Here is a very interesting article on post workout nutrition by top nutritionist Dave Barr

The Top 10 Post Workout Nutrition Myths
by Dave Barr
The Revolution has come, are you ready?
The world of strength training is obviously full of contradiction and confusion. Just pick up any standard bodybuilding magazine and you’ll see different people with drastically diverse views, all telling you that they have the one method to help you achieve your goals. But through all of this crap, every now and then we find certain principles that we can take to the grave and apply universally.
Examples include: “lift heavy weights and you’ll get big,” “cardio helps with weight loss,” and “Canadian men are hung like moose.”
Another such principle is the post workout nutrient window, which states that during the time immediately post workout, our bodies are in a state of shock and physical disarray, resulting in an opportunity for enhanced nutrient absorption and accelerated recovery. In fact, it’s pretty safe to say that since its inception a decade ago, this scientifically “proven” idea has revolutionized the way we look at nutrition.
Unfortunately, this principle has become so engrained in our subculture that much of it has mutated and become dogmatic in scope. While the general principles remain, many of the studies on which they are based were done on populations that aren’t completely applicable to us, such as animals or endurance athletes.
Despite the emergence of new, more applicable science, we’ve had a very difficult time in adapting our thinking to these current and better-suited ideas.
Making the situation worse is the fact that everyone seems to have their own input about what post workout nutrition should be! This stems from what I like to call the “telephone-chain effect” (derived from the lesson-yielding children’s game), which illustrates how easily messages can change when passed through a chain of people.
How it works is that one person will dictate something to another, who in turn tells this same information to someone else, who then repeats it to another, and so on. By human nature, each person will subtly alter the message, by leaving out some parts, embellishing others, etc. to the extent that by the time you get to the tenth person, the original statement of “Hey sugar, could you mop up the mess in the pantry with the Swiffer?” becomes warped to something like “Shugart is a messed up panty sniffer.”
True as it may be, obviously the point of the latter statement does not even remotely resemble the original.
But since this article is not entitled “The Top Ten Things Wrong With Our Post Workout Information,” let’s get to the myths that have developed, and the current reality.

1. Replenishing Glycogen Needs to be a Focus of PWO.
I’m not just suggesting that glycogen resynthesis is not important following exercise, I’m flat out saying that for strength training it’s not even a concern! This is because it’s just really easy to get our glycogen levels back up, and timing is generally not an issue.
Although one study showed that following endurance exercise, glycogen levels were replenished more rapidly when carbohydrates were consumed shortly after the exercise (Ivy, 1988), this is really of little concern to most of us. Unless we’re subscribers to Runners World, athletes in competition, or doing 2 a day workouts, why do we care so much about rapid glycogen restoration? After all, we’re mostly concerned with muscle growth, fat loss, and getting stronger.
The most common argument is that the subsequent cellular hydration and swelling will have an anticatabolic effect on muscle. I don’t believe that this is possible because cellular hydration to the extent that we get with creatine supplementation has little effect on muscle protein synthesis or breakdown in healthy men or women (Louis et al., 2003).
Then there’s the suggestion that if we don’t replenish post exercise glycogen right away, we’ll miss a window of opportunity to do so. This is largely hyperbole, exploded from bits and pieces of endurance training studies, and a perfect example of the telephone game effect.
Surprisingly, one study showed that consuming carbohydrates after strength training only increased muscle glycogen by 16% more than when water was consumed (Pascoe et al., 1993)! With this information and the huge amount of carbs that we consume on a daily basis, we should have little doubt that glycogen levels will be maximized within 24 hours of the workout.
Now these may be irrelevant points, because in the effort of keeping our focus where it ought to lie—on maximizing protein synthesis— we’re going to quickly stimulate our glycogen restoration anyway. This is because we consume rapidly absorbed carbohydrates along with our protein and amino acids, which has been shown to enhance muscle protein anabolism (Rasmussen et al., 2000).
In other words, muscle glycogen will be restored whether we make it a priority or not. This way, even those who can’t escape the dogma of having to rapidly restore glycogen get their fix, while at the same time, unknowingly assisting with muscle protein recovery.

2. Pre workout Nutrition will divert blood flow away from muscles during the workout.
One of a plethora of excuses made in an attempt to resist preworkout nutrition; this myth actually makes a lot of sense…until you become familiar with the physiology of hormones. Looking deeper, we can find that the insulin stimulated by food intake, actually enhances blood flow and subsequent nutrient delivery to muscles (Coggins et al., 2001).
Applying this principle, liquid pre workout meal consumption dramatically increases muscle blood flow and protein synthesis (Tipton et al., 2001). This elevation in muscle growth is at least twice that observed with the same drink taken post workout (Tipton et al., 2001)! In fact, this effect even lasts for an hour after the workout, so it’s like having 2 drinks for the price of 1! If you want more detail on this topic check out the article on Arginine blood flow stimulators.
Fortunately, early resistance to this research is falling by the wayside, and people are finally starting to reap the benefits that this practice has to offer. While “pre workout nutrition” just doesn’t sound as sexy as “post workout nutrition,” actually doubling our muscle growth should seem pretty damn sexy to everyone!

3. The post workout meal is the most important meal of the day.
I have to admit that with all the hype on post-workout meals over the past few years, I got tangled up in this myth, too. Realistically though, as great as they are, a single post-workout meal will have minimal impact compared to what can happen if your nutrition is completely optimized. Of course it’s heresy to say that these days, but that’s a result of the myth building on itself more than any factual data. For example, as discussed in the myth #2, pre-workout meals can be 200% more effective for stimulating muscle growth compared to post-workout (Tipton et al., 2001).
Perhaps even more important than the pre-workout meal is the old standard: breakfast. No this article isn’t part of a conspiracy by MABB (Mom’s Against Bad Breakfasts) to promote the importance of this meal. Just think about it: being essentially fasted for 8-10 hours is incredibly destructive for muscle -yes even if you eat cottage cheese before bed.
This is especially true in trained individuals like us, because we have higher rates of muscle breakdown (Phillips et al. 2002) The faster we can stop this catabolism once we wake up, the better. In fact, one could even argue that the amount of muscle protein spared from this first meal would be equal to, or even greater, than that gained by a post workout meal.
Also, consuming a high quality slow protein before bed, like Low-Carb Grow! with micellar casein, will largely mitigate the catabolic effect induced by nocturnal fasting. Taking this one step further, nighttime eating will actually put your muscle into anabolic overdrive, by supplying even more amino acids to stimulate this metabolic process.
Finally, a second post workout meal can be even better for protein synthesis than the first, but I’ll get to that one in a bit.
Mini-Summary: Nocturnal feedings, breakfast, preworkout meals, and multiple post workout meals can be more beneficial for muscle growth than a single post workout meal.

4. There’s a one-hour window of opportunity for protein synthesis following a workout.
You may be wondering: is this a myth because the real window is half an hour? Two or 3 hours? Maybe 6 hours? Sadly, in the past 2 weeks I’ve read different articles, all suggesting that the “window” is one of the above lengths of time.
It’s not surprising that with this type of inconsistency that this is probably the most pervasive myth in bodybuilding today! Worse yet, it stems directly from the scientific research itself. The most often cited research on the protein synthetic post workout window, used elderly subjects (Esmark et al., 2001) and cardio exercise findings (Levenhagen et al., 2001) to make their predictions. While this is a completely acceptable practice when these are the only data we have to go on, there are a couple noteworthy problems.
Elderly individuals digest and absorb protein differently than healthy adults. In fact, they digest and absorb whey protein in a similar manner as they do casein (Dangin et al., 2003); in other words they have slow digestion and absorption for whey. Elderly also benefit from having 80% of their daily protein consumed at a single sitting (Arnal et al., 1999), in contrast to the benefits of our multiple feedings.
Additionally, the traditionally referenced Esmark et al. (2001), study showed that consuming the post workout meal just 2 hours after working out actually prevented any improvements induced by the training! Figure that one out and you get a prize.
Secondly, with regards to cardio…well, let’s just say that there’s an obvious difference between how our muscles respond to the two forms of exercise. Bear in mind that with regard to carbohydrate metabolism following a workout, there might not be much of a difference—we just don’t know, but certainly the long-term protein metabolism differences can be seen.
So now what are we supposed to base our nutrition on? Enter the most underrated scientific paper in the last 5 years. Tipton and colleagues (2003) examined responsiveness of protein synthesis for a day after a workout, and found it to reflect a 24 hour enhanced level. That’s right folks, a FULL DAY! This means that having a morning shake will have the same impact on muscle protein synthesis as one consumed following the workout!
These results shouldn’t be too surprising because we’ve known for over a decade that postworkout protein synthesis is jacked up for this long (MacDougall et al., 1995), but if you’re discovering this for the first time, then it’s pretty exciting!
Some research suggests that even 48 hours after the workout our protein synthesis levels can be elevated by ~33% (Phillips et al., 1997), giving us an even longer period during which we can maximize our muscle growth with protein drinks.
Strike one for the one hour post workout window.

5. Consuming the drink immediately following the workout will elicit the greatest protein synthesis.
It’s amazing to see how more advanced, and often experienced, people behave in the gym when it comes to getting their post workout meal. Some guys even sit there, right after their last set, and slug back a drink! In fact I’ve even heard “as soon as the weight hits the floor” touted as the war cry for the hardcore. While this is actually a sub-optimal practice for muscle growth and recovery, not to mention borderline obsessive compulsive, it’s good to see their heart is the right place.
Comparing research that used drinks consumed immediately after a workout (Tipton et al., 2001) versus those ingested an hour after training (Rasmussen et al., 2000), the results are surprising: it seems that post workout meal ingestion actually results in 30% lower protein synthesis rates than when we wait! So every time we thought that we were badass for drinking “as soon as the weight hit the floor, we were actually short changing ourselves. Not a big deal, that’s why we read T-Nation. Let’s just learn, adapt, and move on.
Strike two for the one hour post workout window.

6. The best meal to consume following a post workout meal is a good SOLID meal.
This is where we can start to apply some of the novel information presented above. While we know that our post workout window (is it really even a window any more? 24 hours is more like a giant garage door) lasts for at least 24 hours, we can’t assume that the responses to repeated meals will all be the same.
This is where research by Borsheim and pals (2002) comes in. This landmark research shows that the best thing to consume after our post workout meal is… another protein shake! In fact, if we time it right, we’ll get the same huge increase in protein synthesis. Talk about a double whammy for our muscle growth! Now considering how crazy people get when it comes to a single post workout meal, imagine how they’ll react when you tell them that they can double that effect!
Also, for those who have a hard time accepting the reality explained in myth #5, you’ll get an even bigger response from the second drink, compared to what you get from the first.

7. Insulin sensitivity is enhanced for an hour following a resistance training bout.
The term insulin sensitivity gets thrown around in the strength-training world, as only the most vague of concepts. From here on, lets universally define it as: the inverse of the quantity of insulin required for an effect of a given magnitude. In other words, high insulin sensitivity requires low levels of insulin to do the job. Make sense? Now that we have a working definition, we need to destroy the myth of the one-hour post workout window once and for all!
We know that both endurance exercise and strength training will enhance insulin sensitivity in the long term. This is a good thing. Unfortunately, with all of the hype surrounding the post workout window, people have started throwing out numbers related to how long insulin sensitivity is altered. While we know that heavily damaging eccentric exercise will actually reduce insulin sensitivity (Asp et al., 1996), this should be an extreme condition and not our regular response. So if you’ve overdone it a bit, back off and heal up!
The more common response to strength training is an increase in insulin sensitivity (Fujitani et al., 1998; Miller et al, 1984), and brand new data show even the acute effect from a single bout lasts for over 24 hours (Koopman et al., 2005). So while we’ll have an enhanced whole body insulin sensitivity following resistance training, this effect is even greater for 24 hours following exercise!
Steeerike THREE for the one hour post workout window!

8. Whey is a “fast” protein, ideal for post workout.
Back when it first came out, whey protein was pretty kick ass because it was discovered to be very high quality. Then research came out that made it even more kick ass, because we could classify it as a “fast” digesting protein compared to casein (Boirie et al., 1997).
You know what? This research stands today, because compared to casein, whey protein really is fast! Then again, a tortoise is also fast compared to a snail, but that doesn’t mean we want to take a tortoise to a greyhound park. In other words, we’ve been considering whey a “fast” protein only because we’ve been comparing it to something incredibly slow. When we compare the digestibility of whey to the gold standard of amino acids, on which we base nearly all of our post workout nutritional data, whey flat out sucks.
This is incredibly frustrating because all of the ways to maximize protein synthesis we’ve been discussing have used amino acids. So we need to either use pure amino acids or use something that closely resembles their absorptive properties. This is where whey protein hydrolysate comes in. The protein is already broken up into large peptides, so we get a rapid absorption with peak levels reaching the blood at around 80 minutes (Calbet and MacLean, 2002), compared to 60 minutes for pharmaceutical grade amino acids (Borsheim et al., 2002).
Unfortunately, even the highly touted whey isolate is completely useless for our timing purposes here, because it just takes too long to get taken up by the gut (Dangin et al., 2002). This is all discussed in more detail in the official product review of Surge, complete with graphs of blood amino acid profiles: [link=http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459463]http://www.t-nation.com/r…lt;/a>
In light of these data and the growing body of literature contradicting the versatility and usefulness of whey protein, it should henceforth be classified as “moderate” or “intermediate” speed protein, with only whey hydrolysate and amino acids existing as truly “fast.”
It may be difficult to adjust our thinking, but this is simply more dogma that needs to be destroyed in order to bring us up to date with the proper application of research.

9. Using antioxidants post workout enhances recovery.
Here’s another myth that just makes sense: we work out, cause all kinds of damage to our bodies, then we use antioxidants to help clean up the mess. Simple and sweet. The reality? Neither simple or sweet. In fact, it may not surprise you to find that there is a clear lack of data on antioxidant supplementation following exercise.
Taking a step back to look at the basis for the theory, it’s been shown that damaging eccentric exercise didn’t change the normal levels of our body’s antioxidants (Child et al., 1999). In other words, our body has a natural antioxidant defense capability, and this was not stressed at all despite the exercise and the subsequent muscle damage.
This is contradicted by other data showing that there is an impact of exercise on natural antioxidant levels (Lee et al., 2002; Goldfarb et al., 2005), but clearly the case is not closed. With this conflicting research, you’d have to wonder if antioxidant supplementation would have any effect at all! Oh it does, my oxidized friend, but the effects are not what we’d expect!
Once again, here’s one of the most underrated research papers of the last 5 years—take note folks because this is one of those studies you need to know about. This groundbreaking research by Childs and buddies (2001) examined the impact of post workout antioxidant supplementation on subsequent muscle damage and healing.
You’ll be shocked to know they found that this practice actually increased muscle damage and delayed recovery! That’s right, the microtrauma experienced by the muscle cells was exacerbated by the antioxidants. With this, the greater the damage, the more time it takes to repair.
It seems that there are pro-oxidant effects happening here, meaning that the “antioxidants” actually started causing the damage they were meant to clean up! While this effect is thought to occur with excessive antioxidant use, it’s surprising that these effects were seen at a Vitamin C dosage of ~1100mg and ~900mg N-Acetyl Cysteine per day, for a 200 lb guy, neither of which are all that incredibly high. To my knowledge, this is the only study to investigate antioxidant supplementation after strength training. This makes the findings incredibly powerful because they are directly applicable to us!

On a personal note, I was pretty blown away when I read this paper because I’d been using Vitamin C post workout for years. While these data aren’t strong enough to make me swear off antioxidants altogether, they clearly show that we can overdo it quite easily with these supplements. More importantly, these data help us rethink the post workout window dogma.

10. Aspirin and ibuprofen are good anti-inflammatories for muscle recovery.
The topic of muscle inflammation is pretty hot these days because it’s thought that minimizing this natural response will enhance recovery. By allowing us to hit the gym or get back on the field quicker, we can once again stimulate our bodies with a hard training session.
While the theory holds some water, we need to be careful how far we take it. For example, the use of traditional pain relievers, like aspirin and ibuprofen, has been increasingly common, because most people just don’t like the feeling of muscle soreness (T-Nation readers excepted because we’re hardly “most people”).
A common effect of these pain relievers is that they exert a powerful anti-inflammatory effect. This fact has excited some budding pseudo-scientists, because they reason that using these common drugs will reduce muscle inflammation and enhance recovery. Great theory, poor applicability.
Early research showed that post workout use of these drugs inhibited our natural production of a chemical necessary for muscle growth and repair (Trappe et al., 2001). Further investigation showed that sure enough, muscle protein synthesis was completely shut down when these drugs were combined with strength training (Trappe et al., 2002). As a final kick in the teeth, using these drugs resulted in no effect on either inflammation (Peterson et al., 2003), or muscle soreness (Trappe et al., 2002).
Essentially we get the worst of all worlds when combining nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) like aspirin and ibuprofen, with strength straining. Having said that, it is important to note that there are several different ways of affecting inflammation, some may be good, others are clearly bad. Keep in the back of your mind that limiting inflammation is a good idea, but certainly be aware that it is not universally beneficial.

Ten Take Home Points

—glycogen restoration is all too easy to achieve and may not be as critical as once thought
—protein synthesis needs to be the focus of our recovery intervention
—pre-workout meals actually enhance muscle blood flow and nutrient delivery during exercise
—pre-workout meals, nocturnal feeding, and multiple post workout drinks are more beneficial than a single post workout drink
—the “post workout window” lasts at least 24 hours
—consuming a protein shake immediately after training hinders optimal results
—strength training acutely enhances insulin sensitivity for at least 24 hours
—whey protein is generally only moderate speed, while whey hydrolysate and pure amino acids are “fast”
—antioxidants taken after exercise may increase muscle damage and delay recovery
—aspirin and ibuprofen can prevent the exercise-induced elevation in muscle protein synthesis thus hindering growth and prolonging recovery

Five Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ: If we don’t care about glycogen, then why would we use high glycemic carbs post workout?
A: Don’t forget that the main goal is to maximize protein synthesis, which is likely accomplished using quickly absorbed carbohydrates and greatly elevating insulin.
FAQ: In the study with the pre workout drink, what did they consume and when did they drink it?
A: Pure amino acids and sucrose were consumed immediately before training started.
FAQ: Doesn’t consuming carbs before a workout cause a blood sugar crash during the workout?
A: Usually no, our catecholamine response seems to keep out blood sugar elevated without problems. But if you’re just starting to try this, consume carbs during the workout or have them ready just in case.
FAQ: If there is a 24-hour post workout window, why do we care about consuming multiple drinks?
A: The multiple drink method is still the best way to maximize our anabolic response following training. We take advantage of this “window” by spiking our blood amino acid level as often as we can.
FAQ: If there is a 24-hour post workout window, why do we care about fast or intermediate speed proteins?
A: The multiple drink method can only be used when fast proteins or amino acids are consumed. It just doesn’t work with intermediate speed proteins.

CONCLUSIONS
It’s safe to say that we’ve been brought up to date with the current research regarding strength training and nutrition. Perhaps more importantly it’s clear that the post workout dogma has been destroyed. Unfortunately, with all of this destruction going on, there is a knowledge gap that needs to be filled, which will allow us to apply these new findings.
In other words, we need to figure out what all of this science stuff means, and how we can best use it to our advantage. In an upcoming article, I’ll introduce the Anabolic Index: a detailed blueprint for making use of this latest information, allowing us to maximize our anabolic potential.
Until then, Raise the Barr!
Thanks to: Nathan Devey, Nathan Dewsbury, Tan Huaiyu, Jonathan Boyle, my Phrenologist Dr. Ryan Smith, and everyone who helped review this document.

-AC-

Over Training is essentially one of the most common ways a lot of people hold their progress back in and out of the gym. Over Training often occurs as a result of egotistical behavior where an individual believes more is better or more innocently due to a lack of knowledge. However, you can now learn exactly why Over Training is such a problem and why you should avoid it like the plague and get back on the track leading you all the way to muscle mass gains.
Over Training occurs when an individual trains for a ridiculous amount of time in one session often topping the advised one hour mark by half again or even more. Furthermore, an awful lot of people tend to over train particular muscle groups, otherwise known as ‘mirror muscles.’ This is due to an ego which craves big biceps and a chiseled chest, which by doing so overlooks other body parts and trains the same muscles day in day out. These are the two most common types of Over Training.
The main reasons you should look to avoid Over Training are as follows. Over Training leads to catabolism which is the bodybuilding equivalent to the Devil. Catabolism eats away at your hard earn muscle mass, which you have put a lot of time, effort and even money to gain. Secondly, Over Training leads to a decrease in strength levels which of course holds your training back no end. This will cause you to struggle through workouts, struggle to get pumped and as a result you will lose motivation. Finally, Over Training can lead to sever injury of the connective tissues. What may be a niggle at first, turns into a huge problem when you over train.
The best way to avoid Over Training is to simply have a set programme where you hit certain muscle groups on certain days. This way you won’t even be tempted into adding an extra biceps workout in the same week as you know you should be training your legs that night. Also, for anyone who trains properly in the gym, they will tell you it is impossible to hit the same muscle group within a couple of days. Therefore if you feel you can train chest two or three days after your last chest workout, you are not training properly. Don’t train for more than an hour, which gives an ample amount of time to obliterate your targeted muscle group. Training beyond here will only deepen the effect of catabolism, not stimulate growth. Be sure to keep your glycogen levels up via low G.I carbohydrates and supplements such as Waxy Maize Starch right after training to help combat catabolism.
There you have a briefing as to why Over Training is something you need to avoid and if you don’t what it can do, or more to the point, not do to your progress.

This routine is a great routine for a more advanced trainer looking to bulk up during the coming winter months. it basically is a 3 day split done over 5 days per week. its slightly complicated so i’ll do my best to explain it now:

workout 1 – chest and triceps
workout 2 – back and shoulders
workout 3 – legs and biceps

The training week will look like this:

monday – W1
tuesday – W2
wednesday off
thursday – W3
Friday – W1
saturday – W2
sunday off
monday – W3
tuesday – W1
……………………….. and so on following that pattern

Wednesday and sunday are rest days. this allows for bodyparts to be trained twice per week. every 3 weeks one of the workouts will only be trained once. as you can see on week 2 W3 will be trained twice but W2 will be only trained once. this allows for maximum muscle stimulation twice per week (every 4 days). this will allow for maximum recovery but muscle stimulus more regularly. if you train a muscle group on a monday, by thursday it will normally be fine to train again, but you dont, you leave it fully recovered and doing nothing for another 4 days. whats the point. that muscle could be growing in those 4 days but its not as its had no stimulus. This plan is the perfect combat to that.

so the workouts must tie in the bodyparts. normally if training a bodypart once per week i would do maybe 5 exercises of 3 sets per bodypart. due to training each part every 4 days this is not necessary. the workout will be as follows:

W1: chest and triceps
flat bench press – 5 x 5
incline dumbell press 3 x 8
cable flyes – 3 x 8
weighted dips – 5 x 5
cable pushdowns – 3 x 8

W2: Back and shoulders
Barbell row – 5 x 5
Chins – 4 x 8
heavy shrugs – 3 x 8
standing barbell press – 5 x 5
heavy lateral raise – 3 x 8

W3: legs and biceps
squats – 5 x 5
smith machine lunges – 3 x 8
leg extensions – 3 x 8
standing barbell curls – 5 x 5
seated hammer curls – 3 x 8

calfs, abs and forearms (if you wish) can be added onto the end of the workout of your choice. i Aim to do calfs twice per week so generally do them on a monday and thursday regardless of what workout falls on that day.

Weights will not be increased each set but rather a weight will be chosen (for example 100kg on bench press), then when 5 sets of 5 reps can be achieved you will increase the weight. then if you fail at say 3 reps on the final set you will stick at that weight until the full 5 x 5 is accomplished. no spotting should be required on any set excpet the last one as you want to be making sure you are doing the reps yourself.

I recommend changing the exercises every 6 weeks but keep the principles the same and keep them heavy compound. for example you could replace squats with hack squats and do deadlifts on back day. You may swap flat bench to incline barbell bench on chest etc.

This routine is fantastic for building overall strength and when combined with a high calorie diet will really help you add some solid pounds over the winter months.

-AC-
monstersupplements adviser

This is an article written by an extremely knowledgable member of fitforum.co.uk called CTP. It is an extremely indepth article on how you can build a diet plan to suit your needs from the ground up. building a nutritional plan to best suit your gains is the most important factor in achieving your physical goals so read carefully and take in the information.

Ok, so everyone talks about their nutritional plan and most the time you get to see the output. It’ll be included in people’s blogs, or fat loss logs as a long list of random ingredients with times allocated to the meals, then somewhere at the bottom they’ll be a summary of what the calorific value and protein content is. What you don’t get to see if how people get to that final stage, nor why they made the decisions along the way.

This blog looks at my current nutrition (and hopefully) goes all the way from flash to bang, or zero to hero so that you can then take the concepts and apply them to your training regime.

First thing is first if you want to be successful then you have to be pro-active. There is the time old saying with the 7 P’s – “Proper Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. I cannot think of a sport where this is more applicable than in body building. More often than not a poor nutritional plan is why your not seeing the gains you deserve.

So back to basics quickly – Lets just clear up a few points about why we do certain things. If we understand the intent of those actions we should best be able to incorporate those principles into our diet.

Macronutrients and Calories – What are these things?

Proteins – essential to growth and repair of muscle and other body tissues

Fats – one source of energy and important in relation to fat soluble vitamins

Carbohydrates – our main source of energy

Minerals – those inorganic elements occurring in the body and which are critical to its normal functions

Vitamins – water and fat soluble vitamins play important roles in many chemical processes in the body

Water – essential to normal body function – as a vehicle for carrying other nutrients and because 60% of the human body is water

For fuel, the easiest source is Carbs, then Protein, and lastly fat

How many calories do I need?

The amount of calories you need to eat every day depends on 2 things; the first is your lean weight, the second is how active you are. It goes without saying that the bigger you are the more you need to eat to stay the same size, likewise, if you play sports 3 times a week you will burn more calories than someone who doesn’t – so you’ll need to eat more.

First thing is first then, you need to either measure (or best guess) your % body fat. You can do this using callipers, or most gyms will have contact scales you can stand on and then they will tell you.

Im about 24% body fat (that makes me pretty cuddily), and I weigh 215lbs. So this means that actually my weight is split as follows; My lean mass (without any fat) is 163.4lbs, and I am carrying 51.6lbs fat. To check my maths is right (51.6 + 163.4 = 215).

Don’t be off put by this value because for most people, their aims tend to be to get down to 10% or so fat, so there isn’t as much to shift as you would initially think.

Using my lean mass, i can then work out how many calories a day I need. This is know more commonly as your BMR or Basic Metabolic Weight. It is what you would need to eat to maintain your weight if you did nothing but sleep for a day.

The simplest way is to calculate your BMR is by multiplying your lean mass by 10. Therefore mine would ne 163 x 10 = 1630kcals per day.

Don’t look so devasted, thankfully every day you walk about, brush your teeth, talk, burp, fart …. all of these processes require energy. This is where we tailor the calculation to your needs. In order to increase the value we are going to multiply it by an ‘activity factor’. This simply increases the value.

My activity factor is 1.5. Therefore ill times my BMR by this value. 1630 x 1.5 = 2445kcal / day. So this is the value that I am going to use to do everything else.

So this is where the story splits. Your body can do 1 of 3 things. It can grow, stay the same, or get smaller.

1) For your body to grow you need to be in a calorie surplus – this is when you eat more calories than you need to a day. These extra calories are used to build muscle, or, if your not using them, they are stored as fat.

2) For your body to stay the same size, you need to break even on your calorie intake – This quite literally involves eating just enough calories, not too many, not too few. For me, with the amount of exercise I do this would be 2445kcals a day

3) For your body to get smaller, you need to be in calorie deficit. This is where you eat less energy than you need. In order to then support what you are doing, your body is forced to convert either stored fat, or muscle into energy.

As I am leaning (getting smaller – loosing fat without losing muscle) this is what I am going to focus on in my example.

So, I have to eat less than 2445kcals/day to lose weight…. but how much less? Well, 1lb fat is equal to a loss of 3500kcals. So For every 3500kcals I am deficit, I will lose a pound of fat. In order to be sensible, I am aiming to lose between 1 and 2 lbs of fat a week. This will require me to be between 3500-7000kcals short every week. 3500 / 7 days in a week means I should always be aiming to be short by 500kcals per day. With this in mind, my calorie requirements drop from 2445 to 1945kcals.

So how much of each should I have?

1945 kcals per day – how is that best spent in order for me to make sure I lose as much fat as possible and hold onto as much muscle as possible?

Different people say different things, they’ll tell you to eat your food in ratios i.e 30/20/50 Protein/ Fat / Carbs, or to eat so many grams of Protein / Fat / Carbs per kg of body weight. Ultimately they all give similar values. For the sake of leaning, I tend to aim for 250g Protein, 100g(or less) of Carbs, and 100g Fat.

As above, Carbohydrates are your primary source of fuel, so you have to decrease your intake of these. Most people tend to consume around 200g a day. In order to combat this, I have a high protein intake – this provides the building blocks required to prevent any muscle loss. This the only leaves one fuel source for your body to look to for energy – STORED FAT!

Its important to remember that calories are calories, it doesn’t matter what form they come in, if you eat too many you’ll get bigger, if you eat to few you’ll get smaller. If you only need 2000kcals per day, and you religiously eat 2500kcals of pure protein, the surplus energy will still be converted to fat and stored.

How should I be eating it?

Well, my limits are

Calories: 1945kcals
Protein: 250g
Carbs: 100g
Fat: 100g

Traditionally you would have ‘Three square meals a day’. This conforms with working life where your constrained by your job. This doesn’t mean it is the best way to approach eating though – it is just the easyist.

When you eat food, your body needs to process it – everything from chewing it, to it moving though your stomach, and then the intestines, and then out the hole at the end. It can only process so much food in one go. If there is too much food being processed at any one time instead of getting rid of it your body begins to save it for one of those rainy day occasions – it does this through storing it as fat.

Therefore, to prevent your body having the opportunity to do this, the idea is to eat little and often. Little and often means your body will never have any surplus food, adn will therefore never have the opportunity to store it as fat. Also, constantly feeding will keep your metabolism ticking over at a higher rate. This will burn more energy over all.

Little and often – for most people this means 5-6 meals a day. If you can achivieve more than this then that is fantastic. Hugh Jackman in preparations for the Wolverine film was eating 9 meals a day – this involved waking at 4am to drink raw egg whites!

My day lends itself to eating at:

0700, 1100, 1300, 1600, 1800, 2100

So I’m quite lucky. If I am going to eat 6 meals as above, I know that each meal should contain 1/6th of the Calories and 1/6th of the nutritional break down calculated earlier. Therefore

Calories: 1945kcals which means each meal should have 325 kcals
Protein: 250g which means each meal should have 40g
Carbs: 100g which means each meal should have 17g
Fat: 100g which means each meal should have 17g

This isn’t a hard and fast rule – it is just a guide so don’t go getting too worried if you cant quite get teh values you want. If your up on carbs one day, then aim to be a little lower than normal on another. It’s not an art, it is just about doing whats best with the resources you have.

The best bit …. Picking your foods.

MMMMNNN, picking what your going to eat. This is most definitely the best bit. Aiming for 5-6 meals a day puts you in such a better position than any ‘Normal’ person. It means you get to eat twice as often  It means you get to experience twice the amount of flavour  It means you only have to wait half as long to have your favourite meal, It means you should never be hungry … like I said it doesn’t get better than that.

When I am drawing up a food diary I tend to do it a week or so in advance. I’ll sit down for an hour or so and experiment with different foods until I come up with a menu I’m happy with. Over the months of the competition I developed a range of key meals that I tend to have frequently – this means I have to spend less time planning.

By planning your meals before you eat them you can ensure your body is getting the nutrients it needs when it needs them. You can make sure it never has too many or too few. It lets you be in control!

So what do I mean by a meal plan. The concept is simple, it is just a record of what you are going to eat, how much of it you are going to eat, and when you are going to eat it. Below you can see the ‘tidy’ template from last weeks training diary. When I first started though I used to do it on scraps of paper. The key thing to note is I’m writing down everything that goes in my mouth – sugar when I have a hot drink, milk when I have a tea, ketchup, supplements, it all gets written down and the values get recorded. The things that help me do this are:

i) Nutritional Book (£3) – Just like a dictionary
ii) Scales (£10) – I removes the liberty of my guessing

“I promise you now that if you asked me to gauge a 100g portion of rice after I had been for a 10 mile run and was ravenously hungry, and if you asked me to do it after eating my cheat meal the portion sizes would be very different. That is why I remove the variable of perception.”
For beginners if your new to writing a nutritional plan then don’t try to make all the changes in one go – if you do, it probably won’t last, and you won’t feel it is sustainable.

Start by aiming to eat the right amount of calories (don’t worry about where they are coming from), just worry about eating the right amount. Once you have got that sorted, aim to try and meet the protein requirements every day whilst staying in your calorific boundaries. Finally, look at reducing your Carb intake to your values, and finally adjust your fat levels.

If you aim to adjust 1 variable a week, it should take you a month to get there. In this month you’ll be constantly learning about foods, as well as finding out what does and doesn’t work for you. Every one is different so be patient.

How do I pick my meals?

Well, I always start with my core meals – this varies from person to person, but I hate preparing food, especially at night after the gym – so I always aim to eat a meal that’s quick to prepare in the evening. As a result my evening meals tend to be stir frys, or egg based – such as omelettes. My day time meals tend to take longer to prepare – ill make them up every few days and freeze them down, then I just take them out the freezer the night before and microwave them at work.

Below you can see a copy of todays meal plan:

You can see that I’m a little over on calories, and that I’m eating more of my calories towards the end of the day which isn’t ideal as I wont have chance to burn them all off.

You notice that the meals are roughly balanced, and that my final meal of the day has no carbs in.

The most important thing I will do is this – looking back at what I have eaten. I don’t quite get enough fats today, and my calories are a little over so I know tomorrow I need to adjust this. What I could do is have the olive oil I normally have with my evening shake with my tuna at brunch – this means Ill be getting more calories towards the start of the day. Alternatively I could look at maybe having some butter on my chicken and reducing my calorie intake from another meal.

You’ll see very quickly that there isn’t a science to this; you just need to be patient.

The Cheat Meal;

For most people this is their saviour. I suggest that if your viewing this as your saviour then you adjust your plan to make it enjoyable. The cheat meal should be that extra reqard for having done so well. How often should I have my cheat meal? Well that depends on your training regime, I would aim for once a week – thats not so far away it seems unachievable, but at the same time, its not every other day so the novelty wont wear off.

How badly can I cheat? That again is down to you, you’ve worked so hard in the last week you should be conservative and tactful in my opinion. The best cheat days are those where you eat what you want, and don’t differ to much from your desired nutritional values.

I have my cheat days on a Wednesday, I do this because my longest run is on the Wednesday morning, and then I have my shortest gym session Wednesday evening. This means I can order the takeaway as I leave the gym, it’s at home for me when I get there and I can eat whilst my metabolism is still racing from the gym.

My cheat meal is always the last meal of the day – this prevents me re-offending again. I also reduce the size of my meals during that day so that I can carry over soem of the calories to compensate in the evening. All these things add up and in the end, your cheat day isn’t as much of a cheat as you might think.

For the record my cheat meal is a can of coke (or something else that’s sweet and fizzy) a large mixed kebab drowned in garlic mayo and ketchup, and then if there is room a mars bar ice cream! I still sit down to eat the meal, drink atleast 1 pint of water with the meal, and do nothing else whilst eating.

So that is how I do it, with time, you’ll develop your own tricks and routines that work for you. Leaning is like running a marathon – in the long run, whether you sprint the last 100m or jog it then it isn’t particularly going to make a big difference. The moral being, if you fall off the band wagon, get back on it as soon as possible. Don’t wait until Monday, and don’t do that whole “Ill have one more meal” and start tomorrow. The quicker you start the quicker it’ll be time for that cheat meal.

So a closing point – How to gauge your progress and how to keep losing:

If you look in the mirror every day to see your progress you won’t notice anything. If you take pictures fortnightly you’ll begin to notice subtle changes – the moral is change takes time its not an over night cure. My suggesting when gauging your progress is to consider something more specific, waist size, body fat. If you are going to use your weight to chart your success then make sure you do it in the same conditions every week, and make sure you only do it once a week. Your weight will fluctuate depending on the last time you went to the toilet, and the last time you ate. I weigh in once a week on a Monday morning. Ill do it after my shower once I have had a poo, and I don’t drink until after I have weighed in. This way my body is in the same state every week.

TJ, the winner of the monster comp provides a fantastic example of why it is so critical that you remain consistent. Just a few weeks later he won the competition.

ENTRY 1:

http://fitforum.co.uk/entry.php?558-Week-8-Back-Workout

ENTRY 2:

http://fitforum.co.uk/entry.php?562-Quick-Update

Finally:

As you lean you’ll be getting smaller, I would suggest that you recalculate your body’s calorific and nutritional needs every month because as you get lighter, you need less energy to support you. The difference of 5 lbs is the same as 75kcal per day.

I hope this helps, I have tried to get as much information down as I can, and for beginners I hope this clears up a few points and provides a little guidance.

to see the original article log onto www.fitforum.co.uk and check out the blog section

As its coming up to summer most people will be looking to attain that beach body and display a rippling 6 pack. However the majority of people will not have yet achieved that look. Having thick defined abs can literally transform the way a physique looks and is the desirable look for most men.

However, although a good 6 pack is what most people desire, most people fail to train their abdominal muscles on a regular basis and to the necessary degree. in my experience doing 3 sets of crunches once a week when it gets to summer is not enough to really get a solid 6 pack. you have to dedicate some time at least once per week all year round to build these stubborn muscles. Just like you would any other body part.

To me good abs are when you have thick abs, with really deep divides and pronounced obliques. in order to get this i believe that heavy weights must be used. i have used a routine over the past year that has worked very well in helping me to develop my abs. it takes no more than 30 minutes and can be done only once a week to see great results.

so here it is:

1st exercise: crunch circuit
i warm up my abs by doing a superset of crunches and static leg raises. i lie on my back with my knees bent and feet planted. watching the clock i do crunches for 30 seconds (aim for 1 crunch every second). Then at 30 seconds i hold my legs out straight with my feet 2-3 inches off the floor. cross your arms across your chest to keep tension on your abs. i hold this for 30 seconds then bring my legs back in to crunch again. i repeat this 3 times so taking a total of 3 minutes. that is one set. i will usually do 2.

2nd exercise: cable sit ups
this is best if you have a training partner. you will need to set a bench around 3 foot away from a low cable machine (the bottom cable on a cable crossover machine will work as well). attatch a rope attatchment to the cable. lay on the bench so that your head is at the end with the cable and rope and your feet are away from it. tuck your feet up onto the bench and get your training partner to hold them down. take the rope and hold it either side of your head. stretch right back whilst keeping your abs tensed and then performa full range sit up. there should be tension on the cable the full time. it is very hard and the lowest weight on the stack will most likely suffice for most people. if you dont have a training partner you can do the same thing but simply sit on the floor rather than a bench and tuck your feet under 2 heavy dumbells. you should do 3 sets of 8-12 reps

3rd exercise: reverse cable crunch:
this time we will use the top cable. attatch the rop attatchment to the high cable. hold the rope either side of your head and kneel down around 3 feet away from the machine. allow your abs to stretch up with the cable then crunch down bringing your head towards your knees. crunch hard at the bottom. do 3 sets of 8-12 reps

4th exercise: side reverse cable crunches
these are performed in the same way as the third exercise but you will face sideways on to the machine and you will crunch sideways. bring your elbow down to the same side and squeeze your obliques. swap sides and perform one after another with no rest period. perform 3 sets of 15 reps. this will work the obliques.

5th exercise: Leg raises
lie flat on a bench with your legs hanging off the end of the bench. slowly lower your feet (with legs straight) to around 1 foot off the floor. pause at the bottom and raise your legs to straight up. pause at the top and repeat. perform 3 sets of 15 slow and controlled reps. these will work the lower abdominals.

so that is it. this will hit every part of your abs and i guarantee if you do this routine once per week you will have a fantastic 6 pack by this time next year.

-AC-

Maintaining a clean and healthy diet is hard enough work as it is, but eating as a bodybuilder is a whole other ball game. You must eat at least every 3 hours, ensuring the correct amounts of nutrients are taken in at certain times of the day. In reality, being a bodybuilder requires an awful lot of dedication, motivation and planning. Here then is a guide to prepare you in order to avoid missing meals, rushing and cheating.
First of all, you must be sure enough that you are motivated to do this. It is impossible to make this work unless you are really focused and wanting to make this happen. This then requires an awful lot of dedication, willing to not have your favourite cake, willing to say no to MacDonald’s, not drinking alcohol and eating the right foods.
However, you must first be organized and make sure all of the correct food and supplements are in your house in order to ensure that you can achieve the perfect diet, where you won’t need to resort to cheating. Therefore what you need to do is write your plan out, add detail such as how many grams of pasta your eating a week, how many grams of chicken and so on. Then take this plan and buy this amount in every week, which leaves no chance of you not having the right food available. Now you have all of the right amounts of the right food in your kitchen, you now need to make sure it is prepared to take with you wherever you go.
Get yourself a small ‘cooler’ bag, big enough to fit let’s say 6 plastic containers in which all contain one meal. Then make it your duty wherever you are going to have this with you at all times, and when meal time strikes you simply take one portion and get your meal down. Also be sure to carry your meal replacements and a shaker with you wherever you are, which again will leave you with no excuse in missing a meal. When it comes to preparing the food, it is advisable to cook all of your meals the night before, pack them ready for morning, so any unforeseen circumstances in the morning don’t result in you failing to prepare your food for the day. However, if for instance your home for the day then by all means cook each meal fresh and enjoy it. But, whatever you do, do not miss a meal as this holds your progress back like nothing else.
When it comes to eating on the road, it requires much the same organization. However, you may be staying in a hotel with no cooking facilities. Well, this calls for a lot of meal replacements unfortunately and dry snacks such as wholemeal rice cakes buttered with almond butter, protein pancakes and of course protein flapjack bars. Now of course this is far from ideal, but it beats missing a meal and for a couple of days it will at least maintain your progress.
Here is a quick guide to preparing your food, the easiest way to ensure you don’t miss meals and what to use if your away from you home comforts.

The monster body challenge started on 1st march 2010 and 37 guys and girls set out on the 3 month journey to achieve a leaner, fitter, better self. The challenge was simple, transform your body the way you wanted it, whether that be stripping unwanted fat or building the muscle that you desperately wanted. Some guys felt skinny and wanted to be big, some guys felt fat and wanted to be skinny, either way they all had one thing in common, the desire to change.

This will be my write up of the challenge. I watched the challenge and its compeitors progress every day for 3 months and feel i had a great perspective to watch these amazing transformations. When the whole thing started i didnt know what to expect. I was scared nobody would enter, then i was scared they might all end up looking the same as when they started. Luckily though my fears did not come true, far from it. As you will see the transformations made in the challenge were extraordinary and good enough to grace the cover of any fitness magazine.

Anyway from the beginning; i started the forum in february 2010 and it was not receiving massive interest due to lack of content and members. This led me and my boss to think of the body challenge, an opportunity to reward monster customers, to raise awareness of the forum and to allow the opportunity for the general public to achieve their goals with the help of like minded people. The challenge started on 1st march 2010. When i received the start pictures i was a little doubtful as to the change that these people could make. Some looked as though they had trained before but others (including the final winner) looked like he had never picked up a weight in his life. Once i had the start pictures the competition began. The blog section on the forum allowed people to post their progress, trianing and diet for all to see. This ended up being a large part of the success for a lot of guys as it was a plce for encouragement, advice and a place for them to ask questions with parts of their transformation that they were struggling with. It soon became apparant to me that there was a group of people that were going to succeed due to forming a bond and helping each other through thick and thin and never giving up support. Once i noticed this i realised that my fears of the competitors not making good enough improvements completely vanished. I could see they would succeed as they had the support of their fellow competitor. As the competition progressed people who knew very little at the start of the challenge started giving great advice to new forum members and even teaching me a thing or 2. This increase in knowledge gained from the forum and other means allowed the compeitors to achieve something never before possible with limited knowledge. I gave advice where possible and moserated the site to make sure all was running smoothly. With time the forum progressed and we soon had a few thousand members offering support and advice to the compeitors.

At the half way point the competition was anyones to win. There were some guys that stood out above others and some that were quietly progressing without being noticed. Either way everyone was improving. By the end of the competition there was still no indication of who would win. Then on the 1st june after 3 months i received everyones final pictures.

The final pictures can be seen HERE

As you can see the transformations were amazing to say the least. Everyone deserved to win and everyone was a winner in my eyes. However there was only one person who could win the prize of £250 RRP supplements, trade price on all orders for a year and their picture on the cover of over half a million monster brochures. And that winner was TJLEE!!

Not only did he make an amazing transformation; he did it with a hard job, young children and very little previous knowledge of diet or training. He also had to put up with being hypoglycemic and having an injured back. He is proof that anyone in any situation can achieve amazing things if they really put their mind to it. His detemination to succeed nomatter what set him back is what i believe led people to vote him the winner. His blog entries right through the competition are testiment to his dedication and a re a great record for anyone in the same situation to follow for guaranteed success.

TJ’s blog can be seen HERE

TJ had this to say about the competition:
“What can I say………..
Firstly, I want to say congratulations to everyone that entered the competition, your photos are evidence of how much hard work and dedication you have all put in over the last 3 months and you should all be so proud of the transformations you have made. The fact that we are all standing at the finish line, with better looking bodies, more confidence and better health, makes everyone of us a winner!

At first I wasn’t going to enter this competition, I was just happy to browse from a distance and watch everyone else’s progress, but eventually I plucked up the courage to get involved and it has turned out to be one of the best decisions I have ever made. This challenge has provided me with the platform to get in shape for my upcoming wedding to my beautiful partner Joanne and to make my 3 children and family proud of me and for that I can’t thank Adam Campbell and Monster enough.

Having once weighed 18 stone and completely out of shape, to be standing here today as the winner of a Body Transformation Competition is just out of this world and will go down as one of the best achievements of my life. This transformation would not have been possible without the support of my family and the great group of people on this forum. The people on this forum have been with me from the beginning, offering me advice and encouragement, picking me up when I was down and sharing in my joys when I was on a high and without your support, my transformation would not have been possible, so thank you so much.

The aim is to push myself further with my training into the future and continue making progress. I would also like to continue being a part of the fantastic community spirit on the Monster Forum and use some of my new knowledge and experience to help other people achieve their training goals.”

As you can see it helped him achieve something he once thought impossible.

You can see other peoples views on the challenge HERE

I would also like to make a special thanks to Charlotte Pugh (bikini body) who won it for the females. She made a fantsatic transformation and represented the women brilliantly, winning a bag of phd diet whey and a bottle of phd lean degree.

Charlotte had this to say about the challenge:

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the Body Challenge. I was apprehensive at first but wanted to get in better shape for the summer (hence the bikini body name) and thought that entering a competition like this could only help with motivation!I did originally think the competition was solely for guys and thought there was a chance i may be excluded but thankfully this wasnt the case!Through the forum ive increased my knowledge dramatically of exercise and nutrition and now feel comfortable in the gym doing weight lifting exercises. I was previously limited to doing exercise classes due to a lack of knowledge but thanks to the forum ive been developing my own weight lifting programmes to supplement my usual fitness routine.I had also thought of supplements as being for “bodybuilders” but thanks to the guidance recieved I know now how vital they can be to achieving your goals.Im hoping this will be the start of a positive lifestyle change and hopefully ill continue to see results from training smarter! thanks TEAM MONSTER”

All competitors received a monster T-shirt and samples for competing as well as now being eligable for fitforums 10% off deal.

I personally would like to say thankyou to everyone for entering and making the forum what it is today. Without all of your dedication the forum would not exist so for that i owe you my thanks. I hope everyone will enter again next year and i hope anyone reading this has been inspired to do the same.

All the best

Adam Campbell – Team Monster

It is amazing how much your form when doing various exercises in the gym can affect progress. Good form goes along way to achieving significant levels of hypertrophy, whilst terrible form basically means your time in the gym is wasted and the money spent on food and supplements is also a waste. Learn what good form can do for you and how ‘cheating’ on some sets can actually be beneficial.
How many times have you seen and how many people do you know who have trained for years. After this precious time spent in the gym ‘training hard’ their progress appears very limited. The chances are this is largely due to incorrect form and an oversized ego. The weights used by these people are more than often drastically too heavy for them, attempting to curl 25kg dumbbells when they would struggle to get a good set out with 15s. Also, there sometime appears to be a very mistaken theory that by performing reps as fast as possible is the way forward. Again this is wrong. By swinging a weight say when doing a bicep curl as fast as possible, you are taking 99% of the stress off the biceps both on the positive and negative phase of each rep. Apart from anything else, when your form is way off the mark the chances of injury really increase, especially when it comes to heavy weight. Movements such as latt pulldowns where the spine is vulnerable need strict form and your back needs to be locked out. Arch your back when performing this and your back will eventually go ping.
Good form is then an essential element when it comes to increasing your muscle mass. Well performed reps put the most stress on the target muscle groups. Good form does not mean perfect where there are no movements elsewhere. In fact sometimes it pays to loosen your form up slightly, as this allows drastically more weight to be lifted whilst maintaining good form. When it comes to form it is sometimes wise to perform certain exercises such as curls where you can afford to loosen up a little (this is not an invitation to swing like a monkey) and then follow this with something like concentration curls where each rep is slow and focused. There is the differentiation you need to be able to make. Certain exercises allow for a little assistance such as curls, whereas others like the bench press or deadlift allow for no cheating. To get the most out these there is only one way and that’s the right way.
Finally, you are missing out on many benefits if you don’t concentrate on the negative in each rep, don’t lift a weight and then let gravity propel it back to the to the lowered position at breakneck speed. By controlling the negative you are forcing your muscles to cope with extra stress, which is a great contributor to muscle growth.
There is a brief guide as to why using the correct is essential and when you can and can’t get away with a little help.

Team Monstersupplements.com think L-Carnitine is one of the best supplements you can add to your diet. It bares many qualities which compliment the bodybuilder in and out of the gym. Read on to discover what exactly it can do for you and why you should be taking it.
So what is L-Carnitine? L-Carnitine is an essential Amino Acid which is produced naturally within your body, normally in quantities between 20-25g at any one time. Its job is to transport fatty acids to the mitochondria where they can be converted into energy. This energy is mainly used by large organs such as the heart and skeletal muscle.
You get your L-Carnitine from red meats; however you can always use more. By supplementing on this brilliant Amino Acid you can expect to benefit from the following. L-Carnitine has been shown to aid with fat loss. There is a very simple explanation for this. As it increases your body’s ability to transport more fatty acids to the mitochondria, less of these fats will be stored as body fat. In other words what L-Carnitine does is help turn the fats you consume into energy. It has also proven its ability to increase protein synthesis. This is a side effect anybody looking to add lean muscle mass would wish for, it doesn’t get any better. This will result in your body utilizing your protein intake more efficiently and in turn maximizing results for you. L-Carnitine is also known to improve blood flow. It manages this by preventing the restriction of your blood vessels. Obviously this improves blood flow to the muscles and will increase your ability to train harder due to a larger supply of oxygen in the working muscles. It will also help prevent DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) by allowing more nutrients to reach the muscle fibres which you have just torn to pieces in the gym. As you can see, anybody serious about their bodybuilding will be sure to have this in their system.
It is important that you know when to take this and for what reasons. The best time is straight in the morning with breakfast. By consuming it with your fats at meal time it will help burn more dietary fats. First thing in the morning will also mean it is helping with protein synthesis levels, in other words making you more anabolic which is very important this time of day. The next time should be at lunch time. This will keep you topped up and again when consumed with your dietary fats will benefit body fat burning. Before training is another great time, with increased blood flow and more efficient energy conversions there are only gains to be had. Finally, right after training is going to be of benefit to you. This is because you need everything you’re taking to reach the muscles.
There you have a brief explanation as to why this Amino Acid which is essential in more than one way should be on order.

Essential fats are fatty acids that the body cannot make itself. This means they are essential in your diet as your body cannot create them from other food sources. EFA’s are used by the body for biological processes other than simply creating energy.

There are 2 types of EFA’s. these are Alpha-linolenic-acid and linoleic acid. ALA is an omega 3 fatty acid and linoleic acid is an omega-6 fatty acid.

EFA’s raise HDL (good cholesterol) and lower LDL (bad cholesterol). This leads to improved cardiovascular health and lower bad cholesterol levels in the arteries. Reducing some serious health risks.

EFA’s are vital to build and repair cell membranes. Allowing cells to obtain proper nutrition and get rid of harmful waste.

They are also needed for a massive amount of biological processes and hormonal processes.

EFA deficiency and Omega 6/3 imbalance is linked with serious health conditions, such as heart attacks, cancer, insulin resistance, asthma, lupus, schizophrenia, depression, postpartum depression, accelerated aging, stroke, obesity, diabetes, arthritis, ADHD, and Alzheimer’s Disease, among others.

EFA’s and other fatty acids can have a very positive effect on your physique. Fish oils improve insulin sensitivity, the use of fats as energy and the breakdown of body fat. This means that they can be used very effectively in a cutting diet when in taking few carbs. A diet that is low on carbs in order to drop bodyfat would benefit from increasing the essential fat intake as these will replace the carbs as an energy source and will also be effective for breaking down fat stores. Fatty acids such as CLA inhibit the formation of fats but don’t affect the breakdown of fat. This means that fat will still be broken down at the usual rate but will not be formed as readily. This leads to lower bodyfat.
EFAs are absolutely critical to building muscle while increasing stamina required for bodybuilding. These are the building-blocks used to produce other fatty acids that your body requires for muscle growth. Without EFAs, hormones (including testosterone) necessary for bodybuilding wouldn’t be produced. EFAs assist the liver with breaking down protein from your diet to build muscle. EFAs slow digestion thereby decreasing the amounts of insulin your body requires to keep a steady level of blood glucose.
The body resists turning the energy that is derived from EFAs into body fat, instead these calories are used to increase brain function, improve joint health and decrease muscle inflammation. All of this helps you build lean muscle mass with shorter recovery periods after workouts.

EFA’s can be acquired from a number of different food sources.

Omega 3 can be found in:
Nuts – Walnuts, Brazil Nuts, Hazelnuts, Pecans. Brilliant as a snack instead of chocolate or sweets. Toast slightly under grill for a great taste.
Seeds – Choose a seeded roll when you go shopping. Sesame seeds also complement any slightly sweet or spicy chilli dressing.
Oils – Soya Bean Oil, Canola Oil, Rapeseed Oil, Linseed/Flaxseed Oil. Most of these can be found in your local supermarket. Experiment when cooking, marinating and dressing.

Omega 6 can be found in:
• Safflower oil – the richest natural source
• Sunflower oil
• Corn oil
• Sesame oil
• Hemp oil (best balance of omega 6:3)
• Pumpkin oil
• Soybean oil
• Walnut oil
• Wheatgerm oil
• Evening Primrose oil
As well as many nuts and oily fish.

An ideal intake ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids is between 1:1 and 4:1, with most people only obtaining a ratio between 10:1 and 25:1. The minimum healthy intake for both linolenic (Omega-3) and linoleic (Omega-6) acid via diet, per adult per day, is 1.5 grams of each. One tablespoon of flaxseed oil can provide this amount, or larger amounts of other linolenic-rich foods. Because high heat destroys linolenic acid, cooking in linolenic-rich oils or eating cooked linolenic-rich fish is unlikely to provide a sufficient amount.

So what supplements can help you to include these EFA’s and useful fats into your diet. I personally would recommend:

Natures plus omega 3, 6, 9

Udos Oil

PhD CLA

AC