should be a considered as well, and fructose is a low GI, naturally occurring sweetener. Fructose is suggested as preferred sugar source for diabetics since large doses of fructose (50 grams) only modestly raise blood sugar or insulin levels, and small doses show virtually no effect on blood sugar or insulin.

Fiber and BMI

Fiber is known to promote healthy digestion, blood insulin, and blood glucose levels, as well as maintenance of healthy cholesterol levels; and, fiber associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. In the 10-year-long CARDIA Study of more than 2,000 adults, those individuals with the highest intake of fiber had the lowest body weight and WHR, and those with the highest body weight showed higher blood lipids and blood pressure. Fiber intake of 20 -30 grams per day should be considered in the optimal diet for promoting healthy body composition.

Homocysteine, Folate, Vitamin B12 and Optimal Health

Elevated blood homocysteine is associated with aging and obesity, and is an independent risk factor for CVD. Research also shows that it is associated with altered body composition in both adults and children. Folate and Vitamin B-12 are key vitamins that promote reduction of homocysteine levels.

Calcium, Magnesium and Potassium Balance

Early studies suggested restricting sodium may be helpful in older persons, but more recent data-including those from the large, multi-center Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial-suggested calcium, potassium, and magnesium are more important in maintaining healthy blood pressure. Low intake of calcium is also associated with higher levels of body fat, and calcium supplementation had been shown to promote healthy body composition and decreased fat retention in clinical trials and animal studies.

Bone Health and Body Composition

Throughout life, skeletal and lean muscle masses are related. Bone density decreases dramatically after the age of 40, so that by 80 years of age, men have lost on an average of 12% and women 25% of bone. Major factors in bone health are adequate intake of bone-support nutrients, and weight-bearing exercises to promote new bone growth.

Calcium supplementation has been shown to slow or even prevent bone loss in older individuals. About half the weight of bone mineral is from phosphorus, and it is important that intake of phosphorus and calcium be in balance. Low magnesium, vitamin D and vitamin K levels are associated with decreased bone mass and increased prevalence of fractures. Supplementation with these nutrients is important in promoting bone density. In addition, research suggests that soy with isoflavones reduces the bone resorption often during and after menopause.

Carbohydrates And Fat Loss

Here's what you need to know...

• The amount of carbs you can eat while still losing fat is directly related to your insulin sensitivity. As a lifter or athlete, yours should be good.
• For many fit people, cutting carbs from 40% down to 20% of calories won't give them any additional fat loss benefit. So why do it?
• Start your fat loss diet at 50% carbohydrate intake, then adjust down from there only if and when it's needed to keep the fat loss going.
• Do not go by how you think you "feel." Go by the results you're actually getting.

Two people come to me for diet help. They both need to drop fat and improve their body composition. One is an out of shape 40-something stockbroker and the other is a fit movie star getting ready for an action movie. What should I do? Cut carbs right? For the longest time, fat loss diet advice has essentially been "eat less carbs." But it would seem ridiculous to give these two individuals the same diet advice, wouldn't it? Well, it is ridiculous, but that's what we've essentially been doing with the "eliminate carbs to lose fat" mantra.

At its most basic level, eating less carbs is good advice. Most people would benefit from eating fewer carbohydrates. But what we're discovering is that the level of carbohydrates that you can consume while still losing weight is directly related to your insulin sensitivity. More to this point, certain levels of carbohydrate restriction are unnecessary for individuals with good insulin sensitivity as it doesn't further enhance fat loss. So giving our stockbroker and movie star similar diets wouldn't make sense. Besides, everyone I know would like to eat as many carbs as possible and still reach their body comp goals. Wouldn't you?

The Impact of Insulin Sensitivity
Let's look at two different studies that have begun to explore carbohydrate cut points for eliciting maximum fat loss with respects to individual insulin sensitivity. In the first study, researchers wanted to look at the long term differences between a low fat diet (a "traditional" weight loss plan) and a low glycemic load diet with respects to changes in body composition. They found that after 18 months, regardless of the diet the participants were put on, they all experienced similar changes in body composition. Chalk that up as a win for the "a calorie is a calorie" crowd, right? Well, not so fast. In a secondary analysis of the data, the researchers separated study participants by insulin sensitivity. They found that the people with the worst insulin sensitivity had the best body composition changes on the low glycemic diet, and it didn't matter what diet the people with the best insulin sensitivity were put on – they got just as lean either way.

In another study, the A to Z Study, researchers put people on one of four diets: Atkins, Zone, Ornish, or a control diet (the LEARN diet – traditional low fat stuff). At the end of 12 months the people on the Atkins diet lost the most weight. Low carb rules! Again, not so fast. In a secondary analysis of this data, the researchers pitted the high (Ornish) and lowest (Atkins) carb diets against each other with respects to weight loss and study participants' insulin sensitivity. Just as in the previous study, people with the poorest insulin sensitivity lost more weight on the lower carb approach. People with the best insulin sensitivity lost the same amount of weight regardless of diet.

I'm a believer in the benefits of carbohydrate restriction, but I'm also a big believer in the fact that carbs are delicious. If cutting your carbs from 40% down to 20% of calories won't give you any additional fat loss benefit then why do it? Why not lose as much fat as you can with your carbs at 40% of calories and then reduce it after your fat loss begins to slow?

Exercise: The Missing Link from the Research
These two studies show that an individual's insulin sensitivity impacts the level of carbohydrates necessary to maximize fat loss. But in all these studies, exercise wasn't part of the fat loss strategy. Exercise itself increases muscular insulin sensitivity. This increases the amount of carbohydrates you can consume and shunt towards your muscles automatically. It's also important to note that the carbs that you cram into your muscles post-training stay there as your muscles don't have the enzymatic machinery necessary to release sugar from glycogen to the rest of your body.

Your insulin sensitivity should be better than most, so you'll find yourself in a place where you can lose just as much fat with a higher carbohydrate intake. Starting your body composition training with a higher overall carb count will give you greater flexibility later in your diet to reduce carbs when calories are at a premium.

What To Do
Don't start any body comp diet phase with your carbohydrates any lower than 40% of your total calories, then adjust from there. You may be wondering how much higher you can start since the A to Z study used the Ornish diet, which is upwards of 65% calories from carbohydrates. You can go higher, but 50% of calories from carbs is probably the max you'll want to go as it's important to remember that everything in your diet is connected.

As you eat more carbohydrates you'll need to eat less of something else (assuming that total calories is capped at a specific level since you're in a fat loss phase). You'll want to keep your protein intake at 30% of your calories and never lower than 1.6g/kg body weight. The rest of your calories will come from fat, which in this case is the remaining 20% of calories. So at the high end of your carb intake, your diet will look like this:

• 50% carbohydrates
• 30% protein
• 20% fat

Let's put some more numbers to that:

1. 2500 calories
2. 312g carbohydrate
3. 187g protein
4. 55g fat

Wait, that's a low-fat diet! What? Let's pause here. I'm not some crazy PhD keyboard jockey recommending a low-fat diet. This won't work for everyone. But if you're looking to lose as much fat as possible while eating as many carbohydrates as possible and you have good insulin sensitivity, this is how you should start.

The one thing you might be concerned about with this higher carbohydrate/lower fat approach is satiety or feeling full. With only 20% of your calories from fat, will you be satiated enough? No one likes to feel like they're starving just after they finish a meal. But satiety shouldn't be a problem as long as you're eating ample vegetables as part of your 50% carbohydrate intake. Here's how:

Vegetables - Eat them, especially high-fiber green ones and high volume veggies that weigh a lot but don't contain a lot of calories. You body senses how much a food weighs more than it does the calorie content of the food. Eating more vegetables is always linked to eating less calories and greater feelings of fullness.

Insulin - While it's often talked about as the devil when it comes to fat loss, most people don't realize that insulin is a satiety hormone. So the increase in carbohydrates will lead to a hormonal cascade that leads to increase satiety.

Protein - Protein is linked to increased fullness via multiple mechanisms in your body, from signals in your digestive tract to modifications in your brain. 30% of calories from protein will give you the lean body mass protection that you need as well as the fat loss/satiety benefits.

So satiety shouldn't be an issue. But if you find that it is, no problem, just drop your carbohydrate intake by 5-10% and adjust your fat intake according. Your new starting point would be:

• 40% carbohydrates
• 30% protein
• 30% fat

Forget How You Feel!
Don't just eat carbohydrates recklessly and then get upset when your body composition isn't improving. Don't blow this idea off because it doesn't "feel" right and carbs make you "feel" fat. Optimizing body composition is less about how you feel and more about how your body changes.

It drives me crazy when people say they "feel leaner." You either are leaner or you aren't leaner; it doesn't matter how you feel about it. Treat your body like a science experiment. Put the plan into action and measure how your body responds. Make adjustments to your diet based on how your body has responded, not how you feel about your body's response. Your newly visible abs will thank you.

Bodybuilding with Diabetes

The symptoms of diabetes may begin slowly and hard to identify at first. They may include fatigue, frequent urination, excessive thirst, and a feeling of becoming sick. When there is extra glucose in the blood, one way the body gets rid of it is through frequent urination. This loss of fluids can cause excessive thirst. Diabetes can also cause other symptoms such as blurred vision, slow healing of skin, sudden weight loss, genital itching, and gum and urinary tract infections.

People who suffer from diabetes must take extra precautions when wanting to exercise. These people should not exercise outside on very hot or humid days due to the increased risk of heat stroke or exhaustion. If you are exercising in warm weather , dress in loose-fitted clothing or special fabrics that promote heat loss. To prevent dehydration, drink a cup of cold water before and after exercise. If your exercise session lasts longer that thirty minutes or if you sweat alot, drink water during your workout. Make sure that you know the warning signs of heart problems such as jaw, arm, and chest pain, dizziness, nausea, irregular pulse, and unusual shortness of breath during exercise. Exercise, along with good nutrition, helps decrease body fat, which helps normalize glucose metabolism. Exercise also helps lower coronary risk factors such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong disease which occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood sugar levels. Without adequate insulin, glucose builds up in the bloodstream leading to increased hunger. In addition, the high levels of glucose in the blood causes the patient to urinate more, which also causes excessive thirst. Within five to ten years after diagnosis, the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas are completely destroyed and no more insulin can be produced. Type 1 diabetes can happen at any age, but it usually begins with people under the age of twenty-five. The exact cause of type 1 diabetes is unknown and only accounts for around 5 percent of the new cases formed each year.

Previously known as noninsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. 90-95 percent of people who have diabetes have type 2. People with type 2 diabetes produce insulin, but either do not make enough insulin or their bodies do not use the insulin it makes. Type 2 diabetes typically occurs after the age of forty years. A resistance to insulin develops, often accompanied by excess weight and leaving the pancreas unable to produce enought insulin to compensate.

Hypoglycemia is the clinical syndrome that results from low blood sugar. The symptoms of hypoglycemia can vary from person to person which can become severe enough to need treatment. Classically, hypoglycemia is diagnosed by a low blood sugar with symptoms that resolve when the blood sugar returns to a normal range. While patients who do not have any metabolic problems can complain of symptoms suggestive of low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia usually occurs in patients being treated for type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Patients with pre-diabetes can also have low blood sugars on occasion if their high circulating insulin levels are further challenged by a prolonged period of fasting.

Living with diabetes is not fun, but by taking preventative care of yourself, you can do the things you want to do in life. Exercise and proper nutrition are very important to steps in recovery and you never know, maybe you didn`t have diabetes after all, you just needed a lesson in nutrition.

Incorporating Short Steroid Cycles Into a Weight Training Program

Q: “I started with classical progressive weight training, trying to add a rep every week and then when getting to 12 reps, increase the weight and build up again. That got to where it just wasn’t happening that I could add reps. I moved to 5×5, adding weight each week, and same story. Training similarly every week isn’t working for me. What could you suggest to change it up week by week, working steroid cycles into it. I want to gain more size and gain strength efficiency, getting stronger for my size. I’m fine with doing numbers to plan, and using a training book.”

A: What you’ve found is just a basic truth.

Once past the easy gains, it’s not possible to add say 5 lb per week every week. If it were, then we’d have guys adding 260 lb every year to their bench, their overhead press, etc. Those who had been doing this for say 5 years would have added over 1000 lb.

Adding a rep every week can be an even harder challenge, as an added rep typically represents about 2-5% more strength.

As you put it, changing it up week by week can allow for progression which is indeed doable.

One approach is to see for each exercise what weight you can do for two sets of 9, and what weight you can do for two sets of 3. Now figure some modest increase such as 5% to that weight for 2 sets of 3.

As an example, let’s say that right now in a given exercise you can do 2×9 with 120 lb, and 2×3 with 170 lb. A 5% increase on that weight would bring it to 180 lb. The difference between that 180 lb and the 120 lb is 60 lb.

The next step is that there will be six increments of working out between starting at 9 reps and ending at 3 reps. So you divide that 60 lb by six, and come up with 10 lb increases.

So what you will do is start the training cycle with 2×9 at 100 lb and with each further week drop a rep and add 10 lb. You finish at 2×3 at 180 lb, which is a 10 lb improvement on your start.

Steroid use can start in the 6-rep week and end in the 4-rep week, which provides a 3-on /4-off pattern. A more conservative approach is to use in only the 6 and 5 rep weeks, providing a 2-on/5-off pattern. Each of these require having the mental confidence to do the 3-rep weeks unassisted. Another way is to start use in the 6-rep week and continue through the 3-rep week, but you should then add in two weeks of differing training before starting the next cycle. This method allows two fewer cycles per year, but can be comparable for results.

This is only one approach; there are many good ways. As a general guideline, for most programs of extended duration, the most efficient time to employ anabolic assistance is in the last third or the last half of the program, according to how aggressive you want to be with steroid use.

Condition: How Far will it go?

Muscle size, proportion, balance, symmetry, definition, balance, structure, shape. These are the words that most bodybuilders would (in previous generations) use when explaining the qualities that make great champion in this very subjective sport of ours. Over the years we have seen certain judging criteria take a back seat and a greater emphasis be placed on other elements that make a bodybuilder stand out among his peers, but one aspect that has skyrocketed to become the utmost measuring stick for how someone will place in a contest (especially in the amateur ranks) is conditioning. While being “in condition” used to mean being ripped enough to show a high level of muscle definition, an absence of water under the skin and also a full and healthy look to the muscle, it has now pretty much come down to being devoid of anything resembling a morsel of adipose tissue or h2o at any cost.

There is no argument that reaching what is considered peak conditioning in today’s competitive bodybuilding world is a grueling process. The amount of suffering that goes along with running on fumes and torturing yourself with cardio and weight training while your body has zero energy stores left hanging on it’s body is a true test of the grit and determination of any human. While some people definitely achieve a lean physique with less effort than people who naturally reside on the husky side, no one feels good one week out from a competition; it’s common to hear that if you feel good in those final weeks, you are probably out of shape (or straight up fat, as us bodybuilders will refer to anyone who doesn’t look like a piece of beef jerky). This degree of difficulty has added the “blue collar” factor to go along with a truly ripped physique that is hard to not respect, as it can directly show a mans will power and perseverance (although sometimes NOT being in condition is due to a lack of knowledge as opposed to lack of effort). There are a few side effects of this shift towards the ultra ripped physique, and I don’t necessarily mean the physical ones.

Many times these days, we will see a competitor who has all the tools that make a physique impressive slip a few spots and be beaten out by genetically inferior talent who happens to be better conditioned. For me this is a grey area, and I can certainly see both sides of the coin. On one hand, it seems wrong to reward someone who clearly could have “suffered” a little harder to achieve the look that is now expected. This seems to be a mindset especially common with the average bodybuilder who feels he has little to relate to when it comes to the genetically elite athlete with perfect muscle bellies and structure. It’s natural for us humans to overstate the importance of things we are capable of achieving and downplay the important of areas we are simply not blessed. It’s our self defense mechanism for leveling the playing field. Why should someone place highly in competition just because they were born a certain way, when clearly there were others who outworked them?

One side effect of this is that we will sometimes see a bodybuilder push their bodies the extra mile to meet the insanely high judging standards and lose some of their gifts in the process. The fascination with “shredded glutes” is single highhandedly responsible for a lot of missed potential in my opinion. Every human being stores their fat in different patterns, making it possible for one bodybuilder to have a fat-less bottom end while still holding more total body fat than another competitor who might hoard all of their blubber in their butt even after it has been removed from the entire rest of their body. The glutes became the marker for flawless conditioning due to the fact the majority of people store fat there and it is the last place to go MOST of the time. What this means for the other guys is that they will have to push their bodies extremely hard to rid their butt of the fat and quite possibly deflate in the upper body or lose leg fullness from the extreme measures taken. Personally, I view bodybuilding as a total package, and if someone looks better in 95% of their body they should not be instantly demoted just because they do not have lines in their rear end. I feel stupid even writing that. If you look better with more fullness in your muscles and not killing yourself to achieve this ridiculously over-prioritized focus area, I think you should be judged on your entire package.

Do we want to reward the less genetically gifted athletes? What does this do for the gene pool in the long run when analyzing the forecast of talent? Although I would never make the connection that all bodybuilders who achieve elite conditioning are more often less gifted in other areas, I feel it is safe to say on the amateur circuits there could be some connections made. The “blue collar” mentality in turn promotes athletes who otherwise would have no shot at winning to utilize “hard work” to beat their opponents…and unfortunately, hard work in bodybuilding isn’t as positive as it sounds, as it can mean health problems and extreme drug use. This is not a direct link but I feel inadvertently there is a connection.

As much as we like to fantasize about bodybuilding being a sport, it simply is not. I feel what is happening to a degree is that people are trying to bridge some of the gap between bodybuilding and mainstream sports like football and baseball. While it still requires a trained eye to properly compare two levels of conditioning that both simply look “shredded” to the general public, it is much less esoteric than the concept of a shapely and aesthetic physique. So we have sports fans trying to add a concrete method of keeping score, while bodybuilding is much more of an art form than sport. Artists win prizes for sculptures and paintings, but it takes an artistic eye to recognize the different levels and compare them (and there is still a huge amount of personal taste involved)…and I would like to think bodybuilding is more of an art competition than sport. If we are attempting to make it more mainstream by adding some solid guidelines to help the public understand who should win or lose, is using a peeled ass the most marketable and socially acceptable measuring stick?

Bodybuilding and Appetite: Fast Metabolism, or Poor Appetite?

The list of misused or exaggerated terms in bodybuilding and fitness stretches far out of sight. Of the hundreds of misused terms in our industry, two interesting terms that are often incorrectly used, but seem to fly under the radar are “metabolism” and “appetite”. It seems that every athlete in our sport claims to have either a rapid fire metabolism, or the metabolic rate of a three toed sloth.

Why is it that athletes rarely if ever claim an “average” metabolism? This question is especially interesting when one considers that the word average implies to something that pertains to the majority. So what could conceivably explain this phenomenon?

The fast metabolism argument is generally accompanied by a hatred for eating. The slow metabolism argument is often times, though not always, accompanied by an enjoyment of eating large amounts of food, or at the very least the ability to do so. So the question must be asked, where are the bodybuilders who do not like to eat, but also have a “slow metabolism” so it all works out? One would be hard pressed to find an athlete claiming to meet this description. It simply does not make logical sense that these types of people do not exist in our community. When examined, it would stand to reason that this metabolism paradox is caused by the lack of recognition given to one’s appetite.

You will often hear a person claim that they know a competitor who “eats whatever they want” and still gets hard. What most individuals fail to grasp is that “whatever you want” varies vastly from person to person. Whatever competitor A wants could be a small bag of chips and a six inch sub, whereas whatever competitor B wants could be a whole pizza with ice cream for dessert! One must be leery when assuming a person has some sort of God-sent metabolism, just because they claim to eat whatever they want. You may actually be eating significantly more calories and carbs than that person while on your diet, due to their poor appetite.

Another delusion of metabolism can be caused by the consumption of “junk food”. For whatever reason it seems that many people mistake “junk” for “a lot”. Commonly, individuals will eat fast food or pizza every meal of the day and assume they are eating huge amounts of food, mainly because it is junk food. If a 200 lb. bodybuilder eats fast food and pizza three times a day, however, they only eat one burger and a medium fry or one slice of pizza per meal, of course they won’t gain weight! The same can be said for people who tend to eat all day long or “graze” but only consume a few bites each time. Through the eyes of onlookers, this individual may appear to be eating a lot of food (especially if it is “junk food”) whilst not gaining weight, when in reality this is not the case.

On the flip side, individuals also exist who claim a slow metabolism, who more than likely have a voracious appetite as opposed to an actual slow metabolism. It is not unlikely that there are bodybuilders under 200 lbs. who can eat 3500 calories a day and still go to bed hungry and wake up hungry. One can see how this situation would cause this particular athlete to claim a slow metabolism due to the fact that 3500 calories feels to them as if they are starving. When in reality, 3500 calories for a 190 pounder is at the very least, average.

It would stand to reason that bodybuilder’s appetites may actually play a much greater role in weight gain and/or loss than their individual “metabolisms”. Some prime examples of bodybuilders claiming a “fast metabolism” are Dexter Jackson, Jay Cutler, and Mike Liberatore, just to name a few. While all of these athletes often discuss their rapid-fire metabolisms, they are also very open about not liking to eat. Dexter in particular has said numerous times throughout his career that he prefers drinking shakes so that he does not have to eat at all! This begs the question, do they really have super fast metabolisms, or does it only seem that way to them due to having a lukewarm relationship with food?

Opposing examples include, Kai Greene and Ronnie Coleman. Nobody ever heard Ronnie complaining about his metabolism, however good money could be bet on him requiring three times as much food as Dexter or Mike. Due to his immense appetite and ability to consume huge quantities of food, metabolism was never an issue for Ronnie. Who had a faster metabolism than the Masterpiece BBQ disposal himself, at a shredded-to-the-bone 295 lbs.? Kai falls into a similar category, who’s eating prowess has become something resembling a mythical legend, inside these tight-knit walls of bodybuilding. If Mike were to eat bite for bite with Kai Greene in the off-season, it is fairly safe to say that Mike would quickly turn into a bloated whale of a man. In similar fashion to Ronnie, Kai has also never made mention of his metabolism. In fact, some experts in the industry have stated that Kai actually has a slow metabolism!

The simple fact of the matter is, if you’re going to carry around 250 lbs. or more of active body tissue all day long, train intensely with weights six days a week and do some sort of cardio, you’re going to have a fast metabolism! However, it is difficult to buy the story that some vast underlying difference in base metabolic rate is causing each competitor to require exceedingly different amounts of food. Of course, this discussion is referring strictly to the majority. There are certainly exceptions, they just seem to be far more rare than many people think. A prime example of one of these exceptions would be Juan Morel. Juan has been blessed with the Mako shark of metabolisms. Some may call this quality a curse, however, that statement will more than likely never be heard coming from an individual with a “slow metabolism” or more importantly, a preparing-for-hibernation-grizzly bear sized appetite.

How Steroids Work?

Here is a basic rundown of how testosterone works in the body. Its a very brief description of a complex and not perfectly understood process.

• Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone
• Testosterone is androgenic and is responsible for secondary male characteristics such as body hair, beard growth, deep voice, increased production of sebaceous glands, development of the penis, aggressiveness, sexual behavior, libido, and the maturation of sperm
• Testosterone is anabolic (promotes muscle growth)
• Testosterone is made in the Leydig Cells in the testes
• Men produce approx 5-10mg of Testosterone per day
• Normal testosterone concentration in men is between 300-100 nanograms per deciliter (ng/dl)
• Typical prescription testosterone therapy will consist of only 25-75mg of testosterone administered per week
• Testosterone strengthens bones

For testosterone to actually work in your body you have to get it in you first. There are other new developments in the ways of sublingual lozenges, patches, and transdermal creams, but typically it is done in one of two ways. It is either taken orally (pill) or injected directly into the muscle (using a needle).

Oral anabolic steroids

Like all drugs (taken orally), testosterone will have to go through the digestion process to get absorbed into your blood stream. This means that the drug must go through your stomach. Then from your stomach, the drug goes into the small intestine where it is absorbed and transported to the liver. Among its many important jobs, the liver is responsible for processing nutrients and vitamins from food, storage of nutrients for later use by the body, cleaning dead cells out of the blood, getting rid of toxic substances (like alcohol), producing bile (to help digest fat), and you guessed it, metabolism of drugs!

Almost all prescription drugs, including steroids, are absorbed in the small intestine and have to go through the liver. In the process, most are almost completely destroyed after the first time through. This is called first-pass metabolism. Some steroids are 17-alkylated, which is a chemical alteration specifically designed to protect the drug against first pass metabolism. The ones that are 1 7-alkylated are much more effective as oral steroids, however they can damage the liver very quickly.

Injectable anabolic steroids

When injected, steroids are much more effective milligram for milligram since they are not subjected to the digestion process and the first pass of the liver. Believe it or not, but digestion can render up to 95% of the steroid totally useless! Not that injecting doesn’t come with its own set of disadvantages, but you will read about that later.

Now that you have the testosterone in your system it needs to be activated through the androgen receptor. Think of the androgen receptor as a lock and testosterone is the key. When testosterone isn’t bound to a receptor (key in the lock) it is called “Free Testosterone’. Only about 2% of all the testosterone in your system is actually ‘Free” at any given time. The remaining is bound to proteins and albumin, rendering it temporarily useless.

Once the free testosterone (the key) binds to the androgen receptor (the lock) in skeletal muscle, BAM! Major muscle growth is activated! Then, when the testosterone is done interacting with the receptor, it releases and gets sent back into circulation; is the key step that triggers hypertrophy within the muscle cells. Contrary to popular belief, anabolic steroids do not cause more muscle cells to be created. They only have a limited ability to cause them to create more connective material around them and get larger. However, steroids only cause limited hypertrophy (muscle growth) on their own. For dramatic improvements in muscle growth, steroids need to be combined with proper diet and resistance exercise.

But you have to keep one thing in mind. Androgen receptors are found in many areas of the body! This is one reason why side effects occur. You see, when testosterone binds with the androgen receptor in skeletal muscle, it promotes muscle growth, but when it binds with the androgen receptor within the central nervous system, for example, it promotes aggressiveness.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to pick and chose which cells will be activated by the testosterone. A lot of side effects are really pre-determined by genetics. If you Just happen to naturally have a high concentration of androgen receptors in your hair follicles, for instance, you are much more apt to hair loss as a side effect of taking steroids.

This is really just a brief explanation of a super involved, complicated process, but I think you get this gets the point across. Check out the chart if you are more of a visual learner

The basic of training for size or strenght

When you first walked into the gym, your goal was most likely to get big and strong, as if the two objectives were interchangeable. You read about how weight training builds size and strength, so naturally you followed a program that delivered both. Well, at least it did in the beginning.

But to keep making significant progress - especially as you become more advanced - you may need to specialize your training to the point where you either train for size like a bodybuilder or strength like a powerlifter. While some programs can have elements of both, there are important distinctions in how each kind of athlete trains.

Even an onlooker with an untrained eye can notice the difference in the training methods of powerlifters and bodybuilders. While they share the common ground of barbells and dumbbells, the utilization of these implements is often drastically different.

What are those differences, why do they exist, and how do you optimize your training to gain either size or strength? There's been plenty of research on just those topics, so let's take a closer look.

THE ADAPTATION PROCESS

Your body has a single, uniform purpose: to survive. To do that, it communicates with your environment via adaptation. The environment starts the conversation by imposing stress on your body, and your body responds by selectively adapting in a way that best suits its survival chances.

Training, then, is a conscious communication with your body - imposing self-selected stress to mold your frame into a desired shape, or increasing your capabilities beyond their current state. It's a powerful farce. You convince your body that, if it doesn't meet your demands, it will perish. This, of course, isn't true, but it's the true power of training.

Let these ideas frame your thought process as you examine the rest of this article. Growing or getting stronger is the outcome of effective physical communication. Be sure you're telling your body exactly the things you want it to hear!

SIZE AND STRENGTH THE DIFFERENCE

Let's start by stripping the difference between size and strength training down to the barest essential.

The simplest difference between building size and boosting strength is training volume. Hypertrophy requires more total training volume than strength-building does.

Training volume is the number of sets and reps you do in a given workout. The more exercises you do for a body part, and the more sets you do of a given exercise, the greater your training volume.

Of course, there are other variables that impact how your body will adapt to the training stress you impose on it.

GOAL 1 BUILDING MUSCLE SIZE (HYPERTROPHY)

So, what makes muscles bigger? Stress - another way to refer to the amount of weight you lift - is the primary answer. But you want the degree of stress that tells your body, "Get bigger or you're kaput, my friend."

You already know that hypertrophy requires more total training volume than building absolute strength, but that doesn't mean you get to eliminate load (weight) from the discussion. You're still going to use the heaviest weight possible, but the need for more training volume - your body needs reps, too - dictates that the weights are lighter than those used for building absolute strength. Blending the right amount of volume with the right amount of load creates stress that translates into growth.

When performing your main lifts - full range-of-motion barbell bench presses, squats, deadlifts, and rowing variations - do 20-36 total reps (all reps of all working sets of that move) with a load around 70-85 percent of your one-rep max (1RM). For example, if your max bench press is 255 pounds, use a weight that's about 180-215 pounds.

There are a variety of volume breakdowns - 4 sets of 5, 4 sets of 6, 5 sets of 5, and 6 sets of 6 - commonly prescribed. Progressing from 4 sets of 5 with heavier loads to 6 sets of 6 with slightly lighter loads is a simple and effective strategy.

Rest between sets is also an important consideration. With hypertrophy training, there's an accumulation of stress that coerces muscle cell growth. There's a rest-time sweet spot that accumulates stress while allowing enough recovery to keep loads in your desired percentage range (70-85). That sweet spot hovers around the two-minute mark, depending on the lifter's condition and experience.

Assistance exercises, or the exercises that follow your heavy barbell lifts, should be done with more volume and shorter rest periods. Here, the total number of reps per exercise should fall between 30 and 50. Rest periods range from nonexistent to 90 seconds, depending on the load and set-and-rep scheme.

Doing 3-5 sets of 10 with 60-90 seconds rest is common in first-level assistance exercises in hypertrophy programs. Nothing fancy here, but it gets the job done.

On assistance exercises, choose exercises that improve upon your weaknesses—aesthetic or otherwise. For example, if the flat bench press was your main lift, the incline or decline bench press is a solid choice for your first assistance exercise. Dumbbell variations also work as assistance exercises, but it's best to use them after completing a few barbell lifts. You want to accumulate a lot of barbell stress before employing less stressful dumbbell work.

Program structure usually depends on the individual, but typically it's 3-5 multijoint assistance lifts following the main heavier barbell exercise.

Sample Lower-Body Hypertrophy Routine

Barbell Squat
5 sets of 5 reps, 8RM, 120-sec. rest

SUPERSET
Front Barbell Squat
4 sets of 10 reps, 10RM, 90-sec. rest

Hanging Leg Raise
3 sets of 10 reps, to failure, 90-sec. rest

SUPERSET
Goblet Squat
3 sets of 10 reps, 10RM, 60-sec. rest

Floor Glute-Ham Raise
3 sets of 10 reps, 10RM, 60-sec. rest

Bodyweight Walking Lunge
3 sets of 8 reps per side, 8-10RM, 60-sec. rest

GOAL 2 BUILDING STRENGTH

To build absolute strength, the stress communication changes in a few ways. For one, as stated earlier, you'll use less training volume. You'll also include heavier weight and fewer reps per set.

Strength programs are structured similarly to hypertrophy programs - a main lift followed by assistance lifts, but here you're drastically cutting the number of reps per set because you're significantly increasing the weight.

Main lifts fall in a percentage range of between 80-90 percent of your 1RM. The total number of reps for main lifts also drops to 10-20 total. At certain times, however, strength programs increase load above 90 percent of your 1RM; at those times, the total reps are significantly cut further. Here, no more than 10 are completed during a training session.

To accumulate the total volume, you'll use sets of 2-4 reps in the range of 80-90 percent of 1RM. If you climb above 90 percent, cut the reps per set to 1-2.

Rest periods between sets are an eternity compared to those of a hypertrophy program, but they're necessary since heavier loads are more neurologically demanding than lighter ones. The nervous system requires considerably more rest than does muscle tissue. Rest 3-5 minutes between sets of the day's main lift.

Assistance training for absolute strength is much different than what's programmed for hypertrophy. Most new lifters botch this process and overload their nervous system. Commonly, beginners treat absolute strength assistance as if it were hypertrophy assistance—lots of sets, lots of volume. That dog just won't hunt. Attempting to maintain the same volume while increasing intensity is a plan destined to fail.

Absolute strength assistance training exists in the 15-25 total rep range, with loads between 70-80 percent of your 1RM. You'll also use fewer total assistance exercises, roughly 2-4 instead of 3-5. Without this reduction, it's difficult to recover, and overtraining eventually becomes reality because you've giving your body more stress than it can accommodate.

In this assistance-training realm, exercises are chosen specifically to abolish weak points in your main lifts. Let's demonstrate with the deadlift. Say you have a hard time breaking the plates from the floor, but once you get the bar moving, you finish the lift without difficulty. After your main deadlifting sets, your first assistance exercise should be one that attacks your weak point. Snatch-grip deadlifts and deficit deadlifts are two great options.

Choose the rest of your assistance exercises in much the same way, ensuring that you build a complete, strong main lift. Check out this example strength routine.

Sample Upper-Body Strength Routine

SUPERSET
Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip
6 sets of 3 reps, 5RM, 180-sec. rest

Face Pull
3 sets of 12 reps, 5RM, during bench press rest

SUPERSET
Barbell Incline Bench Press - Medium Grip
3 sets of 5 reps, 8RM, 120-sec. rest

Dumbbell Incline Row
3 sets of 6 reps, 8RM, 120-sec. rest

Dumbbell Bench Press
3 sets of 5 reps, 8RM, 120-sec. rest

START WITH STRENGTH

These points are meant as general guidelines to get you started. Reality, of course, is situational—it all depends on your starting point.

If you're a newbie, any program is a strength and size program. Simply stressing your frame via any load and volume combination is enough to build muscle and develop force. The same is often true for those who have been on gym hiatus.

Hypertrophy and strength training begin to dovetail only when a trainee has accomplished a reputable degree of strength. It's at this point that your stress communication must specifically dictate the desired adaptation.

Hypertrophy now requires different stress and more volume than it did as you trained yourself from beginner to intermediate. For best results, follow the principles discussed earlier in this article.

Body Composition

At long last, more and more people are finally becoming aware of the concept of body composition and that it somehow differs from simply focusing on changes in body weight.

However, this is all too commonly leading to confusion as people ask “What does body composition mean?“. They know that it’s important but aren’t quite sure why it’s important or what the concept is about. I want to help take some of the confusion out of the topic here.

What Are You Made Of?

I’m not talking here about the scientifically proven fact that little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice while boys are made of slugs, and snails and puppy dog tails; rather, I want to talk about what the human body is composed of in biological terms.

Let’s imagine that I could magically (and hopefully painlessly) separate your body into all of its different components and put them on a slab somewhere (putting you back together might be a problem). What would we find? Well, there’d be some skeletal muscle, some fat cells (possibly too many fat cells), your bones, your organs, your brain, a whole bunch of different minerals, your blood, some water and probably a few other minor components that make up the totality of what makes you you

Depending on which type of tissue we’re talking about, we’d find massively varying amounts. Skeletal muscle can make up 25-40% of someone’s total weight, fat can range from less than 10% of the total in extremely lean individuals to 40-50% in the morbidly obese. Everything else I listed accounts for some proportion of your weight as well. The average brain is about three pounds, organs take up some space, blood weighs so much, you get the idea. If you add up the weights of all of these individual parts, you would end up with the total weight of your body. When you get on the scale, that’s what it’s telling you, the sum total of every different bit of your body and what it weighs.

Body Weight vs. Body Composition

When you talk about dieting and diet books (or even weight gain for those who are trying to increase rather than reduce weight), it’s safe to say that the majority of information out there focuses on weight loss. People want to see the scale drop, the faster the better. Diet books talk about weight loss, quick weight loss centers try to get the scale to go down as quickly as possible, even the TV show The Biggest Loser, which should be doing more to educate (and less to try and kill its contestants) focuses only on the weekly weigh-in to determine success or failure. It’s all about weight.

Why is this a problem?

Let’s say you step on the scale after dieting or exercising for a few weeks. And, happy days, the number has gone down by a few pounds (or kilos for my foreign readers).

Now, unless something very strange is going on, odds are it wasn’t bits of your brain or organs, it’s not likely to be bone either. But was it body fat? Was it skeletal muscle? Was it just water? Did you just have a rather large bowel movement that morning and that’s why you weigh less?

The typical bathroom scale that only measures weight can’t answer those questions. All a typical scale can tell you is whether or not your weight has gone down or up (if that’s the case). It can’t tell you what type of tissue (e.g. muscle, fat, water) was gained or lost.

That’s where body composition comes in.

Models of Body Composition

Recall from above how I listed a whole bunch of different tissues in your body that comprise your total body weight. Well, researchers, depending on how difficult they want to be, will group those organs in various ways and use that to develop body composition models. There are a number of different ones ranging from simple 2-component models to far more complex models involving 4 or more components.

Thankfully, for the majority of non-research applications (e.g. dieters or athletes), the 2-component models are just fine. In that model, the body is divided rather simply into:

Fat Mass: This is the sum total of all of the fat in your body. I’ll discuss this in detail in another article but there are three or four different ‘types’ of fat in the human body. All of it goes under fat mass.

Fat Free Mass: This is simply everything else. Everything that isn’t fat mass, including muscle, bone, organs, minerals, blood, etc. is fat free mass (often abbreviated FFM). I’d note that both glycogen (carbohydrate stored in the muscle) and water count as FFM; I’ll explain why in a second.
Put simply: Total body weight = Fat Mass + Fat Free Mass.

And even that simple 2-component model gives dieters and athletes the tools that they need to far more accurately track what’s happening in their body. As I mentioned above, it would generally be rare for people to be losing bone, brain or organs in any significant amount. So if someone is losing weight and they are not losing fat free mass, that means that what is being lost is fat mass (body fat). That’s good.

However, in some situations (including diets with insufficient dietary protein, or without the right type of exercise), it is possible to lose fat free mass; and since brain, organs, etc. aren’t likely to be going down, a decrease in FFM often means a loss of muscle mass.

This is generally (but not always) a bad thing, for reasons beyond the scope of this article. I would note that water loss can show up as fat free mass on certain types of diets and this can cause athletes and lean dieters to get very concerned; they think they are losing skeletal muscle mass but they really aren’t. This is a topic I’ll discuss in more detail in a later article.

I’d note that measuring body composition can also be useful when someone is trying to gain weight. An athlete usually wants to be gaining muscle mass, not body fat. By tracking body composition while in a gaining phase, they can determine what is actually being gained.

You might be wondering how body composition is actually measured. There are a number of methods available ranging from very low- to very high-tech and low- to high-cost. Many gyms will use skinfold calipers (small pinching devices which measure fat thickness), there are also handheld monitors and specific scales (such as Tanita) that use body water to estimate body composition. I’d note that, for the most part, I don’t find Tanita scales terribly useful. Other methods such as DEXA scans (a very high-tech method) and others exist. This will be the topic of a forthcoming article with specific recommendations.

In any case, by looking at changes in body composition, rather than just changes in weight, it becomes possible to tell what is actually changing in the body. Is muscle being gained or lost? Is fat being gained or lost? Are the changes just water being shifted on and off the body? While only looking at weight can’t tell you any of that, measuring and tracking changes in body composition can.

How To Gain Weight: 5 Simple Steps

Gaining weight is often a misunderstood concept in bodybuilding circles, with the majority of newcomers assuming ‘weight gain’ simply means adding pounds onto the scale. The truth is, gaining high-quality weight means adding lean muscle tissue with as little fat as possible, a feat that is often easier said than done. Many assume that in order to add pounds of muscle you have to add pounds of fat as well, but with careful attention to your diet and workouts designed to add muscle, it can be accomplished.

Gaining weight comes down to one simple principle: Calories in must be greater than calories out.

This takes into account everything you’ve eaten throughout the day and every ounce of energy you’ve expended, including your workouts. If you have a surplus of calories on a consistent basis, you will gain weight. The trick to gaining muscle without fat is keeping your caloric surplus at no more than five-hundred calories per day, which will give you the energy needed to build muscle without an excess of calories that are stored as fat.

Let’s take a look at five simple steps you can take to maximize lean muscle growth while limiting excess body fat accumulation.

5 Steps: How to Gain Weight

Weight-Gaining Step #1 – Keep your workouts intense

Those extra calories need a job to perform or they will simply go towards fatty accumulation. Lean muscle tissue can only be built if there is adequate stimulation inside the gym. This means following a bodybuilding-friendly lifting regimen that will help you grow. Six to ten repetitions per set, fighting hard to finish each set, will ensure you are lifting hard enough to build muscle.

Weight-Gaining Step #2 – Limit the amount of cardio performed

Cardiovascular exercise is important in maintaining a lean physique and a healthy heart. However, if adding slabs of lean beef to your body is your goal, keep your cardiovascular exercise to a maximum of two to three sessions per week, lasting no more than fifteen minutes per session. This strategy will give you the benefits without burning too much energy.

Weight-Gaining Step #3 – Complex carbohydrates are your friend

One of the most important steps in eating to gain quality weight is to eat high-quality carbohydrates. These types of carbs help provide the fuel your body needs to power-through tough workouts, the fuel your body needs to repair and rebuild your muscle tissue, and the lasting fuel you will need to stave off junk-food cravings.

When you stick to high quality sources of carbohydrates such as oatmeal, yams, sweet potatoes, and other whole-grain sources, your body keeps it’s anabolic hormones in check and it’s fat-storing hormones at bay. Those who attempt to gain weight by eating anything and everything they want often end up gaining more fat than muscle, a direct result of the low-quality sources of carbohydrates that alter the optimal anabolic environment.

Weight-Gaining Step #4 – Supplement with a quality protein product

Most of us don’t realize just how much food it takes to achieve a daily caloric surplus; it is often more than the average person can consume. For this reason, it is important to consume two to three high-quality protein shakes everyday in-between meals, which supplies you with the quality protein and calories you need to grow. Some people naturally have a very high metabolism; if you are already very lean and struggling to gain weight then you’re probably in this category. This is the right time to take your supplementation a step further and consume a weight-gaining shake. These shakes are loaded with high-quality carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, important for the hard-gainer who is struggling to gain weight on diet and protein supplementation alone. Not all protein and weight-gaining supplements are created equal, so be sure to do your homework and get some product reviews before finding the right one for you.

Weight-Gaining Step #5 – Lean cuts of red meat provide quality calories

Red meat is a great weight-gaining tool because it is loaded with protein, contains more fat than chicken and turkey, and is rick in vitamins like zinc and iron, which help give you the power and strength needed to lift your hardest in the gym. Stick to lean cuts of beef such as Eye of Round and Flank steaks, which provide you with the benefits of red meat without the excess of fat found in the majority of cuts. On top of choosing lean cuts, be sure to remove any visible fat before cooking, as this will limit the amount of artery-clogging fat you consume.

Red meat doesn’t need to be consumed on a daily basis, but it does have its place within a solid weight-gaining strategy.

These five steps will give you a huge advantage on your journey to gaining weight.

There is no single ‘Super-food’, no ‘super supplement’, and no ‘magic bullet’ to gaining solid muscular weight. The biggest secret is perhaps knowing what it takes to achieve the goal; consistency. It takes a smart bodybuilding routine combined with a solid weight-gaining eating plan, executed regularly and consistently over a period of weeks, months, and years. As with anything else in life, putting the plan into action and sticking to it over the long haul will help you achieve the results you are looking for.

How To Gain Muscle: My Two “Magic” Secrets

Muscle building can seem like an incredibly frustrating process. On one hand you have the 5% of lifters who appear to make it look easy. On the other hand, you have the rest of the pack who for the life of them can’t figure out what in the heck they are doing so wrong.

Believe it or not the muscle building process is rather simple. There are a limited number of rules that, if followed, lead to rapid success.

This article will tell you exactly how to build muscle. You will be provided with the 2 primary rules of lifting. Follow these rules and you will exceed your goals. Ignore them and you will continue to spin your wheels like every other confused and frustrated gym rat.

Secret #1 – To Build Muscle You Muscle Remain Consistent

An obvious secret of success, but an overlooked one.

Take 100 lifters who aren’t making quality gains and ask them how often they are missing workouts. I would wager than only a very small handful of this group missed less than 5 workouts during the last 365 days.

If you want to be successful then you need to get your butt to the gym. Muscle will not be built sitting on the couch. Sure, rest is an essential part of the muscle building process, but only after the hard work has been done.

Excuses kill gains, legitimate or illegitimate. If you can’t, or don’t lift, then you’re going to have the body of someone who doesn’t lift. Period, end of story. Far too many guys enter the gym all gung ho, wanting to kill themselves by training 6 days per week, or with a crazy amount of volume. This is often a recipe for failure. Why?

Training too often leads to burnout. Training too often also leads to missed workouts. Life gets in the way. Life always gets in the way. Not many guys can stick to a 5-6 day per week split and not miss workouts. If you can great.

The same thing applies to volume. If you go into the gym with the sole purpose of beating the living crap out of your body, then that’s likely to be the outcome. While this is seen as the right thing to do, it sure doesn’t make it easy for you to spring out of bed the next day, full of motivation, and hit the iron again.

You will most likely wake up unable to move. The next logical step – you start to miss workouts due to intense muscle soreness (DOMS), or due to lack of motivation. It is far better to start slow with only 2-3 training days per week using a moderate volume. Allow yourself time to develop the habit of not missing workouts.

Learn your limits, work on improving exercise form and don’t pressure yourself to destroy yourself in the gym. Get in, make progress and get out. Understand that it is a long journey, but a journey that hinges on consistency. Do everything you can to maintain momentum.

Train hard, but train smart. Live to fight another day.

Secret #2 – To Build Muscle You Must Get Stronger

We are all aware that the body adapts to specific demands rather quickly. If you go out and run, you will be in pain the next day. Continue to run, day in and day out, and within a month your body will have adapted quite nicely.

The same thing applies to muscle building. If you hit the gym and bench press 135 pounds for 5 reps, you will feel sore the next day. If you never attempt to add reps and/or weight to this workout, your body will rapidly adapt to this demand and will have no additional incentive to build more muscle tissue.

It doesn’t matter what style of training you utilize – drop sets, slow negatives, low rep sets, Wendler’s 531 with Boring But Big, Starting Strength, Stronglifts, Doggcrapp, HIT, or high volume – if you are not pushing yourself for more weight of the bar over time, muscle gains will stop.
This does not mean you have to get as strong as an Elite level powerlifter. It DOES mean that you can never get complacent with your training. Thought bodybuilders will tell you they don’t specifically train for strength, which is true, I have yet to meet a single weak bodybuilder.

Anyone that wants to build a substantial amount of muscle mass must build a substantial strength base from head to toe. You can’t expect to curl 25 pound dumbbells and have monster biceps. You can’t expect to leg press 135 pounds and have tree trunk quads.

The addition of strength, or progressive overload, needs to be the cornerstone of your training.
When you push sets as hard as possible, for as many reps as possible, you are maximizing progression and strength gains. You are also maximizing workouts and speeding up the muscle building process.

On the other hand, if you choose to push only 10 to 25% of sets for more reps, you are dramatically slowing the muscle building process. Imagine taking the beginner gains that happened during the first year of training, and purposely stretching them out so that they now take 5 to 10 years to come to fruition.

If only 10 to 20% of your sets are maximized during a given workout,t hat’s exactly what you’re doing. This lack of focus on progression is a major reason why so many gym rats spin their wheels month in and month out.

6 Ways To Build A Training Program With Purpose

Complacency is a death sentence for any training program. Use these methods that create sustainable plans of action to lift, run, and live with purpose

Every training career goes through highs, lows, and middling lulls. Not only is this normal, I believe it's a necessary process in order create lasting habits. If you're on a downswing, though, it can feel like you'll be stuck there forever. Trust me: You won't. There are multiple reasons why your training has derailed, but the truth is that there's not one answer. What you were doing before simply wasn't working; what you do next is the real test.

Each of these strategies has helped me to get back on track in times like these. Approach them with an open mind, and a few minutes from now, you'll own the tools to reinvigorate your physical life.

1) TAKE A WEEK OFF
Let's start with the advice no avid lifter wants to hear: Downtime is the first step to overcoming dead-end training. A stale mind is often the result of an overstimulated body. The first sign of overtraining in motivated iron athletes is a lack of drive to train. Rest is necessary before you refocus and push forward again, and one rest day isn't going to cut it.

Training exists on a continuum which begins from stress and progresses to recovery. Let this idea settle in, and something profound becomes apparent: rest and recovery are training, as much and maybe more than anything you do in the gym. Hold that perspective, and it's easy to accept how a week of rest fits into your program. You're still teaching your body to adapt to all the stress you've inflicted on it up to this point, and will continue to in the future.

If training seems like a chore, get out of the gym. Accelerate your adaptation with low-level aerobic activities like long walks and extended mobility routines. Bike rides, hikes, and shooting hoops are all great for physical rejuvenation and clearing the mind. Throw yourself into activities that you enjoy—and perhaps haven't done in a while—at a different intensity than you're used to.

"IF TRAINING SEEMS LIKE A CHORE, GET OUT OF THE GYM. ACCELERATE YOUR ADAPTATION WITH LOW-LEVEL AEROBIC ACTIVITIES LIKE LONG WALKS AND EXTENDED MOBILITY ROUTINES."

2) EXAMINE YOUR GOALS
If you don't have a defined goal, your program will lack direction. Without direction, staleness is inevitable.

But even if you have a goal, ask yourself this: What does it mean to you? Why are you chasing it? If you don't have good answers for those questions, you've still got some thinking to do. Some folks aren't great goal-setters—that's fine. A simple question I recommend you ask yourself to set goals is: "What do I suck at?" It shouldn't be too hard to find something!

Once you determine your weaknesses, embrace the project of changing them and set a goal to put your weaknesses on par with your strengths. When you achieve that goal, reevaluate by asking the tough questions again. Set a new goal, and attack it.

3) ISSUE YOURSELF CHALLENGES
I often remind the children I coach that life isn't supposed to be easy or comfortable. The sooner you can accept that, the quicker you'll make progress.

Training problems happen when we familiarize ourselves with a program and become complacent. Challenges introduce struggle, and struggle introduces us to ourselves. Staleness can't thrive in a challenge-laden environment.

"CHALLENGES INTRODUCE STRUGGLE, AND STRUGGLE INTRODUCES US TO OURSELVES."

The process is simple: Take on one challenge per week that scares you. You've no doubt heard the saying "do one thing every day that scares you," but one each week is more sustainable and may allow you to think bigger. Systematically make yourself uncomfortable.

Each day is still an opportunity for growth and change. There are always ways to improve your form, mindset, and execution. Pick one of these per day and hammer it until you undeniably improve. Combine daily small challenges with larger weekly conquests, and your training will be filled with purpose.

Need a challenge to get started? Build up to doing 100 kettlebell swings with the heaviest weight you can swing with good form in five minutes. This is harder than it sounds, and it'll test your ideas of what "strength" and "endurance" mean.

4) MASTER NEW SKILLS
We live in a fascinating training era with a wealth of ideas, implements, and practices. Bodyweight strength work is undergoing a fascinating revival. Kettlebells and the Russian philosophies that spawned them litter gyms from Indonesia to Indiana. Olympic lifting has surged in popularity, and powerlifting and bodybuilding remain steadfast. You're not starved for training options and skills waiting to be mastered.

KETTLEBELL SWINGS

There's nothing wrong with being a renaissance man or woman, but weighing too many options will leave you sitting on your ass rather than taking action. Find a novel interest and explore it with intense passion!

If the old way of doing things is feeling old, devote yourself fully to a style of training with a different purpose. If powerlifting is wearing out its welcome, attack the clean and snatch. If you're sick of worrying about aesthetics, switch it up and master all that kettlebells have to offer. What's the risk? You can always go back!

5) COMPETE
Competition nurtures focus. There's nothing like pitting yourself against your peers to reinvigorate your training intensity.

The type of competition is irrelevant. Powerlifting, strongman, 5ks, and bodybuilding shows all accomplish the same foundational goal. It's the preparation that matters. Make the commitment, and know that every training session brings you one step closer to standing toe to toe with other athletes who want to beat you.

There's a special type of freedom and mental acuity that accompany a pre-competition program, no matter how you end up placing on game day. You work hard and focus just as hard, confident that everything you're doing is leading to something greater.

There's no definitive measure to determine when you're ready to compete, but that's part of the fun. First, find a competition 3-6 months away. Then, hire a coach or find the simplest training program you can follow. Then get after it! All of a sudden, the physiological changes that accompany your training—more strength, better movement, better physique—are just an added bonus.

6) CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE
For many of us, training is a big part of our lives. It's the heart of our physical development and a staple of our personal growth. But the world outside is much larger than iron, sets, and reps.

There are people who will never use their legs again. Others are terminally ill. Some people don't have the financial means to train and work three jobs to feed their children. Take a global view, and you'll see that merely being able to enrich your days with physical training is a rare privilege.

Spend this precious time wisely. Use it to grow and to enhance your life, and don't waste your energy making mountains out of molehills. There's no definitive approach, just like there's no definitive physique. Invest in yourself, challenge yourself, and restore your lifting life force!