Calorie Expenditure Throughout the Day; Are Exercising Calories all that Matters?

One common misconception is that the amount of calories you burn in the gym is most responsible for weight loss.  While not completely wrong, the amount of calories burned throughout the rest of the day (post-exercise) is equally if not more important ⁽¹⁾.  So the question is “why does this matter?”  It matters because choosing exercises that increase your expenditure throughout the day is what is going to help the most.  People usually think countless minutes on the treadmill, tons of reps in the gym, etc is what is going to help the most.  What helps the most is taking advantage of your time and eating correctly.  I’ll discuss a few tips on how to keep your metabolism up to help aid in your weight loss journey without sacrificing time.

            One area of being healthy that people take advantage of is nutrition.  They believe that if they shovel in copious amounts of protein that this will aid in muscle building or weight loss or both.  And while you do need extra protein to build muscle, an extraordinary amount will not keep adding muscle just because you’re taking it in.  There is a ceiling effect that takes place and you’ll basically be wasting money on extra meat or protein supplements.  The general RDA is around 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight (to get your body weight into kilograms take your weight in pounds, 180 for example, and divide by 2.2.  This would be 81 kgs for that same 180 pound person).  If you were 81 kg’s then that would equate to a protein intake of around 65 g/day.  This seems pretty low and you’d be right.  Keep in mind that this is the minimum amount for people who are sedentary, which you are not because you’re exercise…Right?!  Other research has been done to show that amounts up to 2.2 g/kg of protein (or about 1 g/lb of body weight) is the ceiling for muscle building.  In regards to weight loss one study found that protein timing plays a role in weight loss and resting energy expenditure ⁽²⁾.  Ingesting protein before your workout can actually help you burn more calories for the next 48 hours compared to a group who had carbohydrates only.  It’s important to have protein after your workout as well, but making sure you have protein throughout the day and before your workout is seen to be more important than originally thought. 

            Another way to keep calorie burning throughout the day is to try high intensity interval training (HIIT) ⁽³⁾.  By doing 3-4 all out, 100% effort sprints, you can actually lose similar amounts of weight and at times more than continuous aerobic exercise alone.  What’s great about HIIT is that it takes less time and has shown to be safe for most age groups and various health backgrounds.  And any safety concerns that arise are usually due to a lack of research in that specific group (I.e. elderly/cancer patients/etc).  Another great benefit to HIIT is that it can be done in the street as a traditional sprint (as long as no cars are coming), on a treadmill or a stationary bike.  So there really is no reason not to do them because any deficiency is covered within those various modalities. 

            Considering the info just spelled out, if you’re reading this then there is no reason not to go out and try some of these things out and try to get healthier!  Time is no longer an issue and you don’t necessarily need tons of protein so this will be easier on your wallet.

References

Melby, C., Eduwards, O., & Bullough, R. (1993). Effects of a Bout of Resistance Exercise on Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption and Resting Metabolic Rate. Journal of Applied Physiology, 75(4), 1847-1853.

Hackney, K., Bruenger, A., & Lemmer, J. (2010). Timing Protein Intake Increases Energy Expenditure 24 h after Resistance Training. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 42(5), 998-1003.

Gibala, M., & Mcgee, S. (2008). Metabolic Adaptations to Short-term High-Intensity Interval Training. Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, 36(2), 58-63.

What's First; Weight loss or Muscle Building? An Opinion Piece

 Appetizer

Contrary to what I usually like to do, this entry will be more opinion based than anything.  What I write will be based in research, however, there will always be exceptions to a rule and people will always have “their way”.  The point of the entry is to get you thinking and exercise properly from the beginning instead of burning yourself out and stopping before you get started.  Don’t worry this will be short and sweet.

Main Course

So it’s your first week getting in the gym.  You want to “tone” up a bit, but notice there is a little bit of extra body fat that you want to get rid of before you start lifting.  Sounds like a fair argument and there is some solid research that states when body fat percentage is high then glucose utilization in the cell is impaired.  Basically what this means is that if the cell cannot use glucose (carbohydrates) then the remaining calories will be stored as fat, among other possible outcomes.  But how does this affect you and your exercise programming? Well, for most people they will get on the treadmill and sit on there for steady state exercise and not stimulate their body properly (check out past blog entries for some background to why this may be bad).  Besides the treadmill people will also join a fitness class or do lots of reps with less weight because that is how you “lean” out.  And what does this do? Does it burn calories? Sure, it does.  Will it impact your health such as hypertension, lipid profiles, etc? Yes, it will but technically speaking any movement will decrease these characteristics leading one to believe that any movement will help with health and that’s great.  But you want to look better on top of getting healthier.  So what these activities do is burn extra calories.  Burning calories sounds great, but it doesn’t build muscle.  Ironically it may not burn fat according to some recent research compared to other activities such as weight lifting and sprints (this will be out later this month).  In order to “look better” you must build muscle.  You will not be bulky.  You will not get “too big” because if that was the case then everyone would do one set of ten repetitions and wouldn’t be able to walk through the door the day after.  The body doesn’t work like that.  So get to lifting!

Dessert

“So, Matt what do I do?”  I’m pretty sure you know where I’m going with this if you’ve read any of my blogs… LIFT!  Use your time wisely and do what gets the most bang for you buck.  You need cardiovascular fitness and it’s very important, however, don’t ignore one in favor of the other.  Learn how to do both simultaneously and get the best workout possible for your goals.  I’ll update the next blog on ways to do this.

Blood Flow Restriction Training: The Underused Paradox?

Blood Flow Restriction Training: The Underused Paradox?

Prologue

I was in the gym recently experimenting with BFR (I’ll discuss in the next paragraph) when a 20 something, not unlike myself, asks what the tourniquets around my arms were for.  I first asked him if he had heard of BFR to which he replied “no”.  In a fairly ‘quick ‘response, I tend to embark on tangents easily, I said it’s similar to doing high reps with a moderate weight with the exception that you can use insanely light amounts of weight.   I then told him to simply do a Google search for blood flow restriction training and he’ll find an abundance of information.  So why tell you this story? Well, for one thing this guy was in pretty good shape and it surprised me that he hadn’t heard of it already considering a big part of the lifting community has at one point or another.  Secondly, because he hadn’t heard of BFR, it got me thinking; why hasn’t the “gurus” adopted this into today’s ‘quick fix’ diet and exercise craze.  We have “Six Minute Abs”, “Hip-Hop Abs”, “Insanity”, etc.  BFR, although not the glorified savior to traditional exercise, is a viable option, additive and supplement to traditional training and can be used safely in a multitude of settings.  This article is made to shed a little light on BFR and how it’s been used in research.

What is BFR?

            BFR or blood flow restriction training has been used in various settings and in various ways.  Everyone tends to use it differently, but essentially BFR is the partial or complete occlusion of blood in a specific muscle area during exercise.  Translation: you can partially or completely cut off blood supply to a limb then exercise that limb with a low percentage of weight, mostly based on a 1-rep max (1-RM), and studies have shown increased or similar progress.  Research has used percentages as low as 20% of a 1-RM and seen increase in muscle strength and hypertrophy.  WHAT? “But Matt, all the websites tell me to used 60-70% of my 1-RM to increase muscle size.  How can this be?”  Trust me, I’m thinking the same thing.  The great thing about research is that theories that are usually accepted as facts can be completely turned inside out and proven to not always be true.  As I said before, I don’t think BFR should take the place of hard work with heavy weights, but I do believe that it has a special place in programs when properly prescribed and should be researched in more diseased patients as a therapy option. 

How Does it Work?

            By restricting blood supply, either partially or completely, exercise creates an environment that facilitates growth through various mechanisms.  Some studies have proposed mechanisms and the more accepted ones are increases in hypertrophy via cell swelling, increased growth hormone release and an increase in type 2 muscle fiber recruitment.  One study also saw an increase in satellite cell activity, which are necessary for muscle growth.  All this activity takes place when either lifting heavy or lifting moderate amounts of weight for multiple reps and sets.  Now, the question remains; if these traditional means can increase muscle and strength then why use BFR?  Well, the simple answer is why not?!  The interesting part of BFR is that it does not damage the muscle to the same extent as its traditional counterpart suggesting that you do not need the extra time to recover between exercise sessions.  Listen, I love exercise.  I love playing basketball, weightlifting, tennis, football, etc, but your body reaches a point where it can’t recover from every stress that is being put on it.  Whether its long hours at work for weeks on end, excessive activity or excessive weightlifting.  It all takes a toll on your body and your body needs to recover.  BFR can be a way for your body to keep progressing while not inhibiting recovery, as would extra reps and sets that one would traditionally perform.  I’m not telling anybody to replace traditional weight training with BFR.  I’m not telling everyone to try BFR.  I’m simply providing information and leaving it up to you to research and consider it for yourself. 

References

Wernborn, M., Apro, W., Paulsen, G., Nilson, T.S., Blomstrand, E., Raastad, T. (2013).  Acute low-load resistance exercise with and without blood flow restriction increased protein signaling and number of satellite cells in human skeletal muscle. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 113, 2953-2965.

Patterson, S.D., Leggate, M., Nimmo, M.A., Ferguson, R.A. (2012).  Circulating hormone and cytokine response to low-load resistance training with blood flow restriction in older men.  European Journal of Applied Physiology, 113, 713-719.

Wison, J.M., Lowery, R.P., Joy, J.M., Loenneke, J.P., Naimo, M.A. (2013).  Practical blood flow restriction training increases acute determinants of hypertrophy without increasing indices of muscle damage. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27, 3068-3075.

Martin-Hernandez, J., Marin, P.J., Menendez, H., Ferrero, C., Loenneke, J.P., Herrero, A.J. (2013).  Muscular adaptations after two different volumes of blood flow-restricted training.  Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, 23, 114-120

Loenneke, J.P., Fahs, C.A., Rossow, L.M., Abe, T., Bemben, M.G. (2012). The anabolic benefits of venous blood flow restriction training may be induced by muscle swelling. Medical Hypotheses, 78, 151-154

Jamurtas, A.Z., Theocharis, V., Koukoulis, G., Stakias, N., Fatouros, I.G., Kouretas, D., Koutedakis, Y. (2006). The effects of acute exercise on serum adiponectin and resistin levels and their relation to insulin sensitivity in overweight males. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 97, 122-126.

Varady, K.A., Bhutani, S., Church, E.C., Phillips, S.A. (2010). Adipokine responses to acute resistance exercise in trained and untrained men. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 10, 456-462.

Cook, C. J., Kilduff, L.P., Beaven, C.M. (2014). Improving strength and power in trained athletes with 3 weeks of occlusion training. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. 9, 166-172.

Things to Consider Before Purchasing “Supps”

Pre-Supped

So you have been working out hard and you figured it’s time to buy some supps.  Or you are just about to start training and you thought “hey! I might as well go all out if I’m gonna do this”.  So now what?  You’re buddy says to buy some creatine and mentions a popular pre-workout drink, but is that worth the $70 they charge in the store? Well, maybe or maybe not.  In this article I’ll give you some things to consider before buying supplements with your hard earned money and touch on what they actually do and if it helps your performance.

So Many Choices!

            All these supplements and so little cash! Or if you do have the cash, you’re probably wondering what the hell is the difference?! The most can get pretty complicated.  If you read the labels of most supplements and compare them to another company’s similar product you’ll see up to 30 ingredients in these supplements. It can be confusing and most of the stuff you can’t even pronounce.  We’re going to ignore those complicated supplements and focus on two basic components in today’s supplement world.  In this article I am not going to compare and contrast different supplements that companies put together, but I will be explaining the two most basic supplements and why they could or could not be useful if you decide to go that route. 

Creatine Background

            If you look at most supplement labels creatine is in almost everything!  Now there’s a couple of reasons; 1) creatine has some beneficial effects on the body and definitely deserves credit for actually doing what they market it for.  That brings me to number 2) which is they jack up the price because creatine is in the product and there is always a “new and improved” creatine.  3) Creatine is fairly cheap so most of that price jack goes directly into their pockets.  Now does that mean a product is useless or not worth it? Not necessarily, but you should definitely pay attention to 4) dosages (which is why I am here).  So what is creatine? Well, creatine is found in the body as a compound called phospho creatine or PCr.  To survive our body breaks down a molecule called adenosine triphosphate (ATP= 1 Adenosine group and 3 phosphate groups) for energy.  Picture ATP as a 3 compound structure connected together. Or you could think of 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches connected together by a string (these are the 3 phosphate groups).  Got it?  Ok now picture that you just ate a sandwich.  That sandwich is going to give you energy right?  But now you only have 2 sandwiches left or what is called Adenosine DIphosphate (ADP) (Di=2).  Well, let’s say you’re really hungry so you eat another one and now there’s only one left or adenosine MONOphosphate (AMP) (mono=1).    That’s what your body goes through when it needs energy.  The more it needs energy (exercise) the faster ATP gets broken down, but it can’t “eat that last PB&J” because it’s more difficult to breakdown so when we exercise heavily we have extra AMP molecules “floating” around.  So how do these two relate (PCr and ATP)?  As our ATP breaks down during exercise (we eat our PB&J’s) our body breaks down PCr also.  Why does our body break down PCr if we need more ATP?? Remember what PCr and ATP stand for (PHOSPHOcreatine and adenosine triPHOSPHATE).  Notice the phosphate similarity?  When our bodies break down the PCr, that phosphorous compound gets attached back to our “floating” AMP and ADP molecules, thus creating more ATP molecules that we could use for energy or more PB&J’s for us to eat.  That extra energy can relate to another rep in the gym, an extra five pounds on your squat in a workout or a few extra meters in that sprint (hopefully you’re not still jogging).  If you add up all those extra reps or all that weight when combined over time can add to some quality muscle gains.

Creatine supplementing

              One thing to consider is timing for the creatine.  It may be beneficial to take it after a workout compared to before a workout, which seems counterintuitive because it deals with energy, but one study looked at body composition and strength with post workout creatine consumption.  The study showed that when ingested post workout (5 grams), that group had positive changes in body composition and strength.  While, both groups did show increased fat free mass, decreased fat mass and increased 1 rep max for bench press, the post workout group had more significant improvements.  Does that mean taking creatine after your workout is better than before? Not necessarily, but it may be something worth trying.  Another factor is dosing creatine.  Now, you don’t want to start ingesting 50 grams the first day (probably 50 grams is too much for anyone), but finding a nice starting point is helpful.  Just like most supplements/drugs we start to grow accustomed to it.  Cycling your supplements should probably be considered because the long lasting effects of most supplements are not tested, although creatine has been pretty well studied over the years.  It is just safe practice to start small, research daily dosing techniques and take a break from it every once in a while.  Even ingesting large amounts of protein for long periods of time has seen a blunting effect in the body.   Be informed and make smart decisions!

Other Possible Benefits – Anti-Oxidant

            As I stated earlier creatine is one of the most studied supplements out there.  Researchers have been studying other benefits of creatine in recent years and I’ll touch on that somewhat here.  Creatine to most people has been mostly about gaining muscle size and/or strength.  One study I found, however, actually looks at creatine as an anti-oxidant and could possibly be used in cell health.  If you don’t already know, anti-oxidants help clear free radicals from your body.  Free radicals are essentially molecules that are lacking an electron from their structure and cause what is called oxidative stress.  These free radicals then take electrons from other molecules in our body, harming our cell structure.  For the study subjects were given creatine for 8 weeks (dosages of 0.05 g per kg) and then blood samples were drawn to look for oxidative stress markers.   Essentially the study showed that the group that was ingesting creatine had lower oxidative stress markers pointing towards increased anti-oxidant effect.  I’ll let you know that this study was done in rats so it may not transfer over to humans and this was one of the first studies using animals so it is still being researched.  It’s an interesting area, but like I said it is still being tested in animals.  Don’t go taking crazy amounts of creatine because you think it’s going to clear all your free-radicals.

Other Possible Benefits – Myostatin levels

           

            Myostatin in the body inhibits muscle growth.  Meaning that the more myostatin you have, the less muscle mass you’ll be able to build.  The body is full of checks and balances and researchers have been looking at what other effects creatine may have.   While creatine has shown to affect certain proteins in the body, myostatin has been an interesting find also.  Now there is research that states the upregulation of certain binding proteins involved with a decrease in myostatin (this is good) and thus pointing to an increase in muscle mass overtime.  Again, this is a new area, but is still an interesting topic.  Some of these recent findings might help find the correct dosages and benefits/risks that we don’t know today. 

Overall

           

            When all is said and done it is your responsibility to decide whether purchasing creatine is right for you, but I hope that with a little extra research and you properly weigh the risk to benefit ratio that you’ll be happy with whatever you choose.

BCAA’S – A Brief History

            BCAA stands for branched chain amino acids.   I’m sure this isn’t news to some of you, but just in case there’s the info.  BCAA’s are made up of Valine, Isoleucine and leucine.  These proteins are involved in a number of processes, but for what we’re talking about here we will focus on the main points such as protein synthesis (leucine), energy usage (isoleucine) and proteinogenic or protein building (valine).  These three amino acids (AA) are not the end all be all of AA, but they are important because we cannot synthesize or make them in our own body.  We must ingest these proteins making supplementation a go to move for most people.  Along with the three AA I mentioned there are also 6 other AA for a total of 9 AA that we cannot synthesize and thus are called “essential” AA.  BCAA’s have mostly been pushed as a way to recover and help build new tissue, but it wasn’t until recently that the mechanisms behind the supplements became clear.  And also how they affect situations differently than first thought.

BCAA’S – What They’ve Been Shown To Do

            When we exercise our bodies increase protein synthesis to help repair our muscle tissue, but what also happens is that our muscles get broken down from the exercise leaving us with a build/breakdown ratio.  This ratio would benefit us better if it were more build than breakdown right?  This is where AA’s come in.   AA’s have been shown to increase muscle protein synthesis for some time now by lowering the breakdown of proteins in the body leaving us with a more positive protein synthasis process.  Essential AA’s have been shown to increase muscle protein synthesis more than a mixture of different AA’s.  So what does that mean?  Basically, drinking AA’s helped keep muscle and help the processes that build muscle!  There is various research as to when it is most beneficial to supplement them, but most studies use them either pre/post workout, although some research suggests that drinking AA as you workout could keep protein synthesis humming, however, that is for a different article.

BCAA’s – Other Areas - Hormones

            We have discussed how BCAA’s can help with protein synthesis, but what about hormone support?  While, simply taking BCAA’s may not inherently increase your testosterone levels, it may help support healthy levels when hard training takes place.  When we exercise our body releases cortisol, which is a steroid hormone in the body that aids protein metabolism and in various other processes, but for this article we will focus on the muscle breakdown.  The more cortisol you have for a prolonged period of time, essentially the more muscle mass that is being wasted.  When taking BCAA’s, they can help keep cortisol release lower and help keep testosterone increased during strenuous activity.  This anecdotally points to more muscle mass kept in the body then broken down, again pointing to greater mass gains. 

Summary

           

            As I’ve stated many times before, it is up to you to go out and start exercising.  These articles are simple tools that you can use to make more informed decisions and aid your fitness journey no matter what your goals.  Just remember to always be informed, work hard and keep progressing!

           

Sources

Strength Training and Supps

1) Stefani, Giuseppe, Ramiro Nunes, André Dornelles, Jadson Alves, Marcella Piva, Marlise Domenico, Cláudia Rhoden, and Pedro Lago. "Effects of Creatine Supplementation Associated with Resistance Training on Oxidative Stress in Different Tissues of Rats." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 11.1 (2014): 11. Web.

2)  Antonio, Jose, and Victoria Ciccone. "The Effects of Pre versus Post Workout Supplementation of Creatine Monohydrate on Body Composition and Strength." Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 10.1 (2013): 36. Web.

3)  Saremi, A., R. Gharakhanloo, S. Sharghi, M.r. Gharaati, B. Larijani, and K. Omidfar. "Effects of Oral Creatine and Resistance Training on Serum Myostatin and GASP-1." Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology 317.1-2 (2010): 25-30. Web.

4)Tipton, Kein D., Arny A. Ferrando, Stuart M. Phillips, David Doyle, JR., and Robert R. Wolfe. "Postexercise Net Protein Synthesis in Human Muscle from Orally Administered Amino Acids." The American Physiological Society (1999): 628-34. Web. 19 Aug. 2014.

5)Sharp, Carwyn P M, and David R. Pearson. "Amino Acid Supplements and Recovery from High-Intensity Resistance Training." Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24.4 (2010): 1125-130. Web.

Strength Training: My Journey Thus Far

            Most of my pieces on this site have been science based and are there to offer information on strength training and the benefits of weight lifting in general.  This month I decided to change things up a bit and give some information on what I’ve been going through with my training over the last 10 months or so compared to the other 8 years I’ve been “training”.  I am also taking a physics course so researching topics is at a standstill.  Hopefully by publishing something different I can motivate some of you through this avenue if science isn’t your thing or just need something new.

BS – BEFORE SQUATS 

I’ve always enjoyed “working out”.  I love sports and that is how I originally got into weight lifting.  I played most sports offered at school, but no matter what sport I played I was always the little guy.  Football I was too skinny and too slow.  In soccer I was a goof ball out there trying to compete with speedsters.  Track? Psh neeext!  Baseball?  Boooring. I found my calling in basketball.  I wasn’t the fastest or tallest, but I had decent quickness, good ball handling and could pass better than most kids so I was able to hang with the big guys for a while.  That was until sophomore year of high school.   I was 128 lbs dripping wet and was getting pushed around and left in the dust with varsity.  It was humiliating and embarrassing.  My whole life I was one of the “better” guys on the court who thought he just wasn’t given a chance.  But once I started playing I realized there was a big difference.  Sure I did some things better and some things worse than the other players, but really what kept me back was my size.  Overall as I look back I wasn’t too worried about basketball  in the long run.  Deep down  I knew basketball wasn’t my future.  But what I didn’t know was how far back physically I was compared to other students.  Hell, I couldn’t bench half my body weight at 16.  It was my “BS” days (before squats).  Days filled with unlimited soda, McDonalds and size small t-shirts that fit like larges.  I needed a revelation.  I needed to get stronger. 

Cue in Bobby Biceps

Sophomore year everything changed.  I started researching weight lifting (mostly broscience stuff) and training with a high school buddy of mine.  We were tired of being slow, weak and not huge and veiny! We wanted to squat the weight of Rhode Island and bench press Alaska.  There was a basketball coach who would take us under his wing and bring us into the weight room instead of having us run an exorbitant amount of miles (misplaced for basketball).  We spent our time benching, rowing, half-squatting (proper form didn’t come until years later) and barbell curls.  We were determined.  Determined to get better and stronger.  It was my “enlightened” period and I loved it.  We didn’t know what the hell we were doing, but we didn’t care.  It was weights.  We were just training to get stronger and we read any bro magazine (muscle and “fiction”/flex etc) we could and listened to every tidbit of information that bobby biceps gave us at our local gym.  It wasn’t the best, but it got us started.

The Dark Ages

Once the enlightenment ended, I ended up in my dark ages.  Enlightenment was great!  I was training hard and eating a lot during my first few years of lifting.  I graduated high school around 140 lbs.  It wasn’t a huge improvement, but to me it was something especially looking back at my lifting routine and eating habits.  But I hit a wall around 20 years old.  At this point I was about 165 lbs, but not getting a whole lot better.  I was stuck.  I didn’t research as much as I should have and I got sucked into the media and workout “ideals”.  I stopped training heavy and started “sculpting” my body (gag).  I thought “hey! Jay Cutler and Ronnie Coleman do all this stuff.  Why can’t I?”  By stuff, I meant lifting lighter weight and starting workout sessions with crap like cable flyes to “stretch the pecs and get blood into the muscle”,  a lot of terms that get thrown around by eggheads who don’t really know what they’re doing.  Now, I’m not saying this training doesn’t work.  I’ve seen people stick to it and they get results and are in pretty damn good shape.  But most of them had a strength background or muscle that I just didn’t have.  I hadn’t opened my eyes to what the problem really was.  It wasn’t that I wasn’t killing myself in the gym because God knows I was!  It was that my foundation was completely off base.  I was letting the magazines and fitness “gurus” tell me what I needed.  That all you need to grow muscle was to pound a protein shake and eat copious amounts of protein (not that these are untrue) and I’d grow as big as a house by following this program.  That this new supplement was made for YOU and take this officially researched supp and feel your muscle grow!  We’ve all heard it.  We’ve all done it.  We’ve all believed something that proved to be untrue.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  Mistakes happen.  People are misled, but damn it if I wasn’t fed up with it all.  Fed up with being the little guy.  Disappointed that I had a degree in exercise science and I couldn’t push myself to the limits where I knew I could go.  Damn you magazines and supplement companies for pushing crap that never helped me.  All the touched up photos and bogus “before and after shots”.  I was fed up with it all.  Until about October 2013. 

Rediscovery

At this point I was approximately 170 lbs.  Not too bad and throughout my dark ages (20-24 years old) I had stumbled upon a little bit of muscle.  Nothing world changing, but enough that I was proud of.  A great friend of mine kept asking me why I didn’t follow a program that is geared more toward strength.  I kept saying that I didn’t want to be “fat” or that “I had it all under control” etc, but he had a point.  I knew the benefits of strength training and had used it dozens of times with my own personal training clients, but when it came to my own program I never looked at myself objectively.  I would change my workouts constantly and not track my eating and I wasn’t being honest with myself in the gym.  Finally I bought in.  I told him that he could make my program and I would follow it to the “T” and bust my ass.  The first few months were brutal.  Not for the reasons you think.  They were a little boring and not as excruciating as what I had been doing.  The weights were fairly light and I was confused.  I kept asking “when am I going to lift heavy?  I thought this was strength training?”  He was like Yoda or Mr. Miyagi.  He kept telling me to be patient, that “the force was strong with this one”, ok not really the last one, but you get it.  It tested my patience, but I knew that I had tried everything else and “to get places you’ve never been before you have to try things you’ve never done before”.  I was in it for the long haul.  After a few months I started noticing changes.  My body actually started changing.  My lifting numbers were increasing each week and I was building on the moment each month.  My dead lift numbers doubled.  Squat numbers (at full depth) almost doubled.  Benching was never my best exercise due to my monkey arms, but even that improved.  From when I started to this point (about 8 months) I gained 30 lbs (170-200) and obviously that’s not all muscle, but those are changes that I had never seen before.  I started doing more research and applying my degree and learning more each week along with improving my body and training.  I got my wife training in a similar way (a little different because she has different goals) and she has seen great improvements in her lifts as well as composition.  It all changed and I worked my ass off.  That is what changed.  I got smarter (minus grammar) and learned how to work hard and stay dedicated.  It’s something I think we all can learn.  It isn’t magic.  It isn’t a pill.  It isn’t an article, luck or anything like that.  It’s hard damn work and I say anybody can do it.  It just takes effort and a plan.

Conclusion

So what’s the point to this article? Well, essentially it is to try and get you to look at your current program, lifestyle, etc and analyze your goals.  Why are you working out?  Are you working out? Or are you training for something?  That should be the point.  Always trying to better yourself and keep improving on your goals.  We all know that person that does Herbalife or P90X  or functional training and that’s great for them.  But it’s not getting to the root of the problem.  Everyone can benefit from strength and not just in the weight room or on the scale.  Challenges were put in front of me (in the form of weights) and I overcame those challenges.  People do it all the time and it’s great!  Overcoming those challenges puts into perspective that anything is possible with enough work.  It just takes dedication.  It’s on you to learn.  It’s on you to get better.  I hope you can use these articles and utilize them on your journey to whatever goals you have.  It’s all in your hands.  Ready?....... GO!

Resistance Training and Adipose Tissue

The Problem:

One thought a majority of people have is "I want to lose body fat".  This isn't a surprise nor is it necessarily a bad thought to have.  Most people go through some sort of dislike for their body at one point in their life or another.  Hell, we have a phrase for most people's teenage years called "the awkward phase" where your body is going through changes and you don't want to leave the house.  Well, if you're like most normal Americans, you've gone through other phases during life where you aren't happy with your weight whether it's because of a busy schedule, illness, accident, etc.  And there's always that one person who is the self appointed expert (not including me) and they chime in with their 2 cents and say something to the effect of "hey, you should start running!" or walking, or jump rope or some other tedious activity.  Not only does that activity leave you feeling bored out of your mind, but does not carry out the promises that were made about said activity.  Far less often are people telling overweight individuals to engage in some sort of resistance training program.  Now, if running is your go to activity that's great, but it may not help with fat loss or performance as once thought and may not be as superior to weight training as once believed either.  There is copious amounts of research done on aerobic activity.  Up until Arnold made weight training popular, most people didn't touch weights! Weight training was for "those guys" or "meat heads" and was thought to have more negative effects than positive benefits.  So where does that leave us? Well, in the research world it leaves us with tons of research on endurance activities and small amounts of research using resistance training as their means of activity.  On top of that, most resistance training research uses poorly programmed models and of course they all use untrained people, something notorious in exercise research.  Therein lies the problem;  people who quote research they read 10 years ago or haven't kept up with research tend to stick to aerobic activity because that's what is mostly done.  The so to speak "new school" researchers, clinicians, and fitness enthusiasts rely more on resistance training and lately more research has come out about weight training and it's positive benefits.  One area that the aerobic enthusiasts tend to quote most is lipid profiles and how endurance exercise is "better for your heart".  While, this isn't inherently wrong, it wasn't until recently that researchers started recording weight training and its effects on blood lipid profiles to compare the two.  Needless to say, it isn't that different.  This article will point out benefits associated with weight training specific to adipose tissue and it's secreted proteins called adipokines and proteins released from muscle called myokines.

Background:

What is adipose tissue? 

Isn't it just fat?  The stuff that sits on your hips or your butt or on your triceps, reminding you that you need to work out every time you wave your arm?  Well, besides insulation and protection (things most bio teachers told you in 8th grade bio) adipose tissue is a living tissue that is made up of cells and is involved in many actions in the body.  High adipose tissue can lead to increased insulin resistance, high blood pressure and something that isn't regularly discussed; inflammation.  Adipose tissue can  release a whole slew of inflammatory markers (cytokines) that can wreak havoc on our bodies.  Mostly we think of inflammation when we get a cut or sprain an ankle, but when it comes to our cells, inflammation is no joke and is now viewed as a disease that is related to obesity.  Dubbed the "silent killer" some of these inflammation markers are associated with high blood pressure, diabetes and different types of cancers.  Among these cytokines are chemokines, interleukins and tumor necrosis factors (TNF-a for this article).  All these cytokines have their purpose, but when in excess can have negative effects and having excess fat can exacerbate these reactions.

Now up to this point everything about adipokines has been bad.  And frankly, most adipokines are not good in excess, but one adipokine is worth having and that is adiponectin.  Cytokines like TNFa set off a cascade of effects that leads to insulin resistance, atherosclerosis and apoptosis (cell death), but adiponectin essentially does the opposite.  Adiponectin reduces insulin resistance, is anti-inflammatory and regulates free fatty acid breakdown (FFA).  Adiponectin is also released by adipose tissue and is seen in high amounts in healthy active people.  It is, however, down regulated in the obese or overweight.  The good news about all this is that you can increase your adiponectin and decrease other harmful cytokines by simply losing weight and being active.  Since I am biased toward resistance training and excess cardio can shrink muscle mass along with the fact adiponectin is upregulated with ANAEROBIC activity, I am going to provide information about how you can upregulate this adipokine along with some anti-inflammatory markers.

The Research:
As I stated earlier, most research that has been done in exercise studies has been based using endurance exercises.  This doesn't change with respect to adipokines and their relation to exercise, however, more research is surfacing about resistance training/high intensity training (HIIT) and it's benefits on inflammatory markers and the coveted anti-inflammatory markers.  When under stress (exercise) muscle cells release their own products termed "myokines".  The interesting finding is that both skeletal muscles and adipose tissue release something called IL-6.  When released by macrophages (immune cell) that infiltrate adipose tissue it can have an inflammatory effect, but when released by muscle cells it has a vastly different effect; it is anti-inflammatory.  It does this by inhibiting TNF-a, basically the "powerhouse" of inflammation as I touched on earlier.  One question is how are they different? When released by macrophages it is in response to infection, trauma, etc and is released to elicit an immune response.  When released from muscle cells it is stimulated through a different pathway that doesn't utilize the inflammatory cytokines (i.e. TNF-a) and acts against TNF-a to decrease inflammation.  One pathway is through calcium signaling.  So why does that matter? Well, calcium is used in muscle contraction.  One theory states that the more a muscle contracts, that will equate to more calcium released during contraction.  This extra calcium may lead to IL-6 release among other anti-inflammatory myokines/cytokines being released.

There are about 75 different adipokines alone and the number increases when added with myokines.  I'm not going to touch some of these others that are involved (IL-10, NF-kB, etc).  As I said earlier, our body uses all these structures and are important with respect to immune response and our immune system as a whole, but it is when they are in excess is when problems are seen.  One adipokine that is GOOD when upregulated is adiponectin.  Adiponectin is an adipokine that is involved in regulation of FFA's and glucose metabolism.  In obese individuals adiponectin is actually seen in lower quantities and can make way for diseases to start taking hold (type 2 diabetes, METs) when compared to normal healthy individuals.  Most of the time any activity is better than no activity, but there are times when that is not always true i.e. excessive walking for an older person, doing 100 reps of mindless cable fly's.  Upregulating adiponectin is also one of those times.  There has been evidence that anaerobic training (sprinting, weight training) is better at upregulating adiponectin than continuous aerobic activity.  There was some improvement within endurance groups, but anaerobic groups were seen as more statistically significant and had higher levels than aerobic groups.  Along with higher adiponectin levels, these groups saw better glucose tolerance, muscle growth, strength and better composition changes.  Essentially giving what everyone is asking for: being physically fit while also being metabolically fit.

Conclusion:
The point to all this information (and slight ranting) is to help people understand.  Understand that what some star does for fitness is bogus, that out-dated fitness "gurus" are useless and that everybody can/should lift weights.  If weight training isn't a favorite, that's ok, but at least try for a couple of times a week.  Not everybody is going to enjoy the same activities and there's nothing wrong with that.  It's safe to say that activity has a multitude of benefits and while I do support general activity for everybody there comes a time where activity should start to be progressive and build on itself.  Stopping and starting a running program or attending a crossfit class once a month is not going to make things better.  Not only is being consistent the important factor, but choosing the correct a form of activity is important also. Now having said that,  puttering around in a gym doing curls all day is not the best either, but try new things out.  Get off the treadmill and learn how to squat or bench press or even leg press.  The goal is to keep adding on to the goals you've already met and I believe information is a tool to help you get there.  It may be something new and strange, but learning is what makes us better.  

Strength Training: A Scientific Approach Entry 1

Strength Training: A Scientific Approach

Entry 1

The Dilemma:

So you want to workout, but you “get too bulky” or “add muscle fast” when you lift weights; sound familiar? Well, I call bull!!!  I don’t believe it and science doesn’t support it.  Just for the sake of arguing I’ll say that 1% of the population actually has this “problem”.  Those aren’t good odds and chances are that you don’t fall into that category.  If your dream is to be completely jacked and larger than life then this isn’t too great, but if you just want to be “toned” and “in shape” then this actually works in your favor if you think about it!  You can train hard in the gym and try various training routines and you should get nothing but good results (if you try hard enough).  Next step:  try crossfit, P90X or some other “metabolically” challenging routine right? WRONG! Every training routine should start with a strength base.  Notice how I said “training” and not the words workout or exercise.  That is because that is what we need to do to our bodies; Train them!  Expending meaningless calories isn’t always the answer.  And more research is shining light on the fact that calories in calories out may not be best.  The body doesn’t go by the laws of thermodynamics all the time no matter how bad you want it to.  Throughout this article I will discuss the positives of strength training and why we need to implement a strength base first and foremost and why just losing weight isn’t the route we want to go.

The Background:

            “Why do I need to strength train?  I don’t want to be a power lifter or get too huge!”  I’ve heard this too many times and it is about time we get our act together and our heads on straight.  Muscle strength does not always accompany weight gain and in the beginning phases of your training, it is one of the last structures to change in your body.  What I want you to concern yourself with at this time is your brain.  That wasn’t a typo I really mean the brain.  That is where a lot of changes occur and not a lot of us think about this.  The question that everyone has when training is how do I get my muscles bigger?  How do I lose body fat?  There is a theory that the muscles themselves need to be surrounded by what you can call an anabolic environment.  When I say that I am not referring to what you do in the gym, I mean your nervous system!  Think about it: your brain is what sends all the information down to your muscles.  Your muscles would not move without your brain/nerves so why would we think that we wouldn’t need to train those structures?  Throughout this article I’ll explain what changes can be seen in these structures and how this could benefit your muscles.    

The Changes:

            The Brain:

Instead of always training with the intent to feel “exhausted” or “trashed” let’s start at the top and work our way down.  There are a few studies that research what happens to the brain when individuals’ weight train (in this case the motor cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, etc).  When we train most people think of only the muscles that go through changes or adaptations.  While the muscle do obviously adapt, the beginning phases of training are more predicated around “neural adaptations”.  For a fair amount of time this was a valid theory, but not initially fully understood.  Within the last few years, however, more research has been establishing what structures change and what these means for the peripheral environment (our muscles).  Without going into all the specifics (frankly because I’m not a neuroscientist and we should focus on the basics) let’s first think about signals being sent within the brain.  The brain has various feedback and even feedfoward loops that help predict and react to the environment.  The brain also sends excitatory (go) and inhibitory (stop) messages that can start or stop a movement from happening.  Remember the game “red light green light”?  That’s more or less what is happening in your brain.  The brain decides to initiate movement, green light, or inhibit movement, red light.  The more we train (and with better quality) studies have shown that there are less inhibitory messages being sent and more excitatory messages being sent.  What does that mean?  That means our brains stop holding us back!  Our brain and bodies are made to adapt to the environment.  If we get train to get stronger our brains theoretically recognize this and help create the proper environment for change (bigger and stronger muscles) by increasing electrical impulses down to our muscles! 

The Motor Nerve:

The motor nerve is what carries the signal from the brain down to the muscles. There are a lot of pathways the signal goes through prior to the motor nerve, but those will not be discussed.  Electrical signals are transmitted down a nerve by moving ion particles (Mostly sodium/potassium) across membranes propagating the signal down further and further until it reaches the muscle.  I’m sure your first thought is “who cares about sodium and potassium?  This isn’t chemistry class.”  Well, the answer to that question is YOU SHOULD CARE!  The more you train (preferably the stronger you get) there is an increase in the channels/pumps that move these ions back and forth.  Again, what does this mean?  This means that signals are sent down faster to the muscles!  The faster you can displace and replace these ions, the faster and more forcefully we should be able to contract our muscles.  I don’t know about you, but in any sport or aspect of life, this is how we move!  Hanging upside down or pushing against a TRX won’t have the same results.  To recap, we have two distinct changes and we haven’t even gotten to the muscles!  Essentially the brain sends more signals and faster!

            The Neuromuscular Junction (NMJ):

           

            The NMJ is the space between a motor nerve and the muscle it innervates or “attaches” to.  Because of this space the motor nerve transfers it’s signal to the muscle through a neurotransmitter called acetylcholine (AcH) enclosed in little packets (vesicles).  The nerve transfers AcH to the muscle where it binds to certain AcH receptors.  Once attached, more of those sodium/potassium channels that we discussed open up and start the electrical signal all over again (whew, that was a lot of info).  Again, what does this mean for a strength-trained individual?  When we strength train it is thought that there is an increase in the number of AcH molecules sent to the muscle itself.  The more AcH the more ions will pass across those membranes we touched on.  The more ions that pass the faster and stronger a signal can be, again pointing to a faster and stronger muscle. 

The Conclusions:

So far we’ve discussed three distinct changes that happens once a person starts strength training.  The changes that take place also cost calories to develop!  For all you “calorie counters” this means that you are going to burn more calories throughout the day and we haven’t even gotten to the most popular topic: muscles!  There is a multitude of other changes that happens that will be discussed in later articles, but just as in training one must take the time to learn the basics before jumping all in.  Think of strength training as learning the alphabet before we learn to spell or speak.  We could not form a language without first distinguishing boundaries and rules.  Our bodies are not machines, although they are pretty amazing, and the body needs time to adapt before we start running marathons (gag) or doing intense exercise (training).  The same can be said for weight loss programs.  One cannot simply diet and expect to keep losing weight.  As I stated earlier, calories in vs. calories out doesn’t always work, nor should it.  Our bodies don’t care about how many calories we take in.  It simply wants to adapt so it will either ask for more (build muscle) or less (fat gain or weight loss).  This divine equilibrium between muscle and fat that everyone wants to find should start with smart training, which means implementing a sound progressive weight-training program.  It’s not easy, trust me I’ve been there, but it’s your health!  Please don’t rely on someone to give you all the answers.  I promise you they don’t have them.  In the next article we will discuss what happens to the muscle and how strength training can benefit your health!    - Learn, practice, educate!